To eat, perchance to edib.
2001-12-20 - 2:54 p.m.
#1 <-- indicating I plan on updating a bunch today since there's not much to do.
Here's a word I don't get: edible. I can't count the times I've gone to say how "eatable" something is, and then realized that such a social faux pas would no doubt cause my ejection from the elite upper caste of society (on a side note, my gf hates the word "society"...go figure).
What I don't understand is that the word that describes something as being, well, eatable, sounds so incredibly like the original action that you wonder why someone sat around and came up with a new word when obviously "eatable" was available and just asking to be used. I imagine the scene something like this.
HOITY TOITY COLONIAL AMERICAN (HTCA): My, this food is scrumptious! My palate is certainly cleansed well unto the morrow!
DOWN-TRODDEN COOK IN QUESTIONABLE PUB (DTCQP): Sirrah, it's just a possum that got run over by the horses during the hunt. I guess it's eatable and all, but--
HTCA: Eatable!? My good man, such a bounty of delicious delights begs, nay demands!, a more colorful term. But what word would bring glory to His Majesty and God above all others. Let me ponder this.
(DTCQP ignores HTCA and adds another rat leg to the gruel)
HTCA: By all that is green and holy, I've got it! From this day forward, all such bountiful suppers will be known as "edible". Oh yes! I must go record this in my journal at once!
(HTCA bounds off, powdered wig firmly in place)
DTCQP's wife: What was all that about, then?
DTCQP: Ah, our favorite customer is up to his lunacies again. I tell you, mum, nothing good is gonna come of old man Webster and all those words he makes up, mark my word.
Yeah, it probably went something like that. On a completely unrelated topic, there exists the possibility I may have way too much time on my hands.
Until next time...