g&pd 6 furor

[76THORSON@CUA.EDU]

<I wasn't going to get involved, iwasn't, I wasn't.  But this is making me
crazy.  So, here we go .... cranky academic mode on>

One of my gripes with the discussion so far, adn a gripe with Master Thomas's
original letter is the thing about the use of the word "medieval."  Like some
other folks out there, I've had people ask me if that means I'm only 
moderately evil, instead of really evil or not evil at all.  However, I'm not
going to use that as an excuse to not use the word.  Like it or not, "medieval"
is the only adjective we have in English that means "of or pertaining to the
Middle Ages."  And it is a perfectly good word, too, derived from two very
nice Latin words, "medium aevum"  which mean "the middle age."  I have found
that giving people this answer when they ask that question settles the whole
issue nicely.  Sometimes I even do a preemptive strike and explain it first.



We call ourselves a "non-profit educational organization."  If we're not
taking the educational part seriously, perhaps we should.  Even seemingly
trivial educational detialails, like what "medieval" really means, can be
important, and a few simple definitions for the uninformed could davesave us
a lot of grief, not to mention the trouble of reinventing our vocabulary.

<going back to lurk mode>
Alianora