In the "wroughten" thread I asked how many words such as "disaster" and "humo(u)r" are still in common use that pre-date modern scientific understanding. What others come to mind?
Heck of a good question. Unfortunately, I can't figure out any systematic way to search the mental files.
'Humo(u)r' brings to mind several of the specific humo(u)rs: bilious, phlegmatic, melancholy and choleric. And as long as we're talking about body, we can add such things as heartfelt, doubtless many others pertaining to the heart.
But surely there are far more words (and subcategories) of the sort Asa describes.
Not sure this is what you mean, but computer jargon has all sort of things taken over from pre-digital days and given new meaning. My favorite: file, now a named location in memory containing data usually entered by the user. Files used to be folders containing documents, like letters, but before the term was applied to the cardboard folder holding the information it referred to the silk thread that held the contained documents together (in those pre-paperclip and pre-straight-pin days of yore). From the Latin filum 'thread'.
But surely there are far more words (and subcategories) of the sort Asa describes.
Zmjezhd's example fits nicely, since you've described a "thread" with "subcategories!"
Another word I just thought of is "hysteria." Women aren't crazy because they have a uterus, as the ancients thought - they are crazy because they're drawn to us men! And as regards hysteria we've already discussed the development of the vibrator elsewhere...
I wonder how many people realise that the "cc" that appears in email rubrics that denote the names of those to whom you wish to send a copy of the email, actually means "carbon copy". A hangover from the days when we used typewiters and carbon paper.
Richard English
Posts: 8038 | Location: Partridge Green, West Sussex, UK
'Atom' comes from the original idea that it was the building block of the universe; it was thought to be the smallest indivisible unit. The name come from the Greek atomos "uncut" via Latin and reflects this supposed indivisibility.
Of course, we now know that there are many much tinier particles, and physicists are still discovering even tinier ones.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
On the note of atomos(from Democritus, I believe), I read an interesting essay by Asimov. If instead of calling the four elements earth, water, wind, and fire, they had used solid, liquid, gas, and energy, they would have been remarkably close to describing the universe. What Democritus described sketchily was very different from what we know as atoms, but because the names are the same, he seems clairvoyant.
Originally posted by Asa Lovejoy, to start this thread: I asked how many words words such as "disaster" and "humo(u)r" are still in common use that pre-date modern scientific understanding. What others come to mind?
Another one has just come to mind, reminding me of this antique thread.
toadstool [for "mushroom":] Toads themselves were regarded as very poisonous, and this word is popularly restricted to inedible or poisonous fungi, as opposed to mushrooms (e.g. toad-cheese, a poisonous fungi).
And as regards hysteria we've already discussed the development of the vibrator elsewhere... 
