Word of the Day: "Night"

"Night"  [ nahyt ]

noun

1. the period of darkness between sunset and sunrise.

Also, an evening used or set aside for a particular event, celebration, or other special purpose (sometimes initial capital letter); e.g., a night on the town; poker night; New Year's Night.

Word origin:

First recorded before 900; Middle English.

Old English niht (West Saxon neaht, Anglian naeht, neht) "the dark part of a day; the night as a unit of time; darkness," also "absence of spiritual illumination, moral darkness, ignorance".

From Proto-Germanic nahts (source also of Old Saxon and Old High German naht, Old Frisian and Dutch nacht, German Nacht, Old Norse natt, Gothic nahts).

The Germanic words are from PIE nekwt- "night" (source also of Greek nyx (stem nykt-) "a night," Latin nox (stem noct-), Old Irish nochd, Sanskrit naktam "at night," Lithuanian naktis "night," Old Church Slavonic nosti, Russian noch', Welsh henoid "tonight").

Ancient Egyptians imagined the sky to be the star-spangled body of the goddess Nut, arching over the land. The name of Nut, became Greek nyx, Latin nox and Noct.

from: https://digitalthought.info/awo2.html

The fact that the Aryans have a common name for night, but not for day, is due to the fact that they reckoned by nights.

Thus, in Old English combinations, night was "the night before (a certain day or feast day)". In early times, the day was held to begin at sunset, so Old English monanniht "Monday night" was the night before Monday, or what we would call Sunday night, and saeterniht was "Friday night." The Greeks, by contrast, counted their days by mornings.

from: https://www.etymonline.com

Doomscrolling

Word of the Day: "Doomscrolling"

[ doom-skroh-ling ]

noun. Digital Technology. The practice of obsessively checking online news for updates, especially on social media feeds, expecting the news to be bad. The feeling of dread from the negative expectation fuels a compulsion to continue looking for updates in a self-perpetuating cycle.

Origin: First recorded in 2016

Example Sentences:

Instead of doomscrolling or studying the latest polls, people should consider exercising, enjoying nature and hobbies, or socializing with friends.

- From Los Angeles Times

Children doomscrolling for hours a day is causing widespread harm, according to Josh MacAlister, the Labour MP and former teacher behind the private member's bill being introduced in the House of Commons on Wednesday.

- From BBC

The fading of memories and the relentless passage of time are familiar feelings for the generation accustomed to doomscrolling through endless feeds.

- From Salon

Doomscrolling is also defined as an excessive consumption of short-form videos or social media without stopping. It can be considered a form of internet addiction disorder. In 2019, an NAS study found that doomscrolling can be linked to a decline in mental and physical health.

The practice of doomscrolling can be compared to an older phenomenon from the 1970s called the mean world syndrome, a belief that the world is a more dangerous place to live in than it actually is, as a result of long-term exposure to violence on television.

"Doomscrolling" was recognized by Merriam-Webster as an official word in September 2023. The term gained traction in the early-2020s through events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the George Floyd protests, the 2020 US presidential election, the storming of the US Capitol in 2021, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine since 2022.

Infinite scrolling, the continuous loading of content as the user scrolls down, eliminates the need for pagination and encourages doomscrolling behaviors. This feature removes natural stopping points and has been described as a pathway to both problematic smartphone and social media use.

The act of doomscrolling can be attributed to the natural negativity bias people have when consuming information. The idea is that negative events have a larger impact on one's mental well-being than good ones. Evolution may explain why humans seek out such negatives: if one's ancestors, for example, discovered how an ancient creature could injure them, they could avoid that fate.

As opposed to primitive humans, however, most people in modern times may have a question, they want an answer, and assume getting it will make them feel better... They keep scrolling and scrolling, thinking it will be helpful, but they end up feeling worse afterward.

Doomscrolling can also be explained by the fear of missing out, where people take part in activities that may not be beneficial to them, but which they fear "missing out on".

Obsessively consuming negative news online can also be partially attributed to a person's psychological need for control. During uncertain times, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, people may have engaged in doomscrolling to gather information and gain a sense of mastery over the situation. Nevertheless, while attempting to seize control, many doomscrolling individuals developed more anxiety towards the situation rather than reducing it.

The mechanism may involve a part of the brain called the inferior frontal gyrus, which has a role in information processing and integrating new information into beliefs about reality. The brain selectively filters bad news from new information used to update one's beliefs. When doomscrolling, the brain may feel under threat and shut off its "bad news filter" in response. The result is more negative emotions that can make one feel anxious, depressed, and isolated.

In a study by psychologists, the participants who watched three minutes of negative news in the morning were 27% more likely to report experiencing a bad day later. In contrast, the group who watched news stories that were focused on solutions reported having a good day 88% of the time.

Some people have begun coping with the abundance of negative news stories by avoiding news altogether. In 2023, 39% of people worldwide reported actively avoiding the news, up from 29% in 2017. In the UK, interest in news has nearly halved since 2015.

References available from: Wikipedia

English Chaps Selling Chapbooks

To grasp the meaning of Chapman, consider the history. The original English spoke German as one would expect Germanic people to do. The key is the phrase 'Anglo-Saxon'. The Anglo component comes from the Angle people who came from Angeln and Engle. Its nearest modern equivalent would be southern Denmark. The language of the Angles was Englisc from which we get English. The Saxon component comes from the Saxons who came from what is now northern Germany. These Germanic people began as mercenaries in what became England in the dying days of Roman Britain and finished as its conquer starting a few decades after the last Roman Legion left England in the 5th century.

The English language was altered by Roman Catholic missionaries who brought their Latin mainly in the 8th century. Around the 9th century, the Vikings took over the north and east of England and many old norse and Danish words changed the English. Then, the Normans altered the language starting in the 11th century. Their status as conquerors is revealed in the English. For example, an Englishman tended to pigs, but the finer cuts went to the Norman masters. So swine and bacon (the opposite of living high on the hog, were least desirable and fit only for an Englishman) were English words. The finished product, mutton is Norman French.

Let us go back to German old English to understand what a Chapman is. Among the German people, the counterpart was the surname Kaufman, which is derived from the old high German word 'chouph'. The old English had several words of similar meaning. 'Cop' meant barter. 'Chipping' was a place where things were bought. 'Ceapian' meant to buy. The old English word 'ceap', also meaning barter, eventually mutated into our modern word cheap. More telling is the old English word 'Ceapman', the old word for a pedlar or merchant, who were usually traveling merchants moving from village to village. It mattered not what specific goods they sold, they were Chapmans.

Chapbooks were thus small books or pamphlets, usually of popular tales, ballads, or poetry, etc., formerly sold on the streets by chapmen.

But be aware, the noun 'chapter' (= a main division of a book, treatise, etc.) has a different origin. It was first used in 1175-1225, coming from Middle English -- var. of chapitre, from Old French, and from the Latin: capitulum (= little head; capit-, s. of caput head + -ulum -ule ). In Late Latin, it meant section of a book; in Medieval Latin, it meant section read at a meeting, hence, the meeting, especially one of canons, hence, a body of canons.

Owl Editing

Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western

When words like northern, southern, eastern, and western precede a place name, they are not ordinarily capitalized because they merely indicate general location within a region. When these words are actually part of the place name, however, they must be capitalized.
For example:

Preceding a Place Name:
northern New Jersey,
western Massachusetts

Part of a Place Name:
Northern Ireland,
Western Australia


Correct the following:
1. I live in the north or North.
2. I love to go out west or West.
3. He is from the Deep South or deep south.
4. Where is the north pole or the North Pole?