The word has exploded with the increase in the number of machines and computers: a train runs on tracks, a car runs on gas, an iPad runs apps. But simultaneously, there have also been countless revivals of antique non-mechanical senses: you now run out on someone, you run something past someone. Old “runs” are, in other words, generating new meanings, a demonstration of the living nature of the language.We think in terms of motion and action, and so we see things running all around us.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
The Age of Motion
In the old OED, the word with the most meanings was "set." It has now been replaced by a new champion more fitting to our frantic age: run.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment