Alzrius
The EN World kitten
Miriam-Webster Online has this little series called Words for the Wise, where they talk about a different word each day, where it came from, and other little fun facts relating to it.
The word for 10/31/02 was "Paracelsus", not so much a word as it was a name an arrogant Swiss alchemist/physician/philosopher.
So what's the point? Well, one of the things Paracelsus made up was the theory of ruling elemental spirits. He's the one who correlated gnomes to earth, salamanders to fire, undines to water, and sylphs to air. In fact, he created the very idea of undines - they didn't exist in folklore or mythology before him. Read more about it in this succinct but witty article here. It's a nice fun fact about the history of the fantasy we all enjoy so much.
The word for 10/31/02 was "Paracelsus", not so much a word as it was a name an arrogant Swiss alchemist/physician/philosopher.
So what's the point? Well, one of the things Paracelsus made up was the theory of ruling elemental spirits. He's the one who correlated gnomes to earth, salamanders to fire, undines to water, and sylphs to air. In fact, he created the very idea of undines - they didn't exist in folklore or mythology before him. Read more about it in this succinct but witty article here. It's a nice fun fact about the history of the fantasy we all enjoy so much.
