Dive Brief:
- Language changes over time, new terms working their way in – you can "Google" that – and old terms staying even when their reasons for being what they are have long been left behind.
- Construction has its share of such holdovers, such as 10-penny nails and making sure walls are plumb, which you'd expect if a journeyman carpenter has built them.
- No one remembers "plumb" coming from the Latin for lead, "plumbum" and the use of a lead weight to pull the string taut and vertical, but everyone is straight on what you mean, so the words still work. And chem majors know what Pb is, even if they don't know why.
Dive Insight:
It's easy to pass by the history embodied in language we use every day. Sometimes that "old" history, such as how much it cost for a hundred of a given size nail (10 pence or pennies, 16 pence, or pennies). Sometimes it's "new" history, as when you send the client a PDF of the plans for his building. In 50 years, will we still refer to "Googling" information? And if we do, will we still search through a website called Google, or will few remember where the name came from?
