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stereophonic / stereo

Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2012 10:39 am
by duggles
I ran into a jumble this morning for which the answer was "stereotypical", and it started me thinking about why stereo was a part of this word as well as stereophonic. I learned through the etymology that stereo by itself is the literal Greek for solid, and that stereotype was the most used if not the original English usage of the the Greek source (and "stereo" at one time was the shortened version of "stereotypical").

So the shortened version of stereophonic (stereo) is not (as I had always assumed) related to having two sources for sound, but related to the solid, or more complete sound we hear in a stereophonic system.

anyway... I thought this might make for an interesting discussion, or perhaps the word of the day sometime...

Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2012 11:21 am
by Perry Lassiter
Welcome. Hope you do many more posts like this one. I had the identical experience with stereophonic til I read yr post.

Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2012 2:43 pm
by Slava
Very interesting. Thanks. I admit I'd never thought about it previously.