Emergency

Use this forum to discuss past Good Words.
User avatar
Dr. Goodword
Site Admin
Posts: 7417
Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:28 am
Location: Lewisburg, PA
Contact:

Emergency

Postby Dr. Goodword » Mon Nov 12, 2018 10:56 pm

• emergency •

Pronunciation: ee-mêr-jên-si • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: A serious situation emerging suddenly and unexpectedly, that demands immediate response.

Notes: This word obviously originates in the verb emerge. Word History will explain how its meaning came to diverge so much from its verb of origin. Semantically, it is a lexical orphan, unrelated to all other derivations from emerge: emergent and emergence. Both these words have a transparent relationship to the verb.

In Play: Emergencies, like beauty, are in the eye of the beholder: "For Esmerelda's teenage daughters every broken nail, scratch or bruise is a medical emergency." The noun itself may be used as an adjective: "Herman's frequent bouts of indigestion require emergency medical assistance lest one turns out to be a heart attack."

Word History: English obtained today's word from Middle French émergence "surfacing, emerging", based on émergent, the present participle of the verb emerger "to surface, emerge". French inherited this word from Latin emergere "to bob up, arise", comprising an assimilated form of ex "out (of)" + mergere "to dip, sink". Mergere was probably rhotacized ([s/z] turning to [r]) from mezgere, from PIE mezg- "to dip, plunge", source also of Sanskrit majjati "dives under" and Lithuanian mazgoti "to wash". So, the word was associated with sudden movement in water. Adding the preposition ex makes it "bob out of water". From there it moved in the 17th century to appearing suddenly from concealment, and leaving it only a hop, skip, and a jump from its current English meaning. (Gratitude is due Joakim Larsson, frequent contributor from Sweden, whose keen eye spotted the inconsistency between the verb emerge and the noun emergency.)
• The Good Dr. Goodword

misterdoe
Senior Lexiterian
Posts: 619
Joined: Fri Mar 13, 2009 10:21 am
Location: New York City area
Contact:

Re: Emergency

Postby misterdoe » Tue Nov 27, 2018 11:54 pm

A wordy but now-retired coworker used to refer to emergencies as "emergent situations." :) (He once told me I should use my leave time so as to give myself a "restorative break." He could have left out the last four syllables. :lol: )

User avatar
Slava
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 8040
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
Location: Finger Lakes, NY

Re: Emergency

Postby Slava » Fri Dec 25, 2020 8:54 am

Commenting on a dark closet, my Uncle was heard to complain that there weren't enough lumens.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

bnjtokyo
Lexiterian
Posts: 384
Joined: Thu Jul 07, 2016 7:16 pm

Re: Emergency

Postby bnjtokyo » Thu Nov 11, 2021 1:16 am

I saw Dr Goodword's note encouraging visitors to submit new Goodwords for consideration for inclusion as Words of the Day. From time to time I do encounter a word I think would be of interest, but then I look it up in the Good Word Dictionary and discover it "has been done, Swami."

When I came across the following sentence that uses "emergency" in its emergence sense I thought it would be a good word to suggest. But now I see it has been done in its usual sense, I will quote that sentence here to remind us all that the more basic sense is still available.

"The presence of an early phase [of a remarkably ancient 'blade-and-burin' technology] in the Southern Cape coastal belt has not been demonstrated yet, and the possibility that the focus of its emergency lies within the high central plateau (Karoo, Orange Free State and Transvaal) should be investigated further." Pg 186, The Stone Age Archeology of Southern Africa, C.Garth Sampson. 1974.

"remarkably ancient" here means prior to 50,000 years before present.

User avatar
Slava
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 8040
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
Location: Finger Lakes, NY

Re: Emergency

Postby Slava » Thu Nov 11, 2021 7:14 am

It strikes me as odd to use emergency here. Perhaps language has shifted a bit, but emergence seems much more natural. Unless that's the effect the author was going for, using old forms to talk about old technology.

I admit I had to look up burin. And my spell-check doesn't even like it.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.


Return to “Good Word Discussion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot], Majestic-12 [Bot] and 37 guests