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Author: Subject: Deep Joy
aga
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[*] posted on 6-4-2018 at 11:16


Quote: Originally posted by AvBaeyer  
The photo you posted at the beginning is wonderful. The lighting and shadows are terrific.

Well, that is unexpected !

Glad you like it. Certainly wasn't deliberate.

Contact Sigma and see if they want to buy it - we can go halves ;)

As for crushing that beauty, no way !

It just fitted well in the brass mortar (or pestle - never can get those two straight)




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[*] posted on 6-4-2018 at 11:27


Mortar is the vessel itself, I just think of it like the mortar weapon, back when they were shorter and fatter they were quite reminiscent of the crushing-up version.

Mortar comes from Latin ‘mortarium’, which was a vessel for crushing. Pestle is from ‘pistillum’, directly translating to ‘pounder’. An interesting fact, the word mortar when used in a bricklaying sense, is derived from the Old French word for the bowl used to mix builder’s plaster - mortier.

97A64738-FA4B-4C51-A340-4182F36BFBCB.jpeg - 137kB




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[*] posted on 6-4-2018 at 11:38


Excellent explanation o Amateur of Learnedness.

Easy to remember too. Thanks.

Presumably 'mortier' also has it's roots in the same Latin word 'mortarium'.




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[*] posted on 6-4-2018 at 12:48


Looking it up, the name of the weapon actually comes from the bowl, didn’t even know that when I made the mental link. Makes sense on both the visual and linguistic side - one could interpret the weapon to be a ‘vessel of crushing’ since the original projectiles were stone, used as a siege engine before being converted to anti-personnel usage.

Seems that way, a vast number of words in Western European languages (antiquated and modern) have their roots in Latin and Greek, and the different etymological pathways is where, at least in English, a lot of homonyms are born - same meaning from the parent language but having been twisted throughout the course of history and the evolution of language.




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[*] posted on 6-4-2018 at 13:17


Fascinating - a vessel into which you place things to get crushed morphs into a vessel that throws a thing out that crushes.

Flipped meanings are not uncommon, yet it takes a mental leap to comprehend (In focused vs Out)




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