Lost in Translation
Looking for meanings in words, images and sounds
Thursday’s Post: Sitting Pretty
Posted on September 11, 2013
Chairs accompany us in our everyday life. I have recently calculated the average amount of time I spend in a chair on a working day, and was astounded to find out that it was nothing less than thirteen hours. I am sure that most of you that lead a sedentary lifestyle with office jobs have more or less the same average. It does seem absurd that this piece of furniture is the most prevalent constant in our daily routine.
When did this happen? How did the chair find its way into our lives?
The first chair was invented in Ancient Egypt and was later perfected by Ancient Greeks. In early cultures most people sat on logs or stools, whereas chairs with seat, four legs and a back were reserved for privileged members of the society. The word chair was derived from Latin cathedra ”seat“ i.e. from Ancient Greek kathedra (chair of a teacher, throne). In modern languages the word “cathedra“ has been preserved to designate a seat of a bishop or an official chair of a professor. Hence the word cathedral which means a church into which a bishop’s official cathedra is installed.
The word chair in today’s English does not only denote a piece of furniture that is indispensable object in our daily life; it is also used figuratively in expressions: the first chair – second chair, chairman (chairperson) etc.
What would our lives without chairs be like?
I know I would be lost, if someone was to take my armchair away. As a result, I would probably develop some abdominal and back muscles, but I know that I would not be able to spend as much time on my computer. If it weren’t for chairs, I would probably sit on meadows with my back leaned against a tree trunk and smell the freshness of a forest instead of smelly people in my office.
Well, it may not be such a bad idea after all. 😉
The above photo shows two marvelous chairs I used to sit pretty on my holidays.
The ”Sitting Pretty“ post is dedicated to Sophia of Sonel’s corner. A while ago she encouraged me to look at furniture differently ;).
**About Thursday’s Special: It is a new ‘non-challenge’ challenge that appeals to bloggers eager to wake up their creativity and show their own ideas and interpretation of the world. I invite everybody interested to join in. There are no themes, titles and techniques set for your expression, there are no limits and restrictions (no red tape whatsoever). The only thing required is to post a photo post on Thursdays entitled “Thursday’s Special: (your theme/title)” (as explained in my Thursday’s Special introductory post), to provide a link to my Thursday’s Special post, and to leave a link to your post in the comments section of my post. If you like Thursday’s Special widget, feel free to grab it and post it on your blog.
Check out the other entries:
Thursday’s Special: Earthly Paradise
Posted on September 4, 2013
The etymology of the word garden shows that it came into the English language in c. 1300 from Old North French gardin (Modern French jardin subsequently entered Italian, Spanish and Portuguese as giardino, jardin and jardim), which was derived from Vulgar Latin “hortus gardinus” meaning enclosed garden. The Frankish word for garden was gardo, from Proto-Germanic gardaz, (Old High German gard, gart meaning an enclosure or compound, appears in the name of the town Stuttgart). The Proto-Slavic word gord for fortified settlement which later evolved into grad and means town or city, can be seen in many Slavic toponyms such as in the older name for St Petersburg, Petrograd.
Thus the original Latin denominator for garden “hortus gardinus” passed on the second part of the expression “gardinus” meaning “enclosure” to denote garden in modern Germanic and Romance languages, whereas the first part of the term “hortus” which actually means “garden” has been preserved in scholarly terms like horticulture, orchard.
Enclosed, protected (guarded) piece of land, garden is also a cognate of “guard” because defence against two or four-legged varmints is the common concern of both guarding and gardening.
Gardens appeared in the beginnings of Neolithic revolution (approx. 11,500 – 5,000 years ago) when gradual shift from hunting-gathering to farming gave birth to sedentary societies. With the development of early agriculture, social, economic and cultural practices also evolved and led to what is known as civilisation.
Contrary to gardens where nature is subdued, ordered, selected and enclosed, forests are representatives of unorganised, untamed nature where access is not restricted by a deed of ownership, but by mere geography. The garden is a symbol of the soul, and the qualities cultivated in it, a symbol of the consciouss and the female receptive principle as opposed to the adamant forest which can be seen as a symbol of unconscious.
Despite the safety and bountifulness of the garden, the magic of the forest has always had a more alluring quality for me.
Which one would you rather have: a garden with its tamed character and regulated nature, or a forest, unruly and unpredictable?
**About Thursday’s Special: It is a new ‘non-challenge’ challenge that appeals to bloggers eager to wake up their creativity and show their own ideas and interpretation of the world. I invite everybody interested to join in. There are no themes, titles and techniques set for your expression, there are no limits and restrictions (no red tape whatsoever). The only thing required is to post a photo post on Thursdays entitled “Thursday’s Special: (your theme/title)” (as explained in my Thursday’s Special introductory post), to provide a link to my Thursday’s Special post, and to leave a link to your post in the comments section of my post. If you like Thursday’s Special widget, feel free to grab it and post it on your blog.
Check out the beautiful entries for this week’s Thursday’s Special:
Lost in Translation 