Timeline for Logical meaning of the word "understand"
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
26 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Dec 4, 2019 at 15:39 | comment | added | Andrew R. Keating | Understanding comes from the word Upanishad, in Sanskrit. To "stand under" someone is to learn from a guru, who typically sits above the sisya. | |
| Jun 5, 2018 at 14:13 | answer | added | user50720 | timeline score: 0 | |
| Dec 4, 2015 at 5:21 | comment | added | user50720 | My allied question on Linguistics may aid you: linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/12130/…. | |
| Mar 16, 2012 at 0:25 | comment | added | GEdgar | A lot of these Latin metaphors have been taken over into English. | |
| Mar 15, 2012 at 21:51 | history | protected | RegDwigнt | ||
| Mar 15, 2012 at 0:35 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @Maxim V. Pavlov: That snippet from OED as quoted by John is certainly relevant to "getting to the insides of" - O.E. under, from PIE nter- "between, among" (cf. Skt. antar "among, between," L. inter "between, among," Gk. entera "intestines;" see inter-) | |
| Mar 14, 2012 at 22:25 | comment | added | zzzzBov |
@ArlenBeiler, Rational numbers are numbers that can be expressed as a ratio, which is division. When rationalizing, one typically separates the subject into smaller, simpler ideas. Simplifying ideas can be done incorrectly as easily as simplifying fractions, which leads to the negative connotation of "rationalization" as oversimplification to falsehood.
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| Mar 14, 2012 at 21:42 | comment | added | Cerberus - Reinstate Monica | @MaximV.Pavlov: Cf. "analyse", from Greek luô, which means "to loosen, solve". | |
| Mar 14, 2012 at 21:32 | comment | added | Maxim V. Pavlov | @ArlenBeiler - my attempt to try to explain such an ancient and powerful language as Japanese may be very childish, but in their language "Understand" and "Divide" may be synonymous due to thinking that to "know something" you need "to get to the insides of it" therefore dividing it. Division of solid would reveal it's internal structure and let you "know it", stand within it. | |
| Mar 14, 2012 at 21:26 | comment | added | Arlen Beiler | @zzzzBov, that's interesting about divide and understand. I'm not sure how that ties into rationalize, because normally that is the exact opposite. Rationalize means an "attempt to explain or justify with logical, plausible reasons, even if these are not true...", so it does not mean "divide" (i.e. dissect) or "understand". One way of smoothing over something (so people won't start dissecting it) is rationalization. | |
| Mar 14, 2012 at 19:42 | comment | added | Cerberus - Reinstate Monica | The link in Fumblefingers' answer is what you should be reading: it provides the most detailed and thorough explanation of the possibilities. In summary: we do not know how exactly under + stand came to mean understand, i.e. there is no answer yet. | |
| Mar 14, 2012 at 19:27 | comment | added | zzzzBov | Off-topic: In Japanese, the character for "divide" is the same used for "understand" which is why I felt it translates more closely with "rationalize" (ignoring the negative connotation). | |
| Mar 14, 2012 at 17:39 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/#!/StackEnglish/status/179985166217916416 | ||
| Mar 14, 2012 at 16:58 | answer | added | user19045 | timeline score: 4 | |
| Mar 14, 2012 at 16:52 | comment | added | Maxim V. Pavlov | Thank you. The reason I asked is because in Russian we have pretty much similar "misconception" and now after reading the answers I understand that the same way we have "under" that means "stand behind". This is kind of fantastic. | |
| Mar 14, 2012 at 16:50 | answer | added | Mitch | timeline score: 2 | |
| Mar 14, 2012 at 16:47 | history | edited | Daniel | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Mar 14, 2012 at 16:46 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | haha you certainly rattled the etymologists' cages there! I'm not one - I just copied a few bits into my answer to illustrate my basic point that the "understanding" you ended up with probably wasn't going to be what you'd originally expected. | |
| Mar 14, 2012 at 16:34 | vote | accept | Maxim V. Pavlov | ||
| Mar 14, 2012 at 16:29 | answer | added | FumbleFingers | timeline score: 10 | |
| Mar 14, 2012 at 16:26 | answer | added | John Lawler | timeline score: 10 | |
| Mar 14, 2012 at 16:25 | answer | added | J.R. | timeline score: 2 | |
| Mar 14, 2012 at 16:25 | answer | added | JSBձոգչ | timeline score: 4 | |
| Mar 14, 2012 at 16:23 | history | edited | JSBձոգչ |
edited tags; edited tags
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| Mar 14, 2012 at 16:22 | answer | added | Daniel | timeline score: 4 | |
| Mar 14, 2012 at 16:07 | history | asked | Maxim V. Pavlov | CC BY-SA 3.0 |