Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/17/84; site nbires.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!ut-sally!nbires!bob From: bob@nbires.UUCP (Bob Bruck) Newsgroups: net.garden,net.consumers Subject: Re: Re: Grass Message-ID: <466@nbires.UUCP> Date: Mon, 19-Aug-85 16:04:36 EDT Article-I.D.: nbires.466 Posted: Mon Aug 19 16:04:36 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 24-Aug-85 00:21:26 EDT References: <10695@rochester.UUCP> <449@nbires.UUCP> <2123@iddic.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: NBI,Inc, Boulder CO Lines: 30 Xref: watmath net.garden:724 net.consumers:2813 > >>Wolfe: > >> Why do we have grass lawns? > > > >Bob Bruck: > >It seems obvious to me. We Americans have an abundance of land and free time > >to work the land for show. If I'm not mistaken, the word lawn came from > >launder - through which it means "to clean up the land". Just like gardens > >elsewhere, lawns are a way for us to show our wealth and grandeur. > > >Galen: > It seemed so obvious to me that I used a dictionary. Either you > are wrong, or Webster's made something up to fill the etymology > entry for one or both of these words. They think that laundry > came from the Latin word for "to wash," whereas lawn came from > the Middle French word for heath (heather), dervied from the Old > Irish word "land," meaning "open space." > ... > We have grass lawns because we planted them. Do I smell a flame? I was aware of the common belief that the word lawn had French or Celtic origins, but I prefer to think that the word lawn had it's most recent derivation from the (English?) fabric "lawn", which probably had the same Latin derivation as "launder". As to your answer, I think that you completely misunderstood the question. The question "Why do we have lawns?" literally means "Why do we *plant* lawns?" in english. Your answer is circular and meaningless. Bob Bruck (hao | allegra | ...)!nbires!bob