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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
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Posted: Mon Aug 19 16:04:36 1985
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> >>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