Labyrinth
- Thread starter Partizanac
- Start date
Virote_Considon
The Great Dictator
Wh00t! I think that may be my first request ever!
Thanks for this. And that's a real nice splash
!
Thanks for this. And that's a real nice splash
!
Partizanac
Serbian Ambassador in CFC
Glad you like it! 
Goldflash
Grumpy Old Man
Where the crap is David Bowie?
Virote_Considon
The Great Dictator
In the middle? 
Partizanac
Serbian Ambassador in CFC
waiting for you to get in...
Another nice one 
- & more trivia from Yours Truly.
"Labyrinths" and "Mazes" are technically different. One can get lost in a maze. One cannot get lost in a labyrinth, because it literally consists of one unbranching path - no wrong turns, no dead ends. What remains of such in the modern day are generally spirals carved in stone in front of or within some European churches/cathedrals. Walking them was/is a meditative - a devotional - act.
Although I'm certainly not a linguist, it wouldn't surprise me if the complex the Minotaur was supposedly in was indeed a labyrinth. Enter the labyrinth and you'll inevitably find the Minotaur - and if you don't want to run into the Minotaur, what the dickens are you doing in there in the first place?
Best,
Oz
- & more trivia from Yours Truly."Labyrinths" and "Mazes" are technically different. One can get lost in a maze. One cannot get lost in a labyrinth, because it literally consists of one unbranching path - no wrong turns, no dead ends. What remains of such in the modern day are generally spirals carved in stone in front of or within some European churches/cathedrals. Walking them was/is a meditative - a devotional - act.
Although I'm certainly not a linguist, it wouldn't surprise me if the complex the Minotaur was supposedly in was indeed a labyrinth. Enter the labyrinth and you'll inevitably find the Minotaur - and if you don't want to run into the Minotaur, what the dickens are you doing in there in the first place?
Best,
Oz
la_dav
King
Reall good job!~
Partizanac
Serbian Ambassador in CFC
thanks guys! when I saw the movie "labyrinth" she went in and she got lost! so there
Virote_Considon
The Great Dictator
Ack. Getting lost in a Labyrinth...
Language evolves; meanings become blurred; words referring to the no longer commonplace are recycled. When Jorge Luis Borges entitled his seminal volume of short stories "Labyrinths" I can all but assure you that he was not using the word as a synonym for "maze". And attached is an example of what I mean architecturally.
Best,
Oz
Best,
Oz
flamescreen
Ancient Mariner
It's a nice work, though, I'd prefer it seen from the top.
From what people tell us here, apparently the labyrinth could have been the palace itself, being daedalous as Cretan palaces were for the uninitiated, and Minotaur, just a priest in the temple wearing a mask of the sacred animal.
Of course that kindof kills the myth, but if the myth was accurate, the Labyrinth has had to be a maze, else they wouldn't need for the ball of string(have no idea what it's called in English) to get out of it. Unless they added that element later on, but then you wouldn't know which part is true, if any.
From what people tell us here, apparently the labyrinth could have been the palace itself, being daedalous as Cretan palaces were for the uninitiated, and Minotaur, just a priest in the temple wearing a mask of the sacred animal.
Of course that kindof kills the myth, but if the myth was accurate, the Labyrinth has had to be a maze, else they wouldn't need for the ball of string(have no idea what it's called in English) to get out of it. Unless they added that element later on, but then you wouldn't know which part is true, if any.
Another nice one
"Labyrinths" and "Mazes" are technically different. One can get lost in a maze. One cannot get lost in a labyrinth, because it literally consists of one unbranching path - no wrong turns, no dead ends. What remains of such in the modern day are generally spirals carved in stone in front of or within some European churches/cathedrals. Walking them was/is a meditative - a devotional - act.
Although I'm certainly not a linguist, it wouldn't surprise me if the complex the Minotaur was supposedly in was indeed a labyrinth. Enter the labyrinth and you'll inevitably find the Minotaur - and if you don't want to run into the Minotaur, what the dickens are you doing in there in the first place?
Best,
Oz
Mirc
Not mIRC!!!
Well, I've never heard before that mazes are different to labyrinths. In fact, I don't think we even have any correspondent in Romanian to the word maze. Edit: Yes, after taking a look in a dictionary, the word "maze" is translated as "labirint" (labyrinth). So I would have called this a labyrinth too, without knowing it is incorrect in the English language. I think English might be the only language that makes this difference. 
Partizanac
Serbian Ambassador in CFC
Serbian too doesn't have a "maze" its translation is LAVIRINT
I believe it was the English playwright Tom Stoppard who remarked, regarding the English language, that "We are tied down to a language which makes up obscurity what it lacks in style."
To my shock and chagrin, the Oxford English Dictionary (moment of silence; bow head; smell of incense) itself essentially defines "labyrinth" as a maze.
It is possible that the other definition I stand by is antique. I have walked labyrinths (by which I mean those inward-spiraling, unbranching circles) in meditation. An echo of them is even found in Roger Zelazny's "Nine Princes In Amber" series.
I think I have a dictionary of "antique" English around here somewhere; I'll search for it etc.
Linguistically Yours,
Oz
To my shock and chagrin, the Oxford English Dictionary (moment of silence; bow head; smell of incense) itself essentially defines "labyrinth" as a maze.
It is possible that the other definition I stand by is antique. I have walked labyrinths (by which I mean those inward-spiraling, unbranching circles) in meditation. An echo of them is even found in Roger Zelazny's "Nine Princes In Amber" series.
I think I have a dictionary of "antique" English around here somewhere; I'll search for it etc.
Linguistically Yours,
Oz
Samez
Emperor
Wouldn't it be a question if the old greece language seperates between labyrinths and mazes? So it would all just be a matter of translation?
Palantir30
Warlord
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2005
- Messages
- 241
Dont rely on the OED to distinguish between current usage and older, more 'original' meanings.
There are two philosophies on what Dictionaries should be:
1) a manual of how a language is supposed to be used
2) a record of how a language has been collectively used.
Of course best practices for any dichotomy are not usually found at either extreme, but the OED has embraced #2 far more than is appropriate. OED for example can't declare whether "media" is a singular or plural term, because it has chosen to codify the incorrect usage that a plurality of english speakers have.
OED is not your source for finding out how a word 'should' be used.
AutomatedTeller
Frequent poster
well, for what it's worth - words change. If a word is used "incorrectly" by more people than use it "correctly", there is an argument to be made that the "incorrect" way is now correct.
I mean - English from the 14th century is hard to read by modern people. Writing in the 18th century sounds stilted now. How do these things happene, if not from people talking "incorrectly", and then having it become the norm?
I mean - English from the 14th century is hard to read by modern people. Writing in the 18th century sounds stilted now. How do these things happene, if not from people talking "incorrectly", and then having it become the norm?
Yes, the first is called "proscriptive" and the second "descriptive". AFAIK the first of the second breed came out ca. 1963 and IIRC was by Merriam-Webster, and IMHO it's been downhill from there (I mean, for pity"s sake, "irregardless" has slipped into more than one dictionary). I'm in complete agreement with you and am dismayed that the OED has slipped so far towards the second.
Yours With Pith Helmet In The Jungles Of Philology,
Oz
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