A very short word, usually a noun, but also an associated verb, with several meanings and connotations.
Appropriate to the season, as "Yule log", a portion of a tree trunk, in this setting set alight to provide warmth and encourage good fellowship. Also the result of chopping down a tree. (The related occupation is logging, which is performed by a logger.) The resulting product can then be appropriated for logrolling (which I learned as birling), in which two competitors, one standing on each end of a floating log, tries to dislodge the other by indulging in fancy footwork. Logrolling is also a political tactic, also known as horse trading.
And then there's the sense of recording, either for permanence as in a ship's log, or to obtain an observation as by a taffrail log (the result being recorded in the ship's log).
Finally (?) it can be short for logarithm, as in the designation of my still-appreciated slide rule, a "log log duplex decitrig". (Now, that's an etymological mashup.)
log
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- Grand Panjandrum
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Re: log
Good suggestion, Barbara.
And of course its modern use as a verb when we log in or on (surely one of those is incorrect?) to our computers. I am always amused when some systems require a log in but then a log off at closing time. And often a log on with a closing log out. They must both be incorrect - or at least inconsistent.
And of course its modern use as a verb when we log in or on (surely one of those is incorrect?) to our computers. I am always amused when some systems require a log in but then a log off at closing time. And often a log on with a closing log out. They must both be incorrect - or at least inconsistent.
Re: log
Good observation about logging (in/on;off/out). (How did I miss that?)
Maybe the origin of the differences is connected to particular computer manufacturers, like the difference between the ASCII vs. EBCDIC coding systems. To be explored in my voluminous/copious free time (VFT/CFT).
My laptop accepts "exit" when going away, but sometimes a quick "logo" flashes by before the screen goes blank. Which is not to be confused with "logo" = "logograph" or "logotype", But I've never seen "logi".
Maybe the origin of the differences is connected to particular computer manufacturers, like the difference between the ASCII vs. EBCDIC coding systems. To be explored in my voluminous/copious free time (VFT/CFT).
My laptop accepts "exit" when going away, but sometimes a quick "logo" flashes by before the screen goes blank. Which is not to be confused with "logo" = "logograph" or "logotype", But I've never seen "logi".
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