Since that part IS called the Legend, is this comic trying to provide some kind of just-so story?
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Yes.
Might not be far from the truth. “Legend” has its origin in the Latin for “to read,” but by the time “map legend” was coined Latin was already long dead. The word had by then acquired its other modern meanings.
Either someone chose it in the sense of words engraved on a coin, or deliberately went back to the Latin for funsies. I assume someone like that would seek out a career in the Department of Naming Things, so it all checks out.
I did not know that: “In science and philosophy, a just-so story is an untestablenarrative …. The pejorative nature of the expression is an implicit criticism that reminds the listener of the fictional and unprovable nature of such an explanation.” I knew of Kipling’s Just So Stories, but hadn’t heard the term elsewhere.
I hated Kipling’s “Just So Stories” because they were so transparently false despite all the effort that went into making them appear to be plausible. I never liked it when grown-ups lied to me.
Norman Mailer coined the word “factoid” to mean “facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper, creations which are not so much lies as a product to manipulate emotion in the Silent Majority.” An example would be “Louis Armstrong, the epitome of an all-American jazz legend, was born on the impossible-to-forget date of July 4, 1900.” Popular usage has morphed the meaning of “factoid” to “trivial fact”, leaving us without a word for Mailer’s meaning.
Except for “Just-So Story” which should do quite well, even if it does imply a longer narrative rather than a short-and-sweet sound bite. “It was July 3, 1900 in New Orleans. William Armstrong turned to his wife and said, ‘Mary, are you ready? Tomorrow is going to be a big day.’ ‘I don’t know,’ she replied. ‘It’s a big responsibility to give birth to a son who is destined to be the greatest American musician. I don’t see how ANYBODY can be ready for that!'”
According to online etymology, the word came into Middle English via Old French. So the original Latin was filtered through a few steps first. That’s pretty typical for English words.
Well, the word came in that way in the sense of a myth or story, by way of being a term for the story of a Saint. Whether “map legend” came from that English word or was deliberately derived from the Latin (or something else) isn’t clear.
None of the etymology sources I found no indication of a separate origin for map legend. “Legend” for inscriptions seems to have developed from the earlier story meaning, which entered Middle English a few hundred years before the second meaning developed in Modern English.
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Yes.
Might not be far from the truth. “Legend” has its origin in the Latin for “to read,” but by the time “map legend” was coined Latin was already long dead. The word had by then acquired its other modern meanings.
Either someone chose it in the sense of words engraved on a coin, or deliberately went back to the Latin for funsies. I assume someone like that would seek out a career in the Department of Naming Things, so it all checks out.
I did not know that: “In science and philosophy, a just-so story is an untestable narrative …. The pejorative nature of the expression is an implicit criticism that reminds the listener of the fictional and unprovable nature of such an explanation.” I knew of Kipling’s Just So Stories, but hadn’t heard the term elsewhere.
I hated Kipling’s “Just So Stories” because they were so transparently false despite all the effort that went into making them appear to be plausible. I never liked it when grown-ups lied to me.
Norman Mailer coined the word “factoid” to mean “facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper, creations which are not so much lies as a product to manipulate emotion in the Silent Majority.” An example would be “Louis Armstrong, the epitome of an all-American jazz legend, was born on the impossible-to-forget date of July 4, 1900.” Popular usage has morphed the meaning of “factoid” to “trivial fact”, leaving us without a word for Mailer’s meaning.
Except for “Just-So Story” which should do quite well, even if it does imply a longer narrative rather than a short-and-sweet sound bite. “It was July 3, 1900 in New Orleans. William Armstrong turned to his wife and said, ‘Mary, are you ready? Tomorrow is going to be a big day.’ ‘I don’t know,’ she replied. ‘It’s a big responsibility to give birth to a son who is destined to be the greatest American musician. I don’t see how ANYBODY can be ready for that!'”
According to online etymology, the word came into Middle English via Old French. So the original Latin was filtered through a few steps first. That’s pretty typical for English words.
Well, the word came in that way in the sense of a myth or story, by way of being a term for the story of a Saint. Whether “map legend” came from that English word or was deliberately derived from the Latin (or something else) isn’t clear.
None of the etymology sources I found no indication of a separate origin for map legend. “Legend” for inscriptions seems to have developed from the earlier story meaning, which entered Middle English a few hundred years before the second meaning developed in Modern English.