Language of documents
Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2001 12:00 am
MY DRAFT POST IS LONG THAT’S WHY I SPLIT IT IN TWO POSTS
Speaking of English literature, I would like to share some knowledge of some business and finance words as to their meanings and origin and why we say these words.
Acid Test; known as quick ratio test.
Wandering peddlers, now supplanted by telemarketers, were once a familiar part of the European and American scene. A typical fellow carried a few household articles in a pack; if well established, he might drive a wagon with a variety of goods.
Many a peddler made his real money, not by sale of goods, but by purchase of old gold from persons he encountered. Even a veteran found it hard to assess the value of filled and plated articles by examination. But a positive test was easily used. After filing a shallow groove in a piece, the prospective buyer would touch it with nitric acid. Color reactions gave a reasonably accurate index to the gold content and hence the value.
Bottles of nitric acid were used on so many articles containing gold that any exacting trial came to be called an acid test.
Acid test: Current Assets - Inventory
Current Liabilities
Broker
These days, a broker can’t stay in business without substantial cash flow; money is the name of the game.
That was not the case with the earliest fellows given a version of the title. In medieval France, a tavern’s tapster was responsible for broaching – or opening – casks of wine for resale. By extension, he became the middleman or agent who bought from one source and sold to another.
For generations, there were brokers of every imaginable kind; one or several specialized in every commodity on the market. With the rise of modern fiscal instruments, some began dealing in stocks and bonds. Brokers of this sort gradually came to be considered more important that those who dealt in sheep or iron or cotton.
Today’s Wall Street executive who takes a client to lunch seldom functions as the title once intended. Instead, a waiter will be asked to open the bottle of wine.
Corporation
Quintus Septimus Florens Tertullianus, better known as Tertullian, was among the best linguists of the second century. From Latin terms that meant the making of a body from components, he coined a new title for an established organization: corporationem.
Scholars of the 15th century discovered the ancient term and applied it to any organized group, such as the corporation of surgeons. But it was not until 1600 that English law provided for a such body to act as though it were an individual. That is, corporations became artificial persons created by charter and capable of living much longer than humans.
By Colonial times, organizations and land companies were encouraging investors to pool their resources in order to form corporations. As a result, a term born in Roman legal circles is one of the most common and important words of modern business.
Dollar
A silver mine opened in Bohemia in 1516 turned out to be one of the richest ever. So much precious metal was dug out that local jewelers couldn’t use all of it. As a result, craftsmen made one-ounce coins from some of the joachimsthal silver.
In commerce the novel coin soon became familiar as the “thaler”. So many thalers were circulated that the product of Bohemia became a standard unit of currency. English merchants eager for international deals stumbled over the name of the silver piece and wound up calling it “dollar.” Dollars soon poured into and out of the island kingdom, but the coin was never made official.
Patriots who shaped our 1785 American monetary system wanted to be completely un-English. They devised a decimal system quite unlike that which made a guinea worth twenty-one shillings. Founding fathers scrapped both “pound” and “penny” and chose dollar to name a piece worth 100 cents.
Pig in a Poke
Never buy a pig in a poke; always take a look at merchandise before handing over payment, regardless of how great a bargain is offered.
That advice wasn’t always heeded in early England; so many purchasers were stung by shrewd farmers. Until three months or so old, a young porker usually went to market in a heavy bag, or poke, that was carried over the seller’s should by means of a stick.
More frequently than we’d like to think, in “the good old days” a farmer’s poke held a sick or deformed piglet, and sometimes even a cat, that was offered at a price below the market. If a prospective purchaser asked to take a look, the seller was likely to refuse to open his bag “because once little pigs loose, they’re almost impossible to catch.”
Lots of folk who had a taste for pork and took a stranger’s word actually bought a pig in a poke. Too often, a quick look inside the bag revealed that what seemed to be a good buy was money wasted.
HERE LIES THE IMPORTANCE OF INSPECTION CERTIFICATE. L/Cs ARE IN A WAY BUYING PIG IN A POKE, AREN’T THEY?
Anybody knows where does the following words stem from?
Boycott
Secretary
Those who have secretaries should know.
[edited 11/4/01 11:17:58 AM]
Speaking of English literature, I would like to share some knowledge of some business and finance words as to their meanings and origin and why we say these words.
Acid Test; known as quick ratio test.
Wandering peddlers, now supplanted by telemarketers, were once a familiar part of the European and American scene. A typical fellow carried a few household articles in a pack; if well established, he might drive a wagon with a variety of goods.
Many a peddler made his real money, not by sale of goods, but by purchase of old gold from persons he encountered. Even a veteran found it hard to assess the value of filled and plated articles by examination. But a positive test was easily used. After filing a shallow groove in a piece, the prospective buyer would touch it with nitric acid. Color reactions gave a reasonably accurate index to the gold content and hence the value.
Bottles of nitric acid were used on so many articles containing gold that any exacting trial came to be called an acid test.
Acid test: Current Assets - Inventory
Current Liabilities
Broker
These days, a broker can’t stay in business without substantial cash flow; money is the name of the game.
That was not the case with the earliest fellows given a version of the title. In medieval France, a tavern’s tapster was responsible for broaching – or opening – casks of wine for resale. By extension, he became the middleman or agent who bought from one source and sold to another.
For generations, there were brokers of every imaginable kind; one or several specialized in every commodity on the market. With the rise of modern fiscal instruments, some began dealing in stocks and bonds. Brokers of this sort gradually came to be considered more important that those who dealt in sheep or iron or cotton.
Today’s Wall Street executive who takes a client to lunch seldom functions as the title once intended. Instead, a waiter will be asked to open the bottle of wine.
Corporation
Quintus Septimus Florens Tertullianus, better known as Tertullian, was among the best linguists of the second century. From Latin terms that meant the making of a body from components, he coined a new title for an established organization: corporationem.
Scholars of the 15th century discovered the ancient term and applied it to any organized group, such as the corporation of surgeons. But it was not until 1600 that English law provided for a such body to act as though it were an individual. That is, corporations became artificial persons created by charter and capable of living much longer than humans.
By Colonial times, organizations and land companies were encouraging investors to pool their resources in order to form corporations. As a result, a term born in Roman legal circles is one of the most common and important words of modern business.
Dollar
A silver mine opened in Bohemia in 1516 turned out to be one of the richest ever. So much precious metal was dug out that local jewelers couldn’t use all of it. As a result, craftsmen made one-ounce coins from some of the joachimsthal silver.
In commerce the novel coin soon became familiar as the “thaler”. So many thalers were circulated that the product of Bohemia became a standard unit of currency. English merchants eager for international deals stumbled over the name of the silver piece and wound up calling it “dollar.” Dollars soon poured into and out of the island kingdom, but the coin was never made official.
Patriots who shaped our 1785 American monetary system wanted to be completely un-English. They devised a decimal system quite unlike that which made a guinea worth twenty-one shillings. Founding fathers scrapped both “pound” and “penny” and chose dollar to name a piece worth 100 cents.
Pig in a Poke
Never buy a pig in a poke; always take a look at merchandise before handing over payment, regardless of how great a bargain is offered.
That advice wasn’t always heeded in early England; so many purchasers were stung by shrewd farmers. Until three months or so old, a young porker usually went to market in a heavy bag, or poke, that was carried over the seller’s should by means of a stick.
More frequently than we’d like to think, in “the good old days” a farmer’s poke held a sick or deformed piglet, and sometimes even a cat, that was offered at a price below the market. If a prospective purchaser asked to take a look, the seller was likely to refuse to open his bag “because once little pigs loose, they’re almost impossible to catch.”
Lots of folk who had a taste for pork and took a stranger’s word actually bought a pig in a poke. Too often, a quick look inside the bag revealed that what seemed to be a good buy was money wasted.
HERE LIES THE IMPORTANCE OF INSPECTION CERTIFICATE. L/Cs ARE IN A WAY BUYING PIG IN A POKE, AREN’T THEY?
Anybody knows where does the following words stem from?
Boycott
Secretary
Those who have secretaries should know.
[edited 11/4/01 11:17:58 AM]