I was blabbing from memory, and inaccurately
substitued the Roman Catholic
Church for feudal lords. Anyway here is my
source, which seems less
confident than the "dies mali"
etymology:
"Webster's Universal Dictionary of the English
Language", 1937:
dis'mal, a.; comp. dismaller; superl. dismallest.
[M.E. dismal, diesmal, dysmall,
dismal; origin uncertain, perhaps originally
signifying a decimal or tithing day,
when tithes were to be collected by the feudal
lords, from OFr. disme, a tithe;
L. decimus, a tenth; from decem ten] Having or
exhibiting depression,
melancholy, or gloom; lacking cheer; presaging ill;
characterized by darkness
or dolefulness; as, a dismal appearance; dismal
prospects.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2003 2:08 PM
Subject: Re: [math-fun] a dismal arithmetic
>=David Wilson
> The word "dismal" apparently
derives from "decimal" in relation to the
tithing day, or "decimal
day",
> of the Roman Catholic Church, when one tenth of one's yearly
income was
given to the Church,
> a dismal day
indeed.
Fascinating! So I guess the economists aren't the only
practitioners of a
"dismal science"! According to the web sources I
looked at, "dismal" is
actually derived from Latin dies + mali, "evil days",
and yet:
"These days of evil omen were known as Dies
Aegyptiaci (Du Cange,
Glossarium, s.v.) or Egyptian days, either as having
been instituted by
Egyptian astrologers or with reference to the "ten
plagues"; so Chaucer, "I
trowe hit was in the dismal, That were the ten
woundes of Egipte" (Book of
the Duchesse, I 206). There were two such days
in each
month." --www.1911encyclopedia.org
So there's also an
association with 10 plagues. (Us enlightened moderns of
course call
our biweekly tithe "payroll tax withholding"
generally >>10%!)
Crossing these words seems irresistible:
"However, a number
of learners continue to have difficulties with
English words, and continue
to make confusions like "dismal numbers" for
"decimal numbers".
Indeed, some may never get past this problem." --Ryan,
A. and P.
Meara, "A diagnostic test for 'vowel blindness' in Arabic
speaking learners
of English.", PRYFISGOL CYMRU ABERTAWE [!]
Also, on the Eastern US
seaboard "dismal" is nouned as a synonym for
"pocosin", which is not an
exotic trigonometric, but rather a swamp or marsh.
Apropos bogs, here's
answers to those "Quiz" questions (would dismals make
for fun
elementary-grade "enrichment" puzzles?):
Q: What is the unity?
A:
9. (Multiplying by 1 changes each non-zero digit to 1).
Q: What's
the smallest dismal prime?
A: 19. The dismal primes are the numbers
>9 ending in 9.
Q: Notice that p(12) = 22 = p(21); does p(13) = 92 =
p(n) for any other n?
A: Yes, p(31)=92; p(n) depends only on the multiset of
the digits in n,
independent of order.
(Extra credit: what is
p(111)? Hint:
A003465)
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