[LEAPSECS] Happy Birthday Pluto!

[Rob Seaman]

> Have you ever wondered about the origin of words like "Solarium",


I'm not sure how productive this discussion will be.  The history of a  
word in English versus a similar word in another language may be quite  
divergent.  For English, the dictionary has an origin for "solarium"  
in the early nineteenth century from the latin for balcony or terrace,  
but with those in turn deriving from the obvious reference to the  
sun.  In Arizona (or southern Italy) any south facing balcony is a  
solarium.  This may not hold in Denmark :-)

The Indo-european roots conflate "sun" and "flat" (as in a sandal or a  
fish shaped like one) and "alone" and words like that.  Any brief  
syllable is going to have numerous root meanings.

I doubt it was what the Rover team was thinking when they chose "sol",  
but if you want to wander well off the beaten path try googling  
"Martian Latin".


> And the flatfish is "sole" btw.


No crappie.  We're starting to flounder here and it's giving me a  
haddock.