Dr. McDougall's Online Discussion Board

Theodore wrote:

dstewart wrote:"Vegan" is a made-up word with no etymology. It's like "Enron," "Plaxo," and other brand names that have only the most tenuous root to their subject matter.

Yeah, apparently the word came about by taking the first three letters of the word "vegetarian" plus the last two letters, and putting them together to form the word "vegan". I believe the word was coined in the 1940's by Donald Watson. A man who spent most of his life trying to reform the vegetarian movement and with much success, IMO.

Apparently his efforts to reform the Shirley Barrett fan club were less well received, lol.

The idea is that it's the logical extension of the concept of "vegetarian," so it comes from that word.

All words are made up.

BlueHeron wrote:

Theodore wrote:

dstewart wrote:"Vegan" is a made-up word with no etymology. It's like "Enron," "Plaxo," and other brand names that have only the most tenuous root to their subject matter.

Yeah, apparently the word came about by taking the first three letters of the word "vegetarian" plus the last two letters, and putting them together to form the word "vegan". I believe the word was coined in the 1940's by Donald Watson. A man who spent most of his life trying to reform the vegetarian movement and with much success, IMO.

Apparently his efforts to reform the Shirley Barrett fan club were less well received, lol.

The idea is that it's the logical extension of the concept of "vegetarian," so it comes from that word.

All words are made up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Watson

Interesting read.

BlueHeron wrote:

Theodore wrote:

dstewart wrote:"Vegan" is a made-up word with no etymology. It's like "Enron," "Plaxo," and other brand names that have only the most tenuous root to their subject matter.

Yeah, apparently the word came about by taking the first three letters of the word "vegetarian" plus the last two letters, and putting them together to form the word "vegan". I believe the word was coined in the 1940's by Donald Watson. A man who spent most of his life trying to reform the vegetarian movement and with much success, IMO.

Apparently his efforts to reform the Shirley Barrett fan club were less well received, lol.

The idea is that it's the logical extension of the concept of "vegetarian," so it comes from that word.

All words are made up.

All words are made up, but from some you can go back through their history and discern how they came to be made up from ancient particles in previous languages. Like every word I've used up until now.

The point was that, in this case like that of "Plaxo," "Enron," and others, there's no meaning to it other than that assigned to it by whoever made it up. Those who say "that's not truly vegan" or "that is truly vegan" can't find any help in THE WORD VEGAN. Which was--in those exact words--the topic of the thread.

dstewart wrote:All words are made up, but from some you can go back through their history and discern how they came to be made up from ancient particles in previous languages. Like every word I've used up until now.

The point was that, in this case like that of "Plaxo," "Enron," and others, there's no meaning to it other than that assigned to it by whoever made it up. Those who say "that's not truly vegan" or "that is truly vegan" can't find any help in THE WORD VEGAN. Which was--in those exact words--the topic of the thread.

Probably not every word you use. Do you ever say Scotch tape to mean cellophane tape? Kleenex to mean tissues? Heroin and zipper were also brand names. Those words are recent inventions that have developed generic meanings. All words change meaning over time. What "vegan" was intended as and what it means now may be two different things.

I don't understand what you mean by "finding help in the word." Because of the way words change meaning over time (some coming to mean the opposite of their original meaning), I'm not sure that's ever really that helpful. I may be misunderstanding you though.

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I don't wanna distract from the interesting discussions taking place here, but did anyone get my joke about the Shirley Barrett fan club ?

Or did you just not find it funny ?

I have no idea who Shirley Barrett is. I assumed it was an inside joke.

It's just that when he tried to reform the vegetarian society, he took the first 3 letters and the last 2 letters and formed a new society.

Theodore wrote:I don't wanna distract from the interesting discussions taking place here, but did anyone get my joke about the Shirley Barrett fan club ?

Or did you just not find it funny ?

It's over my head. I tried looking her up (I hadn't heard of her), and I still don't get it. Would you mind explaining?

It was funny.

Thanks for your feedback, John. It's much appreciated.

I probably wouldn't've mentioned anything if it hadn't been for the amount of research that went into it.

ShevaunB wrote: The word, or phrase, that I find meaningless to me is "plant-based". Most people I know would think that a plant-based diet is made up of mostly greens or other low calorie density vegs. I eat most of my calories in grains.

You know whats cool about "McDougallville"? Its NOT plant based!! Its starch based!! And your grains are a starch! That is what McDougalling is. Its not vegan nor is it plant based, both near meaningless words (to use your terminology) here in McDougallville.


And very cute play on words...letters Theodore!!!

Although I eat no animal products, I would never say I'm 'vegan'. Nor 'plant-based' either. It's too awkward. 'Me, I'm plant-based' --I'd shoot myself before I'd actually say that to someone. And what exactly does 'based' mean anyway? 60%? 80%?

If I am not mistaken there are happier languages: in French there are three different words: 'végétarien' , 'végétalien', 'végan'. So, if you are a 'dietary vegan' but don't care about wearing leather and all that, 'végétalien' would be the word. English doesn't have an adjective like this (short of going and coining a neologism like 'plantic', 'plantarian' etc). I think a situation analogous to the French obtains in Italian as well. As for Spanish or Portuguese, I don't know.

Elvin wrote:'végétalien'

Not of this world. Yup, that's probably how a lot of people view vegans.

I've always thought that "vegan" would fit in with the Star Trek universe.

Valerians, Vorgons, Vulcans, Vegans.