Making A Choice, Part Two
So to continue...
The manager has been confronted by his supervisor in front of others of the building staff. He has been told that he should have put the 19 year old Polish college student out on the street, because the company sponsoring the young man hadn’t paid the $100 balance due prior to the student’s move in. Further, the supervisor has said that is what is to be done in the future, if such a case arises. So, what would you do? Here’s what the manager did: When the supervisor told the manager that he would have to put anybody out on the street under similar circumstances, the manager answered, “Not me, I won’t do it!” The supervisor said, “You’ll do it or you won’t have a job here.” The manager said, “See ya!”
To be continued, WITH editorializing, in "Part Three."
Word History:
Lug-The verb form, "to pull or drag something with some difficulty," seems to have come into English usage during the 1300s and is from North Germanic "lugge," which meant "to pull someone's hair," and the idea of pulling hair was expanded in English. Modern North Germanic languages have forms of "lug:" Swedish has "lugga," Norwegian has "lugge," both with the meaning "pull someone's hair." I'll try to keep this simple: the West Germanic speaking groups (Angles, Saxons, Frisians, etc) who invaded Britain and established England, also later faced invasion by their North Germanic cousins, the "Danes" and some "Norwegians," although the tendency was to refer to all North Germanic speakers, then speakers of Old Norse, the forerunner of the modern North Germanic languages, as "Danes.". The Danes literally took control of large areas of eastern England and southern Scotland, and while their language was related to English, they brought new words to the island, some of which eventually spread to other parts of England and became part of the English language. The noun form of "lug" comes from North Germanic "lugg," and meant "a tuft of hair." When this was put into context with the verb form, the idea of "tuft of hair that could be pulled" was expanded to other things that could be grasped and "pulled," like "ear," as we have a slang term of lug=ear, or something that was heavy or difficult to pull, like a big man=big lug, although that term also carries the additional notion of someone who isn't "the brightest star in the sky."
The manager has been confronted by his supervisor in front of others of the building staff. He has been told that he should have put the 19 year old Polish college student out on the street, because the company sponsoring the young man hadn’t paid the $100 balance due prior to the student’s move in. Further, the supervisor has said that is what is to be done in the future, if such a case arises. So, what would you do? Here’s what the manager did: When the supervisor told the manager that he would have to put anybody out on the street under similar circumstances, the manager answered, “Not me, I won’t do it!” The supervisor said, “You’ll do it or you won’t have a job here.” The manager said, “See ya!”
To be continued, WITH editorializing, in "Part Three."
Word History:
Lug-The verb form, "to pull or drag something with some difficulty," seems to have come into English usage during the 1300s and is from North Germanic "lugge," which meant "to pull someone's hair," and the idea of pulling hair was expanded in English. Modern North Germanic languages have forms of "lug:" Swedish has "lugga," Norwegian has "lugge," both with the meaning "pull someone's hair." I'll try to keep this simple: the West Germanic speaking groups (Angles, Saxons, Frisians, etc) who invaded Britain and established England, also later faced invasion by their North Germanic cousins, the "Danes" and some "Norwegians," although the tendency was to refer to all North Germanic speakers, then speakers of Old Norse, the forerunner of the modern North Germanic languages, as "Danes.". The Danes literally took control of large areas of eastern England and southern Scotland, and while their language was related to English, they brought new words to the island, some of which eventually spread to other parts of England and became part of the English language. The noun form of "lug" comes from North Germanic "lugg," and meant "a tuft of hair." When this was put into context with the verb form, the idea of "tuft of hair that could be pulled" was expanded to other things that could be grasped and "pulled," like "ear," as we have a slang term of lug=ear, or something that was heavy or difficult to pull, like a big man=big lug, although that term also carries the additional notion of someone who isn't "the brightest star in the sky."
Labels: employer ruthlessness, English, etymology, Germanic languages, Old Norse, personal story
posted by Randy at 12:55 PM
2 Comments:
That took a lot of courage. No wonder I like reading your stuff.
Agreed Johnnie!
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