* Re: Push (3)

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...> wrote:

>
> At 5:16:36 AM on Sunday, January 11, 2009, Anatoly Guzaev
> wrote:
>
> > It seems to be interesting to mention here the Russian
> > verb ???????-pihtety
>
> I would transliterate that <pyxtet'>.
>
> [...]
>
> > Why English 'blow' has the meaning 'explode' beside 'the
> > motion of the air'?
>
> English <blow> has undergone an enormous expansion of
> senses and constructions in Middle English and later. The
> sense 'to shatter, destroy, or otherwise act upon by means
> of explosion' is first attested in 1599 (OED). It seems to
> me that it's a pretty straightforward extension: when you
> blow something up, the debris is indeed blown as if by a
> strong wind.

I believe the first use of explosions was in siege technology. You dug
a tunnel under the enemy ramparts or city wall etc, which you then
blew up (skywards, seen from the tunnel) with explosives (Germ. in die
Luft jagen, Da. springe i luften).


Torsten