Nation/etymology

Famous quotes containing the words nation and/or etymology:

    One criticizes the English for carrying their teapots wherever they go, even lugging them up Mount Etna. But doesn’t every nation have its teapot, in which, even when traveling, it brews the dried bundles of herbs brought from home?
    Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)

    Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.
    Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)