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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 5/27/2022 4:28 PM, Will Martin
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:1894D95A-A81D-4E8E-8289-ADF81CFE6462@gmail.com">Calling
it “Full” is based on its appearance. There’s nothing in its
status within the cycle that has a reason to be called “Full”.
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Calling it Quarter is based on its status within the
cycle. It has nothing to do with its appearance. </div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Calling it “New” is arbitrary, but you could think
of it as the zero point of the cycle, but if it was, then the
Full Moon would logically be called the Half Moon, and the fully
waned Gibbous would be the Three Quarter Moon.
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">It’s arbitrary. It may be based on a “deeper
understanding of the Moon than its appearance, but it’s still
abitrary.</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p>You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think
it means.</p>
<p>Saying something is arbitrary means there is no reason or pattern
to it; it's just based on whim or randomness. But these names are
not without reason or pattern and aren't based on whim or
randomness. They were named these things for reasons, and the
terms have a long linguistic development.</p>
<p>What you apparently mean by "arbitrary" is that the names don't
conform to what you you happen to think would be the most logical
system for naming the phases of the moon. They're not arbitrary in
the same way that the silent <i>gh</i> in English <i>knight</i>
isn't arbitrary. It's there for a reason, whether or not you know
or like the reason.<br>
</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
SuStel
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://trimboli.name">http://trimboli.name</a></pre>
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