Re: letter vs. a4 (and leger lines)

[David Raleigh Arnold]

On Thursday 02 September 2010 06:51:07 Phil Holmes wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Alexander Kobel" <address@hidden>
> To: "David Raleigh Arnold" <address@hidden>
> Cc: <address@hidden>
> Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2010 11:45 AM
> Subject: Re: letter vs. a4 (and leger lines)
> 
> > On 2010-09-02 12:32, David Raleigh Arnold wrote:
> >> On Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:47:39 +1000, Nick Payne wrote:
> >>> On 02/09/10 12:51, David Raleigh Arnold wrote:
> >>>> Ledger and leger are different words, with different meanings
> >>>> and different derivations from different languages. The
> >>>> confusion of leger with ledger is not merely a spelling error.
> >>>> Regards, daveA
> >>
> >>[...]
> >>
> >> /leggiero/ as a musical direction means "lightly", but "leger" in
> >> the sense of leger line clearly comes from the French "l�ger",
> >> meaning light or slight.
> > 
> > Which might or might not influence the English spelling - more
> > often than not foreign words get crippled over time, and still
> > it's correct according to the dictionary and common sense.
> > Merriam-Webster says that both are possible, and counts "leger
> > line" as
> > 
> > the minor variant to "ledger line":
> >   http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ledger%20line
> >   http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/leger%20line
> 
> And just to add to the defs, here's Grove:
> 
> LEGER (Ledger) LINES (Fr. lignes postiches, supplémentaires; Ger.
> Hilfslinien, Nebenlinien; Ital. ligne d' aiuto). The short lines
> drawn above and below the stave for those notes which exceed its
> limits.
> 
> The origin of the term is not known. It is proposed to derive it from
> the French léger, light, or from the Latin legere, to read, or as if
> it were equivalent to layer — additional lines laid on above or
> below; but none of these is quite satisfactory.

There it is. Since he was the only one who actually did any work
on it, the way the other self styled authorities should have and
*didn't*, one has to satisfy Grove. ;-) 

The French leger for light *or slight* satisfies me. They
are "slight lines" aren't they? They aren't lines of a big heavy old
book or lines of accounts are they?

I doubt "ledger", beam, and "ledger", big book, are the same word
either. The wooden ledger is probably a beam that makes a ledge.
IMO people who wrote music were unlikely to have even known that
word. How many know what a lag bolt or lag screw are? (lai 

Report Card:

Grove: C 
The rest: F

Regards, daveA

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