[Ansteorra] hiding mundane

[sam cooper]

Ta an ceart agat, Robin. I apologize; it was not clear from my earlier
writing that my suggestion of Scholar as a means of achieving the meaning of
"secular cleric" was entirely a product of my own imagination, without any
attempt at documentable historicity. If I had been attempting such I assure
you in this company my references would have been most carefully attached.

I'll have to go do some research as to how a ship's captain, a siege
engineer, lawyers, ranked officers of military forces, sergeants,
quartermasters, and Ministers of government and guilds gave signal of their
expertise without using titles. It will make for an interesting subject;
thank you for instigating the idea in my head.

Beir bua agus beannacht,
Si'le

On 6/13/07, Jay Rudin <rudin at ev1.net> wrote:
>
> "Scholar" isn't a title.  It's a common English word meaning somebody in
> school or somebody studying.  Even when it denotes a specific position
> (such as the lowest of four ranks in the London Masters of Defense),
> nobody
> would ever use it as a title.  If it was ever used as a title, it slipped
> by me (and by the Oxford English Dictionary).
>
> There are social titles, like Lord / Lady, Duke / Duchess, Mr. / Ms., etc.
> There are vanishingly few professional titles like "Doctor", Professor",
> etc.  But most professions don't have titles.  Therefore most people only
> have a social title, not a professional one.
>
> A student would not be called "Scholar Johnson", for the same reason he
> wouldn't be called "Sophomore Johnson", "English-Major Johnson", "Halfback
> Johnson", "Commuter Johnson" or any other form of a common English word
> used as a title.
>
> Robin of Gilwell / Jay Rudin
>