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C2  ·  26 Wörter

Bookbinding

What makes a block of paper go on opening for a long time.

The nineteenth entry is o dano por bolor, and the English word that renders it is one of the odder spellings in the language, because three separate words have fallen into it. « Mould » the fungus is the one this entry means: the grey bloom that comes up on a damp text block and leaves a stain running right through the leaf. « Mould » the hollow form is a different word altogether, from Old French modle and behind it Latin modulus, the little measure; that is the mould a type-founder pours into, and the verb « to mould » belongs with it. And « mould » the earth is older than either, Old English molde, the loose soil of a garden, still alive in « leaf mould », the dark crumb under a hedge. Nothing joins the three but the sound. Portuguese keeps them apart and never has to choose: o bolor is the fungus, o molde is the form, a terra is the ground. One last thing for a British page. The spelling is « mould » here and « mold » in America, and the difference falls across all three senses at once.

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