Sound engineering

The twenty-sixth entry is o campo próximo, and English calls it « the near field ». The adjective looks like the plainest word on the page, and it is in fact a comparative that has forgotten what it was. Old English had nēah for close by, and that word is still with us as « nigh ». Its comparative was nēarra, closer, and its superlative nīehsta, closest. All three survive, but not as a family: nēarra became « near », nīehsta became « next », and only nēah kept its old job. Because « near » no longer felt like a comparative, the language built it a fresh one, so « nearer » is the comparative of a comparative and « nearest » the superlative of one. « Next » drifted further still. It stopped measuring distance and began measuring order, which is why « the next train » is not the train standing closest but the one that comes after this one. The reader working towards Portuguese has the tidier arrangement here, because perto, mais perto and o mais perto stay one word all the way up, and próximo is left free for a different job.