Text

Word Perfect: Etymological Entertainment Every Day by Susie Dent - 'Text'

 The text engineers Neil Paperworkth send the first text message to a mobile phone  on 3rd December 1992 when he wrote 'Merry Christmas' on his personal computer and send it to the phone of the Vodafone director Richard Jarvis whose device weighed in at over 6 kg. Jarvis had no Technology of returning the message and the communication ended there.

 Today texting has a grammar and vocabulary all to itself it is a language whose conventions make it one of the greatest trible languages in existence today.  The roots of that simple word text are ancient unlike so many other words in English the basis is the metaphor of clothing text story begin not unexpectedly that is over and that comes from a form of the Latin 'texere' to 'weave' or 'plate'. The return text that we write and send today each have a context with which they are woven together.

 This new written - spoken language demands that we are above all 'succinct' a word that also began with garment a Roman toga tied with a girdle or belt. 

So our messages today limited by speed demand and character constraint, are tucked in just like an expanse of billowing cloth.