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  1. Hi Bonni,

    I just stumbled onto your podcast and I am enjoying it during my commutes. Thank you for all the work you put into it!

    Jay Parkes quoted a translation of the word assessment “The Latin root of the word assess is assidere, which means to sit beside.”
    I was intrigued as this sounds really nice — almost poetic — and I did some brief research to include it in my own work. It was easy to find a reference for the quote and the suggested translation seems to originate from Evangeline Harris Stefanakis, 2002. However, the suggested root/stem “assidere” was a little too far off from “assess”. So, I translated “assidere” back into English and the result was *drum-roll* “defecate”. LOL

    I will look into Stefanakis’ book for more context, but my first impression is that this poetic interpretation of the word assessment may not be real.

    Best wishes and thanks again,

    Frank

    • Dear Frank,

      Thanks for the chuckle. It reminded me of when I used to teach computer application classes the first year of my professional career. The number of times I taught Excel and asked people to type “deficit” and wound up staring at “defecate” was quite amusing to me at the time. As you no doubt could tell, I haven’t read Stefanakis’ work, so can’t comment on the accuracy of the translation. Appreciate the encouragement about the show, though.

      B

  2. Frank,

    That is awesome! I neglected to elaborate that, when assessment is done _poorly_, it translates as “defecate”. 🙂

    Actually, the Oxford English Dictionary gives as part of the etymology of the word “assess” that it is from the ” frequentative of assidēre to sit by”.

    So I’ll stand by my statement . . . and use yours, too!

    Glad you got something out of the show,

    Jay

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