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Hologram holographs, was Re: No false holographs

On Fri, 27 Mar 1998, Charles W. Gardiner wrote:

>    I took the sentence "a document wholly in the handwriting of its author or 
>the handwriting itself" out of Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary.  I believe
>that definition, or equivalent, has been around for a long time, antedating
>the hologram to which you refer.  That's why I specifically said that a
>holograph was not to be confused with a hologram!
>
>    There was a world before laser physics, and it had holographs.

Charles:

While Unix users joke that the world did not exist before 1970,
agreed, and indeed you so commented.

In physics, hologram theory is due to Dennis Gabor, ca. 1947 and
laser holograms or holographs are very ubiquitious, even for
authentication (eg, VISA card). 

While Webster points out that the word "holograph"  dates back to ca.
1623...

That's why it's perhaps fortunate that this dialogue has shown that
two widely different words in their meaning, such as holograph
(whole-field picture) and holograph (handwritten signature) have
equal forms ... and similar use for authentication...

Point taken that legal use was first and that physicists just
shamelessly copied the word.

I plead guilty!

And, maybe your point of using holograph for one and hologram for
another is indeed a good solution, while we may have of course to
still live with holograph holograms and hologram holographs ...while
not with holograph holographs... 

Cheers,

Ed

______________________________________________________________________
Dr.rer.nat. E. Gerck                     egerck@novaware.cps.softex.br
http://novaware.cps.softex.br
    --- Meta-Certificate Group member, http://www.mcg.org.br ---
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