What does 'shadows' mean?

[Keith Clarke]

...ah, nice try Francis but I too have not only a dictionary but also the higher authority - Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon', which closes with the song Eclipse... "and everything under the sun is in tune but the sun is eclipsed by the moon" ...boom, boom...boom, boom...

So, in the spirit of friendly pedantry, I meant eclipse in its verb form, pertaining to your reference to celestial bodies...eclipse (verb) '(of a celestial body) obscure the light from or to (another celestial body)' - via latin from the Greek ekleipsis, from ekleipein which means to leave out.

Then again, one of the more pedantic voices in my head might argue that the reference to celestial bodies is equally wrong for both occult and eclipse. There is no doubt that some LC apps may be of stellar quality, but there are no physical celestial bodies involved - nor indeed is there any usable depth dimension of space within a 2D display in which any such celestial 'cover ups', 'passages between' (or indeed shadows) might play out their fleeting existence. And as for the sources of illumination involved, lest we forget, "There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it's all dark." (a bit like the LiveCode installer UI!)

So, I must concur with the love of English - not only for its complexity but in the ability to be incorrect in so many ways - rather like my approach to LC programming! ;-)
Best,
Keith..  

On 12 Oct 2011, at 15:55, Francis Nugent Dixon wrote:

> Hi from Beautiful Brittany,
> 
> Keith wrote :
> 
>> ...did you mean 'eclipse', Francis?
> 
> Keith, "occult" has three forms :
> 
> 1 (noun)
> 2 (adjective)
> 3 ( verb)
> 
> As "shadows" was used in the VERB form, I suggested
> replacing it with the VERB form of occult , which means
> what I said it means.
> 
> Latin occultus, from past participle of the VERB "occulere"
> which means "to cover up".
> 
> Your definition of "occult" - in the NOUN form, is, OF COURSE,
> correct.
> 
> The VERB form of "eclipse" means "to reduce in importance
> or repute", which, as a replacement for the VERB "shadows"
> is incorrect, although the NOUN form of "eclipse" is equivalent
> to the VERB form of "occult", but then, nouns and verbs ain't
> quite the same .........    :>)
> 
> I love English, because of its complexity .........
> 
> -Francis