Onder Langs :: Zuidelijk
text (n.)
late 14c., "wording of anything written," from Old French texte, Old
North French tixte "text, book; Gospels" (12c.), from Medieval Latin
textus "the Scriptures, text, treatise," in Late Latin "written account,
content, characters used in a document," from Latin textus "style or
texture of a work," literally "thing woven," from past participle stem of
texere "to weave, to join, fit together, braid, interweave, construct,
fabricate, build," from PIE root *teks- "to weave, to fabricate, to make;
make wicker or wattle framework."
An ancient metaphor: thought is a thread, and the raconteur is a spinner
of yarns — but the true storyteller, the poet, is a weaver. The scribes
made this old and audible abstraction into a new and visible fact. After
long practice, their work took on such an even, flexible texture that
they called the written page a textus, which means cloth. [Robert
Bringhurst, "The Elements of Typographic Style"]
Meaning "a digital text message" is from 2005.
