Night before last an hour’s rain. Yesterday hot & overcast. Today ditto, with a few drops of rain in the afternoon. The hop-picking due to start in about a week.
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Orwell Diaries 1938-1942 
For some reason, “ditto” has always been one of my favorite words.
@ JamesonLewis3rd
Ditto.
I didn’t realize that the word ‘ditto’ was so old, and that it has a Roman past.
http://www.answers.com/ditto&r=67
I had no-idea “ditto” was that old a word. It makes me wonder as to the origins of the word.
A.
Amir: Read up on the etymology of the word in a dictionary. It’ll give you a basic idea of how old the word is.
Amir
Re Ditto
From Italian Detto [said] in the sense “already said” also latin Dictum
From Funk & Wagnall 1955 edition – a real dictionary in case some of you of you believe it never existed outside Rowan & Martin’s “Laugh in”
Brian B
Hearing about rain makes me miss it. Seems like it just doesn’t rain like it used to, at least here in Kentucky..
The word “ditto” (as it is used in this context, meaning “likewise”) is similar to the word “google” (as it is used in this context, meaning “search” [although I actually use Yahoo!]) in that it is a generic form of the brand.
Orwell preferred not using the word “ditto,” but was obviously compelled to write it here due to the stifling heat. In addition, it is quite likely that he was off to pick hops himself and had little time left to write his entire thought.
@ JamesLewis3rd:
The Ditto Machine (as referenced in your link) was named such for the reason that they were already aware of what ‘ditto’ meant and found it made sense to use it in the name for a copy machine. So only from that point did the word ‘ditto’ come to be a generic word for copying something, such as we reference most paper-tissues as Kleenex.
As far as I know, ‘google’ isn’t a word that the company derived from an already long established word, so this is an important distinction between ‘ditto’ and ‘google.’
@Andrew – Quite the opposite here in England and the isles I understand. Wettest summer since records begin and even though everyone else is complaining I kind of like it and in the vein of this diary it is making everything green grow and look more lush than ever before. It’s quite nice to be able to stroll not too far and still be able to find tasty blackberries (competition is fierce as the blackbirds like them as well) although they’re not supposed to be eaten after tomorrow (Michaelmas) due to some superstition.
Ignore me Michaelmas is a month away…
I did not mean to suggest that “google” was a commercialized version of any word that had existed prior to 2001 nor was I suggesting that “ditto” was not a commercialized version of a word that already existed.
I apologize for the confusion.
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“Ditto” was the last word spoken by my grandfather as he died at age 103 in 1971.
This is the first time I visit this weblog and I don’t think it will be the last.
Aha, but Google *does* come from a pre-existing word: “googol”. Which proves … um, nothing much, I just thought it was interesting.
Nothing to do with Orwell either, but he’s being a bit bloody boring at the moment, isn’t he? Writing about the weather in your diary is one of the many dull things people did before TV …
“This is the first time I visit this weblog and I don’t think it will be the last.”
I do hope you’ll post again next time you visit, so everyone can see that it’s not your last visit.
Orwell is obsessed with the word “ditto”
Orwell has always been obsessed with the word ditto…but a lot of people use it now days..