Last week, I walked past Medio Avenue in Half Moon Bay (a beach town south of San Francisco), and that street name lodged in my brain; medio means “middle” in Spanish. Not long afterward, it dawned on me that “immediate” breaks down the same way as “unmediated”: not + in the middle. That is to say, nothing lies between you and whatever is immediate.
And this morning, I thought back on yesterday’s interview, in which an architect told me that we sweat even when we don’t know it (up to 18 ounces a day, as I’ve just read!), which creates humidity problems in buildings. Anyway, it occurred to me that the “per” of “perspiration” means “through,” so sweating is “breathing through” the skin.
There was another insight along these lines, but it got away from me. If you see it running loose in the world, please let me know!
