On Thursday, November 21, 2002, at 05:37 PM, Bob Walkden wrote:
He probably metaphorized from "priming the pump". Water pumps used to have leather innards that needed to be primed with water to form a good seal and create the suction that lifted water of a well, causing it to come "gushing" forth. Wish someone had told me when I was a kid. It would of made a really boring chore at least mildly interesting. <g>Hi,the general meaning of the word doesn't matter here because it's being used as photographic jargon. The whole point about jargon is that words take on different meanings to those in general use. The jargon can also find its way back into general use and alter the general meaning. This is one of the ways in which language changes. It's especially common during times of rapid change, particularly technological change when technocrats need to find words for new things, so co-opt existing words. There seems to be little chance of 'prime' as (most) photographers understand it creeping back into general use with the photographic meaning. It would be mildly interesting to find out how the word became attached to 'single focal-length lens'. I suspect it would not have been used before zoom lenses became common, and that its photographic meaning was co-opted from 'of highest quality', but this is just guessing. Shakespeare uses 'prime' (adj.) to mean sexually excited, which seems to be a common reaction of some people to their equipment. Perhaps they shouldn't be called prime lenses, but priapic. --- Bob
Dan Scott
