You know that I think of myself as a lover of language. I pride myself on my vocabulary, and even though I'm sure there are hundreds of words I don't know the meaning of, I generally assume they're of a technical nature (medical terms, that kinda thing), not apropos of day-to-day conversation, and consequently not important to me.
Well, today I decided that (a) I was going to be legal and let the New York state DMV know about my move and (b) I was going to get to work on my one and only New Years resolution: I'm gonna get myself a passport and get my ass outta the country at some point.
The problem, of course, is that to get a passport, I need proof of citizenship, and to have proof of citizenship, I need my birth certificate (or, as they're called today, "birth records"). So I downloaded the form for a certified copy of my birth record, and I downloaded the change of address form for the DMV.
Part of the address change form asks you what county you live in, and I was presented with a dilemma. I know that Brooklyn is in Kings County. I know that Queens is in Queens County, and I know that the Bronx is in Bronx county, but I didn't know if Manhattan was in Manhattan County, or New York County.
I did a web search, and of course discovered that I now live in New York County, but the web page where I found this information mentioned that Manhattan was conterminous with New York County.
Needless to say, I did my first double-take at a word in quite some time.
It's like digging in the dirt and finding a jewel, this little word "conterminous." What, I wondered, could it possibly mean? I immediately had to know.
Now you can too.
Well, today I decided that (a) I was going to be legal and let the New York state DMV know about my move and (b) I was going to get to work on my one and only New Years resolution: I'm gonna get myself a passport and get my ass outta the country at some point.
The problem, of course, is that to get a passport, I need proof of citizenship, and to have proof of citizenship, I need my birth certificate (or, as they're called today, "birth records"). So I downloaded the form for a certified copy of my birth record, and I downloaded the change of address form for the DMV.
Part of the address change form asks you what county you live in, and I was presented with a dilemma. I know that Brooklyn is in Kings County. I know that Queens is in Queens County, and I know that the Bronx is in Bronx county, but I didn't know if Manhattan was in Manhattan County, or New York County.
I did a web search, and of course discovered that I now live in New York County, but the web page where I found this information mentioned that Manhattan was conterminous with New York County.
Needless to say, I did my first double-take at a word in quite some time.
It's like digging in the dirt and finding a jewel, this little word "conterminous." What, I wondered, could it possibly mean? I immediately had to know.
Now you can too.
1 comment:
I'm surprised and delighted to know that it goes both ways, apparently. At least according to Merriam Webster Online:
http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/conterminous
And I guess I used the "n" as Wikipedia had as well:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan
Go figure.
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