"relevant"

because life in the social/cultural sense is the incessant desire to be "relevant," i thought i'd look up the etymology of the word. read below. note (or I note, because i'm primed for a bias and a take): 1) the association of "relevant" to a "lessening, a lightening"; 2) to "take possession of property"; 3) to "raising, lifting up."

oh yeah, before i forget, check out definition 2 below for "relief": "project from a flat surface"...

consider the town of mililani, its name ("look up"/"exalt"/"raise up"... (give up?)), and you may understand why i consider it "interesting" with regards to my hometown. and this pseudo-work of mine to "flesh out" my personal mythic archeology of this place...

my little quest to become "relevant."

all below from onlineetymology.com:

relevant
"pertinent to the matter at hand," 1560, from M.L. relevantem (1481), prp. of L. relevare "to lessen, lighten" (see relieve). Originally a Scottish legal term meaning "take up, take possession of property;" not generally used until after 1800. Relevance is from 1733 (relevancy in the same sense is recorded from 1561).

relieve
c.1300, from O.Fr. relever "to raise, relieve" (11c.), from L. relevare "to raise, alleviate," from re-, intensive prefix, + levare "to lift up, lighten," from levis "not heavy" (see lever). The notion is "to raise (someone) out of trouble." Reliever in the baseball pitcher sense is recorded from 1967.

relief (1)
"ease, alleviation," c.1330, from Anglo-Fr. relif, from O.Fr. relief "assistance," lit. "a raising, that which is lifted," from stressed stem of relever (see relieve). Meaning "aid to impoverished persons" is attested from c.1400; that of "deliverance of a besieged town" is from c.1548.

relief (2)
"projection of figure or design from a flat surface," 1606, from It. rilievo, from rilevare "to raise," from L. relevare "to raise, lighten" (see relieve).