Metaphorae

While trying to find Latin words that meant "network" and "web," their literal meanings suddenly occurred to me.

Network, Latin reticulum: a fish net, a small mesh bag

Now that is a great metaphor. I think our modern networks do the same things that ancient networks did, i.e. hold our source of sustenance. Whether that sustenance is fish and vegetables or information and knowledge, a woven lattice keeps everything together for us.
But we don't just leave the fish in there, or the information. Fish and information aren't much good to us lying around. We have to prepare it somehow, process it, let it stew, and then consume it for ourselves, incorporate it, sate and nourish our minds and bodies.

Then there's the web. One word for web in Latin is orsus. It can refer to the warp on a loom, the threads that you use to start making woven cloth. Because of this, the word orsus can also mean beginning or undertaking.

Another great metaphor. The webs in our life can be the foundation of our learning, whether that web is made up of face to face relationships, a PLN, or the world wide web. Then the fun part is adding in all the different threads, weaving all sorts of new outside information and experiences into a single cloth, everything being connected.

I should point out that Romans are obsessed with weaving and use images of weaving in so many metaphors. It's interesting to discover how weaving was associated with feminine virtues. A common gravestone epitaph for women was lanam fecit: she worked wool.

I wonder what ancient Romans would think of the internet and its ability to connect people. Perhaps they would be reminded of their system of roads which connected all the peoples of the Roman empire. If they looked at them on a map, perhaps it would appear to them like a net or a web, and they would refer to the internet using the same metaphors we use today.