/lit/ - Literature

How do we really know what happened before we were alive?
You ask, right? Read books from then, speak to people who were alive then, look at pictures and paintings and engravings and cave art. That's how we "know" what happened in before time. You have to have trust and faith that what you are being told and experience in relation to what you seek is the truth. There is *no other way* short of time travel, which according to some of the smartest men we have around, is either total nonsense or the next great invention; both of these are equally dangerous assumptions because you are taking what you believe to be facts at face value from people "smarter than yourself". I frankly, trust too little and too much equally.
I know what a word meant to those in 1870, 1900, 1920, 1933, 1941, 1947, 1955, 1961 1970 and *1984* because I horde, collect, look at, examine dictionaries and reference books and story books and so forth that were printed(as far as the copyrights and citations and such are concerned) in that year of *this* timeline. In 193x "Alien" only means (Al'yen) "n. A foreign-born nonnaturalized resident of a country." "adj, Foreign; differing from, not at home in, as, ideas *alien* to his mind" taken from Websters *new* American Dic. released following the first World War to add in terms that soldiers had come to know in Europe. Next is a 196x Websters called "Dictionary of the *American* Language which has "Alien" (al-yan) listed slightly differently than before and includes a better clarification. "a. of another country; foreign; different in nature; estranged; n. a nonnaturalized foreigner." with some suffixes to add "-able a. (of property) capable of being sold or handed over. -ability n. -ate. to transfer to another; estrange; -ation a. (Medical) Insanity -ator n. -ism n. study of mental diseases; a psychiatrist [L. alienus (bigus dickus lol), relating to another."
Now, I can see that in 193x, an "Alienist" was a more acceptable term for a mental doctor receiving its own separate definition, but by 196x it is grouped in with "Alien" altogether. This is *all* public knowledge and can all be discovered because we have the power to look up all these different meanings and such and piece together by using our understanding of history. I can do this with books, I can do this on Google. But. I'm going to ask, what does the "standard 201x Google definition of "Alien" mean, well let's find out, ah 1, ah 2 and ah.. :a·li·en
(ˈālēən) /adjective 1.belonging to a foreign country or nation.;
noun 1.a foreigner, especially one who is not a naturalized citizen of the country where they are living.
"an illegal alien"
synonyms: foreigner, nonnative[sic], immigrant, emigrant, émigré
"an illegal alien"
(Thank you Copy-Paste, saved me a lot of typing on that last one, I guess)