As a native English speaker I was aware of the older meaning, however as someone that often "quickly explains english" to ESL folk and|or non-Commonwealth English backgrounds I went with "tearing paper" as a starting point as it felt more likely to be familiar.
This is consistent with your last paragraph re: modern usage.
I've got a much thumbed multi volume OED edition on my shelves .. it's boggling how many words have half page or more entries with multiple meanings and historical backstory.
Yeah, I look up etymology because I love how there are millennia of human culture condensed in a word as it migrates and evolves across classes, cultures and languages. Will it be Norse, Germanic, Latin or maybe Dravidic? Will it have been loaned from x to y to z and then back to x with new meanings?
I had hoped it might have come from reading rapidly in the days of uncut pages where you have to eagerly tear each new page to read it. But no, lol.
As a native English speaker I was aware of the older meaning, however as someone that often "quickly explains english" to ESL folk and|or non-Commonwealth English backgrounds I went with "tearing paper" as a starting point as it felt more likely to be familiar.
This is consistent with your last paragraph re: modern usage.
I've got a much thumbed multi volume OED edition on my shelves .. it's boggling how many words have half page or more entries with multiple meanings and historical backstory.