---
title: "On The Origins of \"Sporadic\""
date: 2011-06-03T16:44:47Z
modified: 2011-06-03T16:44:47Z
permalink: "https://redmonk.com/jgovernor/on-the-origins-of-sporadic/"
type: post
status: publish
excerpt: ""
wpid: 3370
categories:
  - Uncategorized
timestamp: 2011-06-03T16:44:47Z
tags:
  - Uncategorized
---

[View Larger Map](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=embed&hl=en&q=Northern+Sporades,+Alonnisos+37005,+Magnisia,+Greece&aq=&sll=44.973707,14.826509&sspn=23.191269,67.631836&ie=UTF8&geocode=FVDoVgIde_BsAQ&split=0&hq=&hnear=Northern+Sporades&ll=39.25,23.916667&spn=0.372211,0.583649&z=10&iwloc=A)
I dropped a hint in my post about going on holiday last week when I said access to email would be “sporadic”. We went to a beautiful island called Allonisos – which nestles like a rough piece of malachite set in the crystal Aegean waters of the Sporades islands.

Electricity was down for half the day. You couldn’t flush paper down the toilets. And I didn’t look at twitter for a week.

Downtime was uptime.

According to dictionary.com

> spo·rad·ic
>  /spəˈrædɪk/ Show Spelled\[spuh-rad-ik\] Show IPA
> –adjective
> 1\. (of similar things or occurrences) appearing or happening at irregular intervals in time; occasional: sporadic renewals of enthusiasm.
> 2\. appearing in scattered or isolated instances, as a disease.
> 3\. isolated, as a single instance of something; being or occurring apart from others.

So the islands are probably named based on their scattered nature, rather than the other way around. But its still a lovely thing.