The word ‘relevant‘ derives from a verb ‘to relevate’, which has dropped out of common usage, whose meaning is ‘to lift’ (as in ‘elevate‘). in essence, ‘to relevate’ means ‘to lift into attention”, so that the content thus lifted stands out ‘in relief’. When a content lifted into attention is coherent or fitting with the context of interest‘ i.e. when it has some bearing on the context of some relationship to it, then one says that this content is relevant; and, of course. when it does not fit in this way, it is said to be irrelevant.
– David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order
