AWADmail Issue 67

AWADmail Issue 67
February 12, 2002

A Weekly Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day
and Other Interesting Tidbits about Words and Languages

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From: Wordsmith Sponsor (sponsor@wordsmith.org)
Subject: Sponsor of this AWADmail issue: Dave Shields

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From: Mike Crosbie (paeditor@aol.com)
Subject:Re: A.Word.A.Day--hotsy-totsy
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/hotsy-totsy.html

The mention of heebie-jeebies reminded me of a comment that the writer
James Thurber once made in a letter to his fellow New Yorker contributor
E.B. White, that if people went wild for White's writing and that of
George Bernard Shaw, they would have the "E.B. G.B.s".

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From: Doug Moeller (dougmoE@aol.com)
Subject: Re: Toponyms
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/chautauqua.html

Location, location, location...
Epidemiologists in recent years occasionally name diseases after the
location of the first reported case.
Lyme Disease (Lyme, Connecticut) is a spirochete (Borrelia) transmitted
by the deer tick; Coxsackie Disease (Cocksackie, NY), a rickettsial illness;
Pontiac Fever (Pontiac, Michigan) turned out to be Legionnaire's Disease
(after the American Legion convention held in Philadelphia, where everyone
became ill).

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From: Brideyrevisited@aol.com
Subject: page from a travel brochure for the toponymically-inclined
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/chautauqua.html

"No, no, go not to Lethe,..." nor the doldrums if you're looking for
high adventure and an unforgettable experience. For your peregrinations,
look to us as your Rosetta Stone for exception travel tips. This week's
recommendation: Shangri-la for that perfect get-away. And this week's
planning tip: if your dates are not flexible, do not cross the Rubicon
en route to your destination; no amount of Blarney will let you out of
your commitment after that point. Happy Travels!

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From: Cindy L. Prichard (kinderfrog@aol.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--chautauqua

Chautauqua has been one of my favorite words since I was very little.
I was born in Chautauqua County, New York. My grandfather thought that
"Chautauqua" had a rhythm to it (chAU -- tAU -- qUA ). He taught me to
spell it when I was two years old. The original Indian word means bag
tied in the middle. Lake Chautauqua rather looks like a bag tied in the
middle.

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From: Camille Trentacoste (nycamillet@aol.com)
Subject: Gibraltar and its material makeup
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/gibraltar.html

In a message dated 2/6/02 4:19:17 AM, wsmith@wordsmith.org writes:

< "And it could, at long last, rattle Gibraltar. After all, it's only made
< of clay."
< John Carman, Rivals Chip Away At NBC's Gibraltar / Thursday Night Lineup
< Isn't What it Used to Be, The San Francisco Chronicle, Oct 12, 2000.

This quote is actually a play on the lyrics of the song _Our Love is Here to
Stay_ by George and Ira Gershwin. The relevant verse is as follows:
from http://www.jazzalbum.com/Resource/Word/ourlovehere.htm

In time the Rockies may crumble
Gibraltar may tumble
They're only made of clay
But our love is here to stay

Another trivia note about Gibraltar from the Internet Movie Database
(http://us.imdb.com/Bio?Hudson,+Rock):

"His real name was Roy Scherer, but talent scout Henry Wilson
invented a new name for his prot?g? by combining the Rock of
Gibraltar and the Hudson River."

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From: Eliza Sproat (sproate@oclc.org)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--Gibraltar

What might also be of interest is the literal meaning of the word, coming
from Arabic, meaning: The rock (gibr) of (al) Tarik, or Tarik's rock.

Actually, this seems to be an authoritative web site:
http://www.gibraltar.gi/history

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From: Walter L. Bazzini (wbazzini@att.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--kilkenny
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/kilkenny_cats.html

Can't help but wonder if it's mere coincidence, or typical tongue-in-cheek
South Park humor, that the poor kid who is killed in every episode is named
"Kenny".

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From: Nicholas Wood (nickbee@fuse.net)
Subject: Norman Einstein

Quotation from AWAD, Feb 8, 2002:
< Nobody in the game of football should be called a genius. A genius is
< somebody like Norman Einstein. -Joe Theismann, Former quarterback

This quote which is rightly attributed to Joe Theismann has an even more
humorous explanation.

It turns out that Theismann went to high school with Norman Einstein and he
was the class valedictorian. This was verified by Sports Illustrated some
years back which ran Einstein's yearbook picture with the story.

So, when Theismann says, "He's no Norman Einstein", he means the same thing
as we do when we say, "He's no Albert Einstein."
How are we to know this?

Well, apparently Joe Theismann is no Norman Einstein.

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From: Roland Moss (t-ro@lycos.com)
Subject: "till"
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/kilkenny_cats.html

I enjoy Word-A-day. Am I old-fashioned? Has "till" become acceptable as a
shortened "until"? It rubs against my schooling in England. (See "Killkenny
Cats").

"Till" is not a shortened form of "until". In fact, "until" is
an expanded form of "till". "Till" is the older of the two and
"until" was formed by adding the prefix un- to it. They are
synonymous and mostly interchangeable. Here's a quick reference
on acceptability of various forms:

till : OK
until : OK
'till : Not OK
'til : Maybe OK (only in informal writing)

Well, schoolteachers are only human. To see more instances
where what you learnt in school isn't always right, see the
discussion of "dilemna" in AWADmail 39:
http://wordsmith.org/awad/awadmail39.html

-Anu

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From: Mark Conacher (the.conachers@rogers.com)
Subject: Mondegreens

Thanks for highlighting this word in your 'Facts and Arguments' feature
in today's Globe and Mail.

One of the more amusing mondegreens of which I'm aware relates to the
title of Malachy McCourt's autobiography. Malachy is the brother of
Frank McCourt and features prominently in McCourt's autobiography
'Angela's Ashes'.

Malachy entitled his book, 'A Monk Swimming'. In the book he explains
the origin of the phrase as being his mis-hearing the 'Hail Mary' when a
young lad; the relevant phrase being, "blessed are you amongst women."

Thanks, Mark! For those who haven't seen the story, it's available at
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/GIS.Servlets.HTMLTemplate?tf=tgam/common/FullStory.html&;cf=tgam/common/FullStory.cfg&configFileLoc=tgam/config&vg=BigAdVariableGenerator&date=20020211&dateOffset=&hub=features&title=Features&cache_key=features&current_row=1&start_row=1&num_rows=1
If this fancy URL doesn't work for you, click on the
"Globe and Mail" link at AWAD home page http://wordsmith.org/awad/
-Anu

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From: Alexandra Baer (abaer1111@aol.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--hangdog

The word hangdog is now commonly used in the rock climbing world. If you
climb a route but hang on the rope a lot instead of climbing it "clean,"
then you're accused of hangdogging the route. Climbing is now full of very
interesting words that describe the exact combination of moves a climber
does to attain the top of a route.

I've sent the great gift of wordsmith to all my friends and we talk
about the daily word up at the cliffs. Think of it as higher education.

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From: David Darrow (darrowd@immunex.com)
Subject: Comic attached

View
http://www.ucomics.com/closetohome/viewcl.cfm?uc_full_date=20020208&uc_comic=cl&uc_daction=X

It should be captioned:
How to tell your boss reads A Word A Day.

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From: Anu Garg (anu@wordsmith.org)
Subject: Errata

The pronunciation for the word "Chautauqua" should have been (shuh-TAW-kwuh).

The quotation "There's nothing that keeps its youth, / So far as I know,
but a tree and truth." is from Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., not from his
son, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

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From: Wordsmith Sponsor (sponsor@wordsmith.org)
Subject: Sponsor of this AWADmail issue: Robert J. Thieblot

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............................................................................
Words are timeless. You should utter them or write them with a knowledge of
their timelessness. -Kahlil Gibran, mystic, poet, and artist (1883-1931)

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