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From Robert Dodd:
The first uses recorded from 1970 and 1976 are from the Sunday Telegraph and Aviation Week, respectively. The computer and scientific uses we referred to are from 1945 and 1947 (and there are actually earlier scientific and technological uses). That's plenty of time for scientific or engineering jargon to spill into the general population. We've seen other examples of that. See Issue 68 where we talk about glitch. If it were simply a substitution for circle, why don't we have the phrase in the circle or in the inner circle meaning "in the loop"? |
Updated in January 2006 From John Arlidge:
The term melts is known beyond Queensland and is a variant of milt. We are well aware of this word but the melt we mentioned definitely has nothing to do with fish. Prawn is used in the U.S. to describe large "shrimp". As for chunder, that's a great Aussie word, indeed. The OED has no idea about its etymology, but Eric Partridge suggests derivation from the English dialectical chounter "mutter, murmur, grumble", supposedly echoic in derivation. However, he mentions another etymologist's* proposed derivations: an abbreviation of watch under ("look out below"), a call that seasick sailors could have made to their mates below; or rhyming slang, from Chunder Loo meaning "spew", Chunder Loo of Akim Foo being a cartoon character in ads for Cobra boot polish, carried in the Sydney Bulletin starting in 1909. Michael Quinion notes that Barry Humphries (known today as Dame Edna) popularized the term chunder in his comic strip about Australians in London in Private Eye magazine. The strip was called Barry McKenzie. *That etymologist is G.A. Wilkes, in his A Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms of 1978, |
From Hilary Henkin:
Melanie says that similar usage occurred in her household when she was a child. You might be on to something! Perhaps it means any bread not made in a loaf-tin. |
From Louis Nettles:
It is true that inoculation was used to describe the purposeful introduction of small pox through the skin (though this was well after the word had been adopted in horticulture). Interestingly, vaccine first referred to cowpox, but vaccine inoculation referred to small pox, and it was eventually contracted or shortened to vaccination. |
From Erica Hruby:
Delightful!
Indeed. Mr. Dole had several problems in his message. |
From Steve Folkers:
Inside the loop in Houston, Texas, has a slightly different meaning. If someone lives inside the loop (the 610 loop, to be more precise), he or she is probably in a desirable part of town. |
From Robert Fisher:
Apparently so. The caedere derivation seems to be the one accepted by etymologists. The full phrase used to describe what we today call a caesarian section (and also the phrase whence Caesar came) was a caeso matrix utere, which translates as "from the mother's cut womb". Perhaps there is a pun in Latin, with a word that means "full head of hair" that sounds like Caesar. Readers? |
From Kem Luther:
Actually, if you go back and read our discussion you'll see that we mentioned the "nail" (spike) notion, but it is purely conjecture. The spon derivation seems to be accepted by most etymologists. Unfortunately, there is no evidence for Petroski's explanation. Spic and span was in use in England before it made an appearance in North America, so that connection has no support. Additionally, there are no recorded instances of spick and spon to suggest a connection with an actual spoon, nor is there record of spike or spick being used to refer to a knife. Further, the original phrase was span new, more evidence against Mr. Petroski's etymology (if it had been as he suggests, the early examples would have been spick and span). Additionally, he must have evidence to assert the connection he claims. There are no recorded uses of spike and spon, certainly not in this context. Finally, there are Dutch and Flemish examples of the phrase that use forms of spick: spikspeldernieuw and spiksplinternieuw (also spikspankelnieuw). If any of our Dutch or Flemish-speaking readers can tell us what the spik element in these words means, we might make some headway. However, the OED simply mentions them as having the same element as the English version, so presumably the meaning of the element, even in Dutch or Flemish, is not known. The speculation about the origin of the American practice of switching the fork between hands is quite interesting! |
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