aste(r)perious

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Sep 4, 2004, at 10:05 PM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:

>> can anyone gloss it satisfactorily?
>
> "Obstreperous". [Google gives a couple of examples of "obstreperious".]
> [DARE shows "obstropolous", etc.]

this meaning doesn't fit the contexts very well, and is directly
contradicted by Hurston's glossary.  in addition the accent pattern
isn't quite right: all the variants of "asterperious" would have the
pattern 2 v 1 v v (v is unaccented, 2 secondary accent, 1 primary
accent), while all the variants of "obstreperous" have the pattern 2 1
v v (below is a list from Webster's Online Dictionary).
-----
Misspellings

"Obstreperous" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following:
abstreperous, ibstreperous, obsreperous, obsteperous, obsterperous,
obstreparous, obstreperious, obstreperus, obstrepherous, obstreporous,
obstrepperous, obstriperous, obstroperous, obstrperous, obtreperous,
ostreperous.
------

still, "obstreperous" might have played a role in the coining of the
word -- but merely as a "catalyst" for the coining (an existing word in
roughly the right semantic domain -- here, critical judgments of
behavior -- that promotes the coining without directly contributing to
it).  (has "catalyst" been used this way?  the phenomenon is not
uncommon.)

arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)