Feghoots site

[Jeff Prucher]

--- Harrold Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Harrold Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Feghoots site
>
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>
> I tend to forget how old I am. The first feghoots appeared more than
> half a century ago, when I was in high school. That's plenty of time
> for a proper name to become generic. Unfortunately, I'm at the age at
> which over fifty years ago... Why, it seems like only yesterday!

The earliest citation I have for the generic use is from an Isaac Asimov
editorial from 1980 -- about halfway between the first Feghoot story (1956) and
today; he refers to such stories as "Ferdinand Feghoots".  The Magazine of
Fantasy & Science Fiction (where the first, non-generic Feghoots appeared)
apparently ran a contest in 1973, asking readers to submit their own Feghoots,
but it's unclear to me (not having examined the contest rules or results)
whether this is a generic usage or not.

Jeff Prucher



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