they don't make words like they used to

[Laurence Horn]

At 8:04 PM -0500 9/11/06, Cohen, Gerald Leonard wrote:
>Apparently: occurring once every five years.  The free online dictionary says:

That free online dictionary looks a lot like the
AHD4, at least for this entry!  (Check below the
spoiler space below.)

LH

>
>lus·trum Pronunciation
><javascript:play('L0296900')>  (l
><http://img.tfd.com/hm/GIF/ubreve.gif> s
><http://img.tfd.com/hm/GIF/prime.gif> tr
><http://img.tfd.com/hm/GIF/schwa.gif> m)
>n. pl. lus·trums or lus·tra (-tr <http://img.tfd.com/hm/GIF/schwa.gif> )
>1. A ceremonial purification of the entire
>ancient Roman population after the census every
>five years.
>2. A period of five years.
>
>--------Gerald Cohen
>
>________________________________
>
>From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Laurence Horn
>Sent: Mon 9/11/2006 1:10 PM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: they don't make words like they used to
>
>
>
>Just got this notice on Linguist List, which led me to wonder...
><snip>
>>
>>Meeting Description:
>>
>>This lustrum workshop offers a forum of discussion between
>>researchers from different fields of writing research (theoretical
>>linguistics, psycholinguistics, computational linguistics or
>>language education), from different countries and working on
>>different languages.
>
>...what exactly a lustrum workshop was.  I was pretty sure I'd never
>knowingly encountered a lustrum before, and had no conception of what
>it might be.  Anyone else know?  I may have lived a sheltered (not to
>say benighted) life, but I was somewhat surprised to come across this
>announcement with its apparent presupposition that the reader would
>immediately recognize that a "lustrum workshop" obviously refers to...
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>...one that meets every five years.  From:
>
>LUSTRUM
>1. A ceremonial purification of the entire ancient Roman population
>after the census every five years.
>2. A period of five years.
>[AHD4]
>Now, \quintennial/ I'd have figured out.  (But maybe the idea is that
>some ritual purification of orthography is involved.)
>
>LH
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org