Blue book

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM
Fri May 4 14:09:48 UTC 2007


I guess "Project Blue Book" isn't quite OED material.

JL

Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote: ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender:       American Dialect Society
Poster:       Charles Doyle
Subject:      Blue book
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just noticed that the OED omits the academic sense of "blue book," which has been prevalent (in America) for at least half a century: 'cheap stapled folio consisting of blank ruled pages (typically 16) with a thin light-blue paper cover, used for the writing of exam essays'. Surely "blue book" in that sense is thoroughly lexicalized. (Yes, my students are taking a final exam at the moment!) I wonder what the origin and history of those blue books is?

The second-most prevalent American sense (I'd say) of "blue book" is not specified in the OED either (though arguably it can be subsumed under the OED's general sense of the phrase): 'book listing the approximate value of used automobiles of the various makes, models, and years'; also used attributively ("blue book price," "blue book value," etc.)

--Charlie
_____________________________________________________________

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



---------------------------------
Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell?
 Check outnew cars at Yahoo! Autos.

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



More information about the Ads-l mailing list