New "lumpkin," "girney"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 11/21/2007 01:45 PM, Charles Doyle wrote:
>Of course, the little people in the land of Oz were MUNCHKINS, and
>I'm sure the literary source inspired the designation of Dunkin'
>Donuts fried/glazed/iced doughnut "holes", capitalizing on the
>public's familiarity with the term from Baum's books and
>(especially) the 1939 movie. Nonetheless, Dunkin' Donuts seems to
>have recovered something of an etymology here: "munch" + the
>diminutive "-kin"--that is, a "little snack."

Horrors!  Recovered etymology from "The Wizard of Oz"?  Did someone
eat Munchkins there?  I must have missed that.

Joel


>--Charlie
>_____________________________________________________________
>
>---- Original message ----
> >Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 13:27:48 -0500
> >From: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> >
> >At 11/21/2007 11:06 AM, Mark Mandel wrote:
> >>clearly related to "lump". "-kin"
> >>is a diminutive suffix, of which the OED says in part
> >>
> >>     The suffix has only a limited use in English. It appears to
> occur first in some familiar forms of personal (chiefly male)
> names, which were either adoptions or imitations of diminutive
> forms current in Flanders and Holland, where such forms appear
> already in the 10th c.
> >>
> >>This is clearly its origin in the term of endearment for a child.
> >
> >There is also "Munchkin", used by some parents (or at least, My brother).
> >
> >Joel
>
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org