Outing Hamlet [was: out-Xing X]

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 11:23:16AM -0500, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> At 1/21/2010 10:29 AM, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
>> On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 10:25:14AM -0500, David Barnhart wrote:
>> > I saw in this morning's NYT (p B13) the use of "out-iPhones the iPhone."
>> > Would somebody please guide me to some linguistically sound discussion of
>> > this.
>>
>> Apart from _Hamlet_?
>
> Jesse, did you mean "the time is out of joint", or "Out, out, thou
> Strumpet-Fortune", or something else?  Or perhaps _Macbeth_'s "out,
> out, damned spot"?  I suppose if Soren Kierkegaard could write "Last
> evening Shakespeare's glorious masterpiece, _The School for Scandal_,
> was performed for the first time", one can forgive Jesse (or me) for
> a little confusion.  :-)

Sorry, I thought it was a clear reference, as Larry observed:

I would/Have such a fellow whipped for overdoing Termagant;/It
out-Herods Herod: pray you, avoid it.

_Hamlet_ III.ii.12ff

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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