compulsive, OED 2

[Jonathan Lighter]

I too thought _hermenaut_ would look good in a running text, but I couldn't
figure out what it meant.

However, "visitor to the planet Mercury" is a good guess.

JL

On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 9:52 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: compulsive, OED 2
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 9:47 PM -0400 9/29/10, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >Wasn't to hard to spot, was it?
> >
> >Looks like OED needs another _hermeneut_ cite. Now where did I put mine?
> (I
> >just looked it up this morning.)
> >
> >Oh, well. GB claims to find 19,500 exx. in a fraction of second.  One guy
> >writes in 2002 of putting Derrida "in the position of the Most High
> >Hermeneut who holds the master key that unlocks the conundrums of negative
> >theology."
> >
> >JL
>
> I did mention deconstructing...
> But if I were Derrida (as I seem not to be, but one never knows, do
> one?), I'd rather be reckoned as the Most High Hermenaut.  But I see
> that I'd have been beaten to the punch yet again:
>
> "Hermenaut: The Digest of Heady Philosophy for Teens was a philosophy
> zine edited and published by Joshua Glenn."
> http://zinewiki.com/Hermenaut
>
> LH
>
> >
> >On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 8:53 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu
> >wrote:
> >
> >>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >>  -----------------------
> >>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>  Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> >>  Subject:      Re: compulsive, OED 2
> >>
> >>
>
> >>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >>  At 3:11 PM -0400 9/29/10, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >>  >"Obs."?  Evidently not:
> >>  >
> >>  >2008 Dennis Ford _The Search for Meaning_ (Berkeley: U. of C. P.) 15:
> >>  >Conformity and authoritarianism are thus collective strategies for
> >>  relieving
> >>  >the anxiety that absolute freedom elicits. We willingly exchange our
> >>  anxiety
> >>  >and freedom for compulsive activity and the answers provided by
> others.
> >>  >Conformity to the cultural norms...protects us.
> >>  >
> >>  >Prof. Ford earned his Ph.D. in religion from Syracuse University.
> >>  >
> >>  >BONUS:
> >>  >
> >>  >Can you find the error in the OED's entry on "hermeneut"
> >>  >
> >>  If I am correctly deconstructing the query, is it the fact that the
> >>  "hermeneutics" cite (comprising 50% of the record for "hermeneut")
> >>  has apparently wandered in from another entry, since the 1972 quote
> >>  has nothing to do with the search for an interpreter?
> >>
> >>  Maybe it could be replaced with one alluding to the fact that because
> >>  of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" based dismissals, the U. S. military is in
> >>  dire need of a few good Arabic hermeneuts, although hermaphroditic
> >>  hermeneuts need not apply.
> >>
> >>  LH
> >>
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> >
> >
> >--
> >"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
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"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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