cath v.

[Jonathan Lighter]

Too many syllables to remember.

JL

On Tue, Oct 30, 2012 at 8:08 AM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      cath v.
>
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>
> On TV last night I beheld an ad for catheters.  Written on the screen:
>  "End painful cathing."
>
> The form "cathing" garners some 343,000 raw Google hits.  Of course,
> "cath" itself, as a verb, is practically unsearchable.
>
> Wouldn't a more plausible back-formation be "cathet"?
>
> --Charlie
>
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