[Ads-l] A newspaper "clear story"

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Fri Mar 3 22:44:33 UTC 2017


As a former staff-member of the Francis Loeb Library of the Harvard
Graduate School of Design, I’d like to point out that, though the word is
definitely pronounced "clear story," the proper spelling is _clerestory_,
which motivated me to think of it as "clerris story." The pronunciation,
"clear story," was too obvious to be correct, I erroneously assumed.

BTW, the reading-room of the Design Library has a clerestory.

On Fri, Mar 3, 2017 at 5:26 PM, Marc Sacks <msacksg at gmail.com> wrote:

> When I saw the subject line before reading the email, I thought "Is that
> supposed to be a window, or a church balcony?" I guess it's an eggcorn.
>
> On Fri, Mar 3, 2017 at 4:17 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
> adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com
> > wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: A newspaper "clear story"
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > -------------------
> >
> > The terms "clearstory" and "clear story" are present in an online copy
> > of a letter from Sarah L. Burks, Preservation Planner to the Cambridge
> > Historical Commission.
> >
> > https://www.cambridgema.gov/~/media/Files/historicalcommission/pdf/
> > casefile=
> > s/d1432_memo.pdf?la=3Den
> >
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > The southern half of the roof of Saint Patrick=E2=80=99s caught fire. The
> > slate roof on the south side of the main gable collapsed, taking with
> > it much of the third floor framing. A secondary shed roof and a post
> > and truss framing system support the clearstory wall and the main
> > roof. The fire filled the cavity above the second floor ceiling in
> > this shed roofed area causing extensive structural damage.
> > [End excerpt]
> >
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > A choir loft was located over the vestibule of the main entrance and
> > an elliptical apse and two sacristies were at the opposite end. The
> > center of the sanctuary was 40=E2=80=99 high and lit by large arched
> > window=
> > s
> > at a clear story level.
> > [End excerpt]
> >
> > Garson
> >
> > On Fri, Mar 3, 2017 at 2:36 PM, Joel Berson <berson at att.net> wrote:
> > > Stained glass windows from a former church in Cambridge,  Mass., now to
> > b=
> > e torn down as the result of a fire, will be transferred to a housing
> > compl=
> > ex damaged by the same fire and needing new windows.  In the former
> > church,=
> >  quoting from the newspaper:
> > >
> > >
> > > 'The center of the sanctuary was 40 feet high and lit by large arched
> > win=
> > dows at a clear story level,' according to the [Cambridge Historical
> > Commis=
> > sion's] description of the former church.
> > >
> > > Boston Globe, March 3, 2017, page B2, "A window on life after a fire,"
> > co=
> > l. 3.
> > >
> > > Also in the Globe online.  I don't know whether this error is the
> > Globe's=
> >  or the Cambridge Historical Commission's.
> > >
> > > Joel
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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



More information about the Ads-l mailing list