<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN">
<html><head><style type="text/css"><!--
blockquote, dl, ul, ol, li { margin-top: 0 ; margin-bottom: 0 }
--></style><title>Re: "Meerns" query</title></head><body>
<div> Many thanx for the ads-l responses on "Meerns".
A solution is still elusive, but at least I know that it's not an
obvious one.</div>
<div> Douglas Wilson's suggestion that "Meerns" may
be merely someone's (nick)name seems reasonable. The question, of
course, is who. (Adrian Ansen's nicknames were "Pop" and
"Old Anse").</div>
<div> BTW, I have read through hundreds of baseball
articles from the 1913 _San Francisco Bulletin_, and only the one
attestation of "Meerns" has turned up. Also, the articles
give no indication of Dutch influence on colloquial San Francisco
speech or even culture.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>----Gerald Cohen</div>
<div><br></div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br>
It certainly seerns puzzling.<br>
<br>
The only "meern" I can find is De Meern, a place near
Utrecht in the<br>
Netherlands. At a quick glance, the Dutch items turned up by Web
search<br>
seem to refer to this place.<br>
<br>
"Meerns" just doesn't feel like an English word, nor like a
transcription<br>
of a Dutch or German one in the current context, IMHO. Still could
be</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>someone's [nick]name, I suppose.
...</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br>
-- Doug Wilson</blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div>*******</div>
<div><br></div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> I have come across
"Meerns" as a term of address in a 1913 sports article but
am unable to determine its exact meaning. It does not seem to
be listed in the dictionaries.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite> The word appears in
the newspaper _San Francisco Bulletin_, March 11, 1913, p. 18, cols.
5-6, over the photograph of former baseball player Bill Lange. The
relevant sentence is:</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Geneva" size="+2"
color="#000000">'As Pop Anson would pause to remark, "I knew him
when he was the equal of a bum baseball player they call Tyrus
Raymond Cobb." Yes, Meerns, that was some years ago.'</font>
...</blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div>--G. Cohen<br>
</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br>
<br>
</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>----</div>
</body>
</html>