<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
I don't know if this ever was normal usage (possibly between WWI and
WWII, or perhaps even earlier), but one sense of "fusebox" that I would
imagine--and have heard others use--is the detonator box from which
fuses would run in different directions to clusters of explosives. This
could be a single "tinder-box" detonator with ignition fuses or an
electric switch (e.g., the lever/plunger type) with wire "fuses". But
the point is similar--you do something to/in the box to set the fuses,
which pass the "signal" to multiple explosives, which, in turn,
explode. So, despite the images in many westerns, the turn of the
century type would have been the soaked cotton fuses and WWII era fuses
would be wires with a battery or a small "dynamo" in the "fusebox".
Again, I don't know if the terminology was ever technically correct or
appropriate, but it might be one non-eggcorn source of this particular
use. It is something that I have heard from more than one source (in
the sense of combining "tinder box" and "light the fuse under..."). I
have seen at least one Civil-War era device that consisted of a box
into which multiple wicking fuses were led in and tied together at one
spot, then fire would have been applied at that point, igniting all the
fuses at once. But I have no recollection if "fuse-box" was indeed the
name applied to the device when I saw it. No do I have any idea if this
use might be related to the current use of "fuse-box".<br>
<br>
In contrast, tinderbox has a dual meaning--one obsolete (a
spark-creating device to ignite charcloth--a precursor to matches, of
sorts) and one contemporary (dry material that is easily ignitable).
Tinderbox is a consistent metaphor for areas with such tense relations
between groups (e.g., ethnic conflict, prisons, etc.) that even a minor
provocation can spark violence (e.g., pre-WWI Balkans).<br>
<br>
VS-)<br>
<br>
Arnold Zwicky wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:200905040845.n43Alo3a014468@malibu.cc.uga.edu"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">
Begin forwarded message:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">From: Max Heiman
Date: May 3, 2009 7:59:52 PM PDT
To: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:zwicky@stanford.edu">zwicky@stanford.edu</a>
Subject: "fuse box" eggcorn?
I thought I'd pass the following along. News coverage of the recent
air force flyover of downtown Manhattan referred to the situation as
having "turned into a political fuse box," an expression I've never
heard and which doesn't make much sense to me. (I think of a fuse
box like a relief valve, a device to keep things from blowing up.
Perhaps the writer meant it like a crackling, high-voltage
situation?) The only google hits I get for "political fuse box" or
"turned into a * fuse box" are copies of the same single article.
Do you have any guess whether this is an eggcorn (and for what) or a
nonce coinage? I'm just curious. The article is here <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/air-force-one-backup-rattles-new-york-nerve/">http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/air-force-one-backup-rattles-new-york-nerve/</a>
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
puzzling to me. "fuse bomb' is close to 'fuse box", but doesn't make
much more sense to me. "flash point" makes more sense, but is
phonologically very far from "fuse bomb".
(the authors of the article are A. G. Sulzberger -- yes, the son of
the publisher -- and Matthew L. Wald.)
arnold
</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
</body>
</html>
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org