World Wide Words -- 06 May 06
Michael Quinion
wordseditor at WORLDWIDEWORDS.ORG
Fri May 5 16:36:25 UTC 2006
WORLD WIDE WORDS ISSUE 486 Saturday 6 May 2006
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Sent each Saturday to at least 32,000 subscribers by e-mail and RSS
Editor: Michael Quinion, Thornbury, Bristol, UK ISSN 1470-1448
http://www.worldwidewords.org US advisory editor: Julane Marx
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Contents
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1. Feedback, notes and comments.
2. Turns of Phrase: Eco-driving.
3. Weird Words: Linhay.
4. Recently noted.
5. Q&A: Shirttail relative.
6. Sic!
A. E-mail contact addresses.
B. Subscription information.
C. Ways to support World Wide Words.
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A formatted version of this newsletter is available
online at http://www.worldwidewords.org/nl/rgma.htm
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1. Feedback, notes and comments
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QUILLON Subscribers begged me to tell them how to say this word.
The OED has the French-style pronunciation /kijO~/, roughly "KEE-
yon", but with the final vowel nasalised as in French "bon". Scott
Baltic, who is involved with the Chicago Swordplay Guild, says that
this predominates even in the USA, though some have Anglicised it
to "QUILL-on". He disagrees over one point: the quillons weren't
(and aren't) usually cast as one piece with the hilt, but are
pushed into the correct position and then hammered into place.
2. Turns of Phrase: Eco-driving
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It's really just an up-market term for fuel economy - learning to
drive your vehicle in a way that minimises your fuel consumption.
Among the tips are: don't carry unnecessary loads, speed up and
brake smoothly, engage the appropriate gear for your road speed,
don't leave the engine idling unnecessarily, use the engine to
brake when you can, and drive at the most fuel-efficient speeds.
Campaigners argue that techniques such as these can reduce fuel
costs by up to a third.
The term has been around for some years. Early examples refer to
Japanese schemes to encourage "environmentally efficient driving"
to reduce emissions as much as to economise on fuel. It has had a
fair amount of exposure in British newspapers recently as a result
of European initiatives, in particular a campaign by the Dutch to
reduce fuel consumption, cut emissions and improve safety through
teaching eco-motoring measures to learner drivers and including
them in the theory element of the driving test. The UK Driving
Standards Agency introduced an "eco-safe" test for new instructors
in October 2005 and the skills are to be part of the theory test
from 2008.
* From the Independent, 4 Apr. 2006: Greater encouragement and
incentives for the development and take-up of technological
solutions such as hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles are required and
these financial incentives should be linked to an education and
communication programme to encourage eco-driving.
* From US Newswire, 16 Mar. 2006: New for 2006 are a 30-minute
documentary on Driving Skills for Life, to be broadcast this spring
on public television stations, including PBS, and enhanced
curriculum on the web site, notably the importance of eco-driving
to personal safety and the environment.
3. Weird Words: Linhay /'lInI/
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A lean-to shed with an open front.
This is mainly an English West Country word, from the counties of
Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall. However, it has also been
recorded in Northern Ireland and Northumberland, which suggests it
derives from an ancient English word once more widely distributed.
The Oxford English Dictionary tentatively suggests the Old English
"hlinian", to lean. Emigrants took it with them to North America,
though it now survives, I am told, only in Newfoundland dialect.
It has largely been the preserve of writers about the West Country,
such as R D Blackmore, in whose Lorna Doone, set on Exmoor, the
word may be found a number of times: "That faithful creature, whom
I began to admire as if she were my own (which is no little thing
for a man to say of another man's horse), stopped in front of a low
black shed, such as we call a 'linhay.'" Thomas Hardy used it many
times in his books set in the fictional Wessex, in reality Dorset.
This is in The Return of the Native: "To dissipate in some trifling
measure her abiding sense of the murkiness of human life she went
to the 'linhay' or lean-to-shed, which formed the root-store of
their dwelling and abutted on the fuel-house."
Other writers with West Country connections who used it include
Eden Phillpotts, John Galsworthy and Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. Like
Blackmore and Hardy, most felt the need to explain this dialect
word. These days it seems to crop up most often in the names of
self-catering cottages converted from old barns.
An older spelling is "linny" or "linney", which more accurately
reflects the way it is said.
4. Recently noted
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PASS-THOUGHT Passwords are so last-century. They're nothing like
as secure as businesses would like - all too easily acquired or
cracked by various means. Replacement schemes using something
personal to the user are becoming more popular, such as retina
scans, fingerprints, or facial identification, in general called
biometric security devices. Researchers at Carleton University in
Ottawa, Canada are looking into an even more personal biometric
that will use a person's thoughts to authenticate their identity -
a pass-thought. It might be a snatch of song, the memory of your
last birthday or even the image of your favourite painting. But
thinking beautiful thoughts while logging on to your bank account
might prove difficult. [Thanks to Don Monson for pointing me to
this term.]
LOLLIPOP RAGE In the past few years, we've had almost every kind
of annoyance at the frustrations of everyday life elevated to a
type of rage. My files include air rage, bar rage, computer rage,
desk rage, golf rage, noise rage, office rage, pavement rage, PC
rage, phone rage, rail rage, school rage, and trolley rage - and
that's far from the full list. All are based on the granddaddy term
"road rage". This new one refers to those essential guardians who
are formally known in Britain as school crossing patrols but who
are usually called lollipop ladies or men, or unisexually lollipop
wardens. Their job is to ensure children get safely across the
street on their way to and from school. They get their name from
the circular yellow and red warning signs on a pole that they
flourish to stop the traffic. Or not stop it, which is the reason
for the term - motorists in cities are increasingly reluctant to
obey the wardens, shouting abuse and in a few cases actually
running them down.
FAMBITION Another survey, another headline-grabbing invented word.
This one is "family" + "ambition". The MORE TH>N business foresight
index (that's the official way of writing the firm's name, trust
me) has come to the not-altogether-original conclusion that today's
small businesspeople prefer to balance work, home life and quality
of life rather than address themselves solely to making a pot of
money and then retiring early. One reason may be that the average
age of the population in the UK is increasing; older owners are
more focused on home life.
MICROSOFTOLOGIST This ungainly term, the equivalent for Microsoft
of the old-time Kremlinologist, appeared in the Los Angeles Times
last Sunday, though a Google search shows others have had the same
idea previously.
5. Q&A: Shirttail relative
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Q. I attempted to find the source of "shirttail relative" and
similar expressions in Hendrickson's encyclopedia and your site but
have found nothing. I hear the phrase used to describe a person who
is close but not actually related by blood. [Charles F Weishar]
A. That's roughly the meaning given in the dictionaries. It's
usually said to refer to somebody who is a relative by marriage or
is only distantly related, such as a fourth cousin, or is a family
friend with honorary status as a relative. It's fairly common in
the USA and has been since the 1950s or thereabouts.
Getting to the bottom of it, so to speak, may be a task beyond my
abilities from this side of the Atlantic Ocean. One dictionary of
American slang suggests it was originally southern and mid-western
US dialect. The Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) has
examples from 1927 onwards, such as "shirt-tail kin" and "shirt
tail cousin", as well as your form, and also lists "buttonhole
cousin", "shoestring relation", "woodpile relative", and similar
phrases as having essentially the same sense.
Several of these sound dismissive, with a suggestion of poverty and
rural, even backwoods, character. Early DARE examples suggest that
they were indeed often derogatory. One from 1945 says, "Sometimes
with the implication that these are not the relatives of which one
is proudest". "Shirt-tail" here seems in particular to be linked
with poverty. There are examples much earlier of "shirt-tail boy",
for a young person. A 1922 book about the Appalachians remarks, "It
still is common in many districts of the mountain country for small
boys to go about through the summer in a single abbreviated garment
and that they are called 'shirt-tail boys'."
Perhaps US subscribers could fill in the cultural background?
6. Sic!
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"I saw this today on wnbc.com," Philip Franklin reports. "'Bird Flu
Strain Not Dangerous To People Found In N.J. Market'. I know where
I'll be doing my shopping from now on."
Stephen Levitas recently received an advertisement in the US mail
from a life insurance company which had the following qualification
in the small print: "All benefits are not available in all states."
"Unless I am missing something," he argues, "there would then be no
point in purchasing the insurance."
Dee Bowman, who lives in Texas, thought we might enjoy a sign she
saw in a small grocery store recently. It said, "Chili con carne,
with meat, $1.49." Chili con carne, without meat: priceless.
The online version has a photograph of a street sign that has stood
near our home for at least the past 22 years (meaning that it was
in place when we moved here). It should have been proof read.
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