World Wide Words -- 20 May 06
Michael Quinion
wordseditor at WORLDWIDEWORDS.ORG
Fri May 19 17:36:28 UTC 2006
WORLD WIDE WORDS ISSUE 488 Saturday 20 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: E-thrombosis.
3. Weird Words: Opodeldoc.
4. Recently noted.
5. Q&A: Lord love a duck.
6. Sic!
A. E-mail contact addresses.
B. Subscription information.
C. Ways to support World Wide Words.
1. Feedback, notes and comments
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OMITTED LETTERS As I was forced to confront last week, letters are
easy to leave out and can lead to strange or embarrassing results.
Shirley Stevenson tells of a case that was worse than most: "When
I was working as a sub-editor at the Blackpool Evening Gazette I
encountered an obituary by a young journalist which stated the
deceased had been the leader of a male vice choir, who had died
while recovering from a short illness, and was created at a local
cemetery. The journalist in question left to become a priest."
MOWHAY I discussed this West Country word last week, as a follow-
up to the previous week's Weird Word "linhay". Lots of subscribers
have since written to mention "haymow", a much more common word
that's known in most parts of the English-speaking world. This has
a related sense, as the OED describes it: "A rick or stack of hay;
in some places applied to the pile of hay stored in a hay-house or
barn, or to the compartment of a barn in which hay is stored".
SPELUNKER A possible alternative source for the word was suggested
by a number of subscribers, possibly Dutch ("spelonk", the everyday
word for a cave), but almost certainly not from the related German
"Spelunke".
Andrea Krapf wrote from Austria: "When I read the item, I dissolved
in laughter, not because of your writing, but through a linguistic
association from my mother tongue, German. In German 'spelunca' has
survived, you see, in the form 'Spelunke'. The meaning has shifted
somewhat, though. 'Spelunke' originally meant a dingy, run-down,
potentially dangerous tavern of the kind you might find in the less
savoury parts of a seaport; nowadays you can use it to talk about
any drinking establishment that is not up to standard. Calling a
pub a 'Spelunke' is definitely no compliment. The cave element is
still there, since a 'Spelunke' would be pictured as a dimly lit
drinking cavern." In English, "dive" pretty much sums it up.
Chester Graham pointed out that Sperlonga, between Rome and Naples,
is the site of a villa owned by the Emperor Tiberius. The name is
from a natural cave or grotto in which the emperor used to dine. It
may be that a well-travelled prototypical spelunker knew the place
and the source of the name.
I gave one Latin original in the piece as "spelunka"; this should
have been "spelunca", since "k" was rare in classical Latin.
2. Turns of Phrase: E-thrombosis
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This word has gained some publicity in the UK following the launch
on 9 May 2006 - during National Thrombosis Week - of a campaign by
the charity Lifeblood to raise awareness among office staff of the
risk of being struck down by it. It's in effect the same condition
as the deep vein thrombosis (also called economy-class syndrome)
that's occasionally suffered by air passengers. The cause is the
same: sitting for long periods in the same position, causing a
blood clot to form in a vein in the leg.
Two well-publicised cases have highlighted the risks. One was a
Bristol freelance computer programmer, who recently collapsed and
almost died after spending 12 hours at his screen without a break.
A blood clot formed and moved to his lung, where it created a
pulmonary embolism. The earlier case, in 2003, was of a young New
Zealand man who spent long sessions at his computer. He, too,
suffered a pulmonary embolism.
The term is said to have been invented by Dr Richard Beasley of the
Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, who investigated the
latter case.
* Western Mail, 15 Apr. 2006: It is feared millions of people could
be at risk of e-thrombosis as the average working week has risen to
45 hours and people are working longer hours than they were three
years ago.
* Daily Record, 9 May 2006: While most of us are aware of the risks
of sore eyes or a stiff neck, it appears that lack of movement
could make millions vulnerable to a new health risk - e-thrombosis.
3. Weird Words: Opodeldoc
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A type of liniment.
The medieval physician Paracelsus described "oppodeltoch", a word
he seems to have conjured up from heaven knows where. One
suggestion is that he derived it from bits of three other words:
"opopanax", "bdellium", and "aristolochia". All three names come
from Greek. The first is a foetid gum-resin from the root of a
plant resembling the parsnip whose name is from "opos", juice, plus
"panax", all-healing; the second is a fragrant resin related to
myrrh; and the third is the classical Greek for "well-born" that
refers to a shrub that in Britain has sometimes been given the name
common birthwort because it helped childbirth.
Paracelsus applied the word to a type of medicinal plaster and it
appears in English with that sense until the seventeenth century.
After that, it shifted dramatically, under the revised spelling of
"opodeldoc", to refer to various sorts of liniment based on soap
dissolved in alcohol, with herbs and aromatic oils added.
A typical use was the one Mrs Beaton recommended in her Book of
Household Management of 1861 for the treatment of a sprain: "The
joint is to be rubbed twice a day with flannel dipped in opodeldoc,
a flannel bandage rolled tightly round the joint, the pressure
being greatest at the lowest part, and the patient allowed to walk
about with the assistance of a crutch or stick."
In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries a number of patent
medicines incorporated the word, including Doranstorff's Opodeldoc,
Noakes's Aethereal Anodyne Opodeldoc, Imperial Anodyne Opodeldoc,
and Cajeput Opodeldoc, about the last of which the American Henry
Hartshorne wrote in The Household Cyclopedia in 1881: "In several
cases of lumbago and deep-seated rheumatic pains, it has been known
to succeed in the almost immediate removal of the disease."
The most famous was "Dr Steer's Opodeldoc", made from Castile soap
in alcohol, plus camphor, oils of marjoram and rosemary, and his
special ingredient, ammonia. It was advertised in the Times in
1790: "The efficacy of this medicine in the Rheumatism, Lumbago,
Bruises, Sprains, Cramps, &c. is universally acknowledged: it is
equally serviceable in Numbness, Stiffness, and Weakness of the
Joints, and in restoring a proper Circulation to the Limbs when in
a Paralytic state. It is also excellent for Burns and Scalds, as
well as for the Sting of venomous Insects."
It goes on to remark that "It is the best embrocation for Horses
that are wrung in the Withers." Truly an all-purpose palliative.
4. Recently noted
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OTHERCOTT Being the only person in the English-speaking world who
has not read Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, at least to judge by
its sales, I have to rely on others to explain how it could have
achieved such success. Many Christians and Jews are deeply offended
by its premise that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children
by her. This weekend sees the opening of the film of the book and
one Christian group has organised a creative boycott. Rather than
just persuade people not to see it, they are suggesting that they
watch another film instead, DreamWorks' cuddly kiddy cartoon Over
the Hedge, so denying The Da Vinci Code top spot in the box-office
rankings on its key first weekend. "Othercott" as a name for the
protest is a neat formation, but I doubt that it will catch on.
NONFLOOD John Nunnikhoven noted a splendid item of bureaucratese
perpetrated by NOAA, the wonderfully named US National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration. "The Flood Warning continues for the
Connecticut River at West Lebanon... Nonflood flooding is occurring
and minor flooding is forecast." Mr Nunnikhoven comments, "My wife
and I had a chuckle last night as we watched a field, visible from
our home, slowly become covered with water. We were not successful
in determining when the nonflood flooding became flood flooding.
However, all is well this morning and the flooded nonflood flooded
field is now merely nonsoggy soggy." I assume it's a technical term
(read: jargon) of NOAA, but that organisation hasn't responded to
my urgent calls for clarification.
CROSSBRED WORDS REDUX This department has previously had cause to
remark on names given to cross-bred animals, such as "tigon" for a
tiger-lion cross, almost always imitatively formed by blending the
names of its parents. The shooting in the Northwest Territories of
Canada of a cross between a polar bear and a grizzly - which took
place in April but which has only now been reported - has unleashed
a minor flood of creative nomenclature. Obvious ones like "grolar"
and "pizzly" have been joined by "pozzly", "polizzly", "grizolor",
and "grizzapole". (Since it was the offspring of a male grizzly and
a female polar bear, "grolar" is the name that best matches the
usual formation rule.) More sensibly, "Nunaluk" has been proposed,
from the Inuit names for the polar bear (Nanuk) and the grizzly
bear (Aklak). But whatever you call it, the animal is still dead.
NEVAEH It's just been announced, based on US social security data,
that the girl's name that's growing fastest in popularity is this
head-scratchingly hard-to-pronounce moniker. "Nevaeh" is now the
70th most popular US girl's name, sandwiched between Evelyn and
Madeline. Word buffs will immediately note it is "heaven" written
backwards, surely among the oddest creations in the history of
naming. There have been occasional examples around for many decades
(I've found it recorded as far back as 1921 and it's presumably
older) but the start of its rise to fame more or less coincided
with the announcement in May 2000 by Christian rock star Sonny
Sandoval that his daughter had been given that name. Nevaeh first
appeared on the list of most popular girl's names at number 268 in
2001 and has been rising ever since. It's popular in particular
with African Americans and evangelical Christians. The headline on
the front page of the New York Times on Thursday summed up many
people's view of it: "And if It' s a Boy, Will It Be Lleh?" It's
this whole backwards bit that bothers me. In witchcraft, isn't
saying the Lord's Prayer backwards a recipe for calling up the
Devil? If so, what are you supposed to get when you say "nevaeh"?
A little imp with attitude?
5. Q&A: Lord love a duck
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Q. "Lord love a duck": is it a long winded rhyme for an expletive
that has to remain unuttered in this polite company, or is there a
story behind it? Beyond the Roddy McDowall movie from 1966, Google
is failing me. Can you help to shed some light? [James Rose]
A. Not a lot, I'm afraid. It's a mild expression of surprise, once
well known in Britain and dating from the early twentieth century.
It has been used a lot in inoffensive situations, so I doubt it is
a euphemism for the F-word.
The Oxford English Dictionary has just one example, from - of all
sources - James Joyce's Ulysses: "Paddy Leonard eyed his alemates.
Lord love a duck, he said. Look at what I'm standing drinks to!"
But T S Eliot also used it, in The Rock of 1934: "Lor-love-a-duck,
it's the missus!". It also turns up a number of times in the works
of P G Wodehouse, the earliest being The Coming of Bill, two years
before Ulysses was published: "'Well, Lord love a duck!' replied
the butler, who in his moments of relaxation was addicted to homely
expletives of the lower London type."
I would unhesitatingly argue that it was originally British, though
it has since emigrated to other Commonwealth countries. And that
origin is supported by the earliest example I've found, in a long-
forgotten tale of 1907, The Wheel O' Fortune, by Louis Tracy, a
British journalist and prolific author: "'Lord love a duck!' he
guffawed. 'If only I'd ha' knowed, I could have told my missus. It
would have cheered her up for a week.'"
But why should aristocrats amorously dally with anatine animals?
And why should their proclivities be turned into an exclamation?
Nigel Rees suggests it was a fake Cockney version of "Lord love
us!" never uttered in real life. Or it might be a line from some
music-hall sketch long gone from memory. Perhaps the whole point
about it is that it doesn't make sense?
6. Sic!
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A quote in a story on CNN.com about the film of The Da Vinci Code
was forwarded by Steve Bruss and also by Robin Dawes: "'If we have
offended any Christians I would ask them to forgive us, which seems
to be one of the main tenements in the New Testament,' actor Paul
Bettany, who plays Silas in the film, said with a smile during an
interview with CNN's Brooke Anderson at the Cannes Film Festival
Tuesday." Tenements in the New Testament? The film's more off beam
than we thought.
An e-mail that Priceline.com sent to Margaret Chase advertised a
"Private Renal Car Pre-Sale Event". She wonders if they are kidney-
shaped. Or perhaps they run on waste products?
Gerald Ford comments: "Recently seen on a restaurant menu in
Austin, Texas, was a dish containing 'melted Swill and Cheddar
Cheese'. We ordered something else." Similarly, Laurie Malone
notes, "I was in a pub bistro in Manly, a beachside suburb of
Sydney NSW, and found the menu included 'small ladies rump'. I
passed it by."
>From a Telstra Australia brochure, spotted by Bernard Ryan: "Get
your BigPond Movie Downloads even faster with Cable Extreme, our
new blistering fast cable broadband service. It's so fast you can
even view a full-length feature film in minutes!"
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