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<div align="left"><font face="Calibri" color="#008000" size="6"><span style=" font-size:24pt"><b>World Wide Words</b></span></font></div>
<p style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:0.00mm; margin-bottom:2.11mm;"><font face="Arial" color="#008000">
<span style=" font-size:12pt"><i>Issue 901: Tuesday 28 October 2014</i></span></font></p>
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<span style=" font-size:14pt"><b>Feedback, Notes and Comments</b></span></font></div>
<p style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt">
<b>Good wishes.</b></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> I’m still feeling overwhelmed by the number of supportive and
complimentary messages that arrived from subscribers following my
announcement that future newsletters would go out less regularly. By now
everybody who wrote should have received a personal message of thanks and
appreciation but this mailing allows me also to say so publicly.</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt">
<b>New mail system.</b></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> The new Mailman list system refused to cooperate with
my first posting on 18 October. I was able eventually to despatch the formatted
version of the newsletter, but the system wouldn’t let me send the plain-text
one as well. I still haven’t resolved the problem.</span></font></p>
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<span style=" font-size:14pt"><b>Wordface</b></span></font></div>
<p style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt">Last Thursday, two British dictionary publishers, Chambers and Collins,
announced their Words of the Year. </span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt">Chambers has gone for </span>
<span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>overshare</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">, which it defines as “to be unacceptably
forthcoming with information about one’s personal life”, commenting that it
was “beautifully British” and a “subtle yet devastating” put-down. That’s not a
complete definition, as it can also mean inappropriately supplying detailed
personal information to a stranger online; it has also been used for deliberately
giving intimate details of a relationship in order to shame one’s former partner.
It’s neither British nor new, as it was first recorded as teen slang in the US in
the 1990s and appeared in print in the </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>New York Times</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> as early as 1998. Apart
from that, it’s quite a good choice.</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt">Collins has selected </span>
<span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>photobomb</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> from words submitted by visitors to its
website, a word which it says means “</span></font><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style=" font-size:14pt">to intrude into the background of a
photograph without the subject’s knowledge”</span></font><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt">. Again, this isn’t the whole
story, as it usually either means the accidental incursion of some odd or
embarrassing thing in the background that spoils a picture or of a person who
deliberately intrudes as a practical joke. Like </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>overshare</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">, it isn’t new — it’s
recorded from 2007 and had a spike of popularity in 2011/2012 — but it has
become much better known this year because of several widely reproduced
photos, such as Benedict Cumberbatch’s photobombing of U2 at the Oscars
and, most famously, the accidental photobombing of a couple of Australian
athletes by the Queen at the Commonwealth Games.</span></font></p>
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<span style=" font-size:14pt"><b>Boot</b></span></font></div>
<p style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Arial Black" color="#008000">
<span style=" font-size:12pt"><b>Q.</b></span></font><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt"> </span><span style=" font-size:13pt">
<i>From Brock Lupton</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">: Why is the rear storage compartment of a car (</span><span style=" font-size:13pt">
<i>trunk</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> in
North American parlance) in British usage called a </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>boot</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">?</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Arial Black" color="#008000">
<span style=" font-size:12pt"><b>A.</b></span></font><font face="Courier New"><span style=" font-size:12pt"> </span></font><font face="Georgia">
<span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>Boot</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> is an excellent example of linguistic conservatism. </span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt">I’ve mentioned this before with </span>
<span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>dashboard</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> and with </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>carriage</i></span>
<span style=" font-size:13pt">, the usual British
term for one car of a railway train. The latter word is a relic of stagecoaches,
since early passenger accommodation for trains was built by the same men who
constructed horse-drawn carriages and coaches and the name stuck.</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt">We’re in the same area with </span>
<span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>boot</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">. Around 1600 it began to be used for an
uncovered projecting seat outside the doors on each side of a coach in which
passengers sat facing sideways to the direction of travel. It’s often said that
these seats were for servants but this seems not always to have been the case.
On 23 August 1667, Samuel Pepys, Clerk to the Navy Board in London,
recorded in his diary an accident with a coach in which he was travelling with
Sir William Penn, one of the commissioners of the Board (and father of the
founder of Pennsylvania): “We were forced to leap out — he out of one, and I
out of the other boote”.</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt">Earlier in the century, John Taylor, the water-poet of London, heartedly
disliked the then new-fangled hackney coaches because they took trade away
from him and his fellow watermen on the Thames:</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:10mm; margin-right:13mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:12pt">It [the coach] wears two boots, and no spars; sometimes having two pairs
of legs in one boot: and oftentimes against nature most preposterously, it
makes fair ladies wear the boot. ... Moreover, it makes people imitate
sea-crabs, in being drawn sideways; as they are when they sit in the boot
of the coach.</span></font></p>
<div align="left" style="margin-left:10mm; margin-right:13mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:1.06mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia" color="#006000">
<span style=" font-size:11pt"><i>The World Runnes on Wheeles</i></span><span style=" font-size:11pt">, by John Taylor, 1623.</span></font></div>
<p style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt">By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the boots had been moved to the
ends of coaches and had turned into storage areas. One was under the
coachman’s seat at the front, the other under that of the guard at the back.</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt">So much for the history of the contrivance. The origin of its name is a lot harder
to work out, though the experts usually say it’s the same word as the one for a
type of footwear. It has been suggested that it’s from French </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>boîte</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">, a box,
though that wasn’t its function when it was named. Another theory is that the
early seats were in the rough shape of boots, though I detect the influence of
folk etymology. The best-known exponent of this suggestion was Sir Walter
Scott:</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:10mm; margin-right:13mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:12pt">The insides [inside passengers] were their graces in person, two maids of
honour, two children, a chaplain stuffed into a sort of lateral recess,
formed by a projection at the door of the vehicle, and called, from its
appearance, the boot, and an equerry to his Grace ensconced in the
corresponding convenience on the opposite side.</span></font></p>
<div align="left" style="margin-left:10mm; margin-right:13mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:1.06mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia" color="#006000">
<span style=" font-size:11pt"><i>Old Mortality</i></span><span style=" font-size:11pt">, by Sir Walter Scott, 1816.</span></font></div>
<p style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt">The vocabulary of horse-drawn vehicles was the same on both sides of the
Atlantic, as it was old enough to have been in the speech of early colonists. The
storage spaces continued to have the same name in both the UK and the US
until the end of the coaching era:</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:10mm; margin-right:13mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:12pt">As Bill opened the double-locked box in the “boot” of the coach — sacred
to Wells, Fargo & Co.’s Express and the Overland Company's treasures —
Mr. Wiles perceived a small, black morocco portmanteau among the
parcels.</span></font></p>
<div align="left" style="margin-left:10mm; margin-right:13mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:1.06mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia" color="#006000">
<span style=" font-size:11pt"><i>The Story of a Mine</i></span><span style=" font-size:11pt">, by Bret Harte, 1877.</span></font></div>
<p style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt">Unlike coaches, storage on many early motor vehicles was regarded as an extra,
not part of the structure of the vehicle. The rear passenger seats were usually
placed over the back wheels with no room for luggage behind them.
Particularly in the US, providing storage was the job of the owner, who often
fitted luggage racks at the rear of the vehicle or on the running boards. In
American publications from 1907 we start to see references to </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>automobile
trunks</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">. These were essentially old-fashioned steamer or travelling trunks that
were packed indoors and brought out to be fixed to the vehicle’s luggage rack
by leather straps. Typical of the period was this mention:</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:10mm; margin-right:13mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:12pt">Outside, Cargan heard a burst of merry voices and saw Waldron hurried
away by two laughing girls to an automobile waiting with a trunk
strapped behind it.</span></font></p>
<div align="left" style="margin-left:10mm; margin-right:13mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:1.06mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia" color="#006000">
<span style=" font-size:11pt"><i>Atlantic Narratives</i></span><span style=" font-size:11pt">, 1918.</span></font></div>
<p style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt">It wasn’t until the 1930s that storage spaces commonly began to appear as
integral parts of American vehicles. For example, Chrysler and Buick continued
to provide rear racks for trunks well into that decade. In 1930 the US magazine
</span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>Automobile Topics</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> noted integral trunks as newsworthy: “Rear-end trunks
were larger and more prevalent. In one line of cars they were designed into the
rear of the body itself.” Manufacturers and users borrowed </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>trunk</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> from the
earlier external arrangements because, by the time they needed a word for
them, knowledge of the stagecoach term had passed from most people’s minds</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt">British experience was much the same in the early days. Some makers, such as
Rolls-Royce, took a similar approach and fitted luggage racks and trunks.
However, others began to provide internal luggage space, and did so rather
earlier than in the US. This meant that the old coaching term was still in
people’s minds in Britain and was adopted by car builders and owners. The
first known reference to a car boot, so called, was in the magazine </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>Autocar</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> in
1908; by the early 1920s makers such as Vauxhall were advertising vehicles
with them. </span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt">[The </span></font>
<a href="http://wwwords.org/trnkbt"><font face="Georgia" color="#0000ff"><span style=" font-size:13pt"><u>online version</u></span></font></a>
<font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt"> contains several images.]</span></font></p>
<div align="left" style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:6.33mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Calibri" color="#008000" size="4">
<span style=" font-size:14pt"><b>Sic!</b></span></font></div>
<p style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt">Last week, a charity based near me posted a volunteering opportunity for a
“medium size van driver.” </span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt">Malcolm Hutton found an advertisement in Adelaide’s </span>
<span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>Eastern Courier Mail
</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">by The Jiving Monkey, a bar and Asian market: “Order $40 or more and
receive $10 extra on your total bill.”</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt">Department of creative reuse: Tom Kavanagh submitted a headline on the
KSAZ TV website of Arizona on 24 October: “Avondale police: Officers shoot
man with machete”.</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt">Online law enforcement is implied by an item Graeme F St Clair saw in the
</span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>Altoona Mirror</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> of Pennsylvania on 22 October about a local women’s soccer
goalkeeper: “The only action Solo has taken is to offer an apology following her
arrest by social media.”</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt">Norman King tells us that a report in the </span>
<span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>Sydney Morning Herald</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> on 20
October about that Russian vessel supposedly lurking in Swedish waters
included this: “‘It could be a submarine, or a smaller submarine,’ Rear Admiral
Anders Grenstad said on Sunday.”</span></font></p>
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<span style=" font-size:14pt"><b>Useful information</b></span></font></div>
<p style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:11pt">
<b>About this newsletter</b></span><span style=" font-size:11pt">: World Wide Words is researched, written and published by
Michael Quinion in the UK. ISSN 1470-1448. Copyediting and advice are provided by Julane
Marx, Robert Waterhouse, John Bagnall and Peter Morris. Any residual errors are the fault of
the author. The linked website is http://www.worldwidewords.org.</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:11pt">
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<p style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:11pt">
<b>Email addresses:</b></span><span style=" font-size:11pt"> Comments on newsletter mailings are always welcome. They should be
sent to me at michael.quinion@worldwidewords.org. I do try to respond, but pressures of
time often stop me. Items for </span><span style=" font-size:11pt"><i>Sic!</i></span><span style=" font-size:11pt"> should go to sic@worldwidewords.org. Questions for the
Q&A section should be sent to questions@worldwidewords.org, not to me directly.</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:0mm; margin-right:0mm; text-indent:0mm; margin-top:2.11mm; margin-bottom:0.00mm;"><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:11pt">
<b>Support World Wide Words:</b></span><span style=" font-size:11pt"> If you have enjoyed this newsletter and would like to help
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<b>Copyright</b></span><span style=" font-size:11pt">: World Wide Words is copyright © Michael Quinion 1996-2014. All rights
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