<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"><head>
<title></title>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8"/>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css"/>
</head>
<body>
<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>Saturday 10 January 2015</i></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>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>Horse creature.</b></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> Mike Mellor and other New Zealanders mentioned that
</span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>cattle beast</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> is a common generic term in that country. John Park wrote “Along
with two friends we have each just purchased a third of a ‘cattle beast’ to stock
up our freezers for the festive season. This is an expression often used in New
Zealand, more in the sense of meat from a bullock, rather than from a cow or
bull.” And he added, “You get milk from cows, but beef comes from </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>cattle
beasts</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">, which could be male, female, or somewhere in between.”</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 usage isn’t limited to New Zealand. Leslie Lewis emailed, “Your item
reminded me of the feeling of surprise I experienced when we moved to Bruce
County, a largely agricultural part of Ontario, Canada. The local newspaper
carried a notice about a lost </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>cattle beast</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> in a nearby township. Farmer friends
told me this was the usual way of referring to what I would have called a cow
when you didn’t want to specify the age or gender of the creature.”</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">Jos Mottershead sent a copy of the will of Jacob Fry of Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania, dated 25 January 1792, which includes the bequest, “all my
horse Creatures, </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>horn Creatures</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">, and Farming utensils”. This isn’t at all
unusual as a term for a bovine. This example is from a local ordinance and also
contains a good example of the phrase </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>of the [animal] kind</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">:</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">That from and after the date hereof no person being the owner of or
having the custody of any animal of the horse, sheep, or hog kind or of
any horned creature, geese or turkey, shall permit or suffer the same to
run at large upon any of the streets or other public grounds.</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 Warren Mail</i></span><span style=" font-size:11pt"> (Pennsylvania), 13 Aug. 1859.</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">
<i>Horn beast</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> and </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>horned beast</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> are also both occasionally recorded as terms for
cattle. The </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>Oxford English Dictionary</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> has one example of the former, dated
1616, and it turns up in newspaper reports in subsequent centuries. One of
1837 looked forward to a time:</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">when no horned beasts or droves of sheep will be permitted to be driven
through our great public thoroughfares.</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>True Sun</i></span><span style=" font-size:11pt"> (London), 22 Aug. 1837.</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">Edwin Sundt noted that in the US “horse racing programs still list male horses
as ‘horses’ to distinguish them from mares and fillies.” Lance Schulz
commented, “This leads to the trick question ‘How many horses have won the
Kentucky Derby?’. The answer is ‘None, the race has only been won by colts,
geldings, and fillies’!”</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">Michel D'Edouard pointed out that English does have a singular term for cattle:
</span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>ox</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">. It’s one of the few words in modern English that retains an old Anglo-Saxon
plural form, </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>oxen</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">. </span><span style=" font-size:13pt">
<i>Ox</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> to me has always implied a castrated bull used as a
draught animal and the idea of placid strength is basic to its figurative senses.
But the term does indeed at root mean, or has meant, a single bovine kept for
meat, milk or hide. Ian Finn mentioned the much less well known </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>neat</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">, also
Germanic in origin, which survives in </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>neat’s-foot oil</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">, made from boiled cow
heel and used for dressing leather. </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>Phizzog.</b></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> Several readers spotted a similarity between this term and the
French (and English) word </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>visage</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">, which is from Latin </span>
<span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>visus</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">, sight. Any
resemblance is accidental, however, as the origin in </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>physiognomy</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> is too well
established.</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">And lots of people reminded me of </span>
<span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>Phiz</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">, the pen name of the cartoonist Hablot
Knight Browne, whose illustrations are most closely associated with the works
of Charles Dickens.</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>Back issues.</b></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> Because several subscribers have mentioned how awkward the
back issues on the Mailman mailing list server are to read, I’m slowly returning
back issues to the </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>World Wide Words</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> site. It takes a while, as each issue has to
be reformatted to match the recent redesign. So far, the issues from January
2011 to date are once again available. You will find an extra menu item on every
page linking to an index.</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>Eellogofusciouhipoppokunurious</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">This appears quite often in modern collections of exotic and unfamiliar words.
It’s certainly both. It’s monstrous, 31 letters long (to save electrons and my
typing fingers, let’s call it E31 from now on), longer even than the most-quoted
example, </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>antidisestablishmentarianism</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">, though out-lettered by the delightful
</span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>supercalifragilisticexpialidocious</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> and the fictitious
</span></font><a href="http://wwwords.org/pmsvc"><font face="Georgia" color="#0000ff"><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i><u>pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis</u></i></span></font></a>
<font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt">. Who could possibly have
created E31, and having done so, dared to present such an unpronounceable
horror before the public? </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 far as I can discover, it has never appeared anywhere in print as a serious
word. We know about it solely because of the American folklorist Louise
Pound. She was born in Nebraska in 1872 and was a professor of English at the
University of Nebraska for most of her adult life. In 1911 and 1916 she
contributed three word lists to the journal </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>Dialect Notes</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> that she had collected
from students at the university.</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">These included </span>
<span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>cackleberries</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> for eggs, </span><span style=" font-size:13pt">
<i>discumgalligumfricated</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">, greatly
astonished but pleased, </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>hiptiminigy</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">, a cry that expressed exuberance of spirit,
</span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>optriculum</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">, something whose name one can’t remember for the moment, and
</span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>ramsasspatorious</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">, excited, anxious, impatient. The list also contains E31,
defined as “extra good or fine” and noted as having been brought from western
Oregon by the unnamed person who contributed it. </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">Dr Stephen Chrisomalis, of </span>
<span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>The Phrontistery</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> and , wrote about it a year ago
and pointed out that the list has two other relevant words: </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>hypoppercanorious</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">
and </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>flippercanorious</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">, both with the same sense of something very good. The
first is E31 without the </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>eellogofusciou</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> at the front; all three have </span>
<span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>canorious</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> at
the end, though spelled differently in E31. </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>Hypoppercanorious</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> was said to be
in use also in Massachusetts. The very similar </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>hippocanarious</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> was recorded in
1949 in a word list from west Texas, though that was said to mean
unmanageable or high-spirited.</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">Such tantalising hints suggest that these words — and perhaps others similar to
them — had been in slangy usage across the US in the first half of the twentieth
century. We may guess at the pleasure that students took in creating and using
these exaggerated and unfamiliar words as part of the long US tradition of
generating and flourishing grandiloquent words such as </span></font><a href="http://wwwords.org/absqu"><font face="Georgia" color="#0000ff">
<span style=" font-size:13pt"><i><u>absquatulate</u></i></span></font></a><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt">,
</span></font><a href="http://wwwords.org/hrnsw"><font face="Georgia" color="#0000ff"><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i><u>hornswoggle</u></i></span></font></a>
<font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt">, </span></font><a href="http://wwwords.org/skdlr"><font face="Georgia" color="#0000ff">
<span style=" font-size:13pt"><i><u>sockdolager</u></i></span></font></a><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt">, and </span></font>
<a href="http://wwwords.org/skddl"><font face="Georgia" color="#0000ff"><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i><u>skedaddle</u></i></span></font></a>
<font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt">.</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>Old fogey</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 Susan England</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">: While discussing the difficulty my husband and I
have with modern electronics, he described us both as </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>old fogies</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">, which got me
to thinking about the origin of that term.</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="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:13pt"> I do hope his use of this unflattering epithet was humorous. An </span>
<span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>old fogey</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> is
a person of advanced years — or seems so to the person doing the describing —
who holds on to attitudes that they learned when they were young and rejects
new things, so appearing old-fashioned, behind the times and past it.</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">There’s nothing new about </span>
<span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>old fogey</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">. It was first recorded by Francis Grose in
his </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> in 1785. He said that </span>
<span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>old fogey</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">,
and </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>fogey</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> by itself, was a nickname for an invalid soldier. Others later
suggested it was also used for a garrison soldier, one too old or infirm for active
service, who was often sent out to get new recruits. The only real-life example I
can find is this, in a report of one such from Carrickfergus in northern Ireland:</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">During the last week, a recruiting party of the Old Fogies had decoyed a
number of young lads, by means of intoxication, &c. at which the friends
and comrades of the deluded recruits were exceedingly displeased and
disgusted.</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>Morning Post</i></span><span style=" font-size:11pt">, 3 Apr. 1793.</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">Other early examples focus on old age and out-of-touchness:</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">Well, here I am, on the eve, or rather on the day, of visiting a rich </span>
<span style=" font-size:12pt"><i>old
fogey</i></span><span style=" font-size:12pt"> of an uncle, who has not been in London for these forty years.</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 Duel, or My Two Nephews</i></span><span style=" font-size:11pt">, by Richard Brinsley Peake, 1823.</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 became common in the 1860s and has remained in use ever since, though the
last half century has seen a falling off in its popularity. On occasion, it has been
compared and contrasted with a </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>young fogey</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">, a youngish person with notably
conservative tastes and attitudes. </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">We call them old fogies; but there are young fogies, too. Old fogyism
begins at a younger age than we think. I am almost afraid to say so, but I
believe that in the majority of human beings it begins at about
twenty-five.</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>Talks to Teachers on Psychology; and to Students on some of Life’s Ideals</i></span><span style=" font-size:11pt">, by
William James, 1899.</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">
<i>Young fogey</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> became popular quite suddenly in Britain in the early 1980s,
during Margaret Thatcher’s first period in office, referring to a particular brand
of young conservative who aped the clothes, opinions and manners of their
seniors. It’s still around, though the fashion for the term and the type have both
passed.</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">Were there ever </span>
<span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>fogies</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">, not particularised as </span><span style=" font-size:13pt">
<i>old</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">?</span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i> </i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">Francis Grose hints so in his
dictionary but a systematic search finds nothing.</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">Enquiries about its origins leave us uncertain. Grose suggested that it came
from the French </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>fougueux</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">, fierce or fiery, which doesn’t fit the sense at all.
Modern dictionaries prefer </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>foggy</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">, a Scots dialectal word meaning moss-grown
or decrepit. It could also mean damp or boggy and it’s the source of </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>fog</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> for a
coarse grass growing in damp or boggy conditions and also </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>fog</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> for the type of
weather. </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>Foggy</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> is also recorded from the sixteenth century for a person who
was, as the </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>Oxford English Dictionary</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> puts it, “unwholesomely bloated,
swollen with flabby and unhealthy corpulence”. Some dictionaries mention
</span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>fogram</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">, a superannuated person or an old fuddy-duddy, which appeared a few
years before </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>old fogey</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">. From its date, form and meaning it must be connected
in some way, but nobody knows how.</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">One other suggestion which appears in some books and also online argues that
</span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>old fogey</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> is from the one-time American armed forces slang </span>
<span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>fogy</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> for a
long-service pay increase. </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>Fogy</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> was first noted by Lewis R Hamersly in his
</span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>Naval Encyclopaedia</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> of 1881 and by De Witt Clinton Fall in </span>
<span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>Army and Navy
Information</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> of 1917; it remained in active use in the services until after the
Second World War. But its dating is enough to show that it can’t possibly be the
source of </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>old fogey</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">.</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">Matt Dallett found a headline with an accidental double meaning in a
Bloomberg report on Yahoo News on 28 December: “Grandfather’s Illness
Saves Family From Missing AirAsia Flight.”</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">And what are we to make of “Ancient Ships Found in Turkey With Human
Heads”? John Pearlman found that headline the same day on Newser.</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 headline on the </span>
<span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>People</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> site of 24 December, “Scientist in Atlanta May Have
Contradicted Ebola”, has since been corrected, though it was copied unchanged
to several other sites, including that of the </span><span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>Chicago Sun-Times</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt">. Thanks to
Helen le Vann for submitting it.</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">A news story in the </span>
<span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>Dominion Post</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> of New Zealand on 24 December about the
return of three agents to Cuba commented on “The joyful but puzzling news
that one of their wives is expecting just two weeks from now.” Suzy Thaman
saw that the headline attempted to explain the mystery: “Wife of returned Cuba
agent expecting, thanks to US senator’s help”.</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">A news story on the BBC site of 29 December about the return of a plane with
faulty landing gear to Gatwick and the filming of the incident by a passenger,
reported, “Hardeek Desai captured the moment fuel was jettisoned to
re-balance the aircraft and emergency vehicles on the runway.”</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">A feature on Jacqueline Bisset in the </span>
<span style=" font-size:13pt"><i>Sunday Times Magazine</i></span><span style=" font-size:13pt"> of 28 December
included this: “The last big [relationship] was with Emin Boztepe, a
marital-arts expert. We were together 14 years and split in 2008.” Hilary
Hicklin wondered how much of an expert that made him.</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>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">
<b>Subscriptions</b></span><span style=" font-size:11pt">: To </span><span style=" font-size:11pt"><i>leave the list</i></span><span style=" font-size:11pt">, email worldwidewords-leave@listserv.linguistlist.org from
your subscribed address. To </span><span style=" font-size:11pt"><i>join the list</i></span><span style=" font-size:11pt">, send an email to
worldwidewords-join@listserv.linguistlist.org from the address at which you want to
subscribe. To </span><span style=" font-size:11pt"><i>change your subscribed address</i></span><span style=" font-size:11pt">, leave the list and rejoin. In each case, the
subject line and body of your message will be ignored; you will be sent a message asking you
to confirm your intention. Please don’t contact me about changes you can make yourself,
though if problems arise you can email me at wordssubs@worldwidewords.org. Back issues
from January 2011 are </span></font><a href="http://wwwords.org/bi"><font face="Georgia" color="#0000ff"><span style=" font-size:11pt">
<u>here</u></span></font></a><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:11pt"> and older ones back to 1999 are </span></font><a href="http://wwwords.org/bk">
<font face="Georgia" color="#0000ff"><span style=" font-size:11pt"><u>here</u></span></font></a><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:11pt">. World Wide Words is also
on </span></font><a href="http://wwwords.org/tw"><font face="Georgia" color="#0000ff"><span style=" font-size:11pt"><u>Twitter</u></span></font></a>
<font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:11pt"> and </span></font><a href="http://wwwords.org/fb"><font face="Georgia" color="#0000ff">
<span style=" font-size:11pt"><u>Facebook</u></span></font></a><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:11pt">. </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>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
defray its costs and those of the linked Web site, please visit the </span></font><a href="http://wwwords.org/st"><font face="Georgia">
<span style=" font-size:11pt">support page</span></font></a><font face="Georgia"><span style=" font-size:11pt">.</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>Copyright</b></span><span style=" font-size:11pt">: World Wide Words is copyright © Michael Quinion 1996-2015. All rights
reserved. You may reproduce this newsletter in whole or part in free newsletters, newsgroups
or mailing lists or as educational resources provided that you include the copyright notice
above and give the web address of http://www.worldwidewords.org. Reproduction of items
in printed publications or commercial websites requires permission from the author
beforehand.</span></font></p>
<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style=" font-size:12pt"><br />
</span></font></div>
<div align="left"> </div>
</body>
</html>