Americanisms, 1823

[Gregory {Greg} Downing]

At 06:29 PM 8/29/2000, George Thompson (<thompsng at ELMER4.BOBST.NYU.EDU>) wrote:
>...Philologus gives a list of words "made use of in
>[England], which are probably little known here.  These I extract
>from the Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, published in London for the
>benefit of his majesty's subjects in general."  He chooses 28 words,
>including fubsey, plump, (which Greg Downing, at least, will remember
>as part of Stephen Dedalus's vocabulary) gob, the mouth, and glum,
>sullen.

"Plump" is definitely part of the narrator's vocabulary, though not
necessarily Stephen's, in the passage to which you refer (the book's
incipit). Actually, fubsy (sic), gob, and glum all occur in the book. Isn't
it a well-known fact that the whole of OED1 is in _Ulysses_, unhelpfully
jumbled out of alphabetical order? There's even that big patch of
Americanisms in the coda to episode 14, a passage I discussed at some length
as part of the Zurich Joyce Center workshop week earlier this month.

I trust all's going well with you, George.

Best, Greg D.



Greg Downing, at greg.downing at nyu.edu or gd2 at is2.nyu.edu