FW: "needlepoint" v.

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Wed, Oct 17, 2001 at 02:04:34PM -0400, Fred Shapiro wrote:
> On Fri, 12 Oct 2001, Frank Abate wrote:
>
> > In reference to the following, I expect Buckley knew exactly what he was
> > saying.  "Solipsism" is perfectly good usage, though perhaps obscure, which
> > is his wont.
> >
> > Don't doubt Buckley's understanding of the language, even if you don't like
> > his politics.
>
> Is "solipsism" a count noun?  Isn't likely that Buckley really meant
> "solecisms" instead of "solipsisms"?

While this question could perhaps best be answered by asking him what
he meant; and acknowledging that Buckley is generally an extremely
careful user of the language who would not usually mistake "solipsism"
for "solecism" (both of which words he has used in his writing, by
the way, and calls our attention to in _Buckley: The Right Word_); I
will just say that while _solipsism_ is usually not a count noun,
we do have a few examples of the plural _solipsisms_ in our files,
one from Howard Nemerov in 1957, one from _The New Yorker_ in 1995.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED