"Bargaining Chip": Antedating & Mystery

[Fred Shapiro]

On Mon, 12 Aug 2002, Rick H Kennerly wrote:

> Must have missed the professional academics only sign when I signed on this
> list, Frank (although I'm observant enough to have spotted you're name on
> more than a few spines, including two aboard our boat here).  Certainly the
> warm feelings of condescension you emanate toward us nonprofessional word
> folk go a great way toward explaining why etymology is so well remunerated,
> respected, and understood by the general, not to mention the book buying,
> public.

I don't want to get too snobbish -- I myself have no formal training or
academic credentials in the field of linguistics -- but I have to ask, why
is it that with regard to a subject like physics it's widely accepted that
people without "credentials" are unlikely to contribute anything advancing
the field, but with regard to etymology it's "snobbish" to disparage the
assertions of those who operate purely on conjecture?

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Public Services     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  and Lecturer in Legal Research            Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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