"Bargaining Chip": Antedating & Mystery

[Rick H Kennerly]

|o|
|o| On the other hand, conjecture in etymology generates false
|o| leads most of the
|o| time, and hence ends up being distracting and time-wasting in trying to
|o| determine "the etymon"; this could be shown by myriad examples.

Which seems to me to be the main difference between the hard sciences and
etymology.  In the hard sciences a definitive knowledge and systematic
cataloging of what does not work is as important, some would argue is more
important, than finding the final solution.  Whereas in etymology false
leads are mere background clutter to an etymologist who apparently admits no
possibility for sudden insights or leaps of intuition and where one doggedly
tracks an etymon from page to page, document to document, source to source
for all eternity.

What a perfectly ghastly existence etymologists describe for themselves.  Do
you suppose that it is it a life sentence or is there any possibility of
parole?  It must be particularly terrifying to toil in a professional field
where at any moment a mere dilettante is but a page turn away from ruining
months of careful, meticulous tracking and that splendid journal article
you'd been planning.

rhk