"etymological fallacy"

[Gordon, Matthew J.]

I must have been thinking about Mill's military brother, General, when I typed 'Mills'.
-----Original Message-----
From:   Gordon, Matthew J.
Sent:   Tue 8/13/2002 8:10 PM
To:     ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Cc:	
Subject:             Re: "etymological fallacy"

I'm pretty sure Dick Bailey discusses this fallacy (and uses this term) in his book on 19th Century English. I don't have it with me here to check whether he cites Mills.

-----Original Message-----
From:   Laurence Horn [mailto:laurence.horn at YALE.EDU]
Sent:   Tue 8/13/2002 8:08 PM
To:     ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Cc:	
Subject:             Re: "etymological fallacy"

At 8:25 PM -0400 8/13/02, Frank Abate wrote:
>Larry H pointed out ... that Mill first mentioned this, and I'm sure
>that's right.  Likely I heard it somewhere, liked it, and didn't realize the
>source.
>
>In any case, the validity of the etymological fallacy applies, then and now.

Equally likely, you independently invented the expression, as I did,
and only later discovered, as I did, that J. S. Mill beat you to the
punch by 125+ years.  (One advantage, or disadvantage, of teaching
this stuff is to have students who use their "journals of linguistic
awareness" to call one's attention to one's having been thus
punch-beaten.)

larry