lexicography in the crossword puzzle

Mark A Mandel mam at THEWORLD.COM
Sun Feb 24 19:30:42 UTC 2002


The crossword puzzle in today's Boston _Globe_ is titled "New to the
dictionary". Its entries include

[spoiler space in case you get the _Globe_ and haven't done the puzzle
yet]
>
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  ( spaces, caps, and hyphenation added)
Some female suburbanites: soccer moms
When one feels unattractive: bad hair day
Subcontractor's practice: outsourcing
Inpatient physician: hospitalist
Provide rewards: incentivize
Authoritative opiner's place: bully pulpit
Texas emancipation day: Juneteenth
Average blue-collar guy: Joe Six-pack

As is standard in theme puzzles, these entries are placed regularly and
symmetrically and are longer than the others. E.g., "bully pulpit"
certainly isn't new, but its length and central placement, corresponding
to "outsourcing", indicate that it's meant to be part of the theme.
"Juneteenth" and "Joe Six-pack" likewise are nowise new. At least "bully
pulpit" has (ISTM)  seen a recent upsurge in public use, and "bad hair
day" is recent with this definition, no? But for my money only the first
five are in any way new in usage.  How new are they to "the"
dictionary(-ies)?

(Not that I'm complaining about the puzzle as such, especially since I
didn't do it. My wife has dibs.)

-- Mark A. Mandel
   Linguist at Large



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