Is Snail Salad a"regionalism" (or even a word?)

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

JMB at STRADLEY.COM wrote:

>>Does "snail salad" refer generally to any salad containing snails, or does 
it refer specifically to only one specific kind of salad with snails?  (I've 
never encountered the term, so cannot say.)  If the latter, it seems to me 
that it has a much better claim than "committee chairperson" to being a 
genuine compound word.>>

I agree, but the strength of the claim rests really upon the degree to which 
the compound does not merely equal the sum of its parts, and perhaps on how 
important the referant is culturally. I don't see any evidence that the 
difference between SNAIL SALAD and 'a salad made from snails' is very 
important outside of a cookbook. 

And to Fred (below) ne might well ask what the upper limit is, e.g., what 
about CHILD LANGUAGE ACQUISTION COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSON SEAT?


In a message dated 1/28/03 1:39:24 PM, fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU writes:


> On Tue, 28 Jan 2003 RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
> 
> > much less a regionalism? Maybe it could be an entry in a cookbook, but It
> > APPEARS to be just an ordinary noun adjunct, like COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSON 
> or
> > DICTIONARY MAKER or LEXICON INFLATER.
> 
> This raises an interesting question for Barry:  Does Barry believe that
> "committee chairperson" and "lexicon inflater" should be in the OED?
> Everything I see in his postings suggests to me that his answer would be
> "yes."
> 
> Fred
>