Questia - New Toy

[Kathleen E. Miller]

Not trying to step on anyone's toes, but Safire is done for the summer, so
1. I have no assignments, and 2. I have a new toy --Questia. (Fred
Shapiro's mentioned in before, but I just got my subscription yesterday.)
With no research to do for WS, I had to find the terms to plug into my new
toy somewhere. So I went to the OED appeals list. For those of you who
don't know about Questia, it's $70 a year and has fully searchable texts of
what they claim to be 50,000 books, journals, magazines and newspapers. At
www.questia.com.

(Look for the guest columns starting August 17th).


Artily - antedate 1961

  Ambrose Bierce: The Devil's Lexicographer; Book by Paul K. Fatout;
University of Oklahoma Press, 1951, page  192.

"He said that editions of a grocer's novel in the manner of Victor Hugo,
and of a woman's Indian story, artily printed on heavy paper with wide
margins, were taken over by the happy authors for distribution to friends.
What other business the firm had, and how it was conducted the doctor did
not say."


The Actor's Ways and Means Book by Michael Redgrave; W. Heinemann, 1953,
page 35.

"The play was very beautifully lighted by George Devine who is, amongst
other things, a master of lighting. And when I say it was beautifully lit I
do not mean that it was 'artily' lit, for it is notorious that in 'arty'
lighting, or indeed in any lighting in which the producer tries to paint
the scenery rather than light actors, the actors will tend to find shadows
for themselves, as it were."


Trailer Trash - antedate 1984

Home Away from Home: The Story of the USO, Book by Julia M. H. Carson;
Harper & Brothers, 1946, page 164.

"When Mrs. Kroger went shopping in the nearest town and heard people
talking about "trailer trash," it was this child's family she thought of.
Of course there were too many of them for one trailer but she felt sure
they were the kind of people who, even in a nice clean country kitchen,
would dirty the place up."


Chuffing - n. antedate 1984

The Road, Book by Harry Martinson, M. A. Michael; J. Cape, 1955, pages 59-60


"Stacks of freshly cut sleepers. Long piles of firewood. Trees, birdsong.
The locomotive's chuff-chuff, chuff-chuff. Shunting. Sound of buffers.
Coupling, clatter of hooks. Groans from the engine's brakes, whistles
hee-eeee. Chuff-chuff-chuff again. Departure signal. Departure which
increases and increases with the chuffing. Then it recedes."


People of Coal Town, Book by Herman R. Lantz; Columbia University Press,
1958, page 292


"This was in the age of steam, boom time in the coal fields, where hordes
of workmen were needed. The trash machine was symbolic of the grimy, black,
mysterious mine on the hill, which I could see and hear and whose terrors
our elders defied daily to win our bread. It was the biggest thing in my
early life and I developed a peculiar fascination for it  and came to
idolize the men who braved its mysterious depths. In this, I am sure I was
not alone. It represented a high adventure to which we hoped to attain. The
clatter and roar of the shakers, the chuffing of the hoisting engine, the
deep-throated steam whistle were native sounds."



Kathleen E. Miller
Research Assistant to William Safire
The New York Times