intransitive "hail as" = 'be; count as'

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>This use of "hail" was new to me. I took it as an extension, possibly
>erroneous, of "hail from" 'be from [a place]'.

Sure is new to me too. Google Groups shows this only since 1995.

In some cases "hail as" = simply "be".

In others it looks like "be identified as".

In others it looks like "be distinguished as". Or "be hailed as"!

A casual speculation: this is a conflation of

(1) "be hailed as"

and

(2) something like this (which is suggested by the first Google Groups
citation:

"Vessel on sensors, Cap'n. We're being hailed."
"By whom?"
"The vessel identifies herself as the Klingon cruiser 'Lollipop'."

In the edited version:

"Vessel on sensors, Cap'n. She hails as the Klingon cruiser 'Lollipop'."

I won't be recommending this one soon (in case anybody should ask my opinion).

-- Doug Wilson