Tofu (1873, 1874); WOTY articles

Mon Jan 10 01:12:39 UTC 2005

TOFU
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STINKY TOFU--9.950 Google hits, 223 Google Groups hitsSMELLY TOFU--3,470 Google hits, 57 Google Groups hits
FERMENTED TOFU--2,130 Google hits, 147 Google Groups hits
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Yes, "doufu." Here's the OED entry. Merriam-Webster has 1771.
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(OED)
tofu
[a. Jap. tofu, ad. Chinese dÃ²ufu, f. dÃ²u beans + f rotten.]

A curd made in Japan and China from mashed soya beans; bean curd.

1880 Trans. Asiatic Soc. Japan VIII. 399 TÃ´fu is made by pounding the soy beans after soaking in water. 1905 Bull. U.S. Dept. Agric. CLIX. 46 The larger part of the leguminous food in the Japanese diet consists of the preparations of soy beans, such as miso, shoyu and tofu. 1934 BLUNDEN Mind's Eye 109 Two hawks have raided the tofu. 1936 K. TEZUKA Jap. Food 28 Tfu (bean-curd) is made by soaking soy beans in water, mashing them, straining the mass through cloth and solidifying with the addition of magnesium chloride. 1979 Sunset Apr. 214/2 Arrange all tofu strips in the casserole and cover with Â of the cheese. 1981 Guardian 14 Aug. 7/1 In the United States,..tofu has become an â€˜inâ€™ food.
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(AMERICAN PERIODICAL SERIES)
INSIDE JAPAN.
W E GRIFFIS. Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science (1871-1885). Philadelphia: Aug 1873. Vol. 12; p. 174 (8 pages)
Page 180:
In a third are boiled buckwheat cakes or dumplings, and _tofu_ or bean-curd.
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JAPANESE FOX-MYTHS.
WILLIAM E GRIFFIS. Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science (1871-1885). Philadelphia: Jan 1874. Vol. 13; p. 57 (8 pages)
Page 62:
Among the lowest and most ignorant clases the feeding ofthe live fox at night with _tofu_ (bean cheese) fried in oil is thought to please Inari and ward off threatened evils from his messenger foxes.
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RED STATE, BLUE STATE Â
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Too bad the "early line" prevailed. The word "tsunami" is on the cover of TIME, NEWSWEEK, and PEOPLE this week, but those 120,000+ deaths will surely be forgotten by January 2006. It would have been our first "loan-word WOTY."
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(NEXIS)
The Associated Press State & Local Wire

These materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The Associated Press

January 9, 2005, Sunday, BC cycle

2:51 PM Eastern Time

SECTION: State and Regional

LENGTH: 353 words

HEADLINE: "Red state, blue state, purple state" voted top phrase 2004

DATELINE: OAKLAND, Calif.

BODY:
"Red state, blue state, purple state" was deemed the phrase that most colored the nation's lexicon in 2004, a panel of linguists determined Friday.

For the 15th straight year, attendees at the annual convention of the Linguistic Society of America chose the word or phrase that dominated national discourse over the course of the last year.

"It was the best candidate for word of the year," said Dennis Preston, a professor of linguistics at Michigan State University. "It engaged the American public for the entire year. Nothing showed the bloodthirsty population-engaging election as this."

The phrase "red state, blue state, purple state" represents the American political map. The term defines red as favoring Republicans, blue as favoring Democrats and purple showing swing or undecided states.

Words or phrases didn't need to be brand new or even well-known to get a nomination. In fact, there was one on the list - "luanqibaozhao," which is Chinese for a complicated mess - that was not even pronounceable by the contest organizers.

While the contest was considered very serious by the thousand or so conference attendees, there was plenty of joking to be found.

Preston made a pitch for the term "lawn mullet," which describes a lawn that is neatly mowed in the front but unmowed in the back, as a candidate for the Most Creative category.

Other top word or phrases of 2004 were: flip-flopper, a politician who changes political stances; meet-up, a local special interest meeting organized though a national Web site; mash-up, a blend of two songs or albums into a single cohesive musical work; and wardrobe malfunction, an unanticipated exposure of bodily parts. The term was coined when viewers saw singer Janet Jackson's breast during the Super Bowl halftime show.

"Metrosexual," defined as a heterosexual male who has pristine taste, grooming and hygiene, was the top vote getter in 2003.

The contest is sponsored annually by the American Dialect Society.

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On the Net:

Linguistic Society of America: www.lsadc.org

American Dialect Society: www.americandialect.org

LOAD-DATE: January 9, 2005
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http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/front/10497835.htm?1c
This year, we blaused to TiVo a wardrobe malfunction

What's the good word for '04? Linguists vote.

By Amy S. Rosenberg

Inquirer Staff Writer

Are you a technosexual? Do you TiVo? Do you blog so much you need a blause?

Are you John Kerry and did you approve this message?

As the annual word-of-the-year showdown approaches, these are the questions - or at least the phrases - that consume the linguists of our land, a place that in 2004 was incessantly described as composed of red states and blue states.

The year's new words reflect the dichotomy of the times, from the ridiculous to the somber.

Janet Jackson experienced her dubious wardrobe malfunction. Soldiers in Iraq complained of having to up-armor their humvees by scrounging for scrap-metal hillbilly armor.

And in the land of purple - defined either as a swing/battleground state or the more ephemeral state of everyone putting aside their red-and-blue differences - people were inundated with what linguist Wayne Glowka calls "the proclaimer."

By Election Day, even 7-year-olds could sarcastically bark back to the TV: "Yes. You are John Kerry/George W. Bush. And you do approve this message."

"Now that's got to be the phrase of the year," wrote Glowka, chair of the American Dialect Society's New Words Committee, in an e-mail that contained his nominations for the society's word of the year. The group will vote Jan. 7.

But the early line seems to favor red state/blue state - shorthand for the country's cultural and political divide - or its purple state corollary. Clearly, it was a year in which both headlines and language were dominated by politics and war.
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