noviciate

[Jonathan Lighter]

Believe it or else, "novitiate" appears in dictionaries incl. OED as a synonym of "novice."

JL

Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: noviciate
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Are you sure about the intended meaning, Jon? Shouldn't the reading be
"virginal novice"? What could "virginal noviciate" or even "virginal
novitiate" mean?

-Wilson

On Mar 29, 2005, at 3:06 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> Subject: Re: noviciate
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> Actually, OED shows "noviciate" as one spelling since the 1500s ( as
> in its primary citation).
> And the word does have a needless history in this sense going back 250
> years.
>
> But I still think the spelling here is hypercorrectional orthography,
> or orthographical hypercorrection, as the case may be.
>
> JL
>
> Grant Barrett wrote:
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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Grant Barrett
> Subject: Re: noviciate
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> --------
>
> That reminds me of the term "jargonese": the word "jargon" alone must
> not sound bafflegabby enough to some people. No hits yet on
> jargonesespeak, though. (FYI, "jargonese" shows up in OED online in a
> 1985 quote from the London Times at "daysack" but does not yet have an
> entry of its own there.)
>
> Grant Barrett
> gbarrett at worldnewyork.org
>
> On Mar 29, 2005, at 13:58, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
>> Hypercorrectional orthography :
>>
>> 2002 Michael C. C. Adams _Echoes of War_ (Lexington: U. P. of Ky.) 2
>> "Luke Skywalker is the virginal noviciate on his first and most pure
>> knight's quest."
>>
>> "Most pure" disimpresses me as well.
>>
>> JL
>>
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