my personal woty

Thu Jan 12 23:52:51 UTC 2006

OK, Ron, despite the html that seems to fill your post on my
computer, which I can at least now read, OED does list dogfood,
without defining it, since it is transparent, as you say:  s.v.,
"dog. n., 19. General Comb.:    a. attributive, as dog-basket, -bite,
-breed, -couple, -doctor, -feast, -flesh, -food, -hospital, -leash, -
licence, -life, -muzzle, -pack, -show, -soap, -tax, -train, -truck, -
whistle, etc.; serving as food for dogs, as dog-bran, -cake, DOG-
BISCUIT, etc. Also in ref. to greyhound racing, as dog-race, -racer, -
racing, -track."

[uh, dogbran? keeps pets regular, or is it the chaff of dogs?]

But is transparency not also a factor in 'bookcase,' which merits a
full entry of its own, complete with definition of the obvious:
bookcase, a case for books? s.v. OED: "A case or cupboard for books;
a set of bookshelves shut in by doors, glazed or otherwise. Hence
bookcased ppl. a., bookcase-maker." And from our friends in
Springfield, MA ": a piece of furniture consisting of shelves to hold
books." And, courtesy of Bartleby.com, the even more imaginative "1)
bookcase. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language:
Fourth Edition. 2000. ...A piece of furniture with shelves for
holding books...."

The roadside bomb is in fact not just a land mine (transparent, but
still defined in OED: "land-mine, (a) an explosive mine used on land;
(b) a bomb dropped by parachute from an aircraft;") or other sort of
bomb that happens to go off along the curb (kerb?) but an explosive
device often disguised to look like something else, and detonated
either by a triggering mechanism on the scene or remotely via cell
phone or garage door opener.

Dennis

On Jan 12, 2006, at 4:11 PM, ronbutters at aol.com wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ronbutters at AOL.COM
> Subject:      Re: my personal woty
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> <HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><FONT COLOR="#000000"
> FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2">I suppose the reason that
> "roadside bomb" is not in dictionaries is that it is almost totally
> transparent. If you know what "roadside" means and what "bomb"
> means, you know what "roadside bomb" means. "Dog food" gets
> 2.400,000 Google hits, but it isn't in NOAD.<BR>
>
> <BR>
>
> <BR>
>
> In a message dated 1/11/06 10:26:24 PM, debaron at UIUC.EDU writes:<BR>
>
> <BR>
>
> <BR>
>
> <BLOCKQUOTE CITE STYLE="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-
> LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px" TYPE="CITE"></
> FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
> SIZE="2">Speaking of truthiness, when NCTE gave Jon Stewart the
> George OrwellÂ <BR>
>
> Award for Excellence in Analyzing public discourse, he totallyÂ <BR>
>
> ignored us, so whatever you think of truthiness, at least StephenÂ
> <BR>
>
> Colbert acknowledged the gesture. My own candidate for WOTY for
> theÂ <BR>
>
> past 2 years running has been roadside bomb, a suggestion that no
> oneÂ <BR>
>
> picks up on (not found in dictionaries, btw). See the following
> forÂ <BR>
>
> the google count (as of mid-December) and the Lexis/Nexis count
> forÂ <BR>
>
> Nov-Dec.:<BR>
>
> <BR>
>
> Roadside Bomb: The Word of the Year for 2005<BR>
>
> <BR>
>
> by Dennis Baron<BR>
>
> <BR>
>
> The word of the year for 2005 â€“ actually a phrase â€“Â
> is roadsideÂ <BR>
>
> bomb. It was my choice for word of the year for 2004, and in theÂ
> <BR>
>
> absence of an exit strategy for the war in Iraq, it looks to be
> theÂ <BR>
>
> word of the year for 2006 as well.<BR>
>
> <BR>
>
> Although itâ€™s not in any dictionary, roadside bomb is not a
> newÂ <BR>
>
> phrase. It appears in a 1979 AP story about Basque terrorists, andÂ
> <BR>
>
> roadside bombs were popular with insurgents in Lebanon and Bosnia.Â
> <BR>
>
> â€œRoadside bombâ€ may not be as old as the related â
> €œcar bomb,â€ used inÂ <BR>
>
> Northern Ireland in 1972, or â€œsuicide bomber,â€ with a
> destructiveÂ <BR>
>
> history going back at least to 1941. Nor is it as popular on theÂ
> <BR>
>
> Internet. Googling â€œroadside bombâ€ nets 1,010,000 hits,
> a three-foldÂ <BR>
>
> jump since last year. But car bombs are stronger, at over 3
> million,Â <BR>
>
> and suicide bombers lead the hit parade, with more than 3 Å,
> --- message truncated ---