M-W and "fantabulous"

[Joanne M. Despres]

No problem, Ben.  I actually agree with you that our author should
have checked the OED for "ginormous," since she does have
access to that database -- I'll definitely make the suggestion,
reminding her about what a moving target dates of first occurrence
are these days.  She might even benefit from a sub to
newspaperarchive.com.  It's cheap enough.  But ProQuest, as far
as I know, still won't open its deep files to those of us in the
commercial publishing world.

But even if it did, I wouldn't have time to search it!

Maybe someday.  Sigh.

Joanne

On 19 Jan 2006, at 12:08, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:

> On 1/19/06, Joanne M. Despres <jdespres at merriam-webster.com> wrote:
> >
> > The newsletter writer is basing her research on C11.  She doesn't
> > have access to newspaperarchive or ProQuest, nor is it her job to
> > do original dating research for us.  She works for NPR in upstate
> > New York and writes our "Word for the Wise" pieces.
> >
> > I'll offer her some extra help if you really think she's that far off the
> > mark.  But you might want to keep in mind that most first
> > occurrences are provisional anyway, until something newer and
> > earlier turns up.
>
> My apologies for making a mountain out of a molehill. I realize that
> the discrepancy between what the newsletter says MW has for
> "fantabulous" and what's readily available from Proquest is not great
> (1953 vs. 1957 -- the discrepancy for "ginormous" is more worrisome).
> I just found it odd that the newsletter authoritatively states that
> Dec. 1957 is the date of MW's "oldest example," when it's relatively
> easy to find about a dozen antedatings. But such are the perils of
> lexicography in the age of Proquest and Newspaperarchive, I suppose.
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org