NPR's "On Words"

[Jonathan Lighter]

That's why it says "uncovers historical interpretations" rather than a straightforward "reveals the fascinating facts."

  He doesn't even "discover" the interpretations. He just "uncovers" them. Voil'a !

  But maybe I'm granting the NPR publicists more subtlety than they deserve.

  JL

Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Fred Shapiro
Subject: Re: NPR's "On Words"
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On Wed, 25 Jan 2006, Tom Vincent wrote:

> NPR: On Words with John Ciardi [NPR] Ever wondered where this word or
> that phrase comes from? The late poet laureate John Ciardi uncovers
> historical interpretations in this series from the Morning Edition
> archives. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4986368

It should be noted that John Ciardi, although a pretty good poet, was a
notoriously poor etymological scholar. Anything he has to say about
"historical interpretations" should be taken with many grains of salt.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
Access and Lecturer in Legal Research Yale University Press,
Yale Law School forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu http://quotationdictionary.com
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