Words from Popular Literature Not in OED

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Tue Nov 7 20:00:04 UTC 2006


I don't understand WTF the point is, here. Is it that the meaning of
"melange" as it's used in the _Dune_ series hasn't yet appeared in a
dictionary and some people think that it should? IMO, the question
appears to be nugatory.

-Wilson

On 11/7/06, Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Words from Popular Literature Not in OED
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Sat, 4 Nov 2006, Jeff Prucher wrote:
>
> > I'm curious about your choice of "melange" as an example.  I'm aware of
> > use outside of the source material for "granfaloon" (there's an entry
> > for it in Grant's political slang dict, btw) and "kryptonite", but I've
> > never encountered melange without direct reference to Dune, and probably
> > not any more often than say, "stillsuit" or "sandworm"; "the Spice" I've
> > heard perhaps more often.
>
> I'm not a "Dune" expert, and may have chosen a poor example, but Google
> searches seem to show "melange" being used far more often than "stillsuit"
> or "sandworm."
>
> Fred
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
> Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS
>    Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press
> Yale Law School                             ISBN 0300107986
> e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
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