Words from Popular Literature Not in OED

[Barbara Need]

>On 11/8/06, Dave Wilton <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
>>
>>Exactly. I was just trying to think of examples of words that appear in a
>>single, recent work of popular literature. You don't find "muggle" outside
>>Rowling's books and associated commentary.
>
>If that were the case, I think it would be a much less likely
>candidate for inclusion in OED (and NOAD). As it happens, "muggle" has
>developed an extended sense meaning 'a person who lacks a particular
>skill or skills, or who is regarded as inferior in some way' (OED) or
>'an unimaginative or boring person' (NOAD). Here are two OED cites:
>
>-----
>1999 Computer Weekly (Nexis) 2 Sept. 2 Our new senior DBA starts on
>Monday. She's a muggle. No IT background, understanding or aptitude at
>all.
>2000 News Tribune (Nexis) 17 July C1 Thus fielding a team of muggles
>in a league of wizards, the Storm opened the season with four losses.
>-----
>
>--Ben Zimmer

There are also non-Potter, literary uses of the term "muggle" (as has
been documented in response to someone suing Rowling for stealing
muggles from her (I believe the suit was lost)). For me, Muggle is a
character in _The Gammage Cup_ (a wonderful story) and I grew up with
"Muggle's piles", which term stems from the way she arranged items in
her home--in piles here, there, and everywhere (but she always knew
in which pile the thing she was looking for was). For those of you
who knew him, Jim McCawley lived with what I would call Muggle's
piles: he could always pull out an article to share with you from the
middle of a huge tower of paper.

Barbara

Barbara Need
UChicago

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