Words from Popular Literature Not in OED

[Wilson Gray]

Fred Shapiro wrote:

> If I had used the example "precious" from Lord
> of the Rings (an even more prominent illustration of a term from a modern
> literary work that is not included in OED) would the people with gonads
> have thought that I meant that the word "precious" was coined by Tolkien?

Never underestimate the possibility of a misunderstanding, Fred. My
understanding that you were claiming that "melange" first appeared in
English in the _Dune_ series was so strong that, since I respect your
authority, I was moved to consult the online OED to be certain of my
impression that there had been a word spelled "melange" that had
existed in English prior to the publication of that serial.

-Wilson

On 11/8/06, Alice Faber <faber at haskins.yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Alice Faber <faber at HASKINS.YALE.EDU>
> Organization: Haskins Laboratories
> Subject:      Re: Words from Popular Literature Not in OED
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Fred Shapiro wrote:
> > On Wed, 8 Nov 2006, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
> >
> >>> "Some of the contributors to this thread seem to be
> >>> unaware that the word existed before Frank Herbert."
> >>>
> >>> Exactly so, Mark. I didn't quite have the 'nads to state it so clearly
> >>> and so concisely. :-)
> >>
> >> I don't want to speak for any of the other contributors to the
> >> thread, but I'd still be pretty sure that _everyone_ who has
> >> contributed knows that _melange_ 'mixture' has been around for
> >> many centuries before Frank Herbert. The issue Fred was
> >> raising, it seems to me, is whether the specific _sense_ of
> >> _melange_ found in _Dune_ ("the fictional spice-drug central
> >> to the Dune series", as Wikipedia has it) belongs in OED.
> >
> > Thanks, Jesse.  I thought it was obvious that I was talking about a
> > specific sense of a word.  If I had used the example "precious" from Lord
> > of the Rings (an even more prominent illustration of a term from a modern
> > literary work that is not included in OED) would the people with gonads
> > have thought that I meant that the word "precious" was coined by Tolkien?
> >
>
> Speaking as someone who has no memory of ever having read Dune, I had
> absolutely no clue that this word was used in Dune in a non-intuitive
> special sense. So, I couldn't imagine that y'all were discussing
> anything other than the general sense of the word, even though it seemed
> passing strange to me that it was that recent.
>
> --
> ==============================================================================
> Alice Faber                                    faber at haskins.yale.edu
> Haskins Laboratories                           tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
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