Tortilla Soup/Aztec Soup

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Dec 3, 2007 3:41 PM, Arnold M. Zwicky <zwicky at csli.stanford.edu> wrote:
>
> having read a newspaper story about how sea otters in pacific waters
> are being threatened by toxic algal blooms, i checked the OED this
> morning for "domozoic acid", the toxin in question.  i was not at all
> surprised to find that it wasn't there.  we can't expect the OED to
> have entries for all names of the form "X acid".  "sulphuric
> acid" (with that spelling; no entry for "sulfuric") and "hydrochloric
> acid", yes, but "domozoic acid", no (unless it starts getting a whole
> lot of press).
>
> (the only google hit i got for "domozoic" was a website claiming to
> trace the Levitical prohibition against eating shellfish to the
> possibility of poisoning by domozoic acid.  i am dubious.)

You'll find more hits for "domoic acid" (though that's not in the OED either).


--Ben Zimmer

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