AP confuses ADS and ANS; Ranahan (?)

Mon Jan 8 15:18:22 UTC 2007

You actually expect reporters to read the press release before writing the
story? How cute!

The problem is that the press release violated one of the rules of writing
press releases--quotes are intended to tout the subject of the release.
Releases are highly formulaic and deviating from what is to be expected will
only invite mistakes and confusion from the press. If the ANS Name of the
year is to be mentioned at all in the ADS release, it should not get a
quote.

Quotes are a big deal in the press. No story more than two paragraphs long
goes out without one. So getting the quote right is important.

And there is a good chance that the AP story was outsourced to India and
written by someone on the other side of the globe--many such
press-released-based stories are nowadays.

--Dave Wilton
  dave at wilton.net

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Bapopik at AOL.COM
Sent: Sunday, January 07, 2007 10:21 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: AP confuses ADS and ANS; Ranahan (?)

Amazing. The AP can't read and understand the ADS press release, something
that's handed to the AP each year?
...
...
...
Any help on "ranahan"/"ranny" is appreciated. HDAS? OED? Dallas Morning
News? Texas Siftings?
...
...

<a
href="_http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0618083499&id=ioHbdtjIKJgC&pg=R
A1-PA154&lpg=RA1-PA154&ots=VKhWXTJ7h8&dq=waddy+cowboy&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=WOZz
j
vWS4Q7DDlwQZFV7mL11sX8">Google_
(http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0618083499&id=ioHbdtjIKJgC&pg
=RA1-PA154&lpg=RA1-PA154&ots=VKhWXTJ7h8&
amp;dq=waddy+cowboy&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=WOZzjvWS4Q7DDlwQZFV7mL11sX8">G
oo
gle) Books</a>
Cowboy Lingo
by Ramon F. Adams
New York: Houghton Mifflin
2000
1936 (original copyright)
Pg. 22:
The cowboy was known, too, by such slang names as "ranahan" (which really
referred to a top hand), "saddle-warmer," "saddle-slicer," "saddle-stiff,"
"leather-pounder," "cow-poke," "cow-prod," or "waddie," but the most common
term
used in the cattle country was the simple title of "cow-hand" or "hand."
...
...
(Dictionary of American Regional English)
ranahan n [Perh ranny + hand] West CF ranny
An experienced cowhand.
1936 Adams Cowboy Lingo 22, The cowboy was known, too, by such slang
names as "ranahan" (which really referred to a top hand).
1936 McCarthy Lang. Mosshorn np West [range terms],
Ranahan,,,An experienced "hand" or cowboy.
...
ranny n
also rannycavoo: A cowboy. sometimes derog Cf ranahan
1907 Sinclair Lure Dim Trails 159 NW, There's going to be roundups
like these old Panhandle rannies tell about, when the green grass comes.
1924 James Cowboys N. & S. 25, Then it was about time for the
"rannies" to pull up their ponies and figger where to go next. They
remembered how
they left Texas and how every State from there north was feeling the pinch
of
the fences.
1934 (1940) Weseen Dict. Amer. Slang 104 Ranny -- A cowboy on
the open range.
1942 Henry High Border 165 nRocky Mts. Catfish Joe, Hell-roaring
Jones, Theodore Roosevelt, et al., were in the vernacular of the High
Bender
"cowpokes," "rannies," "rannycavoos," "hombres," or in a more refined
manner,
simply "cowboys."
 ...
...
11 January 1941, Charleston (WV) Daily Mail,"Fugitive on a Dude
Ranch" by Stephen Payne, pg. 12, col. 4:
Ike introduced him as "Slim," and continued, "Two more rannies, Shorty and
Gabby, are trailin' a bunch o' cows to Eagle butte pasture."
...
...

10 July 1968, New Mexican (Santa Fe, NM), "Spanish, French, Indian,
English -- All in Cowboy Lingo," pg. 4:
Ranahan
A top hand, a cowboy who is efficient.

Ranny
Short for ranahan.

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org