crapper 1910...and more

[Charles Doyle]

Have we discussed the competing pronunciations of the noun "crappie" (the fish)?

The _OED_ gives only [kraepI], though it records the variant spelling "croppie."  _AHD New College Ed,_(1981) likewise gives only [kraepI]. In contrast, [krapI] is the only pronunciation recorded in _Webster's 9th New Collegiate_ 1983 (_Webster's New Collegiate_, 1956, gave BOTH pronunciations.).

--Charlie
____________________________________________________________

---- Original message ----

>Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 06:08:56 -0700
>From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>Subject: Re: crapper 1910...and more
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

>
>Thanks, Doug. Regardless of the fate of the form "cropper," it's hard to imagine crapulosity-linked "crapper" surviving the popularity of crap-linked "crapper."
>
>  Now I wonder whether "crapulous" has any bearing on the development of the earlier "crapper."
>
>  JL
>
>"Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET> wrote:
>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: "Douglas G. Wilson"
>Subject: Re: crapper 1910...and more
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>As JL has already intuited, "crapper" has a variant "cropper" (or vice versa).
>
>At Google Books, I searched for <> and for <>
>from 1700 to 1850, and found several examples of "cropper" = "shot
>[of liquor]" or so.
>
>Here's one example, a quotation from the Dublin U. Magazine, 1844, in
>a poem about schnapps:
>
><>
>
>A noggin is/was usually more-or-less a quarter-pint, I think, which
>would make the cropper something like an ounce ... like a "shot", sure enough.
>
>Tell me the origin of "noggin" and I will try to tell you the origin
>of "cropper".
>
>I don't see this "crapper"/"cropper" in the dictionaries. Its
>[apparent] disappearance may not be because of "crapper" =
>"latrine"/"toilet", since "cropper" survived OK in other senses.
>
>-- Doug Wilson
>
>
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