student-teach: "early" ex.

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:04 PM -0800 3/2/07, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>I feel your pain regarding back-formation productivity, Larry, but
>this ex, caught my eye because undergraduates of the 25th Century
>(right, if any) may not find it quite so transparent. How will they
>know it doesn't mean "teach students"? And how will they be sure?
>
>   More to the point, perhaps, we lexicographers are inclined to
>"recognize" back-formations, even those that are truly transparent,
>if they are sufficiently prominent. "Student-teach" certainly is,
>whereas "dog-train," e.g., may not be.
>
>   Finally, the mid 20th C. saw the explosion of such
>back-formations, at least in print. If the prominent ones aren't
>listed, the OED will not reflect this phenomenon.
>
>   JL

Well, I could definitely see listing "baby-sit", so it's just a
question of where one draws the line.  "Lion-tame"?  "Back-form"?  No
biggie.

LH

>Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Laurence Horn
>Subject: Re: student-teach: "early" ex.
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>At 5:01 PM -0800 3/2/07, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>Incredibly, this compound backformation isn't in OED.
>
>Given the extreme productivity of back-formation, would we expect
>dictionaries to list totally transparent examples like
>"student-teach"? What's the usual policy?
>
>LH
>
>>  No reason to believe this ex. is truly "early," but it's a start:
>>
>>  1967 in Bill Frey _Letters from 'Nam_ (N.Y.: Warner, 1992) 19: Who
>>knows maybe I'll student teach at Duquesne High, HA!
>>
>>  JL
>>
>>
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