disco ball

James Harbeck jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA
Thu Nov 29 20:47:22 UTC 2007


I find, to my surprise, that "disco ball" isn't in the OED or any of
the dictionaries online at dictionary.com. Apparently "mirror ball"
or "mirrorball" is the standard name for the things. But "disco ball"
gets more than 3/4 of a million hits on Google, so, as alternate
names go, it's not uncommon. And I can't think that all those hits
are articles from the late '70s and early '80s (even if, evidently,
_I_ am an article from the early '80s). So it just seems funny to me
that "disco biscuit" (meaning quaalude or ecstasy) is to be found but
no disco ball. (FWIW, Wikipedia has it. Oy.)

James Harbeck.

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



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