OED editing, antedating peril ephemera, was Re: [ADS-L] The competitive sport of antedating

[Baker, John]

Jesse,
 
While I'm in complete agreement with your other comments (as well as those of Grant and Jonathon), I don't understand why the OED can't go ahead and pull the bogus 1909 quote.  That one causes a lot of confusion, and it seems to me that that could be done without the major effort that, say, adding the 1912 quote would require.
 
 
John Baker
 

________________________________

From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Jesse Sheidlower
Sent: Fri 10/19/2007 11:48 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: OED editing, antedating peril ephemera, was Re: [ADS-L] The competitive sport of antedating



Second, much of this work is _extremely_ time consuming.  It
may look obvious that if there's a bogus quotation or a
prominent antedating, you can just take it out or slip it in,
but it usually doesn't work like that--there are a lot of
things to consider, entries might have to be rewritten,
etymologists consulted, consultants consulted, etc. Revising
the entry for _jazz_ will be a major effort--one which we will
likely undertake, but not one that can be approximated by
pulling the 1909 quote and sneaking in the 1912.

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