prophe(s/c)y again

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Wed Oct 24 15:28:48 UTC 2007


At 7:28 AM -0700 10/24/07, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
>ah, but we've been *here* before.  from Fred Shapiro, 3/26/05:
>Despite having over 11,000 Google hits and being used  prominently in
>Bob Dylan's landmark 1964 song "The Times They Are A-Changin'," the
>word _prophesize_ is still not in OED or Merriam-Webster.
>
>follow-ups by various people, including David Barnhart [contrast with
>the Columbia Guide above]:
>The Barnhart Dictionary Companion (Vol. 13.3, 2001, p p 285-6)  [N.B.
>the first note at the end of the entry]
>
>prophecize, v. {w} A variant form of prophesy (BDE: about 1350).
>Standard (used in informal contexts dealing especially with
>communication; common)
>
>----
>
>and Jesse Sheidlower pointed out that it was in the OED, under
>"prophecize".  now in 2007, the OED entry is for "prophesize", with
>variant spellings: 18- prophecise, 18- prophesise, 18- prophesize,
>19- prophecize.
>
And, as I learned before posting on "prophesize", the OED entry
includes the Dylan line (along with a "prophecise" from 1816 and a
"prophesize" from 1895).

LH

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



More information about the Ads-l mailing list