Fwd: Re: southmore

[Laurence Horn]

>Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2007 15:11:31 -0400
>To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
>Subject: Re: southmore
>
>I was thinking some speakers, especially non-rhotic ones, might
>assume the same sort of idea is involved with "southmore" as with
>the essentially rhyming and (apparently) equally non-compositional
>"southpaw".  (The latter *is* in fact compositional in its origin,
>but quite opaquely so.)
>

P.S.  If anyone was wondering about my allusion in that
parenthetical, here's ADS4's explanation:

SOUTHPAW
Slang:  A left-handed person, especially a left-handed baseball pitcher.
ETYMOLOGY:  From the practice in baseball of arranging the diamond
with the batter facing east to avoid the afternoon sun. A left-handed
pitcher facing west would therefore have his pitching arm toward the
south of the diamond.

Given this history, it wouldn't be surprising if some speakers
concluded that a "southmore" had *something* to do with the compass
point.  After all, while there are no "northmores", there are also no
"northpaws".

LH

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