Camels vs. dromedaries? (UNCLASSIFIED)

[George Thompson]

This will settle the matter:

The Camel has a single hump, The dromedary two,
Or is it just the other way, I'm never sure -- are you?
Ogden Nash

http://www.nurseryrhymesonline.com/authors/ogden_nash/

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
Date: Thursday, April 3, 2008 11:38 am
Subject: Re: Camels vs. dromedaries? (UNCLASSIFIED)
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU


> Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> These are pictures from a set of trading cards issued about 1888.  They
> were inserted in packs of cigarettes.
>
> Camel (note two humps)
> http://www1.coe.neu.edu/~dan/z-ns-N41/N41-camel.jpg
>
> Dromedary (note one hump)
> http://www1.coe.neu.edu/~dan/z-ns-N41/N41-drom.jpg
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: American Dialect Society
> > [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Joel S. Berson
> > Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2008 9:05 AM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: Camels vs. dromedaries?
> >
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      Camels vs. dromedaries?
> > --------------------------------------------------------------
> > -----------------
> >
> > In the early 19th century, might people have used the word
> > "camel" to refer to one species (I am guessing to the
> > Bactrian) and "dromedary" to refer to the other species (the Arabian)?
> >
> > The OED merely asserts that " a lighter and fleeter variety
> > of the [Arabian] is known as the Dromedary."
> >
> > Or perhaps the distinction was made only in Salem, Massachusetts.
> >
> > In James Felt's _Annals of Salem_ (2nd ed., 1845 & 1849), he
> > describes several collections of animals exhibited there in
> > 1834.  Of one he writes "In the collection were ... camels;" of
> > another later in the year his complete description is "There
> > is a similar exhibition here. Of the animals were two dromedaries."
> >
> > In _The House of the Seven Gables_ (1851), Hepzibah's first,
> > and a steady, customer at her cent-shop is a young schoolboy
> > who is fond of gingerbread animals.  On one visit, Hawthorne
> > writes, he "now proposed to eat a camel."  The next day he
> > "had signalized his omnivorous prowess by swallowing two
> > dromedaries and a locomotive."  The day after that, when he
> > reappears on an errand for his mother, Hawthorne reminds us
> > who he is by writing "the little devourer ... of Jim Crow,
> > the elephant, the camel, the dromedaries, and the locomotive."
> >
> > So these two writers were making some
> > distinction.  Was it the number of humps?  Or the slimmer
> > outline of the fleet dromedary (seen in the profiles of a
> > parade or a gingerbread treat)?
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> >
> Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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