"scrimshander" -- new meaning, or misuse? (Or perhaps obsession)

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:37 PM -0700 5/10/08, G. Stella wrote:
>I've just been a lurker ever since I joined this list,
>but I'll speak up for once. I live in Barnstable, MA,
>and I've heard the term 'scrimshander' often enough.
>In my experience, it's the correct term for a
>scrimshaw artist. It's used by local heritage museums
>and members of the local arts community.
>
>I've never to my knowledge heard 'scrimshoner'.
>
>Gynn Silva


The problem seems to be the OED's and not the Globe reporter's.
There are (to invoke my usual highly developed research skills)
17,200 g-hits for "scrimshander" to 111 for "scrimshoner".

LH

>
>
>--- "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET> wrote:
>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail
>>  header -----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society
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>>  Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>>  Subject:      "scrimshander" -- new meaning, or
>>  misuse? (Or perhaps obsession)
>>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>   From an article about a Nantucket scrimshaw artist
>>  raided for
>>  illegal ivory ("Paying a high price for a dying
>>  art", Boston Globe,
>>  May 10, 2008, page A1; quote from A12, col.2; also
>>  found in cols. 3,
>>  4 (3 times), and 5:
>>
>>  "For the small group of scrimshanders who still
>>  practice on
>>  Nantucket, continuing to carve ivory is about
>>  preserving a way of
>>  life and an art form."
>>
>>  OED2 (as also OED on-line, dated 1989) has no
>>  quotations for
>>  "scrimshander" as a worker in scrimshaw, and defines
>>  it as the
>>  product, the scrimshaw, with the most recent
>>  citation (with an "skr")
>>  being 190.  For the worker, it has "scrimshoner",
>>  with just one citation, 1898.
>>
>>  So is "scrimshander" a misuse by the reporter
>>  (perhaps from
>>  mishearing "scrimshoner"), or a new sense?  (I'm
>>  inquiring.)  It
>>  clearly was so attractive that she used it 6 times
>>  in an article of
>>  about 1,000 words.
>>
>>  Joel
>>
>>
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