'Bow' = "introduce"?

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Jul 12, 2009, at 7:30 AM, Ben Zimmer wrote:

> On Sun, Jul 12, 2009 at 9:46 AM, Damien Hall <djh514 at york.ac.uk>
> wrote:
>>
>> Noted in this article from _Home Media Magazine_, 9 July 2009:
>>
>> 'Animax Bows Foreign-Language iPhone App for Toddlers' ...

> It's Variety-speak:
>
> ---
> http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=slanguage
> bow -- (n.) opening or premiere; (v.) to debut a production; "The
> pic's bow was in January"; "The Nederlander Organization will bow its
> revival of 'Wonderful Town' next year."
> ---
>
> The transitivization of "bow" is reminiscent of Variety-style "ankle",
> which I discussed here:
>
> http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004210.html

somewhere in this story there should be an intransitive "bow" 'to
premiere, open'.  and so there is.  a few hits:

The play bowed on Broadway in Nov. 1963. The George Abbott-directed
production featured incidental music by Jule Styne and a cast that
included Sandy Baron, ...
   velvet_peach.tripod.com/fzpacresistablerise.html

Identified only as Man when the play bowed on the West End last spring
and now billed in the program as Guy, the only male on display is ...
   www.variety.com/review/VE1117930757.html?categoryid=1265&cs=1

Since the show bowed on ABC in September 1964, the term "Peyton Place"
remains shorthand for any town seething with secrets  ...
   www.denverpost.com/ostrow/ci_12363142

Wednesday stays intact for CBS, while Thursdays will feature The
Mentalist at 10 p.m. The show bowed on Tuesdays last fall ...
   www.cbs.com/community/manage/userProfileHome.html?u=vip_aca

arnold

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