'Bow' = "introduce"?

[Joel S. Berson]

There is "bow in", v.1 1.c, to enter.  And for the transitive (if
that was the point), there is v.1 7.c, "To usher in or out with a
bow, or bows; so to bow (any one) up or down (stairs, etc.)."  Not
far removed from "introduce."

Joel

At 7/12/2009 10:30 AM, Benjamin 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'
> >
> > http://tinyurl.com/bow-introduce
> >
> > I'm assuming this is a verbalisation of _bow_ /baU/, on the basis of _take
> > a bow_ 'enter the scene' - I've heard it before, though, and it's not in
> > OED or MW online. Has anyone else heard it?
>
>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
>
>
>--Ben Zimmer
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org