avuncular (formerly 1823)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Mon, Jul 20, 2009 at 10:55 AM, Mark Mandel<thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> At 7/20/2009 12:46 AM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>
>> So is it just a coincidence that "avuncular" appears in the January 1823 _Monthly Review_ and
>> "materteral" shows up in the September 1823 issue (from a different author)? Was the _Monthly
>> Review_ the go-to journal for whimsical kinship-based neo-Latinisms?
>
> Context, context! Was the use of "materteral" inspired by / in
> response to / a snipe at the use of "avuncular"?

No intertextual connection, AFAICT. See for yourself...

http://books.google.com/books?id=QC4AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA38&dq=avuncular
http://books.google.com/books?id=yT4CAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA447&dq=materteral


--Ben Zimmer

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