Popsicle

[Bill Palmer]

I'm thinking the analogy might be with "barnacle", a more nautical term. Or
not.

Bill Palmer


----- Original Message -----
From: "Charles Doyle" <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2010 7:57 AM
Subject: Re: Popsicle


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Popsicle
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Passing by a TV yesterday afternoon, I stopped briefly to watch some
> footage on the History channel about a sunken ship. Long stalactites of
> rust were clearly being referred to as "rusticles."
>
> "Rusticle" garners some 9,000 raw Google hits, including a Wikipedia
> entry.  Last night "rustsicle" got a little over 1,000 hits, this morning
> fewer than 100 (go figure!).
>
> "Rusticle" looks like a simple blend of "rust" + "-sicle," rather than the
> result of a phonological development--unless we suppose that the [s]
> following the [t] got swallowed by the [s] before the [t].
>
> --Charlie
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


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