"the apocryphal HDAS III"

Mon Aug 2 15:29:17 UTC 2010

As I recall, Jesse once wrote me (if I am not betraying a confidence)
that the OED is not especially interested in documenting American
English, as distinguished from British English.  If there is an
American antedating or useful interdating or postdating, it may be
taken just as if it were British.  But if an American quotation is
"too near" an existing British quotation, it will not be taken simply
because it is British.

Jesse, of course, may wish to amend or amplify my reporting.

Joel

At 8/2/2010 10:50 AM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
>I'm not sure where George gets the assertion that "the chief editors
>of the OED aren't interested in documenting American English."  My
>impression is that Jesse Sheidlower spends his time in documenting
>American English, and that many of the citations in the revised OED
>come from American sources.
>
>Fred Shapiro
>
>
>
>________________________________________
>From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
>George Thompson [george.thompson at NYU.EDU]
>Sent: Monday, August 02, 2010 10:16 AM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: "the apocryphal HDAS III"
>
>This raises a very galling point: how long do we have to wait for
>Oxford University Press to bring out the final volumes of HDAS?  If
>I thought that the material JL has gathered for it would someday be
>incorporated in the OED, I might be content.  But it's clear that
>the chief editors of the OED aren't interested in documenting
>American English, except in so far as a word's first appearance is
>in an American source.
>Slang is a very useful indication of thought and habits, but it's
>hard to study, without a source like HDAS.  10 years ago or so,
>Gerry Cohen kindly published a collection of prize-fighting slang I
>had gathered from NYC newspapers, 1817-1835.  This included a few
>absolute antedatings of the in-print OED which if they hold up will
>make the revised OED, but otherwise I expect them to wind up on the
>copy-hook.  But the collection was interesting because it showed
>that the fad for prize-fighting among raffish English noblemen
>passed very quickly to the United States, despite the War of 1812
>and the embargo that preceded it.  Other aspects of cultural and
>social history can be studied in an extensive collection of dated
>slang material
>
>The OUP needs to stop sitting on the material for HDAS III & IV and
>produce them, or I will start remembering it in my bed-time curses,
>along with the despised Bertelsmann House.
>
>What can the collective might of ADS-L do to bring this about -- in
>addition to our collective bed-time curses, of course
>
>GAT
>
>George A. Thompson
>Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre",
>Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>Date: Monday, August 2, 2010 7:44 am
>Subject: Re: Submariner [was "thousand-yard stare"] (UNCLASSIFIED)
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> > George, see the apocryphal HDAS III.  For some reason in the U.S. it's
> > "piss" that the designee cannot pour from the boot.  Even if the boot
> > has a
> > instructions *and* a spout.
> >
> > Just a cultural thing, I guess.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Sun, Aug 1, 2010 at 10:38 PM, George Thompson
> <george.thompson at nyu.edu>wrote:
> >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> > > Subject:      Re: Submariner [was "thousand-yard stare"] (UNCLASSIFIED)
> > >
> > >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > There is a put-down that I think I saw in Brendan Behan's Borstal
> > Boy, that
> > > someone was too dumb to pour sand out of a boot, even if the instructions
> > > were printed on the heel.
> > >
> > > GAT
> > >
> > > George A. Thompson
> > > Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> > > Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> > > Date: Sunday, August 1, 2010 8:56 pm
> > > Subject: Re: Submariner [was "thousand-yard stare"] (UNCLASSIFIED)
> > > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > >
> > > > At 8:38 PM -0400 8/1/10, Mark Mandel wrote:
> > > > >I have a pair of Dockers brand pants, less than a year old, that
> > have
> > > > "ONE
> > > > >LEG AT A TIME" printed in red letters an inch high on the inside
> > of the
> > > > >waistband, right front.
> > > > >
> > > > >m a m
> > > >
> > > > Not quite rising to the level of the apocryphal Coke bottles in (pick
> > > > a country) with the legend on the bottom reading "OPEN OTHER END",
> > > > but...
> > > >
> > > > LH
> > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >On Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 3:59 PM, Dave Wilton <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > >>  I remember a manual for US Army chemical officers (officers, not
> > > enlisted)
> > > > >>  that detailed all the tasks that a chemical officer needed to
> > > > know. The one
> > > > >>  for donning chemical protective gear included instructions
> > such as
> > > > "put on
> > > > >>  pants one leg at a time, fly facing front." The only non-intuitive
> > > > step in
> > > > >>  the task that actually required some instruction was lacing the
> > > chemical
> > > > >>  protective overboots--which were not like standard boots--and
> > the
> > > > >>  instruction for that was simply "lace boots."
> > > > >>
> > > > >>  I'm convinced it was written by a captain who had been passed
> > over
> > > > for
> > > > >>  promotion and was exacting a bit of revenge.
> > > > >>
> > > > >
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> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> >
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