HSAS and -boo

[Robin Hamilton]

I'd agree with Ron's first statement, that HDAS is the best thing around
(with the proviso that I still haven't seen a copy of Jonathan Green's
forthcoming work) but quarrel with the second.  Copies of Volume 1 are quite
obscenely cheap if bought secondhand from abebooks, for instance (I
currently have two), and even Volume 2 is remarkably affordable.  Mine cost
me, I think, $20, in virtually mint condition with the original wrapper.

As to being dated -- well, any print dictionary in this area is dated from
the moment the proofs are sent to the printer -- this simply comes with the
territory.  Farmer and Henley is dated, but I still find myself referring to
their work fairly regularly.

Having said which, and guiltily responding to Jon's earlier comment that no
one reads HDAS, I will now go fill a glaring intellectual lacuna, and read
thoroughly the Introduction to Volume 1, which I should have done long ago.

Robin
________________________________

----- Original Message -----
From: <ronbutters at AOL.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, December 12, 2010 8:49 AM
Subject: HSAS and -boo


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ronbutters at AOL.COM
> Subject:      HSAS and -boo
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> HDAS is the best thing around. I always check it when I am in my home
> office. It is also expensive and unfinished and not online (and
> increasingly dated).
>
> Isn't -boo/poo a diminutive suffix that can be applied to any noun?
> Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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