handcrafted

[ronbutters at AOL.COM]

JL surely exaggerates re: what "handcrafted" means nowadays. Can't one just conclude that the ad he cites is misleading, given that "handcrafted" has to analyze as "crafted by hand" (as dictionaries suggest)?
------Original Message------
From: Jonathan Lighter
Sender: ADS-L
To: ADS-L
ReplyTo: ADS-L
Subject: [ADS-L] handcrafted
Sent: Dec 27, 2010 11:58 AM

OED ignores "handcrafted" in the mesmeric commercial sense of "carefully
made or prepared according to industrial standards."  Celestial Seasonings,
e.g., claims that its tea blends are "handcrafted."

I suppose in the case of CS, it could mean that somewhere, at some time, a
"blendmaster" (sic) mixed a little of this and a little of that by hand till
he liked the taste.  Cool.  However, the usual connotation of "handcrafted"
is that the very product you're holding was made by hand or with the
personal attention of a living human to every detail.  Nowadays this is
rarely the case.

By "nowadays," I mean since the introduction of "handcrafted" to describe
otherwise routinely manufactured items.

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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


Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

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