Quick(lime) to point out.

[Wilson Gray]

Joel quotes:

"... anie other _dung_ that a man can _inuent_."


Does _dung_ mean "fertilizer" here or does _inuent_ hew to its Latin
source and mean "come upon"?

-Wilson

On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 1:30 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Quick(lime) to point out.
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 1/6/2010 12:39 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>At 12:25 PM -0500 1/6/10, Eric Nielsen wrote:
>>>I don't want to beat a slow horse, but I think the concept of "quick" found
>>>in a mason's quicklime means something other than fast. It's lime with a
>>>vital principle. Or has this already been discussed?
>>I expect that would be related to the "quick" of "quicksand", which I
>>assume also goes back to the 'lively, animate(d)' sense of the
>>adjective.
>
> More seriously than my previous message, the OED has the following,
> which suggests a different "vital principle" for "calx viva":
> 1600 R. SURFLET tr. C. Estienne & J. Liebault Maison Rustique V.
> viii. 670 It will be good to spread quicklime vpon the plowed
> ground..the haruest after it is more plentifull, then after anie
> other dung that a man can inuent.
>
> Joel
>
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--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

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