Quick(lime) to point out.

[Joel S. Berson]

I read the quotation as Wilson surmises, both
"dung" = matter employed to fertilize the soil,
specifically "Excrementitious [rolls off the
tongue] and decayed" (OED sense 1), and "invent"
= find, discover (OED sense 1).

Joel

At 1/6/2010 02:37 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>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:
> > ---------------------- Information from the
> mail header -----------------------
> > 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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