"thousand-yard stare" (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mark Mandel]

"thousand-parsec stare" gets about 9 rgh, all fairly recent I think. Looks
like it's gotten well established in sf. Of course it could easily have been
independently reinvented.

m a m

On Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 5:05 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> FWIW, at one time, "thousand-yard stare" was so hip that a
> science-fiction author whose name I can no longer recall used it in
> the modified form, "thousand-parsec stare" in a story whose title I
> can no longer recall in an sf mag whose name I can no longer recall.
>
> Photos of the thousand-yard stare by David Douglas Duncan
>
> http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/collections/photography/holdings/
>
> http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0405/ddd01.html
>
> -Wilson
>
> On Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 10:56 AM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: "thousand-yard stare" (UNCLASSIFIED)
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > The appearance - in big print - in Harper's must have helped assure the
> > term's permamence.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 10:31 AM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <
> > Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
> >
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> >> Subject:      Re: "thousand-yard stare" (UNCLASSIFIED)
> >>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> >> Caveats: NONE
> >>
> >>
> >> >
> >> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> > > -----------------------
> >> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> > > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> >> > > Subject:      "thousand-yard stare"
> >> > >
> >> > >
> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> >> > ----------
> >> > >
> >> > > Should the OED add "thousand-yard stare"?  Wikipedia's article of
> >> > > that name dates it to the title of a Life Magazine painting in 1944
> >> > > (although that used "2,000").  Google Books gives about 57 results
> >> > > before 1951, all snippets, and some journals and so needing
> >> > verification.
> >> > >
> >> > >
> >>
> >>
> >> Wikipedia was wrong (surprise!).  Tom Lea's painting appears in the June
> >> 11 1945 issue of Life:
> >>
> >>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=_EkEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA61&dq=%22tom%20lea%2
> >> 2&as_pt=MAGAZINES&pg=PA65#v=onepage&q=%22tom%20lea%22&f=false
> >>
> >> and is not titled there.   I've tried to straighten up the wiki a
> >> little, but it would take a bigger re-write than I will do to really fix
> >> it.
> >>
> >>
> >> Legit 1944 cites:
> >>
> >> [no author given; interview with George E. Jones, UP war correspondent]
> >> "War Reporter Home to Rest,"_Oregonian_ [Portland OR] 4/6/1944 p 9 col 2
> >> "And they have that 'thousand-yard stare' a look of utter fatigue, as if
> >> somebody had placed a film over their eyes."
> >>
> >> Hansford Martin, "Thousand-yard stare"  [short story] _Harper's
> >> Magazine_ v. 189 (November 1944) p. 523-8
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> >> Caveats: NONE
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > "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
> >
>
>
>
> --
> -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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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