Submariner [was "thousand-yard stare"]

Tue Jul 27 16:00:02 UTC 2010

A friend of mine who entered the Naval Academy in about 1968 and, upon
graduation, went into submarine service, and spent his career in submarines,
told me in no uncertain terms that sub-mariner was considered an insult of
the thems-fightin-words variety, the proper term being submarine-er. I don't
know about WW II, but it seems odd the attitude re pronunciation preference
would have been different, given the beneath-a-mariner implication of the
former. No? (History and Discovery Channels are always saying sub-mariner.
Surprising no one has corrected them.)
DAD

If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

> (Back During The War, there was a
>sea-dwelling superhero named "SubMARiner" and the crew of a submarine
>were also subMARiners. Nowadays, "submaRINer" appears to have become
>the norm.)

-Wilson

On Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 7:20 AM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
>
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>
> "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
bee=
> n
> 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:
>> >
>>
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> ------
>> >
>> > 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:
>> >
>> >>
>> >>
>>
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>> >>
>> >> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
>> >> Caveats: NONE
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> >
>> >> > >
>> >> > >
>> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >> > ----------
>> >> > >
>> >> > > Should the OED add "thousand-yard stare"?  Wikipedia's article of
>> >> > > that name dates it to the title of a Life Magazine painting in
194=
> 4
>> >> > > (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
Ju=
> ne
>> >> 11 1945 issue of Life:
>> >>
>> >>
>>
http://books.google.com/books?id=3D_EkEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=3DPA61&dq=3D%22tom%20=
> lea%2
>> >>
2&as_pt=3DMAGAZINES&pg=3DPA65#v=3Donepage&q=3D%22tom%20lea%22&f=3Dfals=
> e
>> >>
>> >> 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
f=
> ix
>> >> 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
>> =E2=80=93=E2=80=93=E2=80=93
>> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"=E2=80=93=E2=80=93a
strange=
>  complaint to
>> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>> =E2=80=93Mark Twain
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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

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