boom

[RonButters]

As everyone seems to agree, the grammatical alternation is  totally unremarkable--think of someone saying, "Give me a little more boom" (or pipe or sail or rope or net or cable or string or thread or bandage or even necktie--or any other concrete noun that can be doled out in nondiscrete amounts---as opposed to, say, head, which would to my mind be metaphorical. We are just not used to thinking of boom in this way.
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-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
Date:         Tue, 8 Jun 2010 11:02:52
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject:      Re: [ADS-L] boom

Or "pipe."  But it sounded really weird to me too when I first heard it
recently.

JL
On Tue, Jun 8, 2010 at 10:20 AM, Bill Palmer <w_a_palmer at bellsouth.net>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Bill Palmer <w_a_palmer at BELLSOUTH.NET>
> Subject:      Re: boom
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Sounds definitely weird, but apparently "boom" is just an extension of
> something like "rope"
>
> On an oil-related note, the fire chief in Cleburne TX, being interviewed on
> CNN yesterday concerning the well fire there, referred many times to the
> gas
> that was coming from the "popline"...typical of W Tx?
>
>
> Bill P
>  ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Charles Doyle" <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Tuesday, June 08, 2010 9:48 AM
> Subject: boom
>
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail
> > header -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> > Subject:      boom
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Have we discussed the fact that, in the speech of perhaps half of the TV
> > reporters, commentators, and "experts" discussing the Gulf of Mexico
> > catastrophe, the word "boom" has become a mass noun? "We need to put out
> > more boom"; "Boom has been employed ineffectually"; etc. Sounds really
> > weird to me!
> >
> > --Charlie
> >
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