Extendible porn

[Jonathan Lighter]

The most interesting thing to me in all this is that earlier exx. of "X
porn" imply that porn is a sinister, disgusting thing (e.g., "war porn").

The recent usages imply that it's something plain enjoyable. (To my ears,
"Jew porn" sounds more like a neo-Nazi phrase than a humorous description of
something fascinating and harmless - which is how it seems to have been
intended.)

JL

On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 2:25 PM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Extendible porn
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Mar 15, 2010, at 9:16 AM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>
> > On Mar 15, 2010, at 12:47 AM, Benjamin Barrett wrote in reply to
> > Wilson Gray:
> >
> >> From the OED: 1. Capable of being extended or stretched out; capable
> >> of being enlarged in length, area, or duration, or in range or scope
> >> of meaning or operation; = EXTENSIBLE.
> >>
> >> Your version [presumably "extensible"] gets 20 times the raw version
> >> on Google, though, so I'll be more careful the next time I use this
> >> word (which is fairly frequently as I often work on manufacturing
> >> documents).
> >
> > i'd be wary of depending on raw google hits (it's possible, for
> > instance, that "extensible" gets a lot of hits because of tech uses --
> > as in XML for "eXtensible Markup Language"), and in any case this is
> > one of those situations where we'd want to set aside informal writing
> > and writing in specialized contexts, which is impossible to do on
> > google.
> >
> > COCA shows modest numbers for all three spelling variants in written
> > texts:
> >   the S variant "extensible": 51 (*very* heavily from academic
> > sources);
> >   the D variants:
> >     "extendable": 33 (mostly from magazines);
> >     "extendible" 17 (largely from magazines and academic sources)
> >
> > (it's entirely possible that some people see a subtle meaning/nuance/
> > whatever difference between the S variant and the D variant.)
> >
> > i'd conclude that all three variants are acceptable in serious
> > writing, though some people might find the S variant "more serious" or
> > "fancier", and either prefer it or disprefer it on those grounds.
> >
> > (i'd object in general -- as i have on Language Log in the past -- to
> > using a kind of "majority vote" approach to choosing variants, in
> > which only the most frequent variant is deemed correct -- One Right
> > Way! -- and all less frequent variants are disapproved.)
>
> I'm just saying that the next time I am dealing with wire drawing or memory
> metal and the Japanese term comes up, I'll be careful with the English
> variant I choose by looking through Googits to find what is in use :)  In
> metallurgy just like any other field, there tend to be variants that are
> preferred. BB
>
>
> >
> >> On Mar 15, 2010, at 12:07 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >>
> >>> Exten_s_ible porn or extend_a_ble porn
> >
> > well, this is Wilson's personal judgment, but other sources have no
> > problem with "extendible".  both NOAD2 and AHD4, for instance, list
> > all three variants, without differentiation.  and OED2 has all three
> > -- and in fact treats "extendable" as a spelling variant of
> > "extendible" (thus reflecting the etymology, based on Latin extend-ere
> > 'to extend', with participle stem extens-; the Latin conjugation for
> > the verb would predict -ible (with I) rather than -able, so
> > "extendable" (with A) is an anglicization of the spelling).
> >
> > in the historical sweepstakes, "extendible" wins by a landslide.
> > OED2's earliest cite is from 1477, with the "extendable" variant not
> > appearing until 1654 (except in specialized legal uses, where
> > "extendable" is attested in 1622 and 1626, and "extendible" not until
> > 1818).  OED2 has cites for "extensible" from 1611 on, well after
> > "extendible".  (not that i'm recommending originalism in choosing
> > variants -- just pointing out that if you think "extendible" arose
> > historically from a blending of, or "confusion" between, "extendable"
> > and "extensible", you're wrong.  that doesn't exclude the possibility
> > that some current speakers, confronted with "extensible" and
> > "extendable", might have blended the two to get "extendible" -- but of
> > course "extendible" could just be a continuation of the older variant,
> > now being overshadowed to some degree by the other two.)
> >
> > arnold
>
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