recently found

[Jonathan Lighter]

Comprehensible but beyond my fringe anyway.
JL
On Fri, Sep 17, 2010 at 2:41 PM, Neal Whitman <nwhitman at ameritech.net>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Neal Whitman <nwhitman at AMERITECH.NET>
> Subject:      Re: recently found
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I'd analyze "jet propulse" as the same kind of back-formation so
> well-attested in verbs like "sleepwalk" and "bartend," except that instead
> of removing an "-er" or "-ing", a "-sion" has been removed. Even this has
> precedent in verbs like "gay marry" (discussed by Arnold Zwicky in numerous
> messages here and blog posts that I won't try to find and link right now).
> The only thing that I find weird is that the backformed verb isn't "jet
> propel", withnthe existence of "propel" blocking "propulse". Oh, well, we
> have "repel/repulse", so maybe this is a step toward a full set of doublets:
> compel/compulse, impel/impulse.
>
> Neal Whitman
>
>
> On Sep 17, 2010, at 1:46 PM, David Barnhart <dbarnhart at HIGHLANDS.COM>
> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       David Barnhart <dbarnhart at HIGHLANDS.COM>
> > Subject:      recently found
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On the fringe of grammaticality (for me, anyway):
> >
> >
> >
> > None of the octopus's imitations are perfect, and they don't need to be.
> > "If the predator just takes pause," said Dr. Healy, "the octopus can ink
> and
> > jet propulse away."  Natalie Agier, "Surviving by Disguising: Nature's
> Game
> > of Charade," The New York Times, Sept. 7, 2010, p D2
> >
> >
> >
> > DKB
> >
> > Barnhart at highlands.com
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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