recently found

[Rick Barr]

But I think so many linguistic dares in Angier's writings are beyond almost
any fringe. This has become her style, and I sometimes wonder how it's so
popular.

Just two examples from her bestselling book "The Canon" (2008):
-- "the battle against evolution madly, militantly, proptosically, soldiers
on" (p. 151).
-- "we began using it [a microscope] to examine the decidua of
everyday life" (p.
24).

Suffice it to say that neither "proptosically" nor "decidua" are canonical
in the way she uses them in "The Canon." These are at the very least
convoluted extensions of the more standard meanings of these already rare
words.

So I wouldn't expect these words to become standard, as I wouldn't expect
her pun-heavy verbalizations to spread into many speakers' idiolects.

-- Rick

On Fri, Sep 17, 2010 at 3:20 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: recently found
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Comprehensible but beyond my fringe anyway.
> JL
> On Fri, Sep 17, 2010 at 2:41 PM, Neal Whitman <nwhitman at ameritech.net
> >wrote:
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> > 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:
> >
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> > -----------------------
> > > 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
> > >
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>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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