dinging (solicit a quick quotable statement)

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:01 PM -0400 9/22/10, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>  http://bit.ly/bTCEWm
>>Goodman, who spent a decade at The Washington Post before his three
>>years at the Times, says he will still rely on facts and not engage in
>>"ranting." And while he was happy at the newspaper, he says, he found
>>he was engaged in "almost a process of laundering my own views,
>>through the tried-and-true technique of dinging someone at some think
>>tank to say what you want to tell the reader."
>
>There is an interesting oddly related OED parallel for this, though:
>
>>ding v.1
>>
>>*4. b.* Without extension. (In quots. neuter passive, as in 'a loaf
>>that cuts badly'.)
>>*1786* BURNS /A Dream/ iv, But Facts are cheels that winna ding, An'
>>downa be disputed. /Mod. Sc. Prov/. Facts are stubborn things; they'll
>>neither ding nor drive [i.e. they can neither be moved by force as
>>inert masses, nor driven like cattle].
>
>A tangentially related question: when did "ding" reverse its meaning?
>
>>1. intr. (or absol.) To deal heavy blows; to knock, hammer, thump
>>
>>2. trans. To beat, knock, strike with heavy blows; to thrash, flog.
>>b. To crush with a blow, smash. Obs.
>>c. To thrust through, pierce (with a violent thrust). Sc. Obs.
>>
>>3. fig. To 'beat', overcome, surpass, excel.
>
>
>Now compare that to the more recent expression "ding[ed] the car door".
>"Dings" in a car outer shell are minor dents that are annoying but do
>not represent serious structural damage (although they may detract from
>the value of the car). More generally, a "ding" is essentially a minor
>indentation or pit in the surface, and "to ding" is to make such an
>impression in a surface. It appears to be precisely the opposite of
>"striking a heavy blow".


Note, though, that a "dinger" is a home run, not a weak squibber up
the third-base line.

LH

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