compulsive, OED 2

[Jonathan Lighter]

Wasn't to hard to spot, was it?

Looks like OED needs another _hermeneut_ cite. Now where did I put mine? (I
just looked it up this morning.)

Oh, well. GB claims to find 19,500 exx. in a fraction of second.  One guy
writes in 2002 of putting Derrida "in the position of the Most High
Hermeneut who holds the master key that unlocks the conundrums of negative
theology."

JL

On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 8:53 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: compulsive, OED 2
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 3:11 PM -0400 9/29/10, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >"Obs."?  Evidently not:
> >
> >2008 Dennis Ford _The Search for Meaning_ (Berkeley: U. of C. P.) 15:
> >Conformity and authoritarianism are thus collective strategies for
> relieving
> >the anxiety that absolute freedom elicits. We willingly exchange our
> anxiety
> >and freedom for compulsive activity and the answers provided by others.
> >Conformity to the cultural norms...protects us.
> >
> >Prof. Ford earned his Ph.D. in religion from Syracuse University.
> >
> >BONUS:
> >
> >Can you find the error in the OED's entry on "hermeneut"
> >
> If I am correctly deconstructing the query, is it the fact that the
> "hermeneutics" cite (comprising 50% of the record for "hermeneut")
> has apparently wandered in from another entry, since the 1972 quote
> has nothing to do with the search for an interpreter?
>
> Maybe it could be replaced with one alluding to the fact that because
> of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" based dismissals, the U. S. military is in
> dire need of a few good Arabic hermeneuts, although hermaphroditic
> hermeneuts need not apply.
>
> LH
>
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