Whet the hell is this?, pts. I & II

[George Thompson]

This is pretty much what I recall from the print OED -- I hadn't made a note, because I assumed that I could take it from the on-line version.  But it seems that the NYU server that gives me access to the OED and other databases has a drinking problem -- NYU will do that to you -- and sometimes muffs its assignment.

It still seems to me that the editor is contrasting land pirates with water pirates, which isn't easily supported by the OED's definitions, nor by the on-line dictdionaries VS cites.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.  Working on a new edition, though.

----- Original Message -----
From: victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>
Date: Thursday, April 14, 2011 4:39 pm
Subject: Re: Whet the hell is this?, pts. I & II
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

> I had no problem searching for "moonraker" (no hyphen):
>
> >  1. A native of the county of Wiltshire, in England.
> >  2. Naut. A sail set above the skysail. Cf. moonsail n. at moon n.1
> Compounds 2, raffee n.
>
> WIktionary is substantially the same but with more detail:
>
> > 1. Someone from Wiltshire. (After a story in which some Wiltshire
> peasants, seeing the reflection of the moon in a pool, tried to rake
> it out.)
> > 2. (nautical) A small, light sail located high on a mast (above the
> skysail) and used for speed.
>
> Infoplease likely sheds more light on this:
>
> > 1. Also called moonsail. [key] Naut.a light square sail set above a
> skysail.
> > 2. a simpleton.
>
> The second one fits here. Unsurprisingly, Dictionary.com nets the same
> pair--both use Random House Unabridged, but InfoPlease relies on 1997,
> which Dictionary.com claims to be current (2011).
>
> Online Etymology D adds a bit more detail, connection Wiltshire with
> "simpleton":
>
> > a name traditionally given to Wiltshire people, attested from 1787,
> is from the stock joke about fools who mistook the reflection of the
> moon in a pond for a cheese and tried to rake it out. But as told in
> Wiltshire, the men were surprised trying to rake up kegs of smuggled
> brandy, and put off the revenuers by acting foolish.
>
> Peevish.com (UK slang glossary):
>
> > A person from the town of Middleton, Manchester. Occasionally derog.
>
> VS-)
>
> On Thu, Apr 14, 2011 at 4:15 PM, George Thompson
> <george.thompson at nyu.edu> wrote:
> >
> > I: [a stage coach is robbed near Patchogue, L. I.]
> > We have heard of moon-rakers about Rockaway Beach, but no land
> pirates in the interior of the island since the revolutionary war.
> Evening Star, April 13, 1838, p. 2, col. 3
> > The on-line OED says it has never heard of "moon-raker", but I
> really thought that the print OED I looked at when I found this gave
> as meanings 1) one of the higher sails on a sailing ship (cf.
> sky-scraper) and 2) a confederate of smugglers who digs up contraband
> buried in the sand.  (These were in some dictionary, at least.
> Neither helps much, unless we suppose a link of "smuggler's
> confederate" > "smuggler" > "pirate".)
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org