"detectorist" / "detectionist"

[Joel S. Berson]

Some of us don't love commas and hyphens as much as George does.  (I
know that's true because "some" means "one or more" ... and I'm one
of us.)  Perhaps if I had made known the antecedent for "his" by
inserting after it "[marriage band (aka wedding ring)]"?

Joel

At 4/20/2011 12:27 PM, George Thompson wrote:
>JSB: From an email message today:  "My husband lost his planting
>trees about fifteen years ago and a metal detectorist failed to find it."
>
>I suppose this is to be punctuated as
>"My husband lost his, planting trees, about fifteen years ago, and a
>metal detectorist failed to find it."
>
>and not "My husband lost his planting-trees about fifteen years ago,
>and a metal detectorist failed to find it."
>
>Thus punctuated by those of us who love commas and hyphens, that is.
>
>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: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>Date: Wednesday, April 20, 2011 11:25 am
>Subject: "detectorist" / "detectionist"
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> >  From an email message today:  "My husband lost his planting trees
> > about fifteen years ago and a metal detectorist failed to find it."
> >
> > "Detectorist" is in the OED, as "A person who engages in
> > metal-detecting. Cf. metal detectorist n."
> >
> > However, my weak eyes and easily deceived brain led me to look for
> > "detectionist", which is not in the OED -- but is apparently
> > sanctioned in Galveston:
> >
> > The only result that a search of his name turned up was a description
> > of the Galveston Metal Detectionist League's September 2000 meeting,
> > at which Redman had been a guest speaker on the topic of "US
> > government regulations concerning abandoned property vs.
> concealed property."
> >
> > In Nothing Happened and Then It Did: A Chronicle in Fact and Fiction
> > - Page 97, by Jake Silverstein - 2010.
> >
> > Whether this is fact or fiction, whether there is or is not a
> > "Galveston Metal Detectionist League," I do not know.
> >
> > Google Books gives me about 89 hits for "detectionist", some
> > indicating that there is a "detectionist thesis" -- and of course
> > therefore an "anti-detectionist explanation".  One uses
> > "detectionist" as "detective".
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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