"Clunker" not in OED?

[Joel S. Berson]

I didn't question Sarah's veracity, I merely asked how she got a
result I didn't know how to get.  But I've now remembered "From
inside the book", with its Search box.  That's what you should have
reminded me of, Garson, instead of just giving me a fish.  :-)

Joel

At 2/19/2011 07:21 PM, Garson O'Toole wrote:
>Here is a link into Google Books that shows the word flunker in a
>snippet. The journal page is also available in JSTOR:
>
>http://books.google.com/books?id=_eU3AAAAMAAJ&q=bluffer#search_anchor
>
>Here is the JSTOR citation:
>
>Why Is an Examination--And What of It?
>Olga Achtenhagen
>The English Journal
>Vol. 15, No. 4 (Apr., 1926), pp. 285-289
>Published by: National Council of Teachers of English
>Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/802505
>
>On Sat, Feb 19, 2011 at 6:49 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      Re: "Clunker" not in OED?
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Oops!  But Sarah, how did you get to see the page?  All I can get is
> > a Snippet view!
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > At 2/19/2011 06:03 PM, Sarah wrote:
> >>On 2011-02-19, at 1:55 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> >>
> >> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> >> > Subject:      Re: "Clunker" not in OED?
> >> >
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >> >
> >> > Well, now on-list instead of just to Fred.  (And how could I ever
> >> > have overlooked "cash for clunkers"?)
> >> >
> >> > The following, alleged by GBooks/Snippet to be 1926 (English Journal,
> >> > vol. 15), is I suspect correctly dated (the English Journal
> >> > apparently started in 1912):
> >> >
> >> > "bluffer when he finds among the questions that general type to which
> >> > even the class Clunker may attempt a satisfactory reply; it begins
> >> > like this: "Describe the wreck of the "; "Name several
> >> > characteristics of "; or "Trace the general ... "
> >> >
> >> > This may be a person as the "thing that is worthless, inferior,
> >> > unsuccessful, etc." (the class dunce?).  But more context would help,
> >> > and why "Clunker" is capitalized I can't guess.
> >> >
> >>
> >>It actually says "class flunker" if you look at the scanned image of
> >>the book itself. (The "fl" ligature is mistaken for a "C.")
> >>
> >>S.
> >>
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> >
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> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
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