"Clunker" not in OED?

[Garson O'Toole]

Many thanks to Sam Clements for information about the make and model
of the "klunker" in the 1930 Seattle Times photograph.

Apologies, Joel. Occasionally, the Google Books database has two
copies of a book, but the search engine preferentially displays just
one copy. It can be difficult to coax the database to show both
copies. I hypothesized that your searches were leading you to a copy
of the book that displayed a bad snippet, i.e., a snippet without the
image of the clunker/flunker term.

Sharing a good snippet that properly displayed the image of the
clunker/flunker term seemed to be a reasonable way to help. The Google
Books database is an enormously powerful tool but its behavior can be
erratic. All the full text databases I use regularly display anomalous
behaviors. I recommend taking screen shots and downloading PDFs
provides for backup when material becomes inexplicably inaccessible.

On Sat, Feb 19, 2011 at 9:56 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?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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.
>> >>
>> >>------------------------------------------------------------
>> >>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> >
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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