"(speech) balloon", as in the comics

[Jonathan Lighter]

There are also "thought bubbles," though the term I grew up with was
"thought balloon."  "*Thought cloud" might be the most appropriate, but I've
never encountered it and am too lazy to Google it.

JL

On Sat, Jan 1, 2011 at 3:02 AM, Paul Frank <paulfrank at post.harvard.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Paul Frank <paulfrank at POST.HARVARD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "(speech) balloon", as in the comics
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Fri, Dec 31, 2010 at 9:44 PM, Baker, John <JMB at stradley.com> wrote:
> > Â  Â  Â  Â The air balloon, thought to be the model for "speech balloon,"
> > dates back only to 1783, so it seems quite unlikely that "speech
> > balloon" was used any earlier than that, even though "balloon" was used
> > in other senses prior to that time. Â I'm pretty sure that Griffy was
> > referring to speech balloons themselves (which, as claimed, date back at
> > least to the 18th century), and not to the term.
> > John Baker
>
> "Speech balloons" are sometimes called "speech bubbles" or "text
> bubbles." And then (off-topically) there are the "dream bubbles" of
> the kibyoshi comics in Edo Japan. Adam Kern has interesting things to
> say about them on pages 237-238 of this book:
>
>
> http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=EjzAZtoxfx8C&pg=PA237&dq=%2B%22dream+bubbles%22+%2Bedo&hl=en&ei=vt4eTZ6QCo-j4QbmzM2GAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%2B%22dream%20bubbles%22%20%2Bedo&f=false
>
>
> Paul
>
> Paul Frank
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