halitosic

[Garson O'Toole]

Halitotic was once named "The Worthless Word for the Day" by the
logophile Michael A. Fischer. The accompanying citation indicated that
the word was used by famed iconoclast H. L Mencken:

halitotic [fr. L. halitus, breath]  /HAL uh TOT ic/?  (characterized
by) having bad breath

[commenting on the forthcoming end of Prohibition, he said] "we have
cast off the cursed yoke imposed by a parcel of  umbrella-brandishing
halitotic harridans who forced the standards of Goosetown and
Waterville, Ohio upon New York,  Chicago and Union Hill, New Jersey."
 - Marion Elizabeth Rodgers, Mencken (2005)

http://home.comcast.net/~wwftd/ghi.htm#halitotic
http://home.comcast.net/~wwftd/archives.html


On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 2:37 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: halitosic
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Are you guys quoting your searches?  I get a million+ hits for
> "halitositic" too, but when quoted about 18.  "halitostic" about
> 22.   "halitoxic" about 207.  ("halitosic" about 684.  "halitotic"
> about 2770.  Larry still wins.)
>
> Joel
>
> At 1/13/2011 02:03 PM, Charles C Doyle wrote:
>>"Halitostic" also gets a million+ Google hits, about the same as
>>Jonathan's "halitosic" but fewer than Larry's "halitotic."
>>
>>--Charlie
>>
>>
>>________________________________________
>>From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of
>>Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM]
>>Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2011 12:54 PM
>>
>>Not that OED has "halitotic" either.
>>
>>A better word yet would be "halitoxic," but that only gets 220 hits and none
>>in the OED.
>>JL
>>
>>On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 12:52 PM, Jonathan Lighter
>><wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>> > You win. I shoulda took Greek.
>> >
>> > JL
>> >
>> >   On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 11:14 AM, Laurence Horn
>> <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:
>> >
>> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> >> -----------------------
>> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> >> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> >> Subject:      Re: halitosic
>> >>
>> >>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >>
>> >> At 11:05 AM -0500 1/13/11, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>> >> >Halitosis is such a commonly known word that one is amazed not to find
>> >> the
>> >> >corresponding adj. "halitosic" in either MW11 or OED.
>> >> >
>> >> >Hundreds of raw Googlits.  What other word would do?
>> >> >
>> >> >JL
>> >> >
>> >> >--
>> >> ...and my "halitotic" beats your "halitosic" 4 to 1, so it must be a
>> >> better word.
>> >>
>> >> LH
>> >>
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>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >  --
>> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>> >
>>
>>
>>
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>>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>
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