Coffeehouse?!

[Laurence Horn]

There's also the verb "to coffeehouse" (and the gerund "coffeehousing") used in poker to refer to the practice of chatting during play, typically with the intention of misrepresenting the strength of one's hand.  Not in the OED, but it may be a spinoff of a compound verb that is, with fox-hunting related cites going back to 1861:

coffee-house, v.

To indulge in gossip (orig. while waiting for the hounds to draw a covert, etc., during a fox-hunt)

LH

On Jan 10, 2012, at 4:39 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:

> Grammar Girl decides to use "coffeehouse" (http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/hyphens-in-compound-words.aspx) while I'm like "What?" She claims that different dictionaries variously hyphenate, open or close this compound.
> 
> Sure enough, Wiktionary gives the open and hyphenated forms as alternatives to "coffeehouse" (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/coffeehouse) and the AHD has the open form as an alternative to "coffeehouse" (http://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=coffeehouse&submit.x=0&submit.y=0). My Mac spell checker doesn't mind the closed form.
> 
> The Mac dictionary has the closed form and provides the Wikipedia article that is also closed.
> 
> The OED has citations only through 1876; all but one are hyphenated. (Also, the OED definition and comment are also outdated.)
> 
> I don't see myself using the hyphenated or closed form soon, but, to coin a phrase, YouNeverKnow.
> 
> Benjamin Barrett
> Seattle, WA
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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