kodak, v.

[Chris Waigl]

My partner Melinda Shore is reading "A woman who went to Alaska" by May Kellogg Sullivan, which is an account of the author's travel in the North (including the Yukon) during the gold rush of 1897-1900. The book was first published in 1902, as far as I can tell. The point that attracted Melinda's attention was the use of "kodak" (lc spelling) as a verb.

I can't see any discussion of this in the ADS-L archives. (There's an old thread on "Kodak moment".)

The book is on Project Gutenberg ( http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22409/22409-h/22409-h.htm ), so it's easy to check. There are 18 occurrences of "kodak", nearly all as a noun either modifying another noun ("took kodak views", "kodak pictures") or referring to the camera: "my kodak" a few times, but also in the plural, such as on p. 42 of the edition digitized by PG:

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Pushing their way through the crowd to the gangplank came men, women and dogs, carrying grips, kodaks, tin cash boxes, musical instruments, army sacks, fur robes, and rolls of blankets.
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And then there's the verb on p. 315:

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Mr. H. has returned from Nome, bringing me a package of kodak films sent from Oakland, Cal., last August, and which I never expected to receive after so long a time. I was delighted to get them, and now I can kodak this whole district, above and below.
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Maybe someone's interested in this titbit. This is an interestingly written account, and I'd like to know what happened to the results of all her kodaking.


Chris

--
Chris Waigl -- http://chryss.eu -- http://eggcorns.lascribe.net
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