Pre-Archaic Industrial Jargon

[Garson O'Toole]

Ronald Butters wrote:
> It is useful to distinguish between anachronism and subreption.
>
> "Your phone is ringing" is not an anachronism--the meaning has
> essentially the same as it was before, it is simply that the technology
> has changed, a common process that is sometimes labeled
> SUBREPTION in historical lexicography. I would say much the
> same thing about "address  book" and "dial the wrong number." ...

I think "address book" has been redefined by some users to correspond
to an electronic database of addresses and other information. This
switch began years ago. Perhaps it was triggered by the "address book"
designation used in email programs.

The advertising copy at Amazon.com for the Kindle reader attempts to
shift the semantics of the term "book" so that it refers to what was
recently called an "electronic book", "e-book", or "ebook". More
precisely, the text attempts to shift the definition of "book" so that
it corresponds to a proprietary Kindle-formatted electronic book.

The retronym "physical book" is used repeatedly to contrast with the
newly redefined "book".

[Begin excerpts from descriptive material at Amazon.com for the Kindle
electronic book reader]

Storage: 8GB on device for 80 apps plus either 10 movies or 800 songs
or 6,000 books

Content: Millions of books, newspapers, magazines, games, and docs

Easy on the Eyes: E Ink uses actual ink particles to create crisp,
print-like text similar to what you see in a physical book. And Kindle
e-readers also use proprietary, hand-built fonts to take advantage of
the special characteristics of the ink to make letters appear clear
and sharp.

Lose Yourself in Your Reading: The most elegant feature of a physical
book is that it disappears while you're reading. Immersed in the
author's world and ideas, you don't notice a book's glue, the
stitching, or ink. Our top design objective is to make Kindle
disappear — just like a physical book — so you can get lost in your
reading, not the technology.

Adjustable Text Sizes, Font Choices Kindle has eight adjustable font
sizes to suit your reading preference. You can increase the text size
of your favorite book or periodical with the push of a button.

[End excerpts]

Garson

On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 9:37 AM, Ronald Butters <ronbutters at aol.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ronald Butters <ronbutters at AOL.COM>
> Subject:      Pre-Archaic Industrial Jargon
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> It is useful to distinguish between anachronism and subreption.=20
>
> "Your phone is ringing" is not an anachronism--the meaning has =
> essentially the same as it was before, it is simply that the technology =
> has changed, a common process that is sometimes labeled SUBREPTION in =
> historical lexicography. I would say much the same thing about "address =
> book" and "dial the wrong number." Even "he hung upon me" means the same =
> thing whether one is using a land line with a cord, a cordless land =
> line, or a cell phone. Note that a book is still a book, even if it is =
> an e-book. A house is largely not the same thing today as it was in =
> 900AD, but it would seem odd to call today's usage an "anachronism," =
> which I would reserve for  the use of a word or phrase that was formally =
> used but is no longer (e.g., "bawdy-house"; "caution" =3D 'amusing =
> person'; "that was" in "General Dunstaple had married Miss Hughes that =
> was"), or using a word in a way that it is not longer used (e.g,. =
> PHOTOGRAM instead of PHOTOGRAPH).
>
> I don't know what "Pre-Archaic Industrial Jargon" means. I would not =
> classify "hang up the phone" as either "industrial" or "jargon," and I =
> doubt seriously that it will become "archaic."
>
>
> On Mar 12, 2012, at 3:10 AM, W Brewer wrote:
>
>> At ease, men. Here is what I originally wrote: WB: << Anachronyms. My
>> favorites are telephone expressions. Hang up your phone, it is off the
>> hook. Phone is ringing. I dialed the wrong number. Address book. =
> Yellow
>> pages.>> My message was a stream-of-unconscious list of expressions
>> surviving social/technological change intact (lexical inertia). The =
> older
>> Windows software tended to keep familiar terminology to ease the =
> transition
>> from snail mail to e-mail: mailbox, address book. I now have one foot =
> in
>> analog telephony and the other on the banana peel of cell phonery. In =
> the
>> landline era, I used the examples of telephone expressions: Give me a =
> ring
>> some time. (Bell boxes for desk phones lasted into the mid-20th =
> century.
>> IMO bells ring; electronic simulations do not, except in an =
> anachronym.)
>> John hung up on me. (Hanged?) (But he did not take the separate =
> earpiece
>> and hang it up on the hook of a candlestick phone to break the =
> connection;
>> he might have put the handset back in its cradle.) I dialed the wrong
>> number. (Cannot remember the last time I used a pulse dial.) Yellow =
> Pages:
>> Let your fingers do the walking. (My 87-year-old father has a Yellow =
> Pages
>> phonebook at home. It is made of paper and the pages are yellow. It is =
> a
>> quaint curiosity.)
>
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