hero etymology

[Michael Newman]

thanks for the link. I know Barry doesn't contribute to the list anymore. It's very helpful.
Michael Newman
Associate Professor of Linguistics
Queens College/CUNY
michael.newman at qc.cuny.edu



On Mar 18, 2012, at 8:57 PM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> Subject:      Re: hero etymology
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 3/18/2012 3:14 PM, Michael Newman wrote:
>> ....
>> I'm wondering about the origin of the term. It seems unrelated to the
>> = Greek gyro given the presence of cold cuts and cheese. I'd like to =
>> speculate that it began as a marketing term based on the large size or
>> = something. Not convinced though. ....
>
> Here is Barry Popik's item:
>
> http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/hero_sandwich/
>
> Me, I don't offhand know of any reason to suppose the term is related at
> all to "gyros". Looks like the hero is just heroically big.
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>
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