hero etymology

[Larry Sheldon]

On 3/18/2012 3:11 PM, Michael Newman wrote:

> 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:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> 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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