hero etymology

[Michael Newman]

The link
Michael Newman
Associate Professor of Linguistics
Queens College/CUNY
michael.newman at qc.cuny.edu



On Mar 18, 2012, at 9:33 PM, Larry Sheldon wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Larry Sheldon <LarrySheldon at COX.NET>
> Organization: Maybe tomorrow
> Subject:      Re: hero etymology
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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:
>>
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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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