truffle is ....

[Laurence Horn]

On Dec 9, 2013, at 5:58 PM, George Thompson wrote:

> But when I did an advanced search for the headword "truffle" as a verb, as
> described, I got the response
> No exact results found for truffle in the dictionary.
>
>
> What gives?
>
>
> GAT

Well, when I just do a search on "truffle", there are two pointers, one to the noun, the other reading:

2. ˈtruffle in truffle, n. View full entry 1958

...(intr.) to hunt or root about for truffles; freq. fig….

Clicking on the second "truffle" leads directly to the draft addi(c)tion  entry, of which my favorite cite is the last:

1991   Observer 4 Aug. 17/6   Swedes almost truffle for grief and inevitably find it.

One of the four examples is (almost) literal (pigs truffling for acorns), the others figurative, with the trufflees ranging from ephemera in New York, errors in texts, or as we see grief among Swedes.

LH

>
>
> On Mon, Dec 9, 2013 at 4:07 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
>> At 12/9/2013 01:48 PM, George Thompson wrote:
>>
>>> Is there a tourist-class OED on line?  I searched for headword "truffle"
>>> as
>>> a verb.
>>>
>>>
>>> But perhaps my version of the OED filters "draft addictions".
>>>
>>
>> Infelicitously, "draft additions" are at the bottom of everything
>> else.  So under "truffle, n." is a hidden verb:
>>
>> Draft additions  1993
>>
>> ?truffle v. (intr.) to hunt or root about for truffles; freq. fig.
>>
>> (Not sure what the initial character is supposed to mean; it's not a
>> question mark.)
>>
>> Joel
>>
>>
>> GAT
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Dec 9, 2013 at 9:30 AM, David Barnhart <dbarnhart at highlands.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Oh! But it seems to be in the OED electronic addition, even as "freq.
>>>>
>>>> _fig._" in the 1993 draft addictions.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> So, I guess it's a matter of which OED?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> DKB
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Barnhart at highlands.com
>>>>
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> George A. Thompson
>>> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
>>> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org