Swapped "tease" and "spoil"

[Neal Whitman]

I found some hits like that and made passing reference to them in the article. However, I must not have found your example, or I would have listed it as my earliest example. Nice find!

Neal

On Jun 20, 2013, at 6:12 PM, "ADSGarson O'Toole" <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Swapped "tease" and "spoil"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In the domain of music it seems that to tease a song means to play
> part of the song but refrain from playing the full song. Fans of the
> Grateful Dead and Phish use this expression.
>
> Here are some raw matches from Usenet:
>
> April Fool's Show Stories
> rec.music.gdead  -  31 posts  -  25 authors  - Last post:  Mar 3, 1995
> They teased the Dark Star but held off of playing it. The next day at
> the April Fool's show, the 2nd set opened China-> Rider, LL Rain, and
> then, again more Dark ...
> http://groups.google.com/g/3eb7feeb/t/85d482d169796631/d/4155472874306ebc
>
> Did Allman Bros. play St. Stephen?
> rec.music.gdead  -  9 posts  -  8 authors  - Last post:  Mar 25, 1996
> ON 3/9/96, they teased st. stephen for about 4 mins. during liz reed.
> They teased it again during true gravity on 3/17/96. And on 3/3/96,
> they teased the other one ...
> http://groups.google.com/g/3eb7feeb/t/50423404532172c4/d/80dd3c535b5b4574
>
> Dark Star tease with drums/space?
> rec.music.gdead  -  4 posts  -  4 authors  - Last post:  Mar 21, 1996
> At the second show I went to, they teased the hell out of the Other
> One. I was so bummed. I thought I would never hear it! Well, about 20
> Other Ones later, I wish I ...
> http://groups.google.com/g/3eb7feeb/t/c8823ad3dba0a015/d/6b3ebe56ccbe2fcd
>
> Garson
>
> On Thu, Jun 20, 2013 at 3:04 PM, Neal Whitman <nwhitman at ameritech.net> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Neal Whitman <nwhitman at AMERITECH.NET>
>> Subject:      Swapped "tease" and "spoil"
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> I've begun noticing  uses of transitive "tease" and "spoil" in
>> entertainment contexts in which the patient is not the event participant
>> I'm expecting. For example, Iexpect "tease" to have viewers, readers, or
>> other consumers fill the patient role, with the movie, book, videogame,
>> etc. as an oblique object, as in "They teased the audience with a scene
>> from the upcoming release." However, you can find examples like these now:
>>
>>    _The Avengers_ was teased at the end of _Captain America_.
>>    http://www.coronacomingattractions.com/news/exclusive-assembling-avengers-part-1
>>
>>
>> Similarly, I expect the patient of "spoil" to be the themovie, book,
>> video game, etc., and the consumer to be an oblique object: "You spoiled
>> the ending for me!" But now you can find sentences like:
>>
>>    I personally can't stand spoilers. ... There are entire websites
>>    that I have stopped visiting because they unexpectedly *spoiled* me
>>    one too many times.
>>    http://screenrant.com/spoilers-spoiler-brusimm-6207/
>>
>>
>> My earliest datings for each use:
>>
>> tease, May 1995
>>
>>    "The Informer" *teased* the return of a "mystery man" absent from
>>    the WWF for roughly a decade.... He also *teased* the appearance of
>>    a "familiar face" who would be making his WWF debut.... (May 1995)
>>    https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/rec.sport.pro-wrestling/cjQ-X3ivfdM
>>
>>
>> spoil, April 1996
>>
>>    <https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en&fromgroups#%21topic/rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5/uW3o_BOzYbM>Goodness
>>    gracious.....this is one of best episodes I ever  seen. Even when I
>>    *got spoiled*, I stilled loved it. Wow... (April 1996)**
>>
>>    https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en&fromgroups#!topic/rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5/uW3o_BOzYbM
>>    <https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en&fromgroups#%21topic/rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5/uW3o_BOzYbM>
>>
>>
>> In addition, I found an antedating for advertising-related "teaser" (OED
>> 1934):
>>
>>    Later, on November 17th, after much advertising of a "teaser" kind,
>>    the Club was confronted with the whole Toledo Advertising Club as
>>    our entertainer.
>>    /The Rotarian, /January 1917, p. 80.
>>    http://books.google.com/books?id=UlgEAAAAMBAJ
>>
>>
>> I've written about this at Visual Thesaurus(by
>> subscription):*//****//*http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/teased-and-spoiled/
>>
>>
>> Neal
>>
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