"drone" (v. trans.)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Actually the U.S. military has used "drones" (unmanned, radio-guided
airplanes) since WW2 - originally as targets in antiaircraft training.

The worm turns.

You can even see a photo of a drone standing next to Marilyn Monroe in 1944:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioplane_OQ-2

JL

On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 7:35 PM, Martin Kaminer <martin.kaminer at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Martin Kaminer <martin.kaminer at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "drone" (v. trans.)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Rather curious usage example given here:
>
> drone
> verb [I]     /drÉ™Ê n/    /droÊ n/
>
> Definition
> › to make a low continuous noise that does not change its note:
>
> An airplane droned in the background.
>
> (Definition of drone verb from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's
> Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)
>
> So I suppose then from what we've heard drones do in fact drone, in
> some cases rather loudly.
>
> I still prefer the tambura.
>
> On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 7:15 PM, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu>
> wrote:
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: "drone" (v. trans.)
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On Mar 14, 2013, at 4:02 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> Fascinatingly, I coined this verb independently about two weeks ago.
> >
> > as i said on my blog, it was inevitable.
> >
> > arnold
> >
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