"jew" as adjective -- not in OED?

[George Thompson]

Surely in "Jew Beef" (= kosher beef) "jew" has to be an adjective?

I searched the OED for "jew", limited to adjectives, got the response that
nothing was found, and didn't look further.  If scanning of all entries for
the word in categories other than adjective is required, then that is a
defect in the system.

GAT


On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 11:52 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> I would defend the label.  These are indeed, I would argue, nominal
> compounds rather than adjective + noun phrases.  "Jew" in such cases
> doesn't pass the diagnostics for adjective-hood:
>
> That lawyer seems {Jewish/*Jew}.
> Despite Brendan's proselytizing, Moises remained {Jewish/*Jew}.
> It's very kosher/Jewish/*Jew
>
> etc.
>
> LH
>
>
>
> On May 14, 2013, at 11:36 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
> > George, look way down under "Jew, n." for "Compounds" -- C1 is
> > "General attrib. or as adj."  I've missed this disguised and low (on
> > the page) artifice of the OED before, for this and other nouns.  I
> > think the heading in such cases should be "n. and adj.".
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > At 5/14/2013 10:37 AM, George Thompson wrote:
> >> Seems strange, but such is the case, if the on-line OED doesn't mislead
> me.
> >>
> >>            JEW BEEF. -- The subscribers offer their services to
> merchants
> >> who are in the habit of trading to the West Indies, that in order to
> >> complete a well assorted cargo for those markets, it will prove to be an
> >> acquisition to apply to them for the above article; they are in 5 or 10
> >> gallon kegs.  ***  Levy & Lyons, 26, White-hall street. N. B.  Regular
> >> certificates will be given.
> >>            Mercantile Advertiser, November 1, 1804, p. 2, col. 2
> >>
> >> HDAS and Jonathon Green's dictionary have "jew" as a disparaging
> adjective,
> >> which isn't the case here.  Their examples are generally in the form of
> "a
> >> Jew xyz" which translates into "a Jew who is an xyz" -- a Jew lawyer,
> >> perhaps.  Here, it meant "kosher", and the ad was placed by a Jewish
> firm.
> >>
> >> GAT
> >>
> >> --
> >> 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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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