Not separating the geep from the shoats (and the OED)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Old Song:

"The night that Paddy Murphy died,
I never will forget..."

So he must have been real at some time.

JL



On Mon, Apr 7, 2014 at 12:25 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Not separating the geep from the shoats (and the OED)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> As Jon may be hinting, rancher Paddy Murphy (are we sure this story
> didn't originate on April 1?)* didn't separate his goat from his
> sheep soon enough.
>
> PS.  If Paddy or The Herald of Edinburgh were to consult the OED,
> they would find that his new arrival is perhaps not "extremely
> unusual" -- many predecessors have claimed to have produced geep and
> shoats, and have chosen both/either name since 1969.
>
> Source:  OED, "shoat, n.3", first published 1993.  Specifically:
> 1971   New Scientist 8 July 66/1   Hundreds of people have claimed
> success in breeding shoats or geep.
>
> PPS.  While "shoat" acquired an "s" in the plural, as does "goat",
> "geep" apparently did not, as does "sheep".  An interesting
> linguistic hybrid phenomenon; does the endmost element have the
> dominant genome?
>
> PPPS. Although gestated in 1971, "geep" does not have its own entry in the
> OED.
>
> * Sheep-goat hybrids exist; I only wonder about this particular tail.
>
> Joel
>
> At 4/7/2014 07:25 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >
> http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/meet-farmer-murphys-geep-or-shoat-now-what-will-he-call-it.1396626955
>
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