_Canvass_ > "examine, pore over, search"

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED does a very poor job on police "canvassing the neighborhood." In fact,
it's not there at all, unless you're happy with 7b, "To sue or solicit
(persons, a district) for votes, subscriptions, custom, orders, etc."

See, "etc." could include "information." Works for me. Not.

As for the defined sense, "To investigate or examine physically" (4b), it
is clearly marked "Obs.," with a single citation from 1652. Nada since.
Odds that Wilson's cited journalist learned this usage in an unbroken and
unrecorded line from the mid-17th century: zero.

Moreover, the new example is closer in meaning to "search (an area)
carefully and methodically" than it is to "investigate or examine
physically," which is what the Spanish explorer Francisco de Ulloa was
doing, no more and no less, in Peter Heylen's 1652  _Cosmographie_ as he
*explored* what is now called the Sea of Cortez:

"The business having slept a while, was in the year 1539 awakened by *Francisco
de Vlloa,* one that had accompanied *Cortez* the time before: who did not
only search to the bottom of the *Gulf,* but having thorowly canvassed all
the Eastern shores, he turned his course, and made as fortunate a Discovery
also of the VVestern coasts."

Heylen used "canvass" rather often, usually in the sense of "to discuss."

To "investigate or explore (physically)" is a plausible early meaning of
"to discuss," though the OED (which see) does not say so.

JL



On Wed, Apr 16, 2014 at 5:52 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: _Canvass_ > "examine, pore over, search"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> There is an older meaning of canvass that means to search or scrutinize.
> Back in the 19th century, it was the first meaning. Check the 1828
> Webster's.
>
> DanG
>
>
> On Tue, Apr 15, 2014 at 8:57 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: _Canvass_ > "examine, pore over, search"
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On Tue, Apr 15, 2014 at 8:12 PM, Jonathan Lighter <
> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> > >wrote:
> >
> > > "canvass the area"
> >
> >
> > That's a clip of "canvass, i.e. "interview," the [residents of] the area
> > [to see what, if anything, they know about the crime]." Since deserts are
> > called "deserts" because they're deserted, I can't wrap my mind around
> the
> > concept of "canvassing" a desert to see what, if anything, it knows about
> > the  location of the body of a murder victim or for anything else that it
> > may know. Others may not have this problem.
> >
> > Youneverknow.
> >
> > --
> > -Wilson
> > -----
> > All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> > come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> > -Mark Twain
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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