_Canvass_ > "examine, pore over, search"

Fri Apr 18 00:14:03 UTC 2014

I disagree. Obviously.

When Coronado was riding around the Southwest, idiom says he was
"exploring" it, not "searching [it] for information."

You can rationalize "canvass the desert" by assuming that it "simply" means
"searching for information," like cops in the neighborhood, but most of the
history of "canvass" involves human-being objects.  "Searching for
information" is a connotation, not a definition of "canvass."

"Canvassed information" of course comes from speech. But you (or at least
I) don't "canvass information," you "canvas people (or places where people
may be interviewed) for information."

The problem is, I believe, a misunderstanding of how dictionary definitions
are derived, what they're intended to convey, and how they relate to one
another.

Of course, it's all moot, since people will write whatever the hell they
want to, whether it makes them sound like bumbling semi-literates or not.
Which is exactly what the writer of "canvassed the desert" sounds like to
some of us, whose opinions are laughable anyway because we're so, so very
old.

Maybe our scribe imagined they were wearing canvas shoes.

It's hot in a %^ *& # $ * desert!

JL

On Thu, Apr 17, 2014 at 7:41 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: _Canvass_ > "examine, pore over, search"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 4/17/2014 03:37 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> >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.
>
> It works for me with "information", but not with the OEDs verbs (sue,
> solicit).  My notion of (the sense in question here of) "canvass" is
> "to search, inquire, for information".  Similar to Jon's Subject line
> (but more with the sense of "seeking" than "examining"), and to Dan's
> comment further below.  And different from the 4.b Jon cites next;
> "investigate" is OK; "physically" to restrictive: canvassed
> information can come from speech also.
>
>
> >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:
>
> "Search for information" again.
>
> Joel
>
>
> >"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
> > > >
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> >
> >
> >--
> >"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
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