[Ads-l] foment

[Dan Goncharoff]

A quick Google search shows a handful of recent uses not related to the
Royal Navy visit, but all from Asian sources.

DanG

On Mon, Dec 1, 2014 at 11:12 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: foment
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Well, OED foment, v. 4a is
>
> 'To promote the growth, development, effect, or spread of (something =
> material or physical)'
>
> and 4b is=20
>
> 'To cherish, cultivate, foster; to stimulate, encourage, instigate (a =
> sentiment, belief, pursuit, course of conduct, etc.). esp. in a bad =
> sense'
>
> neither of which is marked as obsolete/archaic.  So the standard current =
> ('esp. in a bad sense') use is a narrowing/pejoration, and Yahoo! News =
> is just keeping the earlier broader practice of Milton, Pope, Swift, et =
> al. alive.
>
> LH=20
>
> P.S.  Then there's the now archaic reflexive use, as in...
> 1680 T. Otway. Orphan.  To think Of woman were enough to taint my =
> Brains, Till they foment to madness!
>
> On Dec 1, 2014, at 10:29 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> > Surely not "cement"?
> >=20
> > JL
> >=20
> > On Mon, Dec 1, 2014 at 10:24 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> =
> wrote:
> >=20
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> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> >> Subject:      Re: foment
> >>=20
> >> =
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> -----
> >>=20
> >> At 11/30/2014 08:01 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >>=20
> >>> Like, you know, 'encourage in a good way'?
> >>>=20
> >>> Yahoo! News:
> >>>=20
> >>> "Cuba, UK seek to foment ties with visit of British Royal Navy =
> ship."
> >>=20
> >> Perhaps an error for "ferment"?  A plan to bring back grog to the
> >> Royal Navy, and in a gesture of comradeship introduce it to the Cuban
> >> seamen?
> >>=20
> >> Joel
> >>=20
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> >>=20
> >=20
> >=20
> >=20
> > --=20
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> truth."
> >=20
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