Not quite in OED: spin (radio term)

[Dan Goncharoff]

You said the definition was wrong. What is wrong with it?
In you analysis of the citations, you make a few assumptions that don't
hold water.

You assume someone built a bike for the purpose of riding slowly around a
velodrome -- I doubt it.

You assume racers don't ride fluidly on practice runs -- I doubt it.

Regards
DanG

On Wed, Jan 22, 2014 at 9:24 AM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

> > 1978 N.Y. Times 24 Apr. c13/1 It's spring ... and the cyclists are
> > spinning along--and away.
> > 1981 Bicycling May 22/1 Allow yourself 15 to 20 minutes to warm up,
> > spinning in a low gear at 90 rpm or a little more.
> > 1998 Cycling & Mountain Biking Today Apr. 2/1 A fixed-wheel fitted
> > track bike for spinning round the vélodrome.
> > 2003 Spectator (Hamilton, Ont.) (Nexis) 28 June a5 Cyclists spin by on
> > practice runs through the race route, dodging the cars that have
> > sneaked through the barricades.
>
> The first two examples seem to reflect the listed lemma. But the third
> refers to making full loops around the velodrome, not so much to
> pedaling hard. A similar example might be "She was spinning around the
> room like a whirling dervish, greeting every guest in turn." And the
> last one is not related at all--the "spin by" reference is simply to
> moving fast and has nothing to do with pedaling (compare to the
> metaphorical/poetic use in "moments spinning by"). So it seems that
> several different meanings are lumped together under one roof.
>



DanG

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org