[Ads-l] locomotives as female

[Jonathan Lighter]

That "Hellenic" gibberish should look like "naus" with a roof over the {u}.

JL

On Tue, Apr 21, 2015 at 12:44 PM, 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: locomotives as female
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> > On Apr 21, 2015, at 12:39 PM, Jonathan Lighter =
> <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >=20
> > Latin "navis" is feminine too; but in that system no one could have =
> thought
> > much of it.
> >=20
> > The same goes for Hellenic "na=C3=BBs " and hypothesized PIE =
> "*n=C3=A9h=E2=82=82us" - the
> > latter according to Wiktionary.
> >=20
> > OE "scip," however, was neuter.
> >=20
> >=20
>
> ...whence the androgyny of "Scip to My Lou"
>
> LH
> >=20
> > On Tue, Apr 21, 2015 at 12:17 PM, Amy West <medievalist at w-sts.com> =
> wrote:
> >=20
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM>
> >> Subject:      Re: locomotives as female
> >>=20
> >> =
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> -----
> >>=20
> >> On 4/21/15 12:00 AM, ADS-L automatic digest system wrote:
> >>> Date:    Mon, 20 Apr 2015 17:20:25 -0400
> >>> From:    Jonathan Lighter<wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >>> Subject: Re: locomotives as female
> >>>=20
> >>> OED's earliest "she" for a ship is from Barbour's_Bruce_  of 1375.
> >>>=20
> >>> JL
> >> Thanks for doing my homework for me. :-) That early does surprise me.
> >>=20
> >> ---Amy West
> >>=20
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> >=20
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