[Ads-l] Three usage questions

[Laurence Horn]

I guess they can't be cavers or spelunkers or speleologist because that's not serious enough, or maybe they just allude to exploring the caves themselves (geologically) rather than the important old stuff they're hiding (archeologically).  But why couldn't they be, for example, "terranauts"? 

LH

> On Sep 13, 2015, at 8:10 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU> wrote:
> 
> 1) The same group leader reportedly used it to describe an earlier find.
> "[Prof. Lee] Berger, leader of National Geographic's Rising Star Expedition, tapped six women he has called "underground astronauts" to recover remains from a cavern 30 meters underground at the Cradle of Humankind, a World Heritage Site in northeastern South Africa. The cradle is the site of some of the oldest hominin (human relatives closer on the family tree than gorillas or chimpanzees) discoveries ever, reaching back more than 3 million years."
> 
> This, from a U. of Wisconsin-Madison news release, Dec. 6 2013, via Targeted News Service via ProQuest Central.
> 
> Stephen Goranson
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__people.duke.edu_-7Egoranson_&d=AwIF-g&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=WRWA_nx02ucW4cXcswPwW6AMfoOPx6RYPGk-zfOiNBE&s=dVmSu91hLSnGwbSx7W7McLwOMtj_-ohc8rdNU5rJrwU&e= 
> 
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Susan G Yerkes <susanyerkes at UTEXAS.EDU>
> Sent: Saturday, September 12, 2015 12:33 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: [ADS-L] Three usage questions
> 
> Love this list-serve and have three questions:
> 
> 1) A story in Friday's NTY on the "Homo Naledi" discovery
> 
> (
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.nytimes.com_2015_09_11_science_south-2Dafrica-2Dfossils-2Dnew-2Dspecies-2Dhuman-2Dancestor-2Dhomo-2Dnaledi.html-3Faction-3Dclick-26contentCollection-3DFashion-2520-2526-2520Style-26module-3DMostPopularFB-26version-3DFull-26region-3DMarginalia-26src-3Dme-26pgtype-3Darticle&d=AwIF-g&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=WRWA_nx02ucW4cXcswPwW6AMfoOPx6RYPGk-zfOiNBE&s=SwtDL0wFVQ5r7ty4CQ1ETEpHHC4ve5-boL5yjZ9uKpI&e= 
> )
> 
> states that six "slender" women were chosen as the team to slither into the
> cave where the bones were found, and that the team members were  referred
> to as "underground astronauts."
> Does anybody know if this is a new usage?
> 
> 
> 2) A Sept. 9 NYT story on Donald Trump caps  referred to what I always
> thought of "ball caps," "gimme caps" or trucker caps as "classic rope hats."
> 
> /
> www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/fashion/trumps-campaign-hat-becomes-an-ironic-summer-accessory.html?/_r=0i
> 
> Where can I find an expanded explanation of the names for various versions
> of the billed cap?
> 
> 3) The same NYT story ends with the conjecture that:
>  This season’s Trump trucker hat will soon go the way of ‘on fleek.’ ”
> 
> What is "on fleek" and where did it come from (and where, or which way, did
> it "go"?)
> 
> Thanks in advance for any answers,
> 
> Susan Yerkes
> San Antonio, TX
> (Not a member of ADS, but an enthusiastic fan of your discussions)
> 
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