[Ads-l] “bow-wow”, adj. = “high sounding =?UTF-8?Q?=2C_grandiloquent=E2=80=9D=3F=2C_?=1826

[Joel Berson]

I can only say that Trench's "high sounding" presumably does not mean literally "high pitched" (sense 1) but rather "sounding or appearing important or impressive (but in reality having little substance); pompous, bombastic; pretentious" (sense 2), which dates from 1624.

For the actual connection with a dog's speech, you'll have to get it from (to mix metaphors) the horse's mouth -- a dog, or Sir Walter, or some earlier coiner.  I can't imagine how to search the databases for this usage.

Joel


      From: "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at MST.EDU>
 To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
 Sent: Saturday, April 9, 2016 5:36 PM
 Subject: Re: [ADS-L] “bow-wow”, adj. = “high sounding, grandiloquent”?, 1826
   
In what way is a dog's bark "high sounding, grandiloquent"? Could it 
somehow be connected with the excitement of dogs barking during a 
fox hunt (an activity for the nobles)? And does "the cat's meow" fit into 
this picture in any way?
G. Cohen
________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]
 on behalf of Joel Berson [berson at ATT.NET]
Sent: Saturday, April 09, 2016 3:54 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: “bow-wow”, adj. = “high sounding, grandiloquent”?, 1826

That young lady [Jane Austen] had a talent for describing the 
involvements, and feelings, and characters of ordinary life, 
which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with. The 
Big Bow-wow strain I can do myself like any now going; 
but the exquisite touch, which renders ordinary commonplace 
things and characters interesting, from the truth of the description 
and the sentiment, is denied to me. 
bow-wow, adj. high sounding, grandiloquent, not in OED3 For the 
definition, derived from the Scott quotation, see Richard Chenevix 
Trench, On some deficiencies in our English dictionaries (1860), 
p. 18. Entry dated 1826 March 14. Walter Scott. Memoirs of the Life 
of Sir Walter Scott, Bart. Volume the Sixth. Edinburgh: Robert Cadell; 
London: John Murray and Whittaker; 1837. Page 264. Google Books, 
full view.

Joel
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