[Ads-l] "[Blank] Quarterback" - Second-guessing

[Laurence Horn]

Thanks.  Who knew?  Well, international intercourse has always been tricky.

LH

> On Dec 8, 2016, at 2:31 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> It's older than you think -- see this 1895 article about Volapük:
> 
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__books.google.com_books-3Fid-3D-2DxbOAAAAMAAJ-26pg-3DPA20&d=CwIFaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=cIsvPqutM5AtQThI3N47lKpMfL_XaDweIw4q-o5ueoA&s=XThf2G3zZ41qWuf2aTiFG5NVhqhlSMJv7duplkURVbs&e= 
> _Chemist and Druggist_, Volume 46, Jan. 5, 1895, p. 20, col. 2
> We have often wondered how any person of common sense can imagine that it
> is possible to induce the population of the world at large to adopt, for
> international intercourse, a sort of mosaic language carefully glued
> together from odd bits of all the Aryan (and, for aught we know, Semitic)
> tongues by an arm-chair linguist, or that such a piece of joinery can stand
> the wear and tear of common usage.
> 
> (On Google Books I also see "armchair historian" from 1888 and "armchair
> anthropologist" from 1920.)
> 
> On Thu, Dec 8, 2016 at 1:46 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
> 
>> “Armchair linguist” must be a bit later, and not yet in OED.  1960s
>> perhaps?
>> 
>> 
>>> On Dec 8, 2016, at 1:44 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>> 
>>> As I noted elsethread, OED3 now has "armchair critic" (1856), "armchair
>>> strategist" (1888), "armchair general" (1900), and "armchair quarterback"
>>> (1932 -- same cite from Ottawa Journal).
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
> 
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