[Ads-l] "snow farm", not in OED; 1970--? Bostonism?

[Joel Berson]

Does it go back to the older sense of "to farm" as "to collect taxes, fees, etc."?

Joel


      From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
 To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
 Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2017 11:28 AM
 Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "snow farm", not in OED; 1970--? Bostonism?
   
Is this a productive euphemism process?  Can we reconceptualize automobile junkyards “car farms”?  And town dumps “garbage farms”?  And sewers “underwater waste farms”?  Who says farming is in trouble?  

LH

> On Feb 16, 2017, at 11:23 AM, Joel Berson <berson at ATT.NET> wrote:
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> A quick peek into the Boston Globe shows an instance on Jan. 21,1970, in a picture caption:
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> "Boston's snow farm in the Seaport District kept getting bigger."
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> Another winter storm slams Boston (Photo 4 of 57) - Pictures - The Boston Globe
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> Another winter storm slams Boston (Photo 4 of 57) - Pictures - The Boston ...
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> And there are many instances from the notorious season of 2014--2015.
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> Google Books seems tedious, since (as far as I know) it doesn't respect capitalization.
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> The "Lexicon" column in today's Boston Globe defines it as "Where blizzards go to die."  Is it a Bostonism?
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> Joel
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> ------------------------------------------------------------
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