[Ads-l] P.S. on "Fargone" vs. "Fargoed"

[Laurence Horn]

I know it wasn’t the last scene in the movie (after all, there was that nice bedtime cuddle between Frances McDormand and hubby) but might the demise of the Buscemi character count as a Fargone conclusion?



> On Jan 15, 2017, at 2:40 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> 
> 
>> On Jan 15, 2017, at 10:47 AM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>> 
>> Wouldn't the word "gaslit" be familiar in the sense of "lit by gas", and
>> wouldn't the Academy Award nominated movie and it's context be familiar to
>> just about everyone?
>> 
>> I don't think the connection is hard to make.
> 
> I don’t know; given that it’s from the title of the film, which in turn derives from the use of gas lights in the film (and I assume the earlier play), it’s a bit indirect—not to the extent of “grandstood” as the past tense of “grandstand”, but somewhere along that continuum.  Or maybe referring to someone disposed of in a wood-chipper as having been “Fargone” rather than “Fargoed”.  (Sorry for the spoiler alert.)
> 
> LH 
>> 
>> On Jan 13, 2017 11:49 AM, "ADSGarson O'Toole" <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> Ben Zimmer wrote:
>>>> It's remarkable that "gaslighting" was considered common enough
>>>> knowledge by then that it didn't require an explanation tying it back
>>>> to the movie, and it's equally remarkable that the verb had already
>>>> taken on the irregular morphology of "gaslit" for the past tense /
>>>> past participle.
>>> 
>>> Great citation, Ben.
>>> 
>>> Maybe the term was familiar to movie and television screenplay writers
>>> because it facilitated convenient shorthand descriptions when
>>> discussing plot mechanics. The writers may have misjudged the
>>> popularity/frequency of "to gaslight" in the general populace. Perhaps
>>> "to gaslight" was largely unknown to people similar to the characters
>>> in "Gomer Pyle, USMC" before it appeared on television.
>>> 
>>> Garson
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On Thu, Jan 12, 2017 at 8:15 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> I prefer _gaslighted_, but...
>>>>> 
>>>>> Youneverknow.
>>>>> 
>>>>> I grew up in the home of the Laclede Gas-Light Company, so...
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>> 
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>>> 
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>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>> 
>> 
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> 

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