[Ads-l] Early QOTY candidate

[Laurence Horn]

> On Jan 22, 2018, at 4:01 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
[LH:]
>> Maybe Trump's speechwriter had just come from a production of the
> Scottish play, where Macbeth, having been assured by the witches' prophecy
>> that no man of woman born can defeat him, unfortunately encounters
> Macduff, who was "from his mother's womb / Untimely ripped”.
> [WG:]
> Youneverknow. But, clearly, Scotland had some hella good obstetric
> surgeons, in those days.

I wonder if they were good enough to save Macduff’s mom during the procedure (and I also wonder why “untimely”—too early? too late?). As I understand it, until relatively recently the mother did not survive a Caesarean section, and that that’s how we know it wasn’t named for Julius Caesar, since his mother (Calpurnia?) was around afterward to raise Julius.  The OED begs to differ on this, glossing Caesarian birth/section/operation as follows:

'delivery of a child by cutting through the walls of the abdomen when delivery cannot take place in the natural way, as was done in the case of Julius Cæsar’

—without so much as a hedge.  Can any of our etymology and/or classical history mavens clarify the point?

LH 
> 
> On Sun, Jan 21, 2018 at 8:24 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
> 
>>> On Jan 21, 2018, at 7:04 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>> 
>>>>> “Right now, in a number of states, the laws allow a baby to be _torn_
>>> from
>>>>> his or her mother's womb in the ninth month,” Trump said. “It is wrong.
>>>>> It has to change.”
>>> 
>>>> Killjoy.
>>> 
>>> _Still_ seems like a good QOTY candidate to me. "_Torn_ from the womb in
>>> the _ninth_ month"?! WTF is that supposed to mean? Does he want to outlaw
>>> caesareans?
>> 
>> Maybe Trump's speechwriter had just come from a production of the Scottish
>> play, where Macbeth, having been assured by the witches' prophecy that no
>> man of woman born can defeat him, unfortunately encounters Macduff, who was
>> "from his mother's womb / Untimely ripped”.
>> 
>> As for Trump’s misreading of the line, I think that’s a case for Dr. Freud.
>> 
>> LH
>> 
>>> 
>>> On Sun, Jan 21, 2018 at 1:36 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Killjoy.
>>>> 
>>>>> On Jan 21, 2018, at 9:44 AM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
>> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> Actually, a misstatement from the written statement: "torn".
>>>>> 
>>>>> DanG
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Sat, Jan 20, 2018 at 7:42 PM, Jonathan Lighter <
>>>> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>> A typo for "borne."
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> JL
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> On Sat, Jan 20, 2018 at 4:25 PM, Laurence Horn <
>> laurence.horn at yale.edu>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> “Right now, in a number of states, the laws allow a baby to be born
>>>> from
>>>>>>> his or her mother's womb in the ninth month,” Trump said. “It is
>> wrong.
>>>>>> It
>>>>>>> has to change.”
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> —President Trump yesterday, addressing anti-abortion marchers at
>> their
>>>>>>> “March for Life”
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>>>> truth."
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>> 
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --
>>> -Wilson
>>> -----
>>> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
>>> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>> -Mark Twain
>>> 
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org