[Ads-l] on a screed

[Laurence Horn]

> On Oct 4, 2018, at 2:33 PM, Mark Mandel <mark.a.mandel at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> FWIW, I've always associated "screed" with a written text, possibly by
> association with "script" and "scroll".
> 
> Mark Mandel

It’s evidently a cognate of “shred”. Most OED entries do specify writing, but not all.  The most general relevant lemma is 

3a. A long or tedious speech, piece of writing, list, etc. Now chiefly: a speech or piece of writing characterized by vehement or protracted criticism or complaint; a rant, a tirade.

—which seems basically on target. Curiously, AHD just commits itself to a screed being ‘a long monotonous speech or piece of writing’, missing the 'vehement or protracted criticism or complaint’ component that we’ve been assuming is associated with (most?) screeds.  After all, based on my long experience as a member of the Yale faculty, I would venture to maintain that a speech can be long and monotonous without being a screed. 

LH 

> On Thu, Oct 4, 2018, 2:01 PM Clai Rice <cxr1086 at louisiana.edu> wrote:
> 
>> Searching in COCA I find 163 hits for screed, about 15-20% being OED
>> screed (4) in construction contexts.
>> 
>> There are no relevant uses with "on (a screed)", and only 4 with "into (a
>> screed)", 2 verbs each with two examples: launches into and turned X into.
>> 
>> Approaching from the other side, "GO off on" yields 624 examples.
>> Searching for right-side noun collocates I find 70 nouns with 2 or more
>> hits, though several of those are of the same lemma. The top collocates are
>> TANGENT (55), trip (14), vacation (8). Nouns in the semantic set of
>> interest are RANT (9), tirade (5), RIFF (3), rampage (2). On the whole, the
>> nouns in the whole collocation set are characterized by being associated
>> with a length of time--tangent being a sort of outlier. In addition to
>> those listed, the set includes adventure, tour, missions, honeymoon, trips,
>> crusade and fishing expeditions. Since the definition of screed includes
>> the notion of length ("long or tedious" "protracted" in OED), it seems to
>> me that the noun would fit the general construction. Yet it does not appear.
>> 
>> The construction "GO on" has too much reach to search effectively--over
>> 22,000 hits with right-side nouns of over 16 hits each--so I searched "GO
>> on a". The most frequent nouns to appear are
>> 1                TRIP   413
>> 2                DATE   241
>> 3                RAMPAGE        166
>> 4                SPREE  159
>> 5                DIET   159
>> 
>> In our target semantic set are tear (33), tirade (13), rant (13), tangent
>> (4), riff (2), diatribe (2).
>> 
>> I have not searched the historical corpus.
>> 
>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Jonathan Lighter" <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>>> Sent: Wednesday, October 3, 2018 10:43:36 AM
>>> Subject: on a screed
>>> 
>>> CNN:  "[Judge K] went on a long screed."
>>> 
>>> Sounds weird to me, despite OED def. as "tirade"
>>> 
>>> Traditionally you don't (or didn't) "go on" a "screed" (though you do go
>> a
>>> "spree," like, you know, consuming mass quantities of beer.)
>>> 
>>> JL
>>> 
>>> --
>>> "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
>>> 
>> 
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>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> 
> 
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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