[Ads-l] miscellany

[Mark Mandel]

Nice find, that sense of "black art", and going back well over a century,
too!

MAM


On Sun, Aug 18, 2019, 12:27 AM Bill Mullins <amcombill at hotmail.com> wrote:

>  carjack (v) - OED has 1991.
> Previously discussed:
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2012-August/121570.html
>
> _Lincoln [NE] Star_ 31 Aug 1978 p 12 col 3
> "He gets carjacked (that's skyjacking on the ground) by notorious criminal
> Claude Russo and watches as the fiend is gunned down."
>
> carjacking (n) OED has 16 Sep 1970
> _St. Petersburg [FL] Times_ 8 Aug 1970 p 10 col 2
> "It all conjures up a nightmarish picture of traffic jams in the sky, 500
> mile races around artificial clouds and car-jackings to Cuba."
>
>
>
> The OED has several senses of "black art", but not this one:
>
> black art (noun) - a theatrical or conjuring technique to make objects or
> people appear to be invisible, by covering them with black material and
> placing them in front of a black background
>
> [_Milwaukee Journal_ 17 Dec 1887 p 2 col 3
> "In Black Art the stage is darkened and draped in black velvet.  Herrmann
> then summons forth Mephistopheles, then angels, skeletons, spirit hands,
> chairs, etc."]
>
> H. J. Burlingame, _Leaves from Conjurers' Scrap Books_ Chicago: Donohue,
> Henneberry & Co, 1891. p. 45.
> "Their leading sensational feat during the last year has been that of
> causing the instantaneous disappearance of a live horse, which is
> accomplished through that mysterious medium called "Black Art." "
>
> _Variety_ 27 Sep 1932 p 41 col 2
> "Technique is that of the old 'black art,' support coming from a third
> handler masked entirely in black and invisible, but the effect is striking."
>
> _Minneapolis Star_  5 June 1939 p  18 col 1
> "Illusions like this depend upon black backgrounds and trick lighting -
> called "black art." "
>
>
> black art (attributive)
>
> _Mahatma_  Oct 1895, p 4 col 2
> "Herrmann always gave the best rendering of the "Black Art" idea."
>
> _Conjurer's Monthly Magazine_ June 1908 p. 300 col 2
> "Chung Ling Soo said he himself used a table with a Black Art well for
> vanishing a glass of water thirty years ago, at which time this was a
> popular custom among conjurers in America."
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



>

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