[Ads-l] Geoffrey Nunberg R.I.P.

Sat Nov 28 14:28:15 UTC 2020

I count it a good thing (or good things?) that we have both HDAS (at least the two parts) and Green's (online is a plus)--both helpful, neither complete, as dictionaries all.
Winchester's essay oddly criticized repetition, as if the OED should vary more from saying "origin unknown" to avoid being boring to cover-to-cover readers.
NY Review of Books, did, though, print a more favorable review, by Nicholson Baker, of HDAS vol. 1.*

S. C. Goranson
*
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1994/08/11/leading-with-the-grumper/
[https://cdn.nybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/nybooks-t.png]<https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1994/08/11/leading-with-the-grumper/>
Leading with the Grumper | by Nicholson Baker | The New York Review of Books<https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1994/08/11/leading-with-the-grumper/>
Lighter is at his most severely exclusive regarding authorial or journalistic neologisms. For instance, his entries for bush, crank, and fudge-packer quote lines from a book of my own, being pre-existent words, whereas none of the A-through-G novelties in that same book (bobolinks, candy-corn, clit-cloister, cream horns, frans, etc .)—novelties, may I say, on which I expensed some spirit and ...
www.nybooks.com

________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
Sent: Friday, November 27, 2020 5:26 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Geoffrey Nunberg R.I.P.

I'm very glad to have a chance to read Nunberg's essay.  Thanks, J. L.

GAT

On Fri, Nov 27, 2020 at 3:55 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Jerry,
>
> Geoff posted the letter to LanguageLog after NYRB nixed it:
>
>
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu_nll_-3Fp-3D3847&d=DwIBaQ&c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=v2Wtu7DQZxSBMSJv-oEMNg&m=OXEYdeilDXoGJYNUrkLVD4yeVFlm5i9yHlcCsBg-n8M&s=M8Qkv7EpkvacnbCDLtks4CFheH6jAPO61eSq6fdcHm4&e=
>
> Jon Green, btw, did an excellent job on his dictionary too.  It represents
> an enormous amount of labor.  I wish we'd collaborated!) Our inclusion
> standards were not identical, however.
>
> JL
>
> On Fri, Nov 27, 2020 at 3:18 PM Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu>
> wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
> >
> > As anyone who has done research on American slang is well aware,
> >
> > HDAS is an enormous achievement and an indispensable resource.
> >
> >
> >
> > Jon, is there  a chance of getting permission from Geoff's family
> >
> > to print his riposte posthumously? If they'd say yes,  I'd be happy to
> >
> > put the letter in Comments on Etymology so it would not be lost to
> > posterity,
> >
> > and it could then be shared online.
> >
> >
> > Gerald Cohen
> >
> > ________________________________
> > Original message: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Sent: Friday, Novmber 27, 2020 8:05 AM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: Re: Geoffrey Nunberg R.I.P.
> >
> >
> > After NYRB blasted HDAS for rank ineptitude, Geoff unexpectedly took it
> > upon himself to write a feisty riposte. He sent me a copy of his letter,
> > which they never published.
> >
> > We weren't in contact much, but this is sad news for me.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Wed, Nov 25, 2020 at 7:39 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Thanks, Fred. Yes, Geoff was an exemplary linguist, public
> intellectual,
> > > and human being (and, in my case, third-grade classmate), with a
> > > publication record extending from books on political language and
> > > punctuation to one on assholism (well, OK, that one is not
> unpolitical).
> > > Here=E2=80=99s Richard Sandomir=E2=80=99s obit for him in the Times:
> > >
> > >
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.nytimes.com_2020_08_22_books_geoffrey-2Dnunberg-2Ddead.html&d=DwIBaQ&c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=v2Wtu7DQZxSBMSJv-oEMNg&m=OXEYdeilDXoGJYNUrkLVD4yeVFlm5i9yHlcCsBg-n8M&s=Q2DWqCLcNePKoS8BZ_hGJVUK1w9i3bbLPhA5ixm7Ork&e=
> > >
> > > And one on Language Log by Mark Liberman, with fond memories and
> thoughts
> > > from Ben Z. and others:
> > >
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu_nll_-3Fp-3D3D48087&d=DwIBaQ&c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=v2Wtu7DQZxSBMSJv-oEMNg&m=OXEYdeilDXoGJYNUrkLVD4yeVFlm5i9yHlcCsBg-n8M&s=lMsw6h7b18luzHAY8r1BAlK-dWNeMZxaDZmNm7SDF0Q&e=
> > >
> > > LH
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > On Nov 25, 2020, at 7:04 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> > > wrote:
> > > >
> > > > I think it has not yet been noted on this list that Geoffrey Nunberg
> > > passed away in August.  Geoff was a participant on this list and a
> > > semanticist and author.  He was best known to the public as a
> contributor
> > > to National Public Radio's "Fresh Air" show.
> > > >
> > > > Fred Shapiro
> > > >
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society -
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=DwIBaQ&c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=v2Wtu7DQZxSBMSJv-oEMNg&m=OXEYdeilDXoGJYNUrkLVD4yeVFlm5i9yHlcCsBg-n8M&s=Z72BYMHnTOElcy-OPMYF8VobG2pes-0CNM6IYhEB20U&e=
> >
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society -
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=DwIBaQ&c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=v2Wtu7DQZxSBMSJv-oEMNg&m=OXEYdeilDXoGJYNUrkLVD4yeVFlm5i9yHlcCsBg-n8M&s=Z72BYMHnTOElcy-OPMYF8VobG2pes-0CNM6IYhEB20U&e=
>

--
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998.

But when aroused at the Trump of Doom / Ye shall start, bold kings, from
your lowly tomb. . .
L. H. Sigourney, "Burial of Mazeen", Poems.  Boston, 1827, p. 112

The Trump of Doom -- also known as The Dunghill Toadstool.  (Here's a
picture of his great-grandfather.)
https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.parliament.uk/worksofart/artwork/james-gillray/an-excrescence---a-fungus-alias-a-toadstool-upon-a-dunghill/3851__;!!OToaGQ!7x4JWU00QLAqrTb_bZEI5Qv9UkLeUxxZ-qp_Sx6-oaVAzHTe1UspSksutDHPAIiY$

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