[Ads-l] Outside a horse, a book is man's best friend--inside it's too dark to read

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Mon Aug 16 18:48:52 UTC 2021


Or maybe, given Groucho Marx’s prominence in anecdotes sourcing the “Inside of a dog” version, it’s a variant of “landsman”.  Just kidding (I think).  

LH

> On Aug 16, 2021, at 2:33 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Mark Mandel wrote:
>> This "lensman" is probably a photographer, but I will ask this
>> nevertheless: Is there any indication of whether the title is an allusion
>> to E.E. "Doc" Smith's series of "Lensman" science fiction novels
>> (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lensman_series), first published 1948-1954?
>> In those, the word has nothing to do with photography.
> 
> The column contains a series of pictures of animals: dog, cow, lion,
> monkey, pigeon, fox, cat. The text accompanying each picture is
> written from the viewpoint of the animal.
> 
> The series of photos leads me to think that "lensman" refers to photographer.
> 
> Garson
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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



More information about the Ads-l mailing list