[Ads-l] antedating of 'oudenology', etc.

Thu Oct 27 17:26:32 UTC 2022

The OED appeal of a few years ago seems to have fizzled out.  It should be understood that the OED's need for crowdsourcing has diminished.  For the first 150 years or so of the OED project, crowdsourcing through a "reading program" was essential in order to generate the citational evidence for entries.  The OED's staff was not large enough to amass the millions of citations that were required.

Now the necessity for contributors to send in citations has been greatly reduced because of the availability to the OED of a vast searchable literature of books, newspapers, and journals.  To a large extent, online databases are used, and used very effectively, to retrieve usable citations.  The searching is done mostly by OED staff who seem to be quite good at it.

There is still need for a reading program and contributions from outside researchers, for the following reasons:

Even ambitious and very competent staff online searching may have imperfections that can be ameliorated by outside help.
Online searching may not be effective for some entries, especially for words that have multiple meanings.
There are many entries that the OED's normal editorial processes may not get up to for decades, so that work by outside researchers may speed up the preparation of some entries.

The factors just mentioned are significant, but not so significant as to motivate the OED to continue its tradition of having a huge reading program.

Our ADS-L listserv may be the main form of crowdsourcing by the OED nowadays.  People who post about word-origins here may not even realize that they are contributing to the OED through their postings.

Fred Shapiro

________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of James Eric Lawson <jel at NVENTURE.COM>
Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2022 4:15 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: antedating of 'oudenology', etc.

Incidentally: I've seen the OED appeal for antedatings (M-R as of May,
2020). The appeal seems crippled, less than half-hearted, to the point
of being condescending, and does not seem to carry on the much-vaunted
OED "long tradition of crowdsourcing" (as I understand it).

On 10/26/22 22:03, James Eric Lawson wrote:
> It seems unlikely that 'nihilology' will meet OED criteria for
> inclusion. I can't say I'll be disappointed if it doesn't. The entry for
> oudenology should be fixed, though. If I could fix it, I would; which
> reminds me: why isn't the OED crowdsourced? Simple inertia?
>
> Not that I'd want an OED on the model of Wikipedia or Urban Dictionary,
> but rigorous vetting and professional editing of crowdsourced amateur
> material could work well.
>
> On 10/26/22 08:18, Laurence Horn wrote:
>> The corresponding Latinate version, “nihilology”, seems better substantiated, including its own website and monograph:
>>
>> https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nihilology.com%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C7d311faab93641eb2f1f08dab7f37b9d%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638024553645395738%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=R0eVP0%2BPem1M2X6A3eLUSCp94hb9RIf2PSOKlVPI2vw%3D&reserved=0 <https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nihilology.com%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C7d311faab93641eb2f1f08dab7f37b9d%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638024553645395738%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=R0eVP0%2BPem1M2X6A3eLUSCp94hb9RIf2PSOKlVPI2vw%3D&reserved=0>
>> https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FNothing-Nothingness-Toward-Apophatic-Science%2Fdp%2F177702420X&data=05%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C7d311faab93641eb2f1f08dab7f37b9d%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638024553645395738%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=%2B2O70E3aJ9%2BkgJ%2BTi7p7x3g8cg%2FQIHswh1W3fZ7SfUI%3D&reserved=0 <https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FNothing-Nothingness-Toward-Apophatic-Science%2Fdp%2F177702420X&data=05%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C7d311faab93641eb2f1f08dab7f37b9d%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638024553645395738%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=%2B2O70E3aJ9%2BkgJ%2BTi7p7x3g8cg%2FQIHswh1W3fZ7SfUI%3D&reserved=0>
>>
>>
>> LH
>>
>>
>>
>>> On Oct 26, 2022, at 4:22 AM, James Eric Lawson <jel at NVENTURE.COM> wrote:
>>>
>>> Oudenology, noun; OEDO (entry updated 2004; modified 2019) 1838, "The
>>> science of nothing, or of things having no real existence." 1838 quote
>>> "Apparently an isolated use".
>>>
>>> In _The London Medical and Surgical Journal_, 25 July 1835, 825/2.
>>> Article titled "Nothing of a Leader": "The substantialists may talk how
>>> they like, but *oudenology*, so we shall name it, is a very important
>>> branch of science--without its aid, some of the most celebrated medical
>>> works of the day would collapse into atoms!"
>>>
>>> https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbabel.hathitrust.org%2Fcgi%2Fpt%3Fid%3Diau.31858046176412%26view%3D1up%26seq%3D833%26q1%3Doudenology&data=05%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C7d311faab93641eb2f1f08dab7f37b9d%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638024553645552397%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=wXRHSzmMzkKnW1lBhdA%2F7bZ8LYhlHDHYGoHqp8BtcOk%3D&reserved=0
>>>
>>> Another attestation November 1883, 84/2, in _New England Medical
>>> Monthly_: "Benjamin Waterhouse, honorably known for having been the
>>> introducer of vaccination into America, was the first professor of the
>>> theory and practice of medicine. I remember him well, and carry the scar
>>> of the vaccination he performed on me. ...  He had some learning, which
>>> he was disposed to make the most of, as perhaps we all are if we have
>>> it, and laid himself open to the playful sallies of the students of his
>>> time, one of whom announced a course of lectures on Oudenology, which
>>> was supposed to be a travesty of some of his prelections."
>>>
>>> https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbabel.hathitrust.org%2Fcgi%2Fpt%3Fid%3Dmdp.39015047691798%26view%3D1up%26seq%3D102%26q1%3Doudenology&data=05%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C7d311faab93641eb2f1f08dab7f37b9d%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638024553645552397%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=7qtBk0VfYIT93MIGrw2LqRk4nCHXQLxOjy5MLhSnepE%3D&reserved=0
>>>
>>> Occasional attestation thereafter in the 19th and 20th centuries, often
>>> in a humorous medical context involving the history of vaccination.
>>>
>

--
James Eric Lawson

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