[Lexicog] bulls, bears and homonyms

[John Roberts]

A similar explanation is also given under bear2 in the New Oxford Dictionary
of English [origin: said to be from a proverb warning against 'selling the
bear's skin before one has caught the bear'.] But you have to go from "bull"
to "bear" to find it.

Incidentally, NODE has "bull1", "bull2", "bull3" and "bear1", "bear2". But
Collins COBUILD, for example, does not indicate homonyms down to having
"tear" 'liquid from eyes' and "tear" 'rip' listed under the one headword
TEAR. What do people think about indicating homonyms in a dictionary? Is it
helpful to the user or not? If you do decide to indicate homonyms, how do
you distinguish these from polysemy? Has anyone tried any other method of
indicating homonyms than by numbering?

John Roberts

> I just now found this explanation at wordorigins.org
>
> Bulls and Bears
>
>
> These two stock market terms appear in the early 18th century. Bear was
the
> first to appear, first recorded in 1709, and originally referred to the
> practice of selling stock one does not yet own for delivery at a future
> date with the expectation that the price would fall in the meantime,
> enabling the speculator to buy the stock at a lower price. Such
speculators
> were called bear-skin jobbers after the phrase sell the bear's skin before
> one has caught the bear. Gradually, the term took on the meaning of being
> generally pessimistic about stock prices.
>
>
> Bull appears a few years later, in 1714, and was almost certainly
> influenced by bear.
>
>
> Steve White, Jaars language software support
> 704-843-6337, 1-800-215-7813
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>



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