World Wide Words -- 31 Aug 02

Fri Aug 30 15:08:47 UTC 2002

WORLD WIDE WORDS         ISSUE 305          Saturday 31 August 2002
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Sent each Saturday to 15,000+ subscribers in at least 119 countries
Editor: Michael Quinion, Thornbury, Bristol, UK      ISSN 1470-1448
<http://www.worldwidewords.org>      <TheEditor at worldwidewords.org>
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Contents
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1. Review: Ologies and Isms, by Michael Quinion.
2. Weird Words: Merrythought.
3. Sic!
4. Q&A: Dauncy; Duck soup.
5. Endnote.
A. Subscription commands.
B. Contact addresses.

1. Review: Ologies and Isms, by Michael Quinion
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Reviewed by lexicographer Jonathon Green, editor of the "Cassell
Dictionary of Slang", and author of "Chasing the Sun: Dictionary
Makers and the Dictionaries They Made" and many other works.

Like the DNA that lies at the heart of the human body, language too
has its building blocks, fundamental and indivisible, the literal
foundations of the vocabulary. For the linguist these are the
phonemes, from the Greek "phoneima", a sound, and defined by the
OED as "a phonological unit of language that cannot be analyzed
into smaller linear units" and by David Crystal as "the minimal
unit in the sound system of a language". But if the phonemes are
the foundations, the word, the linguistic "house" as it were,
offers other, more obviously visible components. These are the
prefixes and suffixes, the tops and tails of a given word: "hypo-",
"palaeo-", "onco-", "-saur", "-gynous", "-cyte". On any page, in
any sentence, such portmanteau terms abound: acquaint oneself with
the meaning of such appendages and one is on the way to full
definition.

There are very many such affixes and such etymological dictionaries
as those of Skeat or Partridge always offered a cross-section. Now,
in one dedicated volume, Michael Quinion (who, as after-dinner
speakers put it, "needs no introduction") has collected what one
might term the core list, each with an etymology and a range of
examples. The 1,250-strong lexicon comes in dictionary order, plus
sidebars that focus on such especially popular terms as "cyber-",
"-cide", "-phobia", and "-algia", plus a list of those determining
multiples, among them "yotta-" (10 to the power of 24) and "zepto"
(10 to the power of -21). In addition there are thematic lists –
unsurprisingly the worlds of Medicine and Surgery, plus the
attendant Body, predominate here, closely followed by those of the
Chemical Elements. Among other areas, Religion and Spirit,
Sensations, Shapes and Time all provide their own examples.

As might be expected the bulk of such material is based in Greek or
Latin. One might accuse such classicism of deliberate jargoneering
and obfuscation, but the translations make it clear that such
affixes actually produce useful and, had one the classics to know
them, clear definitions of the pertinent terms. Indeed, the more
modern coinages, mainly suffixes such as "–bot", "–fest", "-ista",
"-meister", and above all "–oholic" and "–gate" (neither of which
latter pair are "true" suffixes) sound slightly specious.

It is traditional when reviewing dictionaries to parade one's
supposedly superior wisdom: nits, in other words, must be picked.
OK. I would have like to have seen "fashionista", surely the first
of the non-political "–ista" uses; I missed the sci-fi plural "fen"
(as in the community of fans) under "–en". I would have also liked
to see mention of that least classical and most demotic of
suffixes, the Australian slang "–o", as in "garbo", "milko",
"sango" and so many more. And ... and that's about it. Other, that
is, than the title: both terms are suffixes, surely a suitably
assonant prefix could have been found.

Despite their primary use as works of reference, dictionaries (even
the mighty OED) should entertain as well as inform. "Ologies and
Isms" performs absolutely as required. It will, as the blurb
writers have it, delight anyone with an interest in words. As
subscribers to World Wide Words, our communal hat should be tipped
to Michael Quinion. As also to the OUP: of late too often
sidetracked into the second-rate, this is what the Press does best.

[Quinion, Michael "Ologies and Isms: Word Beginnings and Endings",
Oxford University Press; paperback, pp280; ISBN 0-19-280123-6;
publisher's price GBP8.99. Out in the UK on 29 August 2002;
published in Canada next month, in Australia on 1 November, and in
the US next Spring. For sample entries and online ordering
suggestions, see <http://www.worldwidewords.org/ologies.htm>.]

2. Weird Words: Merrythought
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The forked bone between the neck and breast of a bird.

But that's the wishbone, I almost hear you cry. Indeed it is, but
"merrythought" is the older term for that part of a turkey, chicken
or other fowl served at table. "Wishbone" was created in America;
from the evidence, it seems to have appeared sometime around the
1850s, but has since taken over everywhere. However, "merrythought"
was still the more common term in America and Britain until about
1900. Here's an American example, from "Mrs. Goodfellow's Cookery
as it Should Be", published in Philadelphia in 1865:

  Remove the merrythought and neck bones next, this you
  will accomplish by inserting the knife and forcing it
  under the bones, raise it and it will readily separate
  from the breast.

The name of "wishbone" comes, of course, from the folk custom in
which two people hold its ends and pull, the one left with the
longer piece making a wish. "Merrythought" refers to an older
version of the custom, in which it is assumed that the one left
with the longer piece will get to marry first. So the bone-pulling
ceremony resulted in what were euphemistically called "merry
thoughts" among those taking part. This explains the reference in
"Jack Hinton, the Guardsman", an 1843 novel by the Irish writer
Charles Lever: "Simpering old maids cracked merry thoughts with gay
bachelors".

The scientific name for the bone is the "furcula", from the Latin
word that is a diminutive of "furca", a fork. That is actually
also the origin of our "fork" and also turns up in words like
"bifurcated", which the furcula, of course, is.

3. Sic!
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In this month's Interzone science-fiction magazine, there's a story
involving trans-dimensional pan-galactic goings on, in the midst of
which the protagonists settle down to a meal of "pheasant and wild
bore". Wild? He was probably furious. And said so interminably ...

4. Q&A
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Q. While reading "The Stand" by Stephen King I came across the word
"dauncy": "Just the thought of crawling around on that roof, so
high above the ground, made Larry's guts feel dauncy". Of course
the context makes it clear what is meant, but I'd like to know more
about it. It being Stephen King, I'd guess it's American in origin,
but I'm not sure. What can you say about it? [Kamil Ibragimov,
Uzbekistan]

A. It might seem to be American, but it's actually from the British
side of the Atlantic. It was formerly common as a Scottish and
Northern English word in several senses, though much less so now.

In Britain, the spelling was more often "donsie" or "donsey", as it
can sometimes be in the US. It derives from Gaelic "donas", bad
luck, harm or ill will. The main sense used to be of somebody who
was luckless or unfortunate, sickly or feeble. It turns up in a
poem by Robert Burns addressed to an old mare (I'll spare you the
exact quotation, as otherwise I would have to explain every other
word in it). An example that's more readily understandable is in
John Galt's "The Ayrshire Legatees" of 1821, "I promised that
donsie body, Willy Shachle ... that when I got my legacy, he should
get a guinea". It could also sometimes mean a person who was
affectedly or fastidiously neat or trim, with a sense of self-
importance attached.

The American sense, in either spelling, has always been rather a
regional term, and these days is rare. The usual meaning is of a
person who is feeling sick, weak, lacking in vitality, or not
completely well.

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Q. I'm curious to know the origin of the expression "duck soup",
which a college professor of mine used several times as a synonym
for "an extremely easy task" (that is, I think, until he realized
that the class was snickering at the oddity of the expression). I'm
aware of the Marx Brothers' film title, but I've never heard anyone
other than the professor use it in conversation before or since.
[George Mannes; Jude Symanski and Loren also asked about the origin
of the expression.]

A. It's getting more than a little old-fashioned, though it's still
common enough to be included in American dictionaries. The first
recorded use, according to Professor Jonathon Lighter in the Random
House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, was in a Tad Dorgan
cartoon in 1902, in reference to a man fluently juggling a set of
miscellaneous items. I means some action that was easy or presented
no challenge, a cinch to complete, like rolling off a log.

It's a weird phrase. Nobody has the slightest idea where it came
from or what it refers to. Could the image be of a sitting duck,
one that was on the water and easy for a hunter to shoot? Could it
be that duck soup was especially easy to prepare? Might it even
refer to a pond with ducks floating on it, which figuratively was
already duck soup? All these have been tentatively put forward by
various writers who were feverishly exercising their imaginations
in the absence of solid fact.

If anybody ever finds out, do let me know.

6. Endnote
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"We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except,
of course, language." [Oscar Wilde, "The Canterville Ghost" (1887).
A similar idea, "England and America are two countries separated by
a common language", is often attributed to George Bernard Shaw, but
has not been found in his writings.]

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