World Wide Words -- 24 Apr 10
Michael Quinion
wordseditor at WORLDWIDEWORDS.ORG
Fri Apr 23 16:57:46 UTC 2010
WORLD WIDE WORDS ISSUE 687 Saturday 24 April 2010
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Editor: Michael Quinion, Thornbury, Bristol, UK ISSN 1470-1448
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Contents
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1. Feedback, notes and comments.
2. Topical words: Hung parliament.
3. Weird Words: Comeuppance.
4. This week.
5. Q and A: Come the old soldier.
6. Sic!
A. Subscription information.
B. E-mail contact addresses.
C. Ways to support World Wide Words.
1. Feedback, notes and comments
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BOUGHTEN Many readers reported knowing this form, both in the UK
and North America, suggesting that its distribution in the US (and
in Canada) is wider than I had stated. In the US it is found from
coast to coast in a swathe across the northern states, though it
occurs patchily and is usually confined to older speakers. Several
readers in the UK also commented that it was still in use by them
or relatives.
Arnold Zwicky corrected my comment that "boughten" is "formed from
the irregular past tense of the verb 'to buy'"; it is, of course
from an irregular past participle; the "-en" that marks the past
participle of some strong verbs has been added to an existing
strong form created using internal vowel change to make a double-
strength form.
LAZY SUSAN James O'Brien pointed out that there is indeed a real
link between dumbwaiters and Thomas Jefferson, since Jefferson came
across them while in Paris and introduced them to his residences in
the US. This may be why he is often credited with their invention,
although his were small tables with shelves, not the rotating trays
of earlier English type. He also introduced two lifts to bring wine
from his cellar to the table, which may be part of the reason why
"dumb waiter" became a term for that device.
2. Topical words: Hung parliament
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While the UK was blanketed in Icelandic dust, a political volcano
was rumbling on the ground beneath. The innovation of televised
leaders' debates has caused a big upset in the current general
election. The Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg did so well in the
first of the three debates that one opinion poll last Sunday put
his party first in popularity, a psephological datum never before
encountered in the history of polling.
The polls were close even before this discombobulation. Now every
member of the commentariat is once again discussing the possibility
of a hung parliament. In the terminology of British politics, this
is one in which no party has an overall majority. Even before the
LibDem upset, that outcome was likely, as the presence of several
minority parties meant the ruling Labour Party only had to lose 24
seats to forfeit its absolute majority, while the Conservative
Party had to win 116 seats to gain one.
The term "hung parliament" came into the British political lexicon
as a result of Harold Wilson's failure to win conclusively in the
election of February 1974. He led a minority administration until
another election was forced the next October. The Times wrote in
early August, "The House is up, and the odds are that our 'hung'
Parliament will not meet again." The related term "hung Senate" had
been used in Australia during that country's elections in May 1974.
The phrase came into wider popular use in Britain in 1978, when the
slim Labour majority at the second 1974 election had been
eliminated as the result of by-election losses and the party was
kept in power though the support of the then Liberal Party.
Using "hang" for an indecisive situation has a long history. For
example, a firearm whose gunpowder was damp might "hang fire", with
the powder smouldering until it went off, a potentially dangerous
and unpredictable state of affairs. However, the metaphoric sense
predates firearms, being known from the fourteenth century. It was
linked with the figurative idea of suspense, of a matter that was
undecided or in abeyance (we may presume it had nothing to do with
hanging a person, as that kind of suspense is notoriously final).
But the immediate precursor that the coiners of "hung parliament"
must have had in their minds was "hung jury", one that is unable to
agree. That was created in the US as long ago as 1848.
3. Weird Words: Comeuppance /,kVm'Vp at ns/
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It's common enough that few people stop to think what an odd word
"comeuppance" really is. Why should it mean the punishment or fate
that someone deserves, a just retribution or just deserts?
The Oxford English Dictionary directs enquirers about its origin to
sense 74 of the verb "come", implyinging that it derives from "come
up". That's reasonable, since the most common early written form in
the US - where the word seems to have been invented around the
middle of the nineteenth century - was "come-up-ance", which we may
guess is the situation or consequence of having "come up".
The OED and some other dictionaries suggest it refers to "coming
up" before a judge or court for judgement. That's supported by the
earliest evidence for the related expression "come-uppings", known
in American English from rather later:
I was led away, and I got my come-uppings, or the
other fellow's come-uppings, for _I_ wa'n't to blame any,
and I always said so, and I guess the judge would say so
too, if it were to do over again.
[The Minister's Charge, by William Dean Howells,
1886.]
Curiously, "come-upping" is recorded in Cornish dialect in 1880 in
the sense of a flogging. It's possible that it's a quite separate
form, which was taken to the US by migrants and became associated
with "come-up-ance".
4. This week
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NEVER SAY NEW Dick Pountain wrote in the June issue of PC Pro, a
computer magazine, "Thinking about all this tempts me, much against
my better judgement, to coin a new word: the 'psychosphere'." He
used PSYCHOSPHERE, and the adjective PSYCHOSPHERIC, to describe the
whole human world, considered as a massively connected network that
includes idea, words or thoughts (such as Richard Dawkins's memes)
plus rituals, dances and other physical behaviours. Unfortunately,
he has been beaten to its invention by a man he has certainly never
heard of, the late Dr Charles Redway Dryer, an American professor.
Dr Dryer introduced the word in his 1905 book, Lessons of Physical
Geography. See the OED. Sorry, Dick.
5. Q and A: Come the old soldier
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Q. The Life and Loves of a Victorian Clerk is the 1846 diary of a
Pimlico wharf clerk named Nathaniel Bryceson. In it, I came across
the following: "Fellow clerk, Edward Heskett, absented himself this
day as also last Monday. This is coming the old soldier strong, but
it will not last." I've never heard "coming the old soldier strong"
and haven't been able to find any reference to it in a search. Can
you shed any light? [Caroline Devlin]
A. Though it's recorded in British English only from the early part
of the nineteenth century, I suspect that the idea behind "coming
the old soldier" is as ancient as armies. The Greeks probably had a
word for it.
Soldiers who have lasted long enough to be described as old have
gained knowledge, experience and cunning. They've learned how to
survive and that includes knowing how to work the system. This can
come out in two ways - either by using their experience to bluff or
deceive somebody else (such as callow young officers) or by being
clever at finding ways to shirk their duties.
Your diarist was clearly referring to the actions of Edward Heskett
in the second sense. "Strong" here isn't part of the basic idiom,
but it indicates that his fellow clerk was behaving particularly
inappropriately. To "come the old soldier" has also appeared as
"act the old soldier" and "play the old soldier".
This is a classic early example, in the first sense:
Why, hang it, I cannot tell," replied Mowbray - "were
it not that I think he has scarce the impudence to
propose such a thing to succeed, curse me but I should
think he was coming the old soldier over me, and keeping
up his game. - But no - he can scarce have the impudence
to think of that."
[St Ronan's Well, by Sir Walter Scott, 1823.]
6. Sic!
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An item on BBC News last Saturday was sent in by Jack Bottomley and
Pete Jones: "An Australian publisher has had to pulp and reprint a
cook-book after one recipe listed 'salt and freshly ground black
people' instead of black pepper."
Sally Springett forwarded this item from the issue of The Writer's
Almanac for 18 April: "On this day in 1906 an earthquake struck San
Francisco. ... The world-famous tenor Enrico Caruso had performed
at San Francisco's Grand Opera House the night before, and he woke
up in his bed as the Palace Hotel was falling down around him. He
stumbled out into the street, and because he was terrified that
that shock might have ruined his voice, he began singing. Nearly
3,000 people died."
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