World Wide Words -- 23 Apr 11
Michael Quinion
wordseditor at WORLDWIDEWORDS.ORG
Fri Apr 22 17:02:34 UTC 2011
WORLD WIDE WORDS ISSUE 733 Saturday 23 April 2011
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Editor: Michael Quinion US advisory editor: Julane Marx
Website: http://www.worldwidewords.org ISSN 1470-1448
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A formatted version of this e-magazine is available
online at http://www.worldwidewords.org/nl/rzex.htm
This e-magazine is best viewed in a fixed-pitch font.
For a key to phonetic symbols, see http://wwwords.org?PRON
Contents
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1. Feedback, notes and comments.
2. Weird Words: Logodaedalus.
3. Wordface.
4. Q and A: Private Eye.
5. 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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GOOSE STEP Several readers mentioned that German, as well as the
military term "Stechschritt" for what we call the goose step in
English, also has "Gänsemarsch", which is literally "goose march".
This is centuries older than the other term but has always referred
to people, especially children, walking in single file, as goslings
do behind mum. I've written the piece up in more detail and put it
on the website: http://wwwords.org?GSSTP.
UPDATES The following two pieces on the website have been updated:
Loo: http://wwwords.org?WCLOO
Film trailer: http://wwwords.org?FTRLR
RSS FEEDS AND TWITTER The Word File RSS feed is now permanent. I
have also restarted my Twitter account (though Google has grabbed
my old nickname of worldwidewords, so I'm now wwwordseditor): go to
http://www.twitter.com/wwwordseditor) and linked various RSS feeds
to it. There are now four feeds:
The Word File (Mondays to Fridays, link to random
piece):
http://www.worldwidewords.org/rss/wordfile.xml
E-magazine (Saturdays, full text):
http://www.worldwidewords.org/rss/newsletter.xml
E-magazine (Saturdays, link only, for Twitter):
http://www.worldwidewords.org/rss/emagazine.xml
Site updates (Saturdays, links to pieces):
http://www.worldwidewords.org/rss/updates.xml
To those of you who have written in some concern to ask whether I'm
making work for myself by introducing The Word File, be reassured
that all these are generated automatically from my database, so the
extra effort is minimal.
2. Weird Words: Logodaedalus /lQg at U'di:d at l@s/
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Since the current Oxford English Dictionary entry for this word has
no examples later than 1664, you might assume it is deader than the
proverbial dodo. It lives on, however, among a select group who are
fascinated by archaic words. It has even appeared in these columns,
as the pseudonym of a British setter of fiendishly hard crossword
puzzles.
Logodaedalus, in real life Donald Putnam, chose his name with good
reason. A "logodaedalus" manipulates words with great cunning. It
commemorates Daedalus, the legendary ancient Greek craftsman who
created the labyrinth on Crete to house the Minotaur. "Daidalos" in
classical Greek meant "the cunning one". The prefix is from Greek
"logos", word.
A more recent variation is "logodaedalist", which Nathanial Bailey
defined in his 1727 dictionary as "an Inventer or Forger of new
Words, and strange Terms" ("forger" is in a figurative sense that
comes from a person who casts metal - no criminal intent implied).
A logodaedalist may be said to be a weaver of words into a rich and
varied verbal tapestry. The Greek artificer has also lent his name
to "daedal", which can refer to an inventive or skilful person but
which was created by the Elizabethan poet Edmund Spenser to mean
the diverse or fruitful earth.
There's also "logodaedaly", the skill of putting across a speech or
a fluent employment of verbal legerdemain. Bailey said it was "a
goodly shew and flourish of Words, without much matter" - that is,
without much substance or content. It might be worth resurrecting
to throw at your favourite politician when he gives a loquacious
but evasive answer to an awkward question.
3. Wordface
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DO IT WITH LIGHT News of the new field of OPTOGENETICS has begun
to emerge from the research laboratories because of its astonishing
results. By inserting genes into an animal which code for proteins
that are light-sensitive, neuroscientists have been able to employ
light of the right colour to turn brain cells on and off at will,
like clicking a light switch. The process involves firing laser
light deep into the animals' brains via fibre-optic cables. It has
proved possible to stop the electrical activity of various kinds of
neurons, such as those that control movement or the establishment
of memories. The technique can also be used as a research tool to
monitor when neurons fire. Though there is some hope that one day a
method like this could be used, for example, to control epilepsy in
humans, the need for genetic modification via gene therapy to set
up the conditions for the laser light to work makes the idea very
unattractive for now. A newer technique, MAGNETOGENETICS, uses a
magnetic field rather than light to influence the modified neurons,
so avoiding having to implant optical fibres.
POTTERER A Yiddish expression new to me (but well known to many
Americans) appeared in an interview with the film director Peter
Bogdanovich, in which he commented on the usefulness of director's
cuts of movies: "I'm not in favour of potchkying with it but if
something's bothering you, or you just feel that it really is a
better picture for the audience? Well then ...". POTCHKY means to
tinker idly, or do something in an amateur fashion, from Yiddish
"patshken", to daub or smear, a verb that comes from a Slavic root.
I might use FAFFING ABOUT myself (see http://wwwords.org?FFNG).
QUOTE OF THE WEEK Eminent British slang lexicographer Jonathon
Green, in an article in the Guardian on Thursday: "My response to
people saying slang destroys the language is: bollocks."
4. Q and A: Private Eye
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Q. I was just reading about the history of "private eye" and came
across conflicting explanations concerning the term's origin. Can
you help? [Bernd Herrmann]
A. One story you mention links it with the Pinkerton detective
agency, the first anywhere, which was founded by Allan Pinkerton in
Chicago in the 1850s. His firm's motto was "We Never Sleep" and his
business insignia was an unblinking eye. Pinkerton was an early
expert proponent of what we now call public relations - among other
tricks publishing dime novels based on his experiences - and used
to tell the story that criminals so feared him they called him "The
Eye". It's easy to see how that might have become associated with
all private detectives.
It may well have contributed but the connection is indirect, since
"private eye" came into use several decades after the Pinkerton
Agency was in its heyday. The evidence is that the "eye" part of
"private eye" is a pun derived from "private investigator", via the
abbreviations "PI" and "Private I". It first appears in a story by
Raymond Chandler in Dime Detective magazine in June 1938: "We don't
use any private eyes in here. So sorry."
"Private investigator" began as a general term for a specialist who
was in private practice, as opposed to working for an employer. In
the 1880s it was used - as examples - for a veterinary surgeon who
had been brought in by a state government to look into an outbreak
of cattle disease and for a research botanist working outside the
academic system.
Although both "private investigator" and "private eye" are closely
linked with the US because of stories about hard-boiled gumshoes
by the likes of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, the first
example I've found of "private investigator" being applied to a
detective is actually from a British author:
I think I have already said in another place that
Hewitt's professional start as a private investigator
dated from his connection with the famous will case of
Hartley vs. Hartley and others.
[The Holford Will Case, in The Chronicles of Martin
Hewitt, by Arthur Morrison, 1895.]
Martin Hewitt was one of the imitators of Sherlock Holmes, who ran
a detective agency rather than being a lone wolf. He appeared
shortly after Conan Doyle killed off Holmes in The Final Problem,
published in December 1893. Morrison had some success with tales
about him in the next decade. As was usual at the time, they were
published first in monthly magazines (and syndicated in newspapers
in America - initially I encountered The Holford Will Case in the
Galveston Daily News of 10 March 1895) and collected into book form
later.
The term "private investigator" began to be used in the US for a
detective from the early 1900s. It was popularised by E Phillips
Oppenheim in his tales about the private detective Peter Ruff, who
was billed as such. Might he have got it from Martin Hewitt?
6. Sic!
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The Memphis Flyer of Tennessee featured an e-mail in its Verbatim
column on 14 April, copied to us by Pat Foust: "Lt. Barham of the
Union Station Task Force is asking for our help in locating an
orange Chevrolet Tahoe that has recently been breaking into cars
and taking purses. If you see such a car in Midtown, get the
license plate and contact Lt. Barham immediately."
An item in the Globe and Mail of Toronto dated 17 April was sent in
by Mildred Gutkin. A story about a shortage of beds in Toronto's
mental hospitals was headed: "Decision preventing offenders waiting
for beds at Toronto's CAMH from being incarcerated overturned." She
commented, "It's a topsy-turvy world."
A report on smartplanet.com dated 18 April confirmed the suspicions
of Norman Berns: "Toxic fracking fluids revealed in Congressional
report". The second word isn't the favourite euphemistic obscenity
of TV's Battlestar Galactica but gas extraction industry jargon for
"hydraulic fracturing".
A. Subscription information
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B. E-mail contact addresses
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C. Ways to support World Wide Words
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