Boojum tree, & other words stolen from literature - 04/26/02 07:59 PM
During my birthday visit to the conservatory I came across the odd-looking boojum tree, native to isolated areas of Baja California. For most of the year it is leafless and looks like a giant upturned turnip. Pictures can be found at
http://helios.bto.ed.ac.uk/bto/desertecology/boojum.htm
But our interest is linguistic, not botanic. The tree's name was coined when "plant explorer Godfrey Sykes, who found it in 1922 and said 'It must be a boojum!'. In saying this, he was referring of the strange and mythical creature that the author Lewis Carroll called a boojum in his children's book, The Hunting of the Snark.
That raises the question: what other words were "stolen" from literature for a use completely different from what the literary author had in mind? I have one more such word in mind, far more commonly know, and am holding it back as a challenge. Doubtless there are far more.
http://helios.bto.ed.ac.uk/bto/desertecology/boojum.htm
But our interest is linguistic, not botanic. The tree's name was coined when "plant explorer Godfrey Sykes, who found it in 1922 and said 'It must be a boojum!'. In saying this, he was referring of the strange and mythical creature that the author Lewis Carroll called a boojum in his children's book, The Hunting of the Snark.
That raises the question: what other words were "stolen" from literature for a use completely different from what the literary author had in mind? I have one more such word in mind, far more commonly know, and am holding it back as a challenge. Doubtless there are far more.
