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Posted By: tsuwm today's OED word - 03/04/04 06:12 PM
(or, speaking of verbing nouns)

bear-hug - [v] trans. To give (a person) a bear-hug, esp. an affectionate one. Also intr.: to engage in a bear-hug.
1944 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 4 June 29/3 Miss Landis was telling a story about him, not knowing he was in the audience. He jumped to his feet, cried out, ‘I'm Landis!’ and dashed to the platform where he bear-hugged his cousin. 1961 J. P. LASH Dag Hammarskjold xix. 266 Then there was Fidel Castro, stomping angrily out of one hotel allegedly for discriminatory treatment.., bear-hugging with Khrushchev, declaiming for 4.5 hours. 2000 H. SIMPSON Hey yeah right get a Life (2001) 151 Possibly she was proactive in her rapprochement with her husband, chucking him under the chin, bearhugging him, exchanging sportive punches.
{draft entry Sept. 2003}


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NB: I was going to add this to the previous thread of the same appellation, but that seems to have gone wide.

Posted By: Faldage Re: today's OED word - 03/04/04 06:24 PM
What verbing? Hug isn't a verb all over sudden?

Posted By: wwh Re: today's OED word - 03/04/04 06:27 PM
I remember "bear-hug" from my earliest days. Remember the
"Little Audrey laughed and laughed" jokes?
Little Audrey saw a bear hugging a tree, and laughed and
laughed, because she knew only God could make a tree.(About 1935

Posted By: tsuwm Re: today's OED word - 03/04/04 06:31 PM
>hug being a verb

yeahbut, you'll notice that bear-hug [v] is defined in terms of the noun bear-hug. as to bill's example, they haven't been smushed together yet, so to speak.

Posted By: Faldage Re: today's OED word - 03/04/04 06:44 PM
Dr Bill's example doesn't even have the word bear-hug in it. Just only his intro to it does.

Posted By: tsuwm Re: today's OED word - 03/04/04 07:05 PM
>doesn't even

I guess that's what I didn't quite say..

Posted By: wwh Re: today's OED word - 03/04/04 07:40 PM
Dear Faldage: I can't think of a noun that cannot immediately be verbed. But me no buts, verb me not verbs.Adjectrive me no adjectives.
So it seems a waste of time to try to date when a noun
was first verbed.

Posted By: sjmaxq Re: today's OED word - 03/04/04 08:37 PM
>I can't think of a noun that cannot immediately be verbed.

Read he while staring at his computer's speakers.

Posted By: wwh Re: today's OED word - 03/04/04 09:04 PM
Dear Max: Try again. Because of my deafness I have no use
for speakers, and they are hidden behind my rather large
monitor.
Speaker me no speakers. Here's a sample of clumsy verbing
from tonight's news:
The military plays an important role in U.S. space exploration and should continue to partner with NASA, Air Force generals said Thursday.

Posted By: grapho Re: today's OED word - 03/06/04 11:50 AM
What verbing? Hug isn't a verb all of a sudden?


Strictly speaking, Faldage is right.

For those who are collecting faldage, this isn't a faldage. It's a quibble.

Posted By: wwh Re: today's OED word - 03/06/04 02:32 PM
Ich bin der Quibblemeister. Faldage is a mere amateur.

Posted By: Faldage Re: today's OED word - 03/06/04 02:36 PM
a mere amateur

I do love it so.

Posted By: Capfka Re: today's OED word - 03/06/04 04:37 PM
I'd say he's a contractor - not full time, but worth what he gets paid. He is the master of the sophisticated quibble ....

Posted By: tsuwm Re: today's OED word - 03/06/04 04:49 PM
>Faldage is right

strictly speaking, and pedantically and quibbleistically as well, I couldn't agree less. bearhug (hyphenated or no) is manifestly a different word than hug, and began life as a noun.
-ron o.

Posted By: wwh Re: today's OED word - 03/06/04 05:00 PM
There are bearhugs to avoid. When Alaska became a state,
a Texan decided to become an Alaskan. He flew up there,
walked into a bar, and asked bartender how to become an
Alaskan.
The bartender said: "Chug-a-lug a quart of whiskey, have
sex with an Eskimo woman, and shoot a grizzly bear."
The Texan chug-a-lugged the whiskey, and went out Several
hours later he returned, with horrible scratches on his face.
He said to the bartender:"Gimme another quart of whiskey. I've got to start over. No problem shooting the Eskimo woman, but I've got to try again to have sex with that bear."

Posted By: grapho Re: today's OED word - 03/06/04 05:59 PM
Re: Texan becoming an Alaskan joke

wwh, I have a feeling you have just offended everyone in at least 2 states.

I suggest you lay low for awhile or bear the consequences.



Posted By: Wordwind Re: barehug - 03/06/04 07:36 PM
What comes to mind when you think of two people barehugging each other?

Posted By: wwh Re: today's OED word - 03/06/04 07:46 PM
Dear Grapho: The Readers Digest survived publishing it way
back then, so I think I am in no danger.
Anyway, only the Eskimaux have a legitimate objection.
Aside from preferring "Inuit".

Posted By: Capfka Re: today's OED word - 03/06/04 08:00 PM
Geez, Bill, it's an old joke and in mixed company the punchline usually comes out as:

"and the Texan staggered in through the door, covered in cuts and scratches, and barely able to stand because of the amount of whisky he'd drunk and just about fainting from blood loss. He blearily eyed the assembled sourdoughs at the bar who were all sniggering into their Buds. He tried to speak a couple of times and failed, but eventually managed to get his question out:

"All right, you bashtids ... now whersh thish Eskimo wumman y'all want me to wrassle?"


Posted By: wwh Re: today's OED word - 03/06/04 08:19 PM
Dear Capfka: the joke is so old it has undoubtedly had
many revisions. I can't even remember the exact details
of the RD version. But at least a "bearhug" got involved.


Posted By: musick Re: today's OED word - 03/06/04 11:05 PM
Which reminds me of a story my old man used to tell:

Driving through Dogpatch, Ky in thier old Model T, Hairless Joe and Lonesome Polecat pulled into a service station when they saw a sign in the window that offered "Kick-a-poo Joy Juice - 6 gals for a dollar". Lonesome Polecat coughed up the buck and they both sat back and drank 3 jugs a piece. Hairless Joe got up, and stumbled over to the attendant and said "Well, that's some mighty fine drink you had there, now bring on the gals".

Posted By: grapho Re: today's OED word - 03/07/04 04:22 PM
now bring on the gals

They didn't bring on the gals, musick, but you brought on the gales.



Posted By: grapho Re: barehug - 03/07/04 04:34 PM
What comes to mind when you think of two people barehugging each other?

When I think of a "barehug", I think of the fruit the hug will bear.

Is there womb enough for any other interpretation?


Posted By: wwh Re: barehug - 03/07/04 05:09 PM
Shakespeare's "two backed beast"?

Posted By: grapho Re: barehug - 03/07/04 11:44 PM
Shakespeare's "two backed beast"?

Two beasts back to back are not likely to bear any new beasts, wwh, unless the beast is a lion.

Lions are retromingent so I assume they couple in reverse ... which could be an advantage to a lion keeping his eye out for other game.

For a lion, a bird in hand may not be worth two in the bush.

He is, after all, "the King of the Beasts".

Posted By: wwh Re: barehug - 03/08/04 12:43 AM

Dear Grapho: Do you need instruction about the birds and
the bees? Ever heard that dancing is a navel engagement
without loss of seamen?





Posted By: Jackie Re: barehug - 03/08/04 01:51 AM
Ohhhh-kay, I think this will be the end of my reading of this thread. tsuwm--words fail me.

Posted By: wwh Re: barehug - 03/08/04 02:01 AM
Sorry that it did get more than usually physiologic.
The result of being a bit too eager to compete.

Posted By: grapho Re: barehug - 03/08/04 02:54 AM
too eager to compete

"Too eager to compete" has been the downfall of a lot of seamen.

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