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Joined: Jun 2002
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
Well, WiseacreWord, you're not wrong ...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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If one were predisposed to find words listed in only one word reference--without using Mrs. B at all as one of the references--it would be a hard task, to say the least. This, of course, wasn't Mrs. B's purpose. I'm just saying.
Anyhow, the only word I know off the top of my head that I've seen in only one reference was ferrophiliac, although I know I've looked up some words here on AWAD that weren't in any reference I could put my hands on. Ferrophiliac will not be found in any dictionary that I know of to date; however, it will be found in The Random House Word Finder--or a title similar to that. I don't have the book here at the moment. You can google ferrophiliac, but you won't come up with any definition that approximates the one given in Random House [not dictionary, but word finder or whatever its actual name]. The connection to Mrs. B? Well, hardly any other than in this Random House book there are no footnotes to where the editor, now deceased, found his entries either. Many entries are common words--he wasn't going after the unusual and preposterous--but he doesn't note any individual references for where he found words. Too bad. I'd really like to know where he found ferrophiliac, but he's gone, same as Mrs. B. I will add his name here later today.
Edit: The correct title is Random House Word Menu, Stephen Glaier, editor
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Joined: Aug 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
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"Ferrophiliac"? Isn't that the guy who went around the world in eighty days, last name first?
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Joined: May 2003
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newbie
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newbie
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Is it possible that Mrs. B. (or her husband) slipped in a totally fallacious entry to catch out plagiarists, as I'm told some other reference works do?
Bingley
Bingley
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Fascinating theory, Bingley. Do you have any firsthand citations we could take a look at? The longer I live the curioser and curioser the world becomes...
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Joined: Oct 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
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Re: Fascinating theory, Bingley. Do you have any firsthand citations we could take a look at? The longer I live the curioser and curioser the world becomes
i know map makers (cartographer's!) do that... my old address, one Beechknoll Avenue in Queens, was one that was shorter, longer, bent, through, and other wise usually wrong on most maps! (it was only 1 block long, and in reality, was a dead end, not a through street. because of hills, the streets on either side had bends (so some properites had very deep lots, they were actually steep hillsides) so sometimes it bend to match the street on the right, and sometime it was shown straight, and sometimes shown to match the street to the left (where North was top of page, and left and right relative) it was sort of fun, checking out maps to see how it was drawn!
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I first heard it said about "Wbo's Who" quite some time ago, and the article said that other reference books do the same but I forget which ones.
Bingley
Bingley
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
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Dag-gone it, dag-GONE it! I skip a thread for a couple days, and an ol' Windbag, I mean, Windwords 'r somebody, moves right into my territory! Well, it would serve you right if you caught his cold; I'll wait 'till he's back to health, to claim my turn! 
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Joined: Oct 2001
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 247 |
The crawl can be explained without invoking pleasure at all. Once it gets started it is self perpetuating.
True, but "pleasure" doesn't necessarily explain why the lead car in the crawl slows down to look. Morbid curiosity or gawkination could explain the attraction.
As a matter of fact, cars slow down passing anything parked on the shoulder, even if there is no sign of an accident or injury.
You could make a better case for epicaricacy in the popularity of blood sports such as bear-baiting. But in that case it would not be epicaricacy, but epibearicacy.
Did the common man lose his taste for public hangings (a popular public spectacle before the turn of the last century) or did we outlaw such amusements because an increasingly educated population became embarrassed at the depravity of ordinary citizens?
We may have scotched the snake of epicaricacy, but we have not killed it. Does it still lurk in the fascination of professional boxing and extreme fighting, high-speed car racing with inevitable accidents and inevitable fatalities, predictable violence in sports like hockey?
Are we really less epicaricatic today than we were a hundred years ago when mom and dad took the family out to picnic at a public hanging? [A scary thought.]
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