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#120423 01/19/04 03:11 PM
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better that than your bonsai...



formerly known as etaoin...
#120424 01/19/04 03:21 PM
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In case you didn't know what AS was referring to:
Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Definition: \Gam"mon\ (-m[u^]n), n. [OF. gambon, F. jambon, fr. OF.
gambe leg, F. jambe. See {Gambol}, n., and cf. {Ham}.]
The buttock or thigh of a hog, salted and smoked or dried;
the lower end of a flitch. --Goldsmith.






#120425 01/19/04 04:07 PM
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And the -on is the augmentative suffix I was discussing in another thread. Something like a big old leg, haunch. Our ham, OTOH, has more to do with the bone. It's cognate with Old Irish cnaim 'bone' and Greek kne:me: 'shinebone'.


#120426 01/19/04 04:18 PM
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So--gammon, in that sense, was rhyming slang--or did I miss something? ~ Jackie

No, I didn't mean that the Irish language called Shelta (and also known as Gammon) *was rhyming slang, but that it had been developed for the same reason, i.e.: to deceive or confuse the unwanted listener.


#120427 01/19/04 04:30 PM
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The dentical might be a word confused with another word dandiacal that fits the context you quote, Jackie:

of, relating to, or suggestive of a dandy : DANDIFIED <dandiacal elegance> <a dandiacal pose MW


#120428 01/19/04 04:52 PM
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I bet you're right, WW--many thanks! I just love getting to the bottom of things. My apologies, dxb--there was indeed a clue in the context, but *I didn't get it. [bow] to Wordwind.


#120429 01/19/04 05:27 PM
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Thanks, Dr Bill and jheem, for the augmentations!


#120430 01/19/04 05:40 PM
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Jackie,

It was just a guess--and I could very easily be incorrect here. I'll Google a bit and see whether something identical--or dentical--turns up.


#120431 01/19/04 05:44 PM
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or it could be the most obvious one...

dentical, a.

Obs. rare.


[f. dens, dent- tooth + -ic + -al1.]
= dental a. 1b.

1776 ‘Courtney Melmoth’ Pupil of Pleas. II. 216 A Treatise on Toothpicking, wherein I show the precise method of holding, handling+and replacing the dentical instruments.


OED2


#120432 01/19/04 05:51 PM
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Presumably a 'dentical fine gentleman' was one who had all his teeth.


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