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Joined: Aug 2005
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
however, here is a more reliable source than that dumb old Wikipedia.
Holding up Etymonline in contrast toe Wikipedia is sort of proof that USans do do irony.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
The Shakespeare line is clear enough, but maybe he uses it as a metaphor from a real sailors' term.
No doubt a possibility. But Shakespeare got it into print first.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Joined: Jun 2006
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295 |
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
agree totally
I looked around on Google Books for full view scanned texts having searched on "sea change", and most of the results, in context, have the meaning transformation. Hardly any of the sightings have anything to do with the sea or maritime activities.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
true that.
OED2 has it like this:
sea-change, a change wrought by the sea; now freq. transf. with or without allusion to Shakespeare's use (quot. 1610), an alteration or metamorphosis, a radical change
1610 SHAKES. Temp. I. ii. 400 Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth suffer a *Sea-change Into something rich, & strange. 1917 E. POUND Lustra 193 Full many a fathomed sea~change in the eyes That sought with him the salt sea victories. 1923 J. M. MURRY Pencillings 164 The characters which have suffered this sea-change, ‘of whose bones are coral made’, are the only unpleasant characters we remember. 1948 A. C. BAUGH Lit. Hist. England II. IX. 173 An interesting paper suggesting that romance is transplanted epic, which has undergone a kind of sea-change in the passage. 1974 R. HELMS Tolkien's World ii. 32 Even before The Hobbit was published he was at work on its sequel, a work in which Middle-earth has undergone a wondrous sea change. 1976 Listener 8 Apr. 450/3 The Messianic vision..has undergone some strange sea~changes outside Judaism. 1977 ‘E. CRISPIN’ Glimpses of Moon vii. 117 He..could, moreover..bring about a sea~change in the image of even the most bumbling police officers going about their duties, so that they emerged as prodigies of intelligence, zeal and kindness. [EA]
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