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stranger
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stranger
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hi could anyone tell me the origin of the word 'OAF' traditional usage has it the the word means a dimwit or stupid person, does it also mean anything else?
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Carpal Tunnel
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etymonline.com gives:
oaf
1610 (implied in oafish), also auf (1621), "a changeling; a foolish child left by the fairies" [Johnson], from a Scand. source, cf. Norw. alfr "silly person," in O.N., "elf" (see elf). Hence, "a misbegotten, deformed idiot." Until recently, some dictionaries still gave the plural as oaves.
I have never heard it used any other way, though it's likely an acronym for something!
welcome, shalini!
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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I agree with etaoin that an acronym is a real possibility. Especially when spelled entirely in uppercase letters. Here are some links to investigate: http://snipurl.com/hfex-mq42
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I have heard the expression "big dumb oaf" which, it seems, is redundant.
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Carpal Tunnel
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"big dumb oaf"
Yes, there is a subtle difference between tautology, redundancy, and augmentation.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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> is redundant Only if you take the meaning of dumb to be merely synonymous with stupid (which is only its prime sense in American versions of English), Father Steve - but if you allow for its alternate and much older meanings of 'speechless' it is indeed a meaningful augmentation. http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/dumb?view=ukedit: add link
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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While I doubt there is any connection, it always seemed apt to me that "oaf" means "chicken" (or) "fowl" in Hebrew.
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so which came first already, the chicken or the oeuf?
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Carpal Tunnel
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And, œuf (actually øf) is what a Danish pig says. Oink and out.
And, who'd've thunk that oaf, elf, and albino were all related? Along with albedo, albumen, and album.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Re: >redundancy.
As flattered as I am to be thought of as one and the same with our Moorish padre, it really ought to have been his post you replied to, not mine, boyo.
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stranger
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stranger
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Hi, the reason why I put up this post was because I have school in my home-town which is curiously named "the Oaf Public School". Now who would name a school to state what he probably means is the exact antithesis of the name. Any guesses on this?
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perhaps it's someone's name?
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Well--your mention of it being a school, plus the all caps in your opening post, lead me to think it is most likely an acronym; for what, though, I don't know. The Original Aryan Fathers, or something...(highly unlikely!) Is it by any chance in or near Bhopal? The only hint I've found so far is here, about 7/8ths. of the way down, in the paragraph that starts with "The departure of employees directly involved with the accident..." http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu21le/uu21le0c.htmIt mentions "OAF's takeover bid", but nowhere did I see an explanation of what OAF is or was. I did find a mention of the word oaf in one of the Google listings, used in a way I've never seen it: "These school oaf- icials must have lower IQs than their shoe sizes. ..."
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> not mine, boyo
yeah, I wuz aware as I clicked that I'd pinged the message above, but I thought "no one but max and the Staatspolizei will ever know..." ;)
[flat earth forever!]
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[flat earth forever!] Boy, do I ever agree; why anyone would want to have to wait for the screen to change to read the next post is beyond me. [impatience forever e]
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Carpal Tunnel
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why anyone would want to have to wait for the screen to change
If you're on dial-up, for sure. There's advantages to being a threadnodist if you have a fast connection.
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old hand
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old hand
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"OAF's takeover bid": OAF is actually a typo in the quoted article. In the preceding paragraphs it is explained that the takeover bid was by a company named GAF (which was well known at the time).
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