#22869
03/14/2001 9:28 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 1
stranger
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stranger
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Recently, a senior academic at Sydney University was heard to say "I'm running around like a hairy goat". Now this could just be a Quirky Dude living up to his job description, but he insisted this was a genuine, established, if possibly archaic expression. The Linguistics Department at another university is stumped. Any ideas, folks?
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#22870
03/14/2001 11:31 PM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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In the Old Testament, the original Hebrew refers to a male goat as a hairy goat (as opposed to the female goat). The scape goat onto whom the sins of the whole people were put on the Day of Atonement was always a male goat. It was driven out into the desert to die. Thus, I opine, that to run around like a hairy goat is to run around like the scapegoat in the desert, trying not to be killed by wild beasts.
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#22871
03/15/2001 12:14 AM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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hircine - like a goat; having a goatish smell hirsute - hairy; shaggy coincidence? maybe...  oh, and here's a citation from the OED which will probably just muddy the waters:
1960 G. Slatter Gun in my Hand ii. 21 An' it ran like a hairy goat an' I did me chips.
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#22872
03/15/2001 11:41 AM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 460
addict
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addict
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Hi Slice -- welcome to the board.
Sidney Baker's "The drum" (1959) has:
hairy goat, run like a (used esp. of racehorses): To perform badly in a race.
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#22873
03/15/2001 2:09 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 427
addict
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addict
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paulb found: hairy goat, run like a (used esp. of racehorses): To perform badly in a race.Maybe all the hair makes for really bad aerodynamics? 
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#22874
03/15/2001 2:16 PM
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Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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#22875
03/15/2001 6:41 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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hairodynamicsThanks, mav. Nice to see that someone is keeping the flame alive in TEd's absence. In my hubris I seem to have taken it upon myself in recent days to bring things together. I wish to continue this by bringing together this "hairy goat" thread with the "cognomen" thread. I have a question for our Latin scholars. Almost a quarter of a century ago, I read Robert Graves' "I, Claudius" and "Claudius the God". One of the few things to stick with me was some prophecy an oracle uttered, which centred around "Caesar" meaning "hairy one". Is this true? Is "Caesar" derived from some Latin word for hairy? Or was Bob just acting the goat?
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#22876
03/15/2001 6:48 PM
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Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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max, what is this? you have come to harry Caesar and not to praise him??
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#22878
03/15/2001 7:41 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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#22879
03/15/2001 8:35 PM
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Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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I remember seeing the statement that there was a tradition of Caesar referring to a surgical delivery of an infant through an incision in the dying woman's abdomen, that there was a law authorizing this to be attempted when there were indications that the fetus was still living.
That operation is therefore called a caesarean section.
Doesn't Caesar come from a root meaning to cut? Corrupted to incision, etc.?
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#22880
03/15/2001 8:40 PM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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>from a root meaning to cut
oh, bill! a hair]/i]cut?!
*<8o)
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#22881
03/15/2001 8:42 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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That operation is therefore called a caesarean section
As I understand it Big Julie was himself ripped untimely from his mother's womb.
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#22882
03/15/2001 8:42 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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A link to history of caesarean section Lots of good stuff
Cesarian Section -- A Brief History Home Page
Exhibitions and Public Programs. [NOTE ... [Cover]. CESAREAN
SECTION -- A BRIEF HISTORY. Plate ...
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/cesarean/cesarean_1.html [More Results From: www.nlm.nih.gov]
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#22883
03/15/2001 8:45 PM
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Posts: 3,409
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As I understand it Big Julie was himself ripped untimely from his mother's womb.
That's right, Faldage, push my buttons! Get me ranting about the lousy cheating in Macbeth's plot again!
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#22884
03/15/2001 8:53 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Thank you Dr. Bill for dispelling the demons of disinformation with the torch of truth.
Of course, the final answer is, once again: "Well, maybe, we're not quite sure."
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#22885
03/15/2001 8:54 PM
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Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Cae[sar 7sc4z!r8, (Gaius) Julius 5L Caesar, said to be < caesus, pp. of caedere, to cut down (see 3CIDE), but prob. of Etr orig.6 c. 100-44 B.C.; Rom. general & statesman; dictator (49-44) of the Roman Empire
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#22886
03/15/2001 8:59 PM
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Posts: 13,803
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caesus, pp. of caedere, to cut down
From which we might guess that the Sybil's ravings contained a pun. If indeed that which Graves used was historical fact and not ravings of his own or Seneca's(?) imagination.
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#22887
03/15/2001 9:01 PM
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Posts: 3,409
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Caesar, said to be < caesus, pp. of caedere, to cut down, but prob. of Etr orig. OK, so who do we believe? Is Caesar from caesaries -ei f. [hair , a head of hair]., as Robert Graves obviously thought, or is it from caedere, or from Etruscan. Where in Hades is NicholasW when you need him? He strikes me as the kind of guy who probably reads the daily news in Etruscan.
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#22888
03/15/2001 9:06 PM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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how brutal -- a logomachy over Caesar!
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#22889
03/15/2001 9:28 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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#22890
03/16/2001 1:38 PM
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Posts: 4,757
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or from Etruscan...Never mind, Max, I've gone off the whole idea - I'll have the Waldorf instead!
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