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#67396
04/26/2002 7:59 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605 |
During my birthday visit to the conservatory I came across the odd-looking boojum tree, native to isolated areas of Baja California. For most of the year it is leafless and looks like a giant upturned turnip. Pictures can be found at http://helios.bto.ed.ac.uk/bto/desertecology/boojum.htmBut our interest is linguistic, not botanic. The tree's name was coined when "plant explorer Godfrey Sykes, who found it in 1922 and said 'It must be a boojum!'. In saying this, he was referring of the strange and mythical creature that the author Lewis Carroll called a boojum in his children's book, The Hunting of the Snark.That raises the question: what other words were "stolen" from literature for a use completely different from what the literary author had in mind? I have one more such word in mind, far more commonly know, and am holding it back as a challenge. Doubtless there are far more.
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#67397
04/27/2002 6:35 AM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
Those with access to a decent library might care to look up English Today No.24 (October 1990), which has a fascinating article called E Pluribus Boojum by the physicist N. David Mermin on his struggle to get boojum accepted as the standard term for a phenomenon occurring in spherical drops of superfluid helium-3.
Bingley
Bingley
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#67398
05/11/2002 2:27 AM
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 200
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 200 |
No other words stolen from literature? Not one???? A challenge to y'all! 
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#67399
05/11/2002 12:07 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
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#67400
05/11/2002 4:17 PM
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 200
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 200 |
Fair enough, faldage. Clarifying the question, by repeating it as Keiva posted it:
What other words were "stolen" from literature for a use completely different from what the literary author had in mind? I have one more such word in mind, far more commonly know, and am holding it back as a challenge. Doubtless there are far more.
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#67401
05/11/2002 5:29 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819 |
Doubtless there are far more.
What about Yahoo? Was Jonathan Swift enough to be the first user?
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