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#71201 05/24/02 11:34 PM
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wwh Offline OP
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I used "oddball" in a post a few minutes ago, and it occurred to ;me that I did not know how it originated.
We all know what it means, a mildly mocking pejorative. But there is no "evenball". Why isn't "odd" alone enough? There used to be a fraternal organization, the "OddFellows" but I never knew how the members were selected.It's in my dictionary, but with no etymology. I wonder how old it is.

Let's have some oddball comments.


#71202 05/25/02 01:02 AM
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J. E. Lighter, the editor of the Random House Dictionary of American Slang, sez: "As the essayist and novelist Nicholson Baker has noted, the suffix -ball has become an important resource for the slangy smart-alecks of our time. Think of the belittling butterball, cheeseball, cornball, dirtball, goofball, hairball, nutball, oddball, sleazeball, slimeball, and weirdball. Most of these arrived well after mid-century, and in most the -ball element is only a metaphor. The spiritual progenitor of this burgeoning array of ball-bearing compounds, though, is undoubtedly a real ball -- the familiar screwball, first noted in print in 1928. Originally this designated the deceptive baseball pitch that breaks in a direction opposite to that of an ordinary curve ball. The screwball (similar to the earlier fadeaway) gained its nom de guerre largely through the efforts of Carl Hubbell, the left-handed Hall of Fame ace who pitched for the New York Giants from 1928 to 1943. The winner of twenty-four consecutive games stretching over the 1936 and 1937 seasons, Hubbell perfected his signature screwball in the minors; he remembered having a catcher in Oklahoma tell him the pitch was "the screwiest thing [he] ever saw." Shortly thereafter the descriptive screwball was bestowed on human beings -- people who display an unpredictable twist. The linguistic leap was made easy by the prior existence of screwy, which had the same connotation. Screwy derives from the nineteenth-century expression "having a screw loose"-- that is, "having something missing or defective," as in machinery ("There's a screw loose somewhere ..."). A screwy person habitually demonstrates eccentric or just plain nutty behavior. (English-speakers around the world love to come up with new ways to describe such people.)"

How about that?







#71203 05/25/02 04:01 AM
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The Independent Order of Odd Fellows was started in Baltimore around the 1840's. There is a very handsome monument, with a full-size statue, of the founder, whose name escapes me at the moment, in the median of Broadway, near Lombard Street.

It is said that the original Odd Fellows were all men who had been rejected for membership by the Freemasons; I don't know if this is true. At any rate, by the end of the 19th century they had become second only to the Masons in popularity among men's fraternal organizations, of which there were quite a few -- that was an era when such activities were very popular indeed.

The Odd Fellows, along with a few other fraternal organizations, had a system of death benefits; i.e., from contributions paid in by each member during his membership, on his decease his estate or family received an immediate cash payment, which was intended to cover funeral and burial costs and tide his widow and orphans over for the short run. The organization began losing members in the 1920's and 1930's when life insurance became very common (it was not in the 1800s) and Social Security provided relief for widows and orphans. Today there are very few Odd Fellows lodges left.


#71204 05/25/02 02:48 PM
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Today there are very few Odd Fellows lodges left.

A friend lives next door to a former Odd Fellows lodge that has ben converted to a rooming house. I find it ironic that a group of young residents has purple and green hair, facial adornment redolent of a 1958 Buick, and odd odors waft from their windows. To me, there are truly ODD FELLOWS!


#71205 05/25/02 03:50 PM
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ODD--John Ayto in his book Dictionary of Word Origins, covers odd. according to him>>
The etymological idea underlying odd is of 'pointing upward'. Its ultimate ancestero is a prehistoric I-E *uzdho, a compound form of *uz (up) an *dho (put, place) (source, of the english Do).

From the notion of pointed vertical object, developed triangle, which in turn introduced the idea of three, and one left over from 2, hencem 'indivisible by 2" this was the meaning odd had when English borrowed it from old norse oddi, and the modern sense of 'peculiar' (as in the odd one out) did not emerge till the late 16th century.


(i change some of the detail--ie, i made (parens), that he had in italics, and used more (parens).. i didn't change the words!)


#71206 05/25/02 03:56 PM
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Independent Order of Odd Fellows
Including Odd Fellows Lodges, Rebekah Lodges
Encampments, Cantons and Auxiliaries, Junior IOOF Lodges and Theta Rho Clubs

To Improve and Elevate the Character of Man
In 17th century England, it was odd to find people organized for the purpose of giving aid to those in need and of pursuing projects for the benefit of all mankind. Those who belonged to such an organization were called "Odd Fellows". Odd Fellows are also known as "The Three Link Fraternity" which stands for Friendship, Love and Truth.

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows was founded on the North American Continent in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 26, 1819 when Thomas Wildey and four members of the Order from England instituted Washington Lodge No. 1. This lodge received its charter from Manchester Unity of Odd Fellows in England.

Odd Fellowship became the 1st national fraternity to include both men and women when it adopted the beautiful Rebekah Degree on September 20, 1851. This degree is based on the teachings found in the Holy Bible, and was written by the Honorable Schuyler Colfax who was Vice President of the United States during the period 1868-1873.
Odd Fellows and Rebekahs were also the first fraternal organization to establish homes for our senior members and for orphaned children.

--------------------
SGL/IARA Headquarters address: 422 North Trade Street, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27101,
e-mail: IOOFSGL@aol.com
The Sovereign Grand Lodge: (336) 725-5955, (800) 235-8358, Fax (336) 722-7317
International Association of Rebekah Assemblies: (336) 725-6037, (800) 766-1838, Fax (336) 773-1066.

There is an IOOF New Zealand as you'll discover if you Google


#71207 05/25/02 04:04 PM
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Cool, wow. What's yer source? The official website?


#71208 05/25/02 04:09 PM
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i dunno, annas, maybe she is an odd one herself!

the IOOF was still pretty active in NH back in the 1970's when family trips took me there.


#71209 05/25/02 04:17 PM
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Like I said -- just Google "IOOF" that's were I got it!

There was an IOOF hall in our town. A lovely wooden building with a clock tower. It burned down around 1989. Just an empty lot now. Very valuable. Prime location right on U.S. Route 1.
I knew about the IOOF and Rebekah because I did a story about them for our local paper when the town's Lodge celebrated a big anniversary...150 years in town or something like that. Very nice folks. It's a touch of a more Golden Era ...The Rebekahs all wear white evening dresses to formal meetings and the Officers wear long white dresses most meetings.
I think the lodge is gradually dying out as members age. They have not rebuilt the lodge that burned.



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