#94849
02/07/2003 11:09 AM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
One more question and I'll shut up for the day, at least shut up my questions:
tsuwm quoted the word gaddative in one of his recent useless word offerings. Gaddative was used in conjunction with scribblative.
I've checked both tsuwm's list of previous useless words and onelook.com, but can't find gaddative defined anywhere.
Does anyone know its definition?
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#94850
02/07/2003 1:47 PM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 10,542 |
as scribblative is to scribbling, so gaddative is to gadding (about). :)
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#94851
02/07/2003 1:53 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Ha! Thanks, tsuwm. I also googled gaddative and there was not a single hit.
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#94852
02/07/2003 2:27 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Ok, so is a wanderer a gadabout or a gaddabout?  Is that (the about) why it's gaddative and not gadditive? From Atomica:
gad1 (gãd)
intr.v., gad·ded, gad·ding, gads.
To move about restlessly and with little purpose. See synonyms at wander.
[Middle English gadden, to hurry.]
gad'der n.
gad2 (gãd)
n.
A pointed tool, such as a spike or chisel, used for breaking rock or ore.
A goad, as for prodding cattle.
tr.v., gad·ded, gad·ding, gads.
To break up (ore, for example) with a gad.
[Middle English, from Old Norse gaddr.] I was intrigued by the transitive and intrans. requirements. I can hardly restrain myself from adding 'about', but I guess you could say, "He gads", meaning that he gets around a lot. You'd have to say, "He gads goats (or ore) for a living".
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#94853
02/07/2003 2:32 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 13,858 |
Fifty years ago, when I was living on Cape Cod, there was a journalist named Gaddis, who had a column in local newspaper "Gaddabout Gaddis". I'll be doubledipped in doggie doo-doo,I found a URL about him! Must be someone else, the original would be older than Methuselah! http://www.labguysworld.com/bayhorse.htm
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#94854
02/07/2003 2:51 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 |
Gadabout Gaddis had a TV show on fishing. How exciting!
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#94855
02/07/2003 2:53 PM
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
did he use gaddis flies?
ye gads!
formerly known as etaoin...
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#94856
02/07/2003 2:54 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 13,858 |
Dear Faldage: you need something for your dyspepsia.
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#94857
02/07/2003 2:57 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 |
dyspepsia
Nuh-uh! Not me! I'm married to an Atlanta girl. Nothing but dsycocolia for me!
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#94858
02/08/2003 12:03 AM
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 171
member
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member
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 171 |
So, the gadfly's purposeful behavior would connect it with the second definition rather than the first.
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#94859
02/10/2003 5:37 AM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 3,065 |
From Jane Austen's "Persuasion", Chapter 6:
And on Mrs Musgrove's side, it was, "I make a rule of never interfering in any of my daughter-in-law's concerns, for I know it would not do; but I shall tell you, Miss Anne, because you may be able to set things to rights, that I have no very good opinion of Mrs Charles's nursery-maid: I hear strange stories of her; she is always upon the gad; and from my own knowledge, I can declare, she is such a fine-dressing lady, that she is enough to ruin any servants she comes near.
Bingley
Bingley
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