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stranger
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stranger
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Anyone have any information about the origins of this term? Google search turns up a fair number of uses in published sources going back at least as far as Hemmingway, but I haven't been able to find any information about first use, origins of the term, etc.
Anyone have someplace to point me?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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curmudgeon 1570s, of unknown origin; the suggestion, based on a misreading of a garbled note from Johnson, that it is from Fr. coeur mechant "evil heart" is not taken seriously; the first syllable may be cur "dog." Liberman says the word "must have been borrowed from Gaelic (and references muigean "disagreeable person"), with variant spelling of intensive prefix ker-. Related: Curmudgeonly. The quickest way to have first looks at etymologies is to visit Online Etymology: Link Good site. Good word, curmudgeon. ;~)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I think he's asking the origin of the phrase in the subject "fair country writer", Bran.
It seems to be a regionalism from Texas. I am not quite sure how to parse it: is it [fair] [country writer] or [fair country] [writer]?
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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stranger
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stranger
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I'm not sure it's not exclusively regional south or SW. Hemingway said it of McKinley Kantor, for example.
And I'm pretty sure it's [fair country] [writer] since I've found several different nouns as the final one, not just "writer" though that seems to be the most common. E.g. "fair country ball player" said of baseball player.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I think he's asking the origin of the phrase in the subject "fair country writer", Bran. I think I went for the word that I liked best, but sure "fair country writer" is fair as well.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I wondered that meself, Fald, and I'm thinking it means a pretty good amateur writer? as opposed to a "city" writer which one would expect to be cultured and edumacated and all that?
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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That would suggest that the parsing is [fair][country writer] and that other examples of "fair country X" would be parsed the same way, Curmudgeon's reading notwithstanding.
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Carpal Tunnel
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formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I'm pretty sure it's [fair country] [writer] since I've found several different nouns as the final one
I'm beginning to think it's [fair] [country writer]. Neither the Dictionary of American regional English or Green's Dictionary of Slang had an entry for "fair country". I googled "country writer", and it seems to go back well into the early 19th century as a kind of writer opposed to a "city writer".
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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