|
|
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 4
stranger
|
OP
stranger
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 4 |
Onelook is a powerful tool - thanks for pointing it out.
Good news: I heard from Melissa and here's the scoop:[edited by SweetBilly and to use tinyurl for the link]
[Anybody have that book & can look it up? - ha!]
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Melissa
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 13:39:22 -0600
Subject: RE: PUIST
Hi SweetBilly,
I found this word in a book called "Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words." Every entry in this lexicon has been accepted as a formal or legitimate English word by at least one major dictionary. According to this dictionary, puist (puust) is an adjective meaning "in comfortable circumstances." ..., here's a link with details about the book ...
http://tinyurl.com/6rdwo
Hope this helps!
Melissa
Live in a Steady Joy
-Will
Live in a Steady Joy
-Will
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Greetings and welcome, Billy! You'll soon hear a lot about Mrs. Byrne here, I do believe.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
well, not to put too fine a point on it, we've discovered that not everything Mrs. Byrne has to offer has been thoroughly researched!
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Thought I'd add what Dr. Bill kindly sent me about taking a gander--I had wondered fleetingly about it as I posted but was too lazy to LIU (thanks, Bill); from Quinion:
A quick, er, gander at the word’s history is illuminating. It seems the verb to gander in this sense is actually American in origin, something I find more than a little surprising, because it sounds English to me. A little more delving, however, shows that the roots of the expression are indeed from this side of the pond. A work of 1887, The Folk-Speech of South Cheshire, says, “Gonder, to stretch the neck like a gander, to stand at gaze”. The next known example is from the Cincinnati Enquirer of 9 May 1903: “Gander, to stretch or rubber your neck”. It is claimed that it comes from thieves’ slang.
There’s your source. Think of a gaggle of farmyard geese, wandering about in their typically aimless and stupid way, poking their noses in everywhere and twisting their necks to stare at anything that might be interesting. Geese are the archetypal rubberneckers. No doubt to gander became the term because to goose had already been borrowed; this was taken from the way that the birds were known to put their beaks embarrassingly—and sometimes painfully—into one’s more private places.
The form you quote, to take a gander, is recorded from the USA around 1914; here, gander is a noun in the sense of a inquisitive look. In the century since, that form has become much more common while the verb has lost ground. http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-gan2.htm
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 1,385
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 1,385 |
“Gander, to stretch or rubber your neck”. It is claimed that it comes from thieves’ slang.Those were the days when they hung horse thieves from the nearest tree. You could say "gander" was gallows humor. 
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
"Bart, Bart, we thought you was hung."
"I am."
TEd
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
Without doubt, a Puist is a person who studies the works of A.A. Milne in the original Latin, e.g. Winnie ille Pu.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
the original Latin, e.g. Winnie ille Pu
E.g.? There are other versions of the original Latin?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
There are other versions of the original Latin?
Sort of. There's also Winnie Ille Pu Semper Ludet
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,347
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
1 members (wofahulicodoc),
769
guests, and
0
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
