On 6/15/07 1:10 AM, Tamara P Duvall wrote:

Sometimes, one gets a bit tired of adding :) and <VBG> every couple of sentences... I did do a very good imitation-bonde, didn't I?

Reminds me, for some reason, that someone gets very, very
excited whenever I mention that one can simulate an overhead
outlet for one's iron by dangling an extension cord over the
board -- even when I very carefully explain the difference
between lamp cord and drop cord.

Extended time with Google failed to explain why it's called
"drop cord", though there was mention of voltage drop in an
Earth-to-Moon extension cord (a thought experiment, needless
to say), and I learned that the cord which "supports and
energizes" the now-obsolete dangling light bulb in the
middle of the ceiling was called a "drop cord".    I don't
see how either could give rise to the meaning of "heavy-duty
extension cord".  Indeed, a drop cord is an extension cord
in which the voltage doesn't drop as much as it would in a
thinner cord, and lamp cord would do fine for "energizing"
one low-wattage incandescent bulb.

Perhaps it's because you can drop a drop cord anywhere you
need an outlet?

<grabs magnifying glasses, heads for O.E.D.>
<goes cross-eyed before finding anything relevant>

--
Joy Beeson
http://joybeeson.home.comcast.net/
http://roughsewing.home.comcast.net/
http://n3f.home.comcast.net/ -- Writers' Exchange
http://www.timeswrsw.com/craig/cam/ (local weather)
west of Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.A.
where it's seasonably hot and dry.

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