AWADmail Issue 182
October 15, 2005
A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day
and Other Interesting Tidbits about Words and Languages
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From: Yigal Levin (leviny1ATmail.biu.ac.il)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--benjamin
Once upon a time, the portrait of Theodore Herzl (whose name in Hebrew was
also Benjamin!), founder of the Zionist Movement, adorned the Israeli 100
pound note. At the time, my mother was a nursery-school teacher. One day,
she showed her students a portrait of Herzl and asked them to identify the
man in the picture. One child immediately responded - "that's Herzl - we
have pictures of him at home." "Where?" asked my mother. "In my dad's
wallet!" was the reply.
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From: Kerala Varma (trc_puranATsancharnet.in)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--benjamin
I started earning a living in the India Security Press in the early 60s as
a supervisor which was also part of the currency note printing press in India
at the time. We used to work in bays, so to say that any worker leaving the
bay had to be frisked by a watchman at the door, and workers returning home
or breaking for lunch literally were required to strip themselves in front
of the security staff who carried out the search with bare hands. Bales of
special white paper used to get printed in printing presses six days in a
week of two ten-hour shifts in a dingy prisonlike highwalled building. Fresh
air was at a premium and once inside you could breathe fresh air only when
out of the main Gate.
We still carry the picture of Mahatma Gandhi in currency notes and no one
calls the Indian currency notes 'Gandhis'.
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From: Geoff Kuenning (geoffATcs.hmc.edu)
Subject: Re: benjamin
It's worth noting that the $100 bill hasn't always been the largest
denomination, nor even the largest denomination in circulation. Up
until the mid-70s, and possibly later (I no longer recall the date),
there were at least $500 and $1000 bills available to the public.
They were withdrawn as part of the so-called "war on drugs"; the
theory was that if large bills were unavailable, it would be more
difficult to move large amounts of cash. In recent years, some people
have suggested that since the change made no visible dent at all, the
$100 and even the $50 should be withdrawn as well.
The other force pushing the demise of larger bills is the fact that
U.S. banks steadfastly refuse to stock their ATMs with anything other
then $20 bills, even though the public would prefer a wider variety.
(European banks typically offer all denominations from 5 to 50.)
Even before the large-denomination bills were withdrawn, there were
even larger bills used in banking. The largest denomination I know of
was the $1,000,000 bill. The extremely large values were used to move
money among banks in the days before electronic fund transfers.
----------------------------
From: Sigmund Mikolajczyk (smikolajczykATcrain.com)
Subject: re: "benjamins"
Your item about "benjamins" sparked my memory. Actually, there used to
be a $1,000 bill (and larger denominations) in U.S. currency. Haven't seen
one, though, since the late 1960s, but I did get one once when I was a boy.
Saved all the money I made on my paper route to get one, which had to be
special ordered by the bank. I still remember the day I got the call telling
me the bill had arrived and to come to the bank to pick it up. I very
quietly told a teller who I was and what I was there for, not wanting
everyone to know I'd be leaving the bank with a $1,000 bill. She then
proceeded to yell to all the other tellers (and other bank patrons), "Hey,
come here and look at this: a thousand-dollar bill." Apparently none of them
had ever seen one before. Needless to say, I left the bank constantly
looking over my shoulder, but made it home with bill intact. Grover
Cleveland's face was on that denomination.
I was curious about whether the very large denominations were still in
circulation so I went to the U.S. Treasury Web site, which pointed out that
on July 14, 1969, David M. Kennedy, the 60th Secretary of the Treasury, and
officials at the Federal Reserve Board announced that they would immediately
stop distributing currency in denominations of $500, $1,000, $5,000, and
$10,000.
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From: Vivian Barbiero (vbarbieroATaol.com)
Subject: benjamins
As one of the recording engineers who first mixed the popular Puff Daddy
hit record, entitled "All About The Benjamins", I can't help feeling a bit
of a combination of disappointment and relief that this slang expression
for a hundred-dollar bill has now formally been incorporated into the
lexicon of our twenty-first century vernacular.
Relief, because, despite hundreds of playbacks in working on the original
piece, it took my sixteen-year-old son's exasperated explanation to
illuminate me to its meaning, and disappointment because it seems a poor
repository for the memory of perhaps the most brilliant of our American
forefathers. Nonetheless, I am curious if there are any literary references
to the word prior to the release of the pop song, or if P Diddy is to be
remembered for all time as a modern contributor to our language.
The OED lists him (as S. Combs) as the first citation (1994) for
the word in the line "My pockets swell to the rim with Benjamins."
-Anu Garg
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From: Vicky-Evic Go (reginacoelisATgmail.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--benjamin
I just thought when I read "benjamin" of how we used this term to denote
the youngest of 'several' siblings - in "older" cultures - (non-modern USA)
where the phrase would instead be "apple of one's eyes" - parent's eyes.
The root of course comes from the 12 brothers of Joseph - the 12 tribes of
Israel (Jacob) - Benjamin was the youngest.
In fact sometimes we would derisively call my sister (the youngest of four)
"Benjamina" because she got away with 'murder' being born thus.
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From: David Sices (david.sicesATdartmouth.edu)
Subject: Benjamin
Apropos of "Benjamin", because of the Biblical story of Benjamin, in France
the name is generally reserved for the last son, and one speaks of "le
Benjamin de la famille", the Benjamin of the family. Thus, when my son and
his wife had his third child and named him Benjamin, my French wife and I
thought that meant the end. But they had two more children, daughters...
At least he was their last son!
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From: Birgitte Saltorp (saltorpATskriveriet.com)
Subject: benjamin
In continental Europe (don't know about the British Isles, but it might just
be the same), a Benjamin is the youngest of a group. The biblical Benjamin
was the patriarch Jacob's youngest son.
In the group of friends I spend most time with I am the Benjamin because
they are all six or seven years my senior.
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From: Dagmar Fink (kniffATaon.at)
Subject: Benjamin
In German a Benjamin is the youngest member of a family.
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From: Vinay Kashyap (kashyap.vinayATgmail.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--maxwellian
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/maxwellian.html
I must protest!
"Maxwellian" has been an eponym for far longer than any publishing baron
co-opted it. It is a term that denotes any distribution (e.g. of velocities
of molecules in a gas) that has been thermalized. It is named after the
Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879); the same one who unified
Electricity and Magnetism. There is even an SI unit named after him.
Please retract today's word, or at least add a clarification! Frankly, this
is like saying "Newtonian" is a term to describe GOP tactics in the USA
because they were pioneered by Newt Gingrich.
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From: Jeff Hix (jhixATaol.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--cereologist
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/cereologist.html
If one were obsessed with dating crop circle investigators, would they be
a serial cereologist?
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From: John Neal (johnnealATsecretacademy.com)
Subject: cereologist
A friend edited the first crop circle magazine, for the first few editions
it was titled The Cereologist. A reader pointed out that it should more
properly be titled The Cerealogist. After much discussion it was decided
that the latter term was correct and the title was altered. After about
three years and the disillusionment of the then editor, it was no longer
published.
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From: Theresa Winters (desdrataAThotmail.com)
Subject: cereologist
Chicago was recently introduced to the new chain store called Cereality.
There, you can partake of the countless variations of cereal and topping
combinations, all the while being helped by the resident 'cereologists'.
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From: Erin Curry (ecurryATsecurustech.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--Heath Robinson
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/heath_robinson.html
This word put me in mind of the great Honda Accord commercial that showed
a fantastic contraption that finally started the car at the end of the
sequence:
http://www.steelcitysfinest.com/HondaAccordAd.htm
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From: Birgitte Saltorp (saltorpATskriveriet.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--Heath Robinson
A contemporary of Heath Robinson was the Danish Robert Storm Petersen
(1882-1949) known to us Danes as Storm P. I think you will agree that his
inventions are worth a laugh or two. You can see a few of them on this site:
http://www.experimentarium.dk/images/skoleservice/skolekonkurrence/smaek/storm_p_tegninger.pdf
In Denmark we, of course, call a "Heath Robinson" a "Storm P-invention" (the
Danish word for invention is "opfindelse").
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From: John (jeandeuxATyahoo.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--Heath Robinson
Very much reminds me of Wallace and Gromit, or at least Wallace's inventions.
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From: Cindy Smithey (csmitheyATtexasbar.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--vulcanian
Re: http://wordsmith.org/words/vulcanian.html
Here's a website that will show the Vulcan statue that's been in Birmingham,
AL for over 100 years: http://www.bhamonline.com/areasights/vulcan.htm
............................................................................
As far as I'm concerned, 'whom' is a word that was invented to make everyone
sound like a butler. -Calvin Trillin, writer (1935- )
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