AWADmail Issue 306
May 11, 2008
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: Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)
Subject: Interesting stories from the net
Portugal Pays Lip Service to Brazil's Supremacy:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/europe/portugal-pays-lip-service-to-brazils-supremacy-819728.html
Lexicographical Longing:
http://nytimes.com/2008/05/11/magazine/11wwln-medium-t.html
Roget's Thesaurus with Beatles:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHDn7_pmRug
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From: Michael Bishop (stella.errante gmail.com)
Subject: Musical Lilliputians
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/lilliputian.html
While working collaboratively with some friends on a crossword puzzle I was
perplexed with one clue, just the word Lilliputians. "The only lilliputians
I know are the Beatles." Once they all stopped laughing they explained to me
the error of my ways.
Never again have I confused lilliputians and Liverpudlians.
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From: Meredith Regal (meredk windows.microsoft.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--lilliputian
One of my favorite children's books is T.H. White's "Mistress Mashem's
Repose", unfortunately now out of print, which featured the descendants
of the Lilliputians. Thank you for reminding me of it.
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From: Robert McColley (rmccolle uiuc.edu)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--Simon Legree
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/simon_legree.html
"After Simon Legree, a brutal slave dealer in the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin."
The term in common use was and remains slave trader, and there are several in
Mrs. Stowe's novel. But Legree was not one of them, he was a cotton planter.
A twisted, angry, brutal man, he abused his slaves; traders had an interest
in keeping their "merchandise" as healthy as possible -- under the
circumstances.
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From: David Potterveld (potterveld phy.anl.gov)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--babbitt
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/babbitt.html
Babbitt is also the name of a metal alloy used in bearings. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babbitt_metal for reference. That's the first
usage I encountered for this word, long ago when I was repairing my first car.
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From: Brad Orfall (brad_orfall yahoo.com)
Subject: Babbitts selling babbitts
I suppose the average middle-class employee of a manufacturer of babbitt
metal would be a "Babbitt babbitt manufacturer"?
---------------------------
From: Josh Beach (josh.beach philips.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--babbitt
What about babbitt metal and babbitt bearings? They predate Sinclair Lewis's
novel by a bit, and could lead to another definition: slippery characters who
are easily damaged. Unless, of course, technical language has no bearing on
the subject.
............................................................................
Modern English is the Wal-Mart of languages: convenient, huge, hard to
avoid, superficially friendly, and devouring all rivals in its eagerness
to expand. -Mark Abley, journalist (b. 1955)
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