Authorisms: Words Wrought by Writers (32 page)
Read Authorisms: Words Wrought by Writers Online
Authors: Paul Dickson
9.
For instance the
Ohio Repository
, May 1837: “One man, in Franklin County has lately realized thirty thousand dollars, in a speculation on slaves, which he bought in Virginia, and sold down the river.”
10.
Tom Vitale, “John Milton, 400 Years of ‘Justifying God to Man,’ ” the radio program
All Things Considered
, December 7, 2008.
| 11. | Oxford English Dictionary, 1933 J. R. R. Tolkien Let. 16 Mar. (MS.). I have actually been presented by a well-wishing old gentleman with a complete N.E.D., to my staggerment, as I had quite given up hope of possessing one. 1937 J. R. R. Tolkien, Hobbit xii. 221. “To say that Bilbo’s breath was taken away is no description at all. There are no words left to express his staggerment.” |
| 12. | Oxford English Dictionary , 1922 W. Lippman, Public Opinion vi. 93. |
| 13. | Oxford English Dictionary, 1913 W. Cather, O Pioneers! ii. vii. 144. |
| 14. | Oxford English Dictionary Ulysses , 530. |
15.
Andrei Codrescu,
The Posthuman Dada Guide: Tzara and Lenin Play Chess
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009), 76.
t
| 1. | Oxford English Dictionary, F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise i. 25. |
| 2. | Oxford English Dictionary , Reprint of the London, 1771 ed., 1967.Amsterdam: N. Israel. J. Cook Jrnl. 15 June (1967) III. i. 129. James Cook, A Journal of a Voyage Round the World in H.M.S. Endeavour 1768–1771 . |
3.
Elizabeth Webber and Mike Feinsilber,
Grand Allusions: A Lively Guide to Those Expressions, Terms and References You Ought to Know but Might Not
(Washington, DC: Farragut Pub. Co., 1990), 342.
4.
James Fenimore Cooper “Sketches of Naval Men: Edward Preble,”
Graham’s Magazine
, 27:205), 1845. “The Right Stuff” is discussed in the article “What Is ‘The Right Stuff?’ Name for Space Heroism Has Become Part of American Lexicon,”
Daily Press,
Newport News, VA, May 10, 2003, D-1.
5.
Alf Pratte, “A Word on Wordsmiths,”
Masthead
, Spring 1999.
| 6. | Oxford English Dictionary, 1897 L. Hearn, Gleanings in Buddha-Fields i. 24. |
| 7. | Oxford English Dictionary, 1749 H. F ielding, Tom Jones III. viii. vii. 195. David Sano, “Twitter Creator Jack Dorsey Illuminates the Site’s Founding Document.” Los Angeles Times , February 18, 2009 |
u
1.
Elizabeth Webber and Mike Feinsilber,
Grand Allusions: A Lively Guide to Those Expressions, Terms and References You Ought to Know but Might Not
(Washington, DC: Farragut Pub. Co., 1990), 358–59.
| 2. | Oxford English Dictionary, 1871 L. C arroll Through Looking-Glass vi. 122. |
| 3. | Oxford English Dictionary, 1816 S. T. Coleridge, Christabel ii. 43. 1860 O. W. Holmes, Elsie Venner xxvi (1861), 302. |
4.
Alf Pratte, “A Word on Wordsmiths,”
Masthead
, Spring 1999.
5.
Reported in Merriam-Webster,
Word Study
, February, 1935, 1.
| 6. | Oxford English Dictionary , 1947 R. Chandler Let. 5 Jan. in R. Chandler Speaking (1966) 66. |
v
| 1. | Oxford English Dictionary, 1918 V. Woolf, Diary 3 Nov. (1977) I. 213. Emphie vagulates in & out of the room. |
2.
E-mail from Richard Lederer of June 5, 2013.
| 3. | Oxford English Dictionary, 1936 C. S. Lewis, Allegory of Love ii. 45. |
w
| 1. | Oxford English Dictionary, 1826 J. F. Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans II. vi. 108. Also, Charles L. Cutler, O Brave New Words! Native American Loanwords in Current English (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994), 131. |
| 2. | New York Times, Aug. 20, 1996, B-6. |
3.
Elmer Plischke,
U.S. Department of State: A Reference History
(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999).
| 4. | Oxford English Dictionary, Life & Labor Bull. 1/1. |
5.
Donald H. Dyal,
Historical Dictionary of the Spanish American War
, ed. Brian B. Carpenter and Mark A. Thomas (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996), 349.
6.
Joseph Harker, ed.,
Notes and Queries
(London: Trafalgar Square, 1995), 67; G. Ade,
Hand-made Fables,
(1920)
97: “Next day he sought out the dejected Wimp.”
| 7. | Oxford English Dictionary, Don Juan: Canto II clxxviii. 208. |
8.
See “Contrastive Focus Reduplication in English (The Salad-Salad Paper),” by Jila Ghomeshi, Ray Jackendoff, Nicole Rosen, and Kevin Russell,
Natural Language and Linguistic Theory
22 (2004). Norquist column on Word Word = http://grammar.about.com/od/tz/g/Word-Word.htm. An example of a
word word
that came from Professor Nordquist’s column was this that he collected from an online cooking forum: “Sorry for the confusion. I meant
pot pot
. Not cooking in a pot, but with pot.”
| 9. | The Oxford Companion to the English Language (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 1127. |
10.
Tim Haigh, “Mr. Hueffer and Mrs. Ford,”
Independent
, London, England, February 25, 1996.
11.
Martin, Douglas, “Wayne E. Oates, 82, Is Dead; Coined the Term ‘Workaholic,’”
New York Times,
Oct. 26, 1999.
12.
Joseph Harker, ed.,
Notes and Queries
, a Guardian Book, vol. 6 (London: McClelland and Stewart Ltd., 1995), 41.
| 13. | Oxford English Dictionary 1891 G. B. Shaw in World 23 Dec. 15/2. |
x y z
1.
Jeffrey McQuain and Stanley Malless,
Coined by Shakespeare: Words and Meanings First Penned by the Bard
(Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1998), 260.
2.
As cited in
OED
: 1726 Swift,
Gulliver
II. iv. ii. 23: “The Fore-feet of the Yahoo differed from my Hands in nothing else, but the Length of the Nails, the Coarseness and Brownness of the Palms, and the Hairiness on the Backs.”
3.
Eric Partridge,
A Dictionary of Catch Phrases, American and British, from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day
, rev. ed. (New York: Stein & Day Pub., 1986).
epilogue
| 1. | Word Study , October 1948, ed. Max J. Herzberg, “Who Makes Up the New Words?” 1–4. G. & C. Merriam Company, Springfield, MA. |
appendix
1.
Jeffrey McQuain and Stanley Malless,
Coined by Shakespeare: Words and Meanings First Penned by the Bard
(Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1998), viii.
2.
Seth Lerer,
Inventing English: A Portable History of the Language
(New York: Columbia University Press, 2007), 129.
3.
Bill Bryson,
Shakespeare: The World as Stage
(New York: HarperCollins, 2007), 113.
4.
http://theamericanscholar.org/shouldnt-there-be-a-word/#.UbeYcdhzxIE.
5.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/48657/20-words-we-owe-william-shakespeare#ixzz2ShSXVJSe.
6.
Leon Mead,
How Words Grow
(New York: T. Y. Crowell and Co., 1907), 234.
7.
Michael Macrone, “ ‘Household Words’: Common and Uncommon Words Coined by Shakespeare, Part II,”
Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter
39.2 (2003): 10. American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, Macrone’s list can be found at www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/phrases-sayings-shakespeare.html.
8.
Charles and Mary Cowden Clarke,
The Shakespeare Key
(New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1879), 54–67.
9.
Rob Kyff, “Don’t Guilt People for Verbing Nouns,”
Tribune-Review/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
, July 14, 2012.
10.
Ben Crystal,
Shakespeare on Toast: Getting a Taste for the Bard
(London: Icon Books Ltd., 2010).
11.
E-mail from John Andrews to the author, June 11, 2013. This theme is discussed in detail in John F. Andrews in
Shakespearean Illuminations: Essays in Honor of Marvin Rosenberg
, ed. Jay L. Halio and Hugh Richmond (Newark: University of Delaware Press, and London: Associated University Presses, 1998), 183–202.
PAUL DICKSON
has written more than a dozen word books and dictionaries, including
Words from the White House
,
The Dickson Baseball Dictionary
,
The Congress Dictionary
(with Paul Clancy),
Family Words
, and
Slang.
He was a contributing editor with Merriam-Webster in charge of the Lighter Side of Language
series, did a bylined commentary on language for NPR’s
All Things Considered
in the 1990s, and was an occasional contributor to William Safire’s “On Language” column in the
New York Times.
Dickson has coined two words of his own:
word word
(the lexical double construction heard in the question, “Are we talking about an e-book or a book book?”) and
demonym
(the name for a person from a specific locality, e.g., New Yorker or Hoosier). He is also the author of the seminal narrative history
Sputnik: The Shock of the Century
and the coauthor of the acclaimed
The Bonus Army: An American Epic.
He lives in Garrett Park, Maryland.
