Jonathan Green's definition of a "one arm joint" is not entirely correct. A real one arm joint had chairs with chairs with one arm for solitary diners who would otherwise eat standing. It's the design of the chairs (which you can see if you look them up as images) that created the name, which then came to be used for any cheap diner.
Interesting! In the movie I saw — I wish I could remember the title — “one-arm joint" was used derisively, somewhat like a synonym for “dive” or “greasy spoon.”
Re: #48: Hooker Auditorium at Amherst College is adjacent to Clapp Laboratory (albeit with a double “p,” but still funny). AND…I just learned yesterday that Charles Dickens was the first to say “Never say never.” I have no idea if that’s true — I need to look into that — but you never know!
Re: #24, because it's my favorite number and also because one of the assistant choreographers of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus in the 70s was Bill Bradley. Not the senator, that Bill Bradley introduced the Gypsy Robe by giving a used robe to a friend on his opening night in a different show.
P.S. As you point out, the Gypsy Robe has been deemed the Legacy Robe. How long as it been that "giving" became "gifting," and why?
"Gift" (verb) has been documented in English writing since about 1600. ("The friendes that were together met He [printed Be] gyfted them richely with right good speede.")
Right. I bet you've mentioned that before. I didn't make my PS clear: when and how and especially WHY did that old, barely used word become popular among the well-educated? (Should we ask Ben Yagoda?)
I'm a bit puzzled about why we're discussing the verb "to gift," since it isn't in my gypsy/legacy note or in the T Magazine article I link to. It's definitely a top language peeve in some quarters! (It isn't one of mine; I like it.) In brief, "to gift" is popular because it's useful. Merriam-Webster published a good essay that may answer your questions: https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/gift-as-a-verb
Regarding "ramen" and "lamian," the average Japanese will go around the block to avoid making the "L" sound we think is so easy. "Elvis Presley" is pronounced (very rapidly) "eh-ru-bee-su pu-re-su-ree. A basketball is ba-su-keh-tu-bah-ru. And to make the point even more clear to the barbarians (and the children), a different alphabet is used to spell foreign words (including "ramen"), even though the sound of each syllable is exactly the same.
And now I feel mean, because a bit later I realized that we do roughly the same thing when we use italics to indicate a foreign word.
One of the interesting thing about lists like this is how idiosyncratic they are, with the (well, a) result that someone reading them might think wait, this was new to you this year? I'm 110% positive that if I ever managed to pull together such a list, many of my, um, learnings would be old news to a lot of folk.
I have a long list of boomerang words that I'll will definitely write up soon, for sure, as soon as I get around to it, when I have time.
>Weary is unrelated to wear
I might not be understanding this item, but re: #14, "weary" as in "tired" is from "werig" in Old English?
Oh, fun fact (well, fun for me): "Matthew effect" was one of my very first Friday Words, one that I encountered in the annals of baseball — "how the reputation of a pitcher or batter can affect how umpires judge balls and strikes".
Separately, the phrase concerns the Parable of the Talents, which, let's be honest, has some theological difficulties:
You are understanding fine. My bad for eliding some of the OED entry: Old English wérig, corresponding to Old Saxon (sîð-) wôrig weary (with a journey), Old High German wuarag drunk < West Germanic *wōrigo-, ‑ago‑. The root *wōr- seems to be identical with that in Old English wórian to wander, go astray, and in Old Norse órar fits of madness, œ́r-r mad, insane; the primary sense was perhaps ‘bewildered’, ‘stupefied’."
I think “dive” is fair enough. I believe real one arm joints were created in the late 19th century and the term was probably generic by the 20s at the latest.
Jonathan Green's definition of a "one arm joint" is not entirely correct. A real one arm joint had chairs with chairs with one arm for solitary diners who would otherwise eat standing. It's the design of the chairs (which you can see if you look them up as images) that created the name, which then came to be used for any cheap diner.
Interesting! In the movie I saw — I wish I could remember the title — “one-arm joint" was used derisively, somewhat like a synonym for “dive” or “greasy spoon.”
Re: #48: Hooker Auditorium at Amherst College is adjacent to Clapp Laboratory (albeit with a double “p,” but still funny). AND…I just learned yesterday that Charles Dickens was the first to say “Never say never.” I have no idea if that’s true — I need to look into that — but you never know!
I did a quick check on “never say never." The Dickens attribution appears to be true (Pickwick Papers, 1837).
So much to say, so little time. How is a girl to choose?
FRUIT SMACK
Another “rapscallion” reference:
From PDQ Bach's (Peter Schickele's) oratorio "The Seasonings, S. 1½ tsp.":
Tenor: Then asked he of her...
Bass: Have you any onions, and have you savory?
Tenor: But she answered him not... saying...
Alto and Soprano: Onions have I, but savory have I none.
Tenor: Whereupon he scolded her...
Bass: Then thou art an unsavory rapscallion!
I thought that maybe "one arm joint" referred to people sitting on stools at the counter; where there wasn't room to use both hands.
Re: #24, because it's my favorite number and also because one of the assistant choreographers of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus in the 70s was Bill Bradley. Not the senator, that Bill Bradley introduced the Gypsy Robe by giving a used robe to a friend on his opening night in a different show.
P.S. As you point out, the Gypsy Robe has been deemed the Legacy Robe. How long as it been that "giving" became "gifting," and why?
"Gift" (verb) has been documented in English writing since about 1600. ("The friendes that were together met He [printed Be] gyfted them richely with right good speede.")
Right. I bet you've mentioned that before. I didn't make my PS clear: when and how and especially WHY did that old, barely used word become popular among the well-educated? (Should we ask Ben Yagoda?)
I'm a bit puzzled about why we're discussing the verb "to gift," since it isn't in my gypsy/legacy note or in the T Magazine article I link to. It's definitely a top language peeve in some quarters! (It isn't one of mine; I like it.) In brief, "to gift" is popular because it's useful. Merriam-Webster published a good essay that may answer your questions: https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/gift-as-a-verb
Regarding "ramen" and "lamian," the average Japanese will go around the block to avoid making the "L" sound we think is so easy. "Elvis Presley" is pronounced (very rapidly) "eh-ru-bee-su pu-re-su-ree. A basketball is ba-su-keh-tu-bah-ru. And to make the point even more clear to the barbarians (and the children), a different alphabet is used to spell foreign words (including "ramen"), even though the sound of each syllable is exactly the same.
And now I feel mean, because a bit later I realized that we do roughly the same thing when we use italics to indicate a foreign word.
One of the interesting thing about lists like this is how idiosyncratic they are, with the (well, a) result that someone reading them might think wait, this was new to you this year? I'm 110% positive that if I ever managed to pull together such a list, many of my, um, learnings would be old news to a lot of folk.
I have a long list of boomerang words that I'll will definitely write up soon, for sure, as soon as I get around to it, when I have time.
>Weary is unrelated to wear
I might not be understanding this item, but re: #14, "weary" as in "tired" is from "werig" in Old English?
https://mikepope.com/sweet/sweet-dictionary-entries.html#wērig1
PS This link might not load on some browsers (phones) because it's a very big page
Oh, fun fact (well, fun for me): "Matthew effect" was one of my very first Friday Words, one that I encountered in the annals of baseball — "how the reputation of a pitcher or batter can affect how umpires judge balls and strikes".
Separately, the phrase concerns the Parable of the Talents, which, let's be honest, has some theological difficulties:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Talents#Parable_of_the_Talents
You are understanding fine. My bad for eliding some of the OED entry: Old English wérig, corresponding to Old Saxon (sîð-) wôrig weary (with a journey), Old High German wuarag drunk < West Germanic *wōrigo-, ‑ago‑. The root *wōr- seems to be identical with that in Old English wórian to wander, go astray, and in Old Norse órar fits of madness, œ́r-r mad, insane; the primary sense was perhaps ‘bewildered’, ‘stupefied’."
I think “dive” is fair enough. I believe real one arm joints were created in the late 19th century and the term was probably generic by the 20s at the latest.
So much to say, so little time. How is a girl to choose?