http://blog.oup.com/2010/11/foxglove/ Academic insights for the thinking world. Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:22:49 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 http://blog.oup.com/2010/11/foxglove/#comment-429891 Monthly Gleanings: November 2010 | OUPblog Sun, 26 May 2013 23:46:57 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=12184#comment-429891 [...] telling me, for example, about a visit of a fox in the correspondent’s garden (in connection with my post on foxglove). Guilty of what Shakespeare in Sonnet 62 called the sin of self-love, I particularly relish [...] [...] telling me, for example, about a visit of a fox in the correspondent’s garden (in connection with my post on foxglove). Guilty of what Shakespeare in Sonnet 62 called the sin of self-love, I particularly relish [...]

]]> http://blog.oup.com/2010/11/foxglove/#comment-250060 Prettiest Plant in the Lab: Foxgloves, Digoxin, and Digoxigenin | A bouquet from Mendel Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:04:06 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=12184#comment-250060 [...] species, are favored ornamental plants for their tall showy flower spikes and bright colors.  A disputed but appealing origin for the name was advanced by William Henry Fox Talbot, who proposed that the whimsical ye [...] [...] species, are favored ornamental plants for their tall showy flower spikes and bright colors.  A disputed but appealing origin for the name was advanced by William Henry Fox Talbot, who proposed that the whimsical ye [...]

]]> http://blog.oup.com/2010/11/foxglove/#comment-189382 OUPblog » Blog Archive » Walter W. Skeat Faces the World Wed, 17 Nov 2010 16:36:30 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=12184#comment-189382 [...] Last week I wrote that one day I would reproduce some memorable statements from Skeat’s letters to the editors.  This day has arrived.  I have several cartons full of paper clippings, the fruit of the loom that has been whirring incessantly for more than twenty years: hundreds of short and long articles about lexicographers, with Skeat occupying a place of honor.  A self-educated man in everything that concerned the history of Germanic, he became the greatest expert in Old and Middle English and an incomparable etymologist.  In England, only Murray, the editor of the OED, and Henry Sweet were his equals, and in Germany, only Eduard Sievers.  Joseph Wright, another autodidact, the editor of the English Dialect Dictionary, was interested in many things outside English philology, but for Skeat English remained the prime object of research all his life.  Like most people who learned so much the hard way (that is, on their own), he despised ignorance, especially when it hid behind pretense and pomposity.  A professor (though not burdened with too much teaching, especially by modern standards) and a family man (yet in this area he could not compete with Murray, the father of a whole brood of children), he never flinched at the idea of writing an edifying or indignant letter to the editor, for he was a born enlightener.  He chose as his perennial target was the inability of his countrymen to understand that etymology is a science rather than mildly intelligent guesswork. [...] [...] Last week I wrote that one day I would reproduce some memorable statements from Skeat’s letters to the editors.  This day has arrived.  I have several cartons full of paper clippings, the fruit of the loom that has been whirring incessantly for more than twenty years: hundreds of short and long articles about lexicographers, with Skeat occupying a place of honor.  A self-educated man in everything that concerned the history of Germanic, he became the greatest expert in Old and Middle English and an incomparable etymologist.  In England, only Murray, the editor of the OED, and Henry Sweet were his equals, and in Germany, only Eduard Sievers.  Joseph Wright, another autodidact, the editor of the English Dialect Dictionary, was interested in many things outside English philology, but for Skeat English remained the prime object of research all his life.  Like most people who learned so much the hard way (that is, on their own), he despised ignorance, especially when it hid behind pretense and pomposity.  A professor (though not burdened with too much teaching, especially by modern standards) and a family man (yet in this area he could not compete with Murray, the father of a whole brood of children), he never flinched at the idea of writing an edifying or indignant letter to the editor, for he was a born enlightener.  He chose as his perennial target was the inability of his countrymen to understand that etymology is a science rather than mildly intelligent guesswork. [...]

]]> http://blog.oup.com/2010/11/foxglove/#comment-187543 Tweets that mention OUPblog » Blog Archive » Etymologists at War with a Flower: Foxglove -- Topsy.com Wed, 10 Nov 2010 19:34:48 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=12184#comment-187543 [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Carrie Lucas, Lauren. Lauren said: : ) MT @hush6: (Fox) gloves off! http://bit.ly/dqWnQQ #etymology [...] [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Carrie Lucas, Lauren. Lauren said: : ) MT @hush6: (Fox) gloves off! http://bit.ly/dqWnQQ #etymology [...]

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