Comments on: Monthly etymology gleanings for November 2012

By: Fabio (Vinos Ambiz)

Fabio (Vinos Ambiz) — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 09:09:41 +0000

The past, the present, and the future walked into a bar.
It was tense.

By: Oh, what lark! | OUPblog

Oh, what lark! | OUPblog — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 14:46:53 +0000

[...] come to the point. In lai- most researchers recognize a sound imitative complex. Last week, while discussing lollygag, I touched on the complex lal- ~ lol- ~ lul- ~ lil-. Among other things, it often refers to sound. [...]

By: James Geach

James Geach — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 07:28:22 +0000

“Would” certainly doesn’t mean ‘intended to’ there, just think about the new sentence:
Obama has made it clear for more than a year that he intended to resist direct US intervention.
That would be used if for example, one year ago, Obama had wanted to resist US intervention but hadn’t because something prevented him; he’s spent the last year explaining that he intended to, but couldn’t.

But I agree that it is being used to avoid definiteness: if you said
Obama has made it clear for more than a year that he intends to resist direct US intervention.
That (at least somewhat) implies that the US will intervene.
On the other hand, if we say,
he would resist direct US intervention
we are implying
[IF the US were to intervene]

The only problem I have with the sentence is that the writer used ‘resist’ instead of ‘oppose’!

By: Ann Snyder

Ann Snyder — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:09:30 +0000

How early was the phrase “What’s up with” used? Not as in “Hey, what’s up?”, but as in “What’s up with that action?” or “What’s up with that odd choice of clothing?” or similar questions about behavior or appearance. My impression is that the phrase has been around for a few hundred years, but I would like to know for certain it’s early appearances in British slang.

By: Stephen Goranson

Stephen Goranson — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 13:12:58 +0000

For some reason or other, some poor quality whiskey was called in the US “bald-face.” For example, in the 1840 Indiana General Assembly House of Representatives journal.
Bald-face(d)may have been associated with lies sightly later but at least as early as 1844. Here’s a Missouri newspaper with two uses of

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86063325/1854-01-12/ed-1/seq-2/;words=faced+lie+bald+bald-faced?date1=1836&sort=date&date2=1922&searchType=advanced&language=&proxdistance=5&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=&phrasetext=bald-faced+lie+&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&index=0

Now that does not prove a connection–a sort of drunken lie–as if Post hoc ergo propter hoc. But it might could raise a question that could be looked into.

By: John Cowan

John Cowan — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 04:53:11 +0000

The first use of would means 'intended to'. Will would be excessively definite.