Comments on: A slow day for lexicography http://www.logophile.org/blog/2009/11/17/a-slow-day-for-lexicography/ blog of a logophile (not "logos", but "λόγος") Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:21:32 +0000 hourly 1 By: tikitu http://www.logophile.org/blog/2009/11/17/a-slow-day-for-lexicography/comment-page-1/#comment-6981 tikitu Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:41:19 +0000 http://www.logophile.org/blog/?p=784#comment-6981 <p>Oh, I'm not disputing the reality of tarantism, just that the etymological link between "tarantula" and "tarantella" seems suspiciously tidy to me.</p> <p>Mackay sounds great -- can't wait to find out the influence of politics on the beard... And I've steered clear of Gutenberg texts for a while because the first thing I always want to do is put them in LaTeX and it's <em>infuriating</em>, but the html for this one seems very tidy, not such a trial after all. (Maybe this has long been the case: it's years ago I was doing this last.)</p> <p>I had a vague memory of the "undertaking of great advantage". Googling it incorrectly led to Google Books "Notes taken in sixty years", and a wonderful quote:</p> <blockquote> <p>The only regret I have in connection with our silk fever is, that in illustrious absurdity the tulip-dealing Dutchmen of two hundred years before remain immeasurably ahead of us. If it had been the sprightly Frenchmen (who played the fool so admirably in the days of John Law), we might rest content; but for Americans to be outdone in folly by the phlegmatic Hollander is intolerable.</p> </blockquote> <p>"Counterracted": counteredited, thanks.</p> Oh, I’m not disputing the reality of tarantism, just that the etymological link between “tarantula” and “tarantella” seems suspiciously tidy to me.

Mackay sounds great — can’t wait to find out the influence of politics on the beard… And I’ve steered clear of Gutenberg texts for a while because the first thing I always want to do is put them in LaTeX and it’s infuriating, but the html for this one seems very tidy, not such a trial after all. (Maybe this has long been the case: it’s years ago I was doing this last.)

I had a vague memory of the “undertaking of great advantage”. Googling it incorrectly led to Google Books “Notes taken in sixty years”, and a wonderful quote:

The only regret I have in connection with our silk fever is, that in illustrious absurdity the tulip-dealing Dutchmen of two hundred years before remain immeasurably ahead of us. If it had been the sprightly Frenchmen (who played the fool so admirably in the days of John Law), we might rest content; but for Americans to be outdone in folly by the phlegmatic Hollander is intolerable.

“Counterracted”: counteredited, thanks.

]]> By: S. glaber http://www.logophile.org/blog/2009/11/17/a-slow-day-for-lexicography/comment-page-1/#comment-6980 S. glaber Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:07:51 +0000 http://www.logophile.org/blog/?p=784#comment-6980 <p>Wonderful -- it's the least useful citation imaginable! I can't help but wonder if Johnson did it for a laugh: there's plenty of blatant whimsicality on show in his Dictionary (my favourite being the quotation for <i>fart</i> (noun)). But as you say, it could just as well be a simple dearth of tarantulas.</p> <p>As to tarantism, I don't think anyone disputes that it was a real phenomenon, but I think it's generally held to be a mass hysteria or delusion or whatever the current correct psychological term is, rather than anything organic. I was sure there was a reference to it in Mackay's <i>Extrordinary Popular Delusions</i> but I seem to be wrong about that; however, I'm still mentioning it here because you'd love it if you haven't read it already, and it's available through Project Gutenberg. Contents include 'The Tulipomania', 'Influence of politics and religion on the hair and beard', and a wonderful list of the stated purposes of South-Sea Bubble companies including one 'for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage; but nobody to know what it is.'</p> <p>P.S. You have a typo in 'counterracted'.</p> Wonderful — it’s the least useful citation imaginable! I can’t help but wonder if Johnson did it for a laugh: there’s plenty of blatant whimsicality on show in his Dictionary (my favourite being the quotation for fart (noun)). But as you say, it could just as well be a simple dearth of tarantulas.

As to tarantism, I don’t think anyone disputes that it was a real phenomenon, but I think it’s generally held to be a mass hysteria or delusion or whatever the current correct psychological term is, rather than anything organic. I was sure there was a reference to it in Mackay’s Extrordinary Popular Delusions but I seem to be wrong about that; however, I’m still mentioning it here because you’d love it if you haven’t read it already, and it’s available through Project Gutenberg. Contents include ‘The Tulipomania’, ‘Influence of politics and religion on the hair and beard’, and a wonderful list of the stated purposes of South-Sea Bubble companies including one ‘for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage; but nobody to know what it is.’

P.S. You have a typo in ‘counterracted’.

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