Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics From: [s--e] at [cs.uiuc.edu] (Aamod Sane) Subject: Sandman, Murphy, Skerry and OED Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1991 00:50:47 GMT Here are the meanings of some unusual words from the "A game of you" series. The source is OED. Murphy - Illiterate perversion of morpheus 1748 SMOLLETT Rod. Rand. xvi. (1760) I. 110 When Murfy sends his pup- pies to the heys of slipping mortals. Porpentine - c Old name of a certain fixed star. Obs. 1503 Kalender of Sheph. I. vij, Wnder the syng of lybra..wnder ys xvii. degre so aleftys oon stern fyxyt, that oon that the sheppar [s ] callys pork apyk [ed. 1506 porcarpyke]. - Also porcupine Hierogram - Sacred symbol, hieroglyph Skerry - A rugged insulated sea-rock or stretch of rocks, covered by the sea at high water or in stormy weather; a reef, a rocky islet. - Also a little boat I did not know Digitalis came from foxglove... Foxglove - The popular name of Digitalis purpurea, a common ornamental flower. Digitalis, extracted from foxglove, can slow the heart. Curiously, there is a word, prinado. But the meaning is irrelevant to the Sandman usage as a name. Prinado - Some kind of female sharper or impostor. And finally: Barbara - taken as a mnemonic term, for its three a's: `A' indicating a universal affirmative proposition. e.g all animals are mortal; all men are animals; Therefore all men are mortal 1880 VERN. LEE Stud. 18th C. Italy vi. 247 Attempts to turn him into an..ordinary youth by means of teachers, col- leges, logical barbaras and baraliptons. QOTD: Rene Descartes once walked into a bar. The bartender asked him, "Would you care for a pint of whisky, Sir?". He said "I think not", and disappeared. -- FOAF -- [s--e] at [cs.uiuc.edu] == / \ ----- == * \_/ -|||- == Article 33997 of rec.arts.comics: Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics Path: teetot.acusd.edu!network.ucsd.edu!usc!wupost!m.cs.uiuc.edu!sane From: [s--e] at [cs.uiuc.edu] (Aamod Sane) Subject: Re: Sandman, Murphy, Skerry and OED Message-ID: <[1991 Dec 28 010539 12177] at [m.cs.uiuc.edu]> Sender: [n--s] at [m.cs.uiuc.edu] (News Database (admin-Mike Schwager)) Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL References: <[1991 Dec 28 005047 17116] at [m.cs.uiuc.edu]> Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1991 01:05:39 GMT [s--e] at [cs.uiuc.edu] (Aamod Sane) writes: >Here are the meanings of some unusual words from the "A game of you" series. >The source is OED. Oh, one more I forgot, though probably irrelevant: Tantoblin - A tart or a round piece of pastry - A lump of excrement, a turd. 1654 GAYTON Pleas. Notes III. ii, But our Don could not distinguish a Tantoblin from a Pancake. - also as: 1871 COWDEN CLARKE in Gentl. Mag. Aug. 336 Horace Walpole (who, by the way, seems to have been a tantaddling old eaves-dropper) has recorded that he [Addison] died drunk with brandy. -- [s--e] at [cs.uiuc.edu] == / \ ----- == * \_/ -|||- == [j--r--y] at [acusd.edu] (Finger or Reply for PGP Public Key) http://nspace.cts.com/ finger or e-mail [h--p] at [nspace.cts.com] ------ "Good stories typically grow out of character, which of course is determined by history, i.e., continuity. If you have to ignore continuity to tell a 'good' story, I'd suggest you look more closely at your definition of 'good story'. -- Chris Jarocha-Ernst