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Help the OED Find a Lost Book
New submitter imlepid writes "The Oxford English Dictionary is currently undergoing a complete overhaul which includes a reexamination of the 300,000+ entries and citations for those entries. Understandably for a work which is over 150 years old, some of the sources have become hard to find. One such example is a book titled 'Meanderings of Memory' by Nightlark, which is cited 49 times in the OED, including for some rare words. The OED's editorial team has appealed to the public, 'Have you seen a copy of this book?'"
Their work ethic is wicked.
When your work witch is over 150 years old, you'll definitely want an overhaul.
Or retirement.
"But Mr Dent, Meanderings of Memory has been available in the local library for the last nine months."
"Oh yes, well as soon as I heard I went straight round to see it, yesterday afternoon. You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything."
"But the book was on display ..."
"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find it."
"That's the display department."
"With a flashlight."
"Ah, well the lights had probably gone."
"So had the stairs."
"But look, you found the book didn't you?"
"Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'."
Someday it may be history.
..it was probably burned at the stake.
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
They can't remember where they left the 'Meanderings of Memory' book?
Bark less. Wag more.
What if "Meanderings of Memory" never existed in the first place, but was made up by sloppy 19th-century OED editors when they couldn't find a real source? It's not as if this practice is unknown...
'Meanderings of Memory' was somebody's code for "I made it up."
Let me check. It might be sitting on my desk.
Umm - this might take a couple of hours ...
Have you tried turning it off and on again?
I would love to use the OED occasionally and wouldn't mind paying to do so, but who can afford to spend $295 per year for a subscription?
I have to assume that they are not all idiots and that they actually have some subscribers at that price point, but I can't imagine that that model makes the most money possible. I want to look up maybe one word a month, and I would be willing to pay to do so, but I can't pay $295 a year (or even $29.95 per month).
A famous literary hoax, of Borgesian dimensions.
One might adduce as much, from the enigmatic title of the purported work, and the pseudonymous attribution of authorship.
In fact, this was the product of several Oxford dons, in the generation before Tolkien - who expanded on the academic chicanery of spurious reference work by creating an entire cosmos, populated with libraries of such.
Now, let us turn to the Voynich manuscript, and the Dictionary of the Khazars...
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Not in OCLC, the Internet Archive or on Bookfinder. I did, however find Milestones. A Mirthful Miscellany Of Meanderings Down Memory Lane by Aldous Bob or Bob Aldous, or something. I doubt, however, judging from the title, that "revirginizing" will feature in the tome.
I recently picked up "The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary" and this post made me think of the the story. A quick check gives a time frame of 150 years ago, and maybe everyone that works at the OED isn't familiar with the history of Dr. Minor. If he truly was a "Madman", I wouldn't put it beyond him to make up sources for some of his many contributions.
Listen to my music.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/catablogger/8717819652/in/photostream/
For those wanting to know what the Latin phrase underneath translates to:
Cur potius lacrimae tibi mi Philomela placebant?
Why do tears please you more, My Philomela?
From Wikipedia: Philomela or Philomel (Ancient Greek: ) is a minor figure in Greek mythology and is frequently invoked as a direct and figurative symbol in literary, artistic, and musical works in the Western canon.
I threw it on the fire when we burnt Alexandria.
Someone create the book and have it cite the OED... if you are able to make it look old enough to pass it will make their heads explode....
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Have gnu, will travel.
I've got to consider Oxford's own Mathew Arnold (1822-1888) as a plausible candidate for "Nightingale". His "The Strayed Reveller and Other Poems" (1849), and "Empedocles on Etna and Other Poems" (1852) were published under the pseudonym "A.", but they certainly seem characteristic. Odd that he hasn't been made mention of. http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/strayed-reveller http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/172862 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/matthew-arnold
Oh, I'm sorry sir, I thought you were referring to me, Mr. Wensleydale.
I've known a few witches at work.
The list of 49 words is available by querying oed.com, e.g. http://www.oed.com/search?case-insensitive=true&f_0=-+Quotation+Title&nearDistance=1&ordered=false&q_0=Meanderings+of+Memory&scope=ENTRY
Oh, I'm sorry sir, I thought you were referring to me, Mr. Wensleydale.
I doubt, however, judging from the title, that "revirginizing" will feature in the tome.
It actually will. The March 2010 update of the OED Online contains "revirginize" as a new entry. Wait for the Third Edition to be available in print. You will then be able to stroll through your living room, a hefty OED tome in your hand ( of which there is not one, BTW, but currently there are 20 ) , muttering "revirginize....revirginize..."
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
Here's the first half of the cited quotations, since oed hasn't bothered to consolidate them:
"The Chapelled templer."
"Who can trim a cock~abundy, turn a rod with him?"
"Care for your couchward path."
"Day-drowsiness--and night's arousing power."
"Dyke-cloistered Taddington, of cold intense."
"The dikeside watch when Midnight-feeders stray."
"In the droop ash shade."
"An heiress doughy-like and dump."
"'Tis noted down--Epistled to the Duke."
"Matter to sustain The staggering extemporizer's pain."
"The fancy-grazing herds of freedom's pen."
"Flambeaued folly of the long procession."
"Air coloured, scarcely carnate, or a flesh."
"Galls them no more their foodlessness or fag."
"Fluttering as the mantle's fringy rim."
"Where full-dug foragers at evening meet In Cow-bell concert."
"One is the sculptor, of the statue nice, Or Gigantomachies of rock and ice."
"With a giddy foot and goal-ward rush."
"Hag of the hearthward cringe and tripod stool."
"A heathen lamp supplies With meagre beam his Idol-anchored eyes."
"A margin stone I crave Inscriptionless, or chiselled by the wave."
"I the mattress spread, And equal lay whatever lumps the bed."
"Coins that were tinkled, ever shook In pouch of peacelessness."
"With art's refinement he would..rape the soul."
"O too rebrutalized! oh too bereaved!"
Oh, I'm sorry sir, I thought you were referring to me, Mr. Wensleydale.
This is growing interesting. A quick, sequential read of the quotations seems to betray, indeed, a single author's idiosyncracies..
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
Would you please reproduce the other half of the quotations ? Thanks !
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
And here's the rest:
"Oh freddled gruntbuggly"
"thy micturations are to me"
"As plurdled gabbleblotchits on a lurgid bee"
"Groop I implore thee, my foonting turlingdromes"
"And hooptiously drangle me with crinkly bindlewurdles"
"Or I will rend thee in the gobberwarts with my blurglecruncheon, see if I don't!"
Countless number of books lost forever when the Library of Alexandria was burnt down.
Which time?
--
A Copy of Verses kept in the Cabinet, and only shewn to a few Friends, is like a Virgin much sought after and admired; but when printed and published, is like a common Whore, whom any body may purchase for half a Crown (Swift, Thoughts on Various Subjects)
"What for it"?
Wait are we whatting for?
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
"Alone reliefless in thy cold distress."
"Where that cosmetic..Shall e'er revirginize that brow's abuse."
"Raw November's rheumatizing grass."
"If a thought Should cream the blood in sanctuaried court."
"He crowned his head but with another cap Than Cardinal'sâ"for that he wants no Sap."
"Yon vermined Sarcophage."
"Scarf-like and ethereally slight."
"The brain will scavage and the breast unstuff."
"He looked submission with a shoeward eye."
"We..Rambled such river sides and templed lands."
"So thence uprooted with transplanter care, In other soil it scents another air."
"Her nature may with thine be tribed."
"Tribunalled judge, he weds the weaker cause, Holds sternly up as he lays down the laws."
"The belted blouse Of velvet black, and closely-fitting trouse."
"A thing unmental, mannerless and crude."
"If bigotted, or most unbusy herd, O'er stocked with time and talent, were preferred."
"The brain [it] will scavage and the breast unstuff."
"Yon vermined Sarcophage."
"She was not vulgar-viewed, her thinkings took The selfsame tenor."
"Vain and virtueless and warmthless grown."
"The wen-necked women."
"With cur-like whinge to such soft cutting whip."
"The widthless road."
Oh, I'm sorry sir, I thought you were referring to me, Mr. Wensleydale.