OED [split]

[George P.]

[quote=Paul Henry]

If he hopes to "pitch" his shoe brand, good luck! Other than some jumpers, it's hard to think of anyone (else) significant who's worn them in recent years. My duffer friends gave up on them during the Reagan administration.

Just goes to show that you are an old soul. :lol:

Puma by a significant stretch is further reaching into the chic, trendy metropolitan markets than the others (who are doing better in the outright sports department). You can rock your pumas (clothing and shoes) and stand less of a chance of being looked up and down by the bouncer at the velvet ropes , lets see you do that with the others. You have not realized that puma has become a major trendy casual wear brand.[/quote:16jm90x5]
I plead guilty! :lol: I'm hopelessly out-of-date and obsolete.

But you don't say anything about the brand's significance among elite competitors. These are not so interested in being sheek (or "chick", as we rednecks would put it.)

[tandfman]

Or chic, as the dictionary spells it.

[George P.]

Or chic, as the dictionary spells it.

Bless you, tandfman! You've come to my rescue again. :P

As my online version ($295/yr) of the Oxford English Dictionary informs us:

chic, n. and a.
slang.

[ ... ]

B. adj. [Not so used in F.] ‘Stylish’, in the best fashion and best of taste.

1879 Print. Trades Jrnl. XXVI. 14 What they term ‘Fashionable Chic Note’. 1880 OUIDA Moths I. 44 They are all chic, you know. 1887 Lady 20 Jan. 38/3 The ladies of New York..think no form of entertainment so chic as a luncheon party.

[tandfman]

You pay $295/yr for access to the OED online? I'm impressed. Actually, I'm astonished that anyone would pay that much for access to the OED online. My OED dates back to the 1970's, but most of what I use it for is etymology, which I would think doesn't change very much over the years.

Having said that, I must add that I might be surprised by how much research has uncovered citations that have been added to the work since then. Some of it has probably changed the editors' etymological conclusions about specific words. I suppose if I were a professional scholar to whom the latest info about such things was really important, I'd think about paying for that info. But I'm not, and so I can't imagine subscribing to the OED online at the rate they're charging.

[George P.]

You pay $295/yr for access to the OED online? I'm impressed. Actually, I'm astonished that anyone would pay that much for access to the OED online. My OED dates back to the 1970's, but most of what I use it for is etymology, which I would think doesn't change very much over the years.

Having said that, I must add that I might be surprised by how much research has uncovered citations that have been added to the work since then. Some of it has probably changed the editors' etymological conclusions about specific words. I suppose if I were a professional scholar to whom the latest info about such things was really important, I'd think about paying for that info. But I'm not, and so I can't imagine subscribing to the OED online at the rate they're charging.

The OED-online is updated all the time -- every time something new crops up.

I used the "compact" OED for 20 years. That's the complete but tiny-print single volume version that must be read with a magnifier (provided). As of last year I could no longer use this dear old book, owing to eye disease that's degrading my vision. My online subscription was the reaction to this situation. I may not renew it. My Third New International is adequate for most purposes, though the etymology entries are haphazard.

[tandfman]

The "compact" OED is the one I have. I also have MW First, Second, and Third Internationals, as well as some smaller dictionaries. With those resources, plus what I can find free online, I rarely feel the need for more.

[George P.]

A nice thing about the OED-online is you can quickly cut-n-paste stuff into practically anything -- astounding your friends and frustrating your enemies, e.g.: :wink:

puma, n.

1. A large American wild cat, Felis concolor, which has a plain tawny to greyish coat and occurs from Canada to Patagonia. Also called cougar, mountain lion, and (esp. in North America) panther.

[imaginative]

I have a great respect for anyone who goes the extra mile to better
his education, and the OED-online could quite possibly be far ahead of
the free competition. However, is it really so far ahead that someone
who is not a linguist, professional translator, or similar could have
a net-benefit after paying that large an amount? Even using just a
mixture of wikipedia/wiktionary, http://dict.leo.org (german/english
translation), and http://www.etymonline.com (etymology), I have my
needs more than covered for free---and I daresay that those needs are
a lot higher than the average (but conceivably smaller than yours).

(Add in that there are a number of other free services that may be
even better, but which I do not use because my needs are already
covered.)

[George P.]

I have a great respect for anyone who goes the extra mile to better
his education, and the OED-online could quite possibly be far ahead of
the free competition. However, is it really so far ahead that someone
who is not a linguist, professional translator, or similar could have
a net-benefit after paying that large an amount?

"That large an amount" is measured differently by different folks. That's about my pinot noir bill for two months.

[imaginative]

"That large an amount" is measured differently by different folks. That's about my pinot noir bill for two months.

Ah, I forgot that you were a succesful anachron..., ahem, capitalist ;-)

[George P.]

Ah, I forgot that you were a succesful anachron..., ahem, capitalist ;-)

Pretty much, though I was a soldier (not a capitalist) who tried to invest wisely over the years.

Spend 40 years doing difficult, disagreeable and (sometimes) dangerous things, and circumstances (if you're still alive) may smile upon you (though Usain Bolt could buy and sell me several times, no doubt).

[dakota]

Happily, I can read the compact edition of the OED without the magnifying glass, although I don't need to, because I can also read the online edition without the subscription. To be honest though I just use the two volume three thousand page "shorter" OED instead, which I have literally read from cover to cover. The benefit of the full twenty volume edition isn't so much the etymologies, it's the two and a half million usage quotations from classic literature.

[George P.]

Happily, I can read the compact edition of the OED without the magnifying glass, although I don't need to, because I can also read the online edition without the subscription. To be honest though I just use the two volume three thousand page "shorter" OED instead, which I have literally read from cover to cover. The benefit of the full twenty volume edition isn't so much the etymologies, it's the two and a half million usage quotations from classic literature.

Lucky you! to be able to read the d*mn thing at all. :shock: The "compact" edition (as you know) contains everything in the 20-vol edition. It's a micro-copy of each and every page of the latter.

The "shorter" 2-vol set does not, of course, contain everything that's in the others.

The online version contains "more" than any of them, in the sense that it is updated in "real time." Nice work if you can get it for free.

[Marlow]

The on-line OED is MANDATORY for ANY thinking person. Of course it helps when your place of business buys the subscription for you. :wink: :twisted:

[tandfman]

Would you believe there's a guy who's actually read the OED--the whole bleepin' thing! Twenty volumes, cover-to-cover!

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/02/ ... iefs2C.php

The Yahoo home page this morning links to an interview where he says doing this turned him into a blithering idiot (his words, not mine). He sometimes walks into a grocery store and asks the clerk where he can find the cold, white stuff, not remembering the word "milk."