Re: file searching/vista help

["Patricia M. Godfrey" priscamg@xxxxxxxx]

Bill Troop wrote:
> But on the other, he claims that 'chicken dainty' is a kind of caramel
> confection and here he is obviously pulling one's leg.
Not necessarily. Purdy is a Southern writer, no? And Appalachian
and other Southern varieties of English have some highly unusual
(I dassn't say "colorful") words that never make it into the
dictionaries. That might well be a local term.
> Speaking of
> which, I might as well ask, has anyone ever come across the aspersion
> 'tarbox' ?
The OED calls it "a box formerly used by shepherds to hold tar as
a salve for sheep." If it was used as an aspersion, I suspect
some confusion or conflation with "tarbrush," a politically
incorrect way of saying a person shows signs of being of part
African ancestry.
In general, if you want the real skinny on the etymological or
semantic history of an English word, the place to go is the OED.
Nothing else is anywhere near it.

--
Patricia M. Godfrey
priscamg@xxxxxxxx