Re: file searching/vista help

[Bill Troop billtroop@xxxxxxxx]

> I wonder how etymologists "determine" what word morphed into
> another, especially in the absence of extensive written
> documentation. Who made notes at the time on whether will I, nill I
> or will ye, nill ye or will it, nill it became willy-nilly.
One doesn't get the feeling it's a terribly exact science -- perhaps
the best analogy is psychoanalysis. Just defining a word is hard
enough. It has to come from the context within a quotation. Well and
good. But what does the author necessarily mean? I 'read' James
Purdy's 'I am Elijah Thrush' for the OED a couple of years ago and
went over my list of unusual words with the author, but his responses
were not at all necessarily useful in any ordinary sense. On the one
hand, 'crocus' means for him always yellow rather than purple, which
is well and good. But on the other, he claims that 'chicken dainty'
is a kind of caramel confection and here he is obviously pulling
one's leg. Speaking of which, I might as well ask, has anyone ever
come across the aspersion 'tarbox' ?