[Vwoolf] Carriage problems in the OED

[Stuart N. Clarke]

By looking up "The Compact Edition of the Dictionary of National Biography:  Complete Text Reproduced Micrographically - Volume 1 Main DNB, Abbadie - O'Donnell", I find fly with “horse-fly” as one of its definitions – if you look up the online OED under horse-fly you get the explanation.

Not good enough!

Stuart

From: Stuart N. Clarke via Vwoolf 
Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2024 9:33 AM
To: vwoolf at lists.osu.edu 
Subject: [Vwoolf] Carriage problems in the OED

I am somewhat handicapped these days, in that I can’t fully access the OED from home. I used to be able to, but now I can’t. I only scratch the surface. I didn’t know that gig was short for whirligig, but there’s no problem in the OED if you
I am somewhat handicapped these days, in that I can’t fully access the OED from home.  I used to be able to, but now I can’t.  I only scratch the surface.

I didn’t know that gig was short for whirligig, but there’s no problem in the OED if you look up gig.

However, try looking up fly.  There is a verb, “to travel by fly”, which may lead you to the correct definition (I can’t get that far – I thought a fly was short for something: see brake below).

And if you want to know what a brake was, you first have to know that it’s short for a shooting-brake.

Stuart


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