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Interesting (although some of it's well-known) but I'm posting because of this bit: Quote:
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I take it 'pedestrian' was already in use as an adjective meaning 'lacking inspiration or excitement' before it became a noun meaning someone on foot? Pretty interesting, for whatever reason I always assumed it was the other way around, that the noun came first.
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#3
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So it was - how bizarre. The figurative meaning of dull or prosaic dates from 1716, according to Chambers Dictionary of Etymology. Wordsworth was the first to record the literal meaning.
I was going to ask why you had presumed that from the list - is it because it specifically says "noun"? It's a more interesting list than some of these though. I said that some of them were well-known (chortle, meme, robot etc. - perhaps debunk, round here), but I didn't know most of them. |
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The OED lists the prosaic meaning of "pedestrian" dating back to 1716, with the "person on foot" meaning dating back to 1722 (as a statue of a standing figure) and 1742 (a person going about on foot). The going around on foot thing is probably derived from the Latin pedester, but the prosaic thing is probably from the Greek pedzos.
There is an earlier English word, "pedestrial," that means "going or walking on foot," which the OED dates back to 1606. (This contrasts with "equestrial," meaning "going on horse.") I wonder if it was one of those things where they wanted a noun for that verb and it coincidentally matched up to the existing adjective "pedestrian." In true circular fashion, by 1941, "pedestrial" also meant dull/prosaic. ETA: In other words, this article is wrong about that word. |
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All the terms in the teaser article were familiar to me. There was some care taken to acknowledge that many of these were not new words or new usages by the authors, but rather the first known uses in print, but I think this distinction was downplayed. The source for the first printed use of the term 'shotgun wedding' makes it clear that it was a well-known term for some time, and Sinclair Lewis was just acknowledging the practice and usage.
As for pedestrian, I wonder if the 'common' or 'dull' meaning did not in fact occur first, referring to something that as common and dull as feet. It may also be a matter of the dual vocabularies England had for so long, with the upper classes using largely French/Latin-based words, like beef, while the commoners used Germanic or Nordic origin words, like 'cow.' I would assume that before using the term 'pedestrian' for walkers, the common term would have been 'walker.' ETA - looks like Avril beat me with some actual research. |
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So's the Chamber's Dictionary of Etymology - it says 1791 for the "walker" meaning too. It doesn't mention Wordsworth though.
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#8
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For the curious, here are the first entries the OED has on those words:
Quote:
Quote:
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Also, commoners walked, while aristocrats went on horseback.
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