Date: Wed, 1 Oct 1997 02:26:54 -0400

From: "Barry A. Popik" Bapopik[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM

Subject: Henrickson's "revised" ENCYCLOPEDIA review; P.O.T.U.S. or P.U.S.?



BOOK REVIEW:



THE FACTS ON FILE ENCYCLOPEDIA

OF WORD AND PHRASE ORIGINS,

REVISED AND EXPANDED EDITION



by Robert Hendrickson

1997 ed. (previously issued in 1987 as THE HENRY HOLT ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WORD

AND PHRASE ORIGINS)

754 pages with index (prior edition was 581 pages without an index)



For those who don't want to wade through or can't afford DARE, RHHDAS,

and OED, this is an alternative that schoolchildren and nonscholarly

libraries will turn to.

It's not very good.

Sadly, it will be a primary source for many people. It will perpetuate a

great deal of misinformation for a long time.

The first edition ("'A feast for phrase detectives...that will enliven

debates and illuminate issues.'--William Safire" graces the cover) contained

errors in nearly every entry. To my eyes in a quick reading, it still sucks.

The original preface: "Scholars like Professor Gerald Cohen of the

University of Missouri-Rolla devote years and pages enough for a book in

scientifically tracking down the origins of a single word, but a great number

of the word derivations on record amount to little more than educated

guesswork."

The added preface: "...has about 25 percent completely new material and

now covers some 15,000 word and phrase origins, roughly triple the greatest

number in any previous collection of its kind."

With prefaces like these, how is it that ALL of my work and nearly all of

Professor Cohen's work is NOT here??

Take three entries, for example--although I could continue all day:

"CANUCK. _Canuck_ as a derogatory name for a French Canadian has been

around since about 1865, with both Canadians and Americans using it." 1865??

Even the worst dictionary can give a better date than this!

"PAPARAZZI. (...) Fellini had known a boy nicknamed Paparazzo (Mosquito)

during his school days...." Fellini admitted, in an interview, that he got

the name from a name in a George Gissing book.

"HOT DOG. According to concessionaire Harry Stevens, who first served

grilled franks on a split roll in about 1900, the franks were dubbed hot dogs

by that prolific word inventor sports cartoonist T. A. Dorgan after he

sampled them...."

This is a feast for phrase detectives??



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