Re: THEORY: Storage Vs. Computation

At 11:51 PM 6/15/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Peter Morwood & Diane Duane wrote:
>> We have this one too, though it's rare.  I heard it in Dublin recently,
>> though, which surprised me a little. Possibly a back-formation...?
>
>Probably by association with sit/sat.  The first time I'd ever heard it
>was in Trainspotting, which made me think it was a Scoticism.
It certainly seems to be on both sides of the Irish/Scots divide, though
who had it first is probably going to be impossible to tell. =20

Might be Scots originally, though.  Here's a good one for you:  the OED
lists "shat" as an obsolete and slightly worn-down version of an Irish term
of endearment (from _s=E9ad_, jewel:  and "jewel" in English was also used a=
s
a colloquial endearment here for a long time).  Also as a word for a
"tattler" (though that seems English and not Irish in derivation). =20

But there's no reference to an association with "shit", which makes me
guess that the formation's relatively modern.  Wouldn't surprise me. This
is a fertile area for neologisms.=20

Best!   - Diane



Peter Morwood & Diane Duane  /  The Owl Springs Partnership
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