Posted by Robert Hill on June 18, 1999 at 16:57:59 from sun088.leeds.ac.uk:
A few thoughts on the recent threads about American and other words.
The distinctions between "vacation" and "holiday" have been
explained by others. I have a vague idea that the Great Aunt,
possibly in her letter to Mrs Blackett at the end of tP&tM, uses
"vacation" for a school (as disinct from university) holiday, in a
way that most British people would not; this may be because of her
formal, old-fashiomed style (as in "progress upon the pianoforte"
rather than on the piano).
On wigwam versus te[e]pee, the OED seems to suggest that the
main difference between them is that they come from thr
languages of different groups of Indians. It defines wigwam as
"a lodge, cabin,tent or hut of the North American Indian peoples of
the region of the Great Lakes and eastward, formed of bark, matting
or hides stretched over a frame of poles converging at the top;
corresponding to the TEPEE of other peoples."
I encountered both words in childhood but wigwam was much the
more familiar.
On Timothy's use of "partners" to address the Amazons and D's,
remember that he had been all over the world on prospecting
expeditions with Jim Turner, and would have picked up the
terminology of prospecting types. Also they _were_ his partners in
the business of the SADMC. Also if he felt the need for some way
of addressing them collectively, his choice of words would be limited -
he certainly couldn't get away with calling them "children"! This
being before the days of the Goon Show, it might not have occurred to
him to call them "folks".
I had assumed until now that "loon" applied to certain persons was
short for "lunatic", and that its use for divers came from this, via
the eeriness of their cry. The OED suggests that the situation is
more complex. There is a word "loom", derived from Scandinavian
languages via Shetland dialect, used for certain species of
guillemots and divers, especially the red-throated diver; and "loon"
for "any bird of the genus Colymbus, esp. the GN Diver" comes from
this. [Incidentally the GND is here called Colymbus glacialis,
but elsewhere, including I think in GN?, I've seen C. immer.
I wish taxonomists wouldn't keep changing their terminology.]
The OED claims that phrases like "as drunk as a loon" and "as
crazy as a loon" come from THIS, not from "lunatic"; "In reference
to its actions in escaping from danger and its wild cry".
Then by transference there is "loon" for "a crazy person, a simpleton",
a usage said to be "perhaps influenced by LOONY" (which of course
_does_ come from lunatic).
There is also another sub-meaning for other birds (great crested grebe,
and little crested grebe or dabchick).
Separately from all this there is another major heading for loon
applied to a person, with a separate and largely obscure etymology,
with definitions like "worthless person, rogue, scamp, boor, lout,
clown" . Said to be chiefly Scottish and Northern dialect.