Comments on: Flummoxed, Flabbergasted and Gobsmacked http://www.word-detective.com/2010/11/flummoxed-flabbergasted-and-gobsmacked/ Semper Ubi Sub Ubi Wed, 20 Mar 2013 19:32:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: ST-EMM http://www.word-detective.com/2010/11/flummoxed-flabbergasted-and-gobsmacked/comment-page-1/#comment-9272 ST-EMM Wed, 01 Dec 2010 04:33:45 +0000 http://www.word-detective.com/?p=4245#comment-9272 Interesting, then, that the first discovered written use of a word can lag way behind the actual use. Gobsmacked was a word being used in my social circle (possibly "social" isn't quite the word to use here, but that's another story) in the mid-seventies in Australia, and my father used the term prior to that on occasion. That is not the result of memory lapse either, but fact. A colleague, a Sydney University English graduate, remembers it from school in the late 1960s. His memory of it just about squares with mine, and we've both worked in the same office and in the same business - on and off - for the past 35 years or so. I get the feeling sometimes that too much might be attached to the first discovery a term or word in print and that some slack should be applied if using it as a yardstick. Obviously it is important but it still gives an approximation at best. Interesting, then, that the first discovered written use of a word can lag way behind the actual use. Gobsmacked was a word being used in my social circle (possibly “social” isn’t quite the word to use here, but that’s another story) in the mid-seventies in Australia, and my father used the term prior to that on occasion. That is not the result of memory lapse either, but fact.

A colleague, a Sydney University English graduate, remembers it from school in the late 1960s. His memory of it just about squares with mine, and we’ve both worked in the same office and in the same business – on and off – for the past 35 years or so.

I get the feeling sometimes that too much might be attached to the first discovery a term or word in print and that some slack should be applied if using it as a yardstick. Obviously it is important but it still gives an approximation at best.

]]> By: Link love: language (24) « Sentence first http://www.word-detective.com/2010/11/flummoxed-flabbergasted-and-gobsmacked/comment-page-1/#comment-8499 Link love: language (24) « Sentence first Thu, 11 Nov 2010 15:03:39 +0000 http://www.word-detective.com/?p=4245#comment-8499 [...] flabbergasted and [...] [...] flabbergasted and [...]

]]>