4.0048 Etymologies of 'Glom' and 'Doddle' (116)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Tue, 15 May 90 16:56:17 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0048. Tuesday, 15 May 1990.
(1) Date: Tue, 15 May 90 10:33 CDT (9 lines)
From: Michael Ossar <MLO@KSUVM>
Subject: glom
(2) Date: 14 May 90 21:43:00 EST (11 lines)
From: "HALPORN,JAMES,CLAS" <halpornj@ucs.indiana.edu>
Subject: SERIOUS THINKERS
(3) Date: Mon, 14 May 90 19:44 EST (12 lines)
From: krovetz@UMass
Subject: doddle
(4) Date: Tue, 15 MAY 90 10:35:25 GMT (17 lines)
From: DM@GEOVAX.ED.AC.UK
Subject: Doddle [eds]
(5) Date: Tue,15 May 90 12:42:16 BST (16 lines)
From: R.M.McRae@VME.GLASGOW.AC.UK
Subject: Doddle
(6) Date: Tue,15 May 90 12:56:59 BST (17 lines)
From: N.J.Morgan%vme.glasgow.ac.uk@NSFnet-Relay.AC.UK
Subject: Re: 4.0045 Doddle (24)
(7) Date: Tue, 15 May 90 09:38 EDT (20 lines)
From: "Ed. Harris, Academic Affairs, SCSU" <HARRIS@CTSTATEU>
Subject: Glom
(8) Date: 15 May 1990 11:32:39 CDT (14 lines)
From: <SPAETH@UIUCVMD>
Subject: 4.045 Doddle
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 15 May 90 10:33 CDT
From: Michael Ossar <MLO@KSUVM>
Subject: glom
The discussion of "to glom onto" seems to have prompted an international
wave of linguistic benevolence and affection. To judge from several of
the responses, it's everybody's favorite slang word (or one of them).
It's curious how some locutions enjoy such universal popularity and
others, like "proactive" and "empower," get such mixed reviews.
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------20----
Date: 14 May 90 21:43:00 EST
From: "HALPORN,JAMES,CLAS" <halpornj@ucs.indiana.edu>
Subject: SERIOUS THINKERS
The correspondence on glom and on gender reminds me of the book of Don
Marquis, *Hermione and her little group of serious thinkers* (NY, 1916).
Well, anyway, Randall Jarrell and Mary McCarthy would have had fun with
HUMANIST contributions. One of the guilty ones,
Jim Halporn
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------19----
Date: Mon, 14 May 90 19:44 EST
From: krovetz@UMass
Subject: doddle
The word `doddle' is listed in the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary
English as informal British English. It is defined as:
`Something that is very easy to do: That driving test was a real doddle'
-bob
krovetz@cs.umass.edu
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------29----
Date: Tue, 15 MAY 90 10:35:25 GMT
From: DM@GEOVAX.ED.AC.UK
Subject: Doddle [eds]
I find the Transatlantic exchange of words like "glom" and "doddle" to
be quite fascinating. Jim O'Donnell from Penn asked if a "doddle" was
some sort of Britishism; yes.
Students often refer to classwork being a doddle, meaning that it was
very easy. I'm not sure of the origins of the word but feel confident
in saying that I've only rarely heard it used outside Scotland. I've
heard the word used on a couple of occasions in England, but then by
people with Scottish links of one sort or another.
So Jim O'Donnell's reading of "doddle" just goes to show that
Transatlantic communication is not the doddle that it's made out to be.
David Mitchell (Geography, Edinburgh)
(5) --------------------------------------------------------------26----
Date: Tue,15 May 90 12:42:16 BST
From: R.M.McRae@VME.GLASGOW.AC.UK
Subject: Doddle
Shorter OED:
DODDLE v. 1653 [var. of DADDLE]
1. trans. To shake, nod (the head ).
2. intr. To toddle; to totter; to dawdle 1761.
Definition 2 is the one relevant here, I think, specifically
in the sense of "dawdle", implying an effortless stroll.
A common enough scottish word used eg to denote an easy
victory in a football (soccer) match.
Rod Macrae
at Glasgow.
(6) --------------------------------------------------------------30----
Date: Tue,15 May 90 12:56:59 BST
From: N.J.Morgan%vme.glasgow.ac.uk@NSFnet-Relay.AC.UK
Subject: Re: 4.0045 Doddle (24)
In Edinburgh a doddle is apparently a small piece of home made toffee;
more generally it is something that is easy to do (bastardised dawdle).
In North east Scotland to walk feebly, and in Caithness, male genitals
(since the eighteenth century) in the plural.
All this and more from the Concise Scots Dictionary (which says that
glomming is a derivative of gloamin).
Nicholas Morgan
Department of Scottish History
University of Glasgow
(7) --------------------------------------------------------------26----
Date: Tue, 15 May 90 09:38 EDT
From: "Ed. Harris, Academic Affairs, SCSU" <HARRIS@CTSTATEU>
Subject: Glom
As a native glommer who has spent almost exactly half his life in the
midwest (St Louis) and half east of the Hudson (NYC and CT) with a
3-year stretch in the middle in LA (how about them credentials?),
whenever I have glommed, I have acquired *visually*.
I can't wait to see how our other new word--is it boddle? I don't save
my correspondence, so forgive the looseness of my memory--works out.
Someone feels it connotes something positive and someone else something
negative. It sounds like it should mean 'foul up' to me, though I've
never run across it before. --Ed.
Ed <HARRIS@CTSTATEU.BITNET>
Southern Connecticut State U, New Haven, CT 06515 USA
Tel: 1 (203) 397-4322 / Fax: 1 (203) 397-4207
(8) --------------------------------------------------------------22----
Date: 15 May 1990 11:32:39 CDT
From: <SPAETH@UIUCVMD>
Subject: 4.045 Doddle
Doddle does indeed mean "easy, a snap", as Bob Kraft surmises. As an
American living in Britain, I am intrigued and heartened by this
recent exchange of information on local slang. As someone has said
(Shaw?) and as I have learned the hard way, Britain and the U.S. are
indeed two countries divided by a common language. (Sorry about the
repetitions of "as"--4 times in three sentences!)
Don Spaeth
University of Glasgow
gkha13@cms.glasgow.ac.uk