The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #59476   Message #950080
Posted By: GUEST,Q
10-May-03 - 03:16 PM
Thread Name: Folklore: Whence came tickety-boo, kilter, & whack
Subject: RE: Folklore: Whence came tickety-boo, kilter, & whack
spreagh- foray.
santon- European expression for a Mohammedan monk, sometimes incorrectly applied to Hindoo ascetics. OED
cockered- several possible. Setting up hay into cocks. Pampered. The sentence is needed to get the sense of the word. Also a pugilistic term and others. I have heard it used for stunned.
fosse- a ditch, an abyss, a waterway, a pit in which condemmed women were drowned. Again, have to put it in context.

Kat, a long time ago, the free gift from the Book-of-the-Month Club was the OED, in a micrographic edition (four pages printed on one), complete with a good hand lens. The date on the set (2 vols. in case) is 1971. In 1987, they issued a supplement in the same format. The cost was $80 (in case with a cheap plastic substitute for a hand lens). This supplement added many American, Australian, Canadian and other words and many more quotations for words covered in the other volumes.
These volumes satisfy me (How much do I need the newspeak, computer terms, etc.?). You should be able to find these in used book stores, but you have to keep at it, since many people would like a set. It is a much better deal than buying a full size set, which is older than 1987, and therefore lacks all of the information of the supplement, and usually is priced at about $500.
The on-line subscription service is expensive- too much for me. And will an updated micrographic set be available soon? The micrography is excellent- no blurred or unreadable type- just need a hand lens or high-powered reading glasses (4X are available).