An heart-felt plea

Posted by R. Berg on February 06, 2004

In Reply to: An heart-felt plea posted by Li Yar's Ghostwriter on February 06, 2004

: God bless America - one nation under a groove.
: I have American friends, I like quite a bit of American popular culture, I respect the desire for individuality and free expression, I recognise the achievements of the people who have become Americans I even prefer that the USA for all its faults is the dominant military superpower BUT on this board and in our quest for enlightenment can we please give due weight to sources and think about the likelihood of citations being correct 'first use'. I really enjoy this site and the stimulating debate it creates, but I am tired of finding fairly modern US citations being flagged up as 'first use'.

: Please think about the expressions and the words used before quoting Oprah or Marvel comics as 'first use'.

: it's all good debate for me to point out that a quote has an early source say in Dante, the Bible, Greek philosophy or Hieroglyphs, but we should police ourselves and not write rubbish.

: PS at least when Li Yar posts, you know he may be kidding...

I don't think American chauvinism is causing the problem. It's just that this board has a large proportion of U.S. readers because the U.S. population is large; people tend to hear phrases from nearby sources (e.g., Oprah); and many don't understand that phrase origins are a matter for scholarly investigation and that evidence is needed. They confuse the first time THEY saw a phrase in print with the first time ANYONE did, or they assume that the first explanation they see of "the Whole nine yards," for example, must be correct.

If it matters, I'm American.

• An heart-felt plea Bob 08/February/04
  • Heart Shaped Li Yar's Ghostwriter 09/February/04