MDMD(6): 'Torpedick'

[Michel Ryckx]

"[. . .] any resumption of the vice [ = whistling] comes as a Freedom
almost Torpedick [. . .] (77.9-10)

Some time ago I asked Cyrus, who mentioned once he is the (undoubtedly
proud) owner of the OED-CD-ROM, the lemmata of certain words in chapter
8.  I chose some words of which I thought they could be anachronisms and
I wondered when and how they were being used for the first time.  He
sent me back the complete information available, for which I am very
grateful.  <insert capitals> Thank you, Cyrus. </insert capitals>

None of them turned out to be anachronistic.

The first one was 'Torpedick', which seems te be a shortened and not
mentioned form of torpedoic.  It turned out a torpedo is the English
word for what we called as kids the 'electric eel', a fish we thought
fascinating.  There was a machine in his aquarium in the local zoo in
here in Antwerp, Belgium,  measuring its 'emissions'.  The machine made
me a strange noise when the torpedo produced electricity, I remember.

Since I would be exceeding the 10kb-limit largely, I only quote the
different meanings and some older usings of the word.

torpedo, n. Also 6 -ido. Pl. -oes.
[a. L. torpedo stiffness, numbness, also the cramp-fish or electric ray,
f. torpere to be stiff or numb; = Sp., Pg. torpedo, It. torpedine. Cf.
F. torpille, It. torpiglia from the same verb.]

1.
a. A flat fish of the genus Torpedo or family Torpedinid?, having an
almost circular body with tapering tail, and characterized by the
faculty of emitting electric discharges; the electric ray; also called
cramp-fish, cramp-ray, numb-fish.

1772 Chron. in Ann. Reg. Nov. 136/1 Mr. Walsh touched the back of the
torpedo; when all the five persons felt a shock at the same instant,
which differed in nothing from the Leyden experiment.

b.
fig. One who or that which has a benumbing influence.
1762 Goldsm. Nash 34 He used to call a pen his torpedo whenever he
grasped it, it numbed all his faculties.

2.
a.
orig. A case charged with gunpowder designed to explode under water
after a given interval so as to destroy any vessel in its immediate
vicinity; later also, a self-propelled submarine missile, usually
cigar-shaped, carrying an explosive which is fired by impact with its
objective.  The original torpedo was a towed or drifting submarine mine,
used to defend channels, harbours, and the like (drifting or moored
torpedo); it was towed at an angle by means of a spar extending at right
angles (otter or towing torpedo), or carried on a ram or projecting pole
(boom-, out-rigger-, spar-torpedo).
1776 J. Thacher Military Jrnl. (1823) 75 Mr. Bushnell gave to his
machine the name of American Turtle or Torpedo.

b.
See aerial torpedo s.v. aerial a. 5. Also without specifying adj

3.
a.
Milit. A shell furnished with a percussion or friction device buried in
the ground, which explodes when the ground is trodden upon; a petard.
U.S.
b.
A toy consisting of fulminating powder and fine gravel wrapped in thin
paper, which explodes when thrown on a hard surface.
c.
A cartridge exploded in an oil-well to cause a renewal or increase of
the flow. U.S. (In use 1873: see torpedoed s.v. torpedo v.)
d.
A detonator placed on a railway line, as a fog-signal, etc. U.S.
1786 tr. Beckford's Vathek (1883) 127, I will spring mines of serpents
and torpedos from beneath them, and we shall soon see the stand they
will make against such an explosion.

4. slang.
a. U.S. A professional gunman.
b. A tablet or capsule of a narcotic drug.

5. = torpedo-body. Also, a car with such a body.

6.
attrib. and Comb.; in sense 1, as torpedo-fish, -ray; esp. fig. in
allusion to its benumbing power, as torpedo history, narrative, quality,
touch; torpedo-like adv.; in sense 2, as torpedo armament, bomber,
coxswain, craft, department, flat (flat C. 10 b), -fuse (Knight Dict.
Mech. 1877), gunner, -instructor, -launch, plane, room, school, ship,
-vessel, -works; torpedo-carrying, -launching, -proof, -shaped adjs

Hence
tor_pedoic a. (nonce-wd.), of a torpedo, like that of a torpedo;
tor_pedoism (tor_pedism),
(a) action or quality like that of a torpedo or electric ray;
(b) the use of the torpedo (sense 2) in warfare;
tor_pedoist (tor_pedist), one who is employed or skilled in, or
advocates, the use of torpedoes;