Pynchon in SOED

Tue Jun 12 09:23:54 CDT 2007

Yes, of course. Actually I was wrong and a search for "Pynchon" actually
gives 191 hits, most of them being TRP. I've separated out the TRP bits to
make this easier for you lot to read because I know some people out there
prefer these pots to be in plain text. Here are a few to be going on with...

Arnobarbital:
 Pharm.

   The equivalent in the U.S. Pharmacopeia of *amylobarbitone n.
   1950 Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 2 Dec. 1209/2 (heading) Amobarbital sodium
and prolonged insulin coma.  

1973 T. Pynchon Gravity's Rainbow (1975) i. 168 Try to remember,+last night
amobarbital sodium 0.2 Gm. at bedtime.  

1974 M. C. Gerald Pharmacol. xi. 204 Deep sedation is induced by the
intravenous injection of amobarbital.  1980 Washington Post 27 Nov. b1/1 The
tests showed two barbiturates in the child's blood-amobarbital and
secobarbital.  

Or

Doojigger:
 U.S. colloq.

   A small object or (esp. mechanical) contrivance; a gadget or 'thingummy'.
   1927, etc. in H. Wentworth Amer. Dial. Dict. (1944) 174/1 Doojigger.
1932 W. A. Rukeyser Working for Soviets ix. 116 Here were the true
provincial types+Mongols, Tartars,+a Chinese selling little do-jiggers made
of colored papers.  1938 'E. Queen' Four of Hearts iv. 65 Since you don't
ascribe any significance to these doojiggers, surely you won't mind if I
appropriate them?  1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §75/4
'Gadget'+dojigger.  1953 S. Bellow Adventures A. March xvi. 345 It certainly
was odd what mechanisms you saw all over Mexico+British and Belgian
doo-jiggers, Manchester trolleys or poodle locomotives.  

1966 T. Pynchon Crying of Lot 49 iv. 97 The extra little doojigger sort of
coming out of the bell.  

1976 New Yorker 26 Apr. 60/2 To her sweetly serene public matronliness she
would add this aura of romance+. I'm not sure she meant it-it was just a
bargaining do-jigger.  

Dracunculiasis

 Path.

   = *dracontiasis n.
   1942 D. L. Belding Clin. Parasitol. xxii. 375 Dracunculus medinensis+.
Disease.-Dracontiasis, dracunculosis, dracunculiasis.  1967 Amer. Jrnl.
Trop. Med. & Hygiene XVI. 23/1 Dracunculiasis occurs commonly in and around
Kurnool.  

1973 T. Pynchon Gravity's Rainbow (1975) i. 13 Dracunculiasis and Oriental
sore rampant among the troops, no beer for a month.  

1990 Lancet 8 Sept. 630/1 Several studies have reported on the prevalence of
permanent disability resulting from poliomyelitis but dracunculiasis
(guineaworm disease), another preventable cause of permanent disease, has
not received the same attention. 

Kazoo

   (See quot. 1938.) Now also made of plastic or metal and played as a jazz
instrument.
   1884 in Lisbon (Dak.) Star 31 Oct., A kazoo is an instrument invented to
give pleasure and satisfaction to the small boy.  1895 Montgomery Ward
Catal. 245/3 Kazoos, the great musical wonder,+anyone can play it; imitates
fowls, animals, bagpipes, etc.  1926 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 24 Jan.
9/3 There will be an abundance of paper hats, balloons, kazoos and other
novelties.  1926 Whiteman & McBride Jazz ix. 201 Did you ever see a kazoo?
Of course you must have-a small worthless-looking piece of tin. A kazoo
stuck into a mute will give a buzzy sound that comes handy in certain
pieces.  1927 Bulletin 24 Aug., A new musical atrocity is reported to be
coming to Scotland. It is the Gazoo. This instrument of ear-torture is
simply an adaptation of the primitive 'comb and tissue paper'.  1938 Oxf.
Compan. Mus. 583/2 Mirliton, the French name for what English children call
(or used to call) 'Tommy Talker', or 'kazoo'. It is a tube with a membrane
at each end and two holes in the side, near the two ends, into one of which
holes one sings in one's natural voice, the tone issuing in a caricatural
fashion.  1938 'R. Hyde' Nor Years Condemn x. 195 The Maoris could make the
dish-like gazookas of tin and wire sound like guitars.  1940 Amer. Speech
XV. 125 George Gershwin's+'Blue Monday' has+Kazoo Mutes (to cornets).  1956
J. Latimer Sinners & Shrouds ix. 83 'A neglected instrument, the kazoo,' he
was saying. 'A cock's challenge in Red McKenzie's hands, raucous and lewd, a
braggart, a bully, a flap-wing lover.'  1956 M. Stearns Story of Jazz (1957)
xv. 171 Jack Bland, Dick Sliven, and Red McKenzie played a banjo, a comb
wrapped in tissue paper, and a kazoo (a toy horn with tissue paper that
vibrates with humming).  1959 Manch. Guardian 26 Aug. 5/2 There is+a new
outbreak of kazooing in South Wales.+ On the history of gazooka (as it is
called in South Wales) Mr. Gwyn Thomas+is an expert.  Ibid., One hears that
there is+a new outbreak of kazooing in South Wales and Bootle.  1965 G.
Melly Owning-Up xi. 135 A kind of sub-jazz in which kazoos, tea-chest and
broom-handle basses+and empty suitcases replaced the more conventional
musical instruments.  

1966 T. Pynchon Crying of Lot 49 i. 10 The Fort Wayne Settecento Ensemble's
variorum recording of the Vivaldi Kazoo Concerto.  

1968 Blues Unlimited Nov. 8 Dewey Corley+now plays kazoo and washtub bass.
1970 Peace News 8 May 8/4, I think the time has come for us to make our own
music.+ To beat on pots and pans, blow kazoos and our combs wrapped in wax
paper.  1972 Guardian 29 May 5/5 The unusual cigar-shaped instrument, the
kazoo-a cheap toy which makes a vibrant noise when blown-can help unmusical
children to sing in tune.  1973 Ibid. 19 Feb. 8/4 A Kazoo will give out a
sort of buzzing noise.+ As one of the 120 Kazooing members of the audience I
found it fun.   

Potsy

  1. a. The object thrown in the game of the same name.  b. The name of a
children's game similar to hopscotch.
   1931 Recreation Mar. 672/2 Potsy is an adaptation of Hop Scotch, which
now rivals its progenitor in popularity. The 'potsy' is a piece of tin, a
rock or a puck.  1932 Sun (N.Y.) 26 Mar. 18/3 As any New Yorker will
recognize, the potsy refers to the piece of tin can, doubled and redoubled
and stamped flat with the heel, which is kicked from flagstone to flagstone
of the sidewalk by the hopping, juvenile player of the game potsy.  1943 B.
Smith Tree grows in Brooklyn xiii. 100 Potsy was a game that the boys
started and the girls finished. A couple of boys would put a tin can on the
car track and sit along the curb and watch with a professional eye as the
trolley wheels flattened the can.+ Numbered squares were marked off on the
sidewalk and the game was turned over to the girls who hopped on one foot
pushing the potsy from square to square.  1955 P. M. Evans Hopscotch 5 Then
you feel around and pick up your potsie without opening your eyes.  1956 S.
Bellow Seize the Day iii. 61, I sat down for a while in a playground+to
watch the kids play potsy and skiprope.  

1963 T. Pynchon V. v. 117 'What are you guys doing,' Profane said, 'playing
potsy?'  

As far as I can see it only goes up to GR, can't see anything from VL, M&D
or obviously ATD. But then I think the CD version lags a little way behind
the printed one. 

Let me know if you want more... There are loads!

Nick

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
Of Ya Sam
Sent: 12 June 2007 15:10
To: nick.halliwell at btclick.com; pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: RE: Pynchon in SOED

Yes, the CD has its advantages. Maybe I'll get that  someday too. Could you 
give some examples of Pynchon's sentences serving as illustrations for 
certain words?

>
>The full OED on CD-ROM does allow you to do a search by author of
>quotations. I found 32 entries for "T. Pynchon" (and also one for "J.
>Pynchon"). If anyone is interested I can provide a list...
>
>Nick
>

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