Fwd: "brain sucker, n." - Word of the Day from the OED

[Dave Monroe]

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Subject: "brain sucker, n." - Word of the Day from the OED
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Your word for today is: brain sucker, n.

brain sucker, n.
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈbreɪn ˌsʌkə/,  U.S. /ˈbreɪn ˌsəkər/
Etymology: <  brain n. + sucker n.
 1.  A person who takes credit for or benefits undeservedly from the
intellectual labour of others; a plagiarist, a parasite.
1781  D. Turner Short Hist. Westm. Forum II. 71 Ask those
brain-suckers, the Booksellers.
1810  Scott Let. in  S. Smiles Publisher & Friends (1891) I. viii. 190
Cromek is a perfect brain-sucker, living upon the labours of others.
1884 Penny Illustr. Paper 20 Dec. 410/1 ‘Stage Pirates’—i.e., the
brain-suckers who have the vampire-like habit of turning novels into
plays without the authority of the authors.
1922 San Francisco Chron. 13 Aug. 2e/1 The lie, springing from jealous
minds, that Edison is ‘a brain-sucker’, i.e., that he sucks the brains
of other men and gets the credit of the result.
1995 Australian (Nexis) 16 May, People who argue they should be able
to get it all for free are parasites and brain-suckers with no real
respect for the work or artists they claim to love.
 2.  A person who or thing which feeds on brain matter; (hence)
something regarded as harmful to the intellect.
1907  P. Fountain Rambles Austral. Naturalist Index 338 Native cat,‥a
blood and brain sucker.
1948  T. F. McIlwraith Bella Coola Indians II. v. 486 The brain
sucker.‥ She inserted her mouth into its ear, sucked out its brains,
and thus killed the little one.
1985 Los Angeles Times 4 Nov. i. 13/3 There is nothing to do in
segregated confinement but stare at the brain sucker [television] and
listen to the planes fly overhead.
2002 Capital Times(Madison, Wisconsin) (Nexis) 17 Sept. 1d, The media,
especially television, is a great brain sucker.
2003 Daily News(Halifax, Nova Scotia) (Nexis) 9 Oct. h14 A small group
of humans in the Arctic wreak more havoc on each other out of fear
than the brain sucker inside some of them could possibly hope to do on
its own.

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