Re: [Harp-L] Airtightedness

[David Payne <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The GIs in World War II were word-making machines, they probably came up with as many words as Shakespeare did. Snafu was one of their words. It was an acronym for the following words: situation normal all  up." I will leave the letter F to imagination. I remember one time at the daily newspaper I used to write for, the copydesk had in big type across the front, something "Snafu," 
I said, for God's sake, don't you know what that stands for?" it didn't make the paper, but had I not been there it would have ran that way. To them, it's meaning had changed, they didnt know the origin, so that it was an acceptable word to them. That's how language changes. The word "right" used to be pronounced "rig-hut," that's why it's spelled like that.
Back to harmonicas. There are several harmonica words the Germans have that we don't have expressions for. One is for those little tubes that the screws on chromatic mouthpieces go into, that keeps the slide from striking the screw directly. We Englishters are still making up our own word for it, people call them lots of things, someday we will all agree on a word, then the language will have a new word. 
The German word for those "bumpers" as I call them is "Pufferhulse," which literally means a shock absorbing outer covering. 
We could just all agree on a word for it now, use that word and it will become a word. Machinists, is there some applicable word for Pufferhulse? (in the same way Howard Levy adopted "overblow from trombonists


David
www.elkriverharmonicas.com

Sent from my iPhone

On May 28, 2012, at 14:56, David Payne <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Lots of words get started that way, people just start saying them. In fact, just about every word commonly used started that way and if people didn't pick new words, we and the Germans would still be speaking the same language like we used to. 
> "Airtightedness" probably won't be the most long-lasting of words, because "airtightness" is a fine substitute. I've always been interested in word origins... "reeds" in an interesting one, because the German word for it, "Zungen" literally means "tongues" and we don't go around saying "I keep blowing out five draw tongues." 
> 
> David
>  
> David Payne
> www.elkriverharmonicas.com
> 
> 
> Elk River Harmonicas Forum now available via Iphone app, www.elkriverharmonicas.com/forum