Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2002 19:20:34 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: james m williams Subject: Re: Jizz? Oxford English & Webster's Unabridged Dictionaries Content-Type: text/plain; charset=WINDOWS-1252; format=flowed Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v546) Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable I was curious what the 'authorities' had to say about the word 'jizz',=20= so I went to my 'local library' (which is where I work) & looked it up: OED: jizz, noun (etymology unknown) [Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Ed.] The characteristic impression given by an animal or plant. guise [external appearance, aspect, semblance] is coincident in sense=20= but the phonetic relationship remains unexplained and the two words may=20= therefore be unrelated. 1922 T. A. COWARD Bird Haunts & Nature Memories 141 A West Coast=20 Irishman was familiar with the wild creatures which dwelt on or visited=20= his rocks and shores; at a glance he could name them, usually=20 correctly, but if asked how he knew them would reply =91By their = =93jizz=94.=92=20 What is jizz?..We have not coined it, but how wide its use in Ireland=20 is we cannot say... Jizz may be applied to or possessed by any animate=20= and some inanimate objects, yet we cannot clearly define it. A single=20 character may supply it, or it may be the combination of many. Ibid.=20 143 Jizz, of course, is not confined to birds. The small mammal and the=20= plant alike have jizz. 1950 Brit. Birds XLIII. 29 Miss Quick obviously=20= looks at her birds more than once and does so with an artist's eye for=20= those peculiarities of shape, outline and stance which give a species=20 its =91jizz=92. 1960 Times 14 June 14/7 The boy could name any bat at a=20= glance..(an indefinable accomplishment which the late T. A.=20 Coward..once described as =91jizz=92 when speaking of bird = identification).=20 1966 D. MCCLINTOCK Compan. Flowers ix. 117, I know only too well the=20 problem of trying to express what there is in a plant that enables me,=20= or you, to tell it from another at sight. The word I use for these=20 intangible characteristics, that defy being put into words, is jizz. WEBSTERS: jizz - does not appear in either the 2nd or 3rd Ed. of Webster's=20 Unabridged Dictionary. jim williams princeton nj =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D =========================================================================