Word: dicksons
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...Paul Dickson...
...Paul Dickson knows all those things because he collects words with what he calls "a zeal that borders on the compulsive." Does this mean yet another Safiresque sermon on proper usage and the maintenance of grammatical traditions? No, Dickson has no ideological purpose. He is the amiable spieler who wrote such frivolities as The Great American Ice Cream Book and The Mature Person's Guide to Kites, Yo-Yos, Frisbees . . . As for words, he nuzzles them all with puppyish enthusiasm...
...novelty lies in the organization. Dickson provides perfectly sensible categories like Outdoors Words, in which we learn that a schizocarp is a seed pod that breaks into two or more pieces, or Alimentary Words, in which we learn that funistrada is an imaginary food invented by the U.S. armed services to use as a control in polls asking soldiers which foods they like (funistrada came out higher than eggplant or cranberry juice...
...Dickson's categories become increasingly funistradian. The section Punk, for example, lists 43 definitions of that word, and then goes on to define punkah, punkateero and punkatunk. Sexy Words includes cataglottism, ecdemolagnia, parnel, renifleur and stasivalence (don't ask). Under Curses, Dickson offers such arcana as feague, which a 1785 dictionary defined as "to put ginger up a horse's fundament, to make him lively and carry his tail well...
Sands and Beren were not as fortunate in singles play Paired against Clemson's Mark Dickson and Jean Degdunes, both among the top 20 college players in the nation, the Crimson due could manage only one set between them. In their defense, both Sands, and Beren were coming off of bouts with the flu, which forced them to miss valuable practice time last week...