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Subject:Re: OED Help! (was couth/uncouth) From:"Sandy, Corinne" <CHS8 -at- CPSOD1 -dot- EM -dot- CDC -dot- GOV> Date:Tue, 27 Dec 1994 12:50:00 EST
You get what you need, not what you ask for. In my Language Master
(Merriam-Webster) it presents the etymology of uncouth as "Old English
uncuth "unknown, unfamiliar," from un- + kuth "known."
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Subject: OED Help! (was couth/uncouth)
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From: Michael LaTorra <mikel -at- HUEY -dot- ACCUGRAPH -dot- COM>
Subject: OED Help! (was couth/uncouth)
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--
Karen --
You have a point about Webster's not specifically calling
"couth" a backformation. And you're right that the dictionary
categorized "uncouth" as Middle English, not Old English
(which wasn't what I intended to claim; I wrote "old English"
as in "not contemporary" but I should have been more clear).
Does anybody on this list have access to the Oxford English
Dictionary? If so, would you please tell us what the OED says
about "couth/uncouth"? Thanks!
Documentation Supervisor
Accugraph Inc.
mikel -at- accugraph -dot- com
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The opinions expressed are my own, and not necessarily those of my
company -- but they probably should be.
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