words words and more words need help!

[mickeym]

Copied with permission from zortified:

OK, this is serious. We have one dictionary that lists "to speak or sing in a husky manner" as a definition for "husked." And we have another dictionary that does NOT so list.

So we need to check more dictionaries. We need paper dictionaries, not online (because, dur we can check those already.) I would love it if someone could check the O.E.D for us as well!

Listing as Definition
Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, copyright 1994, lists this definition.
Webster's Third New International Unabridged

Not Listing as Definition
Webster's II New Riverside University Dictionary, copyright 1994 does NOT list this as a definition.
The Oxford Concise Australian Dictionary
O.E.D
The American Heritage Dictionary, 3rd Ed.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary, Tenth Edition
Macquarie Australian dictionary
Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (1983)

Please help this poor one-dictionaried word-geek and add to this list so we can determine whether or not "husked" can be used to describe the way a person says something. Bonus points if you come back from looking it up and admit you spent a few minutes reading the dictionary. ;-)

(If you need/want the backstory to how this came about, it's here.)

Comments

[zortified.livejournal.com]

I had a couple from my DW post as well - including someone saying the OED *does* list it! SO I've asked for edition numbers to clarify. ;-)

[starweather.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I haven't cracked open a dictionary in so long.

WELL. The Macquarie doesn't list it: it just says:

Husk
1. dry external covering
2. enveloping or outer part of anything
3. to remove the husk from

under THAT, though, is husky the adjective.

ETA: the Australian pocket Oxford doesn't list it as a verb, either.

[mickeym.livejournal.com]

Ta muchly, love :)

I love geeking out about words *g* It kind of makes my day :)

[nopseud]

Feh. They're words, words change their meaning. Embrace the husking, I say!

According to my edition of the OED, 'slash' has nothing to do with fanfic, either. I'd better not catch you using it like that, missy! ;-)

[mickeym.livejournal.com]

I'll embrace SOMETHING. *g*

ME? USE SLASH IN ANY WAY IT'S NOT MEANT TO BE USED?! PERISH THE THOUGHT! :P

*sniggles*

[fpvs.livejournal.com]

*rolls eyes*

Through uni, I have access to the Online Oxford English Dictionary. I'm pretty sure it's the full thing. My Granny has the Shorter edition, but I don't live with her any more. It's about 5 years old. I shall check it when I visit her sometime in the next week.

The bare listing is:

1. Furnished or covered with a husk. Obs.

b. Having husks (to feed on). Obs.
(Referring to the parable of the prodigal son, Luke xv.)

2. Stripped of the husk; hulled.

Though by default I always go through the Quotations (uses throughout history). Which often has different forms of the word. There's about 20 listings of "Husk", so I shall get back to you/edit this entry when I've gone through them checking for you.

I also have access to a few other dictionaries via uni (this is just the one I keep in my personal bookmarks). If you'd like, I could check them too.

***
That didn't take long.
From SECOND EDITION 1989:

husk, v.²

2. intr. Of the voice: to be or to become husky.
1922 H. TITUS Timber xxix. 254 Her voice husked for the first time.

[mickeym.livejournal.com]

Stop rolling your eyes *g* Word geeks unite, man. *g* (Seriously--it's more of a "okay, where/who/how/when/what" than anything else.) And thank you for playing! :)

[fpvs.livejournal.com]

I think I'm more of the opinion of someone else above - that English is a living language. You only have to look and compare the vocabulary of the English vs Americans vs Australians to see this. What people say, how they say it. Even the pronunciation is open to debate. My understanding is that they decided how words were to be pronounced by looking to the upper class English (when they were writing the first English Dictionary). And they made the decision that the way the riff-raff spoke just didn't make the cut! lol Well, it was those upper-class folk writing the thing, so it hardly surprises, does it?

But, yes. I admit these sort of debates amuse me, more than engage me, but I do tend to follow them with interest. :)

[pensnest]

My Shorter Oxford does not list 'husk' as a verb that means anything other than de-husking husked things, or cattle coughing. But it is the third edition (1973).

Personally I'd be inclined to allow 'husked' in the 'said huskily' context, once in a while.

[rivers-bend.livejournal.com]

I have the Webster's Collegiate Dictionary 1936, which lists husk as a verb only in the pulling husks off corn sense, but husking as a noun, which is a gathering of neighbors or friends for husking "Indian corn," and hussy (totally unrelated to your search but interesting to me) has as the "now dialect" definition: a small case for needles, thread, etc; a housewife.

I also have Webster's New World Dictionary 1978, which does not have the speaking word for husk, and insists that a gathering of friends to remove said husks is a "husking bee". It also does not list housewife as a definition of hussy, but lists that as the origin of the word. (interesting given the other definitions are a woman of low morals and a bold saucy girl, which I would think are the opposite of what men society proscribed housewives to be)

I also have the Scott Foresman Beginning Dictionary 1976, which doesn't list husk as a verb in the voice sense, but also does not list the word hussy at all.

then, just out of interest I looked at urbandictionary.com, where husked means to take off a girls underwear for the purposes of having sex.

[glendaglamazon.livejournal.com]

Totally hijacking this thread, sorry!

(interesting given the other definitions are a woman of low morals and a bold saucy girl, which I would think are the opposite of what men society proscribed housewives to be)

I think the sense that the dictionary is using "housewife" is that the "small case for needles, thread, etc" is called a housewife (http://www.google.com/search?q=housewife+%22sewing+kit%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a). At least, I have heard small sewing kits called housewifes (is housewives proper in this case? Ah, the slippery slope of usage! *g*) before. Not saying it's not sexist, just maybe not in the same way--or as negatively--as you're thinking?

(Please forgive me if your understanding of this usage is blatant and I'm missing something.)

Also, very interesting origin of the word "hussy"! I wonder how that came around to its current meaning? That usage brings up lots of google hits (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=LlG&q=hussy+%22sewing+kit%22&aq=f&aql=&aqi=&oq=) though.

[rivers-bend.livejournal.com]

okay, so I have looked further, as the dictionary said it came from the middle english, and it seems that huswife, prior to its current definition of actual wife who is in the house, was a female housekeeper. Which makes much more sense that that would devolve into the more insulting definitions. Because god forbid that a woman who does your dirty work for you gets treated with respect. It also makes sense that a word for someone who looks after your house and your things (but doesn't share your bed) would become a word for a mending kit.

OMG I LOVE LANGUAGE SO MUCH. The evolution of words is a wonderful thing :D *gets a happy*

[epeeblade]

Drat, someone got to the OED before I could;)

[glendaglamazon.livejournal.com]

I don't have any paper dictionaries handy, but, in my professional editorial opinion, I might query an author as to a better choice (as this word sounds wrong and romance-novelly), but since I understand its meaning, I wouldn't insist on a change.

As some above have said, English is an evolving language with a haphazard rule set, and, so long as something is clearly understandable, it's fine--especially in fiction.

[rainbow.livejournal.com]

Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, 1989, Palmer House, lists it (or rather as a def for "husk", not "husked")

Everything I've check that's ~1920 or earlier doesn't list it; I can't find my dictionaries from the 50s and 70s.

The earlier definitions of "husky" tend toward dry and unpleasant rather than sexy; I'm curious when that changed,t oo.

[fufaraw]

But all my dictionaries are still in boxes!

...I used 'islanded' as a verb once. And my poetry coach was *thrilled*.