Subject: toponyms

From: Jean-Joseph Cote <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 00:30:21 -0500

>gosport, n. -- a flexible speaking tube for communication between
>	    separate cockpits of an airplane.
>
>and when the dust settled and we all regained our composure,
>he explained:
>
>	"Gosport" was carefully chosen for its implausible meaning,
>	opaque etymology (from Gosport, England), and dense lexical
>	neighborhood (gosling, GOSPLAN, sport, Go, port, etc.).

It was Elliott.  And it was a curious thing.  Although it was really
named for Gosport, England, it looked like it was a "gooseneck port", and
thus a surprising number of people voted for the right definition for the
wrong reason.

So I can't imagine that a cyclone turning once every 1500 years, located
far beneath the earth's surface, could be decribed as "destructive".  I
like it, though!

Jean-Joseph