toponyms
Jean-Joseph Cote
jjcote at juno.com
Thu Nov 11 00:30:21 EST 1999
>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
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