An Open Query For Linguist Types
It's Halloween again, and a thought just struck me: why isn't "spooktacular" an official dictionary word? It appears in edited prose, it's certainly in widespread use, and could be clued as something like "n. a wild party with a haunted-house or horror theme, esp. one given around Halloween. Jocose." (And of course there's the even more common adjective form.) I'm not saying it's exceedingly common, but I'd at least expect to see it in an unabridged lexicon somewhere.
I guess I'm just asking because I want to know how long the damn word's been in the language. My guess is that it dates to early postwar commercial culture--1946 or so. But unless it shows up in Merriam-Webster with a date next to it, how will I ever know?
I guess I'm just asking because I want to know how long the damn word's been in the language. My guess is that it dates to early postwar commercial culture--1946 or so. But unless it shows up in Merriam-Webster with a date next to it, how will I ever know?
Labels: words
posted by Cowboy Dave Dickerson | 8:35 AM
1 Comments:
I believe the first use was in the Norse classic, Beowulf.
Chapter XI, Grendel's first attack upon the hall:
"...All hastily, then,
o'er fair-paved floor the fiend trod on,
ireful he strode; there streamed from his eyes
spooktacular flashes, like flame to see..."
Shakespeare popularized the term in Hamlet, during the exchange between Horatio and Bernardo in Act I:
"Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy,
And will not let belief take hold of him
Touching this spooktacular sight, twice seen of us:
Therefore I have entreated him along
With us to watch the minutes of this night;
That if again this apparition come,
He may approve our eyes and speak to it."
And who could forget the inimitable Poe, who wrote the following in "The Telltale Heart":
"Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! --tear up the planks! here, here! --It is the beating of his spooktacular heart!"
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