Klarinet Archive - Posting 000840.txt from 1998/06

From: Roger Shilcock <roger.shilcock@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] Some etymological observations on crap
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 08:01:54 -0400

As far as I know, the valve used in the U.S. is the product of the Stone
Valve Co., who have in effect a lucrative monopoly of this device, Its use
is apparently illegal in England, possibly because it requires a
consistently high pressure behind it, which many domestic systems over
here can't achieve.
More c--p from
Roger Shilcock

On Mon, 22 Jun 1998, Lee Hickling wrote:

> Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 12:52:00
> From: Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.Net>
> Reply-To: klarinet@-----.org
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: [kl] Some etymological observations on crap
>
> Ed Maurey wrote:
>
> >Sir Thomas Crapper was a brilliant 19th Century hydraulic engineer who
> >invented the flushing toilet! Countless toilets were marked with his
> >company name. The resulting development of the word "crap" was
> >inevitable.
>
> I had always heard that Crapper was a master plumber, but of course, he
> could also have been a brilliant hydraulic engineer. Anyway, his invention
> -- examples of which were still in service here and there in England when
> last I was there - involved a tank mounted high on the wall, with a chain
> hanging down to release the water. The modern chain-and-ball-float
> mechanism and the various improvements on it, such as the flapper valve,
> were not, I believe, Crapper's inventions.
>
> "The crapper" quickly became a slightly impolite word for what nice Brits
> called the water closet or WC. By the linguistic process called
> back-formation, it became a verb, to crap, and soon after, or perhaps
> almost at the same time, the noun appeared in slang. The word crap, with a
> variety of non-related meanings, is recorded from the late 18th century,
> and the dice game craps has nothing to do with Crapper. It antedated his
> invention by a century or more.
>
> It would be interesting to know when and how our word traveled across the
> Atlantic to the US and Canada. My microprint 1979 edition of the Oxford
> English Dictionary, with Victorian delicacy, takes no notice of crap and
> crapper in the sense under discussion. The 1987 supplement, somewhat less
> prudish. does, but makes no mention of Sir Thomas. The word is recorded in
> England from the 1890s on. One supposes it was common in slang well before
> that, but not written down. The first American citations are from the
> 1920s. Did men of the AEF bring it home after World War I?
>
> This concludes my lecture. If there are no questions, there will be a short
> quiz, after which we will return to the topic of clarinets and music.
>
>
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