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Eric: Perhaps my favorite correction of all time.
I have been told in the mail which is electronic that in fact "shunpiking" is in the dictionary.
I have confirmed this fact.
My thanks to those who e-mailed. I'm curiously delighted by this turn of events -- it's somewhat like discovering that Bigfoot has been in the Bronx Zoo since 1977 and they just have a bad publicity department.
Posted by Eric Burns at January 26, 2007 9:18 AM
Comments
Comment from: iconoclast ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.websnark.com/nav-commenters.gif)
posted at January 26, 2007 11:13 AM
"My thanks to those who e-mailed. I'm curiously delighted by this turn of events -- it's somewhat like discovering that Bigfoot has been in the Bronx Zoo since 1977 and they just have a bad publicity department."
...you didn't know?
;)
Comment from: Kate Sith posted at January 26, 2007 11:41 AM
For some reason I keep thinking that word is yiddish or something. I have no idea why. I know it isn't, but it reads like it should be.
Comment from: Dave Van Domelen posted at January 26, 2007 12:08 PM
Yeah, if you initially see it as "shun-PIK-ing" it sounds kinda weird. "SHUN-pike-ing" makes it more obvious what it's supposed to mean.
Comment from: miyaa posted at January 26, 2007 12:31 PM
Shunpiking: Americanism, circa 1850-1855. (According to Dictionary.com). It looks like it's close to the word schlepping, which is a Yiddish (with Low -German and Indo-Euroasian roots) phrase meaning to carry clumsily or to move slowly. Or as a noun: an idiot.
Shunpiking throughout the Greater Boston area was the only way Eric and Wednesday could find a jeweler who didn't treat them like a schlep.
Comment from: Plaid Phantom posted at January 26, 2007 5:43 PM
THAT is most totally awesome.
Comment from: Wistful Dreamer posted at January 27, 2007 12:31 AM
Eh, knowing what some of the maintenance workers at zoos look like, people probably just keep passing the bigfoot exhibit and thinking, "huh, I wonder what they're going to put in there once they're done renovating?"
Comment from: SpotWeld posted at January 29, 2007 12:06 AM
It ight be worth nothing that there is a Shunpike Rd near me over here in CT.
Comment from: Dave Van Domelen posted at January 29, 2007 7:29 PM
I was reading one of the essays in Grantville Gazette X today, and it mentioned how the invention of turnpikes led to the invention of shunpiking. :) Yay, synchronicity!
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