XPost: alt.usage.english, alt.books.cs-lewis   
   From: nyelvmark@yahoo.com   
      
   Dan Drake wrote:   
   > On Mon, 13 Aug 2007 00:46:28 UTC, Mark Barratt     
   > wrote:   
   >    
   >> Mike Lyle wrote:   
   >>> Steve Hayes wrote:   
   > ...   
   >>> ... OED gives "hare-" as standard, but says "The   
   >>> spelling /hair-brain/, suggesting another origin for the compound, is   
   >>> later, though occasional before 1600."   
   >>>   
   >>> I've often seen hares being apparently hare-brained, and am quite   
   >>> confident that their behaviour is the origin.   
   >> Which merely says that you prefer etymological theories which agree    
   >> with what unresearched logic would say, to those which have been    
   >> researched.   
   >    
   > Ummm, is there supposed to be some logic behind this statement?   
      
   Well, I was fairly inebriated when I wrote it, but let's see, shall we?   
      
     Steve   
   > explicitly says (and I just looked at the online version to confirm) that    
   > the OED's version of the etymology is from "hare", the lagomorph, not    
   > "hair", the follicular outgrowth. "Hair-" is *later*, get it?   
      
   Well actually it was Mike Lyle who provided the OED material. I have    
   no argument with what Steve Hayes wrote. You should read more carefully.   
      
   My argument with Mike was/is that the OED is inconclusive on this,    
   and that his "I am quite confident" is therefore based on intuition.   
      
   > (Historically, as you might expect, "hare" may be spelled any old way,   
   > including haari and hair. One has to look at context to see which is    
   > meant. The OED's looking at spelling yield the results given here.)    
   >    
   > I take it, then, that the OED is your idea of unresearched logic, while    
   > those which have been researched are -- what?   
      
   As I said already, you should read more carefully. You should also    
   be aware that any information source may be erroneous, and that    
   there is no such thing as an authoritative source of information.   
      
   Except me, of course.   
      
   --    
   Mark Barratt   
   Angoltanár budapesten   
   http://www.geocities.com/nyelvmark   
      
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