XPost: alt.books.cs-lewis, alt.usage.english   
   From: nyelvmark@yahoo.com   
      
   Mike Lyle wrote:   
   > Mark Barratt wrote:   
   >> Mike Lyle wrote:   
   > [...]   
   >>> Google Books very surprisingly has 852 "hare-brained" and no fewer   
   >>> than 757 "hair-brained". I'm sure the capillary version is a   
   >>> mistake, though clearly not always a typo. 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.   
   > [...]   
   >    
   > It merely says nothing of the sort.    
      
   I'm sorry, Mike, but it does. I'm not actually disagreeing with you    
   that 'hare-brained' or 'hair-brained' could have originally meant    
   'being as mad as a march hare'. It's a very plausible explanation.    
   The trouble is that the OED citations you've provided don't    
   inarguably demonstrate that. The opinions of the OED's compilers are    
   neither here nor there - the value of the work is that it provides    
   us with the material from which we may draw our own conclusions.    
   Appeal To Authority is a well-known logical fallacy.   
      
      
   It says my direct observations   
   > support my agreement with "Having or showing no more 'brains' or sense   
   > than a hare; heedless, reckless; rash, wild, mad." If you don't think   
   > that definition was adequately researched, you should make your case to   
   > the OED, from which it is a quotation.   
      
   I've only seen hares once in my life, but I'm quite prepared to    
   believe both you and Lewis Carrol about their behaviour. This does    
   not alter my view that your confidence concerning the etymology of    
   hare/hair-brained is inappropriate.   
      
   --    
   Mark Barratt   
   Angoltanár budapesten   
   http://www.geocities.com/nyelvmark   
      
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