XPost: alt.usage.english, alt.english.usage   
   From: vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid   
      
   Le 27/08/2025 à 03:11, Peter Moylan a écrit :   
   > On 26/08/25 14:42, Steve Hayes wrote:   
   >>   
   >> It seems to have been quite common for 19th-century newspapers to   
   >> speak of "interesting children" or "an interesting child", but I   
   >> wonder what it meant?   
   >   
   > I have always had the impression that "interesting children" were   
   > disabled in some way, but I can't find any evidence of that.   
   >   
   > The meaning must have been clear to 19th-century readers. It's strange   
   > that the meaning, whatever it was, doesn't seem to have been documented   
   > anywhere. Clearly the meaning was so obvious that nobody felt any need   
   > to explain it.   
      
   Perhaps the word was simply being used in its usual sense. If the   
   expression 'interesting child' was popular, perhaps it was just a meme,   
   like 'put a period to his existence'¹ or (now) 'OMG!'   
      
      
      
      
   ¹I came across an example of this yesterday, in 'Crome Yellow' (1921),   
   which I'm rereading: "To Napoleon, cause already of such infinite   
   mischief, was due, though perhaps indirectly, the untimely and violent   
   death which put a period to this [Sir Ferdinando's] reformed existence."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)