[lit-ideas] Re: Word Origin Question

What? David Ritchie, famed collector of reference materials and
encyclopedias doesn't have an OED???  I have difficulty believing that.  I
myself have a rather difficult to use OED.  It's not at all suitable for a
weak-eyed fellow like myself but it is an OED; so I'll have to give myself
an extra point in our competition.  It is the complete OED minus updates,
printed in 1971 in two volumes complete with a magnifying glass so you can
read them.  I think I bought it at about the time it came out.  I'm in no
position to type one handed while holding my magnifying glass in the other,
but I did look up "fence" and this word pertains to defense; so fencing in
the sense of competing with foils would involve "standing at fence" or
preparing to defend one's self.  The fence you have around your yard can be
said to defend your property.  A fenced city would be considered to have a
wall running around it.

How does JL print out OED items definitions and references so rapidly?  I've
always admired that.

Lawrence

-----Original Message-----
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of David Ritchie
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 10:25 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Word Origin Question

Here's a question for someone will good access to a complete OED,  
something I don't have at present: why, or perhaps more accurately,  
how was it that the word in English for the thing that surrounds a  
field, yard or garden and the genteel play of swords both came to be  
called "fencing"?  Do they have things in common or is this a  
coincidence?

David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon
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