[lit-ideas] "Hack"
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 7 Nov 2004 14:07:39 EST
In a message dated 11/7/2004 1:36:06 PM Eastern Standard Time,
ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
Geary's a hack. Riding through his past, he cuts all away and comes to,
> "I'm him now." We can but follow.
>
Where is JLS? I try to develop a hybrid new meaning for "hack"--one who
pares phrases down to their simplest form, also one who rides through the
past like a child on a pony--and he says nothing? No doubt he's in touch
with the OED, reporting this twist.
------
Some bits from the OED below. Grice used to say he was a 'hack', in 'Reply
to Richards'. 'Hack' is a bit of a homonym. The _use_ we are interested is this
one deriving from 'hackney', only?
Wonder if there is a novel titled "Hack", or "Hacks". There should.
Cheers,
JL
---
'hack'. an abbreviation of HACKNEY, in its various senses, at first in slang
use, and mostly familiar or contemptuous. The various senses are connected
with those of HACKNEY more closely than with each other.
A person whose services may be hired for any kind of work required of him; a
common drudge, = HACKNEY 3; esp. a literary drudge, who hires himself out
to do any and every kind of literary work; hence, a poor writer, a mere
scribbler.
1700 [see etym. above].
1774 GOLDSM. Epit. on E. Purdon,
Here lies poor Ned Purdon..Who long was a bookseller's hack.
1798 WOLCOTT (P. Pindar) Tales of Hoy Wks. 1812 IV. 424
The paper to which he was a hack.
1831 MACAULAY Ess., Croker's Boswell (1887) 187
The last survivor of the genuine race of Grub Street hacks.
1865 TROLLOPE Belton Est. ii. 22 A hard-working clerical hack.
1895 Times 23 Nov. 11/3 The hacks and wire-pullers on his own side in
politics.
b. slang. A prostitute; a bawd.
1730-6 [see etym. above].
1864 WEBSTER, Hack..a procuress.
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