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Jewish World Review July 19, 2004 / 1 Menachem-Av, 5764

Editors of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate
Dictionary, Tenth Edition

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'Sourdough wit'; 'headshrinkers'; 'seventh heaven'


http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | Dear Editor:

I was in Alaska recently, and I saw the word "sourdough" used in phrases such as "sourdough wit," "sourdough attitude" and "sourdough spunk." I never got an explanation of what "sourdough" means when it is used this way. Can you help?

— F.M., West Hartford, Conn.

Dear F.M.: According to one version of a popular folk etymology, an Alaskan "sourdough" is someone who is sour on Alaska but doesn't have the dough to go somewhere else.

The truth is more prosaic. "Sourdough" came to denote a veteran inhabitant and especially an old-time prospector of Alaska or northwestern Canada many years ago. During the Yukon gold rush of the late 19th century, sourdough bread was a staple in the prospectors' camps, and the prospectors themselves became known as sourdoughs. Eventually, anyone who had spent a significant amount of time in Alaska or northwestern Canada could be called a sourdough.

The examples of "sourdough" you described are attributive uses, where the noun is used like an adjective to modify another noun. Longtime Alaskan residents naturally tend to feel that sourdoughs have certain qualities, such as wit and spunk, that are lacking in "cheechakos," that is, in newcomers to Alaska or the Yukon. ("Cheechako" is a word in Chinook Jargon that literally means "newcomer.")

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You can find out more about sourdoughs and cheechakos in the works of Jack London and Robert W. Service.

Dear Editor: Why are psychiatrists called "headshrinkers"?

— P.P., Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

Dear P.P.:

"Headshrinker" as a slang term for "psychiatrist" appears to have originated as Hollywood jargon in the 1940s.

Various theories have arisen as to just what the original, unknown user had in mind. Here are a few: The word is meant to suggest "shrinking or deflating delusions of grandeur" or shrinking or lessening problems in a patient's "worry-bloated" head; the word is a reflection of "considerable unconscious hostility" toward mental health professionals; the word, like the similarly used "witch doctor," simply implies that a psychiatrist is a practitioner with powers beyond our understanding.

A more gruesome theory is that the originator was thinking of the way psychiatrists figuratively, like headshrinkers literally, get "inside" one's head. (Without going into too many gory details, we can tell you that headshrinking does involve some cutting into the skull.)

That "headshrinker" acquired this new, slang sense back in the mid-40s isn't so surprising when you realize that headshrinking, as practiced by the Jivaro people of the Amazon, was something that was in the news at the time. A 1945 anthropological text expressed concern that "shrunken heads made by the Jivaro Indians have received undue publicity in the United States."

Not surprisingly, this minor obsession spawned movies. The 1939 film "Five Came Back" (remade in 1956 as "Back From Eternity") concerned a plane crash in the Amazon, with some of the victims falling ultimately into the hands of headshrinkers. "Jivaro" in 1954 featured Fernando Lamas and Rhonda Fleming as treasure-hunters risking death in the Amazon.

It was during the mid-50s that the term gained prominence - at first more so on the West Coast than the East. The Jivaro gave up headshrinking some decades ago, so there hasn't been much concern about literal headshrinkers for quite some time. That may be part of the reason why "headshrinker" was being casually shortened to "shrink" by the 1960s. "Shrink" is now much more common than "headshrinker," being applied, rather routinely, to psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, psychologists and psychotherapists.

Dear Editor:

Please explain the origin of the expression "seventh heaven." What does it mean? Does it come from the cabala?

— M.M.D., Huntsville, Ala.

Dear M.M.D.:

The expression "seventh heaven" is defined in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary as "a state of extreme joy." As you correctly guessed, the concept of the seven heavens has its origins in the medieval Jewish cabala, and it figures prominently in Islamic mysticism as well.

Although there are several different representations of the seven heavens, most depict the heavens as being concentric celestial spheres enveloping the Earth. The final level, that is, the seventh heaven, is the most exalted of all: the abode of God himself and final destination of souls on their ascent toward perfect purity. It is from this mystical concept of perfect bliss that we get our secular (and somewhat more banal) notion of "seventh heaven" as being a state of heightened delight.


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Up

07/08/04: 'The proof is in the pudding'; 'Pyrrhic victory'
07/01/04: Origin of 'vitamin'; 'binnacle list'
06/25/04: 'Abnegate' and 'abdicate'; 'feet of clay'; 'difugalty'
06/17/04: 'Whinge'; 'whole cloth'
06/10/04: 'The devil to pay'; 'crack', as in 'a crack marksman'; 'the dog that didn't bark'
06/03/04: 'Surrounded on three sides'; sleuths
05/18/04: 'Of the first water'; horses and horseradish; more
05/06/04: 'Historic' v. 'historical'; 'prestigious' = 'trickery'?; 'can of corn' as sports phrase
04/27/04: Derivation of 'bozo'; 'elt'; 'spill the beans'
04/21/04: Meaning of "budget'' in the word "fussbudget''; "bleeding hearts''; "skycap''
04/01/04: "Thin red line''; "doak"; "level playing field"
03/22/04: "King Canute"; "vodka"; "Cheese it. The cops!''
03/16/04: "Carrot and stick''; "hue and cry''; Where did the term "flea market'' originate?
03/09/04: Going "haywire"; "close, but no cigar"; "mahatma"
03/01/04: "Roundheel'' and "well-heeled''; "milquetoast"; "sick as a dog''
02/26/04: "Charley horse"; "`Foolproof''; "cracker-barrel''
02/17/04: "Dunce''; titles "Mr.'' and "Mrs.''; "under the weather''
02/10/04: "Turnpike''; "dead reckoning''
02/02/04: "Mutt"; "lobby" in its political sense; "procrustean bed"
01/27/04: "Decimate"; "duende"; a dessert "junket"?
01/14/04: Is "MacGuffin" related to all the "Mac" and "Mc" words we've been hearing about recently?; "afghans" and "Afghans"; "since Hector was a pup"
01/09/04: Confused about the word "hearsay"; "Burgle"; "waiting in line" or "waiting on line"?
12/31/03: The past tense of "plead''; Is "old adage'' redundant?; Where did "lounge lizard'' come from?
12/15/03: "Ostracize" and "oyster''?; Where does the "mentor'' come from?; "jeopard''
12/02/03: "Karats'' and "carats'' — meaning of and difference between; why apostrophe in "'cello''?; "hell-bent for leather''
11/18/03: "Hoosegow,''; why the little finger is called the "`pinkie''; difference between "lady'' and "dame''
11/13/03: 'Take it on the lam'; 'decorum'; 'you look like the wreck of the Hesperus'
11/03/03: Origin of "hypnosis"/"hypnotism"; "all right" or "alright"; emote
10/28/03: "Blue plate special"; how to use "hoi polloi''; "Peck's Bad Boy''
10/20/03: Who was the person the artist who first used "silhouette" as an art form?; why are they called migraine headaches?; origin of "keep one's shirt on"
10/13/03: "Grey'' in "greyhound'' has nothing to do with the color?; "at loggerheads''
09/29/03: Where does the word "karaoke" comes from?; people or persons?; "synecdoche"
09/23/03: Using "eke'' correctly; fedora; why do we call an especially flattering biography a "hagiography''?
09/10/03: Why do we call a zero score in tennis "love''?; "biannual'' or "semiannual''?; Is there any difference between "further'' and "farther''?; dilemma of using "dilemma''
09/02/03: "Out loud'' rather than "aloud''; "pushing the envelope''; "without rhyme or reason''
08/25/03: "Cheesy''; "hold a candle''
08/11/03: "Halcyon days''; Why isn't "sacrilegious'' spelled "sacreligious''?; "red light'' and "green light'' as expression — which came first, the inaction or the signals?
08/04/03: "Votive'' candles; "cosmeticizing"; "potluck''
07/28/03: Why ‘debt’ has a ‘b’ in it; "south moon under''; why "Rx'' is used for prescriptions
07/21/03: "Romance" & "Rome"?; punching & clocks; "conversate"
07/14/03: "Lukewarm''; Where did we get the word "wig'' for a fake head of hair?
07/09/03: Why doesn't "Arkansas'' rhyme with "Kansas''? ; "Catawampus"; "Jimmie Higgins work"
06/30/03: "Foozle"; author who wrote an entire novel without using a certain letter of the alphabet?; "kith and kin"
06/23/03: "On the fritz"; "knuckle down''
06/17/03: How did "lazy Susan'' come to be used for the rotating tray?; woolgathering'' as synonym for "idle daydreaming''; "in harm's way''
06/09/03: "Clotheshorse"; a god named "Ammonia"?
05/29/03: With kid gloves; "receipt'' = "recipe''?; from soup to nuts

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