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OK.... ok...... I feel a strong sense of obligation to enlighten the members of the PD list by sharing the following information with all interested parties. It absolutely pains me to see so many of you sitting there in your ignorance and GUESSING when I'm able, thanks to the benevolent graces of my ever encompasing (as in "he'll soon own the WORLD," thank-you-very-much) employer, Bill Gates - who gave me (and the rest of my fellow Microsoft staff members, I presume) this nifty computerized dictionary-encyclopedia-thesaurus-whatever, from which I've obtained the information which I now impart to YOU: READ ON, OR ELSE!! <giggle> Barb Mallut, [log in to unmask] -------------------- Hoo·sier (h¡¹zher) noun Used as a nickname for a native or resident of Indiana. [Origin unknown.] Word History: As the fame of Indiana basketball grows ever greater, perhaps a larger number of people have become curious about the origins of the word Hoosier, the nickname for a native or resident of Indiana. As more than one of the curious has discovered, the origins are rather opaque. The most likely possibility is that Hoosier is an alteration of hoozer, an English dialect word recorded in Cumberland, a former county of northwest England, in the late 19th century and used to refer to anything unusually large. The transition between hoozer and Hoosier is not clear. The first recorded instance of Hoosier meaning “Indiana resident” is dated 1826; however, it seems possible that senses of the word recorded later in the Dictionary of Americanisms, including “a big, burly, uncouth specimen or individual; a frontiersman, countryman, rustic,” reflect the kind of use this word had before it settled down in Indiana. ----------------------------- ---------- From: PARKINSN: Parkinson's Disease - Information Exchange Network on behalf of [log in to unmask] Sent: Thursday, December 12, 1996 12:18 PM To: Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN Subject: The DESIDERATA of HAPPINESS In case any of the Hoosiers on the List fail to claim the recognition due to one of the States sons, the poem was written in 1927 by Max Ehrmann born in Terre Haute Indiana, and who died in 1945. For some reason that I fail to understand, it is one of the most widely mis-attributed piece of literature that I know. Ehrman's collected works were still in print a few years ago, and published in the UK by Souvenir Press ISBN 0-285-62724-4. Incidently, Helen disagrees with all of derivations of Hoosier given to date on the list, and believes that the word is of Dutch origin as the Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology gives the dervivation of "Hose article of clothing for the leg" (Du. hoos stocking). Were there any Dutch stocking makers in Indianna?. With best wishes to you all for a Happy Christmas and a better New Year from Ray Lakin ([log in to unmask] - new address)