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bong

Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2005 2:38 am
by M. Henri Day
From the AHD :
bong[sup]2[/sup] [...]
n.

A water pipe that consists of a bottle or a vertical tube partially filled with liquid and a smaller tube ending in a bowl, used often in smoking narcotic substances.

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[Thai baung.]
I was unfamiliar with any but the onomatopoetic use of this word, before reading the following in the current issueof Harpers Weekly Review (which I strongly recommend) :
... and a Vermont teenager was accused of breaking into a tomb and beheading a corpse. He apparently wanted to use the skull as a bong.
Another, for philologists certainly more encouraging notice from the Review is the following :
... Scientists used infrared technology to read lost
works by Sophocles, Euripides, and Hesiod...
Does anyone know the details ?...

Henri

Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2005 9:45 am
by anders
I suppose the quote refers to parts of the Oxyrhynchus find. Try, as ever so often, http://www.languagelog.com/ , on 050418, "A new form of the Urim and Thummim?"

Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2005 12:32 pm
by M. Henri Day
Thanks, Anders - I knew you'd come through ! But imagine if whole plays, poems, etc, are, in fact, found, instead of mere fragments ! Det vore underbart !

Henri

Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2005 12:41 pm
by Brazilian dude
There's the Swedish subjunctive for you, ladies and gentlemen!

Brazilian dude

Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2005 3:17 pm
by wquinette
Any connection between bong and billabong ?

WQ

Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2005 4:16 pm
by KatyBr
I would say no, the heat goes at the opposite end... nor linguistically either...

Katy