Quick lexicographical trivia question

[tahnan]

In the OED, what do the following words have in common?

call, ohmigod, paper mache, parting (adj.), pep, so (and, in not quite the same way, "much" and "sitch")

Hint:

"Good call. I guess I'm the only new kid."
"Ohmigod [...] what happened?"
"Attached to his snout are very fake looking paper-mache boar's tusks."
"Then, without a word exchanged, the Hyena People move on through the parting crowd."
"Really, if I had the power of the black mass I'd set my sights a little higher than making the pep squad."
"We so don't have time."

Also: "Excuse much! Not rude or anything." / "Smell of booze much." and "Hey, what's the sitch?!? Wake up!"

I love the OED.

Comments

[hilariarex.livejournal.com]

All those sound like something from Buffy, either the TV series or the movie.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

In fact they are--the latter two are from the movie, the others from the TV scripts.

[aberdeen.livejournal.com]

Some of those are indeed Buffy quotes, and the others may well be Buffy script bits.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

Yup--some are "stage" directions, but they're all quotations from Buffy.

Ugh

[(Anonymous)]

"Ohmigod" is the standard spelling? That is disappointing, along two axes: (1) I have always read this as pronounced "Oh me god" even though I know better, and (2) why has this ever been spelled as one word, versus "Oh my god"?

Re: Ugh

[prog.livejournal.com]

oops, me

Re: Ugh

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

The OED cites "Migod!" to 1820; "Omigod" to 1961, "Omigawd" to 1969, "Ohmigod" to 1970. It's spelled as one word, in dialogue or simulated dialogue, to indicate that it's pronounced as one word, rapidly and with the middle vowel reduced.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Hunh. I don't think I've ever seen 'paper mache' with that spelling, with or without hyphen.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

The standard is "papier mâché", though the OED's quotations are pretty vague with their accents (many of them lacking the circumflex, quite a few having the accent over the e in the wrong direction). However, the spelling "paper mache"--occasionally with the acute accent on the e--is nearly as old: the French spelling dates to 1753, the other to 1763.

[otherwise-nyc.livejournal.com]

Yay!