Word
miner digs
nautical nuggets
With
a master's degree in geology, Duluth's Alan Hartley didn't
expect to become a stevedore.
He did, however, become a miner — but instead of extracting
minerals from the earth's interior, he's mining old books and
historical documents.
In a phrase, Alan Hartley is a word miner.
A stevedoring superintendent for Rogers Terminal & Shipping Corp. in the Port of Duluth-Superior, Mr. Hartley for the past eight years has been contributing word origins to the venerable Oxford English Dictionary in Oxford, England.
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His specialty is the origin and first recorded use of nautical words and terms, although in recent years he's also been asked by the OED to research and submit earliest verifiable appearances of other words.
"I've had an interest in language for a long time," Mr. Hartley said the other day. "My fascination with nautical words started when I entered the shipping business and heard Greek sailors using certain Italian seafaring expressions."
In time, he realized there's a sort of Mediterranean maritime vocabulary that blends words and phrases borrowed from Greek, Italian, Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and other languages, probably dating back to the Bronze Age. He began recording examples for possible use in a Mediterranean nautical dictionary. But before completing the project, he happened to see a catalog ad seeking contributions to the OED.
"I
submitted a few things and thought that would be end of it," he said.
"But a few weeks later, they came back and asked if I would do some
reading for them. I’ve been doing it ever since.”
A fourth-generation Duluthian from a widely known family, Mr. Hartley
earned a geology degree from Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., and
got his master’s at the University of Washington. While working
as a ranger for the National Park Service on Isle Royale for five years,
he spent winters on Lake Superior with Sivertson Fisheries, Inc., Duluth,
and developed an interest in boats and ships.
He joined the S.A. McLennan vessel agency in 1979, Empire Stevedoring
in 1981 and, when Empire closed in 1995, landed his present position with
Rogers Terminal, a subsidiary of Cargill, Inc., the agricultural and world
trade giant based in Minnetonka, Minn.
His avocation with the OED has spun off into editing work on
the New Oxford American Dictionary and the Oxford American
College Dictionary. He also did a live radio interview this past
year on the Voice of America's "Coast to Coast" program and
wrote a special piece for VOA's web site entitled "Words That Have
Made Their Way from Nautical Language into Everyday English."
Some samples (note: the first date is the first recorded nautical use, the second date is the first recorded general use):
"The pilot will see how the land lies (1700/1809) and use landmarks (1570/1667) — distinctive features on shore — to keep the ship in the designated channel, or fairway (1854/1910, in golfing) and steer clear of obstructions. (In poor visibility, as in rainy or hazy (1615/1665) weather, the pilot might lose his bearings.)"
"A sailor who drinks too much grog, the standard navy-issue watered rum, is groggy (1770/1832), or even three sheets to the wind (??/1821), staggering as might a ship whose sails weren't properly trimmed (taut). A ship with well-trimmed sails is a tight ship (1971/1972, U.S.). (Caution: tight also has the much older (1568) nautical meaning "water-tight.")
"In rigging, it won't do to use junk (1485/1842), old or inferior rope. The word probably comes from Old French "jonc," a rope made of rushes (such a rope being weak and inferior); compare with jonquil, a plant with leaves shaped like those of the rush."
So what about the origin of "stevedore?"
"It's from a Spanish word, `estibador'," Mr. Hartley said, "and is related to the Latin `stipare,' meaning to pack or to stow. But I'm trying to find when and how it was first used in English."
All of which still connects, in a way, with geology.
"Like prospecting," he said, "you never know when you might find a gem."