This 'Shebang'---There is of course another one--- is not just a verbal slurring of 'Hash Bang'. It has a much more elegant name. It is a conflation.
Consider, just in English, to which they are not confined, o Edmund Spenser: wrizzled (wrinkled + frizzled) o Shakespeare: glaze (glare + gaze) o· Lewis Carroll: slithy (slimy, lithe), chortle (chuckle, snort), snark (snake, shark), galumph (gallop, triumph) They have a long, much (even too much) discussed literary history under this rubric, and Carroll talks about them repeatedly in his letters to Ellen Terry. John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
