Monday, October 15, 2007

The Eighth Dwarf

It's interesting on some obscure level that Disney chose to name his seven dwarfs: "Bashful," "Doc," "Dopey," "Grumpy," "Happy," "Sleepy" and "Sneezy." Bashful, Grumpy and Happy are also adjectives used to describe personality chracteristics. Doc is usually thought to denote a profession or the existence of a professional degree, and is a noun. Dopey does not so much speak to a personality trait as it does to being drugged up or stupid (if you choose to argue with me, please first visit http://www.etymonline.com/, where you'll find this: [dope 1807, Amer.Eng., "sauce, gravy," from Du. doop "thick dipping sauce." Extension to "drug" is 1889, from practice of smoking semi-liquid opium preparation. Meaning "foolish, stupid person" is older (1851) and may have a sense of "thick-headed." Sense of "inside information" (1901) may come from knowing before the race which horse had been drugged to influence performance. Dope-fiend is attested from 1896.] Sleepy primarily refers to lethargy, not so much a personality trait as a circumstantial condition. And Sneezy presumably refers to a health-related predisposition.

Where is the logic? Can we extrapolate from these seven the likely name of the eighth? I would like to propose that both of my readers try to come up with the most logical eighth dwarf name.

[NOTE: I've been working hard today and my Red Sox lost and I have the right to be inane.]

10 comments:

trogonpete said...

cursnippity

First Word said...

Wow. I like it. I fail to see the logic, but I like it. Are you creating a paradigm shift? Kuhn would be so pleased.

MandaMommy said...

Comatose.

Katie Richins said...

esquire

prof

farty

hyper

stinky

any of the above.

Katie Richins said...

klutzy

moron

funny

miner (cause that's really what they all are. doc is not a doc. in case you wondered)

curly

Katie Richins said...

and

larry

and

moe.

First Word said...

Speechless.

Wow.

trogonpete said...

Kuhn wouldn't have any idea what I'm talking about

First Word said...

May be Wittgenstein, then.

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