Re: Word of the day: ?Papoose?

On Mon, 2 Sep 2024 12:33:02 -0000 (UTC), Steve Hayes
<hayesstw@telkomsa.net> wrote:

On Sun, 01 Sep 2024 15:39:20 -0400, Tony Cooper wrote:
>

So it seems that people within the US understand "papoose" as referring
to a child, and outside the US it refers to a child holder?

 
 
Please...write "some people".
 
If I see an (American) Indian with a baby in a carrier strapped to her
back, I would describe that as a woman with a papoose.
 
However, if she removes the baby from the carrier and puts the baby on a
blanket on the ground, I would not say the baby is a "papoose".
 
You seem to want "people" in the US to all view things the same.

>
The OP said (I think quoting a dictionary or some such source) that in AmE
"papoose" meant a child, but everyone from outside the US whose comments
I have seen seems to think it means a child holder.
>
Perhaps the OP could clarify.

You have participated in this group long enough to know that a
dictionary cite does not at all indicate 100% or near-all usage of
some words.

That assumes that all Americans (in this case) look up a word to gain
the definition.  In fact, the majority of Americans gain a definition
by how the word is/was used in the instance(s) where they first or
commonly come across it.

This is especially true with non-common words.  Most - if not almost
all - Americans first came across "papoose" in some book or movie
where the context provided the meaning taken.

I don't think many (or even "any") Americans decided to look up the
word to determine if was the infant or the carrier or thought about
the term being used when the infant was not in carrier.

I think if you randomly stopped a number of Americans and asked
"What's a papoose?" the answers might be determined by the age of the
responder.

Older Americans, who first came across the word in a book or movie,
would opt for the "Indian baby carried on the mother's back". 

Younger Americans, who are used to seeing people with a baby carrier
strapped to their body, would opt for "A baby carrier" because the
concept is the same as what we currently see. 

Older Americans, by the way, are just as familiar with seeing people
with a baby carrier strapped to their bodies, but their definition is
fixed on first context.