New Macquarie Dictionary (and button pushing)

[Stephen Calder]

The first new Australian dictionary for the 21st century has just been
published: the fourth edition of The Macquarie Dictionary.

It has the following to say about button-pushing, a term not included in
the previous edition or any other Australian dictionary, or the SOED (2002):

Under the word "button"

21. push someone's buttons, Colloquial. To arouse strong emotions in
someone, sometimes in an attempt to manipulate their behaviour.
"Marketers must know how to push people's buttons." "I don't know what
it is about her, but she really pushes my buttons."

Also included for the first time are:

to google, to search for information on the internet.

googlewhacking, a game employing the Google search engine to find a
combination of seacrh words that produces a single result.

To text, verb, to send someone a text message. "He texted me from Cairo".

The alternative past participle of this verb, texed, pronounced the same
as text, is heard here but not recorded.(Example: He texed me from Cairo).

--
Stephen
Lennox Head, Australia

[xerlome]

Stephen Calder wrote:

> The first new Australian dictionary for the 21st century has just been
> published: the fourth edition of The Macquarie Dictionary.

You mentioned to me that this dictionary was originally based on Random
House. I found a site which sheds some light on this:

<http://www.sun.ac.za/wat/translex/MACQUA3.html>

It says that the Hamlyn Encyclopedic World Dictionary was used as a
base for the Macquarie 1st edition. The EWD was based on the American
College Dictionary, the 1st Random House upon which their later
editions were based.

After several expanded editions, the Macquarie is surely far beyond
this small derivative, but it is interesting to see another reference
at:

<http://www.murdoch.edu.au/elaw/issues/v11n1/dickson111_text.html>

"... the dictionaries give a clear moral foundation to 'justice'. Both
the Macquarie Dictionary and the Random House Dictionary of the English
Language (2nd ed 1987) define the word first as " the quality of being
just; righteousness, equitableness, or moral rightness".

Offering exactly the same definition is a pretty good indicator.

Here's the whole genealogy: The "Macquarie Dictionary" is an expansion
of the "Hamlyn Encyclopedic World Dictionary", which was based on
Clarence Barnhart's "American College Dictionary". This connects to
information i contributed to Wikipedia: The "American College
Dictionary" was a stripped down revision of the "New Century
Dictionary", which was an abridgement of the "Century Dictionary and
Cyclopedia", which was an expansion of the "Imperial Dictionary", which
was an expansion of Noah Webster's "American Dictionary".

ER Lyon

[Stephen Calder]

JF wrote:

> X-No-Archive: yes
>
> In message
> <43fabecf$0$499$61c6...@uq-127creek-reader-03.brisbane.pipenetworks.com.
> au>, Stephen Calder <cal...@in.com.au> writes

>
>> To text, verb, to send someone a text message. "He texted me from Cairo".
>>
>> The alternative past participle of this verb, texed, pronounced the
>> same as text, is heard here but not recorded.(Example: He texed me
>> from Cairo).
>
>

> For some reason the widespread usage of 'text' in England meaning to
> send someone an SMS message annoys me. SMS (Short Message Service) is
> used throughout the rest of the EU federation. The default incoming SMS
> alert on Nokia mobile phones is di-di-dit-dah-dah-di-di-dit -- S M S.
>

Isn't text easier to say? I must admit texted still sounds a little odd,
and "he texed me yesterday" (no established spelling) odder still, but
we all got used to the ugly eftpos here and now think nothing of it.

[xerlome]

Stephen Calder wrote:

> The first new Australian dictionary for the 21st century has just been
> published: the fourth edition of The Macquarie Dictionary.

> It has the following to say about button-pushing, a term not included in
> the previous edition or any other Australian dictionary, or the SOED (2002):

> Under the word "button"

> 21. push someone's buttons, Colloquial. To arouse strong emotions in
> someone, sometimes in an attempt to manipulate their behaviour.
> "Marketers must know how to push people's buttons." "I don't know what
> it is about her, but she really pushes my buttons."

I like that Macquarie gives two examples to illustrate that buttons can
be actively or passively pushed. The wording, "to arouse ...
sometimes in an attempt ..." allows for the possibility that buttons
can be pushed unintentionally. I would be clearer, or illustrate, that
it is not only persons which can push one's buttons, but possibly
anything that arouses/provokes a kneejerk reaction.

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate, 11th ed. (2003): "3 c: a hidden
sensitivity that can be manipulated to produce a desired response
<knows how to push my ~s>" (BTW, this sense was not in the 10th ed.
(1993), and thus not in the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.) M-W
suggests its deliberate use, but by defining "button" as a "a hidden
sensitivity", they've left it open.

M-W often defines the key word in an expression rather than define the
expression, then offers typical use. They probably anticipate the
possibility that the expression will pass from use. That allows for
the word to hold that sense apart from the expression. If it doesn't,
they may remove the sense.

Since M-W didn't define the expression as a whole, "push" may need a
special sense. I would define it "(to) activate or trigger". I don't
find this particulatr sense in M-W. They do offer: "4 : to bear hard
upon so as to involve in difficulty <poverty ~ed them to the breaking
point>" which would do in a pinch.

Encarta (don't make me say "Encarta Webster's") (2004) offers: "<>
push somebody's buttons - to provoke a reaction in somebody
deliberately". They define the expression, but don't offer any
example. They allow only for it to be a deliberate act. They offer
no applicable sense for "button(s)" alone.

Cassell's Dictionary of Slang (1998) has: "push someone's/the right
buttons, to: phr. [1920s+; 1970s+] to manipulate someone emotionally.
(Disappointing. I expected better from Jonathon Green.)

I don't find any reference in American Heritage, 4th ed. (2000) (Online
- I don't have the book. I'm guessing it's the same.)

ER Lyon

[xerlome]

Here's one i missed:

New Oxford American Dictionary, 2nd ed. (2005): [] push (or press)
someone's buttons - informal - arouse or provoke a reaction in someone:
'stay cool and don't allow them to push your buttons'

For the record, Random House doesn't have it in their 2001

ER Lyon

.

[Maria Conlon]

xerlome wrote:
>
> Here's one i missed:
>
> New Oxford American Dictionary, 2nd ed. (2005): [] push (or press)
> someone's buttons - informal - arouse or provoke a reaction in
> someone: 'stay cool and don't allow them to push your buttons'
>
> For the record, Random House doesn't have it in their 2001
>

My favorite usage for "pushing buttons":

Don't push my buttons unless you want to turn me on.

This was said by someone using a hand-held calculator to someone who was
trying to push the buttons just out of mischief.

--
Maria Conlon