Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004

"meirman" <meirman@invalid.com> wrote...

Nice point -- it's utterly awful.

Matti

When I use "fulsome," I use it as in MWCD11's "4. excessively complimentary
or flattering," or OED2's "7. Of language, style, behaviour, etc.:
Offensive to good taste; esp. offending from excess or want of measure or
from being ‘over-done’. Now chiefly used in reference to gross or excessive
flattery, over-demonstrative affection, or the like."

Let's look at 3 dictionaries.  We find that "fulsome" used as in your
quotation is in all of them.  Sticking with MW first, where the usage note
suggests that OED2 may have its dagger misplaced (But notice that OED2 has
added a 19C citation to their 13C-16C citations, and it pointedly uses
"fulsome" in its original sense):

[MWCD11]
[...]
1 a : characterized by abundance  : COPIOUS  *describes in fulsome detail —
G. N. Shuster*  *fulsome bird life. The feeder overcrowded — Maxine Kumin*
  b : generous in amount, extent, or spirit  *the passengers were fulsome
in praise of the plane's crew — Don Oliver*  *a fulsome victory for the far
left — Bruce Rothwell*  *the greetings have been fulsome, the farewells
tender — Simon Gray*
  c : being full and well developed  *she was in generally fulsome, limpid
voice — Thor Eckert, Jr.*
[...]
usage The senses shown above are the chief living senses of fulsome. Sense
2, which was a generalized term of disparagement in the late 17th century,
is the least common of these. Fulsome became a point of dispute when sense
1, thought to be obsolete in the 19th century, began to be revived in the
20th. The dispute was exacerbated by the fact that the large dictionaries
of the first half of the century missed the beginnings of the revival.
Sense 1 has not only been revived but has spread in its application and
continues to do so. The chief danger for the user of fulsome is ambiguity.
Unless the context is made very clear, the reader or hearer cannot be sure
whether such an expression as *fulsome praise* is meant in sense 1b or in
sense 4.

Moving on to Oxford's tiny dictionary:
[COD10]
2 of large size or quantity.

And to Oxford's big dictionary:
[OED2]

   †1. Characterized by abundance, possessing or affording copious supply;
abundant, plentiful, full.
   c1250 Gen. & Ex. 2153 Ðe .vii. fulsum Šeres faren.
   ?a1412 Lydg. Lyfe our Ladye (Caxton) Av, For alwey God gaf hyr to her

         presence So fulsom lyght of heuenly influence.
   Ibid. Bvb, Like as a fulsum welle Shedyth his stremys in to the ryuere.
   c1440 I Secrees 723 At Ellyconys welle This philisoffre by fulsom
        habundance Drank grettest plente.
   1481 Earl of Worcester Tulle on Friendsh. Bviib, Though he..were sette
        in moost folsom plente.
   c1510 Barclay Mirr. Gd. Manners (1570) Ciijb, Folowe fulsome fieldes
        habundaunt of frument.
   1515 I Egloges iv. (1570) Ciija, Suche fulsome pasture made him a double
        chin.
   1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. lxxiii. 26 Much more fulsome is Davids
        confession [orig. Longè plenior est Dauidis confessio].
   1583 I Calvin on Deut. xcii. 571 Likewise of their first fruites instede
        of making good fulsome sheaues and bundels vnto God, they gelded
        them, and made them verie thinne and lanke.
   1868 Helps Realmah II. xi. 80 My complaint of the world..is this—that
        there is too much of everything..and so I could go on
        enumerating..all the things which are too full in this fulsome
        world. I use fulsome in the original sense.

   †b. Growing abundantly, rank in growth. Obs.
   1633 Costlie Whore iv. i. in Bullen O. Pl. IV, Plucke up the fulsome
       thistle in the prime.

Why should its older meaning constitute its *proper* meaning?

Does a meat market constitute the *proper* meaning of "a shambles"?

\\P. Schultz