[Paddlewise] ded/dead etymology

From: mike and linda <mikeandlinda_at_shaw.ca>
...
> Ded is a shortened form of the word deduced. It is 
> not spelled with an "a" ,
> much the same as  Led  in Led Zeppelin.

Etymolology often gives way to phonology or to
standard spelling, and thus it's not uncommon for
spelling to change when words are combined or divided.
(The Led Zepplin example is a move in the opposite
direction, an attempt to create a distive non-standard
spelling).

However: The deduced->ded origin is by no means
accepted as definitive by scholars. The Oxford
Companion to Ships and the Sea calls this etymology
"... improbable; it has too much of a modern ring
about it." The spelling of "ded" is not seen in any
but a few very recent writings; in the 17th Century it
was always "dead reckoning". 

I suspect the "deduced" theory is a modern folk
etymology. The more likely origin is from the other
sense of "dead" as in exact, fixed, unmoving- as a
machinist would say of an exact alignment, it's "dead
nuts on".

mike, feeling a bit didactic today ;-)




=====
--------------------------
Michael Edelman
mje_at_spamcop.net
http://foldingkayaks.org
http://findascope.com
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