>> *My ancient dictionary, about as fragile as the dead sea scrolls, even >> shows pictures of several "fuzes!" Two have propellers and they >> obviously screw into the nose of a projectile/bomb. >> >> "FUZE noun A mechanical or electrical device that initiates the >> explosive charge of a shell, bomb, grenade, etc." >> >> Funk & Wagnalls New College Standard Dictionary C. 1947 > > To partially coorborate your 1947 dictionary's definition I have > my grandfather's 1947 Websters business dictionary at hand. Fuse > definition 1 was detonator and definition 2 was electrical interrupter. > Fuze was ONLY detonator. But, let us all not forget that languages in active use are not static. An example of this can be found even in Chinese. The character 雞 (or written in simplified Chinese 鸡) means "chicken" and has had the meaning of 1) A bird and 2) frightened. Much like what most of us relate to. However, in the PRC a new meaning as been added and can be found in their dictionary, 3) Female prostitute. FWIW, "duck" also was awarded the additional definition of Male prostitute, or gigolo. A note here would be that in Taiwan these usages have not (yet) been adopted. So, while going back and looking in dictionaries from the 1940's and 1930's and earlier can be interesting for researching the archaic usage of words they may no longer reflect current usage. What is curious is that people living in an area don't really notice the evolution of their language or word usage. There have been times where I'd not returned to the USA (New Jersey, lots of jokes about that state.) for nearly 2 years and was confronted with the usage of some words in ways that caused me confusion. It is almost along the same lines as looking at yourself and/or your mate/partner every day. You don't notice the subtle changes. But, when you meet someone you've not seen in a long time they say things like "My you've changed" and then go on to describe what is different about you. -- Weiner's Law of Libraries: There are no answers, only cross references.
