January 9, 2022
The OED word of the day is "ghostbuster."
And "Who ya gonna call? (Ghostbusters!)" is not the first quote on the OED list, though it is there. It's second. The first quote is from 1930, and it's used in reference to Harry Houdini:
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The 1930 ghostbuster reference didn't show up in google ngram, but here's the Time article, wherein they also invented another word:
"Last week, her patience exhausted, Mrs. Houdini announced that she has lost all hope of effecting contact with her husband, that his attempt to Houdinize-himself from the (a) spirit world has been a failure, that this is another proof that Spiritualism is all fakery."
There’s no story why AA came across Ghostbusters as the ‘word of the day’? I was expecting a picture or something with an anomaly which led to a discussion of what would cause it, and finally settling on a it ‘must be a ghost’. This would be followed by an attempt to disprove it, and being the (original) ghostbuster.
"There’s no story why AA came across Ghostbusters as the ‘word of the day’?"
When I go to OED to check anything, I see the home page, and the word of the day is on the home page, so the thing that made me go there has no connection to anything and didn't turn out to be anything I wanted to blog about. Someone in real life had used a word and we were interested in how negative it was.
Ghostbuster is likely to derive from gangbuster, a popular term for the Federal Treasury agents tasked with dismantling the organized crime syndicates that made huge illicit profits from the various activities intended to thwart the provisions of the 18th Amendment.
The obvious connection is the implied status of the ghostbuster as a crime fighter like the gangbusters of law enforcement, the assumption being so-called supernatural events are fraudulent, the mediums and seers (nowadays they call themselves channelers and facilitators) being clever con artists who stage their "manifestations" with the intent to bilk the unwary and the credulous out of large piles of cash. Houdini, being an acknowledged master of illusion (Houdini never claimed that any of his remarkable escapes were accomplished by anything other than skill and physical strength.) he was uniquely qualified to detect the medium's illusions and trickery. At least a few of his investigations ended in prosecutions and convictions for fraud.
The American ghost business went into a steep decline in the late 1920s, as popular magazines like The Police Gazette hired their own ghostbusters. However, during the grimmest years of the Great Depression, self-styled psychic or spiritual advisors found a lucrative market among the desperate and impoverished hoping for that lucky number or winning racehorse that could reverse their ill-fortunes.
Thanks to Ivan Reitman and Dan Ackroyd (True fact: Ackroyd was brought up in a Spiritualist household, so the existence of talkative souls of the departed was an unquestioned axiom during his childhood.) the meaning of ghostbuster has evolved into a synonym of exorcist.
The mediums of yore had a difficult but realizable task before them in order to score the big bucks. The marks and rubes demanded an occasional tangible experience, like a vaporous apparition sailing over the medium's table, typically a papier-mâché head and torso draped in gauze and suspended by an overhead wire, or a display of ectoplasm, often exuded from the medium's mouth, a version of a well-known conjuror's trick.
Modern-day rubes aren't nearly as skeptical as their great-grandparents. All the channelers and facilitators rely on pre-session interviews with an assistant whose notes supply all the clues needed to bring the simple and credulous to tears after the invisible presence of the departed is demonstrated. Sylvia Brown, John Edwards, and their bush-league imitators have never been prosecuted for their shenanigans thanks to the "I pledge to hold harmless" and confidentiality contracts the marks thoughtlessly sign.
he was uniquely qualified to detect the medium's illusions and trickery.
Please ignore the superfluous pronoun. Thank you.
"Ghostbuster is likely to derive from gangbuster, a popular term for the Federal Treasury agents tasked with dismantling the organized crime syndicates that made huge illicit profits from the various activities intended to thwart the provisions of the 18th Amendment."
The OED's etymology links to an entry for the suffix "buster," and the relevant meaning is "troubleshooting or problem-solving" with the examples "booze-buster, bug-buster, dust-buster, etc."
The oldest usage is:
1872 Sci. Amer. 15 June 397/3 Cleveland has invented a patent bug buster, worked with an air pump.
Then there's:
1920 F. A. McKenzie ‘Pussyfoot’ Johnson v. 83 Men nicknamed him the ‘Booze Buster’, and cartoonists loved to picture him, revolver in hand,..fighting the demon rum.
It refers to a separate entry for crimebuster (first used in 1943) and — your word — "gangbuster" which goes back only to 1930:
1930 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 7 Dec. 18 Captain Willemse was known as ‘the gang buster’ because of the part he played in the breaking up of the Kid Dropper, Little Augie and Flanagan gangs.
Sidelight: "ball-buster" has its own entry in the OED, going back to 1954:
1954 J. A. Weingarten Amer. Dict. Slang at Ball-breaker, -buster 1) A person who repeatedly annoys one or assigns difficult tasks. 2) A task that is difficult or annoying.
1975 Verbatim Feb. 5/2 The term ballbuster..is a graphic, forceful expletive, typically applied to a domineering female....
1980 M. French Bleeding Heart vii. 258 A woman who blames men or male society for anything, who complains, is seen as a..castrator, an Amazon, a ballbuster....
There's a made-for-TV movie available on Youtube starring Ray Milland as a top scientist involved in defense-related research that if successfully complete would render the Soviet Union's ICMB fleet useless. In the opening sequence, Dr. Constable (Milland) is seen leaving the mausoleum housing the remains of his departed clearly grieved to the point of suicidal thoughts. Some commie agents posing as psychics deceive Constable into believing his daughter has returned from Beyond to persuade Daddy to give up the "war stuff".
The trickery used by the commie spies is known from documented ghostbuster cases.
1930 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 7 Dec. 18 Captain Willemse was known as ‘the gang buster’ because of the part he played in the breaking up of the Kid Dropper, Little Augie, and Flanagan gangs.
Most if not all the OED attestations refer to a term's appearance in print. However, since the cited news items plainly states that Capt. Willemse was known as"the gang buster", i.e. before the item went to press. One cannot be known by a term before it is coined, therefor gang buster must have predated the cited attestation, perhaps by a sufficient interval to make my speculation plausible.
My 8:44 comment should read -- Dr. Constable (Milland) is seen leaving the mausoleum housing the remains of his departed daughter, clearly grieved to the point of suicidal thoughts.
I want to take this time to ask;
Why should you NEVER TRUST AN ATOM??
Because they Make Up Everything!
(this was from Ghostbusters Afterlife; so it's completely on target )
It must have been tough for dead Houdini, wanting so much to communicate with his widow and wanting so much to prove that he couldn't.
Calling the movie Ghostbusters seems like it was at once obvious and almost a stroke of genius. What else could they have called it? What could have described the picture better or made people want to see it more? What else would have given them such a catchy theme song? Maybe it's a stupid title, but it's stupid brilliant.
there's that dialog between stanz and venkman, about private sector demanding results, well theranos proves thats' wrong, also that battery maker, that didn't deliver any batteries,
also the epa employee, walter peck was the one who released the apocalypse, that would never happen today,
Shouldn't it be 'Ghostbuster®'?
Those entertainment lawyers can be nasty SOBs.
1980 M. French Bleeding Heart vii. 258 A woman who blames men or male society for anything, who complains, is seen as a..castrator, an Amazon, a ballbuster....
I'm guessing those words had negative connotations back then and were something women were told they shouldn't be.
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