Today, while reading an entertaining piece by St. Olaf professor Gordon Marino on the author David Mamet's fondness for Brazilian jiu-jitsu, I was surprised to find the word transmogrify slipped into a piece of otherwise stolid prose. I, of course, immediately connected this word to Calvin and Hobbes and pegged it for a sly tribute. Not so, according the the Online Etymological Dictionary, for transmogrify dates back to 1656. Go figure.
If "transmogrify" dates back to the 17th century, it's of course only because Calvin used his transmogrifier as a time machine and left a temporal implant back there.
ReplyDeleteHaha, excellent point.
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