Author Topic: caboose -common?  (Read 1437 times)

Alan W

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Re: caboose -common?
« Reply #15 on: September 08, 2020, 12:20:37 PM »
...is calaboose also classified as common?

Yes, calaboose is classed as common. I don't think it's ever appeared in a 9- or 10-letter puzzle, but it could be the seed word for a 7-by-many puzzle. Without doing any research into the matter, I wonder if there might be a stronger case for calaboose to be made rare.
Alan Walker
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les303

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Re: caboose -common?
« Reply #16 on: September 08, 2020, 01:22:55 PM »
Is this " examples in literature " any help?

I'll put him in the calaboose and keep him till you get married and away.
THE VIRGINIAN|OWEN WISTER

Who knows the truth and speaks too loose In Berlin gets in the calaboose!
MAJOR PROPHETS OF TO-DAY|EDWIN E. SLOSSON

They conducted us to what they had termed "the calaboose," a big, ramshackle, one-roomed barn-like structure.
TRAMPING ON LIFE|HARRY KEMP

The two lurched beside the constable to the calaboose, where they dropped down on the hard pads and temporarily passed out.
THE DUDE WRANGLER|CAROLINE LOCKHART

I had been duped by two brothers, Daniel and James Brown, who were then confined in the calaboose for passing counterfeit money.
SECRET BAND OF BROTHERS|JONATHAN HARRINGTON GREEN

les303

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Re: caboose -common?
« Reply #17 on: September 08, 2020, 01:25:17 PM »
On the other hand ;


TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «CALABOOSE»
The term «calaboose» is normally little used and occupies the 130.761 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.

mkenuk

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Re: caboose -common?
« Reply #18 on: September 08, 2020, 06:48:02 PM »
Possibly the most famous use of the word  - I think that's where I learned it - is an old song with the wonderful title of 'In eleven more months and ten more days, I'll be out of the calaboose'. Quite popular when I was a child, as I remember. It's sung to a tune reminiscent of the 'Twenty Bottles of Beer on the Wall' epic, so possibly an American servicemen's drinking song?

pat

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Re: caboose -common?
« Reply #19 on: September 08, 2020, 07:18:48 PM »
I wonder if there might be a stronger case for calaboose to be made rare.

As far as I'm concerned - definitely!

birdy

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Re: caboose -common?
« Reply #20 on: September 15, 2020, 11:32:30 AM »
I think I've mostly seen calaboose in novels of the old west, or maybe in more recent times in a jocular reference.  If it's not used much outside the US, I'd agree that it should be rare.