# An O, Wow moment *The Whorl list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 06 Sep 2000* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### akt *06 Sep 2000, 23:37* Dan Schmidt asked re Seawrack: > Is this a common word? It appears to be a synonym for seaweed, but I > don't remember encountering it before. I ask because I'm currently > reading through ULYSSES and found it at the beginning of chapter 3: > > Ineluctable modality of the visible: at least that if no more, > thought through my eyes. Signatures of all things I am here to read, > seaspawn and seawrack, the nearing tide, that rusty boot. So I looked in the OED and here is the earliest citation pasted in, verbatim: 1551 Turner Herbal i. K iv, Alga..is commonly called in englyshe see wrak. O, Wow, -alga *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun. --- ### William Ansley *07 Sep 2000, 00:02 · follows akt* > At 11:37 PM -0400 9/6/00, akt at attglobal.net wrote: > > Dan Schmidt asked re Seawrack: >> Is this a common word? It appears to be a synonym for seaweed, but I >> don't remember encountering it before. I ask because I'm currently >> reading through ULYSSES and found it at the beginning of chapter 3: >> >> Ineluctable modality of the visible: at least that if no more, >> thought through my eyes. Signatures of all things I am here to read, >> seaspawn and seawrack, the nearing tide, that rusty boot. > So I looked in the OED and here is the earliest citation pasted in, > verbatim: > > 1551 Turner Herbal i. K iv, Alga..is commonly called in englyshe see > wrak. > > O, Wow, > -alga Wow, indeed! If you come across a hus, and it offers to shake your hand, *don't do it*. ``` William Ansley *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun. ``` ---