Are couch potatoes an endangered species? No, but potato farmers want term banned.British potato farmers are out to ban the couch potato couch potato An Americanism for a sedentary person, usually ♂, whose predominant non-work activity consists in lying on a couch, watching TV. See Television intoxication 'syndrome.'. Cf Vigorous exercise. . No, not the people who sit in front of TV all day--the epithet for those people, reportedly coined in 1982. The British Potato Council The British Potato Council is a non-departmental public body whose mission is to develop and promote Britain's potato industry. The BPC promotes the health benefits of potatoes to the general public, showing how potatoes are low in both fat and calories and packed full of is trying to get the expression stripped from the Oxford English Dictionary Oxford English Dictionary (OED) great multi-volume historical dictionary of English. [Br. Hist.: Caught in the Web of Words] See : Lexicography and replaced in everyday speech with the term "couch slouch slouch v. slouched, slouch·ing, slouch·es v.intr. 1. To sit, stand, or walk with an awkward, drooping, excessively relaxed posture. 2. To droop or hang carelessly, as a hat. v. ." Groups of demonstrators were planning to stage protests outside the Oxford University Press offices and in London's Parliament Square when this story was filed. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the Oxford English Dictionary, The (OED) Definitive historical dictionary of the English language. It was conceived by London's Philological Society in 1857, and sustained editorial work began in 1879 under James Murray. term "couch potato" started life as American slang. It means: "A person who spends leisure time passively or idly sitting around, especially watching television or video tapes." According to one account, it was invented 23 years ago by Robert Armstrong, a US cartoonist who put out an Official Couch Potato Handbook. Other sources say that this was a variation on an earlier epithet--boob tuber tuber, enlarged tip of a rhizome (underground stem) that stores food. Although much modified in structure, the tuber contains all the usual stem parts—bark, wood, pith, nodes, and internodes. : a boob watching the tube. It seems appropriate, however, that the first image of a "couch potato," er, "couch slouch," appeared in France 100 years earlier: Albert Robida, in his illustrated science fiction novel The Twentieth Century, depicted a man lazing on his couch while watching dancing girls on the telephonoscope. Kathryn Race, head of marketing at the British Potato Council which represents some 4,000 growers and processors, said the group had written to the Oxford English Dictionary stating its objections but had not yet had a response. "We are trying to get rid of the image that potatoes are bad for you," she told the Press Association. "The potato has had its knocks in the past. Of course it is not the Oxford English Dictionary's fault, but we want to use another term than couch potato because potatoes are inherently healthy." The council says dieticians back the campaign because the tuber is low in fat and high in vitamin C. Supporting the campaign, celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson Henry Antony Cardew Worrall Thompson (born 1 May 1951) is a British celebrity chef, television presenter and radio broadcaster. Born in Stratford upon Avon, he went to school at The King's School, Canterbury. said the vegetable was one of the UK's favorite foods. John Simpson, chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, said the term couch potato was first included in 1993. He said: "When people blame words they are actually blaming the society that uses them. Dictionaries just reflect the words that society uses." |
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