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Usenet Posted 23 years ago
Usage
=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Predatory_women_as_=91vamps':_how_come=3F?=
Webster (meanng 3 (1)) glosses the word thus:
?Etymology: short for vampire
Date: circa 1911
a woman who uses her charm or wiles to seduce and exploit men'
I automatically associate the term with Theda Bara, whose first ?vamp' film, apparently, was ?A Fool There Was' in 1915 (2). Even in this first piece, Bara's character wasn't a vampire of the blood-sucking kind - her technique was, it seems, to kill men through exhaustion by the extraction of a quite different bodily fluid!
But why was the rapacious female identified as a ?vampire' in the first place? And why as late as 1911? (Bram Stoker's ?Dracula' was published in 1897; but he didn't invent the notion of vampire ? Webster dates it as 1734.)
(1) http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=vamp (2) http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/AFoolThereWas-1054800/preview.php and http://www.slowtrains.com/issue3/puccinelliissue3.html
?Etymology: short for vampire
Date: circa 1911
a woman who uses her charm or wiles to seduce and exploit men'
I automatically associate the term with Theda Bara, whose first ?vamp' film, apparently, was ?A Fool There Was' in 1915 (2). Even in this first piece, Bara's character wasn't a vampire of the blood-sucking kind - her technique was, it seems, to kill men through exhaustion by the extraction of a quite different bodily fluid!
But why was the rapacious female identified as a ?vampire' in the first place? And why as late as 1911? (Bram Stoker's ?Dracula' was published in 1897; but he didn't invent the notion of vampire ? Webster dates it as 1734.)
(1) http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=vamp (2) http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/AFoolThereWas-1054800/preview.php and http://www.slowtrains.com/issue3/puccinelliissue3.html
Top answer
[nq:1]Webster (meanng 3 (1)) glosses the word thus: 'Etymology: short for vampire Date: circa 1911[/nq] [nq:2]a woman who uses her charm or wiles to seduce and exploit men'[/nq] [nq:1]I automatically associate the term with Theda Bara, whose first 'vamp' film, apparently, was 'A Fool There Was' in 1915 ... [/nq] Hence the anagrammatic nature of her name - Arab Death! [nq:1]But why was the rapacious female identified as a 'vampire' in the first place?
- [nq:1]Webster (meanng 3 (1)) glosses the word thus: 'Etymology: short for vampire Date: circa 1911[/nq] [nq:2]a woman who uses her charm or wiles to seduce and exploit men'[/nq] [nq:1]I automatically associate the term with Theda Bara, whose first 'vamp' film, apparently, was 'A Fool There Was' in 1915 ...
- [/nq] Hence the anagrammatic nature of her name - Arab Death!
- [nq:1]But why was the rapacious female identified as a 'vampire' in the first place?
- And why as late as 1911?
- )[/nq] Because the sense of 'preying on others' was an extension of the vampiric way, omitting the blood bit.
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5 Answers
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[nq:1]Webster (meanng 3 (1)) glosses the word thus: 'Etymology: short for vampire Date: circa 1911[/nq]
[nq:2]a woman who uses her charm or wiles to seduce and exploit men'[/nq]
[nq:1]I automatically associate the term with Theda Bara, whose first 'vamp' film, apparently, was 'A Fool There Was' in 1915 ... - her technique was, it seems, to kill men through exhaustion by the extraction of a
[nq:2]a woman who uses her charm or wiles to seduce and exploit men'[/nq]
[nq:1]I automatically associate the term with Theda Bara, whose first 'vamp' film, apparently, was 'A Fool There Was' in 1915 ... - her technique was, it seems, to kill men through exhaustion by the extraction of a
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[nq:2]But why was the rapacious female identified as a 'vampire' ... the notion of vampire - Webster dates it as 1734.)[/nq]
Any chance that a silent movie with female vampires spawned a short-lived makeup\clothing style?
[nq:1]Because the sense of 'preying on others' was an extension of the vampiric way, omitting the blood bit. Just as incubus went from a night-time sexual predator to a g
Any chance that a silent movie with female vampires spawned a short-lived makeup\clothing style?
[nq:1]Because the sense of 'preying on others' was an extension of the vampiric way, omitting the blood bit. Just as incubus went from a night-time sexual predator to a g
00
[nq:1]Any chance that a silent movie with female vampires spawned a short-lived makeup\clothing style?[/nq]
[nq:2]Because the sense of 'preying on others' was an extension ... from a night-time sexual predator to a generally oppressive person.[/nq]
[nq:1]Some ten or so years ago a sports shoe line was supposed to come out with the name "Incubus"... until someone explained to the manufactur
[nq:2]Because the sense of 'preying on others' was an extension ... from a night-time sexual predator to a generally oppressive person.[/nq]
[nq:1]Some ten or so years ago a sports shoe line was supposed to come out with the name "Incubus"... until someone explained to the manufactur
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[nq:2]Any chance that a silent movie with female vampires spawned ... "Incubus"... until someone explained to the manufacturers what it meant.[/nq]
[nq:1]You mean like the frozen food firm who had to revamp the whole campaign when they discovered the meaning of "cod pieces"?[/nq]
Whoah! Steady there Mo 'n' Mike. We're heading towards Vauxhall Nova territory again ...
John 'This OJ
[nq:1]You mean like the frozen food firm who had to revamp the whole campaign when they discovered the meaning of "cod pieces"?[/nq]
Whoah! Steady there Mo 'n' Mike. We're heading towards Vauxhall Nova territory again ...
John 'This OJ
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[nq:1]Webster (meanng 3 (1)) glosses the word thus: ?Etymology: short for vampire Date: circa 1911[/nq]
[nq:2]a woman who uses her charm or wiles to seduce and exploit men'[/nq]
[nq:1]I automatically associate the term with Theda Bara, whose first ?vamp' film, apparently, was ?A Fool There Was' in 1915 ... of a quite different bodily fluid! But why was the rapacious female identified as a
[nq:2]a woman who uses her charm or wiles to seduce and exploit men'[/nq]
[nq:1]I automatically associate the term with Theda Bara, whose first ?vamp' film, apparently, was ?A Fool There Was' in 1915 ... of a quite different bodily fluid! But why was the rapacious female identified as a
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