Another day, another set of reading notes, and another word not found in the MS Word dictionary: plagiarization. As in, a good number of pamphlets on everything from astrological prognostication to the best way to grow cabbages were simply plagiarizations** and cut-and-pastings of other, earlier works. The OED has quotations for this noun form starting only in the rather late nineteenth century, with the latest quotation taken from the Economic Times from 2003, to wit: "Plagiarisation has become a habit with today's music directors and it probably existed before I was born. There's nothing wrong in it." Well, it certainly has existed for quite a while, in all aspects of creative life, but as to the fact that there is nothing wrong with it, well....
Plagiarism has indeed had a long and venerable history blah blah blah Adrian Johns' Piracy*** blah blah blah. Now back to my regularly scheduled readings.
** Though, to be fair, I just google-booked the word inside of the book I just read, and the word doesn't appear there either. But, the OED says it's a word, so I'm running with it. I like it better than plagiarism in the context in which I have written it.
*** Really good book, and my 'blah's really don't do it justice.
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