Background
Cassidy was the son of a navy chief petty officer
Cassidy was the son of a navy chief petty officer
He graduated from New York Military Academy on a full scholarship and attended Cornell University but never graduated.
Cassidy worked for the New York Times as a news assistant. He was a professional musician, starting as a reed player, and cutting an album as a singer and composer. He played Carnegie Hall, the Civic Auditorium, and The Tonight Show – performing with comedian George Carlin, Kenny Rankin, and Lilly Tomlin.
Cassidy married Clare McIntyre, in 1983.
In 1995, he founded and co-directed the Irish Studies program at New College of California. His work appeared in the New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, the New York Observer and the Atlantic Monthly.
Cassidy died of pancreatic cancer at his home in San Francisco. Cassidy"s book is one of those eureka moments that leap beyond the ordinary to give us a new understanding of the subject at hand.
So utterly, completely stupid, only a total nincompoop like Cassidy could have come up with lieutenant
Etymologies from Cassidy"s How the Irish Invented Slang are widely duplicated across the internet. However, many of Cassidy"s definitions have been shown to be wishful thinking or completely made up. Cassidy was not able to speak Irish himself and was unfamiliar with the grammatical rules.
He apparently found words in Irish dictionaries that he thought had a similar pronunciation to English words or phrases with a vaguely connected meaning.
He then claimed these English words to have an Irish origin even when the English word already had a well established etymology. Although his theories appeal to the idea that the contributions of working class Irish immigrants to United States English have been ignored by English-speaking lexicographers, they have been heavily criticized by academics.
These include the American lexicographer Grant Barrett and Irish lexicographer Terence Dolan, Professor of Old and Middle English at University College Dublin.