"Franken-" meaning genetically modified

[Dennis R. Preston]

>Isn't there a breakfast cereal called something like Frankenberry
>(made by the same people who sell Count Chokula or some other such
>horror)? If all "Franken-" prefixed items were "negative," surely
>they wouldn't have done this (although this obviously does not speak
>to the genetic modification issue directly).

dInIs (whose broken style conventions usually exceed dsb's, but I'm
only a professor)







>Perhaps "franken-" only takes the negative connotation by people who are
>leery of technology to begin with.  Here's an example of the use of
>"franken-" as a good thing from T3 magazine, November 2000:
>
>"MP3 Player/Phone >>Frankenphone!  >>Finally, Samsung plans to bring one of
>its Frankenphones to the U.S., with a planned November release for the
>SPH-M100 Uproar MP3 player/phone.  The Uproar offers all the modern
>conveniences associated with current phones, plus e-mail/fax access and an
>hour of MP3 playback.  Intended to de-clutter the tech-savvy person on the
>go, its "two for the price of one-ness" should play well with those wanting
>to save dough for luxuries. . . like gas."
>
>Pardon any broken style conventions, I'm only a student.
>
>-dsb

--
Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736