Not in DARE?

[Wilson Gray]

On Oct 9, 2004, at 11:27 PM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Not in DARE?
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>> cat butter/catbutter ....
>>
>> FWIW, there's a somewhat similar term, "augenbutter," found in German.
>
> In Japanese there is "mekuso" = "eye discharge or mucus"; "me" = "eye",
> "kuso" = "shit". Of course there's also "hanakuso" = "nasal discharge
> or
> snot" ("hana" = "nose"). I think many languages have this sort of word
> for
> these substances.
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>

Yes, I would expect that to be true. But I had in mind the specific
term, "catbutter," which makes no obvious sense - why "cat" and why
"butter"? - and is extremely limited in its use. Nevertheless, it seems
to find a kind of echo in German "augenbutter," which makes slightly
more sense, given that "augen-" at least means "eye-."

-Wilson Gray