"knock up" --usage

[Jonathan Lighter]

Just within the last two nights I heard Peter Bagdonovich on Turner Classic Movies mention very casually that some celebrated actress of the forties or fifties had done something or other (obviously I wasn't paying much attention) while she was "knocked up."

I thought this was pretty crude for a classy cinematic discussion in prime time (even on cable), but evidently neither P.B. nor the TCM people shared my puritanical response.

After all, it's just "knocked" + "up."  Where's the dirt ?  (Goak.)

JL

Lal Zimman <zimman at SFSU.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Lal Zimman
Subject: Re: "knock up" --usage
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I definitely agree with you here, Fritz. To me, "knocked up" implies
that the pregnancy was unwanted (or at the very least unplanned) and
that the expectant mother is probably not married to the person who
impregnated her. Definitely not the sort of thing to be tossed around
at a church picnic.

-Lal

On Sep 19, 2005, at 1:26 PM, FRITZ JUENGLING wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: FRITZ JUENGLING
> Subject: Re: "knock up" --usage
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> Recently I was at a church picnic. I was standing around with my
> wife and several other people chatting about the usual stuff. One
> of the women, about 30 years old, in the group was pregnant. A
> man, about 50, came and joined the group and the first thing he
> said was, speaking to the pregnant lady "Well, I see you got
> knocked up!" He thought he was quite (in the American sense of the
> word) funny. I thought that remark was extremely rude and
> inapropriate. My question, am I just a prude or was this really
> just the remark of a jerk?
> Would appreciate any comments.
> thanks,
> Fritz
>
>

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