"Commercial" words (WAS: plural people)

Victoria Neufeldt vneufeldt at MERRIAM-WEBSTER.COM
Thu Apr 20 19:07:11 UTC 2006


Victoria Neufeldt
727 9th Street East
Saskatoon, Sask.
S7H 0M6
Canada
Tel: 306-955-8910


> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
> Of sagehen
> Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2006 9:36 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "Commercial" words (WAS: plural people)
>
> Depends what you consider "wild."  There was an item on
> this morning's news
> regarding some scam or other that served "to launder money."
> Acc. OED, it's been around since late 16th Cent., possibly
> a back formation
> from "laundry," which had been around from early 15th.
> AM
>
Okay, I admit that the laundering of money is alive in the "wild".
But I can't imagine saying, "I'm going to be laundering my sheets this
morning." And I agree about 'washday product'.  ("I've run out of
washday product" or "Did you try that new washday product?" do not
work!)

Victoria

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