accusative cursing

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 4/11/07, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> At 9:25 PM -0400 4/10/07, James C Stalker wrote:
> >Laurence Horn writes:
> >>
> >>a.k.a. "nekkid"?
> >>
> >If you wish, but since it isn't a real word, who cares about the spelling?
>
> Not a real word?  "nekkid" has 822,000 raw google hits.  That doesn't
> necessarily make it a real word, but it does seem to suggest it's a
> real semi-standardized variant of one (cf. "purty", "nucular").  We
> need the double -k- in "nekkid" (rather than spelling it "nekid") to
> denote ['nEkId] rather than either ['nE(y)kId] (= the standard
> pronunciation of "naked") or ['nIkId] (the standard pronounciation of
> "knee-kid").

It's also in OED3 (Sept. 2003 draft entry), with cites back to 1977.


--Ben Zimmer

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