WOTY Candidate

Arnold M. Zwicky zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
Tue Jan 2 16:49:49 UTC 2007


On Jan 2, 2007, at 7:53 AM, Dave Wilton wrote:

> I didn't see this on Grant's or Wayne's lists, but a word that I think
> should be seriously considered is "macaca."
>
> ... Not sure that it's a good fit for any of the usual sub-
> categories. Possibly
> most euphemistic.

euphemistic?  on the obscure side, but it still means '[kind of]
monkey'.

> Least likely to succeed is also possible as I don't think
> it will retain currency except as a historical reference.

that seems very likely to me.  it had its (very significant) moment,
but i can't see people having a use for it aside from reference to
that moment.  has anyone recorded uses of "macaca oneself" or "be
macacaed" meaning 'condemn oneself out of one's own mouth' or
something similar?

arnold

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