anise

Benjamin Zimmer bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU
Wed Aug 20 20:39:06 UTC 2008


On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 4:34 PM, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
>
> Accounts of the unfortunate naming of young Shithead abound in (and from) countless
> locales (all of them also "absolutely true")--along with the naming of the twin girls
> Lemonjello [l@ 'man j@ lo] and Orangejello, and the lad Nosmo King (from a sign glimpsed
> in the hospital maternity ward). The jokes often have a racist component--perhaps an
> unintended tribute the greater freedom in African American naming practices.

http://www.snopes.com/racial/language/names.asp


--Ben Zimmer

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