btdub(s)

Geoff Nathan geoffnathan at WAYNE.EDU
Thu Dec 10 21:03:48 UTC 2009


Actually it did take off in Canada, where it's frequently pronounced 'triple double-u', for example on radio and TV stations giving out URL's.

Geoff

Geoffrey S. Nathan
Faculty Liaison, C&IT
and Associate Professor, Linguistics Program
+1 (313) 577-1259 (C&IT)
+1 (313) 577-8621 (English/Linguistics)

----- "Steve Kl." <stevekl at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> From: "Steve Kl." <stevekl at GMAIL.COM>
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Sent: Thursday, December 10, 2009 3:37:54 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
> Subject: Re: btdub(s)
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Steve Kl." <stevekl at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: btdub(s)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> There were proposals at some point to get people to pronounce "www"
> as
> "trip-dub," I recall, but it never took off.
>
> - Steve
>
> On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 3:24 PM, Benjamin Zimmer <
> bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> > Subject:      btdub(s)
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > I was talking to a college student journalist about the effects of
> > "text-speak" on spoken language, and she mentioned the usual
> suspects,
> > "LOL"
> > (pronounced "loll") and "OMG" (pronounced "oh-em-gee"). But she
> also
> > mentioned the expression "btdub" (pronounced "bee-tee-dub"), derived
> from
> > "BTW" ('by the way'). UrbanDictionary has entries for the more
> common
> > "btdubs" (variously spelled) back to 2004:
> >
> > http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=btdubs
> > http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=btdubz
> > http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=btdubbs
> > http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bt+dubs
> > http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bee-tee-dubs
> >
> > And here's a Usenet example from 2002:
> >
> > ---
> > http://groups.google.com/group/alt.music.ween/msg/666fd224428be865
> > alt.music.ween, May 13, 2002
> > Btdubs, Pittsburgh kicks Phile's ass as far as cities go, sorry
> Ween, but
> > it's true.  Go Steelers!
> > ---
> >
> > I don't think this one's been discussed here before, but I'd wager
> it's
> > shown up in elicitations of student slang from Larry, Connie, et
> al.
> >
> >
> > --Ben Zimmer
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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