"close line"

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:47 PM +0000 2/1/09, ronbutters at aol.com wrote:
>This suggests to me that ho is not rare ; mu ex-wife said this too.
>Or maybe I married your ex-gf?

Ha.  Sadly, though, these innocently whimsical back-formed singulars
(for "ho", not "clo") are now victims of the fell circumstance of
taboo avoidance.  (Actually, there would be potential for taboo
avoidance in the other case too, but only for German-English
bilinguals; in German "Klo"  = 'toilet', as in [water] clo[set]; cf.
the classic (early '80's) explicit gay autobiographical film "Taxi
zum Klo".)

LH

>------Original Message------
>From: Bill Palmer
>Sender: ADS-L
>To: ADS-L
>ReplyTo: ADS-L
>Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "close line"
>Sent: Feb 1, 2009 2:27 PM
>
>my girlfriend from many decades ago used to refer (not entirely seriously)
>to one stocking as a "ho" (or maybe "hoe"), as the singular form of "hose"
>
>Bill Palmer
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Arnold Zwicky" <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
>To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Sent: Sunday, February 01, 2009 10:51 AM
>Subject: Re: "close line"
>
>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail
>>  header -----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
>>  Subject:      Re: "close line"
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  On Jan 31, 2009, at 11:22 AM, Larry Horn wrote:
>>
>>>>
>>>  But there's occasion for further eggcorning/reanalysis of e.g. "put
>>>  on your clos(e)", as attested by children who refer to a single
>>>  article of apparel as "a clo".  (For some adults, a clo is also a
>>>  unit for measuring the insulation value of clothing.)
>>>
>>>  Maybe it's not just children (although I first became aware of it
>>>  that way in the wild).  I see the urban dictionary has this entry for
>>>  CLO:
>>>
>>>  A single piece of clothing; a shirt, a hat.
>>>  "What are you getting Amy for Christmas?" "Oh, I don't know;
>>>  probably a clo."
>>
>>  joining "kudo", "gyro", "bicep", "homosapien", "parenthesee" and
>>  "indice" and similar items discussed here back in august, the
>>  historical "pea" and "cherry", and others.
>>
>>  arnold
>>
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