Heard on "Aqua Team Hunger Force"

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Thu May 21 20:11:20 UTC 2009


At 4:07 PM -0400 5/21/09, Wilson Gray wrote:
>Aaarrrggghhh! I didn't mean "Bundesbahn"! That's the railroad. I meant
>"Autobahn."
>
>-Wilson

Oh, OK.  I was just thinking this gave a whole new meaning to "the
wrong side of the tracks".

LH

>---
>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>-----
>-Mark Twain
>
>
>
>
>
>On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 4:01 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>  Now, the replacement of "cop a squat" by "pop ...," that seems more
>>  like an eggcorn." Or not, since the reference is to sitting anywhere
>>  other than in a chair. Whereas, for me, "cop ..." is to sit anywhere,
>>  but primarily in / on a chair. ? You never know.
>>
>>  For me, to "cop ..." refers to taking a seat anywhere, but primarily
>>  in / on a chair. Down home, the sight of a woman squatting, more or
>>  less in public, behind a bush or, in Germany, at least into the
>>  '60's, of women squatting alongside the Autobahn, in order to
>>  eliminate bodily wastes, the use of "cop a squat" relevant to this
>>  meaning had never occurred to me. Yet, it's so obvious.
>>
>>  WRT to the Autobahn, males merely stood with their backs to the flow
>>  of traffic, though there probably were occasons when a male, too, had
>>  to cop a squat Karler Art.
>>
>>  -Wilson
>>  ---
>>  All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>>  come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>  -----
>>  -Mark Twain
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>  On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 12:49 PM, Chris Blankenship
>>  <c.n.blankenship at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>-----------------------
>>>  Sender: ?  ?  ?  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>  Poster: ?  ?  ?  Chris Blankenship <c.n.blankenship at GMAIL.COM>
>>>  Subject: ?  ?  ? Re: Heard on "Aqua Team Hunger Force"
>>>
>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>  In the late 80s early 90s near Nashville, I knew several people who
>>>  used the phrase "pop a squat" to indicate sitting somewhere other than
>>>  in a chair. A toilet might have applied in this case. Seems like a
>>>  logical step.
>>>
>>>
>>>  On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 11:03 AM, Matthew Gordon
>>><gordonmj at missouri.edu> wrote:
>>>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>>-----------------------
>>>>  Sender: ?  ?  ?  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>>  Poster: ?  ?  ?  Matthew Gordon <gordonmj at MISSOURI.EDU>
>>>>  Subject: ?  ?  ? Re: Heard on "Aqua Team Hunger Force"
>>>>
>>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>>>  Wilson's subject line is nicely eggcorny. The show is _Aqua TEEN Hunger
>>>>  Force_ but the characters act as a team. Well, not really, but
>>>>it's the part
>>>>  of the premise that they're a team of detectives.
>>>>
>>>>  Google shows that Wilson is not alone is his reanalysis.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  On 5/14/09 12:31 AM, "Wilson Gray" <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>  "Carl," a white, animated-cartoon character says:
>>>>>
>>>>>  "I gotta _cop a squat_"
>>>>>
>>>>>  and literally squats behind a bush in order to ? _take a dump_.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  I've known "cop a squat" in BE with the meaning, "have a seat," since
>>>>>  ca.1955. ? I heard it used, once, with that same meaning by a white
>>>>>  person, to wit: Richard Belzer, in an episode of Homicide : Life on
>>>>>  the Street, ca.1998.
>>>>>
>>>>>  This is the first time that I've heard it used with a different meaning.
>>>>>
>>>>>  -Wilson
>>>>
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>>>
>>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
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>>
>
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