No Such Word

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Mon Sep 13 04:24:45 UTC 2010


On Sat, Sep 11, 2010 at 12:37 PM, George Thompson
<george.thompson at nyu.edu> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â No Such Word
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I get the impression that there are no other horse-players among us, so it will no doubt be news to most of you that there is a very successful filly now racing called "No Such Word".
> http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/58379/no-problem-for-no-such-word-in-monmouth-oaks
>
> Lexicographers who may want to bet her in her next outing will have to take very short odds.
>
> GAT
>
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

You're a playa, George?! Who knew?!

Actually, in BE as I know it, anybody who's a player in any sense of
the word is a "playa."

Just heard on Childrens [sic] Hospital, something about

"getting a *real* college-boy to help a _colored brother_ out!"

spoken by Richard Corddry, the producer, director, chief writer, and
lead-character of the show.

Methinketh that "colored fellow" or "colored man" sounds more natural.
Or maybe even just "brother." IME, "brother" has been used with the
meaning, "black dude," by the white hipperati since 1970. At UC Davis,
at least.

-Wilson Gray

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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