"fish" (was Re: "moist")

[Jonathan Lighter]

> We can agree that _fish_ 'woman' comes from _fish_ 'fish.'  The
> semantic details remain obscure.

Along with the actual frequency and distribution of the term. And
that, I should think, is that.

JL


On Tue, Nov 8, 2011 at 4:05 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "fish" (was Re: "moist")
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>

>
> An olfactory explanation of _fish_ would be far more plausible if
> dismissive, metonymic, olfactory  designations for  certain kinds of
> people were common, but they're not. While I've heard crude masculine
> allusions to the odor in question, I can't say that I've encountered
> them more than three or four times in my entire life as a guy.
> Non-olfactory terms for women, some highly disdainful, are of course
> extremely common.
>
> I believe that the alternative line of development that I suggested
> has at least the virtue of being more semantically conventional.  But
> the 8/7,000,000,000 of the world's population that really cares about
> this matter will have to draw their own conclusions, or else develop
> their own theories.
>
> JL
>
> On Tue, Nov 8, 2011 at 1:52 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
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>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: "fish" (was Re: "moist")
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> On Nov 8, 2011, at 1:39 PM, Charles C Doyle wrote:
>>
>>> Ron wirtes, "I can't think of a slang term for codgers that is based on the putative urine smell of old people, but if there were one (there perhaps isn't only because  piss doesn't smell like anything but piss), I woudn't think of it as neoFreudian."
>>>
>>> Growing up in Texas, I always used to hear that Pearl Beer tastes like horse's piss (and I used to wonder who did the taste test).  Perhaps (reversing the direction of the figure) codgers could be termed "Pearlies."  NonneoFreudianly, of course.
>>>
>> Or as Pearls.  Allowing one to hold open the door for one's elders while announcing "Pearls before swine".
>>
>> LH
>>
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