"clusterfrig"

Arnold Zwicky zwicky at STANFORD.EDU
Tue Apr 17 00:13:42 UTC 2012


On Apr 16, 2012, at 5:02 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

>> clusterfuck
>
> Worse than a snafu?  But not as serious as a "poschterfrig"?  (And
> what's a "poschter"?  Apparently I don't tweet enough.)
>
> And so the soldier's statement is "The war's a fucking
> clusterfuck"?  Is this a bit like "stye in my eye"?
>
> Thanks, Arnold.  I did know "frig", as in "friggin"", but I wasn't
> sure about the combination with "cluster".

check out Sheidlower 3rd ed. on clusterfuck.  first sense 'orgy'.  second:

  Military.  a bungled or confused undertaking or situation; mess …

cites from 1969 on.

arnold

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



More information about the Ads-l mailing list