antedating tit (and other things) (UNCLASSIFIED)

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Wed Nov 7 02:37:38 UTC 2012


On Tue, Nov 6, 2012 at 5:28 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> "bubs"

I was sixteen before I came across this one for the first time. Since
I was hearing it only from another BE-speaker, I internalized it as
_bulbs_. It wasn't till I stumbled across _bub_ in HDAS that I thought
of [b^b] except as _bulb_. IME, this word is passing rare in BE - it's
never been part of my active vocabulary - and I'd bet money that those
few of us who do use it are thinking "bulb," as I was, and not "bub."
WTF does _bub_ mean? The semantic extension from _bulb_ is, like,
"obvious."

--
-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

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