A Facebook friend noting a pet peeve (UNCLASSIFIED)

Benjamin Torbert btorbert at GMAIL.COM
Tue Apr 30 17:26:29 UTC 2013


http://xkcd.com/37/


On Tue, Apr 30, 2013 at 12:22 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: A Facebook friend noting a pet peeve (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Apr 30, 2013, at 12:12 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> > More like  "ass butt" than "big-ass butt." But "butt butt" is less
> > confusing for today's reader/listener.
> >
> > Cf.:
> >
> > 1. "If you screw up, it'll be your figurative butt!"
> >
> > 2. "Stop sitting on your butt butt!"
> >
> > JL
>
> Or "Get your figurative butt in gear" vs. "Get your butt butt looked at by
> the proctologist".
>
> LH
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Apr 30, 2013 at 12:02 PM, Mullins, Bill CIV (US) <
> > william.d.mullins18.civ at mail.mil> wrote:
> >
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill CIV (US)" <
> william.d.mullins18.civ at MAIL.MIL>
> >> Subject:      Re: A Facebook friend noting a pet peeve (UNCLASSIFIED)
> >>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> >> Caveats: NONE
> >>
> >>
> >>>
> >>> PS: I analyze "badunkadunk butt" to mean a "butt butt." You know, as
> >>> distinguished from a "gun butt." "pork butt," "archery butt," etc.
> >>> Wise writers are careful to specify by doubling just which sense of a
> >>> potentially ambiguous noun they mean to convey.
> >>>
> >>> JL
> >>>
> >>
> >> So it means "big-ass butt"?
> >>
> >> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> >> Caveats: NONE
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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