chink in the armor

[Laurence Horn]

On Aug 2, 2013, at 3:44 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:

> Even if you're going for just nationality and ethnicity, you missed quite a few. See http://www.rsdb.org/races for a broad collection, including lots for white people ("me and you"?)
>
> I also thought Lithuanians were called "Letties" or something like that. The RSDB has "Lit," but I can't find anything like "Letty" or "Litty."

Those are Latvians, no?

Lithuanians and Letts do it,
Let's do it,
Let's fall in love.

LH
>
> Benjamin Barrett
> Seattle, WA
>
> Learn Ainu! https://sites.google.com/site/aynuitak1/videos
>
> On Aug 2, 2013, at 6:30 AM, David A. Daniel <dad at POKERWIZ.COM> wrote:
>
>> OK, at the risk of getting smacked down for all sorts of social offenses,
>> here goes: Sometime between 20 and 40 years ago (best guess is mid-80's) I
>> made up a joke (yes, totally made it up from scratch which means I am of
>> even worse character than if I had simply heard it and passed it on) that
>> goes thusly: In the days of old, at grand international jousting
>> tournaments, when all the knights were riding around lancing each other, how
>> could you tell which one was the Chinese knight? Of course, everyone now
>> knows the answer: There's always a chink in his armor. Given my history with
>> this joke, and given that it has always been met by groans and guffaws and
>> instant recognition (that is, I have never, ever had a case of "huh?" from a
>> native English speaker), I consider it highly unlikely that the commentator,
>> in referring to Murdock's wife's divorce case, did not know exactly what he
>> was saying and the implications thereof, but figured he was couching it in
>> terms he could get away with.
>>
>> Footnote: I think this was probably mid-80's because at that time I wrote a
>> bunch of songs with my friend Gary (you can find the 1987 copyrights at the
>> Library of Congress), one of which was called "Honky Talk," the chorus of
>> which goes like this:
>>
>> We got wops and frogs and polacks,
>> We got slopes and gooks and chinks,
>> We got niggers, spicks and beaners
>> In greater quantities than you think.
>> We got micks and krauts and limeys,
>> We got kikes and ragheads too,
>> And the only thing that we ain't got
>> Is a name for me and you.
>>
>> If I left anyone out let me know. Unfortunately, the recording of this has
>> been lost to the mists of time. One of the other songs from the time,
>> though, is on You Tube and can be seen here, if anyone is interested:
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6vzk4nXVdY. It's called "Militant Smokers of
>> America" - I'm the one in the hat.
>> DAD
>>
>>
>>
>> Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: chink in the armor
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ---
>>
>> "You people"?
>>
>> My point is that this is an expression that is used precisely in this
>> context (to the point of becoming cliche). So, the language must change
>> in response to the ethnic identity of one of the subjects of the news
>> story? Even though the two homophones are unrelated in origin? More to
>> the point, without any actual evidence of malintent, is there any reason
>> for the association to make a stink? It's really weak tea IMO.
>>
>> We've had flare-ups over bogus etymology of "handicapped" and
>> "niggardly", among others. I'm not in favor of that list growing.
>>
>>    VS-)
>>
>>
>> On 8/1/2013 11:51 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>> On Thu, Aug 1, 2013 at 3:54 AM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>> I see no reason to suspect any untoward intent.
>>> You people never do. After all, since the use of the word, innocent or
>>> not, never has any reference whatever to you,
>>>
>>> I'm not going to bother to complete this.
>>>
>>> --
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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