borrowing pronouns

Rick Mc Callister rmccalli at sunmuw1.MUW.Edu
Sun Mar 21 04:28:30 UTC 1999


[snip]

>  (2) Re borrowing a pronoun of one language into some other use in another
>language: etymological dictionaries say that US English "bozo" = "fool" <
>Spanish "vosotros":

	That sounds pretty farfetched. More likely it came from baboso
"drooling idiot, drooling drunken idiot, etc."

could it also be that the US English slang term of address
>and then nickname "buster" came from the abovementioned Spanish dialect
><buste'>?, and not the English for "one who busts (= breaks) things".

	I always heard buster was from "ballbuster"



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