Roots

[Alice Faber]

James Smith said:
>Greetings from SLC, home of the soon-to-end 2002
>Winter Olympics.
>
>One of the commercial crazes has been the beret-style
>hats from Roots, of Canada, that were worn by the US
>team.  They have 2002, USA and Roots embroidered on
>them  The Roots store ran out these hats soon after
>the games began, and they are being scalped at up to
>$100.
>
>But my question is:  With all the talk of "roots",
>someone told my daughter that "roots" is an Aussie
>euphemism for sex, more specificly - fornication.  Any
>truth to this?

Well, I would say "expression" rather than "euphemism" (unless you think
"screw" is a euphemism!). But other than that, she's absolutely right.

As a parenthetical, during the baseball playoffs last fall, there was a
promo from Major League Baseball containing a montage of players singing
"Take Me Out to the Ballgame", one player per line, approximately (all with
more panache than talent!). The player with the line "Then it's root, root,
root for the home team" was Australian. The consensus on the baseball
newsgroups was that this was deliberate.
--
Alice Faber                                  tel. (203) 865-6163 x258
Haskins Laboratories                              fax  (203) 865-8963
270 Crown St                                   faber at haskins.yale.edu
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