mid-rift

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:56 PM -0800 2/27/02, Kim & Rima McKinzey wrote:
>In today's SF Chronicle, in a sad story about a 17 year old girl who
>is missing, there is a quote from the girl's uncle quoting a
>witnesses observation:
>
>"He described the red mid-rift shirt she was wearing."
>
>A new one on me, unless this is simply a mistake and he meant midriff.
>
>Rima

Well, I'm sure he meant what WE mean by midriff, but he probably
really did mean midrift, just like those responsible for the other
937 googled cites did.  I don't know at what point a new entry is
needed in such cases, but there does seem to have been a reanalysis
here on the part of a number of speakers.  There's a "Midrift Heaven"
web page, a scholarly study of the battle armor protecting the
midrift, midrift-length fur coats, midrift minidresses, and so on.
(I'm not sure everyone has the same idea of the relevant geography of
the midrift, or indeed the rift itself.)

Google does ask, in its petulant way, "Did you mean to search for
MIDRIFF?", and "midriff" by comparison has about 43,900 hits, but I
would guess "midrift" is gaining on it.

larry