new (or unfamiliar to me) words from undergraduates

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:20 AM -0800 12/31/03, Gwyn Alcock wrote:
>"Moded" may be (related to) "moted", which we used ca. mid-1980s, meaning
>having done something futile, embarrassing, or generally stupid. I have no
>idea where it came from.
>
>The pronunciation of the t was blunted until it sounded like a d. (We used
>to argue about the spelling, but general agreement was that it was spelled
>with a t.)
>
>Real-life example, spring 1986:
>Woman (a neighbor of mine in the dorms) yelling to the unknown thief who'd
>broken into her car and stolen the stereo:
>"Ha, ha, moted! Stole a car stereo that doesn't work!"
>
>Gwyn Alcock

Interesting.  For me, "moded" and "moted" are indeed homonyms, both
with a voiced flap, but I can't find hide nor hair of either of them
in RHHDAS and I'm virtually certain I've never come across either
before with this meaning.  Is this regional?  Where was the dorm in
question? Anyone else have an origin for this one?  I did find an
entry on an online slang dictionary supporting my student's (and
Gwyn's) intuition, but it doesn't help with either the distribution
or origin:

moded   adj   1. messed up, weird. ("My computer got all moded and
then it crashed.")   2. embarassed. Usually used after someone does
something stupid. ("Now don't you feel moded!")  Submitted by Emily
Marcroft, UC Berkeley, USA, 20-02-1998.

larry

>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
>Of Laurence Horn
>Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2003 11:28 AM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: new (or unfamiliar to me) words from undergraduates
>
><snip>
>
>Some current slang terms with which I was unfamiliar:
>
>_(to be/get) moded_ 'mocked, made an ass of'
>
><snip>
>
>Larry