a games

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Sun Aug 22 03:51:38 UTC 2004


Just noticed again how often they've been using "Games" as a singular
during the Olympics coverage.  It makes sense--

X has had a disappointing games
Y has tied the record for the most medals in a single games

--and so on, but it still sounds weird.

Pretty disappointing On Language column this weekend, I thought--on
"Chickspeak", supposedly au courant lingo among "young urban female
hipsters", but most of the terms strike me as either unlikely to
succeed (_mousewife_ for 'male housewife' [sic--wasn't _househusband_
standardized for this role ages ago?) or old hat (_mouse potato_).
One, "guyatus" ('a hiatus from guys') I actually  first encountered
in one of my students' New Word Journals last year, so for all I know
that one is pretty new.  I guess "Fatkins"(self-explanatory) isn't
too bad.

larry



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