Poontang and Tagalog

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

I think that POONTANG is a verb of motion in Tagalog. This is not to say that 
I am proposing an etymology here, though when in graduate school I first 
discovered the Tagalog form I was delighted with fantasies of World War II 
soldiers inventing a new slang term by borrowing while stationed in the Phillipines. 
But if there are citations from the 1930s, then we'dhave to push this kind of 
an etymological connection back to the Spanish American War Isoem 40 years 
earlier).


In a message dated 7/23/04 12:23:45 PM, zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU writes:


> On Jul 22, 2004, at 11:47 PM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
> 
> > ...I have serious doubt as to whether "poontang" generally has/had any
> > racial
> > overtone at all. This is a little complicated and I won't go into it
> > now.
> 
> i can vouch for a race-neutral usage (by a college friend from
> louisville, ky., who occasionally announced, "i'm goin' to get me some
> poontang tonight", and occasionally did; everybody involved was white).
>   i believe others can vouch for a race-restricted usage.  i doubt that
> there's real evidence as to which usage was/is "general"; it's very
> likely to be a matter of usage varying across times and places and
> social groups.
> 
> arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)
>