'mo = homo

[Lynne Murphy]

> On Mar 5, 2004, at 11:53 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>
>> I had thought 'za and 'rents were relatively recent undergraduate
>> slang, but when we were discussing these as exceptions to
>> generalizations on clipping last fall, one of my undergraduate
>> students suspected, and then confirmed, that it was part of his
>> father's active usage since the latter's undergraduate days...

I learned 'rents from my 30-something Resident Director when I was a
Resident Assistant at UMass in 1985/86 (I remember the 'eureka' feeling
when I gleaned what it means). I particularly remember her using it in
discussions about coming out, so it could've come to her via gay/lesbian
subculture or the in loco parentis subculture of resident
directors/assistants (or elsewhere...).

Lynne



Dr M Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics

Department of Linguistics and English Language
Arts B133
University of Sussex
Falmer
Brighton BN1 9QN
>>From UK:  (01273) 678844
Outside UK: +44-1273-678844