pig as college slang(was "di?nt" (with glottal stop)

[Dennis R. Preston]

David,

A good point, and related to a common old misunderstanding of the
Society's most serious endeavor: The Word of the Year. It need not be
brand spanking new; it is a word which has come to unusual prominence
in that year. I hope we have got around this by recently declaring a
subcategory for Brand-new Word of the Year (which may, of course, go
on to win Word of the Year).

dInIs (who is in a fractious mood this year and is honing his
Word-of-the-Year debating skills to a fine edge)

>From:    Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
>: On Wed, Nov 17, 2004 at 01:56:21AM -0500, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>:: somebody else wrote:
>
>::: Of course, pig=police goes back to the 1800's.  It just reached
>::: mainstream in the 1960's, as opposed to being invented at that
>::: point.]
>
>:: Is it certain that the 19th-century slang was continuous with the
>:: 1960's US college slang? Partridge thinks so, but ....
>
>: I thought (<tm> useless suggestions) that it has been an intentional
>: coinage by the Black Panthers, not based on the earlier use.
>
>Of course, even if the Black Panther(s) who came up with the epithet
>*thought* that it was a new coinage, it may not have been. Linguistic items
>have a way of remaining below the surface, unnoticed, only to burst into
>consciousness without any of the vectors for it realizing they weren't
>coming up with something completely new.
>
>David Bowie                                         http://pmpkn.net/lx
>     Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
>     house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
>     chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African Languages
A-740 Wells Hall
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
Phone: (517) 432-3099
Fax: (517) 432-2736
preston at msu.edu