N-bomb

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:24 PM -0400 9/1/04, Wilson Gray wrote:
>On Sep 1, 2004, at 8:53 AM, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
>>Subject:      Re: N-bomb
>>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>--------
>>
>>On Wed, Sep 01, 2004 at 08:14:05AM -0400, Kristina Eisenhower wrote:
>>>I am a doctoral student in Second Language Acquisition and a new
>>>subscriber to this list.  If I can be so bold to ask: what the fuck
>>>is the "n-bomb"?
>>
>>The word _nigger_.
>>
>>Jesse Sheidlower
>>OED
>>
>
>No shit?! To quote Johnny Carson, "I did not know that." Yesterday, I
>did a quick Google of "n-bomb" and got the impression therefrom that it
>stood for "n[uclear]-bomb." So, how is this other "n-bomb" used and who
>uses it?

Again, the locus classicus (as for "dropping the f-bomb") is the
field of athletic endeavor, but presumably any white (or non-black)
person who uses it as a slur against a black person, in the latter's
presence, could be described as dropping an/the n-bomb on the
recipient.  I'm not sure it would ever count as bomb-dropping when it
occurs in the context of in-group usage (whether as "nigga" or
"nigger").

>BTW, I heard a man describe himself as a "cheap drunk." That's not
>precisely "cheap _date_," but it's close enough for government work.
>Furthermore, I heard my own wife use "to not VP." Fortunately, we have
>a home defibrillator kit, so I was able to survive the ensuing
>myocardial infarction.

I'm assuming she used an actual verb phrase after the negative rather
than the node label...

L