A sign of the Apocalypse?

[Wilson Gray]

On Apr 5, 2005, at 8:34 AM, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
> Subject:      Re: A sign of the Apocalypse?
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> On Tue, Apr 05, 2005 at 07:49:48AM -0400, Orin Hargraves wrote:
>>>
>>> Today, Judge Judy said ",,, established that he is the _baby_
>>> father."
>>> Hopefully, this was just a lapsus linguae.
>>>
>>> -Wilson Gray
>>
>> Or alternatively, she made a natural transference from "babymother"
>> -- which
>> is pretty well established -- or counteralternatively, in her spare
>> time (one
>> assumes she has lots) she has been watching episodes of BBC2's
>> Babyfather.
>
> _baby father_ is in the OED. We weren't given enough context to know if
> JJ was using this usage, dropping the possessive, or what.
>
> Jesse Sheidlower
> OED
>

"Babyfather" is also in the OED and appears to be as well-established
as "babymother." But, of course, Jesse is the expert wrt the OED. In
whatever way the good judge may have meant this usage, of all the
possibilities, it's probably least likely that she was stating that it
had already been established that "he" is a baby that is also the
father of another baby.

Clearly, it's not likely that there's anyone here who has a funnybone
the size of a telephone pole. More's the pity. Sigh!  How could anyone
accept as serious the (implied) claim that Judge Judy has dealt with so
many BE- and LatinE-speakers that her own grammar has been
affected/infected? Come on, now, y'all!

-Wilson Gray