New retroacroetymythostupidnym

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>So *maybe* "pogy bait" was originally parsed as "pogy as bait" rather than
>"bait for pogies" (cf. "boy toy" = "boy as toy" vs. "toy for boys"). Then
>as the expression moved beyond New England fishermen the halieutic sense
>was lost, and "pogy bait" was reinterpreted as "bait for (semantically
>opaque) pogies". Then of course "pogy" needed to be made transparent, so
>it was reinterpreted to mean someone who could be easily lured. Presto!
>
>OK, it's a bit far-fetched. But if this conjecture pans out, shouldn't we
>call this chain of reanalysis a semantic bait-and-switch?

It's not so far-fetched IMHO, although I myself tentatively consider it
less likely. Note that "pogy as bait" and "bait to attract pogies" are not
the only possibilities, in principle. Cf. "jailbait", which refers neither
to "jail as bait" nor to "bait to attract jails".

-- Doug Wilson