More on "punk"

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:17 PM -0700 6/14/05, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>"Punk" is another one of those homosexual words that originally
>referred to women.
>
>JL

specifically = 'harlot' (so Farmer & Henley), e.g in Measure for Measure (v.i):

She may be a punk, for many of them are neither maid, widow, nor wife.

Similarly Johnson, Chapman, Congreve, etc.

Larry

>James Smith <jsmithjamessmith at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: James Smith
>Subject: More on "punk"
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>“Cell Survivor, A former inmate breaks down the myths
>and realities of prison life”
>by John Bowers.
>
>Salt Lake City Weekly, April 28, 2005
>
>There are two words every convict immediately learns
>to remove from his vocabulary: “Punk” and “Bitch.”
>However cute or funny they sound rolling off the lips
>of a favorite comic or movie star, calling someone
>your homosexual slave is an instant declaration of war
>and invitation to a fight, your beating or your own
>murder. These two terms are not used in the same way
>as they are in the free world. It can be elementary
>school name-calling on a deadly level.
>
>
>(NOTE from J Smith: it wasn't clear in the SL Weekly
>if this was an original piece for SL Weekly or picked
>up from another source.)
>
>
>
>James D. SMITH |If history teaches anything
>South SLC, UT |it is that we will be sued
>jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com |whether we act quickly and decisively
>|or slowly and cautiously.
>
>
>
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