slang list

[Laurence Horn]

>I speak French that you do not want to  hear. Once I quaked in
>linguistic horror as I entered a French pharmacy to buy the athlete's
>foot medicine I so sorely needed. Would it be medicine for the "foot
>of the athlete" (the English model), or the "mushrooms of the foot"
>(the German model). I could say both in French, but which to say?
>What a dilemma!
>
>dInIs

I'd have gone with "athlete's mushrooms" myself.

L

>
>>         Note that these have different characteristics.  "Halitosis" and
>>"B.O." were coined names for recognized problems that already had names
>>("bad breath" and "body odor," respectively).  The new, euphemistic name
>>made the problem less of a social stigma, allowing the consumer to
>>safely buy a product to combat it.  "Athlete's foot" (instead of "foot
>>fungus") is in this category too.
>>
>>         "Ring around the collar" and "tattle-tale gray," on the other
>>hand, were coined terms to address a phenomenon that previously had
>>barely even been perceived and did not have its own name:  that clothes
>>washed in laundry soap did not get as white as clothes washed in modern
>>detergents.
>>
>>John Baker
>>
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
>>Of Laurence Horn
>>Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2005 2:44 PM
>>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>Subject: Re: slang list
>>
>>>There were a lot of these anxiety-producing expressions in ad writing
>>>in those days:
>>>"Halitosis" (Listerine)
>>>"B.O." (Lifebuoy)
>>>"Tattle-tale Gray" (Fels Naptha soap)
>>>"Pink Toothbrush" (Can't remember who promoted this worry) There was
>>>some shaming term for dandruff which I have forgotten, promoted by
>>>Fitch's Shampoo.
>>
>>And let's not forget "Ring around the collar", an insidious and
>>generally fatal disorder, curable only by I forget which product.
>>
>>>Not that the technique began or ended there, but these I remember as
>>>being more or less contemporaneous with "gaposis."
>>>
>>>A. Murie
>>>
>>>~@:>   ~@:>   ~@:>   ~@:>
>
>
>--
>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