"Nee" = or; or perhaps

[Jonathan Lighter]

My thinking exactly. It would be interesting to know how widespread this is.  WE can hope that it's a personal quirk, though.

So far.

JL

James C Stalker <stalker at MSU.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: James C Stalker
Subject: Re: =?utf-8?Q?=22Nee=22_=3D?= or; or perhaps
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How about this as a meaning shift path: nee ('formerly', as in the maiden or
previously married name of a woman) > interpreted as 'also known as' (aka) >
extended to 'perhaps'?

JCS

Jonathan Lighter writes:

> Get this:
>
> "In that glossary was the term Peola ( it may have been Pecola) it
> was many many years ago I last saw it. Peola (nee Pecola) is an young
> attractive fair skin Negro girl." -- "Broye," "Harlem Slang" (Usenet: soc.culture.african.american.moderated ) (Apr. 17, 1999).
>
> JL
>
>
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James C. Stalker
Department of English
Michigan State University


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