"knock up" --usage

[Lal Zimman]

I definitely agree with you here, Fritz. To me, "knocked up" implies
that the pregnancy was unwanted (or at the very least unplanned) and
that the expectant mother is probably not married to the person who
impregnated her. Definitely not the sort of thing to be tossed around
at a church picnic.

-Lal

On Sep 19, 2005, at 1:26 PM, FRITZ JUENGLING wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       FRITZ JUENGLING <juengling_fritz at SALKEIZ.K12.OR.US>
> Subject:      Re: "knock up" --usage
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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>
> Recently I was at a  church picnic. I was standing around with my
> wife and several other people chatting about the usual stuff.  One
> of the women, about 30 years old, in the group was pregnant.  A
> man, about 50, came and joined the group and the first thing he
> said was, speaking to the pregnant lady "Well, I see you got
> knocked up!"  He thought he was quite (in the American sense of the
> word) funny.  I thought that remark was extremely rude and
> inapropriate.  My question, am I just a prude or was this really
> just the remark of a jerk?
> Would appreciate any comments.
> thanks,
> Fritz
>
>