juxtaposition (v.)

[Jonathan Lighter]

So let me get this straight. It's okay to refer to women as "girls" as long as your brain is spelling it "grrls" and they're babeular. Is that right ?

JL

Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
Subject: Re: juxtaposition (v.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Tue, 20 Sep 2005 23:39:36 -0400, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:

>>From a recent addition to the Snopes urban legend website:
>
>-----
>http://www.snopes.com/katrina/photos/whatswrong.asp
>These photographs may not actually depict what their captions proclaim,
>but they do represent a general sort of truth. Whether that truth matches
>the social commentary implied by their juxtapositioning is another
>matter.
>-----
>
>Nothing in OED/MWCD/AHD/RHUD for "juxtaposition" as a verb. Exx. of the
>verbal noun "juxtapositioning" and the participial adj. "juxtapositioned"
>are fairly common on the Web. Oftentimes these forms are apparently just
>fancy ways of saying "positioning"/"positioned" (cf. "quintessential" =
>'essential', "penultimate" = 'ultimate', "epicenter" = 'center', etc.).

OED3 does actually have a cite for "juxtapositioning", under "grrrl"...

-----
1998 Entertainm. Weekly 1 May 76/4 The juxtapositioning gets at the heart
of the grrl politic: A woman can be fun and babeular and still be sharp.
Like a kitten with a whip.
-----


--Ben Zimmer

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