"Nigga" untrademarkable?

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Mar 18, 2006, at 2:17 PM, Alison Murie wrote:

>>> I think it was Bob Dole who started this small-d democrat.
>>
>> Even if it was (as it appears) around before him, Dole did a lot for
>> the usage, especially in his hatchet service as vice-presidential
>> candidate when he railed about WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam
>> conflict as "Democrat wars".
>>
>> L
>  ~~~~~~~~
> FWIW, my  feeling about this use of "Democrat"  where "Democratic"
> would be
> expected was meant to  suggest that "democratic" was unearned &
> therefore
> should be denied by right-thinking Republicans.  My impression is
> that it
> goes back farther than Dole, but I can't pin down my first
> awareness of it.

i recalled widespread use by Republicans in the 50s and 60s, and
geoff nunberg on Language Log ("Making the world safe from
'democracy'", 10/16/04) confirms this:

   http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001565.html

(and takes things back another half-century, roughly.)

ah, Recency!

arnold, wondering if he can book the Recency Suite at the next LSA

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