purple drank, lean

[Wilson Gray]

When I first ran across this "garden implement" thing, my immediate
assumption was that the writer was merely being facetious. However,
I've since seen it used so many times by so many different
European-American newspaper columnists that I've been forced to
conclude that the authors don't know any better and are actually quite
serious.

As for these columnists being confused by the lyrics of some random
hiphop song that make no apparent connection between "garden tool" and
"whore," I find it that rather less than likely.

It strikes me as obvious that a judge would have to distinguish
between [ho] meaning "hoe" and [ho] meaning "whore" in any kind of
legal proceding.

But, of course, one never knows.

-Wilson

On 9/30/06, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: purple drank, lean
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 9/30/06, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > What cracks me up is the large number of members of the print media
> > who believe that "[w]ho[re]" is actally "hoe," judging by the fact
> > that many columnists and op-ed journalists make serious references to
> > "calling women gardening implements," et sim.
>
> I can't say I've ever seen that sort of gloss used non-jocularly. But
> if there's any confusion, perhaps it comes from an inability to
> appreciate lyrics like these:
>
>     Jenny teased my homeboy Granny
>     In fact she teased so many
>     She was known as a garden tool.
>     --De La Soul, "Jenifa Taught Me" (1989)
>
> Then again, a circuit court judge felt the need to distinguish "ho"
> and "hoe" last year...
>
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0505A&L=ADS-L&P=R8802
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is knows how deep
a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our
race. He brought death into the world.

--Sam Clemens

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