Ghost poop, husband-in-law, and other "family words"

[Wilson Gray]

Thank you for the answer and the correction, Benjamin. Given my
experience that "Dixon" is more common than "Dickinson," I shouldn't
have let myself be thrown off by the spelling, "Dickson." Even the
first person that I met named "Nixon" spelled it "Nickson"!

-Wilson

On 7/18/07, 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: Ghost poop, husband-in-law, and other "family words"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 7/18/07, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Does Dickinson include words for the genitalia, the anus, female
> > breasts, excrement, and other less-openly discussed subjects? These
> > are the things that are most likely to have names peculiar to a
> > family.
>
> I'm guessing no, since Dickson (not Dickinson) apparently collected
> these words on call-in radio shows. Can't imagine that either the
> callers or the radio hosts would be too eager to discuss those taboo
> subjects.
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
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