From Slashdot

[David A. Daniel]

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Barnhart
Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2007 7:24 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: From Slashdot


American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> writes:
>
>If someone else mentioned this and I missed seeing it, then sorry. But...
>I
>have long wondered why we have a Secretary of de-FENSE and a Department of
>de-FENSE, but all sports have DEE-fense. I mean, this is universal, right?
>At a football game the crowd universally does not yell "de-FENSE,
>de-FENSE,
>de-FENSE", and Rumsfeld universally was not the secretary of DEE-fense.
>Yes?
>No?
>DAD
>

>Well, I'm not sure I can express this succinctly. Here goes.

>The emPHAsis on the first sylLAble in DEEfense is to EMphasize the
>contrast with OFFense in the vicinity of the grid iron.

Ah. Then, as it is pronounced in the vicinity of the gridiron, for reasons
of contrast, so it shall be repeated on Sports Center?
For reasons of...
solidarity?
Or perhaps for reasons of recognition by those who heard DEEfense in the
vicinity of the gridiron and wouldn't know what deFENSE was if they heard it
on Sports Center? (BTW, I prefer the standard rendering of gridiron as one
word. But that's just me.)

>By the way, since Bush is so preemptively offensively minded, should we
>not rename the DoD the Doo (pun on dog excrement intended)?

Yeah, I like the pre-euphemistic War Department, myself, though it lacks pun
power, unless we were to think of it as the Dubya Department.
DAD



Regards,
David

barnhart at highlands.com

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