slanderizing

[Jonathan Lighter]

Maybe she thinks of "slanderize" as meaning to "sort of slander, but not quite legally."  She was talking about Phil Spector's attorneys seeming to characterize Lana Clarkson as a crazed, suicidal freeloader.

  JL



Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: slanderizing
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I wonder whether the attorney gives any special nuance to
"slanderize," as in the case of "blackenize": modify oneself or
another person, place, or thing so that black (or African-American)
people are made psychologically comfortable. (I came across the term
in the '60's in some book or other, perhaps The Nigger Bible. I
haven't read it, but I did flip through it, once. The term didn't gain
any traction, to coin a phrase, in the "community," but I liked it
enough to add it to my lexicon.) Or perhaps it was only an unconscious
blend of "slander" with "scandalize."

-Wilson

On 6/1/07, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> Subject: slanderizing
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> An attorney on Court TV has just said, "but then they're put in the position of slanderizing someone."
>
> Not "slenderize."
>
> JL
>
>
>
>
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