Donk, Box & Bubble

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 6/17/07, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 6/17/07, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> > http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/magazine/17wwln-consumed-t.html
> > [...]
> > Technically, Scotto explains, donks are Caprices or Impalas from the
> > years 1971 to 1976. (One theory about the provenance of the name
> >
> > _"donk"_ ... _derives from a slang term for a shapely posterior_.)
>
> That is, it's a clip  from "badonkadonk." IMO, not likely, but who knows?

Yes, presumably that's it, but the NYT Mag editors were too demure to
give us the full expanded form.  Odd, since Kelefa Sanneh had a long
exegesis of "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" in the Arts section last year...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/10/arts/music/10sann.html?ei=5088&en=dfceeeb6a158679a&ex=1312862400&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss


--Ben Zimmer

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