pejoration of "stuff?"

[Douglas Dee]

In a message dated 5/23/2007 11:30:20 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
laurence.horn at YALE.EDU writes:

>Maybe unadorned stuff is pejorating, but it hasn't gone too far yet.
>Snapple is still, we are told, "made from the best stuff on earth".
>The top two such stuffs appear to be water and high fructose corn
>syrup.  Or actually, maybe not--they never say it's made from *only*
>the best stuff on earth, so maybe they're just referring to the water.

>LH

I recall a commercial for a competing brand of bottled tea that used "stuff"
pejoratively, referring to Snapple's slogan.  Noting that Snapple was made
from powdered tea rather than directly from tea leaves, the commercial referred
to the "stuff" (undisolved powder) that can be found at the bottom of a Snapple
bottle.  It urged consumers to try the competing tea without "stuff."

--Doug




************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org