New "lumpkin," "girney"

[ronbutters at AOL.COM]

Also the middle name of the linguist Peter Patrick (?), who is, I think, a descendant of the governor.

I could not find LUMKIN on Urban Dictionary.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: Dennis Preston <preston at msu.edu>

Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2007 14:15:34
To:ronbutters at aol.com
Subject: Re: New "lumpkin," "girney"


Yep. Former Gov. of Georgia.

dInIs

>---------------------- Information from the mail
>header -----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       ronbutters at AOL.COM
>Subject:      Re: New "lumpkin," "girney"
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Isn't Lumpkin an important family name in the
>American South? My memory is that there is a
>Lumpkin Ave in Athens, GA.
>Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Dennis Preston <preston at MSU.EDU>
>
>Date:         Sat, 17 Nov 2007 11:32:58
>To:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject:      Re: [ADS-L] New "lumpkin," "girney"
>
>
>And the Urban Dictionary has a rather different
>sense of "lumkin" from any of these.
>
>dInIs
>
>
>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail
>>header -----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>>Subject:      New "lumpkin," "girney"
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>OED has_lumpkin_ for an oaf in the year 1901
>>only.  But today Meredith F. Small has a
>>different idea
>>[http://www.livescience.com/history/071116-hn-baby-monkeys.html]:
>>
>>    "Nothing makes a person sound more idiotic
>>than the presence of a new baby.
>>
>>    "Our voices climb quickly into the
>>stratosphere of the human vocal range and our
>>words squeak out in a way that annoys everyone
>>within earshot.
>>
>>    "We also start to babble senseless, often embarrassing, phrases.
>>    'Oooooh, sweetums, lumpkin, cutie-cutie' "
>>
>>    Female macaques seems to make a distinctive sound around macaque babies:
>>    "Around babies, females also make a call
>>called a girney, a whining sound that apparently
>>goes well with a grunt.
>>
>>    "Sounding like wheezing, puffing calliopes,
>>females approach the mother or the baby.
>>Although they look rather scary in their
>>excitement, the noises apparently signal, 'I'm
>>no threat. I wonÌt hurt the baby.' "
>>
>>    JL
>>
>>
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>
>
>--
>Dennis R. Preston
>University Distinguished Professor
>Department of English
>Morrill Hall 15-C
>Michigan State University
>East Lansing, MI 48864 USA
>
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>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of English
Morrill Hall 15-C
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48864 USA

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