Say what?

[Wilson Gray]

It's probably lucky that I let well-enough alone. I told the Army that
I had been a laboratory assistant as a civilian. After I described
what I had done, my civvy job was determined to be "water-tender." (I
was a laboratory assistant in a steam-electric generating plant.)

-Wilson

On 10/21/07, Barbara Need <nee1 at midway.uchicago.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Barbara Need <nee1 at MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Say what?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I know of a chemist whose WWII discharge papers identified him as a
> "LAV" assistant!
>
> Barbara
>
> Barbara Need
> UChicago
>
> At 08:18 -0400 17/10/07, Charles Doyle wrote:
> >Yes, Wilson, I rememeber a grade-school teacher's carefully
> >explaining the referential distinction between the homonyms
> >"lavatory" and "laboratory." Well, they weren't exactly homonyms,
> >but confusion did occur.
> >
> >--Charlie
> >_____________________________________________________________
> >
> >---- Original message ----
> >>Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 17:06:53 -0400
> >>From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> >>
> >>Don't we Southrons usually say "labbatory," causing a certain
> >>amountof confusion with "lavatory," Charlie? :-)
> >>
> >>-Wilson
> >>
> >>On 10/16/07, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>  Did the attack occur in a larvatory?
> >>>
> >>>  --Charlie
> >>>  _____________________________________________________________
> >>>
> >>>  ---- Original message ----
> >>>  >Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 15:00:56 -0400
> >>>  >From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> >>>  >
> >>>  >Heard on TLC, spoken by voice-over guy:
> >>>  >
> >>>  >"It's like you were being attacked by _lavra_!"
> >>>  >
> >>>  >This is the second time that I've heard "lavra," but it may have
> >>>been the the same speaker, both times. I wasn't paying attention,
> >>>the first time. IAC, he not only uses metathesis, but he also uses
> >>>the singular like a non-count noun.
> >>>  >
> >>>  >-Wilson
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
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>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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