The m-word

[Charles Doyle]

Thanks for the links, Jesse! I'm still mystified by the evident aversion to the word (even out of context)--and the vehemence of that aversion--but at least I'm reassured that my students are consonant with the times.

I'll now remember to compliment the cook by describing her cake as exquisitely "wet" or "damp"!

--Charlie
_____________________________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:49:32 -0400
>From: Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
>
>On Thu, Oct 25, 2007 at 11:42:23AM -0400, Charles Doyle wrote:
>>
>> A student in my Shakespeare class announced that the word
>> "moist" (which I had uttered to describe Egypt in _Antony &
>> Cleopatra_) is offensive to women. Some of the other women
>> in the class concurred (not hostilely--just as a matter of
>> information for a clueless male professor). I was somewhat
>> flabergasted, and nobody would articulate a reason for the
>> offensiveness--except for one male student's eventual
>> suggestion that the word reminds women of sexual
>> arousal. That association is not at all beside-the-point of
>> my description of Egypt in the play--but why would such a
>> connotation make the word offensive per se? As far as I
>> could ascertain, "damp" and "wet" don't carry whatever
>> stigma attaches to "moist." What am I missing here?!
>
>This has been discussed in several recent posts on the Language Log:
>
>http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004835.html
>http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004896.html
>http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004993.html
>
>Jesse Sheidlower
>OED

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