Whiz & names (UNCLASSIFIED)

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Wed Sep 26 00:18:53 UTC 2007


At 5:59 PM -0500 9/25/07, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
>Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
>Caveats: NONE
>
>And why, for that matter, is it "take" a whiz?  I always _leave_ one,
>myself . . .
>

Same reason one takes a piss, a shit, a dump,...  (Leaving any of
these would be quite different, implying inter alia failure to flush.)

LH

>  >
>>  FWIW, though I've heard it since ca.1960 and understand "take a whiz,"
>>  what I say is, "take a leak." Now, if we all switched to the
>>  latter, it would obviate the problem. ;-)
>>
>>  -Wilson
>>
>>
>Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
>Caveats: NONE
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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



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