antedate for 'taboo', "linguistic prohibition"

[Jonathan Lighter]

You misundercomprehend me, Ben. I spoke figuratively, like poetry talk but in a humor way.

  JL

Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
Subject: Re: antedate for 'taboo', "linguistic prohibition"
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On 9/29/07, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> As late as 1959 or 1960 I read or was told that "The United States is..." was "incorrect."
> But not even I fell for that one.
>
> The controversy was a well-known cause of the Civil War.

Uh, yeah, well...

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002663.html


--Ben Zimmer

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