Heard on Futurama: semantic drift?

[Dave Wilton]

No, I think "tip" here is being used in the sense of "deal" or "thing."

I've heard it elsewhere, notably in an episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer,
which would be roughly contemporaneous with Futurama (c.1999). I can't find
the exact quote, but Buffy says to Giles something like, "I'm no good at
research, that's your tip."

Wouldn't be an example of BE, though. You can't get much whiter than Buffy.

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Wilson Gray
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 6:39 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Heard on Futurama: semantic drift?

Robot BE-speaker:

"I ain't down with this 'Kwanzaa' _tip_ [there being only a single
Kwanzaa gift, a booklet entitled, "What Is Kwanzaa?"]!"


Presumably, "'Kwanzaa' _tip_ means "'Kwanzaa' bullshit" or some such.

In 'Sixties Los Angeles,

"That ain't nothin' but a _bullshit tip_"

was a common expression meaning something like, "That's a dumb idea";
"You actually went for that okey-doke?!" etc. It appears that _tip_
alone has taken over the meaning of _bullshit tip_.

-Wilson
 --
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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