slang = "slang expression"

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Aug 9, 2008, at 12:30 PM, Charlie Doyle wrote:

> This reminds me of a usage that I struggle against continually and
> frantically and (it seems) hopelessly--as does a folklorist
> colleague: Our undergraduates insist on using the word "folklore" as
> a count-noun: "Is this saying [song, joke, legend, etc.] a folklore?"

these are innovations, and you might find them annoying, but the
motivation for count "slang" and "folklore" is essentially the same as
the motivation for count "e(-)mail" and "spam" (which began life as
mass nouns only): brevity.  these "countifications" provide a single-
word counterpart for the phrasal version "piece of Nmass".

mark mandel's cites also included a use of "lingo" ('alphabetic
abbreviation') that was new to me. have we mentioned this before?
(it's hard to search for in our archives, or on google.)

arnold

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