buttockses (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Gary Oldman played a white pimp (named Drexl Spivey) who was doing his
best to live a black lifestyle (dreadlocks, AAVE, referred to whites and
blacks as though he were black) in the movie "True Romance" (written by
Quentin Tarentino).  He referred to "breasteses" at least once in the
film, and in what was probably a serious way.  I can only take it to
mean that Tarentino thought this was a legit AAVE usage.

Other quotes from Drexl (from IMDB, and what purports to be an online
script):
"They got everything here from a diddled-eyed joe to damned if I know. "
"Now I know I'm pretty, but I ain't as pretty as a couple of titties. "
"Damn skippy."
"Next time you bogart your way into a nigger's crib, an' get all his
face, make sure you do it on white boy day."


> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Wilson Gray
> Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2008 4:17 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: buttockses
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: buttockses
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------
>
> Wasn't "breasteses" popularized as a joking, pswaydo-BE
> pronunciation by the old Fox TV show, _In Living Color_? My
> impression of the various sketches in which this
> pronunciation was used is that the point was that, since
> black men prefer women with back, a black guy talking about
> breasts wouldn't even know how to pronounce the word.
> (Forgive the syntax of the proceeding.)
>
> -Wilson
>
> On Feb 10, 2008 4:00 PM, Benjamin Zimmer
> <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: buttockses
> >
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > ---------
> >
> > On Feb 10, 2008 3:03 PM, Laurence Horn
> <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > > At 10:26 AM -0800 2/10/08, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
> > > >from yesterday's "wait wait ... don't tell me" on NPR,
> two uses of
> > > >"buttockses" in reference to israeli soldiers who entertained
> > > >themselves by mooning palestinians.  each soldier exposed his
> > > >buttocks; as a group, they exposed their buttockses (parallel to
> > > >"asses", "backsides", "butts", etc.).  so, a double
> plural, where
> > > >the standard form would just be plural, regardless of how many
> > > >people are involved.
> > >
> > > The reanalysis of "buttocks" as a singular is also
> supported by the
> > > spelling "buttox" (57,000 raw hits) and the occasional plural
> > > "buttoxes" (635, or twice as many as "buttockses").
> Maybe someone
> > > is now imagining that "buttox" is an ablaut variant of "botox"...
> >
> > Cf. "bollox"/"bollix"...
> >
> > And while we're on double plurals for body parts, what about
> > "breasteses" (and variants thereof)?
> >
> >
> > --Ben Zimmer
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> 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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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