"bromance"

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Mar 26, 2008, at 8:27 PM, Larry Horn wrote:

> ... When I was trying to think of other blends/portmanteaux we've
> discussed here that combine the 'man' with a stem, or possibly a
> 'bro-' as in the current case, or (I'm sure there are a bunch of
> these) just an initial 'm-', all I could remember was "manzeer"
> (a.k.a. "bro", for a male brassiere, from the Seinfeld episode).  I
> know there are a bunch of other cases, especially for cases in which
> the male protagonist is somehow marked, like 'male nurse/prostitute'
> or the more recent 'male masseuse' [sic], only involving just the m-
> of man/male instead of the full phrase or compound.  Can anyone help
> fill in my blank?

ADS-L discussion in march 2007, begun by mark peters on 3/21/07 with
an initial list of "man words":

   http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0703C&L=ADS-L&P=R6523&I=-3

from "man bag" ("man-bag", "manbag"; also "man purse", "man-purse",
"manpurse") through "murse" 'man purse' or 'male nurse'.

my contribution, on 3/22/07:

   regrettably, to go along with "mangina" and "manhole", many many
hits for "man-pussy" and "man-cunt", with reference to gay men's
anatomy. "man-cunt" also has hits in the sense 'man who is a cunt --
worthless, stupid, etc.'

(in a somewhat different vein, "mancrush" or "man crush" and "man
date", both  involving straight guys.)

earlier discussion, initiated by Carl Burnett on 9/30/05:

  http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0510A&L=ADS-L&P=R239&I=-3

arnold

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