porno as a count noun

[Neal Whitman]

I've heard 'porno' as a count noun meaning specificaly a pornographic movie
only a few times. I don't remember exactly where, but it always struck me as
odd. I figured it must just be common usage among makers and consumers of
pornographic movies.

I also noticed that the ads (at least here in central Ohio) are trying to
ditch the 'porno', and found this explanation:

"Remember how we told you that some markets refused to run advertisements
for Kevin Smith's new R-Rated comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno due to the
word 'porno' being in the title? Well it appears that The Weinstein Co has
altered the movie's title for some television spots in certain markets."
http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/10/19/no-porno-in-new-zack-and-miri-tv-spots/

Neal Whitman
Email: nwhitman at ameritech.net
Blog: http://literalminded.wordpress.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Lynne Murphy" <m.l.murphy at SUSSEX.AC.UK>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2008 5:46 AM
Subject: porno as a count noun


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Lynne Murphy <m.l.murphy at SUSSEX.AC.UK>
> Subject:      porno as a count noun
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Am thinking about the current film title "Zack and Miri make a porno".  I
> first heard 'porno' as a singular count noun outside the US  (it may have
> gone back to my South African days in the 90s...I can't remember--all I
> can
> remember is thinking "that's not what I would say").  The OED's (current
> 2008 draft) entry gives a plural American example as its first evidence of
> it, but the first singular one (2005) is from a UK magazine (see below).
> I'm wondering whether there's any evidence of this usage being more
> popular
> in the UK prior to the film title--or whether I'm so out of touch with AmE
> slang that I don't realize that it's very clearly  AmE import to BrE.
>
> Part of why this strikes me as British is because of the British tendency
> to say things like "have a McDonald's" (i.e. eat a McDonald's
> hamburger/meal) or "get a Starbucks".  I suppose they're not the same
> thing
> at all, but oh well, it still strikes me that way.
> (See:
> <http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2006/07/having-chinese.html>)
>
> I'm thinking about this because of my current call for nominations for
> British-to-AmE Word of the Year (and AmE-to-BrE words too).  Please
> comment
> on my blog if you have other nominations for those categories:
> <http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2008/11/words-of-year-2008.html>
>
> Ta,
> Lynne
>
>
> (The OED entry:)
> 2. A pornographic film.
>
> 1971 Daily Intelligencer (Doylestown, Pa.) 6 Feb. 10/3 Quality..gave
> ground
> to quantity with a flood of Japanese and Scandinavian pictures, some
> pornos
> and old fashioned horror flicks. 1988 tr. E. Reitz in E. Rentschler West
> German Filmmakers on Film xlv. 114 It is completely irrelevant how good
> the
> individual films are... Even the soft-core pornos..and German weepy wares.
> 2005 Uncut June 148/5 Rickard and Geko shooting a porno in their dingy
> flat
> with the help of Tess.
>
> Dr M Lynne Murphy
> Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and English Language
> Arts B135
> University of Sussex
> Brighton BN1 9QN
>
> phone: +44-(0)1273-678844
> http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
>
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