preggers

[Wilson Gray]

Wasn't there once a movie about him under his original surname? Not
The Egg and I, but something more nearly artistic.

-Wilson

On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 12:12 PM, Laurence Horn<laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: preggers
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 10:55 AM -0400 8/11/09, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>>On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 10:47 AM, George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>
>>wrote:
>>>
>>>  This is perhaps an example of what is called, I think, the "Oxford 'er' -- a
>>>  practice among Oxford students of forming words by truncating a
>>>standard word
>>>  and adding 'er' -- "brekkers" (breakfast)?  I have only dim memories of
>>reading
>>>  a discussion of this, by an author who who took the practice as
>>>representative
>>>  of English slang, compared its inanity with the vigor of American slang, and
>>>  decided that we need look no further for the reason why the sun set upon the
>>>  British Empire.
>>
>>More here, with many examples:
>>
>>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_%22-er%22
>>
> But these Oxonian -ers, like the names mentioned by others
> (Craiggers, Meggers, Douggers)*, are nouns.  The real contenders have
> to work as adjectives, the way "preggers" and "bonkers" do.   I think
> these might work (all googled examples, but not in profusion):
>
> I almost got kicked out by security for making the crowd go too
> nutsers with the camera.
>
> the select button went wankers
> the North Koreans went wankers
>
> It worked perfectly the first time I tried it before installing on
> the remote computer when it went wackers
> Somebody e-mail or call or write or sumpin' afore I go wackers, ya hear?
>
> LH
>
>
>
> *And Eggers, as in Dave; obviously he started out as Dave Egg.
>
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--
-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.
-----
-Mark Twain

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