Nutter (was: preggers)

[Damien Hall]

No correspondence on the unintentional pun in the subject-line here will be
entered into.

Just as a PS to the discussion I began last week about the status of _-ers_
in _preggers_ (for which many thanks!): talk soon turned to the word
_nutter(s)_ and the status of _-er(s)_ in it, and someone pointed out that
the Mayor of Philadelphia was Michael Nutter. Last week's thread raised the
fact that _nutter_ was a known but not common word in AmE, where the more
usual forms would be _nutjob_ or _wingnut_.

The fact that _nutter_ with that meaning isn't common in AmE meant that it
was below the radar of the Philadelphia _Metro_ headline-writer who came up
with 'Nutter endorses Clinton' during the Democratic primaries. I lived in
Philadelphia at the time: how I laughed.

Damien

--
Damien Hall

University of York
Department of Language and Linguistic Science
Heslington
YORK
YO10 5DD
UK

Tel. (office) +44 (0)1904 432665
     (mobile) +44 (0)771 853 5634
Fax  +44 (0)1904 432673

BORDERS AND IDENTITIES CONFERENCE, JAN 2010:
http://www.york.ac.uk/res/aiseb/bic2010/

http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/lang/people/pages/hall.htm

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