Teabag (was RE: more on -er (UNCLASSIFIED))

Garson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Fri Dec 4 06:55:40 UTC 2009


Benjamin Zimmer said:
> 1998 was when "teabagging" entered pop culture via the John Waters
> movie "Pecker". Here's a clip:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi9hgqZr6fs
>
> And here's some discussion by Waters:
>
> http://www.bostonphoenix.com/archive/movies/98/08/06/JOHN_WATERS.html
>
> But references can be found on Usenet back to 1994 at least:
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/alt.sex/msg/a20798bb3a6b8155
> "Teabaggin'," alt.sex, Jan. 22 1994
>
> --Ben Zimmer

Thanks. Tea, tea party, and Boston Tea party all have slang meanings
involving excretion, sex, or drugs. But I have not seen this mentioned
in the coverage of the term teabagging. Some denotations are elevated
and others are ignored.

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