WOTY candidate: _fracket_

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:26 PM -0500 12/27/09, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>On Sun, Dec 27, 2009 at 8:25 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>>
>>  Courtesy of my daughter--no, she wasn't referring to one from her own
>>  wardrobe, just asking if I was familiar with the term.
>>
>>  Here's one of several web entries for it, all essentially identical
>>  (including the one on urbandictionary.com), and all asserting or
>>  presupposing it as a blend of "frat" + "jacket":
>>
>>  fracket, n., (colloquial): an uncared-for, inexpensive jacket worn to
>>  a frat party as a deliberately disposable garment, which can be
>>  vomited upon, covered with beer, smeared with 'frat sludge', etc, or
>>  lost without upset.
>>
>>http://cactusractus.tumblr.com/post/292325589/fracket-n-colloquial-an-uncared-for
>>
>>  I have no idea how far back it goes, but the hits I located (among
>>  the various irrelevant entries for proper names and such) are all
>>  from the last few months.  It apparently earned a mention on NPR this
>>  weekend according to one site.  I didn't hear it live myself.
>
>It showed up in a recent episode of "This American Life" all about the
>drinking culture of Penn State:
>
>---
>http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=396
>"Ira Glass, Sarah Koenig, Lisa Pollak and Jane Feltes report on
>tailgating parties, frat parties, an article of clothing known as a
>'fracket,' and a surprising and common drunken crime."
>---
>
>("Fracket" shows up at about 13:30 in the audio.)
>
>
Just listened to this entertaining clip from this episode, which is
in fact where my daughter first encountered the word.  Now I get to
send the link to my brother and sister-in-law, since my niece is just
finishing up at Penn State.  (She's not the young woman allegedly
from Saudi Arabia talking about her tuchus.)

LH

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