"close line"

[Chris Waigl]

On 1 Feb 2009, at 20:10, Laurence Horn wrote:
>
> Ha.  Sadly, though, these innocently whimsical back-formed singulars
> (for "ho", not "clo") are now victims of the fell circumstance of
> taboo avoidance.  (Actually, there would be potential for taboo
> avoidance in the other case too, but only for German-English
> bilinguals; in German "Klo"  = 'toilet', as in [water] clo[set]; cf.
> the classic (early '80's) explicit gay autobiographical film "Taxi
> zum Klo".)

_Klo_ is assorted with only a very mild level of taboo, though. I'd
put it close to BrE _loo_, ie it's a perfectly acceptable word, often
the word of choice even, in an informal setting. When I avoid _Klo_ in
German it would be more of a question of register than of taboo
avoidance.

Chris Waigl
as a sidenote

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