reporter's license

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 11:44 AM, Randy Alexander
<strangeguitars at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 11:40 AM, Victor <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4BQ06I20081231
> >
> > ...The agents struggled to hold back people trying to get closer to snap
> > pictures of Obama eating a tuna and melted cheese sandwich and the
> > *girls enjoying shave ices*, a local treat made from finely shaved ice
> > and fruit syrup.
>
> "Shave ice" is pretty common now, though it definitely wasn't when I was
> growing up.  I think I first became aware of it after I moved to China,
> which was in 2002.

And "shave ice" is the standard form in Hawaii, where the Obamas were
vacationing. We've learned about this in much the same way as we
learned from the Palin coverage that Alaskans call snowmobiles
"snow-machines".


--Ben Zimmer

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