"ironyms"

[Laurence Horn]

OK, a top-post this time, so you can skip the earlier post if it's
still fresh in your mind.  We had the exchange below recently about
what I call (not "ethnonyms" but) "ironyms"; examples are "Welsh
rabbit", "Bronx cheer", "prairie oyster", and the examples Bill
Palmer cites below.  Some independent evidence for the
appropriateness of the term comes from a novel I've been reading,
Lawrence Block's _Hit List_ (2000), p. 138:

"What I don't get", she was saying, "is where they get off calling it
Long Island Iced Tea. There must be half a dozen different kinds of
booze in it, but is there any tea at all?"

"You're asking the wrong person."

"No tea, she decided. "Are they being ironic? Like this is what they
drink for tea on Long Island?"

LH

At 7:49 PM -0500 2/26/09, Laurence Horn wrote:
>At 6:28 PM -0500 2/26/09, Mark Mandel wrote:
>>On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 4:01 PM, Laurence Horn
>><laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>>>  At 3:42 PM -0500 2/26/09, Bill Palmer wrote:
>>>>  ...
>>>>  ? In US English many are ethnic -based, such as
>>>>"Indian giver", "Dutch courage", "Chinese
>>>>fire-drill", "French leave", "Irish pennant"
>>>>(this one may be unique to the US Navy).
>>>>
>>>>How many others are there? ? I'm wondering if
>>>>this is uniquely American. ? Probably not, but
>>>>are we more predisposed to it?
>>>>
>>>>Bill Palmer
>>>
>>>  Many many. I posted on this a few years back and
>>>  suggested calling them "ethnonyms".
>>
>>Except that "ethnonym" has a well-established use as "A proper name by
>>which a people or ethnic group is known; spec. one which it calls
>>itself." (OED) For the latter subsense I prefer "aut(o)ethnonym".
>>
>>m a m
>>
>
>Oops.  Actually I didn't suggest calling them "ethnonyms".  What I
>suggested calling them was "ironyms".
>Here are some sample posts from 2003 and 2005:
>
>http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0302B&L=ADS-L&P=R6524&I=-3
>
>http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0504A&L=ADS-L&P=R9493&I=-3
>...

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