They're as self-centered as we are!

[Wilson Gray]

The only cases that count are the ones in which _knick_ is used as
slang for "steal" by Americans. I.e,. the UK writer, in writing to an
American Web magazine, is assuming, American-style, that *all*
speakers of English are going to be familiar with a slang term
peculiar to his own variety of English. I'd bet a fat man that most
Americans reading his note had not the least idea what the writer
meant by "... borrow, (some would say 'knick') ..."

-Wilson

On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 4:58 PM, Chris Waigl <chris at lascribe.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Chris Waigl <chris at LASCRIBE.NET>
> Subject:      Re: They're as self-centered as we are!
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 3 Nov 2009, at 20:28, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
>> From a Britspeak letter to the editor of ZDNet:
>>
>> ... " 'borrow' (some would say _'knick'_)" ...
>>
>
> A few thousand GHits for ["I|he|she|you|we knicked"]. Both in the
> sense of "cut slightly" ("I knicked my leg|scrotum while shaving") and
> "steal" ("We knicked a Tesco trolley to use as a barbeque").
>
> Best,
>
> Chris
>
>
> --
> Chris Waigl -- http://chryss.eu -- http://eggcorns.lascribe.net
> twitter: chrys -- friendfeed: chryss
>
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>



--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

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