OT: pejorativers

[Joel S. Berson]

I fell out of my chair laughing, and could hardly stop.  Not being as
perceptive as some, it took me a second or two to see it as a typo.

And no, it is not a definition of a clinical term (aren't they more
likely to be capitalized acronyms?).   "Perjnaps" certainly looks and
sounds pejorative to me.  Even begins with the same
sounds.  Perjury?  Kidnappers?  Dirty lying kidnappers?  (Although
its definition is a letdown.)  And I sensed a criticism of people who
are "likely to make up odd names for things they don't approve of".

In any case, I felt I would not be able to let this go and stop
laughing until I passed it on to someone else.  Punch, brothers, punch ... .

Joel

At 11/23/2009 12:28 PM, ronbutters at AOL.COM wrote:
>PERJNAP is not a term that I am familiar with. I think it is hard
>not to see it as a typo for PERHAPS. But even if one construes it as
>a noun, why would it have to be construed as pejorative (hey, it
>doesn't end in -er or -nik). Wouldn't it make more sense to see the
>phrase after PERJNAP to be a definition of a clinical term PERJNAP?
>------Original Message------
>From: Laurence Horn
>Sender: ADS-L
>To: ADS-L
>ReplyTo: ADS-L
>Subject: Re: [ADS-L] OT:  pejorativers
>Sent: Nov 23, 2009 11:42 AM
>
>At 3:30 PM +0000 11/23/09, ronbutters at aol.com wrote:
> >Huh?
>
>Note the **highlighted** elements below.  I thought it was pretty
>funny myself, even if your message (and typos) were taken a bit out
>of context and even if I've never personally seen you go around
>calling everyone a perjnap...
>
>LH
>
> >------Original Message------
> >From: Joel S. Berson
> >Sender: ADS-L
> >To: ADS-L
> >ReplyTo: ADS-L
> >Subject: Re: [ADS-L] OT:  pejorativers
> >Sent: Nov 23, 2009 9:20 AM
> >
> >At 11/22/2009 09:39 PM, RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
> >  >  and (2) **people are perjnaps**[,]
> >  >more **likely to make up odd names for things they don't approve
> >of** than things
> >  >they do.
> >
> >Clearly Ron doesn't approve of people.  8-))
> >
> >Joel
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> >
> >Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
>Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org