"um-weird"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Many years ago when the list was young someone began to refer to erotica as
"um, literature."  E.g.: "The word maily shows up in certain sorts of, um,
literature"
Wilson may have been involved in this.

After a while, it seemed reasonable to make "um" a prefix meaning something
like "pornographic, erotic." Now it can be affixed to adjectives as well.

That's Inglish forya.

JL



On Sat, Sep 12, 2009 at 10:45 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "um-weird"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 9/12/2009 09:20 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >Let me put it this way.  "Goblin Market" is so um-weird ...
>
> Jon, would you define "um-weird" for me?  I assume, since it is
> repeated thrice, you did not mean "un-weird" or "ur-weird".
>
> Urban dictionary doesn't define it yet, but tells me that this is close:
>
> Lyv     5 up, 13 down
>
> A really weird person
> Lyv is um weird
> get this def on a mug Mug
> by Lyv Feb 24, 2003
>
> Unfortunately, Lyv doesn't tell us what she means by "um weird".
>
> Joel
>
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