"um-weird"

[Baker, John]

Looks like it was Jon himself, http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0506B&L=ADS-L&P=R13174.  Um-friend, of course, is older.
 
 
John Baker
 

________________________________

From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Jesse Sheidlower
Sent: Sat 9/12/2009 11:04 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "um-weird"



On Sat, Sep 12, 2009 at 11:00:43AM -0400, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> 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.

I think the original was "um-friend", from "This is my, um,
friend," and IIRC this was well before Wilson's involvement in
the list (but I'm too lazy to search right now).

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

> 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
> > -----------------------
> > 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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