"_Auroch_, aurochs"?!

[Jonathan Lighter]

I wonder if "point-blank" was inspired by "dead on!" or "right on!"

As for "auroch," what's next? "Hydroc"? "file boc"?

Inglish am a-comin'!

(Disclaimer: That was Inglish, not AAVE.)

JL

On Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 4:04 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      "_Auroch_, aurochs"?!
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> According to the article below, in *English* English, no less,
> _aurochs_ is now a plural. This shift may not be news to most others,
> but, to me ... <sob!> I'm sorry. I can't go on.
>
>
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/7011035/Giant-cattle-to-be-bred-back-from-extinction.html
>
>
> Heard on The Judges:
>
> Early-twenty-ish black male speaker:
>
> "Point-blank!" = Precisely!
>
> Late-twenty-ish black male speaker uses, of a woman, _turnout_, to
> mean "outrageous flirt." He also, speaking of the same woman,
> sneeringly used "her _little_ boody" as part of his derisive
> description.
>
>
> -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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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