Clashing slang

[ronbutters at AOL.COM]

What about Tom and Jim? And can Mary bang Sally? Can Mary diddle a pony?
------Original Message------
From: Laurence Horn
Sender: ADS-L
To: ADS-L
ReplyTo: ADS-L
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Clashing slang
Sent: May 17, 2010 5:54 PM

At 4:59 PM -0400 5/17/10, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>That's... uhm ... interesting. I am used to "diddle" as more colloquial
>for the technical "molest". I suppose, it's just as asymmetric as "bang".
>
>     VS-)


Is that really true?  To use Prof. Quang Phuc Dong's celebrated diagnostic,

"John and Mary diddled each other for an hour"
"John and Mary banged each other for an hour"

The first seems more natural to me.  YMMV, as may John's and Mary's.

LH

>On 5/17/2010 3:29 PM, ronbutters at AOL.COM wrote:
>>In Iowa in the 1950s he did not bang her, he DIDDLED her.
>>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


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