return to teabagging

[Victor Steinbok]

For portmanteau collectors:

Aside from the debate on whether a "teabagger" is a derogatory term or
one of endearment, there is a lot of "tea" related name calling lately.
Some of these have been around for some time, others are fairly recent.
I simply started with comments at TalkingPointsMemo.com, followed by a
brief Google search on several terms that sounded promising.

Teabagger is still, by far, the favorite. It's never going to be
possible to separate the Tea Party from "teabagging".
Teahadist is popular (5000 raw ghits, compared to mostly double digits
for the rest). One of the first to make it into the Urban Dictionary.
Teaocrat/teaocracy--this one has the benefit of being both a portmanteau
of tea[anything] and bureaucrat, as well as sounding like
"theocrat"--which, of course, many of the teaocrats are.
Tealusional--hard to make a noun out of this one.
Teaocon or Tea-con--also in UD.
Teanut--a blend of "teabagger" and "wingnut". Or just a meld of "tea"
and "nut". Also applies to some perfectly legitimate plants that have
had this name for decades, if not longer.
Tearannical--this one is actually odd. I did not find one instance of
this applying to Tea Party members. But I did find a couple of posts
where this is how someone /misspells/ "tyrannical" (both with one or two
"n") while coming from a Tea Party perspective.

Also present are a bunch of jokes on "tea party"/"teapot". One comment
starts talking about "a tempest in a teabagger... er... teapot". There
are several "tea potty" jokes, including "tempest in a tea potty" (note
the theme?). Even UD has an entry under "Tea Potty Ideology".

I'm just listing the things I found initially or thought of first and
then found instances of. I'm sure there is more.

     VS-)

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