return to teabagging

Paul Frank paulfrank at POST.HARVARD.EDU
Wed Nov 10 06:47:42 UTC 2010


There's also teapugs, which is similar to repugs (for Republicans). I
also came across teapugnants in the Daily Kos.

Paul

On Tue, Nov 9, 2010 at 10:46 PM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â return to teabagging
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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.
>
> Â  Â  VS-)

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