Ben's rando, Virginia's retronyms

[Dan Goncharoff]

Where does the change-o of presto-change-o belong?
DanG

On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 11:06 AM, Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Ben's rando, Virginia's retronyms
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>
> Surely the following term must be added to this list of harsh
> pejoratives: SpaghettiOs
>
> More seriously (some of these are not truncations): freako, schizo,
> loco, bozo, nutso, (fatso pattern mentioned earlier)
>
> jacko and wacko jacko - nickname for Michael Jackson (Urban Dictionary)
>
> On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 10:20 AM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: Ben's rando, Virginia's retronyms
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Point taken.
> >
> > "Psycho" doesn't quite fit the pattern; it was originally short for
> > "psychoneurotic," as anyone picking up the third volume of HDAS would be
> > able to see for himself if such a volume existed. It dates back to World
> War
> > I in that sense, but didn't become general and crazier for another
> > twenty-five years.
> >
> > The -o of "wino" may be different, though "wino" goes back to the
> twenties.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 10:13 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu
> >wrote:
> >
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> >> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> >> Subject:      Re: Ben's rando, Virginia's retronyms
> >>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> At 8:28 AM -0400 10/31/10, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >> >Did I mention "convo" (conversation), heard a week or so ago? "To keep
> the
> >> >convo going."
> >> >
> >> >This "-o" business has been going on in Australia more than here for at
> >> >least fifty years.
> >> >
> >> >JL
> >>
> >> But with the pejorative flavor of the ones mentioned below?  There
> >> may be a more general process of truncation + -o as in "convo" that I
> >> think is not the same as the human -o slurs involved in "rando" and
> >> its "wino/wacko/weirdo/pscyho"-type sponsors.
> >>
> >> LH
> >>
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >On Sat, Oct 30, 2010 at 11:57 PM, Laurence Horn <
> laurence.horn at yale.edu
> >> >wrote:
> >> >
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> >> >>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> >>  Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> >> >>  Subject:      Ben's rando, Virginia's retronyms
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >> >>
> >> >>  In his "On Language" column in this weekend's Times Sunday Magazine,
> >> >>  Ben Z writes about student slang, citing the master (Connie Eble)
> and
> >> >>  others, and discusses "rando" (for a sketchy random stranger).
> >> >>  Something that strikes me about this form is that while looking
> >> >>  superficially as though it's formed from truncating "random",
> "rando"
> >> >>  is yet another derogatory -o label, as in "weirdo", "fatso", "wino",
> >> >>  "psycho", and such.  I figure there must be a paper on these
> >> >>  somewhere in American Speech but a quick web search instead pulled
> up
> >> >>  this summary by Mikael Parkvall on Linguist List:
> >> >>  http://linguistlist.org/issues/9/9-360.html.  (some interesting
> >> >>  cross-linguistic observations therein)
> >> >>
> >> >>  Two pages later, Virginia Heffernan's touching eulogy to the
> >> >>  old-fashioned telephone is rife with retronyms, from the standard
> >> >>  ("analog landline telephone") to the recondite ("wireful"), and
> >> >>  "rotary" must be in there somewhere.  Reminds me--this time of year
> >> >>  you can't follow football without hearing more than you ever wanted
> >> >>  to know about the "human polls".
> >> >>
> >> >>  LH
> >> >>
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> truth."
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