work 'plastic surgery'

Shapiro, Fred fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU
Sun Aug 7 22:16:16 UTC 2011


I don't move at all in "plastic surgery" circles, but I have been familiar with this usage for years.

Fred Shapiro



________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Charles C Doyle [cdoyle at UGA.EDU]
Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2011 11:09 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: work 'plastic surgery'

Has this newish usage been discussed here?  (I can't find any such discussion in the ADS-L archive, and I don't see it in UrbanDictionary either.)   Evidently, we are expected to understand "She (or He) has had some (or a little) work done" to be a sort of euphemism for "Her face has undergone surgical improvement."

--Charlie

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



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