pleeb
Victor Steinbok
aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM
Thu Aug 11 05:32:48 UTC 2011
... not in OED--because "plebe" is. But the UD meaning of either is
missing--the generalized meaning of inferior rank, raw recruit, rookie,
minion--a blend of the "plebeian" origin and the USNA use of "plebe" for
first-year cadet, freshmen. Most online dictionaries expand that use to
"military academy", in general, not just Naval. Several mention
"obsolete" reference to "common people" (Wiktionary does not mention
"obsolete").
Straight "fraternity-plebe" gets 12 ghits (a couple repetitive).
"Fraternity-pleeb" and "frat-pleeb" get nothing, but two "frat-pleb"
that means the same thing. Five more ghits for "frat-plebe".
It seems there are a few generic uses that are restricted neither to
Rome nor to military academies.
VS-)
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
More information about the Ads-l
mailing list