More for the "bro-" files: "brony"

[Neal Whitman]

You're right: It's in there. It took me two more readings to catch it. I apologize for the carelessness.

Neal

On Dec 20, 2011, at 8:29 AM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: More for the "bro-" files: "brony"
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>
> On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 7:08 AM, Neal Whitman <nwhitman at ameritech.net> wrote:
>>
>> Wow, I must not have been paying attention, because I missed all these! (Although
>> it seems to have been edited out of the Boston Globe column.)
>
> Which column? MIne has: "New online subcultures reveled in
> self-conscious weirdness: Witness the _bronies_, grown male fans of
> the �My Little Pony� franchise." Erin's has: "Perhaps the most
> unlikely bro- blend is Bronies, used to refer to male fans of the �My
> Little Pony� television cartoon and toys--a phenomenon whose
> surprising existence was recently reported in The Wall Street
> Journal."
>
>
>> On Dec 20, 2011, at 1:50 AM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>>>
>>> On Dec 19, 2011, at 10:30 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 12:02 AM, Neal Whitman wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> My son told me about "bronies", i.e. grown male fans of My Little Pony. More
>>>>> information at:
>>>>> http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/06/bronies-my-little-ponys/
>>>>> http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bronies
>>>>> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203707504577012141105109140.html
>>>>
>>>> Noted by Larry back in September:
>>>>
>>>> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1109C&L=ADS-L&P=R8190
>>>>
>>>> ...who suggested it was a "a viable 'least likely to succeed'
>>>> candidate" for ADS WOTY. I included it on my WOTY nominee list for its
>>>> sheer oddity:
>>>>
>>>> http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/3066/
>>>> http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2011/12/18/what-talked-about/a3UP8sPAFziCmRnLIOjtcJ/story.html
>>>>
>>>> See also Erin McKean on brofixing:
>>>>
>>>> http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2011/12/02/the-secret-language-bros/kd1q6tKQxO15hxMYWQSirO/story.html
>>>>
>>>>> I find the portmanteau "brony" interesting because in words like "bromance"
>>>>> (and in most other portmanteau and compound nouns) the second element is the
>>>>> head: A bromance is a kind of romance; a motel is a kind of hotel. In
>>>>> contrast, a brony is not a kind of pony, but a kind of bro.
>>>
>>> and briefly noted here:
>>>
>>> http://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2011/09/20/dubious-bromanteau/
>>>
>
> --
> Ben Zimmer
> http://benzimmer.com/
>
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