tot mom

[Jonathan Lighter]

Oops! I see that Charlie and I have been commenting on "tot mom" since 2008.

But here's the observation that means you haven't wasted your time reading
this: A "tot mom" (is there still only one?) evidently must be accused of
some wrongdoing for the phrase to make any sense.

How else would you be expected to know which tot is referred to?

Is someone in the news a "tot mom" if her child is believed to have been
harmed by someone else?

Semantically you could be a tot mom if you're just a mom with a tot, but who
would use the phrase that way?

A quick glance at Google reveals no exx. of "*tot dad."  In the world.

Nothing on *tot granddad" either, though part of Anthony's "kitchen-sink
defense" is that her father's alleged sexual abuse made her incapable of
dealing with her tot's purely
accidental death.

I'd think the accusation alone would be enough to make him a "*tot
granddad."

Anyway, "tot" may be on its way to acquiring the meaning "*tragic [sic]
small child."

JL


On Thu, May 26, 2011 at 4:03 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      tot mom
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Not quite correspondent to "baby daddy."
>
> It means "the mother of the small child we in the news business say you
> should think of immediately."
>
> Nancy Grace refers without contextual buildup  to "Tot mom Casey Anthony."
>
> A four-word phrase with 101,000 raw Google hits.
>
> JL
>
> "
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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