Fa-word: encountered in NPR news today

[Joel S. Berson]

At 5/28/2011 08:47 PM, you wrote:
>At 10:29 PM +0000 5/28/11, ronbutters at aol.com wrote:
>>Well, do they mean "faggot" or just "fag"? (I assume it is not
>>"fanny humper" or "fAlletio lover").
>
>Just "fag", at least in these two cases.  Maybe "faggot" would have
>been worth another 50K, or maybe the extra syllable would have been
>deemed no harm, no foul; hard to say.

Thank heavens!  I'll still be able to talk about bundling wood for
wood fires.  Or fascines.  Or burning heretics.  (Although the
deprecated sense(s) of the full "faggot" are at OED 6.a and esp. b.)

Joel


>LH
>
>>------Original Message------
>>From: David K. Barnhart
>>Sender: ADS-L
>>To: ADS-L
>>ReplyTo: ADS-L
>>Subject: [ADS-L] Fa-word: encountered in NPR news today
>>Sent: May 28, 2011 6:21 PM
>>
>>In April, basketball superstar Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers was
>>fined $100,000 by the NBA for calling a referee the Fa-word.  In May, Joakim
>>Noah of the Chicago Bulls was fined $50,000 by the league for hurling the
>>anti-gay slur at a fan.
>>
>>. Sticks and stones may break one's bones, and words themselves may not
>>hurt.  But the Fa-word sure does seem to accompany some violent behavior. To
>>many people, gay and straight, it has become another in a long line of
>>unacceptable, unsavory and unnecessary epithets.
>>
>>"Yes," says Hank Stuever, a TV critic at The Washington Post.
>>
>>
>>
>>Linton Weeks, "The Fa-Word: An Insulting Slur In the Spotlight," Around the
>>Nation on NPR [National Public Radio] (Google News), May 28, 2011, p not
>>given
>>
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>>
>>Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
>>
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>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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