"Poon tang" in the Philippines?

[Randy Alexander]

On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 10:57 AM, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net> wrote:

> A while back I noted on this list that French "putain" is not the only
> plausible etymon for "poontang", that Tagalog "puta[ng]" (apparently
> from Spanish "puta") provides another candidate with similar evidential
> support (i.e., about none). Somebody noted that there was no indication
> of any connection with the Philippines. Now I see a little connection --
> slim, and undesirably late, and not decisive or conclusive at all ...
> but then where is the decisive connection to any French-speaking place?
>

It's certainly plausible.  Tagalog {-ng} is much like English {-'s}, so the
meaning would be "whore's".

--
Randy Alexander
Xiamen, China
Blogs:
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