"clusterfrig"

[Jonathan Lighter]

HDAS covered it in 1994 with mostly the same cites.

JL

On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 8:30 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "clusterfrig"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Apr 16, 2012, at 8:13 PM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>
> > On Apr 16, 2012, at 5:02 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> >
> >>> clusterfuck
> >>
> >> Worse than a snafu?  But not as serious as a "poschterfrig"?  (And
> >> what's a "poschter"?  Apparently I don't tweet enough.)
> >>
> >> And so the soldier's statement is "The war's a fucking
> >> clusterfuck"?  Is this a bit like "stye in my eye"?
> >>
> >> Thanks, Arnold.  I did know "frig", as in "friggin"", but I wasn't
> >> sure about the combination with "cluster".
> >
> > check out Sheidlower 3rd ed. on clusterfuck.  first sense 'orgy'.
>  second:
> >
> >  Military.  a bungled or confused undertaking or situation; mess …
> >
> > cites from 1969 on.
> >
> > arnold
> >
> On the Daily Show, Jon Stewart has long been fond of presenting updates on
> election (or more strictly nomination) campaigns under, or over, the rubric
>
> CLUSTERF*CK TO THE WHITE HOUSE
>
> LH
>
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