'Texes' as plural of 'text (message)

[Ron butters]

as I have reported here several times, the "testes" thing was a joke in the minds of certain college freshmen in Hillcrest Dormitory at the University of Iowa in 1958. If silly puns are simple-minded enough, they will be invented over and over.

Sent from my iPad

On Feb 4, 2012, at 2:56 AM, W Brewer <brewerwa at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> Circa 1980, I made a pun about UCLA Lx faculty & exams, and how the
> professors handled their testees during exams. So, I claim this as an
> original pun, and gazillions of other punsters no doubt would make the same
> claim. I also came up with gaydar (using radar to locate gays) and butt
> plug (use your imagination), only to hear Dr House come up with the same
> expressions. I invented linguistic tsunami a few years ago, and notice it
> popping up elsewhere. Spontaneous polygenesis or rip-off? Who really
> invented Verner's Law?
>
> On Sat, Feb 4, 2012 at 5:27 AM, Michael Sheehan <wordmall at aol.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> When I was teaching in the City Colleges of Chicago (southeast
>> campus), I would frequently be asked how many testes I would be giving
>> during the semester. I always wanted to answer, "I'm keeping both of
>> mine," but figured it politic to stifle that.
>>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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