con

[Laurence Horn]

Um…

(Actually, _connil_ did once refer to refer to French bunnies, but was tabooed out of the language the same way, and for the same reason, that _coney_ was in English.)   _con_ (< Lat. _cunnus_) is a pretty interesting item in French, though, with its primary (nominal) meaning of 'cunt' and its secondary (adjectival) meaning of 'stupid' ("C'est con").  It was in the former sense I was thinking it might have emerged in the context of a psychoanalytic exchange, but youneverknow.

LH

On Jan 15, 2012, at 3:48 PM, Ron Butters wrote:

> but why would a psych article mention rabbits?
>
> Sent from my Droid Charge on Verizon 4GLTE
>
> ------Original Message------
> From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Date: Sunday, January 15, 2012 2:29:03 PM GMT-0500
> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] con
>
> If the psychiatric paper was written in--or quotes patients speaking in--French, another possibility presents itself.
>
> LH
>
> On Jan 15, 2012, at 2:21 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>
>> That's three now--convert, confidence game, contra ("pro and con"). But
>> there is also conservative (e.g., neocon) and convert, although each of
>> these usually appears in narrower circumstances and is not likely to
>> appear in a psychiatric paper.
>>
>>   VS-)
>>
>> On 1/15/2012 11:23 AM, ronbutters at AOL.COM wrote:
>>> Meaning "convict" (noun) or "con" 'against'?
>>>
>>> Sent from my iPad
>>>
>>> On Jan 12, 2012, at 10:24 PM, Dan Nussbaum<yekkey at AOL.COM>  wrote:
>>>
>>>> I just saw the word con used in a scientific (Psychiatric) paper. How unusual is this?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Dan Nussbaum
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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