Xsters

[Laurence Horn]

On Jan 30, 2012, at 4:30 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:

> James Wimberley comments on the RBS bonus fallout:
>
> http://goo.gl/FKsy
>> In another glimpse into the entitlement world of the banksters, the
>> /Sunday Times/ (yesterday, p.25, paywall) quotes the chairman of a
>> rival bank sounding off indignantly
>
> "Bankster" sounds like a put-down to me. On par with hucksters,
> pranksters, gangster,

--and mobster.  But probably not lobster; they're not tasty enough.

LH

> monsters and ministers (OK, I'm kidding about the
> last two). I suspect that mocking Xster terms have been "derived" from
> "gangster". But 1) are most of them really mocking? (aside from the old
> formations that happen to have the same coincidental ending) and 2) is
> it really related to "gangsters"? It almost sounds like a variant of the
> mocking -er generalizer (birther, tenther, deather, etc.)
>
>    VS-)
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org