"sketchy"

[Jonathan Lighter]

They are now, brother.

JL

On Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 7:47 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "sketchy"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> My interest was that Dowd's use seemed to have both connotations
> simultaneously -- "insubstantial" and "creepy".  Or at least I oscillated.
>
> And were your students main stream?  :-)
>
> Joel
>
> At 11/14/2012 07:27 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >My students were using "sketchy" it to mean "suspicious; shady; fishy"
> back
> >in 1996-97.
> >
> >JL
> >
> >On Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 7:19 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> >
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> > > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > > Subject:      Re: "sketchy"
> > >
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > makes main stream?
> > >
> > > Maureen Dowd in the NYTimes, today (Nov 14):
> > >
> > > "It is disturbing that an ethically sketchy, politically motivated
> > > F.B.I. agent could spark an incendiary federal investigation
> > > tunneling into private lives to help a woman he liked and later blow
> > > it up to hurt a president he didn't like."
> > >
> > > While "sketchy" here might mean simply "flimsy, unsubstantial" --
> > > that is, "ethically-challenged", it could perhaps just as easily mean
> > > "creepy" -- as in an F.B.I. agent who sends a woman he is not married
> > > to a shirtless photograph of himself.
> > >
> > > Joel
> > >
> > > At 11/14/2012 11:23 AM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
> > > >On Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 11:16 AM, Amy West wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > Heard in the wild last night on the Marketplace story about John
> McAfee
> > > > > (of antivirus fame):
> > > > >
> > > > > He started carrying around a gun and this "really sketched people
> out."
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > >
> > >
> >
> http://www.marketplace.org/topics/tech/web-pioneer-john-mcafee-caught-murder-mystery
> > > > >
> > > > > I've become familiar with the "creepy" sense of "sketchy" because
> that
> > > > > seems to be the first sense that comes to my students' mind when I
> use
> > > > > it (while the "vague" sense is what I intend), but now here's a
> > > > > corresponding verb with particle, where "sketch" seems to have
> replaced
> > > > > "freaked."
> > > >
> > > >See my 2010 On Language column, "Creeper! Rando! Sketchball!":
> > > >
> > > >http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/magazine/31FOB-onlanguage-t.html
> > > >"And just as you can be creeped out by a creepy person, you can be
> > > >sketched out by a sketchy person."
> > > >
> > > >--bgz
> > > >
> > > >--
> > > >Ben Zimmer
> > > >http://benzimmer.com/
> > > >
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> >"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
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