A Facebook friend noting a pet peeve (UNCLASSIFIED)

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Tue Apr 30 17:22:02 UTC 2013


On Apr 30, 2013, at 12:12 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> More like  "ass butt" than "big-ass butt." But "butt butt" is less
> confusing for today's reader/listener.
>
> Cf.:
>
> 1. "If you screw up, it'll be your figurative butt!"
>
> 2. "Stop sitting on your butt butt!"
>
> JL

Or "Get your figurative butt in gear" vs. "Get your butt butt looked at by the proctologist".

LH
>
>
> On Tue, Apr 30, 2013 at 12:02 PM, Mullins, Bill CIV (US) <
> william.d.mullins18.civ at mail.mil> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill CIV (US)" <william.d.mullins18.civ at MAIL.MIL>
>> Subject:      Re: A Facebook friend noting a pet peeve (UNCLASSIFIED)
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
>> Caveats: NONE
>>
>>
>>>
>>> PS: I analyze "badunkadunk butt" to mean a "butt butt." You know, as
>>> distinguished from a "gun butt." "pork butt," "archery butt," etc.
>>> Wise writers are careful to specify by doubling just which sense of a
>>> potentially ambiguous noun they mean to convey.
>>>
>>> JL
>>>
>>
>> So it means "big-ass butt"?
>>
>> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
>> Caveats: NONE
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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