A Facebook friend noting a pet peeve (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Laurence Horn]

On Apr 30, 2013, at 1:26 PM, Benjamin Torbert wrote:

> http://xkcd.com/37/
>
>

As in "That's a sweet ass to risk" > "That's a sweet *"?

LH

> On Tue, Apr 30, 2013 at 12:22 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:
>
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: A Facebook friend noting a pet peeve (UNCLASSIFIED)
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> 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:
>>>
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>>>> 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
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>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>> truth."
>>>
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