cowtailing

[Jonathan Lighter]

Today's eggcorn, tomorrow's Inglish.

JL

On Sun, Jan 6, 2013 at 9:26 PM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM>
> Subject:      Re: cowtailing
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Jan 6, 2013, at 6:20 PM, Benjamin Barrett =
> <benjaminbarrett85 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >=20
> > On Jan 6, 2013, at 6:11 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at ATT.NET> wrote:
> >=20
> >> At 1/6/2013 08:51 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
> >>> On that page, TootsNYC seems to think that kowtowing is bowing. Is
> >>> that how kowtowing is commonly understood?
> >>=20
> >> For me, depends on context.  Sense a. (To perform the kowtow) vs.
> >> sense b. (To act in an obsequious manner).  I imagine the latter is
> >> more common, but I know the former.
> >=20
> > I mean merely bowing as opposed to kneeling on the ground and knocking =
> your head on the ground (literally =E5=8F=A9=E9=A0=AD koutou =3D hit =
> head).
>
> I should have looked that up. Evidently the word is also used to mean =
> bow deeply in Mandarin as well =
> (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%8F%A9%E9%A0%AD#Mandarin).
>
> Benjamin Barrett
> Seattle, WA=
>
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