"Negro with two g's"

[Jonathan Lighter]

> Menotomy.

Halfway between Menominee and Pottawatomie.

JL

On Sun, Mar 10, 2013 at 12:43 AM, 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: "Negro with two g's"
>
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>
> Does "metonymy" fit in here anywhere?  I ask because I live in
> Menotomy.  (No, not in Monotony.)
>
> Joel
>
> At 3/9/2013 09:29 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
> >On Mar 9, 2013, at 2:13 PM, Geoffrey Nunberg wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > *PS It doesn't seem quite right to describe phrases like "the
> > N-word" as euphemisms, though that usage seems to be pervasive
> > (see, e.g., the Wikipedia entry for "nigger"). To say that "A" is a
> > euphemism for "B" is to say that A denotes politely what B denotes
> > rudely, but in this case the words are not co-extensive: "A"
> > denotes "B" not B's.  Is there a name for this type of expression?
> > >
> >Well, increasingly it does seem to be used to denote B's, maybe
> >because of the inevitable confusion of use and mention, maybe
> >because of exigency/taboo avoidance:  "X called Y an/the N-word"
> >seems to function exactly like any other god-fearing euphemism,
> >although to be sure in other contexts "the N-word" is used to refer
> >to the word, not its referent.  I guess the real shift from
> >whatever-we-call-it to a true euphemism would be when X can actually
> >hurl "You N-word" at Y as an epithet.  I wouldn't be surprised to
> >learn that this transition has already been made.
> >
> >LH
> >
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