childfree

[Dan Goncharoff]

"Fat-free" certainly does not do the job in English. Something that is "98%
fat-free" has 2% fat.

I don't know what 98% childfree would mean...

DanG


On Fri, Jan 31, 2014 at 6:59 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: childfree
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I thought of that, Larry, but then I realized somebody would have to know
> history and some weird foreign language for it to resonate.
>
> "Germ-free," "fat-free," and gluten-free" (not to mention "carefree") do
> the job in English.
>
> JL
>
>
> On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 7:43 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: childfree
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On Jan 30, 2014, at 7:17 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >
> > > The Wackipedia article on CNN anchor Carol Costello remark (under
> > "Personal
> > > Life") that "Costello is childfree."  Period.
> > >
> > > The word was featured on the cover of Time last summer, though there it
> > > modified "life" rather than a named person.
> > >
> > > In Wacki it means "having and wanting no children."  Contrast
> > "childless."
> > >
> > > Fair enough, but the suffix "-free" in this case seems a little creepy.
> >  As
> > > though to gloat, "Thank God I don't have any of those little brats!"
> (Cf.
> > > "germ-free.")
> > >
> > Or "Judenfrei".
> >
> > LH
> >
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