George Lakoff (and others) on "foodie"

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

> You'd think a more relevant example might be "hippie",
> "Yippee", or even "commie", where an Xie is someone
> adhering to the X philosophy or an aficionado/true-believer
> in X.

Yippee is derived from the acronym of Youth International Party. A
similarly acronymic word would be yuppie derived from "young urban
professional". Foodie is not based on an acronym, but it might be
connotatively or demographically related to yuppie.


On Tue, Jul 1, 2014 at 10:53 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: George Lakoff (and others) on "foodie"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Ah, Trekkie, that's the one that was eluding me.  Thanks, Ben.  So =
> trekkie : trekker :: Trotskyite : Trotskyist.  I like Geoff's =
> 'enthusiast of ___ gloss too.
>
> LH
>
>
> On Jul 1, 2014, at 10:15 AM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>
>> On Tue, Jul 1, 2014 at 9:31 AM, Geoffrey Steven Nathan wrote:
>>>=20
>>> On Tue, Jul 1, 2014 at 9:21 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>>>=20
>>>> =
> http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/01/opinion/beyond-foodie-its-about-our-valu=
> es.html
>>>> [see embedded link for the Mark Bittman op-ed at issue]
>>>>=20
>>>> Note that Lakoff's argument presupposes that the -ie of "foodie" is =
> the
>>>> same suffix that we have in "Barbie", "baggie", "birdie", "hoodie", =
> and
>>>> "selfie", but none of these are quasi-agentives the way "foodie" is, =
> and
>>>> other than the -ie or -y hypocoristic for names (Barbie, Georgie,
>>>> Billy,..), the others are diminutives for non-human objects. You'd
>>>> think a more relevant example might be "hippie", "Yippee", or even
>>>> "commie", where an Xie is someone adhering to the X philosophy or an
>>>> aficionado/true-believer in X. (There are probably other examples =
> I'm
>>>> not remembering. Anyone else?) These may well be trivializing, but
>>>> it's not just the -ie form that's responsible for trivializing and
>>>> pejoration; we've spent some time knocking around the -er of =
> "truther",
>>>> "birther", etc. for 'adherent of the X conspiracy', also . I agree =
> with
>>>> the following letter suggesting that "foodist" might be the best =
> choice,
>>>> unless it's too reminiscent of "nudist" (given the rhyme) or
>>>> "naturist".
>>>=20
>>> I agree with Larry's intuition that the -ie suffix is not the =
> hypocoristic suffix
>>> in 'Suzie'. It strikes me as more like 'Yalie'--with some kind of =
> enthusiast
>>> connotation. Like Larry I can't think of other examples, but COCA =
> probably
>>> has some. Don't have time right now to construct the right kind of =
> search.
>>=20
>> For "X-ie" =3D 'enthusiast of X', the example that comes most readily =
> to
>> mind is "Trekkie". (Of course, Trekkies themselves prefer "Trekker".)
>>=20
>> Steven Poole complained about the "cloying, infantile cuteness" of
>> "foodie" a couple of years ago in his book "You Aren't What You Eat",
>> excerpted here:
>>=20
>> =
> http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/sep/28/lets-start-foodie-backlash
>>=20
>> Poole too prefers "foodist", which he says was "used from the late
>> 19th century for hucksters selling fad diets (which is quite apt)." He
>> sardonically describes a foodist as one who "operates under the
>> prejudices of a governing ideology, viewing the whole world through
>> the grease-smeared lenses of a militant eater."
>>=20
>> --bgz
>>=20
>>=20
>> --=20
>> Ben Zimmer
>> http://benzimmer.com/
>>=20
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org