early "tits"--now 'bullamacow'

Wed Jun 11 10:03:32 UTC 2014

It will be interesting to trace how it got to Texas, but /bulmakau/ is Tok Pisin for 'beef', so it is indeed used beyond Marshall, Texas (although only a short distance beyond the Marshall Islands).

OED cites it from 1887 with the meaning 'cattle' as well as 'beef'.

Geoffrey S. Nathan
Faculty Liaison, C&IT
and Professor, Linguistics Program
http://blogs.wayne.edu/proftech/
+1 (313) 577-1259 (C&IT)

Nobody at Wayne State will EVER ask you for your password. Never send it to anyone in an email, no matter how authentic the email looks.

----- Original Message -----

> From: "Wilson Gray" <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2014 1:25:33 AM
> Subject: Re: early "tits"

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: early "tits"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

> On Tue, Jun 10, 2014 at 3:31 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:

> > not breasts but nipples
> >

> Exactly. "Teat" as "breast" strikes me as, well, messed up. Boar-hogs
> and
> bullamacows (WAG: < "bull, a man cow"; used only in Marshall, Texas,
> BE,
> AFAIK) have "teats" and not "tits."

> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain

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

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