[Ads-l] Snowclone: Can a (derog) X get a Y?

[Laurence Horn]

> On Apr 18, 2015, at 3:02 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> On Sat, Apr 18, 2015 at 2:01 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>> 
>>> On Apr 18, 2015, at 3:26 AM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>>> 
>>> My apologies. Obviously "Jew" is not derogatory.
>> 
>> Well, not officially, although it has been viewed as a quasi-epithet in
>> need of euphemistic cover in some contexts, as Bolinger and others have
>> noted: "he's a Jew" tends to be replaced by "he's Jewish" (which
>> inevitably brings up the classic Jonathan Miller line, "I'm not a Jew,
>> I'm Jew-ish--I don't go the whole hog.")
> [snip!]
> 
> This became an issue recently when Rand Paul announced his
> presidential bid -- his website offered supporters various custom
> avatars to use on social media, including one that said "Jew for
> Rand." After some uproar on Twitter, it was revised to read "Jewish
> for Rand."

Note that the (perceived) problem wouldn't have arisen in the plural; "Jews for Rand" wouldn't have raised any (non-ideological) hackles.

LH
> 
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__talkingpointsmemo.com_livewire_rand-2Dpaul-2Djew-2Dfor-2Drand-2Dtwitter&d=AwIBAw&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=C2S4XN3tyfEzB2SpU7cOAGsbzKdBFSC247-I8zr4txI&s=epF3fttqTbolTe0wtYdd1uib6fDX1aZgw4pH7om8Hn0&e= 
> 
> But since all of the other choices are of the form "NOUN for Rand,"
> one wonders exactly what it means to be "Jewish for Rand."
> 
> --bgz
> 
> -- 
> Ben Zimmer
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__benzimmer.com_&d=AwIBAw&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=C2S4XN3tyfEzB2SpU7cOAGsbzKdBFSC247-I8zr4txI&s=49lHX3492u-z1S1rK3aD9x4GNuUc3mcQY5HPuO4SAvY&e= 
> 
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