[Ads-l] Query concerning the removal of "French" from "French horn" (2nd try)

[Laurence Horn]

OK; I was just commenting on the status of "Colored" within "NAACP", which I admit is orthogonal to the other issues under discussion, but which I think is interesting in its own right...

L

> On Jun 24, 2015, at 10:31 PM, Joel Berson <berson at att.net> wrote:
> 
> Larry,
> I was responding to Wilson's question (which you did not include) about whether "colored" *ever* included peoples other than "sub-Saharan blacks".  The OED's definition below says "in earliest use with reference to South America [emphasis added]".  (Apparently, the emphasis I had sent along with "earliest" was not transmitted to the list users.  :-(  )
> Joel
>     From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
> Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2015 8:05 PM
> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Query concerning the removal of "French" from "French horn" (2nd try)
> 
>> On Jun 24, 2015, at 4:06 PM, Joel Berson <berson at ATT.NET> wrote:
>> 
>> OED "colored:
>> 3.b.  Denoting a member of any dark-skinned group of peoples, esp. a person of sub-Saharan African or (in Britain) South Asian origin or descent; in earliest use with reference to South America [emphasis added].  Now usu. considered offensive.
>> 
>> Coloured was adopted in the United States by emancipated slaves as a term of racial pride after the end of the American Civil War. It was rapidly replaced from the late 1960s as a self-designation by black (see note at black adj. 3a) and later by African-American, although it is retained in the name of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. 
> 
> Well, but the usual name is NAACP, with the "Colored" as an historical relic, like the "Fried" in KFC (formerly "Kentucky Fried Chicken"). I know there are lots of other examples of similar dead acronyms (or dead initialisms), although I'm not recalling them at the moment.  (Or reanalyzed ones, where one of the letters gets a new value.)  
> 
> LH
> 
> 
> 
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