[Ads-l] cuss word euphemisms

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Sat Dec 3 02:23:49 UTC 2016


On Fri, Dec 2, 2016 at 12:20 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

> Macht nichts


Reminds me of _mox-nix stix_, GI slang for old-fashioned mechanical,
turn-signals on German work-vehicles, such as trucks: an arm that popped
out of the left or out of the right door frame of such a vehicle to
indicate the direction of a pending turn.

Druggists' Circular - Volume 57 - Page 660
https://books.google.com/books?id=7m4gAQAAMAAJ
1913 - ‎Read - ‎More editions
And then, too, it is strictly a case of _mox nix aus_ if you are awry-eyed.
If you've only a thirst for knowledge — you can satisfy it by imbibing the
spirit of progress. If the latest isn't out yet — keep a weather eye peeled
on yer journal, my hearty!

The Marble Orchard - Page 55
https://books.google.com/books?id=FoJQAQAAMAAJ
1956 - ‎Snippet view
“Anyway, it's _mox-nix-house_ to me. I'll go where I please—there, or
wherever.”

FIW, IMO, the German form is _macht es nichts (aus)_.


While checking for "mox-nix stix" in HDAS, I came across the BE term,
_mug_, defined "(as in *(b), *above [i.e. as the same word as sE slang
_mug_ "a low, crude fellow; hoodlum; lout ...], but regarded as a euphem.
for *MOTHERFUCKER).*

What makes this a ephemism, the authentic equivalent of sE pswaydo-BE
_mofo_, is not any kind of connection with sE _mug_ in any meaning. Rather,
BE _mug_, pronounced approx. [mʌ: is a hyper-black, mumbled - cf., e.g.
Saint Louis's own Clark Terry's jam, Mumbles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvPTZ6I6JXQ

in which he reduces this style of BE speech, ordinary in The Lou - those
with long memories may recall my anecdote of finding my BE incomprehensible
to the black bourgeoisie of Los Angeles, though white Angeleños had no
problems with my sE - to its incoherent minimum -

 pronunciation of "motherfucker"
-- 
-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

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



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