[Ads-l] "Chicken fight"

Wed Mar 16 00:52:51 UTC 2016

When I was studying karate in the seventies in Hawaii our instructor referred to undisciplined flailing during a sparring match as 'chickenfighting'. It certainly brought up a different image from cockfighting, and I never, at the time, thought of it as euphemistic. But perhaps it's a Hawaiian term.

Geoff

Geoffrey S. Nathan
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________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2016 8:18 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "Chicken fight"

---------------------- 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: "Chicken fight"
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> On Mar 15, 2016, at 7:45 PM, Joel Berson <berson at ATT.NET> wrote:
>=20
> "Group arraigned in chicken fight case".
>=20
> I doubt if the police would have probable cause for assault charges if =
everyone ran away.

The downside of taboo avoidance (can't call it cock fighting anymore, it =
appears).

LH
>=20
> Headline in Boston Globe today.
>=20
> Joel
>=20
>=20
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