[Ads-l] Liberman on Slang

[Jonathan Lighter]

Robin is by far in the best position to do this. His familiarity with early
British cant is unparalleled.

He's already posted a brief reply to Liberman.

Liberman's argument is not implausible (William of Ockham is on his side in
the formal derivation from Scandinavia), but the proposed semantic
development overlooks some relevant 18th C. senses of "slang" documented in
Partridge's _Dictionary of the Underworld_  but not yet in OED.

JL


On Tue, Oct 4, 2016 at 7:06 AM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:

> I tend to be skeptical of Professor Liberman's forays into etymology of
> modern words.  I don't know enough about the history of the word "slang" to
> form a judgment about his analysis here.  Can Jon Lighter and/or other
> knowledgeable people say something about whether Liberman's argument
> appears to be sound?
>
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton3 at VIRGINMEDIA.COM>
> Sent: Monday, October 3, 2016 10:53 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Liberman on Slang
>
> Anatoly Liberman has a recent post on the OUP blog that may be of interest
> to
> the list: "The origin of the word "slang" is known!"
>
>          https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__blog.
> oup.com_2016_09_slang-2Dword-2Dorigin_&d=CwIFaQ&c=-
> dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=sRkhHMQo6W5Ird1lkQFqb23bCfSHAR2XjUSUG53db5M&m=
> cHAoTYbmic27fL17JQ62E966jjGGC2-IuxEXKqbHPYI&s=jYcBd074KYDNluoteleV8BCtsi_
> lg28DHNltApik9Vk&e=
>
> Robin Hamilton
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - https://urldefense.proofpoint.
> com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=CwIFaQ&
> c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=sRkhHMQo6W5Ird1lkQFqb23bCfSHAR2XjUSUG53db5M&m=
> cHAoTYbmic27fL17JQ62E966jjGGC2-IuxEXKqbHPYI&s=OzEkTb_
> ySbL1mf0s29W6mEiiDanQfHZI_D5ZQRpv6zM&e=
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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