[Ads-l] the gift that keeps on giving

[Wilson Gray]

> people didn’t think of chlamydia when you say VD.

That's so. _VD_ traditionally = only "gonorrhea and syphilis."

On Tue, Dec 12, 2017 at 8:40 PM, Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I recall doing an article for a college newspaper on STDs around 1987. (If
> memory serves correctly), the nurse told me that VD had been replaced by
> STD because people didn’t think of chlamydia when you say VD. There might
> have been other diseases, too, but chlamydia I definitely remember because
> that was a big one they were trying to get the word out about.
>
> Benjamin Barrett
> Formerly of Seattle, WA
>
> > On 12 Dec 2017, at 17:10, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >
> >> I must mean "STDs"!
> >
> > Once upon a time, "social disease," preferred both by my mother and by
> her
> > mother, was more P.C. than "venereal disease." But "VD" was commonly
> used,
> > whereas I don't recall a single instance of "SD." FWIW, when I gear "the
> > gift...," I think, specifically, "genital herpes."
> >
> > On Mon, Dec 11, 2017 at 11:12 AM, Jonathan Lighter <
> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> Earliest?:
> >>
> >> 1924 _Seattle Daily Times_ (Dec. 10) 4: The Christmas gift that keeps on
> >> giving through every month of the year.  A VICTROLA.
> >>
> >> 1924 _Trenton Evening Times_ (Dec. 18) 2: The gift that keeps on giving
> is
> >> the best gift of all. The Christmas Victrola will give you entertainment
> >> for every day in the year!
> >>
> >> 1924 _Times-Picayune_ (N.O.) (Dec. 17) 12: "The Gift That Keeps on
> Giving"
> >> [Victrolas are illustrated.]
> >>
> >>
> >> By the 1970s, the cliche' had become a sardonic descriptor of chronic
> >> venereal disease. (Oops! I must mean "STDs"! "Venereal" involves love!).
> >>
> >> JL
> >>
> >> --
> >> "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
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > -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
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
-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

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