[Ads-l] Will differential treatment _never_ end?

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Go off half-cocked" embarrasses some people.

JL

On Wed, Sep 27, 2017 at 9:15 AM, Arnold M. Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu>
wrote:

> > On Sep 26, 2017, at 8:20 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Comedy Central bleeps _cock_, but *not* _dick_!
> >
> > Can you feature that?!
>
> ths is where it's important to have context and, where possible, actual
> cites.
>
> does CC fail to bleep _dick_ 'penis'?  (as in "Keep your dick in your
> pants, buddy").  or does it just fail to bleep _dick_ 'stupid, irritating,
> or ridiculous person, particularly a man'? (as in "He's such a dick!")
>
> (there are also other transferred uses of _dick_, as in the verb _to dick
> around_, _to dick with someone_, etc.)
>
> (i assume nobody bleeps -dick_ 'detective'.)
>
> (also, nobody bleeps the verb _cock_, as in "cock a pistol" and  "cock
> one's head".)
>
> arnold
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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