[Ads-l] Shoulda seen it coming....

[Laurence Horn]

And there is a difference in other collocational contexts.  To describe someone as being "built like a brick shithole" would not be intended or taken as a compliment.

LH


> On Jan 18, 2018, at 10:09 AM, Stanton McCandlish <smccandlish at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> No doubt.  I'm just trying to do some armchair and hypothetical
> psychological analysis of "Trumpthink", which is notably divorced from
> reality.  He has a very hazy conception of when he's being offensive or why.
> 
> --
> Stanton McCandlish
> McCandlish Consulting
> 4001 San Leandro St
> Suite 28
> Oakland  CA 94601-4055
> 
> +1 415 234 3992
> 
> https://www.linkedin.com/in/SMcCandlish
> 
> 
> On Thu, Jan 18, 2018 at 6:47 AM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> That plumbing explanation is the rather implausible spin that some
>> Republicans have been putting on Trump's comment:
>> 
>> https://twitter.com/scottwongDC/status/953305502183763969
>> Scott Wong of The Hill: "Why are some Trump allies arguing that POTUS said
>> 'shithouse' rather than 'shithole'? Some Rs say 'shithouse countries'
>> refers to poor countries w/no plumbing -- places where u have to walk out
>> to the shithouse -- and therefore the phrase is NOT racist."
>> 
>> But as I wrote for the Atlantic, "shithouse" has long been used to demean
>> people and places, with a general meaning of "disgusting, contemptible," so
>> it's in no way better than "shithole."
>> 
>> https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/01/
>> a-linguistic-guide-to-donald-trumps-scatological-insults/550589/
>> 
>> 
>> On Thu, Jan 18, 2018 at 9:38 AM, Stanton McCandlish <smccandlish at gmail.com
>>> 
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> I'm no apologist for Trump, but *if* he really did say "shithouse
>>> countries", the intended implication could be "poor places where most
>>> people don't have indoor plumbing and have to go to an outhouse", while
>>> "shithole counties" might more directly imply countries that are
>> shitholes.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Thu, Jan 18, 2018 at 6:14 AM, Jonathan Lighter <
>> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> None, except that believing that the word was "-house," at least two
>> GOP
>>>> senators can angrily insist that 45 "did not use that word" (i.e.,
>>> "-hole,"
>>>> the version quoted by Durbin and Graham).
>>>> 
>>>> But if "-house" was really uttered, nobody has so attested in public.
>> So
>>>> it's all pretty magical.
>>>> 
>>>> BTW, DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, under senate questioning by
>> Durbin,
>>>> Graham, and others, claimed under oath that while everyone in the room
>>> was
>>>> using "tough language," she certainly didn't hear either "-hole" or
>>>> anything like it. Could she name even a single offensive word of the
>>> "very
>>>> tough language" that she did hear?
>>>> 
>>>> Nope. Just couldn't remember. Nor was Nielsen entirely sure if Norway
>>> was a
>>>> "majority white" country.
>>>> 
>>>> JL
>>>> 
>>>> JL
>>>> 
>>>> On Wed, Jan 17, 2018 at 11:16 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>>> he referred to Haiti and the African states not as “shithole
>>> countries”
>>>>> but as “shithouse countries”.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Say what, now? I understand the architectural distinction between a
>>>>> "shithole," which is found under a "shithouse," but what is the
>>> semantic
>>>>> distinction between the two as insults?
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Wed, Jan 17, 2018 at 8:03 PM, Laurence Horn <
>> laurence.horn at yale.edu
>>>> 
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>> It was “Shitholegate” on either Daily Show or Colbert, I forget
>>> which.
>>>>>> But now the Republican senators are claiming the it was all a
>>>> fabrication
>>>>>> on Durbin’s part and that Trump’s language was entirely different
>>> from
>>>>> what
>>>>>> Durbin claimed—he referred to Haiti and the African states not as
>>>>> “shithole
>>>>>> countries” but as “shithouse countries”.  I guess that means it has
>>> to
>>>> be
>>>>>> “Shitho_(_)egate”, not too catchy.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> LH
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> On Jan 17, 2018, at 7:50 PM, Jonathan Lighter <
>>>> wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> MSNBC:
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> "Ess Hole Gate."
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>> 
>> 
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>> 
> 
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