[Ads-l] bullshit

[Geoffrey Nathan]

Although I'm by no means a Chinese expert,
the expression referred to is almost certainly Mandarin, not Cantonese.
But I'd be VERY surprised if BS came from Chinese.

Geoff

Geoffrey S. Nathan
WSU Information Privacy Officer (Retired)
Emeritus Professor, Linguistics Program
http://blogs.wayne.edu/proftech/
geoffnathan at wayne.edu

From: Jonathan Lighter<mailto:wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2020 2:43 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU<mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: bullshit

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Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      bullshit
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Jim Gordon, a contributor to Quora,com, posted this interesting suggestion
in 2018:

"  It=E2=80=99s a very small leap from a very basic and frequently-used exc=
lamatory
Chinese term =E4=B8=8D=E6=98=AF (B=C3=B9sh=C3=AC =3D is not, not so, not po=
ssible, not necessary, not
right, etc.) to an unlettered Westerner=E2=80=99s misinterpretation of it a=
s
bullshit!"

Is this a viable etymology?

Ockham's razor says "Meh," especially since Gordon does not specify which
form of "Chinese" the stated pronunciation comes from, but if
Cantonese-speaking immigrants used it frequently, it would certainly have
leant itself to re-interpretation.

JL
--=20
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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