[Ads-l] The m-word

[Jonathan Lighter]

 Burly Ezekiel Elliott to godlike Kevin Hart on TV ad for DraftKings'
Reignmakers non-fungible fantasy-sports-betting whatchacallit thing:

" *Please* stop saying 'moist.' "

JL

On Fri, Oct 26, 2007 at 10:36 AM Laurence Urdang <urdang at sbcglobal.net>
wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Urdang <urdang at SBCGLOBAL.NET>
> Subject:      Re: The m-word
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> It is increasingly difficult  finding a TV program in which the main
> competition isn't something like projectile vomiting; but if one watches
> things like the Last Comic Standing and listens to what passes these days
> for humor, if is not hard to see why.
>   L. Urdang
>   Old Lyme
>
> Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> Subject: Re: The m-word
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Charlie, you'll have noticed the current TV commercials that feature
>
> A. a bouncing balloon filled with urine, and
>
> B. giant anthropomorphic mucus.
>
> Market researchers seem to have determined that these images are very
> appealing to today's prime demographic. They'll move products. (Or
> "product," as products are so often called on TV.)
>
> JL
>
> Charles Doyle wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Charles Doyle
> Subject: Re: The m-word
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> You'd think that "misty" and "moisty" might be distantly cognate, but
> evidently they aren't. "Mist" seems to go back to an IU root meaning
> "urinate" (cf. "micturate"), whereas "moist" comes from L "mucus"!
> Pokorny's note on the root "meug-" is interesting: 'slimy, slippery; with
> derivatives referring to various wet or slimy substances and conditions';
> possible derivatives include OE "smok" ('smock'), MHG "smuck" ('clothing',
> from whence "Schmuck" 'jewel'!) and the Greek-derived "-mycin" words,
> having to do with fungus or mold.
>
> I'm starting to think the word "moist" IS disgusting--and "misty" too!
>
> Just to clarify: My student and her sisters were not being outraged at my
> use of the word--rather amused that I should be so clueless as not to
> recognize the indelicacy of it.
>
> --Charlie
> _____________________________________________________________
>
> ---- Original message ----
> >Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 22:35:51 -0400
> >From: Kate Daly
> >
> >As in the old nursery rhyme "One misty moisty morning"?
> >
> >And btw - speaking as a woman, and a feminist from way back at that, the
> idea of "moist" being offensive sounds pretty silly to me. I think the
> original poster's student was making snowballs for other people to throw.
> >-Kate
>
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