[Ads-l] The m-word

[Jonathan Lighter]

Actually, it's burly Stefon Diggs.

JL

On Fri, Aug 26, 2022 at 1:47 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

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


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

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