[Ads-l] "slay" (adj.)
Amy West
medievalist at W-STS.COM
Wed Nov 29 13:36:14 UTC 2023
On 11/29/23 12:00 AM, ADS-L automatic digest system wrote:
> I should note that I am not stating that Basaa is the origin of this
> phenomenon in Native Black American Language, but that the languages of
> West Africa and Southwest Africa are the likely source; I am certain that
> there are African cognates for the Basaa*nɔl* 'to kill', 'to do something
> impressive, terrific, great, amazing', 'to be dressed flaa/fly'.
> Best,
> Z. Sohna
Yeah, I don't think we need to reach that far for the semantic extension
for /slay, kill. /I think that once one thinks of something as a
challenge, the metaphor of the hunt can easily inform this metaphorical
extension.
I'll grant that this doesn't cover /murder/ or /body /uses, and I'll
admit that I don't use either of those. The use of /murder/ as a synonym
for /devour/ is in my personal lexicon, but the senses of "doing
something in an excellent way" aren't.
---Amy West
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