[Ads-l] "Natty" = 'national champion(ship)'

[Laurence Horn]

Just confirmed that “natty” is not in HDAS (1977) other than in the slang sense of ‘fashionable’ (origin unknown) that dates to at least 1789.  

Even urbandictionary doesn’t have relevant hits for “natty” until 2005 (for the national championship in college football) and then it’s downvoted [!] by 67-33.  

There are plenty of upvoted hits on urbandic for “natty” = ’natural’ in the sense of looks, hairstyles, pizzas, etc., just not for natural champion(ship).  

LH

> On Jan 9, 2024, at 1:48 PM, Gordon, Matthew J. <GordonMJ at MISSOURI.EDU> wrote:
> 
> I haven’t heard this usage but note that there’s a precedent for “natty” < “national” in “Natty Boh”  as the nickname for National Bohemian, a beer that was popular among poor college students when I was one.
> 
> Matt Gordon
> 
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Date: Monday, January 8, 2024 at 10:19 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: "Natty" = 'national champion(ship)'
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> 
> I’ve been hearing this truncation for a while, and again tonight (for obvious reasons).  Not sure how long it’s been around. Somewhat interesting phonologically, given that its derivation involves de-spirantization.
> 
> LH
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