[Ads-l] Tea, and more

[Geoffrey Nathan]

Not only is it Theatre but my buddy is at least gay-allied and perhaps gay herself. I know it’s a stereotype but having spent a lot of time in university theatre programs (as the non-prototypical senior volunteer actor) I’ve made many good friends in the local gay activist community.

Geoff

Geoffrey Nathan
Geoffnathan at wayne.edu

> On Jun 30, 2024, at 1:11 PM, Daphne Preston-Kendal <dpk at nonceword.org> wrote:
> 
> [EXTERNAL]
> 
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Daphne Preston-Kendal <dpk at NONCEWORD.ORG>
> Subject:      Re: Tea, and more
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
>> On 25 Jun 2024, at 14:15, Geoffrey Nathan <geoffnathan at wayne.edu> wrote:
>> 
>> He gives the example of the word 'tea=E2=80=99, meaning something like =
> =E2=80=98details=E2=80=99, particularly =E2=80=98juicy details=E2=80=99. =
> Normally I would have found this mildly interesting but here comes some =
> actual =E2=80=98tea=E2=80=99.
> 
> GDoS doesn=E2=80=99t seem to have this =E2=80=94 neither as =E2=80=98tea=E2=
> =80=99, nor as =E2=80=98T=E2=80=99, which I=E2=80=99ve sometimes seen it =
> as. In fact, I think the first time I saw it written it was =E2=80=98T=E2=80=
> =99, which led me to assume that it was an abbreviation of =E2=80=98truth=E2=
> =80=99. But this may be my personal folk etymology, probably too much =
> influenced by my computer science background, where =E2=80=98T=E2=80=99 =
> stands for the Boolean true value.
> 
> Urban Dictionary has an entry from 2003. Another entry from 2010 seems =
> to confirm my own suspicion that this was originally queer slang (I =
> first encountered it in queer spaces in probably about 2018 or 2019).
> https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=3Dtea
> 
> There=E2=80=99s no useful entry there for =E2=80=98T=E2=80=99 that I can =
> immediately see, but also I can=E2=80=99t tell if this is just the =
> uselessness of UD=E2=80=99s search engine.
> 
> Here are some 2000 uses from the queer community:
> https://groups.google.com/g/soc.motss/c/q4LLRl_yNQg/m/ZgQglEBaUFoJ
> https://groups.google.com/g/soc.motss/c/aD_Et5rAQDo/m/skvg4-W_LGUJ
> a questionable one from 1992:
> https://groups.google.com/g/soc.motss/c/MvSGTwb5L5M/m/UoeiG8XhfHIJ
> 
>> That unleashed a flood of replies from other colleagues (understand =
> these are all now mid-twenties folks). There was extensive use of the =
> word =E2=80=98tea=E2=80=99 in exactly the sense referred to in the =
> article. When this happened (three days ago) I was mystified by the =
> word, but then this morning I read the article and all is now clear.
> 
> 
> If these are theatre people, and the hypothesis that it comes from the =
> queer world is correct, I hope you=E2=80=99ll forgive my saying that =
> it=E2=80=99s not exactly a clear-cut case of a word being spread far =
> outside its original community =E2=80=A6
> 
> 
> Daphne
> 
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