OT: phat/vet/fat,
From: | John Cowan <jcowan@...> |
Date: | Saturday, July 13, 2002, 18:30 |
Karapcik, Mike scripsit:
> Ebonics/urban slang is not my strong suit, but from what I know,
> phat is an acronym for "Pretty Hot And Tempting".
This has IMHO all the marks of a bogus etymology, like "Fornication -
Unlawful Carnal Knowledge". I suspect that "phat" is just a slight
semantic shift from "fat", with a new spelling to mark it.
> "Man, she's phat!", "That there's some phat boo-tay!", or,
> "He's got a phat package!".
Note that the last two are quite reasonable under the "fat" reading.
Thin = pretty is a very modern idea indeed.
> Sounding like "fat" is probably a "contrived coincidence". I think
> it's amusing that the Dutch translated it literally.
Au contraire.
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