Re: CHAT: Star Wars and its conlangs

John Cowan wrote: "To "shlepp" is to carry or drag, prototypically to drag
something heavy in a sack; it's a borrowing from Yiddish. I have not heard
this term, but I understand it to mean "an ordinary character, a non-star,
non-special character."

Yep. It's from the phrase, "Oh, it was some poor schlepp that X." The
nameless folk who do all the work but never get into the movies, the
drudges and serfs in stories who never get mentioned - the hoi polloi.

Ensign Redshirt, of course, is Star Trekese for the unlucky shlepp who gets
killed - you meet him, he has 4 lines, then he dies. Anyone not a member of
the core crew who wears a red shirt inevitably dies shortly after coming
onscreen. This was even made fun of on South Park - this kid you've never
seen before stands up and announces he's not afraid of any alleged
'monster,' and walks off the bus. He is wearing a red star trek shirt, so
anyone in the know falls over laughing. He gets eaten promptly, which is
made even funnier by the fact that there should be no monster - the bus
driver made the story of a monster up to keep the kids from getting off the
bus and into trouble while she went for assistance.

BB
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Tomboy: "a wench that skippeth as a boy."
- Richard Verstegen, 1605

"Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo."
- H.G. Wells