Re: USAGE: Language revival
| From: | Patrick Dunn <tb0pwd1@...> |
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| Date: | Saturday, December 4, 1999, 2:33 |
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On Sat, 4 Dec 1999, andrew wrote:
> Am 12/03 15:11 Steg Belsky yscrifef:
>
> > I hear it over here in NY. But remember, "wifebeater" is a specific
> > *kind* of undershirt. I guess it's easier to say then "undershirt
> > without sleeves that is commonly ribbed (sic)".
> >
> having never noticed this word until this clothing discussion, I'm
> wondering if it deliberately meant to evoke windcheater?
Nope, it's metonymic (is that the right term?). In the American South and
Midwest, this type of shirt is popular among the working class -- for what
reasons, I don't know -- and therefore, since it is popular among working
class people, and there is the stereotype of the brutal, sexist, and
violent working class male who, it is assumed, beats his wife (I said
it was a stereotype, not true) . . . since wife-beaters wear the shirt,
the shirt is a wifebeater.