Re: [romconlang] -able
| From: | Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, April 15, 2008, 14:03 |
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On Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 9:54 AM, Tristan McLeay
> (1) I'm missing the racial overtones --- maybe it's best that
way.
Oh, good, maybe it's just old folks like me. :)
"Spade" is old US slang for a Black person. I assume the original
source is the playing card suit. Oddly, in the context of playing
cards it never twigs anything for me, but outside of that context it
does. Probably has a lot to do with the fact that "spade" just
doesn't exist IML outside of cards - certainly not as a name for the
tool, which has always been a "shovel" (despite the differences that
exist between the referents of those two words when used "properly").
--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>
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