Re: Bootstrapping a cooperative conlang

On Nov 17, 2007, at 2:33 PM, ROGER MILLS wrote:

> Stevo wrote:
>> A picture only shows what the animal looks like.  It doesn't give
>> any of the
>> rest of the meaning of the word, like how it moves, what sounds it
>> makes, what
>> kinds of food it eats, why it's a pest or pet.
>
> _Pest_ can be applied to people too!!
>
> Yes, definitions can get complicated. Does anyone recall Katz and
> Postal's attempt at a "generative" definition of "bachelor" (the
> only one they ever tried AFAIK)?
>
> Are there different species of mice, as there are of rats,
> cockroaches et al? I believe so.
>
> Aside from the animal, and modern computer usage, there's also (not
> too current I think) (a)  _a black (bruised) eye__ and (b) 1920-30s
> (?) slang "girl-friend (lover, mistress?)" maybe boyfriend too; and
> IIRC older gay guys' slang (into the 50s) "trick, pick-up". (Cf.
> Anita Loos' amusing book, "A Mouse is Born")-- neither of these
> senses are in my Shorter OED, though there is _mouse: a term of
> endearment_
>
> During Army days in Vietnam (1958) lots of the guys had a [mus]
> "(Vietnamese) girlfriend", which I always assumed had to be French
> "mousse"-- is that old slang too? Perhaps the source of "mouse" in
> that sense????  GIs in WW1/WW2 could have learnt/deformed the word
> while in Europe, maybe a spelling pronunciation.
>
> (Is it possible my army buddies were using a Korean/Japanese
> term??-- many of the older ones had served there, and they used
> other Japanese words in their slang too-- "skosh, chogi, ichiban"
> etc.)
I just learned of this term, from the _The Japanese Language_ by Roy
Andrew Miller; he says it comes from Japanese _musume_.