Re: CHAT: Profile of a Conlanger
| From: | Padraic Brown <pbrown@...> |
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| Date: | Sunday, May 16, 1999, 2:53 |
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On Sat, 15 May 1999, Nik Taylor wrote:
> "J. Barefoot" wrote:
> > I don't mean to offend anyone by pursuing this, but I have a question.
> > This is an old usage? Exactly where are you from? That's a usage here in
> > Alabama too, but a fairly new one, and a semantic shift that I found
> > interesting when I noticed it.
>
> Same here (Northwest Florida, AKA Baja Alabama :-)), it seems to be a
> general put-down, originally from stereotypes about homosexual behavior,
> but it now a more general put-down, tho there's still some homosexual
> connotations to it.
I don't know how old the usage is, all I know is that we learnt it from
people older than us. Whether it started out life as a homosexual put
down I can't say. It held no such connotations for us; though it seems to
be taking on a more sinister shadow, which I squarely blame modern
"education" for.
Padraic.