Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1998 11:38:36 +1030 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au>, Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> Cc: Mark Ovens <marko@uk.radan.com>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Regulated names (was: Crazy Laws) Message-ID: <19981227113836.D12346@freebie.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <19981227085040.45844@welearn.com.au>; from Sue Blake on Sun, Dec 27, 1998 at 08:50:40AM %2B1100 References: <368378AB.969463E2@uk.radan.com> <4.1.19981225064918.05738f10@127.0.0.1> <19981226021926.65101@welearn.com.au> <4.1.19981225180656.05a34790@mail.lariat.org> <4.1.19981225190800.058aee00@mail.lariat.org> <36852104.F849F0E5@uk.radan.com> <4.1.19981226110528.05881580@mail.lariat.org> <19981227080030.58332@welearn.com.au> <4.1.19981226141941.058890f0@mail.lariat.org> <19981227085040.45844@welearn.com.au>
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On Sunday, 27 December 1998 at 8:50:40 +1100, Sue Blake wrote: > On Sat, Dec 26, 1998 at 02:32:37PM -0700, Brett Glass wrote: >> At 08:00 AM 12/27/98 +1100, Sue Blake wrote: >> >>> Close, Brett, but you still don't seem to get it. >> >> Yes, I do get it, in all its inglorious vulgarity. > > Oh, I see. You get it, but you're not rude enough to spell it out. In > fact you'll risk being misinterpreted to avoid being seen as indelicate > to your part of the world. But you are naughty enough to continue using > a word that is potentially highly offensive to us (and Australians are > *not* easily offended by words). Bloody typical :-) To quote a letter published in ``The Australian'' (a newspaper founded by a local Adelaide bloke made good) the other day, in connection with the Clinton impeachment: The first Americans were puritans. The first Australians were convicts. We were lucky. >> In America, the word "ass" is, in some contexts, used to refer >> to that part of the anatomy, too. As in "piece of ~". (See an >> unabridged American dictionary or, again, the OED.) > > Oh, I've always thought that phrase was a euphemism, referring to a > nearby place to feebly hide the real target, rather than actually > naming a different place. Doubtless it originally was. How do these words get their meaning? Usually it's a transfer of meaning from a more harmless term. Look at the word ``bathroom'', which means ``toilet'' in America. Of course, ``toilet'' itself was a euphemism (meaning, roughly, washroom). I once lived in a house where there was no toilet in the bathroom (it was in a separate room). Americans would ask for the bathroom, we'd show them how to get there, and after a while they'd come back and say ``how do you flush that thing'', indicating the bidet. Greg -- See complete headers for address, home page and phone numbers finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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