Total BS: Hijacked words.

Subject: RE: Total BS: Hijacked words.
From: GUEST,Karen
Date: 16 May 01 - 12:38 PM

The daughter of my babysitter was remarking on how alike my two children look. I came very close to quipping, "That's because they have the same father" but then luckily before the words could leave my mouth remembered her own three children each had a different father. I AM learning in my old age some tact!

Subject: RE: Total BS: Hijacked words.
From: jeffp
Date: 16 May 01 - 12:46 PM

Ducks are another species referred to by the female name. The name for the male is drake. Any others?

jeffp

Subject: RE: Total BS: Hijacked words.
From: mousethief
Date: 16 May 01 - 12:54 PM

Interesting question, JeffP.

Generic - Male - - Female
Cow - - - Bull - - Cow
Sheep - - Ram -- - Ewe
Goose - - Gander - Goose

Alex

Subject: RE: Total BS: Hijacked words.
From: Matt_R
Date: 16 May 01 - 01:27 PM

"Ram Ewe".

Heh.

Subject: RE: Total BS: Hijacked words.
From: mousethief
Date: 16 May 01 - 01:28 PM

Matt, get your mind out of the gutter, you oversexed teenager, you!

Subject: RE: Total BS: Hijacked words.
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 May 01 - 02:04 PM

Critic, you amuse me. Canadians speak a mixture of English and American (languages according to Mencken)and often call some word or phrase American usage when both come from England or elsewhere in the British Isles. Another communicant is correct when he states bitch and bastard have additional meanings not related to sex or parentage. Consult the latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary or Merriam Webster. In the latter, bastard yields "an offensive or disagreeable person." In the former (1987 entries), such usage was still called vulgar but extended to mean something "annoying." I don't have the latest OED but I have heard that the "vulgar" appellation has been removed. Bitch, in newer dictionaries, similarly has all of the meanings attributed in messages above.

Subject: RE: Total BS: Hijacked words.
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 16 May 01 - 04:54 PM

bbc - you may be a person first? Shouldn't that be first person (singular) Ahhhh - sorry. Just got it. Grandma and spilling was never my strong point at scholl...

tGD

Subject: RE: Total BS: Hijacked words.
From: Matt Woodbury/Mimosa
Date: 16 May 01 - 05:55 PM

Just a note on the gay usage, sometimes we do this silly thing where we refer to people by the opposite of their anatomical gender, so then "bitch" has all the same connotations it can have when used referring to a woman.

If I use it with my friends, it might be considered cute and teasing, with a stranger, it's still rude, sexist, and condescending.

It looks to me like the ads are deliberately designed to create dissent, which is what lawyers make money from. Maybe we should stop calling them lawyers and call them strifemongers instead?

I have friends in the legal profession who are really decent people, BTW.

Mimosa

Subject: RE: Total BS: Hijacked words.
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 16 May 01 - 06:59 PM

It is true that one meaning of "duck" is the female of that particular kind of bird. Another established usage, though, is "hen duck" to distinguish her from the gander.

Before anyone screams at that, my unabridged says of "hen" something like "also the female of any fowl, especially gallinaceous fowl."

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Total BS: Hijacked words.
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 May 01 - 08:07 PM

In England, I have heard women referred to as "duckies," not disparagingly. "Let's go to the pub, duckies." I don't know if there is an equivalent for men. Drakes just doesn't make it.

Subject: RE: Total BS: Hijacked words.
From: Ebbie
Date: 16 May 01 - 11:25 PM

Dave O, I have read references to a 'bull cow', as well as 'Papa Cow'.

My cousins were so "refined" that they were not allowed to say bull, they had to say 'ox', which, I think, forced extra attention to the animal's sex. I suppose the same thing is true of all euphemisms.

Ebbie

Subject: RE: Total BS: Hijacked words.
From: Bert
Date: 17 May 01 - 01:49 AM

Kim C, no, you are not wrong, a bitch will often refuse a dog that she doesn't like.

So Ebbie, did you cousins exclaim "Oxshit!"

This is just so much semantics. What does it matter? I remember a TV show one time where the guy said to his gal "You're not a bad old boiler!" and it came across as a loving statement.

For me - ladies, women, womyn, wimmin, girls, gals and even bitches. I love them all.

Subject: RE: Total BS: Hijacked words.
From: Ebbie
Date: 17 May 01 - 02:13 AM

Strangely enough, Bert, they did say shit. We, on the other hand, said 'manure'. (That of course was in cool-headed moments.) People. Fascinating- nothing like them.

Eb

Subject: RE: Total BS: Hijacked words.
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 17 May 01 - 05:25 AM

Multiple parentage:
"May be funny, honey
Sure seems strange to me
We got seven children
And none of them look like me"
("Gonna move to the outskirts of town")
BTW "me duck" is a form of address common to the East Midlands of the UK (as "our kid" is to the West Midlands and "chuck" in Lancashire) applied to both sexes.
I used to call all females "love" and men,"mate" at home in Birmingham as everyone else did. When I moved away to Wales, I found this was interpreted as an unwelcomed endearment!
RtS

Subject: RE: Total BS: Hijacked words.
From: Crazy Eddie
Date: 17 May 01 - 08:46 AM

Mrrzy said "ANY animal that has sex, doesn't mate for life (and even then...) and has more than one offspring/pregnancy can have different fathers for the different offspring. You can have sex with three guys (male ones), have triplets, and each can have a different father."
There is a paragraph in today's "Gulf News" about a woman in South America who brought a paternaty suit against a former boyfriend for support of her twins. Genetic tests showed that he was the father of the boy, but not of the girl!

Subject: RE: Total BS: Hijacked words.
From: Kim C
Date: 17 May 01 - 09:56 AM

Oxshit!!! I like that one! :-D

Subject: RE: Total BS: Hijacked words.
From: Songster Bob
Date: 17 May 01 - 02:27 PM

A propos of much in this thread is an old admonition:


When you find yourself in a hole, STOP DIGGING.

Bob C.

Subject: RE: Total BS: Hijacked words.
From: Peg
Date: 17 May 01 - 09:06 PM

Canada geese mate for life.

They mourn mightily when a mate is killed...