When I call the round revolving thing in the kitchen a "Lazy Susan," I intend no slight to women named Susan. Similarly, when Mike Seeger used the term, "Jew's harp," he certainly wasn't being anti-Semitic. But I had a conversation with him about the term, and he told me that he had taken to calling the Jew's harp a "trump," because some organization had fussed at him over his name for the instrument, and he didn't like the term "Jaw's harp." At the time, it seemed like an artful dodge, but later I consulted the O.E.D., which said that the Jew's Harp (or Jews' harp) was also called a "Jew's trump." By the way, Mike was a very good Jew's harpist -- oh sorry -- Jew's trumpeter.
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