quote:

Originally posted by Orguss:
Cool. I still heard it from an Italian character before ebonics was even a word.

The word is credited as originating 1975 even though most people didn't hear it until the 90s

Step grandmother from Tennessee uses ax, then she also takes computer flights instead of commuter, not just one time, but rather onced, twiced, triced.... so there you go, have a “gooot un” (good one). There’s my beef, instead of have a nice day...cashiers blurt something about “ haf uh goot un”. This is Ohio, not the Deep South, come on, at least try annunciate.

My ex-boss used to work for Tarmac (UK). One term that annoyed him to no end was people calling gravel "crush and run" instead of "crusher run". Crusher run is gravel, "crush and run" is what Godzilla does.

Because grammar, this usage is now actually correct.

quote:

Originally posted by djpaintles:

quote:

Originally posted by djpaintles:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by sigmonkey:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by djpaintles:... It is a common linguistic occurrence. Do you think "Butterfly" wasn't originally "Flutterby"? (Hint, it was originally Flutterby)....

Incorrect.

Butterfly is the original term

Old English as far back as the 700s used the word/spelling "butterfleoge".

It is more than a stretch to believe that it started out as fleogebutter, and was somehow transposed and stuck.

More likely a play on the word with some mother and child. Anyone who has been around an adult and a small child or children will hear all manner of such things.

For example some in our family:

Grinny pig or Grinnies for guinea pig.
Hoggermole for Ground hog (long story on that one).

Shnoppie for schnauzer.

Heckalopper for helicopter. And since that is what one can do, "Heck a lopper" probably was the original word, but someone must have mixed it up in a news journal or something.

And yes, flutterby for butterfly.

It is a contested etymology.

quote:

I've heard that some time before the year 1000 AD the Old English/Anglo-Saxon word was actually more or less "Flutterby." If that's true then it's actually named after the way it behaves and moves. That makes a lot more sense then a butter-related etymology since no product of butterflies is particularly buttery (at least in my experience).
Eventually the word was metathesized into "butterfly." That's the process by which chunks of words have their order switched. Like when somebody doesn't "ask" you a question, the "aks" it (Though apparently both were actually acceptable and used in Old English. You could say "askian" or "aksian" depending on which was easier for you.).
Just wish there was some discussion of that...
My source on all this is the lectures of Professor Michael DC Drout -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_D._C._Drout"

My source for the comment was from a course by Michael Drout. The etymology of "Butterfly" might be contestable but it still remains a valid demonstration of the effects Metathesis may or may not have. :-)

The Main point of language and speech is to accurately convey ideas. Pedants insist on total "correctness" being more important than being understood. My favorite personal example is the correct pronunciation of "Sako" as in the rifle. I went to a Gun store in Oklahoma and asked if they had any "Socko" Finnlites in stock and they said they didn't carry them. I mentioned that I'd bought 3 of them from them, and he said "Oh, do you mean "Sake O". LOL even though I "correctly" pronounced it he had no idea what I meant, so the main point is to be understood. I personally prefer "ask" to "aks" but there are certainly places where "aks" is more commonly spoken!

IMHO it pays to not get to Snobby about "Proper English". I promise you that overseas most people don't see Americans as speaking proper English. In England a lot of the people are nearly as unintelligible to us as we are to them. And what actually IS English. Old English, Middle English etc are TOTALLY different from what we speak today, so what is "Proper" English. Hell I don't know! I just hope I'm understood. :-D


I can here it now "Dat Der boy frum Ingland ser do tok funny"

I'm not a big basketball fan, but I do see bits and pieces of college games this time of year. I hear coaches saying "So and So needs to score the basketball" or 'We need to be better at scoring the basketball". Really? You are going to take a knife or sharp object and cut lines in the basketball?

Thanks captain. You may go now.