USING THE WORD 'MAROON': Bush a maroon or moron?
Dr. Jai Maharaj
On the usage of the word maroon
[...]
this means that he'll [Bush will] point to Iraq, scream
terrorist and start bombing.... we have to get this
"maroon" outta here before he kills us all
- Posted on Saturday, June 1, 2002 by radfringe
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
On the usage of the word maroon.
I wish you'd quit using the word "maroon" to describe
Dubya. A maroon is a white or half-white person of the
17th, 18th or 19th century that ran away from offical
society to live among escaped slaves in the woods or
swamps. They were usually criminals or "race traitors."
Thus maroons are to be honored, calling Dubya a maroon is
not accurate and in poor taste. It is borderline racist
to use the term in a negative sense. It's like calling
Dubya, a "savage indian." Please spare me.
- Posted on Saturday, June 1, 2002 by greendeerslayer
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Thought it was from Bugs Bunny
I didn't realize that's what a maroon was. I know it as a
color and as what Bugs Bunny would call Elmer Fudd. Learn
something knew every day
- Posted on Saturday, June 1, 2002 by Jim J
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Interesting info thx....
I think most people are only familiar with that term from
bugs bunny cartoons.
- Posted on Saturday, June 1, 2002 by Sterling
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
interesting
I did not know that, here's what Miriam-Webster says:
Main Entry: ma·roon
Pronunciation: m&-'rün
Function: noun
Etymology: French maron, marron, modification of American
Spanish cimarrón, from cimarrón wild, savage
Date: 1666
1 capitalized : a fugitive black slave of the West Indies
and Guiana in the 17th and 18th centuries; also : a
descendant of such a slave
2 : a person who is marooned
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary
- Posted on Saturday, June 1, 2002 by Eddie Current
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Calling Shrub a Moron is offensive to Morons
My preference is:
buf·foon (b?-fűn')
n.
A clown; a jester: a court buffoon.
A person given to clowning and joking.
A ludicrous or bumbling person; a fool.
Cause he always engaging in...
buf·foon'er·y (b?-fű'n?-rç) n.
- Posted on Saturday, June 1, 2002 by IbeaBonehead
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I thought it was just a play on "moron."
- Posted on Sunday, June 2, 2002 by JDWalley
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
End of forwarded messages
Jai Maharaj
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti
jan_...@hotmail.com
wrote:
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
>interesting
>
>I did not know that, here's what Miriam-Webster says:
>
>Main Entry: ma·roon
>Pronunciation: m&-'rün
>Function: noun
>Etymology: French maron, marron, modification of American
>Spanish cimarrón, from cimarrón wild, savage
>Date: 1666
>1 capitalized : a fugitive black slave of the West Indies
>and Guiana in the 17th and 18th centuries; also : a
>descendant of such a slave
>2 : a person who is marooned
>
>http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary
>
> - Posted on Saturday, June 1, 2002 by Eddie Current
Maron is French for chestnut.
Jan Sand
Steve Hayes
>Forwarded messages
>
>On the usage of the word maroon
>
>[...]
>this means that he'll [Bush will] point to Iraq, scream
>terrorist and start bombing.... we have to get this
>"maroon" outta here before he kills us all
> - Posted on Saturday, June 1, 2002 by radfringe
I thought he was a delicate shade of puce, myself.
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/steve.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk
GrapeApe
>>terrorist and start bombing.... we have to get this
>>"maroon" outta here before he kills us all
>> - Posted on Saturday, June 1, 2002 by radfringe
>
>I thought he was a delicate shade of puce, myself.
He don't know me very well do he?....
Mike Blackford
>
> Forwarded messages
>
> On the usage of the word maroon
>
> [...]
> this means that he'll [Bush will] point to Iraq, scream
> terrorist and start bombing.... we have to get this
> "maroon" outta here before he kills us all
> - Posted on Saturday, June 1, 2002 by radfringe
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
> On the usage of the word maroon.
>
> I wish you'd quit using the word "maroon" to describe
http://66.30.66.160/~wav/files/maroon.wav
--
"Right knows no boundaries, and justice no frontiers; the brotherhood of
man is not a domestic institution." 覧 Judge Learned Hand (1945)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Zvxr Oynpxsbeq Fvyvpba Inyyrl, Pnyvsbeavn zv...@oynpxsbeq.pbz
King Pineapple
<jan_...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:3cfab517....@east.usenetserver.com...
> Maron is French for chestnut.
But the origin of the name "maroon" does come from the Spanish cimmaron, as
mentioned previously. What the original definition failed to mention was
that they are basically confined to Jamaica.
--
"Was he (Clinton) trying to mislead the Paula Jones lawyers?"
"Absolutely"-David Kendall, the Clintons' (pro bono) legal mouthpiece
B Briggs
"King Pineapple" <saddl...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:vIMK8.275$Vz5...@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
>
> <jan_...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:3cfab517....@east.usenetserver.com...
>
> > Maron is French for chestnut.
>
> But the origin of the name "maroon" does come from the Spanish cimmaron,
as
> mentioned previously. What the original definition failed to mention was
> that they are basically confined to Jamaica.
>
>
Elmer Fudd, indicating that he was less than bright. I think that Bush is
neither, he just has regional accent, uses colloquialisms, and a speech
impediment similar to that which causes "Spoonerism" or stuttering.
Barbara
Gary Ott
news:ufqlh1e...@corp.supernews.com...
"Spoonerism" gets the name from William Archibald Spooner, an English cleric
and scholar of the late 19th/early 20th century. Mr. Spooner often
transposed sounds from words near each other in a sentence, as: "One fart
smellow" for "one smart fellow." "Spoonerism' usually indicates a humorous
or ridiculous instance of this. So, a spoonerism is quite specific in
reference, and is now known to be a neurological malfunction. Bush doesn't
fit this description. His mistakes arise from an almost universal lack of
sophistication, a trait that endears him to anyone who has contempt for
learning. I think you misunderestimate him.
I found references to Bugs Bunny being given the words "maroon" and
"nincowpoop." It isn't clear those are the only, or even the earliest uses
of the words in this context. Bugs's use dates from around 1960.
> Barbara
>
>
Bob Danielson
>On the usage of the word maroon.
>
>I wish you'd quit using the word "maroon" to describe
>Dubya. A maroon is a white or half-white person of the
>17th, 18th or 19th century that ran away from offical
>society to live among escaped slaves in the woods or
>swamps. They were usually criminals or "race traitors."
>Thus maroons are to be honored, calling Dubya a maroon is
>not accurate and in poor taste. It is borderline racist
>to use the term in a negative sense. It's like calling
>Dubya, a "savage indian." Please spare me.
>
> - Posted on Saturday, June 1, 2002 by greendeerslayer
>
"greendeerslayer" is very much in need of a specialized dermatological process
known as "skin thickening". There is a counseling alternative known as
"insensitivity training" which could be a possible alternate.
Christopher Green
Bugs Bunny's "maroon" is more likely a novel pronunciation of "moron"
than the dictionary "maroon". And this sense, which is probably what
the original writer meant, is likely to be one that Dr. Maharaj is
unaware of.
As to whether Bush's intelligence is fit for the Presidency, I will
keep my doubts to myself; history will tell.
--
Chris Green
jan_...@hotmail.com
wrote:
>
>"Spoonerism" gets the name from William Archibald Spooner, an English cleric
>and scholar of the late 19th/early 20th century. Mr. Spooner often
>transposed sounds from words near each other in a sentence, as: "One fart
>smellow" for "one smart fellow." "Spoonerism' usually indicates a humorous
>or ridiculous instance of this. So, a spoonerism is quite specific in
>reference, and is now known to be a neurological malfunction. Bush doesn't
>fit this description. His mistakes arise from an almost universal lack of
>sophistication, a trait that endears him to anyone who has contempt for
>learning. I think you misunderestimate him.
>I found references to Bugs Bunny being given the words "maroon" and
>"nincowpoop." It isn't clear those are the only, or even the earliest uses
>of the words in this context. Bugs's use dates from around 1960.
>
>> Barbara
>>
>>
>
Actually, the way I heard it, the switch was from "one smart feller,
he felt smart."
Jan Sand
Gary Ott
news:3cfe4554....@east.usenetserver.com...
I stand corrected.
>
> Jan Sand
>
Harvey V
wrote:
-snip-
> I found references to Bugs Bunny being given the words "maroon"
> and "nincowpoop." It isn't clear those are the only, or even the
> earliest uses of the words in this context. Bugs's use dates from
> around 1960.
I wonder what the actual "first use" date is for Bugs -- I'm another
one that first heard "maroon" as a term of ridicule in the cartoons.
Just out of curiousity, I've raised the question in
alt.animation.warner-bros to see if anyone there has a firm "first use"
date.
--
Cheers,
Harvey
Gary Ott
news:Xns9224BCA5...@62.253.162.106...
Very resourceful! Please post any information you get here.
>
>
> --
> Cheers,
> Harvey
>
Brian Wickham
Green) wrote:
>"B Briggs" <theb...@citlink.net> wrote in message news:<ufqlh1e...@corp.supernews.com>...
>> "King Pineapple" <saddl...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
>> news:vIMK8.275$Vz5...@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
>> >
>> > <jan_...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> > news:3cfab517....@east.usenetserver.com...
>> >
>> > > Maron is French for chestnut.
>> >
>> > But the origin of the name "maroon" does come from the Spanish cimmaron,
>> as
>> > mentioned previously. What the original definition failed to mention was
>> > that they are basically confined to Jamaica.
>> >
>> >
>> I thought is was from Bugs Bunny. "What a maroon!." He was referring to
>> Elmer Fudd, indicating that he was less than bright. I think that Bush is
>> neither, he just has regional accent, uses colloquialisms, and a speech
>> impediment similar to that which causes "Spoonerism" or stuttering.
>> Barbara
>
>Bugs Bunny's "maroon" is more likely a novel pronunciation of "moron"
>than the dictionary "maroon". And this sense, which is probably what
>the original writer meant, is likely to be one that Dr. Maharaj is
>unaware of.
>
My understanding is that there was a brief fad for mispronouncing
words, slangily, in the 1940s(?) and "Maroon" for "Moron" was one of
the prime examples. I don't know of any others though, as I wasn't
around for that craze.
Warner Bros cartoons are a treasure trove of slang speech of their
time.
Brian Wickham
Harvey V
wrote:
> (Christopher Green) wrote:
-snip-
>> Bugs Bunny's "maroon" is more likely a novel pronunciation of
>> "moron" than the dictionary "maroon". And this sense, which is
>> probably what the original writer meant, is likely to be one that
>> Dr. Maharaj is unaware of.
>>
> My understanding is that there was a brief fad for mispronouncing
> words, slangily, in the 1940s(?) and "Maroon" for "Moron" was one
> of the prime examples. I don't know of any others though, as I
> wasn't around for that craze.
>
> Warner Bros cartoons are a treasure trove of slang speech of their
> time.
I understand that "maroon" was definitely around in WB scripts of the
1940s, so the dates work.
Although I can't quote chapter and verse, I know for certain that I've
come across many examples of comic pronunciations (pro-NOUN-see-ay-
shuns) in WB cartoons. I'm near as dammit sure that's where Bugs's use
of "maroon" comes from, rather than some derivative of cimarron.
--
Cheers,
Harvey
Harvey V
wrote:
-snip-
> My understanding is that there was a brief fad for mispronouncing
> words, slangily, in the 1940s(?) and "Maroon" for "Moron" was one
> of the prime examples. I don't know of any others though, as I
> wasn't around for that craze.
A bit more on that: there's a number of them in .wav file format at
http://www.barbneal.com/bugs.asp
These include "what an imbesile, what an ultra maroon" as well as "what
a maroon, what an ignoranimous".
--
Cheers,
Harvey
Pat Durkin
"Brian Wickham" <bwic...@nyc.rr.com> wrote in message
news:3cfe8514...@news-server.nyc.rr.com...
Another word corrupted for comic effect, and to get away from the
embarrassment of using such a word is "bazooms" for bosom or bosoms. I
believe I heard the term in some films or early TV shows. Maybe "Leave
it to Beaver", or "Lucy", or the Beach Blanket movies of the 1950s and
60s.
I agree with others that the cartoonish use of "maroon" is a corruption
of "moron" in an era when people were becoming more politically correct,
strange as it may seem. "Moron", the butt of many jokes in the earlier
decades began to be noticed as cruel in actual use. Same with "dummy",
and later " 'tard".
Robert Bannister
> <jan_...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:3cfab517....@east.usenetserver.com...
>
> > Maron is French for chestnut.
>
> But the origin of the name "maroon" does come from the Spanish cimmaron, as
> mentioned previously. What the original definition failed to mention was
> that they are basically confined to Jamaica.
I am intrigued by the common Australian pronunciation of the colour 'maroon'
in which the second syllable sounds like 'roan'. Is this pronunciation used
anywhere else - perhaps in Ireland?
--
Rob Bannister
Gary Ott
news:3CFEAB10...@it.net.au...
I have a database of expressions and words from various regions. That lists
the pronunciation mahr oan only in Australia. I have been to Ireland a
couple of times, but I can't recall hearing the word pronounced at all.
>
> --
> Rob Bannister
>
GrapeApe
>embarrassment of using such a word is "bazooms" for bosom or bosoms. I
>believe I heard the term in some films or early TV shows. Maybe "Leave
>it to Beaver", or "Lucy", or the Beach Blanket movies of the 1950s and
>60s.
Lucy... No
Beaver... No
Beach Blanket ... maybe
R H Draney
news:3cfe8514...@news-server.nyc.rr.com:
> On 5 Jun 2002 09:43:11 -0700, cj.g...@worldnet.att.net
> (Christopher Green) wrote:
>
>>"B Briggs" <theb...@citlink.net> wrote in message
>>news:<ufqlh1e...@corp.supernews.com>...
>>> >
>>> I thought is was from Bugs Bunny. "What a maroon!." He was
>>> referring to Elmer Fudd, indicating that he was less than
>>> bright. I think that Bush is neither, he just has regional
>>> accent, uses colloquialisms, and a speech impediment similar to
>>> that which causes "Spoonerism" or stuttering. Barbara
>>
>>Bugs Bunny's "maroon" is more likely a novel pronunciation of
>>"moron" than the dictionary "maroon". And this sense, which is
>>probably what the original writer meant, is likely to be one that
>>Dr. Maharaj is unaware of.
>>
> My understanding is that there was a brief fad for mispronouncing
> words, slangily, in the 1940s(?) and "Maroon" for "Moron" was one
> of the prime examples. I don't know of any others though, as I
> wasn't around for that craze.
>
> Warner Bros cartoons are a treasure trove of slang speech of their
> time.
And a treasure trove of explanations for many of the references found
therein may be visited at http://members.aol.com/eocostello/
OT:
Once there were two sailors whose ship had gone down...they managed to
make it to the shore of a desert island, where a grove of trees
bearing unfamiliar sort of dark red fruit stood near the beach...they
managed to bring down a few of the fruit and discovered that they were
safe to eat, pleasant tasting, and able to satisfy both hunger and
thirst...they ate liberally of this fruit, then, exhausted by the
ordeal of surviving the shipwreck, fell asleep on the beach....
Unknown to the sailors, the fruit was also very rich in beta carotene,
a form of vitamin A that can discolor the skin if ingested in too
great a quantity...as they slept, it imparted to the two sailors'
skins the same dark red color as the fruit itself...when they awoke
the next morning, each took one look at the other, realized the
effects of the fruit, and shouted in unison:
"Oh, no! We're MAROONED!"....r
Ben Zimmer
A GoogleGroups search turns up the following tidbit:
-------------
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=76j5jj%24786%40panix.com
From: Len Berlind (lber...@panix.com)
Subject: Re: We Must Stem The Tide of Independent Thinking!
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Date: 1999/01/01
>> > "Whata maroon!" (Bugs Bunny)
>> ^^^^^^^^^^^^
>> Ahem. Roger Rabbit.
>>
>
>Waitaminnit. Roger may have used it (not sure about that), but Bugs
>originated it.
Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang:
"Go on, maroon, get a seat." From the movie 'Buck Privates', 1941.
"Whatta dope! Whatta maroon!" From the BB cartoon 'Hare conditioned',
1945.
-------------
So unless the alt.animation folks find an example in a pre-1941 Bugs
cartoon, it looks like Abbott & Costello, the stars of "Buck Privates",
hold the distinction for first recorded usage.
--Ben
Chris Malcolm
>Bugs Bunny's "maroon" is more likely a novel pronunciation of "moron"
>than the dictionary "maroon".
"Maroon" was imported into US English from French by the
French-Canadian rabbit, Bugs Bunny. It derives from the French slang
term "marron" which it sounds more like than it looks. Because bad
spelling is so prevalent in the US, most Americans think "maroon" is a
misspelling or joke version of "moron". It's actually much more
specific than that. A marron (Fr) is the kind of person whose
aggressively egregious folly tempts fate to subject him to all manner
of unfortunate humiliations. One probably needs to be a bit smarter
than a moron to become a maroon, smart enough to keep devising the
petards upon which one is then hoist.
Bugs Bunny applied the term to the hunter who kept vainly trying to
shoot him, whom he also referred to sarcastically as "Nimrod", an
ironic reference to Nimrod the paradigmatic mighty hunter of the
Bible. If you are familiar with Bugs Bunnny you will realise how much
more appropriate is the term "maroon" in the sense of "marron" than
"moron" for the bespectacled rabbit hunter whose elaborate schemes to
shoot the rabbit often literally blew up in his face. The education of
the smart rabbit so far outstripped that of his Anmerican audience,
who clearly hadn't even read the Bible, that they assumed that
"nimrod" too was yet another word for "moron".
Thus did Bugs Bunny's finely tuned sarcasms and colloquialisms fall
upon ignorant American ears and provide American Emglish with what it
so sorely lacked, yet another pair of synomyms for "moron". :-)
--
Chris Malcolm c...@dai.ed.ac.uk +44 (0)131 650 3085
School of Artificial Intelligence, Division of Informatics
Edinburgh University, 5 Forrest Hill, Edinburgh, EH1 2QL, UK
[http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/daidb/people/homes/cam/ ] DoD #205
John Holmes
'maroon'
> in which the second syllable sounds like 'roan'. Is this pronunciation
used
> anywhere else - perhaps in Ireland?
That's the pronunciation I've most often heard for the colour. It's a
little closer to the Italian and French that it's derived from, and I
always assumed it was the common pronunciation in Britain too. The -oon
version is usually reserved for the verb.
--
Regards
John
Aokay (David G. Bryce)
from the academically respected Chris Malcolm that Bugs Bunny was a
French-Canadian. I have to suspect some sort of put on.
I can find no hint anywhere on the www that BB ever had any relationship
to la belle province (Quebec) or any other place in Canada, either
through his creator or his voice [see, e.g.,
http://www.toonopedia.com/blanc.htm].
My disquiet now extends to Chris's screed on how BB's 'maroon'
originated, although without a handy Larousse (and having only 5 years of
high school French forty years ago) I can only rely on the internet,
which tells me that 'marron' means, of course, 'chestnut, but also a
colour (as in
"De quelle couleur sont tes yeux ?
Marron très foncé..."
and
"des yeux marron vert"
BUT, http://www.chez.com/journaldessavants/Edito11.html mentions "une
sorte de clown marron et blanc," so, except for the doubts created in my
head by the French-Canadian bit, I would have accepted Chris's tale
holus-bolus.
So, somebody weigh in, please, with more on BB's origins. Or, Chris, with
respect, where did you hear/find this tale. Do you believe it or could
you have been scammed yourself? And, because this group is interested in
English, is there support for your exposition of the derivation of
'maroon' or are you just teasing our American cousins?
aokay
David G. Bryce
(Please use Da...@DavidBryce.net as my email address. It
should be in the "Reply-To" header so that your reply button
_should_ work. Please do not address email to me @ volny.cz,
surenet.net, hotmail.com or any other server I may use to
send email to you. Mary's address is Ma...@DavidBryce.net.)
Harvey V
<Da...@DavidBryce.net> wrote:
> As I was retrieving today's messages, my eyes fixed on the
> startling news from the academically respected Chris Malcolm that
> Bugs Bunny was a French-Canadian. I have to suspect some sort of
> put on.
I, too, read Chris's post with great interest, and wound up greatly
admiring the quality of his piss-taking.......it was excellent!
--
Cheers,
Harvey
Aokay (David G. Bryce)
>Another word corrupted for comic effect, and to get away from the
>embarrassment of using such a word is "bazooms" for bosom or bosoms.
Doubtful. http://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/p/dictionary/slang-b.html
sez:
"bazoomas
plural noun a woman's breasts. Also, bazooms.
[originally British slang (1950s); alteration of
bosom]"
Whether the word originated in Britain or elsewhere (I would suspect the
Americans just from my memories of growing up post-war [in Canada]) and
whatever way it is spelled, is it not more likely that it's just one of
the myriad man-created terms for women's bodies -- and not to be polite??
> I
>believe I heard the term in some films or early TV shows. Maybe "Leave
>it to Beaver", or "Lucy", or the Beach Blanket movies of the 1950s and
>60s.
Yes, you must have heard it somewhere. But is the street possible? The
locker room (be you man or woman)?
aokay
Harvey V
<Da...@DavidBryce.net> wrote:
> wrote:
>
>> Another word corrupted for comic effect, and to get away from the
>> embarrassment of using such a word is "bazooms" for bosom or
>> bosoms.
>
> Doubtful.
> http://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/p/dictionary/slang-b.html
> sez:
>
"bazoomas
plural noun a woman's breasts. Also, bazooms. [originally
British slang (1950s); alteration of bosom]"
I don't follow your point there: in what way could that definition be
taken as incompatible with the corruption of "bosom" for comic effect?
> Whether the word originated in Britain or elsewhere (I would
> suspect the Americans just from my memories of growing up post-war
> [in Canada]) and whatever way it is spelled, is it not more likely
> that it's just one of the myriad man-created terms for women's
> bodies -- and not to be polite??
I certainly first came across it -- in Canada in the 1950s or 1960s --
as a comic pronunciation of "bosom" rather than as a male term for
breasts. (It was in a lisped description of Cleopatra -- who "clathped
an athp to her bathoom", with the stress on the second syllable --
so it was definitely related to "bosom" rather than as a standalone
word for breasts.)
--
Cheers,
Harvey
Robert Lipton
Harvey V wrote:
Strange. I read it and thought "My god, this man has too much time on
his hands."
Bob
Robert Bannister
> I espied that on 07 Jun 2002, "Aokay (David G. Bryce)"
> <Da...@DavidBryce.net> wrote:
> > On Wed, 5 Jun 2002 18:25:35 -0500, "Pat Durkin" <p...@hotmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> Another word corrupted for comic effect, and to get away from the
> >> embarrassment of using such a word is "bazooms" for bosom or
> >> bosoms.
"Bosom" is itself an interesting word - one of those words I never looked
up and whose meaning I guessed from context. The result was that, for a
long time, I thought it meant 'lap' and then, up to my late teens, I
thought it meant 'heart'. Another word I had difficulty with was 'loins'.
--
Rob Bannister
R H Draney
> "Bosom" is itself an interesting word - one of those words I never
> looked up and whose meaning I guessed from context. The result was
> that, for a long time, I thought it meant 'lap' and then, up to my
> late teens, I thought it meant 'heart'. Another word I had
> difficulty with was 'loins'.
"Thews" was one that gave me trouble; luckily you seldom see it
outside the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs....
How long did it take to get straightened out on "akimbo"?...r
Harvey V
wrote:
It was a bit of a knife edge decision, but the smiley at the end of his
post clinches it........
(If he was serious, god help him: in that case, he *definitely* should
get out a bit more.......)
--
Cheers,
Harvey
Robert Bannister
Never had any problem with that word. I think it must have been used at
the 2-teacher school I attended when I was five - we used to do all
sort or weird exercises every morning. I later realised that this was
because the heating was so inadequate.
--
Rob Bannister
Steve Hayes
>"Thews" was one that gave me trouble; luckily you seldom see it
>outside the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs....
Brian Aldiss drove me to the dictionary with "harneys" and "ancipital".
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/steve.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk
Chris Malcolm
>"King Pineapple" <saddl...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
>news:vIMK8.275$Vz5...@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
>> <jan_...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:3cfab517....@east.usenetserver.com...
>> > Maron is French for chestnut.
>> But the origin of the name "maroon" does come from the Spanish cimmaron,
>as
>> mentioned previously. What the original definition failed to mention was
>> that they are basically confined to Jamaica.
>I thought is was from Bugs Bunny. "What a maroon!." He was referring to
>Elmer Fudd, indicating that he was less than bright. I think that Bush is
>neither, he just has regional accent, uses colloquialisms, and a speech
>impediment similar to that which causes "Spoonerism" or stuttering.
Note that the pronunciation of "maroon" is much closer to French
"marron" than "moron", and "marron" was French underworld argot for
someone not just stupid, but stupid in a very accident prone way,
which is particularly appropriate for Elmer Fudd, whose attempts to
shoot the rabbit always backfired badly. I don't know if this usage of
"marron" migrated to Canadian French or Cajun, but the appropriateness
of the slang term suggests it might have, and from thence to Bugs.
Bob Stahl
> B Briggs:
>> King Pineapple:
>>> jan sand
>>>> Maron is French for chestnut.
>>> But the origin of the name "maroon" does come from the Spanish
>>> cimmaron, as mentioned previously. What the original definition
>>> failed to mention was that they are basically confined to Jamaica.
>> I thought is was from Bugs Bunny. "What a maroon!." He was
>> referring to Elmer Fudd, indicating that he was less than bright.
>> I think that Bush is neither, he just has regional accent, uses
>> colloquialisms, and a speech impediment similar to that which
>> causes "Spoonerism" or stuttering.
> Note that the pronunciation of "maroon" is much closer to French
> "marron" than "moron", and "marron" was French underworld argot
> for someone not just stupid, but stupid in a very accident prone
> way, which is particularly appropriate for Elmer Fudd, whose
> attempts to shoot the rabbit always backfired badly. I don't know
> if this usage of "marron" migrated to Canadian French or Cajun,
> but the appropriateness of the slang term suggests it might have,
> and from thence to Bugs.
"what a moron" 5,750 Google hits
"what a maroon" 1,330
"what a retard" 1,030
"what a marron" 2
"what a motard" 1
"Motard" is a portmanteau word combining "moron" and "retard",
which I noticed in US college usage in the early 1980s; perhaps
a back-formation from the French word for motorcyclist, and in
usage seemed to be a milder insult than either of the origin
words.
I suspect Bush is more canny than his impromptu phrasings
suggest, but one is often left with a Fuddish impression.
(ngs trimmed)
--
Bob Stahl
j...@radidelmex.net
> Note that the pronunciation of "maroon" is much closer to French
> "marron" than "moron", and "marron" was French underworld argot for
> someone not just stupid, but stupid in a very accident prone way,
Speaking of morons, my new favorite URL is: http://www.moron.af.mil/
I wonder if the base high school team is the "Fightin' Morons"?
Philip Eden
Bob Stahl <urbul...@pacbell.net> wrote in message
news:s3JU8.1076$x65.10...@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com...
> "what a motard" 1
>
> "Motard" is a portmanteau word combining "moron" and "retard",
> which I noticed in US college usage in the early 1980s; perhaps
> a back-formation from the French word for motorcyclist, and in
> usage seemed to be a milder insult than either of the origin
> words.
>
In the region of France I'm familiar with (Limousin, Charentais,
Périgord), 'motard' is also used in a slangy, very mildly
disparaging way to describe "un flic sur moto" -- usually
on traffic duty. ('Sur' seems to be supplanting many of
the prepositions we learnt at school especially, it seems
to me, among the young).
Philip Eden