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In England, save for the impetus given by the war, the word-coining power has lapsed; our writers vary the metres of their poetry, remodel the rhythms of prose, but one may search English fiction in vain for a single new word. It is significant that when we want to freshen our speech we borrow from America--poppycock, rambunctious, flip-flop, booster, good-mixer--all the expressive ugly vigorous slang which creeps into use among us first in talk, later in writing, comes from across the Atlantic.
-from _Fast-Talking Dames_, by Maria DiBattista
editI don't know where musick is coming from with his query (no surprise there :), but the quote comes from a book which delves into those romantic and screwball comedies (e.g., His Girl Friday, Bringing Up Baby, etc.) in which the dialogue was non-stop and swift repartee. the author claims that, more or less with the coming of sound films, a revolution hit American speech. the quote itself seems kind of a non sequitor in the midst of the rest of her theme, but is an interesting claim nonetheless.
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Is this a marketing or a creativity issue? ...or?
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US has almost five times the population of UK (281,421,906 vs 59,549,791 according to online almanac).
That could account for more frequent word coinage.
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Those statistics quite possibly support the growing market for "expressive ugly vigorous slang", as well as more drive to establish an "individual" in an ever increasingly *coined language. Ethnic diversity (or possibly lack thereof - depending on which side of the pond yer talkin'bout) *has to be factored in ...somewhere.
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You may be doing your fellow countrymen an injustice, tsu. A British columnist recently coined the word "Osamamania" to describe the sexual attraction some Western women secretly harbor for bin Laden. The columnist didn't quite get it herself but suspected that some women are aroused by men who give off a "whiff of cordite". (In this case, they are getting a lot more than a "whiff".) She also speculated on the "Stockholm syndrome" possibility and a mating instinct which attracts women to the fiercest, 'baddest' man in the crowd.
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Welcome aboard, moss, and I hope you'll stay with us! Your post is a very interesting notion.
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Thank u, Keiva. Is it interesting enuf to start a new thread? It would certainly be very interesting to know what women on this side of the Atlantic secretly think about "Osamamania", but it seems unlikely that they would 'out' themselves on AWADtalk. And who could blame them. I have been reading post-September 11th coverage in newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic and, altho Britain is America's staunchest ally in this War, fighting shoulder to shoulder even now in Afghanistan, subjects that would be considered taboo in America (like "Osamamania") are openly discussed and confronted in Britain.
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I don't know moss.. there is, and always has been a backlash to women's liberation. taking care of your self, being responsible, is hard work. lots of people don't want to work hard. in a marriage, roles, just as often fall out so that each partner takes responsiblity for the things they find easiest, as they do along sexual lines--ie, cooking become the job of the person who like to cook best, not always the wife. but between them both, everything gets done.
the taliban regime is very harsh-- but very simple. a woman can't leave the house unattended (no shopping, a bummer if you think clothes and shoes, but a godsend if you think grocery!) they can't work out side the house, (and if you are single career woman, the idea of a forces break sound very nice.)
i think every one, once in a while, dreams of someone taking over our lives, and yeilding to them. for most of us, its a once in rare mood dream.. and we recognize that playing submissive, to a god like master can be thought to be fun, but its not.
i really think, the more responsible you become, the less the idea of total submission to an outside force becomes. I don't think it is too taboo to mention here, i just don't think its a big issue.
one aspect of freedom, is, women are allowed, if they want to, to do something very similar. there are religious orders, of all stripes, that accept men and women, into a cloistered, regulated environment. they exist, and still get people to join. in the catholic church, fully cloister convents get more noviciates than more open religious groups!
a major difference between our society, and the society the taliban is trying to create, is we don't force people to act a certain way.. but the same freedom to chose, leads some to chose a life style similar to the one the taliban is trying to create by decree!
and as an FYI, tsuwm, is from the west side of the pond, west enough to be in Minnesota, in fact!-- but don't worry, its the least of your mistakes.. one of these days, you'll mistake one of the fine ladies that reside here for a he.. and then just come to me.. i am very skilled at scraping egg of my face, i'll help you out!
and finally--Start a new thread! why do that, when we can weave this subject into tsuwm's?
(we do run the risk that tsuwm's topic will prevail..)
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I'll speak for myself when I say that there is no subject or object considered taboo in "my" America... but there are *places for "this" discussion... and this ain't it. I'm sure there is an anthropological site somewhere that would love to hear from you  ... and as to openly confronting issues, I have to agree with the *openly part, but not necessarily the *confrontational part.  In an attempt to *circulate... tsuwm, do you have a record of the earliest occurrence of ***-mania? More specifically, was "Beatlemania" created by 'mericans or 'glanders? (I mean, the word!) moss... welcome to the big "rolling stone".
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To be sure there are anthroplogical sites, but they are for professionals. While I like word posts best, I find many of the departures from linguistic subject frequently very interesting. On the anthropological thread, I recently read a magazine article which stated that when one tribe massacred another's males, the women submitted quite readily to having their male children killed, subconsciously approving of the switch to the genes of the victors. Cressida's "treachery" is quite ancient.
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