Does this mean
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has to change it's name, then?
And is gritty non-offensive without nitty? Can nitty stand alone inoffensively without gritty? Is gritty-nitty acceptable? Is it the optional hyphen that drives it into denigration? Are the Thought Police done disemboweling the language, yet?
The bilge in slave ships, or any ship, was also
dirty water. Can we say
that anymore? Can we say dirty? Can we say water? Can we say
bilge? Can we say
the bilge in slave ships without being accused of
alluding to the
nitty-gritty?
(if, indeed, as by says, that myth of association is true)
For years I was openly embracing the new myth about the black African Cleopatra until I realized one day...wait a minute, she was a Ptolemy, she was
Greek!
As I said before, that kind of false historic revisionism for PC purposes irks me, mainly because I love history too much to subvert it falsely for modern agendas. And I'd feel the same about contrived etymologies for words and phrases to fit the same purposes (though I never gave this much thought, nor, indeed, harbored any notion that anyone would go to such lengths to garnish another notch on the PC belt until this thread, but evidently...sigh).
