Author Topic: two suggestions  (Read 772 times)

mkenuk

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two suggestions
« on: April 23, 2021, 04:22:04 PM »
re the recent broadly / adorably 7-by-many game.

1, doobry .
 COD lists it as 'British' and gives alternative spellings (doobrie and doobrey)
It's much the same as doodah or doodad - something that the speaker cannot remember the exact name of.
I suppose it's also the same as whatsit, thingamajig or thingumabob. English seems to abound in such terms.

2, ladyboy.
Well known in Thailand and other parts of Asia. A male transvestite famous for, among other things, some spectacular and very entertaining cabaret shows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWXmqQCl_zg

Quite spectacular and not in any way offensive.


The word is known and used by both Thai and English native speakers.
COD does show it as a single word.
Chi has obviously never visited Thailand's bigger seaside resorts, or indeed, the perfume counters of the larger Bangkok department stores. Otherwise this word would certainly be part of his lexicon.

.

I
« Last Edit: April 23, 2021, 04:38:38 PM by mkenuk »

blackrockrose

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Re: two suggestions
« Reply #1 on: April 23, 2021, 05:31:32 PM »
Yes, I played ladyboy and was surprised it wasn't known.

cmh

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Re: two suggestions
« Reply #2 on: April 23, 2021, 05:34:41 PM »
Me too with ladyboy. I know all those words for things I can't remember. However, I usually can't remember THEM when they turn up on Chi!!!

pat

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Re: two suggestions
« Reply #3 on: April 23, 2021, 08:06:59 PM »
Yes, I played ladyboy and was surprised it wasn't known.

It might be because the original Chi word list dates to further back than when the word became popular, or even invented. Prior to the 7-by-many puzzle it's unlikely to have appeared in a game so no one would have known of its absence from the Chi lexicon.

Calilasseia

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Re: two suggestions
« Reply #4 on: April 27, 2021, 11:26:37 PM »
And, of course, Alan only has finite time to devote to updating the database. And relies upon us to let him know of such anomalies. :)
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Alan W

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Re: two suggestions
« Reply #5 on: May 16, 2021, 03:11:19 PM »
Ladyboy is in a few dictionaries, and is in use, so I'll add it as a rare word.

The OED has some examples, in hyphenated spelling, from as early as 1857. The earliest citation with an Asian context is from a 1993 Guardian article:

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The katoi, 'ladyboys', have recently been called 'the unacceptable face of Thailand' by foreign-exchange-conscious government ministers.

Wiktionary provides a usage note:

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The use of ladyboy to refer to trans women is common and accepted in Asia, but considered offensive outside of Asia.

Other dictionaries, namely Oxford and Collins, give no usage guidance, but I have no doubt the word would be considered a slur in some circumstances. (It brings to mind the term girlie-man, that Arnold Schwarzenegger was prone to using.)
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Alan W

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Re: two suggestions
« Reply #6 on: May 17, 2021, 09:08:55 PM »
As doobry is also listed by a few dictionaries, it should be allowed in future. But that presumably means we should also accept the alternate spellings, doobrie and doobrey. Paradoxically, it's the words that are very seldom written down that may get multiple entries in our word list, because nobody's certain how they should be spelt.

But what about doobries? As the plural of doobry it should be accepted, but as the plural of doobrie it's not allowed. There's no right answer, of course, but I'm leaving it out. The three singular variants will be accepted, as rare words.

The earliest citation in the OED is from 1977, but the entry in Green's Dictionary of Slang has this note:

Quote
[orig. in the army, the term gained a new lease of life thanks to the DJ and TV performer Kenny Everett, who used it frequently in the 1970s–80s]

And indeed, the OED's 1977 example is from the back cover of a book about Kenny Everett's character Captain Kremmen:

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Join our hero inside and feel that rare thrill of electric excitement runnin' up yer doobrie.

Also from 1977 was the Ian Dury song Common as Muck, including these lyrics:

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I'm not Nellie Melba, you're not Nellie Dean
We do our best endeavours to keep our doobries clean
Because we care!
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