Date:    Thu, 26 Feb 1998 02:16:31 -0600
<br>From:    Mike Salovesh  t20mxs1[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CORN.CSO.NIU.EDU 
<br>Subject: Re: hurache?  Huarache!
<br>
<br>Larry Horn wrote:
<br> 
<br>
<br>  Actually, 'thong' was in my vocabulary for those rubber beach shoes long
<br>  before 'zori'; this was on Long Island and in California in the late
<br>  1960's.  Rather than "capitalizing on the minimal titillation" from thong
<br>  bikinis, I take the use of the longer "thong sandals" to be a classic
<br>  retronym (cf. acoustic guitar, analog watch, natrual turf, biological
<br>  mother, World War I), in which a previously unmodified label takes on a
<br>  modifier (or in the "thong" case, a head) to distinguish it from a new
<br>  cultural innovation that invades its referential space.  If I want to make
<br>  it clear I'm talking about something to wear on my feet, it would behoove
<br>  me to specify "thong sandals" rather than "thongs" tout court.
<br> 
<br>  Larry
<br>
<br>This is NOT a disagreement or an argument; it's a reflection of
<br>different experiences.  "Zori" came into my own vocabulary in 1952/53,
<br>when I lived in Japan and Korea for a year -- courtesy of the U.S. Army.
<br>
<br>Maybe that biased what I saw and remembered in U.S. stores afterward.  I
<br>have a clear memory of zori, labeled as such, being sold in a Chicago
<br>Walgreen's drugstore I frequented before my 1955 marriage. I remember
<br>commenting to my fiance that it was nice to see that "familiar" word
<br>properly applied.
<br>
<br>You are quite right to point out that my memory lapsed regarding
<br>thongs.  With your reminder, now I do remember seeing a different label
<br>in California stores in the 1960s.  My reaction was "I wonder why these
<br>people are calling zori 'thongs'.  Must be some kind of lingering
<br>xenophobia from World War II that makes them reluctant to use a Japanese
<br>loanword."  NOTE:  No, that's not a reflection on California bias.  It
<br>reflects MY bias at the time.
<br>
<br>Anyhow, I retract my misattribution of any association between thongs as
<br>footgear and thongs as beachwear.  (Surely not SWIMwear.)  I still
<br>wonder why people call them thongs, when they "really" are zori.
<br>
<br>--  mike salovesh                                salovesh[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]niu.edu 
<br>    anthropology department
<br>    northern illinois university                     PEACE !!!
<br>