Date:  Fri, 3 Jun 1994 12:09:47 -0400

From:  GURT[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]GUVAX.BITNET

Subject: tom- ?



Last night a young man (high school junior) called Thomas was

wondering about tom- as a morpheme denoting maleness, as in tomcat and

tom turkey (and tomboy, "but shouldn't that be `tomgirl'?", which

seems logical to me ;-) ).



I have no idea (and I'm not at home this week, so it's a little harder

for me to check), and I told Thomas I'd post to the list.



Anyone?



Thanks! I'll forward replies to his dad to share with him.



Joan C. Cook

Department of Linguistics

Georgetown University

cookj[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]guvax.acc.georgetown.edu