Date:  Sat, 8 Jun 1996 14:10:39 -0400

From:  Margaret Ronkin <ronkinm[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]GUSUN.GEORGETOWN.EDU>

Subject: Re: Packy revisited



    I too thought of your interpretation, but I felt that it

was unlikely in the context in which 'packy' was used on this list.



    Also, the British abbreviation of 'Pakistani' is 'paki'

or 'pakki', which came into use in the skinhead era/late 60s.

Tony Thorne's _Dictionary of Contemporary Slang_ (1990) gives three

senses of this shortening: (1) "an offensive racial epithet"; (2)

"a descriptive term for the many independent corner stores owned

and run by (South Asian) immigrant families", and (3) (still awake?)

"commercial or low-grade (South Asian) hashish... as opposed to

premimium products from Afghanistan, Kashmir, Nepal, etc.".



    I think it's unlikely that 'paki'/'packy' in the second sense

refers to "the ownership of many liquor stores by Pakistanis".

Pakistani expats may be branching into the liquor business, but

Pakistan is an Islamic republic (in which only "non-Muslims" and

"foreigners" can legally obtain liquor) and, I think, many if not most

expats would still try to uphold community values, at least in

public.





- Maggie Ronkin





On Sat, 8 Jun 1996, David Goldstein-Shirley wrote:



> Although I was subscribed to this list by someone else and have been

> trying unsuccessfully for some time to be unsubscribed (if the listowner

> is reading, would you please unsubscribe me?), I do have a response

> regarding the term "packy" for a liquor store.

>

> Is it possible that it refers to the ownership of many liquor stores by

> Pakistanis? I wouldn't be surprised if it is a British slang term.

>

> David Goldstein-Shirley

> University of California, Irvine

>