Date:  Fri, 5 May 1995 17:00:42 -0700

From:  Peter McGraw <pmcgraw[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CALVIN.LINFIELD.EDU>

Subject: Re: Anodyne expletives



On Fri, 5 May 1995, Stephanie Hysmith wrote:



>          Ohio University Electronic Communication

>

>

>  Date: 05-May-1995 01:11pm EST

>

>   To: Remote Addressee           ( _mx%"ads-l[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uga.cc.uga.edu" )

>

>  From: Stephanie Hysmith             Dept: English

>      HYSMITH                 Tel No: 614-593-2743

>

> Subject: Anodyne expletives

>

>

> Elaine Green reporte her mother as saying "sugar foot" and asked if people had

> other expressions from Eastern Shore, Baltimore, or DC. An inlaw's father, now

> 90, who is half Dutch-half German, grew up in Baltimore. His German mother used

> to use the expressions: sow's ear, mule ear, dumb ass and asel. He believed the

> latter to be German for ass-hole, although I don't think Germans ever refer

> specifically to that orifice.

>

> Stephanie Hysmith

>

> This is my first List message, so please forgive me if I commit any faux-pas.

>

>

>

>

> Received: 05-May-1995 01:11pm

>



German "Esel" [ez[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]l] simply means "donkey". What *I* wonder is whether

this could possibly be the source [via folk etymology and admittedly

quite a bit of phone substitution] of the cruder English term.



Peter McGraw

Linfield College

McMinnville, OR