Date:  Thu, 14 Sep 1995 11:35:43 -0400

From:  ALICE FABER <faber[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]HASKINS.YALE.EDU>

Subject: Contempt vs Content



Previous Postings:



Tom Clark:

I've lived in and out of Utah. I knew "contempt" before I lived there,

but I've heard "content" used by old husbands who know better than to

rile their wives. But Marianna Dipaolo will be able to set us all right.



Marianna Di Paolo:

Well, I wish I could, Tom, but I have never heard the expression with

anything other than "contempt". But so far the discussion suggests that

"content" only occurs in Utah and maybe only in small towns. Is that

right?



Larry Horn:

Well, Marianna, I can assure you that while my "content" may have been picked

up in New York (Manhattan or Long Island--the source, no doubt, of my

"jew-le-ry"), or perhaps in California (L.A. or Berkeley), or even in the

midwest (Ann Arbor or Madison), it most definitely was not contracted in a

small town in Utah.



Marianna Di Paolo:

Sorry, Larry, I didn't remember your contribution when I tried to respond

to Tom Clark. I must say that I enjoyed Tom's contextualization of his

first hearing of "Familiarity breeds conTENT". Have the rest of you only

heard it used facetiously as well or is it used in other types of contexts

as well?



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Has anyone considered the possibility that this is *purely* phonological?

On ESPN's early SportsCenter (Weds. 13 Sept), I heard (in the summary of the

day's OJ developments) that Marcia Clark had been cited for "conTENT of

court".





Alice Faber