Why is this word still around?

[USS Triumphant]

. . . And while I'm at it, you didn't mention "honky", but it means that someone frequent prostitutes - it comes from white men who used to drive into the black parts of cities to get hookers. They wouldn't want to get out of their cars in those parts of town, so they'd honk.

That's a folk etymology, as is the explanation that the voices of Caucasian people sound nasal or "honky" to blacks. Actually honky originally meant a manual laborer or factory worker, and is derived from "Hungarian." Its use by blacks as a disparaging term for whites is fairly recent, dating from the mid-1960s.

That may be. To tell the truth, I have secretly always suspected that Steve Martin made it up.

 

[John Picard]

Back to the original issue at hand - spinster. It's a good word. It has a sort of woody quality about it. A nice, woody type of word.

 

[Trekker4747]

For some reason I keep seeing this thread title as "Why is the world still round?"

 

[JiNX-01]

SPINSTER

It is a horrible word. Men get bachelor, women get spinster. It is about time we came up with a better word for an unmarried woman.

Single.
(Works for men, too!)

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Back to the original issue at hand - spinster. It's a good word. It has a sort of woody quality about it. A nice, woody type of word.

Spinster? No. Dreadful TINNY word.

 

[Colonel Green]

I prefer a spinner, myself.

 

[LitmusDragon]

For some reason I keep seeing this thread title as "Why is the world still round?"

I keep reading it as "why is this world still around?" like it's some kind of existential rant.

 

[RandyS]

For some reason I keep seeing this thread title as "Why is the world still round?"

I keep reading it as "why is this world still around?" like it's some kind of existential rant.

I thought that too at first. Then I opened the thread. Too bad too, it killed about a half-dozen smart-ass remarks I had planned.

 

[gturner]

Why don't we call them 'frigid cougars'?