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Monday, February 20, 2006

Words of Today

Posted by on February 20 at 14:33 PM

horse fucker, horse fucking: two words, no hyphen.
typewriter chic: Frizzelle’s term for “when there’s a typewriter at the center of an aesthetic (which always seems twee and kind of phony).” Charles says his only problem with typewriters is that you can’t look at porn on them.


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don't tell frizzelle about the slog, best to keep it a secret.

I don't know about "horse fucker" as two words. Because it could engender a legitimate confusion about whether "horse" is the object of "fucker" or in apposition to it. Like say it's Halloween and there's a guy dressed as a horse, and he steps on your foot. You go to your friend and say "that horse fucker over there stepped on my foot!" You don't mean the guy fucks horses; you mean the fucker is also (dressed as) a horse. So, just personally, I would prefer "horsefucker," one word, in the context you describe.

Amy Kate has it on technicality, but I for one prefer historicity, thus horsefucker, pigfucker, et al – one word.

Hmmm. I'll rethink it. It's not too late.

Does Chris know that our newest staffer/long-time contributor H. Levin has a typewriter tattooed on her arm?

And what about "motherfucker?" Does that have to be two words? I've always assumed it was "one who fucks mothers," though I guess it could also be something like "mother of fuckers"--sort of like "mothership." OED has it as one word, at least since the 80's or so, though some instances of "mother fucker" and "mother-fucker" before then.

I was speaking specifically in the context of theater. Hannah's tattoo is great. You'd never expect it. We need more typewriter tattoos. And we need more typewriters. But a typewriter downstage center during a play seems different to me.

Stranger style for "motherfucker" is one word. Horse fucker is way more literal than the usual role "motherfucker" plays. If we want to mean "one who fucks his/her mother," we write it as two words (see this week's Savage Love headline). Maybe if we meant "bigoted, backward, ass-faced hick," "horsefucker" (one word) would be best.
I do love it that I get paid to think about these things.

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