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