From: try.not.to@but.see.sig   
      
   On Wed, 24 Sep 2008 18:23:01 -0400, Patrick Baldwin wrote   
   (in article ):   
      
   > Elaine Thompson  wrote:   
   >> On Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:40:31 +0100,   
   >> green_knight@greenknight.org.uk.invalid (Catja Pafort) wrote:   
   >   
   >>> Brian M. Scott wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>>> You should be asking whether the origin comes to   
   >>>> mind when the phrases are used.  That varies by person and   
   >>>> context; at least with 'pansy-ass' it frequently does not,   
   >>>> and I have the impression that some may in fact not even   
   >>>> know its origin.   
   >>>   
   >>> I did not know it's origin, in fact, I cannot recall hearing that   
   >>> precise term before, but it's so blindingly obvious a formation that I   
   >>> did not need that knowledge.   
   >>>   
   >   
   >> /unlurk   
   >   
   >> "blindingly obvious" *to you*.  Not, apparently to Sea Wasp, not to me   
   >> and not to Brian here.   
   >   
   > 	/unlurk   
   >   
   > 	Me neither.   
   >   
   >> All in the USA, I believe.  I've run across the phrase, but only as a   
   >> general insult along the lines of lily-livered or yellow-bellied but   
   >> with an air of the UK about it.   
   >   
   >   
   > 	Aye.   
   >   
   >> Which is - I think - Brian's point.  In our context it isn't terribly   
   >> offensive.   
   >   
   > 	Not in a "conveys extreme prejudice about homosexuals" way,   
   > 	but I might be a bit irked if someone called me that, just   
   > 	like I'd be irked if they called me a whiny bitch.  Depends   
   > 	on person and context, of course.   
   >   
   >> I've had to put some thought into figuring out how it is offensive in   
   >> other dialects of English.   
   >   
   >   
   >   
   >>>    
   >>>   
   >>>> It seems to me that you are assuming that the problem is on   
   >>>> the writer's end and refusing to consider the possibility   
   >>>> that it might be on the reader's end.   
   >>>   
   >>> I think that, when using terms that create a wide-ranging consensus as   
   >>> to their offensiveness, a writer ought to be aware - particularly if the   
   >>> term is as transparent as the one in question   
   >   
   > 	I see no consensus.   
   >   
   >> See above.  It *isn't* transparent to speakers of various flavors of   
   >> US English.  (I grew up in California, Brian is somewhere in the US,   
   >> I'm not sure where, and Wasp is East Coast - NY, I think.)   
   >   
   >   
   > 	Just as another data point:   
   >   
   > 	Not blindingly obvious at all to me, and I'm in Massachusetts.   
   >   
   >> P.   
   >   
      
   Not blinding obvious to me either. Much ado about very little, in fact.  In   
   Florida.   
      
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