# Isn't it funny?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isnt-it-funny/600385
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [October 21, 2011, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isnt-it-funny/600385 "2011-10-21T19:03:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2011, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isnt-it-funny/600385/1 "2011-10-21T19:03:01Z")
“Peers” and “Peeps” mean the same thing. Twice?
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### Author:  [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2011, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isnt-it-funny/600385/2 "2011-10-21T19:04:55Z")
I’m doubled over in paroxysms of laughter here. No, really!
joe
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### Author:  [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2011, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isnt-it-funny/600385/3 "2011-10-21T21:32:30Z")
Wow, that’s pretty cool. I wonder if there are any other word pairs with two different sets of meanings.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2011, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isnt-it-funny/600385/4 "2011-10-21T23:26:42Z")
You mean I can eat my peers at Easter time?
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2011, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isnt-it-funny/600385/5 "2011-10-21T23:51:46Z")
> [@panache45](#):
>
> You mean I can eat my peers at Easter time?
My late friend Michael told me how he was being walked through Times Square by his Mom when he was five or six and saw a marquee on 42nd Street for Peepland. “Mommy, let’s go in _there_, I wanna see all the _peeps!_”
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### Author:  [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2011, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isnt-it-funny/600385/6 "2011-10-24T20:52:22Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#):
>
> “Peers” and “Peeps” mean the same thing. Twice?
Except I don’t agree that “peers” (those roughly the same age, education, and social status as me) means the same thing as “peeps” (friends).
Sorry to be a party pooper. ☹
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2011, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isnt-it-funny/600385/7 "2011-10-24T21:45:17Z")
> [@Misnomer](#):
>
> Except I don’t agree that “peers” (those roughly the same age, education, and social status as me) means the same thing as “peeps” (friends).
>
> Sorry to be a party pooper. ☹
Isn’t ‘peeps’ just short for ‘people’?
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### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2011, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isnt-it-funny/600385/8 "2011-10-24T22:00:32Z")
> [@Misnomer](#):
>
> Except I don’t agree that “peers” (those roughly the same age, education, and social status as me) means the same thing as “peeps” (friends).
>
> Sorry to be a party pooper. ☹
Fine, be that way. 🙂 But “I’m destined to live the dream for all my peeps who never made it” seems unlikely to include Granny or even mom & dad. Unless all/some of them were gang bangers, and thus peers. Which is always possible.
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### Author:  [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2011, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isnt-it-funny/600385/9 "2011-10-24T22:03:17Z")
> [@Chefguy](#):
>
> Isn’t ‘peeps’ just short for ‘people’?
Yes, but the connotation is “friends.” Isn’t it? Or maybe there’s a broader usage that I’m not aware of: I’ve never heard it used like “check out those peeps over there,” only like “I emailed my peeps and we met up at the bar.”
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### Author:  [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2011, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isnt-it-funny/600385/10 "2011-10-24T22:12:18Z")
> [@Misnomer](#):
>
> Except I don’t agree that “peers” (those roughly the same age, education, and social status as me) means the same thing as “peeps” (friends).
>
> Sorry to be a party pooper. ☹
I think you are being a bit of a party pooper. I mean, “peer” as in “strive to see something” and “peep” as in “surreptitiously glimpse” are not exact synonyms either. But they’re also similar in meaning, and hats off to the OP for spotting it.
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### Author:  [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2011, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isnt-it-funny/600385/11 "2011-10-24T22:19:38Z")
> [@Ximenean](#):
>
> I think you are being a bit of a party pooper.
As I acknowledged…
> [@](#):
>
> I mean, “peer” as in “strive to see something” and “peep” as in “surreptitiously glimpse” are not exact synonyms either.
I never said the words had to be exact synonyms; it’s just that, IME, the definitions of “peers” and “peeps” that I mentioned aren’t even _close_ to being synonyms. Your definitions can both be summed up as “looks at,” but the others are like comparing “mankind” and “family.” Again, IME/IMHO.
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### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2011, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isnt-it-funny/600385/12 "2011-10-24T22:21:06Z")
**Misnomer** , why do you hate America?
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2011, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isnt-it-funny/600385/13 "2011-10-24T23:43:42Z")
> [@Misnomer](#):
>
> Yes, but the connotation is “friends.” Isn’t it? Or maybe there’s a broader usage that I’m not aware of: I’ve never heard it used like “check out those peeps over there,” only like “I emailed my peeps and we met up at the bar.”
I went to the Urban Dictionary for the first time in my life (hope you’re happy), and they seem to have a fairly [broad definition](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=peeps).
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### Author:  [@Sodalite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sodalite)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2011, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isnt-it-funny/600385/14 "2011-10-25T03:43:38Z")
Continuing the OP rather than the argument about it, did you know you can spell turn with the letters from revolution? It has a synonym inside itself. Funny to me, anyway.
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### Author:  [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2011, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isnt-it-funny/600385/15 "2011-10-25T05:45:58Z")
I think you’ll fine a few of these, especially when you look at noun/verb pairs, eg:
Place vs. Position
Place something somewhere.
Position something somewhere.
Go to a place.
Go to a position.
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### Author:  [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2011, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isnt-it-funny/600385/16 "2011-10-25T19:12:40Z")
> [@Chefguy](#):
>
> I went to the Urban Dictionary for the first time in my life (hope you’re happy)
Heh. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2011, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isnt-it-funny/600385/17 "2011-10-25T19:42:04Z")
There are no synonyms for [peeps](http://i.imgur.com/zYg4u.jpg) except _microwavable hilarity_. But I have to agree, [this](http://i.imgur.com/ohocD.jpg) is pretty funny.
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2011, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isnt-it-funny/600385/18 "2011-10-25T20:00:18Z")
> [@Sodalite](#):
>
> Continuing the OP rather than the argument about it, did you know you can spell turn with the letters from revolution? It has a synonym inside itself. Funny to me, anyway.
There’s no “me” in “team.”
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### Author:  [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2011, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isnt-it-funny/600385/19 "2011-10-25T20:03:46Z")
> [@Misnomer](#):
>
> Yes, but the connotation is “friends.” Isn’t it? Or maybe there’s a broader usage that I’m not aware of: I’ve never heard it used like “check out those peeps over there,” only like “I emailed my peeps and we met up at the bar.”
“Friends” is only connoted by “_my_ peeps”, which is also connoted by “my people”. “Peeps” is, indeed, just short for “people”, and doesn’t carry any different meaning or connotation than just using “people”.
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#):
>
> Fine, be that way. 🙂 But “I’m destined to live the dream for all my peeps who never made it” seems unlikely to include Granny or even mom & dad. Unless all/some of them were gang bangers, and thus peers. Which is always possible.
But you’d never refer to your granny or parent as “my people”.
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### Author:  [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2011, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isnt-it-funny/600385/20 "2011-10-25T21:21:25Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#):
>
> “Friends” is only connoted by “_my_ peeps”, which is also connoted by “my people”. “Peeps” is, indeed, just short for “people”, and doesn’t carry any different meaning or connotation than just using “people”.
My point (which is now gathering flies) was that I’d never heard “peeps” used without the implied “my,” therefore what it meant – to me – was not the same as the word it’s a shortened version of.
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