I’m not arguing that calling “Daisy Dukes”, “Bermudas” makes sense or is even “right” or “correct” to fashion, it simply was, and even follows a very specific linguistic logic. I mean the question was, What were Daisy Dukes called before The Dukes of Hazard.?.. and I answered to my recollection… I mean, Is there supposed to be some correct answer? Because to me, my Family, and many friends, cut-off jean shorts were simply called “Bermudas”. And just because something is outside of a majority of a particular group’s experience, time, or dialectical survey doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen or wasn’t so. I mean, was my neighbor wrong for calling them “cutoff dungarees” because by that time they were called “jeans” and not made of cheap Dongar Killa calico? Were we wrong for generically calling all Jean Shorts Bermudas?
Another interesting evolution:
Did you know that they call a “Sweater”, a “Pulli” in Germany, which is short for the English fashion loanword, “Pullover”; and the same thing is also sometimes known as a “Jumper” in Britain. Although the term “Sweater” is so ingrained neurolinguistically in the US, that when you really think about it outside of a mundane noun, it is really a disgusting name for a piece of clothing… a article of clothing specifically named for its propensity to induce sweating? I guess I’m having an Opalcat Buckeye moment. I mean even in Germany they have the good sense to rename it something other than “Schwitzer”.
Devilsknew, how do you function upon leaving the house? Your use of words is so different from everyone else’s that I fear for your safety.
You might see “yield” on a yellow sign at an intersection and take it to be synonymous with “corn” because when you were a child the farmers all talked about the yield from their cornfields and nowadays, of course, that has become universal, as evidenced by all the boxes of Orville Redenbacher Popyield at the local foodery sales-autorium.
What’s so unusual about our use of Bermudas some 33 years ago? I know many people that own MP3 players that are not made by Apple, yet they all seem to calle them “IPods”. Should I fear for their linguistic capabilities?
I don’t know anyone with an MP3 that is not an iPod that they call an iPod-- they just say “mp3 player” or whatever it is. iPod is not like “Xerox” became back in the day (I realize people say Xerox to mean copy still, I just hear it less frequently than when I was a kid).
If my friend said they had an iPod, then whipped out some $20 little mp3 player, they’d- at best- get weird looks and- at worst- round mocking. Then again, in Bakersfield, we all just use tin cans, strings, and phonographs for our music. None of us can afford none of them fancy electronics, no suh.
And really, neurolinguistically, the N word simply means “black”. Negre’ is quintessentially a color word, but we have since supplanted that with culture and politics, unfortunately.
Must be one of those regional variations, like “soda” and “pop” and “coca-cola”. All my life in California, bermudas never meant anything else than finished fabric shorts that hit just above the knee, and were designed like casual slacks.
And “black” is simply “lack” with a “b” in front of it! Neurolinguistically, it’s quite interesting, because it originally meant, “be lacking,” using of course the dialect and referring to the general financial status of the the very people the modern term eventually came to refer to. Language evolves.
Well, it appears to be an isolated case, and it’s odd as it’s such a complete bastardization of the term. Not that words don’t get bastardized and evolve, it’s just that, since you’re asking why it’s unusual, that’s why. Nobody else other than your little circle, given the evidence thus far, has ever used the term bermudas to refer to Daisy Dukes. It’s about as weird as calling a hamburger a hot dog. You neighbor with the “cutoff dungarees”–I see no problem there. Calling Daisy Dukes “cutoff dungarees” completely makes sense. They are basically cutoff dungarees. Nobody would quibble with that term. Calling them bermudas? That makes no sense, as bermudas are not cutoffs and not of short-short length.
That’s also odd, at least in my dialect. iPod has not become genericized so far as I’ve noticed. Nobody would call their Zune (or whatever the iPod competitor is in this day and age) an iPod anymore than somebody would call their Blackberry an iPhone.
Just put an “i” in front of it, it won’t seem so unfamiliar. You mean to say, you are oblivious and immune from the operative corpfasc of Applecorp? That the Ipad exists is my cite. Either you are oblivious, deliberately obtuse, or ignorant… i shall decide which upon your reply.
I don’t think I’ve heard people generically refer to individual non-Apple mp3 players as “ipods” before. I’ve heard people refer to “ipods” as a grouping, which may include other players (such as “turn off any cellphones, ipods, etc. when class starts”) but in terms of someone whipping out a device and saying “hey, check out my ipod!” it’s always either an actual ipod or they say “check out my mp3 player” or “check out my Zune” or whatever.
Huh? Why not just accept the idea that the people in devilsknew’s socio- and economic-background use some words differently than you. Regionalisms that you haven’t heard of happen. It’s nothing to get your knickers in a twist about unless you’ve nothing else to do with your time. :rolleyes:
You’re new to the Dope aren’t you? (And that’s devilknew’s quote, not mine.)
You’re also stating the obvious. Yes, of course we (or at least most of us) know people from different backgrounds will use words differently, and the definition of “right” and “wrong” usage varies among them. This is just an odd linguistic curiosity (at least for me), and I’d like to know how widespread it is. It appears to be very isolated, perhaps limited in scope to a group of family and friends.
I answered his question of what was unusual about the usage of bermudas, which I treated as a sincere query. I explained to him why, to the 99+% of us who have not heard of the word bermudas to refer to Daisy Dukes, it seemed “so unusual” and why his neighbor’s usage of “cutoff dungarees” was not.
Real question: how old are you? I’m not trying to be rude, but you legitimately sound like my grandmother. See, that’s the only person I’ve ever heard refer to all MP3 players as iPods. And while I’ve heard people jokingly put an “i” in front of something to mock Apple (this is my i8trackplayer- it’s super new. I painted it white!), no one seriously says stuff like, “this is my iBlackberry!” Who. . . does that?
I believe the claim was you have a Blackberry… which is a Phone… so simply add and “i” and tadaa… you have an iPhone. He seems to think this is logical and normal.
Sorry, but I’ve got to go get a ham to boil tonight. By that I mean a steak to grill, but I’m sure I don’t need to explain why this is perfectly common use of these generic terms.
I don’t remember the shorts in question actually being called “Daisy Dukes” until the 2 Live Crew song came out. And I think the song came out after the show was off the air.
(And that’s devilknew’s quote, not mine.)