Good question

Posted by DH on December 10, 2004

In Reply to: Bunghole banter posted by SR on December 10, 2004

: In a heated discussion a student recently told another student to "Stick it in your bunghole!"

: When I asked him if he was aware of what a "bunghole" was, he said he was not, but that it was synonymous with a**hole, and as such was in common usage among young people.

: I realize that Rap, Hip-Hop and Pop Culture are notorious for taking established words and phrases and ascribing new meanings to them, but at what point in the evolution of the language do these new meanings become acceptable? Also, I have two requests.

: Can anyone provide another example of a word or phrase that started out meaning one thing and ended up meaning something else, and has anyone heard "bunghole" as another term for the double bull in darts?

SR--very good question and one which i've been thinking about. By coincidence, a recent thread entitled "shoot the pianist" falls in this very category.

"Thread" originally meant 1. topic; but now is used in blogs to mean also 2. post introducing new topic 3. reply to post 4. followup to reply 5. followup to followup 6. all of the above

The answer is, any phrase can take on any new meaning where it seems to fit. Then the more often it is used this way, the more firmly implanted in the language does it become. There is no specific point at which it suddenly becomes "acceptable"

I collect such expressions, but I can't elaborate for copyright reasons and because I don't like to overload Gary, but if you seriously need a few more examples, I am dalehileman@verizon.net