Comments on recent additions

Ross Clark (FOA DALSL) r.clark at auckland.ac.nz
Mon Mar 18 17:14:37 EST 2002


-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas H. Slone [mailto:THSlone at yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, 15 March 2002 4:28 a.m.
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Comments on recent additions


Glad to hear that the FTP woes are over John!  Here are some comments on
your recent additions:

pamuk
pamuk man: prostitute's client, "john"

any ideas on the etymology of pamuk?  Could it be a contraction of "pam
huk", where "pam" is the Tok Piksa meaning (penis)?

[Ross Clark (FOA LING)] 
 
This seems to be from Samoan /pa'umutu/, glossed as "promiscuous" in the
dictionaries. In colloquial Samoan the /t/ is [k]. Jeff Siegel (p.c.) first
pointed this out to me. I don't know if Muhlhausler mentions it anywhere.
The Samoans have a folk etymology from /pa'u/ "skin (sc. hymen)" and /mutu/
"broken", of which I'm skeptical. But "pam huk" is ingenious, and who knows?
 
Ross Clark 


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