3/21/04

Language curiosities

I.

The Southwest terminal at LAX has something they're calling a Security Queue. Is this (a) some misguided attempt at European style, or (b) some new sort of people-moving strategy which is not sufficiently distinguished by the word "line"? E.g., is a "queue" (in LAX usage) more labyrinthine than a line?

Anyone out there seen this usage before in the U.S.?

II.

An acquaintance was telling a story about "those Chasidics." I think I've heard this usage before but never really noticed it. Is this modeled on any other English words? Do we say, for example (and lehavdil), "paralytics"? "Democratics"? (Yes, I know it's mistaken. But once I hear a mistake a few dozen times I start getting interested in the why of it.)

III.

For your participatory, or nit-picking, pleasure, a probably-incomplete list of two-letter Hebrew/Loshn-Koydesh palindromes. Have I missed any? (Their rough meanings, in order: roof, breast, hook, moved, nostril ring [see last week's parasha], God's name, the letter mem, was silent [in piyut only, I think], six, was joyful, under- or sub-.)

גג

דד

וו

זז

חח

יי

מם

סס

שש

שׂשׂ

תּתּ

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