🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Jul29.001937.5783@pony.Ingres.COM> bobm@Ingres.COM (Bob McQueer) writes:
>> "Dont do drugs." (Seen on billboards all over the country.)
>
>Originally a slang usage that never bothered me because I first heard it as
>slang.  It seems to be finding its way into accepted informal speech as well.
>Doesn't seem to have found its way into the AHD, at least in my edition, but
>it is worth noting that there are other slang / informal usages of "do" -
>slang speech seems to like twisting the verb "do" into new meanings - women
>may "do" their faces, one may "do up" a package or a report ... .

"Do" is one of those multi-purpose underspecified verbs... not only in
our language, but in many others as well.  Take for example
Japanese... there was all that fuss about George Bush puking at a
formal dinner, and it became a slang term in Japan: "Bushusuru" -- to
do a Bush.  The "suru" there is the verb "to do" in Japan, which has
100s if not 1000s of idiomatic and standard grammatical uses.

One of those semantic neat facts that makes you think that we've all
got some of the same wiring in our heads, no matter what we speak.

__Zvi Gilbert              Disclaimer: Use of the technology involved in
zgilbert@epas.utoronto.ca  this post should not be seen as an endorsement