Potato farmers fight "couch potato" term
British potato farmers say the term "couch potato" is reinforcing negative stereotypes about the tuber that are unfounded. It's asking the OED to remove the word, which was added (as American slang) in 1993.
John Simpson, the editor of the dictionary, ... said: "When people blame words they are actually blaming the society that uses them. Dictionaries just reflect the words that society uses. We monitor words in the language and what's out there. Our dictionaries describe - not prescribe."The British Potato Council has a solution prepared: Use the term "couch slouch" instead.
He said words were never taken out of the full-length dictionary, but that little-used words could be removed from the smaller dictionaries to make way for more up-to-date ones.
"I sympathise with them. It's not much fun being called Simpson after the birth of Bart and Homer," he said.
"However, couch potato will stay. We do not leave out words. Once a word is included in the big dictionary, it stays there.
Good luck.
posted by Nicole @ 11:36 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
What do they think about "the Irish seven-course meal"?
"Couch zucchini" just never could get past the focus groups.
Bill, is that six beers and a potato? I'd never heard of it before.
This smacks of the sort of pseudo-outrage that groups sometimes use to call attention to themselves, without any real hope of changing the language. For example, PETA a few years ago tried to get the town of Fishkill, N.Y., to change its name.
It's so reactionary and laughable. (Of all the things to focus attention on.)
And when I think of a couch potato, I certainly don't think of potatoes. Potato chips? Maybe. But potatoes? Never.
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