I'd never heard "jewed him down" until I was like 25, and then my facial expression was enough to make the speaker stop and think about what he'd just said. And admit that he'd never thought about it before.

This is the same person who taught me "tramp stamp" and uses it all the time.

"Tramp stamp" bugs me, for why Trudy said, and "wife beater" doesn't, for why Sean said.

Seriously? How do you feel about "jewed him down"? I mean, assuming you don't hate Jews? Or "gyped"? And please don't tell me what you call Brazil nuts.

Jewish, Gypsy, or Brazilian is what a person IS; "wife beater" is an action a person chooses to take. Thus, I think this is comparing apples and oranges.

I also don't think it's implied that everyone who wears a sleeveless tanktop with nothing over it is an abusive partner.

I can see that the term "wife beater" for the shirt trivializes the nastiness of the crime, and so for that reason I'd change my usage.

Yay for tubeless Drew!!!!

Steph, I thought I was getting het up about this, but you're waaaaaay out of line jumping to flat out calling me a racist. Back the truck up.

I didn't call you a racist. Nor did I say that you use racist terms, or engage in racist activities/speech.

What I did was make a comparison to other parts of speech that have fallen out of use because their connotation is inflammatory and considered by some to be not acceptable.

If I called you a racist, please show me where. Because I did not.

Further note on the garments, both tee shirts and a-shirts or armhole shirts were originally made as undergarments for men, almost exclusively in white. Jean Seaberg famously catapulted the tee shirt into fashion as an outer garment, and I believe Brando in Streetcar did the same for the A-shirt. Sometime in the mid-century, FotL, and Hanes took note again (no flies on them) and produced both garments in colors, adding a cigarette pocket to the tee.

/more than anybody ever wanted to know.

YAY ND!!

Yeehoooo, Drew! Congrats, man.

I grew up with "gyped," and "jewed him down," as well as every other racial and ethnic slur you can probably think of as my daily lexicon. I've worked hard to eliminate the ones I recognize, and to recognize the ones that, through familiarity, still slip through the filter occasionally. I don't use tramp stamp, nor ass antlers. True to my rep for being pedantic, it's a lower-back or above the tailbone tattoo. A-shirts (white), or tanks (colored), because I won't use the term wife-beater. Whether it refers to the action or a class or whatever, the term makes me flinch, so I don't use it.

Frogs and hoptoads do escape my lips once in a while, but I try to be vigilant.

I mean, what you're saying is "I know the term is associated with and in many cases can be read as supporting domestic violence, but *I* don't mean it like that, so it's okay, no matter how it sounds to other people when I use it."

You are ignoring everything I've said in here today.

I don't think men who beat their wives are a protected class.

That's what I've been saying in a nutshell.

And please don't tell me what you call Brazil nuts.

Please don't be disingenuous, Steph, or insult my intelligence. The alternate term for Brazil nuts has been a topic of conversation in this thread. This particular phrasing of this question is a direct insinuation that I call them "nigger toes." That is flat out calling me a racist, right here, right now, to my face. I find that extremely problematic, and considering you are an editor, and an extremely adept user of the English language, if you even try to tell me that wasn't exactly what you were trying to do with that sentence, I'm going to call you a liar.

I'd like an apology from you, right here, right now, for calling me a racist.

Huge congrats on the lack of tube, ND!

Over here we call undershirts 'vests'. This term covers a multitude of garments from camis to the ones that look like they're made out of string, which I presume is the type in question here. (I remember when I first asked my Canadian PCA to find me a vest. Twenty minutes she spent looking through my clothes, before I realised my error.)

/more than anybody ever wanted to know.

I disagree with that part

random youtube searching has just uncovered a bunch of videos of my nephew skateboarding. I knew he was talented but it's so cool that these kids are following each other and taping so you can watch the series of tricks. Some of these are almost as good as professional skating videos.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeveless_shirt

If wikipedia is to be believed, Those Shirts have similarly colorful names around the world:

The etymology of the term "A-shirt," which is preferred by manufacturers, is uncertain. Some claim that it is short for "athletic shirt" because it is often worn in sports, such as basketball and track-and-field events, while others say that it refers to the "A" shape when laid out flat (compare the origin of the word "T-shirt"). In the United States, it is also known colloquially as a wife beater, Guinea tee or Dago tee (from guinea and dago, ethnic slurs against Italians).[citation needed] In British English, the A-shirt is known as a vest.[1] ((cf.) American usage of vest) In India it is referred to as Banain, Bandi. In Scots vernacular it is referred to as a semmit,[2] and as a singlet in Australia and New Zealand. In Colombia it’s known as a busca pleitos meaning trouble seeker, in reference to its usage by violent individuals. In Spain they used to be called camiseta imperio (Imperial t-shirt). In the former Soviet Union it’s known as alkogolichka (alcoholic) as it's often worn by alcoholics[3]. In addition to athletic usage, A-shirts have traditionally been used as undershirts, especially with suits and dress shirts.