Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Did TSA Officials Call This Man a Deafie?

If true, Billy Hallowell's story shows that a word has escaped from in-group usage into mainstream American English:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/ready-fking-deafie-deaf-man-claims-tsa-agents-bullied-him-at-airport-security-checkpoint/

But the complainer is deaf, so by definition he didn't hear the TSA agent's words clearly. Does this invalidate his claim that he was bullied? Of course not; bullying nonverbal communication is easy to see, with or without the exact words.

If you have some time to kill, you might enjoy testing your lip-reading skills with other words that look similar to the phrase the deaf man reports. English offers several choices, some likelier than others, but I can't think of any phrase that looks like "f'ing deafie" and is not insulting. The TSA agent definitely wasn't saying "valued customer" or "kind gentleman."

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