Presidential Nicknames

A new linguistic term for you:
Onomastics: the study of names

I'm not sure any other world leader has inspired so many creative nicknames at President Trump has. There is even a webpage dedicated to them: https://www.findnicknames.com/nicknames-for-donald-trump/ 

NOTE: Some may take offense to this and call it disrespectful to the President in particular, or to the office of the presidency in general. Given his use of nicknames for his rivals, I don't have much sympathy for this position.

 I'm going to keep a running list of my favorites here...

• Rage Against the Tangerine (Trevor Noah)
• Cinnamon Hitler (Trevor Noah)
• Cheeto Jesus
• Butterscotch Frog
• Circus Peanut
• Malevolent Creamsicle 
• Agent Orange
• Assaulter-in-Chief
• Captain Chaos
• Cheez Doodle
• Bratman
• and... The Human Tanning Bed Warning Label 
• NEW: Mango Unchained

a bonus nickname for Jeff Sessions: Confederate Hobbit
a recent name for Trump's base: Trumpanzees

Speaking of disrespectful, there is also, of course, a long list of nicknames that President Trump has given to other people. Wikipedia actually has a dedicated page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nicknames_used_by_Donald_Trump. Here are some highlights:

• Crooked Hillary
• Little Rocketman
• Sloppy Steve (Bannon)
• Leakin' James Comey
• Jeff Flakey
• Sneaky Dianne Feinstein 
• Al Frankenstein
• Crazy Bernie
• Cryin' Chuck (Schumer)
• and the ethnically insensitive "Pochahontis" for Elizabeth Warren

Random TV Quotes

As usual, I find that Fox animation is a veritable gold-mine for (probably) never-before-uttered sentences:

FAMILY GUY:

• Lois to Peter: "I want you to do me so hard we have to change churches."
• Stewie: "Mother, I come bearing a gift. I'll give you a hint: it's in my diaper and it's not a toaster."
• Stewie, while plucking a banjo: "Oh! I feel so delightfully white trash! Mummy, I want a mullet!"
• Peter: "Christmas is the time of year when the ghost of Jesus rises from the grave to feast on the flesh of the living and we sing Christmas carols to lull him back to sleep." 

BOB'S BURGERS:

• Louise Belcher and Felix Fischoeder exhibit linguistic ambiguity:
• Louise: "I need money for a dog."
• Felix: "You owe a dog money?"

•  Bob: "I'm just a little tired. Also, I might be a pimp."
• Gene offers up a nice portmanteau: "[I'm wearing] trash fashion. I call it trashion."

THE SIMPSONS:

• On Treehouse of Horror XIX, Krusty the Clown is getting ready to kill Homer when Homer asks, "What is the one true religion?" Krusty replies, "It's a mix of voodoo and Methodism."
• Marge, talking about Bart: "There's something about flying a kite at night that's so unwholesome." 
• Mr. Burns provides an unfortunate example of homonyms when he speaks about not wanting a woman on board a ship: "I think women and seamen don't mix."

TREVOR NOAH: (I adore the Daily Show!)

• Trevor talking about India abolishing the Muslim law that allows men to divorce their wives simply by saying "divorce" three times: "Can you do it by text? Is it all on one text, or three separate texts? 
• "Trump is a social pyromaniac."
• "Roy Moore is the bibliest [baibliEst] person that ever ran for anything..." and "I've never heard anyone deny their way into a confession." (He was referring to when Moore said he doesn’t remember “dating any girl without the permission of their mother.”)
• Lewis Black as guest commentator: "A train without a track isn't even a train...it's a hobo fuck palace!"
• Trevor talking about the incompetence of the White House: "...sloppier than a bulldog orgy!"
• Trevor referring to Trump lying on Twitter during a hearing about him lying on Twitter: "Trump is live-lying the hearing!"
• Trevor had author Matt Taibbi on the show talking about his book, "Insane Clown President" (a riff on the band "Insane Clown Posse), and Taibbi said, "Consuming facts as consumers...we shop for facts the same way we shop for hats, shoes, or, you know, radial tires. We shop for things we like." Brilliant statement! 

TRULY RANDOM:

• In the most recent season of Doctor Who, companion Bill points out that T.A.R.D.I.S. (an acronym for Time and Relative Dimension in Space) wouldn't make sense to an alien because the acronym wouldn't work in other languages. It's a running bit for all new companions to point out that the T.A.R.D.I.S. is bigger on the inside, but this is what she says instead. A surprised doctor frowns and replies, "People don't usually bring THAT up."
• A bar sign shown on the Chris Hardwick show "@Midnight": "Due to physical violence, shit-faced Mondays have been cancelled." 
• Chris Hardwick correctly predicted that people would be masturbating in self-driving cars, saying "I didn't mean to Nostrodamus that!" (a proper  name turned into a verb) (The linguistic term for turning nouns into verbs is actually called "verbing.") https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-verbing-1691035
• Chris Hardwick talking about an upcoming convention dedicated to emojis, called "Emojicon" (a great example of portmanteau!)
• Colin Jost on Saturday Night Live referring to mild-mannered James Comey: "He looks like if the word gosh became a person."
• Michael Che on Saturday Night Live feigning surprise, "Well, clutch my pearls!" This is actually a common dialectical phrase in the south, and there are several memes about it now, including one of my favorites:
  

Latinex

Over the last few decades, there have been movements towards neutralizing the binary male-female gender system in Spanish. It has been argued that the use of masculine pronouns and endings for mixed-gender groups of people is sexist, viewing male as the "default" gender. Various suggestions have arisen, including the use of Latin@ instead of Latino or Latina. This solution is visually awkward in written form, and unpronounceable in spoken form.

In recent years, the discussion has broadened to address society's changing views on gender. We are now understanding/acknowledging that gender is a social construct, and is better viewed as a spectrum rather than a binary delineation. With people identifying as transgendered, non-binary gendered, or gender-fluid, the push for a gender-inclusive form has intensified. One option put forth (admittedly more by academics than by the general public) is Latinex (pronounced [la-ti-nEks]. Since Spanish gender applies not only to nouns, but also to articles and adjectives, the "x" ending is extended to the definite articles le and lex and the indefinite article unex. There is some disagreement on the plural vs. adjective forms, but the phrase "the Latina professors" would translate as lex profesorex latinex. [lEks-pro-fe-so-res-la-ti-nEks]

It's not surprising that there are arguments for and against adopting this form. Here are two articles voting in favor of it, but both of them discuss the English usage of the term instead of how it would work in Spanish:

• http://www.latina.com/lifestyle/our-issues/latinoa-latinx-latine-solving-spanish-gender-problem?page=0%2C1
• https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/are-you-latinx-usage-grows-word-draws-approval-criticism-n651396

This article does address the grammatical ramifications of its usage in Spanish as well as English:

https://medium.com/@puentera/latino-latinx-latine-a3b19e0dbc1c

  
This article outlines an argument against its use:

http://swarthmorephoenix.com/2015/11/19/the-argument-against-the-use-of-the-term-latinx/