Why is the word dumpster always capitalized

And Oxford Dictionaries added the phrase to its online dictionary this year. No relation to the actor Patrick Dempsey. Whether Shirley Manson has ever referred to herself as a Garbage person is unknown.

Linguist Gretchen McCulloch often writes about how people use language on the internet, so I asked her if she thought these phrases have staying power, or if their potency is fading.

Even though their moment in vogue is temporary, why so many garbage words, all of a sudden? McCulloch also pointed out that these words are less offensive than many other insults, which makes them safer to use. I suspect their popularity has to do with fatigue. We search for words to adequately capture how bad we think bad things are, and these are handy stock phrases.

Just the same, give a silent nod to the Dempster brothers whenever you use it grin. Labels: style-AP. George Dempster, former paperboy and train-hopping hobo, led quite a life. He'd make an excellent biography. Yes, he would. As with many inventions of that era, the inventors were as interesting as the inventions. Post a Comment. View my complete profile.

Press Association, N. He was scared and a little guy. We put a plank in the dumpster so he could get out and man did he run!! Hope he is doing well. I am not Laslo. AA "But sometimes the WAY the clue is made harder is annoying for some reason or just weird enough to want to comment on, which is the case with "Raccoon in a Dumpster.

The clue was "Raccoon in a Dumpster, e. The problem clue in today's puzzle was "State capital on the Indian Ocean", for which "Perth" was the desired answer, but Perth is on the Swan River and about 10 miles inland from the coast.

Fremantle is the nearest city on the Indian Ocean. You seem like my wife - she tends to over think the NYT crossword clues, too, and gets hung up on a word rather than trying to work the cross clues and backfill the problem word.

Laslo Spatula said I haven't the foggiest if he was the genesis of those terms, but he was certainly popularized them. This is not the first time you raised the question of "Dumpster" treating it as a question of grammar. A few years back you asked why someone capitalized the "D" and I in your comments pointed out it was TM'd. I think I was polite enough not to say that as a law professor you ought to have suspected that.

It was a mystery and people were drinking "cokes". I wonder if they'll get letters. More on TMs. Or maybe they were just careless. I'm younger than you, Prof. Althouse, but I remember the term "Dempster Dumpster.

How does the OED direct the spelling of "Fo shizzle"? Is "Tha shi cray" a correct usage? I have so many non-white crossword questions. Robert Cook said Of course "Dumpster" is a brand name. What did you think it was, a generic like Kleenex or Hoover? Dumpster diving is great fun. I started my first business dumpster diving for industrial equipment, some of which still makes me money years later.

My 12 yo son got our first and only VCR from a dumpster It was missing it's case and the boy figured out that he had to place a medium-size cobble on the circuit board to make it run. Now he's a MIT and Harvard trained mechanical engineer.

So the crossword is old and white. Ironic that some of the hardest clues for me involve the names of rappers. They're retired Eskimos. I wish somebody had told me that when I graduated from Eskokomo High School back in the day. I probably could've gotten an affirmative action full ride Ivy League scholarship!

PS - I am still puzzled by that "Kokomo" song. Are you referring to Blond Eskimos? Kokomo is an island near Florida if you listen to the lyrics, but I don't think it is a real place. I went to Dempster Junior High in Mt.

Prospect, IL. No idea who it was named after. Big Mike: How we guys are supposed to understand women Topic: Things of interest maybe - 1 I find myself regularly using the word 'dumpster,' but I spell it with a capital D. Kdot Offline. Re: Things of interest maybe - 1 Q: Do you cap "polaroid"?

Re: Things of interest maybe - 1 I'd guess yes, but I'd Google it. Re: Things of interest maybe - 1 The patent for Dumpster has expired, allowing other companies to make similar receptacles.

Re: Things of interest maybe - 1 jack the knife wrote: The patent for Dumpster has expired, allowing other companies to make similar receptacles.

B Douglas Slack Offline. Re: Things of interest maybe - 1 I seem to recall when the trash receptacle came into being it was called a "Dempsey Dumpster," but the name was reduced to a simple "Dumpster" or altered slightly to "Dempster. Re: Things of interest maybe - 1 B Douglas Slack wrote: I seem to recall when the trash receptacle came into being it was called a "Dempsey Dumpster," but the name was reduced to a simple "Dumpster" or altered slightly to "Dempster.

Re: Things of interest maybe - 1 There is no generic version of Dumpster. Dirk B. Re: Things of interest maybe - 1 Looking at you all, talking trash.

Re: Things of interest maybe - 1 Don't you dump on us.