venta: (Default)
[personal profile] venta
A quick question:



[Poll #1344729]

Edit: I don't mean "give me a list of names", I mean "which term would you naturally use in conversation if talking about such a thing".

If you're going to fill in an answer, please do so before reading on.

I would habitually refer to that sort of stereo (ie portable, speaker at either end, tape deck in the middle) as a ghetto-blaster. I seem to remember that that's what everyone was calling them in the 80s when I first started interacting with such things.

Problem is, I've no idea of the origin of the term. Which ghettos were being blasted exactly ? Is it possible that someone somewhere might find it an offensive term ?[*] Is it even in common enough usage now that I could expect someone to be sure what I meant - or am I just hopelessly outdated in my choice of name ?

What other words are there ? Apart from radio-cassette player, of course. I'm not very clear on what exactly a boombox might be - could it be one of those, or is it subtly different ? Can I still call it a ghetto blaster if it's got a CD player in it ? Does the choice of name depend on the kind of music player - could one still blast ghettos with Wagner, for example ?

[*] According to Wikipedia, yes. But it's a particularly shoddily written piece, plus I'm interested in what other people think.


That image is just quickly grabbed from google image search, so if you're in The Future, it's probably red-exed by now.

Date: 2009-02-06 02:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] venta.livejournal.com
Y'what ? Did I spend an entire year being Unintentionally Offensive At My Desk ?

Date: 2009-02-06 03:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] phlebas.livejournal.com
You were quite clearly using the verb, which as far as I know is fine. Used adjectivally it's less clear, particularly given the various parallel phrases which use a (potentially offensive) noun.

Date: 2009-02-06 03:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] venta.livejournal.com
The things you learn :(

Y'know, I didn't know "spic" was an insult (or more specifically, I didn't know the word at all) until LJ's formerly-rather-shite search refused to let me search for "spice girls".

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