Granny farming, passablanc
Recent interesting catchwords from the
Double-Tongued Dictionary are:
granny farming: n. a form of voting fraud in which pre-marked absentee ballots are taken to nursing homes to be used and mailed by residents.
passablanc adj. in New Orleans, being of mixed race but presenting oneself as a white person.
I too saw “passablanc” in the Times story and couldn’t help wondering whether it was a misspelling based on the French pronunciation of the much-more-common “passe blanc.” Also—even more commonly—“passe pour blanc.”
Posted by
Nancy Friedman on 11/12 at 10:21 PM
It’s not the original French, but a Creole spelling. You can
find a few instances of the spelling in a couple of academic books.
Posted by
Grant Barrett on 11/12 at 11:35 PM
