Pwog

In the current age of political polarization, it is important to have slang terms for your opponents.  (Please read that as humor!)  For example, there are leftie loons and righty wing-nuts.

Here is a term I had never heard, from an unlikely source:

“A moment for language lovers to watch for is the appearance out of nowhere of  “pwogs”… – it’s shorthand for “progressives,” is not entirely flattering in that it often is in reference to knee-jerk old wannabe rads who reflexively support anything that smells of far liberal to even socialist ideas. Its origin is the urban northeast. The yiddish-inflected spelling reflecting what one might hear in a New York coffee house in the middle to latter part of the last century. What a great and ambiguous word is pwog. – See more at: http://ksj.mit.edu/tracker  which is one of my favorite places to go for tips on science in the news.

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About Ponderer

Ponderer also writes science fiction and science-inspired rhyming poetry. Check her out at katerauner.wordpress.com/ She worked at Rocky Flats for 22 years - you may know her as Kathy London.