Subj : New Year's Day.
To   : Mike Powell
From : Ardith Hinton
Date : Tue Feb 02 2021 22:15:50

Hi, Mike!  Recently you wrote in a message to Anton Shepelev:

 DM>  What is grin  ?  because I learn English from echo,
 DM>  Friend.

 MP>  It means a "smile."

 AS>  Not quite, on account of grin's negative connotations.
 AS>  Consider, if you will, Son Houses's great song "Grinnin'
 AS>  in your face".  I think its best recording is by Son
 AS>  himself, done acapella during the 1965 blues festival:

 MP>  Well, I did not say it meant "polite smile."  :)


          AFAIC it's not necessarily impolite either.  I saw nothing impolite about the way you used this word in your response to Carol's message... and I don't mean it to be taken that way when I use it in my own messages.  I could point out that a lot of what Denis does is regarded as "mosaic plagiarism" or "patch writing" in academic circles.  But as long as we understand what he is trying to do, it's not a formal research assignment, and the original authors don't object you & I may content ourselves with a "knowing smile" for now.

          Various dictionaries agree that a grin is a broad smile which often reveals the teeth.  WRT connotations some add that it's an expression of e.g. pleasure, amusement, or possibly embarrassment... the "sheepish grin", maybe. Those which relate it to negative feelings such as anger & pain, and possibly triumph over someone else's misfortune, associate it *in a second definition* with the snarl of an animal threatening to attack.  I did not consult Anton's 1913 Webster, but I did consult relatively recent UK & US & Canadian sources.

          I think it's possible that North Americans tend to show their teeth more readily than other folks do.  I have occasionally noticed women covering their mouths when they're laughing or eating & in this case the vast majority appear to come from the Middle East or Southeast Asia.  Our daughter tells me it's rude to grin... evidently because somebody told her that when she was in the primary grades.  But she does it when she's really enjoying herself.  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)

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