Friday, 10 July 2009
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Court: We Will Not Accept Your Urban Dictionary Definition of "Hoe"
Remember the LVTOFU license plate story we had up here in April? Here's another fun one, via sfgate.com:A Las Vegas man won a courtroom battle Wednesday with the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles over his "HOE" license plate, which the agency tried to cancel on grounds that he was using a slang reference to prostitutes.So that's why the lines are so long at the DMV - they're busy checking Urban Dictionary to see if your plate could be construed as illegal. Now it makes sense! More than the whole "hoe" thing - it can also be a gardening tool, btw - I thought it was really interesting that an organization would take Urban Dictionary as gospel. To me, that's like citing Wikipedia in Congressional hearings.
The high court said the DMV based its opposition to William Junge's plate on definitions found in the Web-based Urban Dictionary, which includes user contributions. Justices ruled that the contributed definitions "do not always reflect generally accepted definitions for words."
Junge, whose case was pursued by the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, said he got the "HOE" plate in 1999 for his Chevy Tahoe, after being told "TAHOE" wasn't available....
The high court said Urban Dictionary "allows, if not encourages, users to invent new words or attribute new, not generally accepted meanings to existing words."But "a reasonable mind would not accept the Urban Dictionary entries alone as adequate to support a conclusion that the word 'HOE' is offensive or inappropriate," the justices wrote.
Do you think his plate is offensive? What's the first thing you think of when you hear the word "hoe"?
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Comments (25)
Cool, the laws are so tight that there are a billion loopholes within them. When I hear hoe, I think slut.
This reminds me of a Jeopardy! clip with ken jennings, where he said "Hoe" instead of "rake" and everyone went "oooooohh" and laughed. I want a RAKE license plate. :DD
When I hear the word "hoe," I think of prostitutes. But when I read the word "hoe," I think of a garden hoe.
For whores and whatnot, it's just straight up "ho," like what Santa says.
I think that's hella' funny because for me when I hear this word, I think about how people misused it so many times. I generally think of a gardening tool and "ho" would be the preference for whore or slut.
I thought ho without the e was the offensive word
uhh just because it's on urban dictionary doesn't mean that isn't a meaning attributed to that word. dmv fails for providing urban dictionary as their only source
i pretty much thaynk of myself
I want a Tahoe. I translate "hoe" to "slag", it's fun.
I didn't know that hoe= whore, I thought hoe=garder hoe thingy. I always thought that ho= either santa claus or whore.
i think this is ridiculous
@vashts6583@xanga - HAHAHA "What is a Ho(e)?!" That made me laugh. Did they accept that?
The license plate on Santa's sleigh is 3 times as offensive.
So long as ASSMAN is still available it's ok. And even if it is offending people, why does that matter?
If it's spelled Hoe, I think the tool, not the prostitute. Go figure.
I'm 15 and all along I thought the 'hoe' is a gardening tool.
If I hear it, I think slut. If I read it, I alternate between the gardening tool and "hoedown"-- did I spell that right?
Apparently some woman tried to get a license plate that said "ILVTOFU" because she's a vegan and, as you can guess from the license plate, loves tofu. But the DMV said she couldn't have it say that because some people might decide it means something sexual and "inappropriate".
My thought- If you're offended by something, then DON'T FUCKING LOOK AT IT. Why is it so difficult for people to do that?
And people will see things as crude or inappropriate if they want to. That's how the human mind works. You can take something completely innocent and SOMEONE will take it the wrong way.
The best billboard ever had a truck full of tools in it and it read "Room for all your hoes ... and shovels."
lmao. wow
@ViciousGrin63@xanga - "Santa came to my house, looked at my three sisters and said: "Ho, ho, ho!!!"
@LonerB@xanga - Ha!
it's hilarious. they should get a plate that says LMFAO while they're at it.
i think its hilarious!
@msakiki@xanga - No they didn't. The actual answer was a 'rake.'
I always think of the gardening tool because generally, when someone is referring to the other thing, it's either via the two-letter referrence or the five-letter reference (unless it's in the plural form, of course). Sadly enough, some people do think that Wikipedia and Urban Dictionary are valid sources while debating issues about politics, the economy, etc.