Comments

1
Isn't it HOCK?
2
I wonder if it was expected that there would be any counter-arguments?

@1 - It is.
3
I especially dislike the wads of Copenhagen, they seem to materialize outside restaurants and in parking lots.
4
It truly is a disgusting phenomenon
5
I hate this gross habit, too. Spitting out your gum on the sidewalk is also really rude.
6
@1 It is "hock". "Hawking" loogies would be selling them on the street which is probably even more disgusting.
7
@2 not a counter-argument per se, but for accuracy (from a friendly Canadian healthcare professional here) I just felt it important to point out that Tuberculosis (TB) is an *airborne* disease (like measles- vaccinate your kidlets everyone seriously!) -TB is not passed by body fluids, surface contact, etc. You can only get it from breathing the same air as someone with TB has: https://www.cdc.gov/tb/publications/fact…

But @4 and 5- yep, still really, really gross habit.
8
It seems particularly common among some Asian immigrants. Which makes me feel like a racist asshole for noticing the pattern. Which makes me even more furious about the loogies.
9
It is true that in chinese culture, the really truly gross thing to do would be to keep such unclean bodily fluids inside your body ; hence the spitting or loud blowing of one's nose in China and many chinese-populated areas of Asia.

It kind of make sense actually, and in any cases makes a ton more sense than crying out "disease" because of bodily fluids on the sidewalk, as obviously germs and other kinds of filth find their way on the ground whether people spit or not.

But then again, I'm French, so that may explain a lot.
10
I'm not much of a candy ass about these things yet hocking loogies on public ways does piss me off.
11
I spit when I have a cold or some other congestion, and no I'm not going to carry around a tissue to spit into. I think spitting in the street or in the grass is fine, which is what I do and I'm no going to stop - bwahahaha hock'a'too
12
Uhm, don't lick the sidewalk?
13
"Hawk" is correct. To "hock" is to pawn something.
14
"Do you realize that people and children and animals have to trudge through your little mountains of goo"

Is this to say that children aren't people? Fuck off. Also, I don't give a shit about your pet animal.
15
@14 - LOL, nice catch. And, we should treat those children just like normal people....
16
COCANE... MALT LIQUOR...
17
@9 FTW.

Oh, heaven forbid that the asphalt on which cars that rolled through rooting roadkill, upon which trash doves have shat, get a little mucus on it, too! Won't someone think of the children?
18
@9 FTW.

Oh, heaven forbid that the asphalt on which cars that rolled through *rotting* roadkill, upon which trash doves have shat, get a little mucus on it, too! Won't someone think of the children?
19
I mean yeah, it's gross, but of all the nasty stuff on sidewalks -- this morning alone, I encountered urine, dog (I hope) shit, and vomit on my way to work -- loogies are pretty far down on the list. At least it rains frequently here.
21
@13, You are correct that to "hock" something is to pawn something, because when you put something up for pawn it is "in hock." But @6 is also correct that "hawking" is to sell something on the street, which is what hawkers do.

Both words are equal parts right and wrong because the word as used here is onomatopoeia. You won't find "to expectorate" under any dictionary definition for "hawk" or "hock."

As an editor, you could clear up this confusion by using a version which doesn't have similar definitions. Perhaps https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hork">"hork?"
22
Oops, messed up that tag.

Hork.
23
I think we can all agree on "hork". Who says the country is divided?
25
I have asthma and sometimes mucus comes up from my lungs and will nearly choke me. I am sorry to be politically incorrect but I am STILL going to excuse myself and spit out the nastiness on the grass or off the sidewalk, in the dirt. I don't always carry facial tissue with me. I try not to make a Broadway production out of coughing up a wad of throat oysters but sometimes it just can't be helped. I know it's nasty to hear someone do this because I, myself cringe when other people do it. At least I don't loudly announce it, "Hwwwwack, tooey!" as I've heard some people (men) do.
26
Only in Seattle can I wander into a gentle battle over hawk vs. hocking mucus. I was curious, so here's one citation:
http://grammarist.com/usage/hawk-hock/

For the record, I vote for not placing that substance anywhere someone has to walk.
27
Seattleites are amateurs in hawking. For a truly disgusting Hawkstorm,
try walking through downtown Boston in the winter. It's more like swimming
through it. They all have their green snot or their yellow snot. I'm telling you
seriously: pack your Wellies!
28
Stop taking away my freedoms

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