Sweaters

[A. Vine]

I would call it a sweater, "sweatshirt" wouldn't even occur to me.

Many English folk would call it a jumper, some might term it a gansey, guernsey,
or jersey, though.

I can't imagine an American calling it a jumper, since "jumper" refers to a
dress you wear over a shirt.  Unless there are parts of the States where this
definition doesn't hold true.

Andrea

Amy Speed wrote:
>
> I'm 23, and that is definitely a sweater. Our British counterparts may call
> it a "jersey," but it isn't a sweatshirt. A sweatshirt has the fleece on the
> inside and knit fabric on the outside.
>
> Amy
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
> Of Aaron E. Drews
> Sent: Friday, October 29, 1999 2:30 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Sweaters
>
> Hello All,
>
> I've enclosed a picture of an item of clothing.  What I'm wondering is:
> would anybody call this item of clothing a sweatshirt?  If you don't call it
> a sweatshirt, do you think younger people do, or your colleagues and peers?
>
> The reason I ask is because I'm noticing quite a few people calling this a
> sweatshirt in my data, where I would expect either sweater or jumper.  What
> I want to know is if "sweatshirt" is a legitimate variant in any variety of
> American English, or if my subjects are finding a way of avoiding having to
> say either sweater or jumper, or if my subjects just plain can't tell the
> difference from this picture.
>
> Thanks for any help!
>
> Aaron
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
> Aaron E. Drews                               The University of Edinburgh
> http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~aaron      Departments of English Language and
> aaron at ling.ed.ac.uk                    Theoretical & Applied Linguistics
>
>  "MERE ACCUMULATION OF OBSERVATIONAL EVIDENCE IS NOT PROOF"
>   --Death