Rubberneck

[Alice Faber]

My sister (whose fieldwork on the "packy" question Larry Horn
recently resurrected) has raised a question about the term
"rubbernecking" ("causing a traffic jam by gawking at stuff, usually
an accident, off to the side, often in the opposite traffic lane").
This is a term that we're both quite familiar with, having grown up
in the New York suburbs. But her husband, who was raised in suburban
Washington, DC, professed not to have heard the term (and, in fact,
though it was idiosyncratic, family usage on our part). Since the "R"
issue of DARE isn't out, I thought I'd pose the question here, as a
Friday afternoon distraction: How widespread is the term, both in the
US and elsewhere in the English speaking world?

Alice
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Alice Faber                  new, improved email: faber at alvin.haskins.yale.edu
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