Rubberneck

[James Smith]

--- Alice Faber <faber at ALVIN.HASKINS.YALE.EDU> wrote:
> 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,

Very well known, both the word and the phenomenon,
here in Utah.

By the way, there's a game called "Rubber Necker"
designed to be played while traveling by automobile.


=====
James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
SLC, UT                        |it is that we will be sued
jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
                               |or slowly and cautiously.

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