GREAZY and GREASY

Damien Hall halldj at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU
Sat Mar 12 18:16:11 UTC 2005


No-one has yet mentioned any of the metaphorical uses of this (these) word(s).
I have heard tell that for some, GREAZY is the metaphorical-use pronunciation,
said of a person who might politely be described as 'unctuous', like an
over-attentive waiter, or of a people collectively thought of as sweaty and/or
unctuous (eg 'greasy Wop' as an insult to Italians, 'greasy Dago' as an insult
to the Spanish).  For such people, GREASY is apparently the literal-meaning
pronunciation, no matter what the quality of the grease.

This is all hear-say, since both uses are [gri:si] for me (Standard Southern
British English), but can anyone else confirm it?

Damien Hall
University of Pennsylvania



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