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<blockquote type="cite" cite>Beth,</blockquote>
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<div>I am from southernmost southern Indiana (the area known
journalistically but never popularly as "Kentuckiana"),
namely New Albany, where "gom sandwich" is unknown (and
where German settlement is not as intense as it was farther north in
southern Indiana; in fact, when then land turns flat, as it is in
Columbus, I never think of it as "southern Indiana").</div>
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<div>"Gom," however, exists in that area, particualrly in
adjectival and verbal constructions, e.g., a "gommy mess,"
"gom something up," always suggesting the kind of sloppy,
gooey stuff which one would find in the nearly inedible concoction
known as a "sloppy joe/" I remember my greatr surprise at
being servedf what I knew as a sloppy joe in Madison under the label
"bar-b-cue sandwich." I like to fainted.</div>
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<div>DARE shows "gaum" (note the spelling) as a verb (esp.
with "up") as mainly Appalachian but previously more
widespread.) Pp. 642-43 of Vol. 2 contain a pretty thorough treatment
of this item and even extended senses. Although southern Indiana
responses are not shown on the map on p. 642, surrounding areas
(southern Illinois, Kentucky, W. Virginia are indicated).</div>
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<div>It's interesting that, although I have the "cot" and
"caught" vowels distinct, I have /gom/ for this this item,
and I went automatically to "gom" in DARE, only to be
directed to "gaum." This "gaum," however, in the
OED, directs us etymologtically to "coom," itself, in the
most likely meanings, pointing to a Germanic "kam" root
(examples from Old Norse) which survives in British dialects, and,
given the strong Appalachian character of the word today, makes me
suspect that it has an Enghlish rather than German background. (The
only modern German cognate given refers to a rather speacialized sense
of fungus.)</div>
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<div>If I was a bettin' man, I'd reckon that native "gom"
(gommy, gommed up, a gommy mess) was heard for "sloppy"
stuff and simply applied locally to this "messy"
sandwich.</div>
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<div>dInIs</div>
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<blockquote type="cite" cite>I'm from around southern Indiana, and
there's a small store downtown Columbus, IN called Zaharako's.
It was founded in 1900 by a Greek family. One of the items on
the menu is called a GOM SANDWICH. My grandmother, born and
raised in Columbus, remembers having gom suppers at church. She
basically describes it as a sloppy joe. I've always called it
sloppy joe. I am looking for the origin of gom and if anyone
else uses that term. Since Columbus and southern Indiana was
originally populated by many German Lutherans, I was wondering if that
had anything to do with it. (My grandmother said they used to
have services at her church that were in German, which they
discontinued after the war.) If anyone knows anything, please
respond!<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Beth Campbell<br>
music education major/linguistics & TESL minor<br>
Indiana State University,<br>
Terre Haute, IN<br>
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<div>-- <br>
Dennis R. Preston<br>
Department of Linguistics and Languages<br>
Michigan State University<br>
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA<br>
preston@pilot.msu.edu<br>
Office: (517)353-0740<br>
Fax: (517)432-2736</div>
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