x and them

[Nancy Elliott]

My grandparents (northwestern Missouri; their grandparents migrated from
midlands Ohio) used "Xs" for X (=first name) and family.

Nancy Elliott
Southern Oregon University

----------
>From: "Peter A. McGraw" <pmcgraw at LINFIELD.EDU>
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: x and them
>Date: Wed, Mar 1, 2000, 3:01 PM
>

> Let's take this thread in a different direction.
>
> A similar expression to "X and them" is "Xs" or "X's" (I'm not sure which
> it is).  Thus a great aunt of mine in Iowa (who had lived on a farm all her
> life) referred to her son and his family as "Dales" (or "Dale's"?).  I've
> never heard it anywhere else, but when I mentioned it as a curiosity to a
> female colleague in Dayton, Ohio, who was something of a feminist, she
> said, "Oh, yes--I just hate that!" indicating at least that it probably
> wasn't restricted to Iowa.  (This colleague had grown up in Albuquerque,
> NM, but lived most of her adult life in urban Ohio.)
>
> Does anybody know more about the geography of this, or whether the /-s/ is
> plural or possessive?
>
> Peter Mc.
>
> ****************************************************************************
>                                Peter A. McGraw
>                    Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
>                             pmcgraw at linfield.edu
>