Rubberneck

[Laurence Horn]

>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
>--
Interestingly, it doesn't seem to be in the OED.  This term (as
either "rubbernecker" or "rubbernecking") is one I'm also familiar
with from as far back as I can recall, but since I'm also from NYC &
suburbs that doesn't add much.  But pace Alice, while rubberneckers
can and often do CAUSE slowdowns, I'd argue that's not part of the
definition of the term--if I slow down to gawk at an accident off to
the side I'm a rubbernecker even if there's no one else on the road.
Tobacco causes cancer too but the latter isn't part of the lexical
entry (as opposed to the encyclopedia entry, perhaps) of the former.
I know, picky, picky, but if we're not, who will be?

larry