GOM

[Dennis R. Preston]

>Beth,

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").

"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.

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).

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.)

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.

dInIs



>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!
>
>Beth Campbell
>music education major/linguistics & TESL minor
>Indiana State University,
>Terre Haute, IN
>
>
>
>
>
>Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at
><http://explorer.msn.com>http://explorer.msn.com

--
Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736
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