Marilyze?

[Bruce Dykes]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael B Quinion" <michael at quinion.com>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2002 06:14
Subject: Marilyze?


> A World Wide Words subscriber has queried an expression as follows:
> "My mother used to threaten to 'marilyze' (spelling?) us when we were
> kids. I can't find it in any dictionary under any spelling I can
> contrive." Neither can I. Can anyone decode this one?
>
> Additional information: both the subscriber and her husband know it
> separately from their childhoods, suggesting that it is at least a
> regional expression. One mother grew up in Philadelphia and the other
> in rural southern New Jersey, both of English-Irish ancestry.

Maybe it's "murdelize"? A further corruption of "murderize", as heard from
Bugs Bunny. At least, that's who I heard it from...

bkd