Cunning (Was: Re: hawk/hock)

[Peter A. McGraw]

I think this use of "cunning" must have been fairly widespread in that
generation.  My paternal grandmother (born in California, spent her married
life in Iowa) used it in this sense all the time.  OTOH, I don't recall my
maternal grandmother (born In Illinois but spent most of her life in Indian
Territory, then Oklahoma) ever using it.

--On Thursday, July 18, 2002 11:50 AM -0400 Catherine Aman
<caman at AMLAW.COM> wrote:

> My grandmother had an accent that seems to be gone forever. I've forgotten
> many of her distinctive phrasings, but do remember that she pronounced
> "world" as "whirled" and "larch" (the tree) as "lahch" (and, strangely,
> used the word "cunning" to describe something cute or pretty.)  She was
> born and raised in Salem, Mass.



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                               Peter A. McGraw
                   Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
                            pmcgraw at linfield.edu