fireplug

[Peter A. McGraw]

I grew up saying fireplug, but I can't say for sure whether I picked it up
from the local speech of Oklahoma City or So. California, or from my
parents, who hailed from Iowa and Oklahoma/Texas respectively.  I'm pretty
sure it was in my speech before we moved to Oregon in the early 50s.  I
THINK I remember my grandmother (born in Illinois but grew up in Oklahoma)
saying fireplug,  and I'm pretty sure I remember hearing my grandfather
(who was from East Texas and talked like it) say fire hydrant, and finding
it vaguely exotic, like another of his words, terrapin.

At some point I must have made a gradual transition to hydrant, because I
hadn't thought of plug for a long time until your message reminded me.

There: all sorts of reliable data that I'm sure you can use.:)

Peter

--On Wednesday, February 4, 2004 3:24 PM -0600 Luanne von Schneidemesser
<lvonschn at WISC.EDU> wrote:

> Anyone know if fireplug (=fire hydrant) is regional?  If so, where?  A
> woman originally from Ohio says she uses it (and people laugh at her).  We
> didn't ask about this when interviewing for DARE.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Luanne



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