"gerries" for old persons

[Dennis R. Preston]

I am such a gerrie that I thought Roly's US colleague's daughter was
referring to her cello (until the modern world caught up with me,
maybe only because I am acquainted with European handi/y).

dInIs (who hopes codgie and geezie will not follow)



Geoff

Well known in Australian English, together with about 2,000 others in
-ie/-y. Also in this semantic area oldies, the olds (not a car here),
grayie, oldster, crustie (an unkempt older person).

This formation is apparently spreading in the US - a colleague in
Texas tells me his daughter says she is using her "cellie".

Roly Sussex




Date:    Mon, 15 Mar 2004 23:39:50 -0800
From:    Geoffrey Nunberg <nunberg at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
Subject: "gerries" for old persons

Does anyone know anything about this word? I heard it used by the
20-something son of a friend, and Google turns up some hits, but it's
hard to tell what its status is. It also turns up "wrinklies" and
"crumble" -- are there other new items of this type?

Geoff Nunberg


--

Roly Sussex
Professor of Applied Language Studies
Department of French, German, Russian, Spanish and Applied Linguistics
School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies
The University of Queensland
Brisbane
Queensland 4072
AUSTRALIA

Office: Greenwood 434 (Building 32)
Phone:  +61 7 3365 6896
Fax:    +61 7 3365 6799
Email:  sussex at uq.edu.au
Web:    http://www.arts.uq.edu.au/slccs/profiles/sussex.html
School's website:
        http://www.arts.uq.edu.au/slccs/
Applied linguistics website:
        http://www.uq.edu.au/slccs/AppliedLing/

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