For Better or for Worse

[Jonathan Lighter]

Alison, "grunge" & "grungey" (=crud, cruddy) were in wide use at NYU in 1970-74, but this is the first report of ca1950 currency. Have never seen either one in fiction written or even set before the '60s.

JL



sagehen <sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: sagehen
Subject: Re: For Better or for Worse
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Jonathan Lighter writes:
>"Grunge speak" was indeed a hoax, but several of Jasper's terms are still
>occurring - in small numbers - on the Net.
>
>JL
~~~~~~~~
Dunno about FB or FW, but FWIW, "grunge" & "grungy" were both alive &
well and in constant use in the late 40s early 50s on the Reed College
campus. They were sort of all-purpose words: could mean "stuff," could
mean "crud," could be an expletive ("grunge!"). It was thought to have
been an import from the USNavy: there were a lot of GI Bill vets in school
then.
I rarely heard it after leaving Reed, except among old Reedies, though
"grungy" would turn up sporadically in fiction (esp. Brit), meaning dirty
or ratty.
The reappearance in the Pac NW music scene (when? late 80s, early 90s)
seemed like a spontaneous new birth.
A. Murie

~@:> ~@:> ~@:> ~@:>


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