piazzer (1864), pazzer (1882)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

The U.S. sense of "piazza" meaning 'veranda' is attested back to 1724 in
OED2, but the pronunciation spelling "piazzer" is only noted in this cite
(under "porch"):

-----
1929 Amer. Speech V. 124 'Piazzer' was the only term applied to a veranda
[sc. in the dialect of Maine]. The 'porch' was a sort of extra
shed-kitchen used as a laundry.
-----

I've found "piazzer" from 1864 and the less common "pazzer" from 1882:

* piazzer

1864 J.R. GILMORE _ Down in Tennessee_ 166 I opened the door stret off,
an' steppin' down onter the piazzer — Black Jake an' the boy ter my back,
an' the wimmin' ter the winder — I sez ter 'em: "Wall, I'se yere. Take me
ef ye kin!"
[MoA Michigan: <http://tinyurl.com/dbq2o>]

1864 J.R. GILMORE _Among the Pines_ 47 "Where were you?" "On de piazzer;
and when I seed fru de winder dat de ladies war gwine, I know'd you'd talk
'bout politics and de darkies-- gemmen allers do."
[MoA Michigan: <http://tinyurl.com/ca4lt>]

1868 _Putnam's Monthly_ 11(1) Jan. 41/1 I stopped and leaned over the
front fence, and I made up my mind that was the spot I was looking for —
none o' your brick city-houses, all up and down stairs, but a large, wide,
white house, with green shutters, and a piazzer all round, like them
houses down to Norrich.
[MoA Cornell: <http://tinyurl.com/dj2qg>]

1874 _Atlantic Monthly_ 33(196) Feb. 152/1 I see him an' Miss Prudence
a-chirpin' thicker 'n blackbirds over there on the parson's piazzer
yisterday forenoon, an' thought likely 's not he was goin' away at last.
[MoA Cornell: <http://tinyurl.com/7969d>]


* pazzer

1882 _Atlanta Constitution_ Mar. 26 2/3 I can sit on my pazzer and look
into five farms and see the darkeys and the mules and hear em, too, and
its gee and haw, and git along Pete, and whar you gwine Nell, come round
dar, I tell you.
[reprinted in the _Decatur Weekly Republican_ (Ill.), 20 Apr. 1882, but
with the spelling "piazzer"]

1888 E.P. ROE _Miss Lou_ Now ef you years me toot twice lak a squinch-owl,
you knows dat you got ter go en tell Miss Lou dat I need her hep en dat I
gwine ter creep 'long de pazzer roof ter her winder.
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/msslu10.txt

1915 _Fort Wayne Weekly Sentinel_ (Ind.) 28 Jul. 5/2 ["Bingville Bugle" by
Newton Newkirk] Moore jerked off his coat and rolld up his sleeves and
hollerd & yeld, until Gill Gookins, who lives a mile west of Bingville and
was settin out on his front pazzer, says he heerd every word Rev. Moore
said and we dont doubt it being as the church winders was up.


--Ben Zimmer