piazzer (1864), pazzer (1882)

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:27 PM -0400 7/8/05, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>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.
>-----

Note that a "piazzer" in non-rhotic Maine would be rendered
differently from one in rhotic Tennessee.  I'm looking forward to the
road show of "A Light in the Piazzer".

L

>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