greaser

[Wilson Gray]

On Jul 27, 2005, at 6:06 PM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: greaser
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 16:29:36 -0500, Mullins, Bill
> <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL> wrote:
>
>> OED has 1849
>>
>> STILL MORE ABOUT THE MEXICAN WAR.
>> Advocate of Peace (1847-1906); Mar/Apr 1848; 7, 15; APS Online
>> pg. 187
>>
>> "A few evenings ago, as two of the Mississippians wer going up to
>> camp,
>> they were attacked by a small party of "greasers"."
>
> Slightly earlier...
>
> -----
> The Living Age, Volume 14, Issue 176, Sep. 25, 1847
> "The Battle of Monterey", p. 619/2
>
> Perhaps I did feel a little weak in the jints when I seed the officers
> unbuttonin their shirt collars, and the men throwin away their canteens
> and
> haversacks, as they was marchin rite strait up to them ar works, whar
> the
> greasers was waitin for us, every devil with his gun pinted and his
> finger
> on the trigger; I know'd they was

> gwine

Does this mean that "gwine" was once a feature of at least one dialect
of European-American English? Or was the speaker black?

-Wilson

> to let us have it, and I felt
> monstrous uneasy till it cum.
>
> http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?
> frames=1&coll=moa&view=50&root=%2Fmoa%2Flivn%2Flivn0014%2F&tif=00625.TI
> F
> -----
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>