GREAZY and GREA SY

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:02 PM -0500 3/11/05, Dennis R. Preston wrote:
>I reckon I would call it greazy Tony's (not a pejorative as far as
>some foods are concerned by the way). The light and delicate of my
>earlier post was misleading. But if I stuck my hand into axle grease
>I'd say it was greazy; if I picked up something which had, say,
>sewing machine oil on it, I would say it was "greasy." Both
>situations are "negative" (I don't want no grease on me), which seems
>to be my requirement for such usage.
>
A related distinction between food grease (greasy) and mechanical
greaze (greazy) is one maintained by others, IIRC, as reported in the
classic dialect-anthology paper on the topic.  (Can someone remind me
who the author is?  I think his name starts with an A, but my
anthologies aren't on me at the moment, nor is DARE.)

Larry