GREAZY and GREASY

Wilson Gray wilson.gray at RCN.COM
Fri Mar 11 19:04:16 UTC 2005


How very interesting! I've never known till now that there was a
distinction. I have only GREAZY. I've also been aware since I was in
my 20's - from the late '50's to the early '60's - that there existed
an alternative pronunciation, GREASY. But this is the first that I've
heard tell of the fact that there are some people that use both forms
and that there is a semantic distinction between the two forms for
such people. I guess that segregation took better than I realized.

"There's a a fungus among us. So, take it easy, greasy. You got a
long way to slide."

-Wilson

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>Subject:      GREAZY and GREASY
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>
>I have known about the greasy/greazy distinction, but this is the first time
>that I have even heard GREASY defined this way. I have always heard it framed
>as, in essence, GREASY is unpleasantly covered with grease or oil, and GREAZY
>is much much worse.
>
>I can't imagine going into a restaurant anywhere in the country and asking,
>"Is your food greasy?" and getting a positive response.
>
>"If you want greasy food, come to our restaurant?" No.
>
>"I liked the fish because it was greasy." Only if you like a lot of oil on
>your food.
>
>I guess one might write a recipe in which one said something like, "Use
>enough butter on the baked potato that it is slightly greasy," but I
>could not say
>that without the "slightly."
>
>Is DInIs alone in this, or am I behind the greasy/greazy curve.
>
>In a message dated 3/11/05 11:13:49 AM, preston at MSU.EDU writes:
>
>
>  > "Greazy" is really greasy, "greasy" is lightly and delicately oiled.
>  >



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