GREAZY and GREA SY

[Dennis R. Preston]

E. Bagby Atwood, but I don't recall a "greaze" there (except as a
verb of course).

dInIs



>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


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African Languages
A-740 Wells Hall
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
Phone: (517) 432-3099
Fax: (517) 432-2736
preston at msu.edu