"electric" = electric power

[Wilson Gray]

I hear "the electric" for "the electricity" in the greater Boston
area. It sounded a bit strange, when I first heard it. Down in Texas,
we called  it "the light bill" and in St. Louis, it was "the electric
bill." I heard and became accustomed to "the electricity" in L.A.

But, "hamburg" for "hamburger (meat)" in the greater Boston area I
still find strange, even after over a quarter-century of hearing it.

-Wilson Gray

On 9/15/05, Arnold M. Zwicky <zwicky at csli.stanford.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "electric" = electric power
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Sep 15, 2005, at 6:41 AM, dInIs wrote:
>
> > DARE, however, finds it pretty widespread, with perhaps greater
> > concentrations in South Midland/Appalachia. It was common among
> > working class speakers where I grew up (S. IL and IN (Louisville
> > area).
> >
> >> OED somehow misses this, though it's extremely common in the N. Y.
> >> metro area. My grandfather (b. 1884) used it all the time.
> >>
> >> 2005 Brian Kilmeade (from L.I.) on _Fox & Friends_ (Fox News
> >> Channel) (Sept. 15) : " A hundred thousand people without electric."
>
> ... and common among working class speakers where i grew up
> (southeastern pennsylvania).  it's what my parents, aunts and uncles,
> cousins, etc. used, and what i used.  it used to annoy my partner,
> who labeled it a "hick" usage.  but then he grew up mostly in central
> ohio, and probably identified the usage as characteristic of southern
> ohio (i.e., appalachian).
>
> it's a natural development, as i tirelessly explained to him, once
> you have expressions like "electric power" 'electrical power', "the
> electric company" 'the electric power company, the electricity
> company', etc.  yes, i know, "electric" starts out as an adjective --
> but a nonpredicating adjective (of the sort studied in detail by Judy
> Levi thirty years ago), with nominal semantics.   "electric" is then
> open for reanalysis *as* a noun, like many other nouns in -ic that
> started out as adjectives only: elastic, plastic, spastic, comic,
> tonic,...
>
> arnold
>


--
-Wilson Gray