Just wondering

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Sat Dec 30 02:35:03 UTC 2006


At 9:00 PM -0500 12/29/06, Wilson Gray wrote:
>FWIW,my wife, who's from Wilkes-Barre, speaking of Pennsylavania.
>doesn't recognize any distinction between "purse" and "pocketbook."
>
>Also, FWIW, I don't consider what I call a "change purse" to be a
>purse in the sense meant here. If my wife asked me to get her purse,
>it would never occur to me to look inside her pocketbook for her
>change purse.
>
>IAC, I'd say that it's clear that, for some people, "pocketbook" and
>"purse" name distinct objects and cannot be interchanged. Whew! That's
>a load off my mind! ;-)
>
>-Wilson

A quick poll here;  wife and daughter, both from Connecticut, report
"purse" and "pocketbook" to be interchangeable in meaning, but
daughter (age 22) also notes that the latter label is very out of
date.

LH

>
>On 12/29/06, GSCole <gscole at ark.ship.edu> wrote:
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       GSCole <gscole at ARK.SHIP.EDU>
>>Subject:      Re: Just wondering
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>In my mind, a purse is smaller than a pocketbook; a purse may be carried
>>inside of a pocketbook.  A coin purse is the smallest purse of which I'm
>>aware; small enough to be carried in a trouser side pocket.
>>
>>George Cole
>>Shippensburg University
>>
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Brenda Lester
>>Sent: Fri 29-Dec-06 17:19
>>Subject:      Re: [ADS-L] Just wondering
>>
>>2) "Pocketbook" and "purse" are interchangeable.
>>   I've always considered a purse to be smaller than a pocketbook. A
>>pocketbook has all your work-a-day junk in it; a purse is for a few
>>necessary items.
>>
>>Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>2) Is there anyone for whom the words "pocketbook" and "purse" denote
>>different objects? Not "can" or 'could," but _do_.
>>
>>-Wilson
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>
>
>--
>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>-----
>-Sam'l Clemens
>
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