elastics, tennies, and 'meant to have'

[Geoff Nathan]

Wilson wrote:
> _____________________________________________
>
> As usual, Charlie, you've resurrected for me a bit of lexicon that I'd
> lost. Overshoes! Whoa, does that bring back memories! BTW, my
> grandparents referred to rubber bands as "elastics." Does that ring a
> bell with you?
>
And this whole discussion has resurrected for me the use of 'elastics'
to mean, specifically, rubber bands used in orthodontic work (dating
this, therefore, to mid sixties and my high school days).  At least in
Toronto those were 'elastics', overshoes were 'rubbers' as were
'erasers'.  To those of us in the innocent mid-sixties (or perhaps in
innocent Canada :-) ) the connection with contraception was unknown.
Those things, to the extent we knew about them, were called 'safes'.

Elastics used to keep packages together were [rubber 'bands], with
Adjective-Noun stress.  My wife, on the other hand, from Brooklyn (and
her mother) refers to them as ['rubber bands], with compound stress.

Geoff

--
Geoffrey S. Nathan <geoffnathan at wayne.edu>

Faculty Liaison, Computing and Information Technology,<p>
and Associate Professor of English, Linguistics Program<p>
Phone Numbers (313) 577-1259 or (313) 577-8621<p>
Wayne State University<p>
Detroit, MI, 48202

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