The earth v. Earth (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Doug Harris]

"The hippoes"?
"The mulligrubs"?
I can imagine the former having something to do with
being, simultaneously, heightiness challenged and
broadily enhanced.
I'm stumped by mulligrubs, though. The mind boggles!
(the other) doug


In the South Midland names of diseases and illnesses
are often preceded by the definite article.  "The
cancer" is certainly known, but I think "the sugar" =
"diabetes" would be far more common.  My favorites are
"the hippoes" and "the mulligrubs."  I've also heard
"the typhoid," etc.  "The measles" is ubiquitous, but
I suspect this may have a much broader regional
distribution.  We eagerly await DARE V for a
splendiferous display of definite article usage.

"The" with diseases is definitely a Scotch-Irish
inheritance.  Check out _the_ def. art. sense 4 in the
Scottish National Dictionary.  This can be found
on-line at the wonderful Dictionary of the Scots
Language website, which incorporates both the SND and
the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue.  This
philological resource that approaches the magnitude of
the OED is available free at www.dsl.ac.uk.  I don't
think that it has gotten enough publicity on this side
of the water, though, so I'm blowing the bugle to
consult it, if ADSers will pardon me.

Michael

> >
> >I've heard folks in the rural South referring to
> having "the cancer"
> >instead of what seems to me to be standard usage
> "cancer".
>
> In the urban North it may not be "the cancer" but
> it's often "the big C".
>
> LH

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