"machine" 'car, automobile'

[Benjamin Barrett]

Perhaps also of interest is "snow machine." As I recall, that was the
default term in Alaska when I lived there 30 years ago. BB

On Jul 17, 2008, at 7:54 AM, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:

>
> from Wilson Gray back on 6 June:
>
>> "Machine" for "automobile" is still hip in BE slang, as well as
> "'chine," also used as a verb meaning, roughly, "drive like a
> maniac." <
>
> there's a possible subtlety here that i didn't comment on at the time:
> the distinction between a word's having the meaning 'car,
> automobile' (as in "my machine's parked in the driveway") and the
> word's sometimes being used to refer to cars or automobiles (as in
> "that's a mean machine you got there").  it isn't always easy to tell
> how the word's being used.
>
> on another front, i checked out "machine" in a few sources: not in
> DARE or in Smitherman, but  Majors, Juba to Jive (not the most
> reliable of sources), does have an entry:
>   (1950s-1960s) an automobile, one's car
> citing p. 71 of David Claerbaut, Black Jargon in White America (1972).

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org