"machine" 'car, automobile' (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

"My Custom Machine", The Beach Boys, 1964:
"I'll let you look but don't touch
My Custom Machine"

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of William Salmon
> Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2008 10:23 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "machine" 'car, automobile'
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       William Salmon <william.salmon at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "machine" 'car, automobile'
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------
>
> >  >"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.
>
> Then there's Johnny Cash's "mow-chine" from the 1976 song
> "One Piece at a Time"
>
> Huh, This is the COTTON MOUTH
> And negatory on the cost of this mow-chine there RED RYDER
> You might say I went right up to the factory And picked it
> up, it's cheaper that way
>
>
> FYI: here is what a mow-chine looks like:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:One_piece_at_a_time.jpg
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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