"wore black, or eat green" in 1657 Barbados

[Baker, John]

        Yes, I think that's right.  It isn't the use of "eat" that
catches me up, it's the "green."


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Wilson Gray
Sent: Friday, September 12, 2008 4:01 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "wore black, or eat green" in 1657 Barbados

Re: "wore black, or eat green"

Might not this _eat_ have been pronounced "et" or be a misspelling of
"et," given that AmE is pretty much the only dialect of E in which "eat,
_et_" is non-standard?

It would then match "wore" in tense.

-Wilson

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