"dungarees"

[Dan Goodman]

With permission, from the blog of an Australian-born fiction writer:

Dungarees

I have an older character, who lives in upstate NY and has pretty much
her whole life, who refers to jeans as “dungarees”. I had her use that
word after consulting with friends from upstate who remembered people of
their grandparents’ generation and older using that word. I have been
challenged on this by someone who thought the word was Australian.
Absolutely not.1

I’m looking for more evidence than just my upstate New Yorker friends’
say so. Thus far I’ve found this in wikipedia which lists the word as
archaic for the New York City area. But am coming up blank on other
supporting evidence.

Can any of you help me?

Thanks in advance!

    1. I suspect I’m going to cop that a lot with the Liar book—people
assuming I’ve gotten things wrong—like having New Yorkers saying they’re
waiting “on line”—when, in fact, I’ve gotten it right, but they just
don’t happen to know some of the local New Yorker dialect. Many USians
assume that all USians talk the same. So not true! [
http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/02/02/dungarees/#comments
--
Dan Goodman
"I have always depended on the kindness of stranglers."
Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Expire
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