"dungarees"

[Wilson Gray]

Likewise for me, too. I grew up in the '40's considering "dungarees"
and "_blue_ jeans" to be two names for the same garment. In the '60's,
I discovered that "dungarees" were also the Navy's equivalent of the
Army's "fatigues."

When I was a pre-adolescent, a friend eggcorned "blue jeans" to "yew
jeans" and adamantly refused to accept correction.

At the time, Levi's were the blue jeans of blue jeans. I was both
disappointed and chagrined to receive a pair of Lee's as my first pair
of blue jeans. Even though Lee's had a large, oblong, leather belt
loop with "Lee" branded into it that was way cooler than Levi's crummy
leather patch. Not to mention that you couldn't bust 'em.

In those days, Levi's had genuine copper rivets everywhere, including
the watch pocket - referred to as the "change pocket," nowadays, I've
ben given to understand - and the back pockets, where they were
covered with cloth so that they wouldn't scratch furniture.

They also shrank, so that you had to be very careful, if you were a
guy, to get the right size. OTOH, it was the custom among teen-aged
girls simply to get a large pair, put them on, and get into a bathtub
of water. Then they would get out and allow the Levi's to dry,
shrink-wrapping them to their bodies, in effect.

-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain



On Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 12:05 AM, Alice Faber <faber at haskins.yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Alice Faber <faber at HASKINS.YALE.EDU>
> Organization: Haskins Laboratories
> Subject:      Re: "dungarees"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Mark Mandel wrote:
>> Good heavens! AFAIR I've always known the word "dungarees", possibly before
>> I knew them as jeans. (Grew up in the 50s in the NYC suburbs.)
>>
>
> Likewise. Even though my parents probably would have called them "blue
> jeans" at the time (not just "jeans"), I do remember thinking of
> "dungarees" as a more old-fashioned term than "jeans".
>
>
> --
> ========================================================================
> Alice Faber                                       faber at haskins.yale.edu
> Haskins Laboratories                            tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
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