"dungarees"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Now that I think about it, I'd still be likely to call these work garments
"dungarees" rather than "jeans" - if I was trying to be precise.  The other
term I've heard (from about 1979, when a grad student friend began affecting
them) is "biballs" ( short form "bibs").  For some reason "biballs" doesn't
appeal to me.  I suppose the coiner of "biballs " wanted to distinguish them
from the single-garment "overalls."

And unless I'm crazy, in my childhood I even heard ordinary blue denim
trousers as well as ordinary corduroy trousers, as worn by tykes anyway,
referred to as "overalls."  And yes, "blue jeans" is still my default term
for "jeans," though I do say both.

JL

On Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 9:53 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "dungarees"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 9:39 AM -0500 2/3/09, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> >At 2/3/2009 09:24 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
> >>Ditto.  I'd forgotten that the default term for us too was indeed
> >>"blue jeans", with compound stress as in "blueberries" or
> >>"bluestockings".
> >
> >Wasn't it "blue jeans" for the upper sorts, "dungarees" for the lower
> >sorts?  And the picture is of "overalls".
> >
> >P.S.  Larry, I can't come up with the Italian city.
> >
> Genoa.  And then there's "Nîmes" for "denim".
>
> LH
>
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