"dungarees"

[Laurence Horn]

At 3:21 PM +0000 2/3/09, Damien Hall wrote:
>Just received the following from Jon Lighter; I think it may have been
>intended for the whole list, so I'm taking the liberty of forwarding it,
>with further comments from me.
>
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2009 09:39:02 -0500
>Subject: Re: "dungarees"
>From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
>To: djh514 at york.ac.uk
>
>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.
>
>DAMIEN:  Maybe because (at least when written down) it looks as if
>it should be syllabified 'bi-balls'?  At least, that was my
>reaction, never having heard or seen the term before this post, to
>my knowledge.

Indeed, for me too.  As when the fellow is advised by his urologist
that he should undergo a testiculotomy and replies that he'd prefer
to let bi-balls be bi-balls.

LH

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