gashouse [was: Is this correct for anyone?]

[Joel S. Berson]

Note the 1923 quote.

OED:  gas-house (orig. U.S.), a gas-works, or a
building forming part of a gas-works; also
attrib. (U.S.), designating a run-down area or
its inhabitants (see also quot. 1926)
880 G. N. LAMPHERE U.S. Govt. 227/1 The buildings
connected with the hospital..are..*a gas-house
[etc.]. 1923 T. S. ELIOT Waste Land iii. 15
Fishing in the dull canal..round behind the
gashouse. 1926 WOOD & GODDARD Dict. Amer. Slang
20 Gas-house district, district in city
unsuitable for living; abode of gangsters. 1952
B. CERF Good for Laugh 163 On the mound pitching
for the old St. Louis Cardinal gas-house gang.

Joel

At 1/22/2010 06:40 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>If any white people or plaid people say "town gas," they've never told me
>about it.
>
>I also know "gashouse" almost solely from the "Gashouse Gang."  I've
>encountered it in the literal "gas works" sense, but it's not a topic I've
>had much need to think about. Offhand I don't know what the customary NYC
>term might have been.
>
>JL
>
>On Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 5:48 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Is this correct for anyone?
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > From the Wikipedia article on "_Gas works_ referred from _gashouse_":
> >
> > "_Coal gas (known in the USA as Town gas) ..._"
> >
> >
> > Say what? I've always known coal gas only as "coal gas" since I took a
> > class known as "georgaphy" [,dZi 'arg at fI] in the 4th grade, 1946-47.
> > Until I read W-pedia's article, I'd never before come across the
> > phrase, "town gas," ever, in any context. But, keeping in mind that
> > white people, growing up in a different environment, know stuff that
> > even supposedly-educated black people have no concept of, I've decided
> > to ask. Is it just me? *Is* coal gas normally referred to as "town
> > gas" in The World?
> >
> > And BTW, WTF *is* a "gashouse," anyway? Needless to say, having grown
> > up in Saint Louis, I'm familiar with the phrase, Gashouse Gang. But no
> > one ever pointed anything out to me and said, "That's a / the
> > gashouse" or "That's where the famous gashouse used to be." Given the
> > presence of capitalization, I assume that Gashouse is or was the name
> > of a 'hood in The City wherein stands or once stood a gashouse.
> > W-pedia says _gas house_[sic] is another way of saying "gas works."
> >
> >
> > -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
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
>--
>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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