spa (grocery)

[Joel S. Berson]

Alice Faber wrote:
>When I first moved to New Haven in the late 80s, there was a downtown
>"greasy spoon" lunch counter called The College Spa.

And Victor Steinbok wrote:
>As for "spa", AHD4 doesn't have it either, but it does have a "regional
>note" suggestion that in "Eastern New England" it means "soda fountain".

Its "More word histories and mysteries" claims an origin from "soda
fountain".  But the spas in Cambridge at least are not soda
fountains, at least some of them.

>In the 28 years that I've been living here (minus 6 years spent
>elsewhere), I've never heard the expression. Maybe I haven't been paying
>attention. I have heard spa==grocery store/corner store in Vermont, but
>expressed by non-natives.

Perhaps you haven't been paying attention, Victor, but I've been here
a bit longer.  I can attest names of places as well as oral
communication.  When I moved to Cambridge (Mass.) for school, there
were two within 3 blocks of my dormitory:  the Montrose Spa, which
still exists; and the Oxford Spa, which no longer exists but was one
block from the "Love Story" laundromat.  (I wonder if Segal mentions the Spa.)

Joel

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