Lockjaw: Locust Valley (1965), Long Island (1972), Larchmont (1973)

[Jesse Sheidlower]

Here's another early (if non-alliterative) one, with enough later hits
to show that it's at least reasonably established:

1968 S. Birmingham _The Right People: A Portrait of the American Social
Establishment_ 195 As for the accent, Barbara Best calls it
"Philadelphia paralysis," or "Main Line lockjaw," pointing out that it
is not unlike "Massachusetts malocclusion."

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

On Sun, Jun 12, 2011 at 07:37:10AM -0400, Ben Zimmer wrote:
> When I looked into these expressions in 2005, I found "Locust Valley
> lockjaw" from 1970, "Long Island lockjaw" from 1977, and "Larchmont
> lockjaw" from 1986:
>
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0502A&L=ADS-L&P=R4067
>
> Earlier cites from Google Books (snippet view, but they all look legit):
>
> * Locust Valley lockjaw
> Noel Parmentel, "John Lindsay - Less Than Meets the Eye," _Esquire_,
> Oct. 1965, p. 156
> He is as oblivious to the high gloss as he is to the Locust Valley
> Lockjaw spoken by so many of his peers.
>
> * Long Island lockjaw
> Hercules Molloy, _Oedipus in Disneyland_, 1972, p. 66
> He could detect Long Island Lockjaw across the room and distinguish it
> instantly from Manhattan Pentameter (an onomatopoeia).
>
> * Larchmont lockjaw
> Marcia Seligson, _The Eternal Bliss Machine: America's Way of
> Wedding_, 1973, p. 185
> But the voice changes that image, with a uniquely cultivated way of
> speaking that someone once labeled "Larchmont Lockjaw" because it
> emerges from a mouth that looks to be frozen into an unmoving smile
> and teeth that seem clenched together for dear life.
>
>
> --bgz
>
> --
> Ben Zimmer
> http://benzimmer.com/
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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