"spa" = 'neighborhood grocery store', aka 'convenience store'? (UNCLASSIFIED)

Wed Mar 2 12:19:15 UTC 2011

I'm glad someone's mentioned this, as it's all I could think of in reading
this thread. SPAR was my local shop in Johannesburg and is so again in
southern England, and of course both dialects pronounce it without the 'r'.

Though apparently the name was originally an acronym, to do with the
cooperative nature of the company, it's cognate with the word for 'save'
(as in 'save money') in a lot of Germanic languages. It was founded in
Holland in the 30s and came to the UK in 1957, so the timing doesn't seem
right to have affected the US usage, but could there be any relation
between 'spa' and 'savings'?

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spar_(retailer)>

Lynne

--On 01 March 2011 13:17 +0000 Eoin C Bairéad <ebairead at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> If a furriner might be allow comment.
>
> People might like to check the Dutch chain of small grocery shops called
> De Spar, called simply SPAR in England & places colonised by England.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spar_(retailer)
>
> Eoin
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spar_(retailer)>
>
> 2011/2/28 Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil>
>
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>> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
>> Subject:      Re: "spa" = 'neighborhood grocery store', aka 'convenience
>>              store'? (UNCLASSIFIED)
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> -------
>>
>> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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>>
>>
>> [display adv] _The Tech_ [MIT Student paper] 4/6/1893 p. i
>> "225 WASHINGTON ST., next door to Thompson's Spa."
>> http://tech.mit.edu/V12/PDF/N25.pdf
>>
>>
>> _Boston Evening Transcript_ 6/29/1903 p 11 col 1
>> "Clarke's American spa sells plain soda at ten cents gold or twenty-five
>> cents (dos reales) "Mex." "  [about commerce in the Phillipines]
>> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=r5c-AAAAIBAJ&sjid=JVoMAAAAIBAJ&dq=r
>> estaurant%20spa&pg=6693%2C4153448
>>
>>
>> _Lewiston Evening Journal_ [Lewiston, ME] 5/25/1938 p. 1 col 7
>> "The College Spa was badly damaged, the Progressive Auto Supply store
>> was filled with smoke and two escaped unharmed, when fire broke out at 4
>> o'clock Wednesday morning in the two-story wooden block which houses the
>> two businesses on upper Maine street."
>> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=pzgjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=LmoFAAAAIBAJ&dq=c
>> ollege-spa&pg=5416%2C4470620
>>
>>
>> _Daytona Beach [FL] Morning Journal_ 4/5/1941 p 1 col 8
>> "Mrs. Mayo, who with two sisters runs the "Triple Spa," a Richmond
>> restaurant and store, said in corss-examination that "never" had Joss,
>> in their friendship of less than a month, given any hint that he plotted
>> to harm Mrs. Joss."
>> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=BGsoAAAAIBAJ&sjid=AccEAAAAIBAJ&dq=r
>> estaurant%20spa&pg=1692%2C4235860
>>
>>
>> _Lewiston Daily Sun_ [Lewiston, ME] 12/10/1947 p. 2 col 4
>>
>> "The winning men's team was awarded sundaes at the college Spa."
>> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=aZkgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=WWgFAAAAIBAJ&dq=c
>> ollege-spa&pg=4247%2C6831632
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
>> Behalf Of
>> > Joel S. Berson
>> > Sent: Monday, February 28, 2011 2:19 PM
>> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> > Subject: "spa" = 'neighborhood grocery store', aka 'convenience
>> store'?
>> >
>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> ----------------------
>> > -
>> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>> > Subject:      "spa" = 'neighborhood grocery store', aka 'convenience
>> store'?
>> >
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ------
>> > -
>> >
>> > If anyone knows how to separate "spa" = 'neighborhood grocery store'
>> > from the mass of "spa" = 'watering place', I'd be interested.  It's
>> > an eastern New England usage (says AHD in "More word histories and
>> > mysteries", but without saying a word about date of origin).
>> >
>> > Adding "neighborhood" or "local" or "corner" (for a phrase) still
>> > comes up with a lot of tubs or watering spas.  Adding "grocery" (not
>> > as a phrase) gives much with GBooks, but tedious, small print, and it
>> > seems a high probability of disconnected occurrences and false
>> > positives.  Even adding "convenience store" comes up with many located
>> at
>> > spas!
>> >
>> > The best (earliest) I can find is a 1954 reference to (I think) the
>> > famous* Montrose Spa, 1646 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge,
>> > Mass.  Although it's much to the west of Tokyo!
>> >
>> > In Tokyo and points east, by Keyes Beech - 1954, Snippet view:  Page
>> > 216.  [GBooks]
>> >
>> > "One of my best and most useful friends was Mitch Sabbag, who earned
>> > enough money as a truck driver to buy a half interest in the Montrose
>> > Spa, a small neighborhood grocery that prospered by staying open when
>> > other, larger stores were ... "
>> >
>> > Acts of the Legislature of the State of New Jersey, allegedly 1933,
>> > page 1384, has a business named "Kaiser's Spa, Inc.", but that is
>> > hardly unambiguous.  [Snippet]
>> >
>> > * See Henry Louis Gates, as written about by Charles Ogletree.  I
>> > also learned of the famous town of Ballston Spa.
>> >
>> > Joel
>> >
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>
>
>
> --

Dr M Lynne Murphy
Senior Lecturer in Linguistics
Director of English Language and Linguistics
School of English
Arts B348
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QN

phone: +44-(0)1273-678844
http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com

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