grette = 'cigarette'

[Gordon, Matthew J.]

For me in high school, it was always "grit" and judging from a quick google search, this version of the term still has some currency.

-Matt Gordon

On Mar 7, 2011, at 8:19 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> HDAS has only two cites (1968 and 1969), both from obscure collegiate
> sources.
>
> Except in later slang dictionaries, I can't say I've come across it since.
> While working on HDAS, I spent virtually every waking minute alert for slang
> surprises, so that means no additional independently documented "grettes" in
> my awareness over the following forty years.  The term I heard now and again
> on campus was "rette," not "grette."
>
> I was considerably surprised on Saturday to hear a local liquor store
> employee, about 25 years old, describe a YouTube video (I think) on which a
> guy "who was already hammered" breaks into a liquor store, sets off the
> alarm, gets stuck in something, then lights a cigarette while waiting calmly
> for the cops to come.
>
> The speaker characterized the felon's thoughts as, "Might as well have a
> grette before I go to jail."
>
> Another excellent ex. of a perfectly innocent term that's existed beneath
> the print radar for decades.
>
> JL
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org