_Mezzrow_(?), "marijuana cigarette"

[Ben Zimmer]

On Wed, Feb 22, 2012 at 4:30 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
> The song, Weed, recorded by Bea Foote and released in 1938, has the line,
>
> "All vipers love their _mezzrow_"
[...]
> WRT to dialect, she's r-full and pronounces "weed, need" as "wee-id,
> nee-id." In my *extremely* limited experience - a single speaker -
> this kind of breaking is characteristic of the BE of Virginia.

Good ear, Wilson. According to Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of
Musicians, Bea was the brother of George Jenkins, drummer for Lionel
Hampton in the '40s, who was born in Norfolk, Va. in 1917.

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-3491806197.html

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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