galoshes and rubbers and overshoes, oh my

[Robert Henderson]

I'm from Texas with two Texan parents. I've never heard the term
overshoes or rubbers. I know galoshes, but I would never use that word.
I always knew them as "dickersons". The big boots that cover your shoes
and go way up your leg are "mudboots" for me ("boots" are those things
you wear when two-stepping or riding horses).

Robert Henderson

Paul Johnston wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Paul Johnston<paul.johnston at WMICH.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: galoshes and rubbers and overshoes, oh my
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Joel, I'm from roughly the same area as you and have the same pattern.  I myself use "boots" for the higher shoe-like things, but my mother used "galoshes",  Rubbers cover your shoes, little more.  I have heard "overshoes", but never use the term.
>
> Paul Johnston
> On Jun 7, 2012, at 1:34 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson"<Berson at ATT.NET>
>> Subject:      Re: galoshes and rubbers and overshoes, oh my
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> I too learned "galoshes" from my parents (NYC).  Despite the OED's
>> (weaselly?) punt to another authority: "'Rare in U.S.' (Cent. Dict.)".
>>
>> "Overshoes" is not in my native vocabulary.
>>
>> Does anyone besides me associate "rubbers" with ankle-height and
>> "galoshes" with something more like boots?  Curiously, the earliest
>> quotation in the OED for "rubbers" (s.v. "rubber, n.1", sense 14) is:
>>
>> 1834   Daily Atlas (Boston, Mass.) 14 Oct. (advt.)    Boots, shoes,
>> and rubbers.
>>
>> Although the advt. doesn't say whether the distinction is height or material.
>>
>> And Totes plays it safe:  "Men's Waterproof Storm Rubber Overshoe
>> Galoshes Black by Waterproof Rubber Overshoe Galoshe".  (As seen on
>> Amazon.com: http://tinyurl.com/7vuzccx , item 5.)  To me,the object
>> pictured is one "rubber".
>>
>> Joel
>>
>> At 6/7/2012 09:20 AM, Amy West wrote:
>>> On 6/7/12 12:01 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
>>>> Date:    Wed, 6 Jun 2012 22:50:17 -0400
>>>> From:    Wilson Gray<hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>>> Subject: Re: "basket house"
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Jun 6, 2012 at 3:41 PM, Ben Zimmer
>>>> <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu>   wrote:
>>>>>> the odd Briticism "overshoes"
>>>> that's even in BE and, perhaps, other forms of Southern English. But,
>>>> pf course, the headline-writer ought to have used standard_rubbers_.
>>>> Not everyone is familiar with regional and other non-standard terms:
>>>>
>>>> _Trying the Economic Rubbers on Different Feet_
>>> As always, I'm a "me-too": both American parents -- one from each coast
>>> -- called 'em "overshoes" and I still have a pair of overshoes. Doesn't
>>> strike me as a Britishism, and 'tain't labeled as such in MWC11.
>>> "Galoshes" isn't labeled either (which is the older term,
>>> interestingly). Now that I think of it, I think my mother (Bostonian)
>>> favored "galoshes" over "overshoes." She would use "overshoes" when I
>>> gave her a funny look about "galoshes."
>>>
>>> ---Amy West
>>>
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