galoshes and rubbers and overshoes, oh my

Chris Waigl chris at LASCRIBE.NET
Sun Jun 10 01:35:59 UTC 2012


On 7 Jun 2012, at 09:34, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> "Overshoes" is not in my native vocabulary.

It's in the vocabulary of just about everyone up here in Alaska. There's also occasionally "overboots", for a heavier, knee-length variety typically worn over mukluks or wool boots in the winter (I have a pair of these, so am more familiar with them than others might be).

(Normal (non-overshoe) rubber boots are called break-up boots here pretty universally, with mud boots or muck boots coming behind.)

> Does anyone besides me associate "rubbers" with ankle-height and
> "galoshes" with something more like boots?

I asked my partner, who grew up in Virginia and Canada (a little bit), and she uses the two interchangeably with no connotation as to height.

Chris Waigl

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



More information about the Ads-l mailing list