hoe-down not in DARE

[Benjamin Barrett]

On Feb 7, 2014, at 8:12 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Fri, Feb 7, 2014 at 4:58 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
>> It's not regional, but rather used everywhere.
>
>
> Well, I haven't been everywhere. But, where I have been, "hoe-down" is
> familiar. OTOH, I have no idea what, precisely, a hoe-down is. If the point
> is that the term has an exact meaning, beyond "a kind of party with music
> and dancing," that is known only regionally, well, based only on my own
> experience, then I grant the possibility that "hoe-down" is a regional term
> that ought to be included in DARE, like "snake-doctor."

This is pretty much what I think. I wouldn't be able to distinguish a hoe-down from a hootenanny (if there is one), and have no idea whether a rave qualifies as either, but if you tell me you went to a hoe-down, I know that you went to a place where people were dancing, and that was probably a rural get-together. I assume there are regions where people know the precise meaning of this term.

Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA

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