[Ads-l] "California sober"

[Ben Zimmer]

Looks like "California sober" is to "sober" as "California stop" (i.e., a
rolling stop) is to "stop." (Larry Horn would call these "ironyms.")

I discuss "California stop" (aka "Hollywood/Michigan/New York/Philly/St.
Louis/American stop") in these 2013 pieces on regional traffic terms:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2013/04/06/boston-driving-bad-needs-its-own-lingo/UM7UhGh5qCdZPVukFH37QN/story.html
https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/wordroutes/word-on-the-street-sketchy-traffic-lingo/

--bgz

On Mon, Dec 6, 2021 at 5:57 PM Bill Mullins <amcombill at hotmail.com> wrote:

> "California sober" -- never ran across this before today.
>
>
> https://www.lx.com/entertainment/what-does-california-sober-mean-definition/45920/
>
>

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