[Ads-l] "Larchmont Lockjaw" Not in OED

[Gordon, Matthew]

Since the piece that FS cited is from St. Louis, I’ll add that the local version was the “Ladue Lockjaw” (referring to a tony suburb). First citation for this that I’m aware of is 1976, and it was describing the “cord/card merger” which is a stereotype of the STL accent and in decline in recent generations. I don’t know that this usage was ever class-stratified, but today I’d be surprised if St. Louisans thought of it as upper class.

Matt

From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM>
Date: Saturday, October 5, 2024 at 9:38 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: "Larchmont Lockjaw" Not in OED
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See also my 2011 post with citations for "Locust Valley lockjaw" (1965),
"Long Island lockjaw" (1972), and "Larchmont lockjaw" (1973).

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On Sat, Oct 5, 2024 at 8:20 AM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:

> "Larchmont Lockjaw," a term for a mid-Atlantic upper-class accent, is not
> in the OED.  The earliest occurrence I have found is the following:
>
> 1973 St. Louis Post-Dispatch 17 June 4E (Newspapers.com)
>
> Raised in Central Park West and already speaking the kind of "Larchmont
> Lockjaw" to which such hot house bred young women seem to be addicted.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>

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