Date: Tue, 23 Jan 1996 22:38:00 -0400

From: "E. Wayles Browne" ewb2[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CORNELL.EDU

Subject: Re: cheap folks



Did any other people grow up hearing the pronunciation

/chIn'-chi/ for the word "chintzy," meaning 'stingy', rather than

/chIn(t)-si/?

I'm not sure how to represent this without IPA, and I apologize for the

eye-dialect. I say it with the obvious assimlatory process of two

affricates and I swear I've heard other people say it that way.

Although I have now (since this event happened) gotten corrected for my

pronunciation!



I know that "chintzy" is in Webster's, but I was curious

about how widespread the usage is. This was a very common word when

I was growing up in the northern part of rural Louisiana, but

others in my age cohort (mid thirties) don't seem to use it.



I say chinchy. It means stingy. It's not the same as chintsy, which means

low-quality, cheap (about things). I'm from New England, near Boston, born

1941.

I always felt this was a New England word. However my father was originally

from Shreveport, LA, and it is barely conceivable that I heard the word from

him rather than from New Englanders.







"tight as Dick's hatband"

"poor as Job's turkey" (which was always weird to me because

turkeys are New World animals)

"handy as a pocket on a shirt"

Never heard any of these.



"sword of Damocles" (and don't anybody try and tell me *this* is

a quaint regionalism)



This is a frequent literary allusion.





Wayles Browne, Assoc. Prof. of Linguistics

Morrill Hall, Cornell University

Ithaca, New York 14853, U.S.A.

tel. 607-255-0712 (o), 607-273-3009 (h)

fax 607-255-2044 (write FOR W. BROWNE)

e-mail ewb2[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]cornell.edu (1989 to 1993 was: jn5j[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]cornella.bitnet //

jn5j[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]cornella.cit.cornell.edu)