End of ADS-L Digest - 7 May 1996 to 8 May 1996

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There are 17 messages totalling 404 lines in this issue.



Topics of the day:



 1. packy? (5)

 2. Words that end in GRY (5)

 3. out-of-pocket (6)

 4. RE>out-of-pocket



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Date:  Thu, 9 May 1996 00:26:58 -0400

From:  ALICE FABER <faber[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]HASKINS.YALE.EDU>

Subject: Re: packy?



>From Lynn Murphy:

|

| > Late that next afternoon, I found Det. Lt. Royce Whitlock of the state police

| > where he usually went for lunch on his days off: downstairs in the basement

| > of a thriving cement-block mini-mall in Lynnfield--convenience store selling

| > milk, cigarettes, potato chips, and lottery scratch cards and keno tickets

| > that kept a bunch of older guys in satin jackets rapt in front of a TV

| > screen; two-chair barber shop; sewing supplies store; packy; and a take-out

| > sandwich shop.

| >  --George V. Higgins, Sandra Nichols Found Dead. New York: Henry Holt,1996

|

| a packy, in most of massachusetts (that i know of), is a liquor

| store. more formally, a 'package store'. (this has something to do

| w/ liquor selling laws in massachusetts, but i don't know what.)

| don't know if it's spread to other parts of new england.

|

| _packy_ was definitely the most dominant term for liquor store in

| western mass when i lived there in the early-mid 80s. (i spent most

| of my time there in a umass dorm, so the packy was a frequent topic of

| conversation.) a "packy run" is a trip to the liquor store (to stock

| up).



>From William King:

|

| It could be a "Package Store" in New England. Differentiated from a

| tavern/bar. Conn. or Mass.?



Well, I'm familiar with package store, but I can't recall whether I knew the

term before I moved to Connecticut. I've never heard "packy" down here in

South Central CT, though. I'll ask my sister (who lives up by the Mass

border); it will liven up her office, I'm sure, if they've gotten over her

attempts to pin down the _aunt_ /ant/-/aent/ isogloss. (By the way, she's

*not* a linguist...)



Alice Faber

faber[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]haskins.yale.edu