Date: Mon, 28 Oct 1996 11:49:30 -0500

From: Mark Mandel Mark[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]DRAGONSYS.COM

Subject: A few questions from an interested student . . . -Reply



bruce taylor 76504.1330[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]COMPUSERVE.COM 10/26/96, 02:45pm



1) Has anyone heard the word "lowery" used to mean lurking,

dark and sinister (as in 'a lowery sky' before a storm)



Haven't heard this, but it sounds like a variant of "lowering" (which

I have only ever read, not heard). _Am.Her.Dictionary_ gives "lower"1

(rhyming with "sour") as:

1. To look angry, sullen, or threatening. See Synonyms at "frown".

2. To appear dark or threatening, such as the sky.





2) Where you live, what do you call the strip of land

between the sidewalk and the street, if anything?



I don't know a *vernacular* name for it, but I have learned the

allegedly technical word "berm". This may have been from my father,

who grew up in NYC but was in WW2 and then traveled all over the

country for the Agriculture Dept before I was born; we lived in

Westchester County, NY, just north of NYC.





Mark A. Mandel : mark[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]dragonsys.com

Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 965-5200

320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02160, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com/