Re: USAGE: Pop, smearcase, kolaches

Melissa Phong <melissap@...> comunu:

>Jeffrey, I got to ask, what the heck is (are?) smearcase and kolaches?
>P.S. My great aunt and uncle came down from Warshington to give me their
old
>davenport just this weekend.  They couldn't stay for "supper" though. : =
)

I didn't realize "supper" was dialectal, but now that I think about it my
wife calls it "dinner" and I think of it as "supper", but when I look it =
up
in the dictionary it doesn't have the meaning I thought it would:

sup=B7per (s=BEp".r) n. 1.a. A light evening meal when dinner is taken at
midday. b. A light meal eaten before going to bed. 2. A dance or social
affair where supper is served. [Middle English, from Old French souper, t=
o
sup, supper. See SUP2.]

ko=B7lac=B7ky (k.-l=E4"ch=B6, -l=E4ch"k=B6) n., pl. kolacky or ko=B7la=B7=
che (-l=E4"ch=B6). A
square, sweet bun with a fruit or poppy seed filling. [Czech kola=E5e,
wheel-shaped cake, pl. of kola=E5, from Old Church Slavonic, wheel. See k=
wel-1
below.]

smear=B7case (sm=EEr"k=B3s") n. Pennsylvania. See cottage cheese. See Reg=
ional
Note at  gum band. [Pennsylvania Dutch Schmierkees, from German Schmierk=E4=
se,
a kind of spreadable cheese : schmieren, to smear (from Middle High Germa=
n
smirwen, from Old High German) + K=E4se, cheese (from Middle High German
kaese, from Old High German k=B3si, from Latin c=B3seus).]

 gum band n. Pennsylvania. See rubber band. [Translation of German
Gummiring.]
--------------------
REGIONAL NOTE: Many Pennsylvanians are only a generation or two removed f=
rom
German-speaking homes. It is natural that the English spoken in Pennsylva=
nia
would feature words borrowed directly from German. Gum band, the local
equivalent for rubber band, is derived from German Gummiring, "rubber ban=
d."
Smearcase, a Pennsylvania term for cottage cheese, is from Schmierk=E4se,
"soft cheese that can be 'smeared,' or spread." Other Pennsylvania
expressions are calques, or direct translations, of German idioms. For
example, in the expression The smearcase is all,  a Pennsylvania word all
comes from German alle, meaning "finished."

[Actually, I call them "rubber bands" but my wife and children, MA-born a=
ll,
call them "elastics".]


All definitions from AHED (C) 1992 Houghton Mifflin.


Best regards,

Jeffrey Henning
http://www.LangMaker.com/ - Invent Your Own Language
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