Talk:grease

Text removed from main article:

# Inflammation of a horse's heels.

I can't find any corroboration for that meaning. When adding obscure meanings, be sure to list what region the meaning applies to, (i.e. what part of UK?) AND include dated quotations/citations. --Connel MacKenzie 4 July 2005 15:39 (UTC)

Thank you. --Connel MacKenzie 4 July 2005 18:12 (UTC)

Tea room discussion

Note: the below discussion was moved from the Wiktionary:Tea room.

There are two pronunciations of the verb grease that I hear in the US and that are now shown in the entry. One is identical to the noun and the other ends in a "z" sound. Does anyone have any information on the distribution of the pronunciations? DCDuring TALK 10:35, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

I've only head the /gɹiːs/ pronunciation in the UK. Thryduulf 12:13, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

Likewise, /gɹis/ or /gɹiːs/ in Canada. —Michael Z. 2008-08-11 00:08 z

Eureka. AHD has a regional note on pronunciation here. Apparently, the difference in the verb pronunciation is an important marker for Southern US origin of speakers. The coverage goes from New Mexico east to include the whole South and also splits Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. So, this regional difference is what has led to the long pronunciation section. DCDuring TALK 01:04, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Because much of US pronunciation was strongly influenced by the pronunciation of the the British region originating most of the early settlers, one might suspect that there is (or was) some region(s) of the UK that also had this pronunciation. w:Southern American English suggests that it would be the West Country of the UK. Is it still current there? DCDuring TALK 01:15, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

The OED Online gives only /s/ for the noun, but lists /z/ before /s/ for the verb and all the derived forms ((deprecated template usage) greased, (deprecated template usage) greaser, (deprecated template usage) greasy, etc.). —Ruakh_TALK 01:43, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

WTF? How good is their proofreading of their entries?

MW3 at "greasy" has a note (referenced at "grease") which puts the "z" pronunciation in the South, and UK; both "s" and "z" in NYC, Midland (?), Western Pennsylvania, Middle Atlantic. Sometimes "s" is used for literal grease, but "z" for something "sleazy". The WP article references more recent research. DCDuring TALK 02:15, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Not knowing anything about UK pronunciation, I've always assumed that their pronunciations reflected UK norms, but I certainly can't vouch for that. —Ruakh_TALK 01:32, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

Maybe OEDOnline is not going to let UK pronunciation get in the way of more market share.

I am confused by this. MW3 and OEDOnline give the "z" pronunciation a US UK location. MW3 and AHD give it Southern US. Thryduulf doesn't hear it in UK.

Camb Adv Learner's shows only "s".

Longman's DCE shows "s" before "z"; Random House prefers "s" to "z". Cambridge Intl prefers "s" to "z".

OEDOnline shows "z" before "s"; Webster's 1913 seems to prefer "z" to "s".

Webster's 1828 shows only "z".

What do our other UK speakers say? Anyone from the West Country? DCDuring TALK 03:39, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

Until the end of last year I was living in the northern part of the Westcountry (Somerset). I've just looked at my 1998 edition of The Chambers Dictionary which gives only the "s" pronunciation for the the noun, marks the verb with "sometimes [z pronunciation] in UK"; shows the s then the z pronunciations with no further qualification for (deprecated template usage) greaser and repeats the "sometimes [z pronunciation] in UK" note for (deprecated template usage) greasier.

I don't recognise the z pronunciations for any of these. If I had to guess where in the UK you might hear these it would be possibly Devon/Cornwall or the West Midlands (where (deprecated template usage) bus is sometimes homophonous to (deprecated template usage) buzz). Thryduulf 15:00, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

Re: "MW3 and OEDOnline give the 'z' pronunciation a US location.": Wait, I'm confused. I don't see anything like that in the OED Online; it doesn't seem to give any regional information for these words. It lists /z/ before /s/ (except for the noun (deprecated template usage) grease, which it only lists /s/ for), but doesn't seem to say anything about the distribution of the variants. —Ruakh_TALK 16:50, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

Sorry. I need a proofreader. Corrections made above and highlighted. DCDuring TALK 16:59, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

• Interesting. I have only ever used /s/ for simple and suffixed forms. But my girlfriend (who's Scottish) routinely says /gri:zi/ for greasy, so I always assumed it was a Scottish/Northern thing. Ƿidsiþ 07:36, 14 August 2008 (UTC)
• Ah. And I note that while the OED has both pronunciations, the DSL gives only the /-z-/ form. Ƿidsiþ 07:37, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

FWIW, Scottish Highlander colonists (with others from the North and West of the UK, including Wales) settled the Ohio River Valley and the states to the the South of that river and continued south and west from there. This would correspond to the northern part of the "greazy" pronunciation zone in the US. DCDuring TALK 12:44, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

I’m rather late to the conversation I know but I’m originally from Birmingham and say /gri:si/ but my late mother said /gri:zi/ and they definitely use that pronunciation in Scotland too, so I’ve added that to greasy. The noun and verb grease (along with the first syllable of the plural and declined forms of this word) are nonetheless pronounced as /gri:s/ in Birmingham. Overlordnat1 (talk) 20:30, 13 March 2022 (UTC)