making Groceries

Informant:Libby Flint, age 59, New Orleans resident of 36 years, originally from Upstate New York and Vermont. Collected May 22, 2016 and recorded on iphone.

Verbal Lore: Folk Speech, slang

English

United States of America

Context: to go out and buy or pick up groceries

Transcript:

“ Some of the older people  down here will talk about ‘ making groceries’ when they go to the grocey store to buy food. I think the derivation for that term is a direct – a direct translation  from the French of going to the store.”

Informant; Caitlin Flint, age 21, Metairie, LA, collected on May 22, 2016 and recorded on an iphone.

transcript:

“ The phrase’ Making Groceries’ is the next slang word. It is not one that I use particularly often, but I know several others who use it. I’m not  sure what the etymology of it is, or why people say it, but to ‘make groceries’ is to go visit the grocery store and pick up your groceries. To use it in a sentence ‘ Oh Grandma is going down —grandma is currently in town making groceries, she will be back to cook at 4’ and so that would be that.”

Collectors commentary: Both Informants admit to not using the word tehmeslevs, but knowing people who do. While the older woman knows many in older generation who use it, the younger cannot give any specifica example, this implies tha it is not a popular phrase with the yunger generation, and if it is a derivative of the french translation, as Libby suggests then that would make sense, because the younger generation is less likely to know French, due to the intense americanization and globalization of te ypounger generation in the internet age. The term is unique to NO slang because it is an almost direct english translation of a French Phrase and is not used in any other formerly French cities in the United states.

Key words: Making Groceries, New Orleans, French