Yet another how do you pronounce thread. In the GQ thread about emu oil I started to think about the radio commercial for Australian Dream that I’ve been hearing about 20 times a day. The legendary Chuck Woolery is the spokesman. One of the great properties is the product isn’t greasy. Whenever I hear him say the word greasy its jarring. So how do you say it?
Love the internet.Hereis the radio spot. He pronounces it “gree-zee”. Gree rhymes with glee. I have always heard it pronounced “grease-ee” with grease said like Frankie Valli sings it in Grease is the Word. Chuck’s way just sounds weird to me.
Chuck is from Kentucky. I’ve spent time in Kentucky. I have no idea if the word ever came up in conversation while I was there.
I say [gri-si] (“gree-see”) (i.e. with an unvoiced “s”).
My wife, on the other hand, varies her pronunciation based on context. If something just has grease on it, she agrees with me. However, the food in a hole-in-the-wall diner or similar place is “gree-zee”. I think it’s an interesting distinction.
I am from New Hampshire, she is a native St. Louisan.
I use both pronunciations, depending on what I’m saying. If I’m describing a slice of pizza with just a little too much grease, I say it is “grease-ee”. If I’m describing a disgusting individual, I say that he is “greeeee-zee”.
It’s my understanding that in general, certain areas of the south are more likely to pronounce it Gree-Zee. I know that Alton Brown is from Georgia, and he would pronounce it ‘gree-zee’ on Good Eats all the time.
What I find curious, though, is the people who say "gree-zee’ don’t say “greeze.” As in, the noun form is still pronounced with more of an ‘s’ sound, so how come only the adjective gets transformed into a ‘z’-sound?
I’m in (and from) England – both pronunciations of “greasy” are heard here. I learned, and have always used, “gree-see”; perhaps this is classism and snobbery, but I have the impression that over here, that it tends to be folk at the less-educated-and-cultivated end of the population, who say “gree-zee”. A subjective thing, but “gree-zee” always sounds to me, a bit crass and annoying.
I recall once in my life (this was in England) hearing someone say “greeze”, as above – the guy (definitely working-class; and not hugely bright) talked about giving a car engine a “greeze-up”. I’d reckon that, vanishingly rare here; on the whole, those who say the adjective as “gree-zee”, say the noun as “greese”.
A long time ago, I was reading a book on phonetics and it made the claim that the 40th parallel that goes through Philadelphia (around Lehigh Ave.) divides Philadelphians who say greesy from those who say greezy. Well, I grew up in West Philly, well south of the 40th parallel and I swear I never heard anyone say greezy. And I never say it.
With one exception. There is a financial adviser/charlatan here in Montreal whose name is Grisé and I refer to him as Greezy.
