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Greenwich Manners

Posted by Baceseras on January 18, 2011 at 18:14

In Reply to: Greenwich Manners posted by Brian from Shawnee on January 17, 2011 at 17:33:

: : Does anybody know what "Greenwich Manners" means and what the origin is?

: That's not a phrase I've ever heard, but as an American from the Northeast I instinctively associated it with Greenwich, Connecticut, a sterotypical "rich town" just outside New York City. According to Wikipedia they have about 50% more registered Republicans than Democrats. Money plus Republicans equals "old money" in the Northeast, and "old money" equals concern with manners that "new money" and "old poverty" don't stereotypically have.

[I've never heard the phrase, and it doesn't turn up in the first couple of hundred google hits for that combination of words, so there's a good probability if the inquirer ever heard it spoken it was a nonce usage - or else a mistake for "Greenwich manor," which might refer to a manor house at Greenwich (either in England or Connecticut). If something about manners was intended, it would puzzle the listener to know whether the reference was to moneyed suburbia or the Royal Observatory. More context might provide a clue. There's yet another possibility: I thought at once of the song, "Down in Dear Old Greenwich Village," collected in Frank Shay's entertaining book, _My Pious Friends and Drunken Companions_ . . . "the field for culture's tillage, where they wear no fancy frillage, where the spinsters come for thrillage," etc. A version can be seen online here: ullagegroup.com/ 2010/03/30/the-greenwich-village-epic/#more-154. - Baceseras.]

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