“SKEEVY”—A NEW REGIONALISM.

“SKEEVY”—A NEW REGIONALISM. Sager gives an example of a new regionalism: “Relatively new (that is, in the last 40 years), the term skeevy has arisen primarily in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey to describe something gross or dirty.” I feel I got in on the ground floor with this word. It was 40 years ago that I learned the word “to skeev” from the Neapolitan dialect—or perhaps the Benevento subdialect—of Mary Jane’s mother. It means to be disgusted by, and was derived from the formal Italian word “schifoso”, which is defined in this wiktionary.