Pizen and Wizened

[DYER,SONIA (HP-Cupertino,ex1)]

Rob Klein wrote regarding "wizened":
"Is it possible, then,that the vowel varies from short to long in the
various geographical dialects 
of English throughout the World (as does the pronunciation of so many
words)?"

	Entirely possible.  However, as an American of English descent, I've
only heard the word pronounced with a short i, as in Kriton's assessment.
I've spent time in England and Canada, but can't recall the word ever coming
up, so I don't know how they pronounce it.  The only context the term seems
to be used in in American English, is as "a wizened little old man or
woman", meaning a small, old, shrunken person.  It wouldn't be used in
referring to, for example, a dried apple.  The word wizened doesn't get used
much.


Rob Klein also wrote: "I believe the "Pizen" element only was used to place
an element of "deadliness" in the name -NOT to imply poisened water, or so."

Gary Leach wrote ""Pizen" with a long "i" is in the patois of what is known
in the U.S. as "hillbilly", and he mentions the use of hillbilly patois as
traditionally depicted to be used by the Old Prospector type of character.
	
	As a decendant of hillbillies, and as a resident of the American
West (not far from Calisota, in fact), I can confirm what Gary says.  Much
of the American West is desert, and most of the desert has very alkaline
soil.  There are many stories from the Gold Rush days and later, of people
from wagon trains, cattle, horses, etc dying after drinking from "pizen
waterholes".  These weren't poisoned on purpose - it's just that the water
contained a great deal of alkaline chemicals dissolved from the ground, and
especially at a water hole where much of the water has already evaporated,
can be so concentrated as to actually kill you if you drink it.  You
wouldn't know from the taste that it was poisonous.  If you were nearly dead
from thirst already, you didn't bother to ask.  
	Most Old Prospectors (many of whom were from hillbilly stock)
survived because they knew which were the pizen waterholes and which were
the sweet (safe) waterholes, often learning such things from the Indians.
There are a number of places, like Sweetwater Texas, which got their name
from the reference to the safety of their drinking water.  On the other
hand, in some cases mining towns and gulches, as well as waterholes and
springs ended up with "Pizen" in their name, in reference to the site's
pizen water.  As Gary indicates, no "educated" person would use the word
pizen instead of the actual word poison.
	For the usage in the Pizen Bluff story, I always assumed Pizen was
used as a pun or double-entendre, to refer to two different things at the
same time - one being the nearby presence of naturally poisonous water, and
the other being the nearby presence of certain naturally poisonous people.
It definitely implies an element of deadliness and danger for the un-wary in
both interpretations.  The word Bluff can also mean two things - a cliff, or
to fool the unwary.	
	
	Sonia