The American Heritage Dictionary offers this regional note:
When need is used as the main verb, it can be followed by a present participle, as in The car needs washing, or by to be plus a past participle, as in The car needs to be washed. However, in some areas of the United States, especially western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio, many speakers omit to be and use just the past participle form, as in The car needs washed. This use of need with past participles is slightly more common in the British Isles, being particularly prevalent in Scotland.This use is also prevalent in downstate-Illinois speech. The sentence above, from an ad in the local newspaper, has the first "need + past participle" I've seen in print.
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Need worked
See, I'd always thought of it as an Idahoism because I'd never heard it before moving here. It makes me feel like an old-timer every time I use it myself (although I draw the line at "crick" for "creek").
ReplyDeleteI love it.
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