The Facts on File Dictionary of American Regionalisms (Facts on File Library of American Literature)

the facts on file dictionary of

american regionalisms

the facts on file dictionary of

american regionalisms robert hendrickson

THE FACTS ON FILE DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN REGIONALISMS Copyright © 2000 by Robert Hendrickson All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. 11 Penn Plaza New York, NY 10001

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hendrickson, Robert, 1933– The Facts On File dictionary of American regionalisms/Robert Hendrickson. p. cm. ISBN 0-8160-4156-3 (hardcover: alk. paper) 1. Americanisms—Dictionaries. 2. English language—United States—Dictionaries. I. Title: Dictionary of American regionalisms. II. Title PE2835 .H46 2000 423'1—dc21

00-028808

Facts On File Books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonfile.com Text design by Erika K. Arroyo Cover design by Cathy Rincon Printed in the United States of America VB FOF 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper.

“I hear America singing . . . their strong melodious songs.” Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

For Marilyn

CONTENTS Acknowledgments

I. II. III.

Preface

ix

Whistlin’ Dixie: Southern Ways of Speech

1

Yankee Talk: New England Expressions

V. VI. VII. VIII.

165

Mountain Range: Words and Phrases from Appalachia to the Ozarks

IV.

viii

331

Happy Trails: Western Words and Sayings

423

New Yawk Tawk: New York City Expressions

585

Da Kine Talk: Hawaiian Dialect

693

Ferhoodled English: Pennsylvania Dutch Talk

721

More Odd Ways Americans Talk

751

Index

760

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A

invaluable, too, as have fascinating journals like Verbatim and Maledicta, and syndicated columns such as William Safire’s always edifying and entertaining On Language. I must also express my debt to the hundreds of novelists, playwrights, poets, newspaper columnists and other authors whose works have illuminated the speech of their native American regions. Finally, my heartfelt thanks go to the many friendly, hospitable people I’ve talked with in my extensive travels through these 50 states and who over the years have generously supplied me with so many of the words, phrases and stories recorded here. On a more personal note I’d like to thank my wife Marilyn for her immeasurable help and understanding. What to say? I could write a book, or a poem, or a song, but, considering space limitations, why not, quite appropriately, choose a regionalism? Limiting myself to the words and phrases recorded in these pages, I’d have to choose an old Southern expression: After all these years I still think you hung the Moon and the stars.

s noted throughout these pages, this book for the general reader owes much to the legion of dedicated dialectologists who have produced a large body of brilliant scholarly studies in a relatively infant field. I am indebted to hundreds of sources that I’ve consulted over the 20 years I’ve been writing about American dialects, especially to journals like American Speech and Dialect Notes; Mitford M. Mathews’s A Dictionary of Americanisms on Historical Principles; John Farmer’s Americanisms; the incomparable Oxford English Dictionary; Webster’s Third New International Dictionary; The Random House Dictionary of the English Language; H. L. Mencken’s The American Language; Harold Wentworth and Stuart Berg Flexner’s Dictionary of American Slang; J. E. Lighter’s unrivaled Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang (two volumes of which have been published); and the Dictionary of American Regional English, edited by Frederic G. Cassidy and Joan Houston Hall, which when completed will surely be among the greatest dictionaries in any language (three of the projected six huge volumes have been published to date). Scores of works about specific American dialects, such as Ramon Adams’s Western Words have proved

R. H. Peconic, New York

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tinue to thrive, but 35 years later another master of dialogue, with an ear second to none, warned that American dialects might not even endure. After a leisurely trip through the country, Erskine Caldwell reported in Afternoon in Mid-America that not only do too many Americans take their “point of view of events” from the morning and evening news, but American speech patterns also are beginning to sound like standardized network talk. “Radio and television are wiping out regional speech differences,” Caldwell wrote. “There is a danger in Big Brother, in having one voice that speaks for everybody.” Years after he wrote The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck, too, expressed a fear that American dialects were dying, reporting his observations in Travels with Charley (1962), an account of his attempt to rediscover America in a camper with his French poodle, Charley, as his only traveling companion: “It seemed to me that regional speech is in the process of disappearing, not gone but going. Forty years of radio and twenty years of television must have this impact. Communications must destroy localness, by a slow, inevitable process. . . . No region can hold out for long against the highway, the high-tension line, and the national television.” American dialects are holding on, though, hanging in there, as some people might express it in their dialect; as Steinbeck’s own Ma Joad says about her kind of hardy people, the traveler through these States senses that our dialects are “goin’ on—changin’ a little maybe, but goin’ right on”; they “ain’t gonna die out.” It isn’t likely that in the foreseeable future regional speech will become as uniformly flat and tasteless as commercial white bread. Local dialects are doubtless changing and some are becoming more alike, in the opinion of many authorities besides Steinbeck and Caldwell, but then these dialects have never been worlds apart, and anyone who travels widely in America can attest that they are still very much with us. There are speech experts who still claim, in fact, that they can pinpoint any American

his one-volume collection of all five books in the Facts On File series on American regional expressions is to my knowledge the only single-volume dictionary in print on American regionalisms. Designed to appeal to the general reader, it unites all the material in the original five books, including the introductions (slightly abridged). Each of the earlier five books constitutes a separate section in the new one-volume work, making it easier to use as a reference work than if the 20,000 or so total entries of all the books were alphabetized together. Thus the reader wanting to track down a Southern expression, or learn something about Southern dialect, can turn to the Whistlin’ Dixie section, where he or she will find an explanatory introduction plus a large representative selection of Southern words and phrases conveniently alphabetized in one place. In addition, this book includes a subject index, a number of new entries, and several new sections on other interesting American dialects not so widely spoken and not covered in the original series. My aim throughout has been to fashion an entertaining book, a “reader’s book” full of stories and interesting fact and fable about American regionalisms that will interest both browser and scholar, yet accurately include a large vocabulary sample and perhaps make a few scholarly contributions as well (including some regionalisms that haven’t been recorded anywhere else). Dialects, like languages themselves, are most simply different ways people have of speaking, and there are certainly many of them spoken in America today, no matter how uniform American speech might seem to have become. Midway through The Grapes of Wrath (1939) John Steinbeck has young Ivy remark: “Ever’ body says words different. Arkansas folks says ’em different, and Oklahomy folks says ’em different. And we seen a lady from Massachusetts an’ she said ’em differentest of all. Couldn’t hardly make out what she was sayin’.” Steinbeck seemed confident that our rich, vibrant, often poetic regional American talk would con-

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DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN REGIONALISMS

to within a hundred miles or so of where he or she lives by the way he or she talks. While some American dialects are being watered down by standardized network speech and the spread of literacy and education, not to mention the movies, the Internet, and vast improvements in transportation and travel, none has yet been lost, and recent investigations indicate that some of our regional dialects may well evolve into different dialects, with many of their old characteristics and many new ones, developments owing to the influence of important new changes. In the four centuries that English has been spoken in the United States, it has undergone an infinite variety of changes that show no sign of ending. Today these changes are strongly influenced by the babble of new accents heard throughout the land. Walk the streets of any of our cosmopolitan cities such as Miami and you will hear what British author and traveler Jan Morris called “tongues beyond number—a dozen kinds of Spanish for a start, a dozen kinds of American English, too, slithery Creole of Haiti, rustic dialects of Barbados or the Caymans, vibrant Rio Portuguese or British Honduran English, which seems to be a sort of Swedishaccented Australian.” Morris heard the ominous cry “Rungway rungway!” directed at her while driving through a poor section of Miami and thought people were cursing her—until she suddenly realized she was driving down a one-way street the wrong way. Many Americans have had similar dialect interpretation experiences, and I would guess that I have heard not dozens but hundreds of accents on and under New York streets, where it is often impossible not to eavesdrop. Thanks to integration, Black English (which is a nationwide dialect that varies from region to region) is heard in places where blacks never ventured before. The use of Spanish words and phrases proceeds at a rapid pace from New York to Texas and California. The times and nature of the language are a-changing as new ingredients pour into a melting pot still brewing the contributions of the tens of millions of immigrants who have arrived here since the first boatload on the Mayflower. One is reminded of Walt Whitman’s belief that “These states are the amplest poem, / Here is not merely a nation but a teeming nation of nations,” or Herman Melville’s judgment that “We are not a nation so much as a world.” Into the melting pot pour Hmong people from Laos, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos, Mexicans, Cubans, Dominicans, Jamaicans, Haitans, Soviet Jews, Indians, and scores of other nationalities. The enormous migration continues to alter the makeup of American life and language. The United States, a country that constantly reinvents itself, seems to be doing so at a faster rate than at any time in its history. In our big cities today, African-American schoolgirls might jump rope while chanting numbers in

Chinese; expressions like Ciao! or See you mañana issue from the mouths of children who have never studied Italian or Spanish; graffiti has been spotted in such languages as Farsi. From America’s Little Odessas, Little Havanas, Little Saigons, Koreatowns and all the other foreignlanguage bastions across the country are bound to come new words and accents that will couple with American English and contribute to its new forms, however subtly. There are many indications that this is happening now. A new dialect called Spanglish already has developed. Sociolinguist Roger Shuy of Georgetown University believes that “an extensive modification of vowel sounds is now taking place in the Northeast that presages a vowel shift as dramatic as the vowel shifts of the Middle Ages,” a period when Chaucerian English evolved into Shakespearean English. Others say that changes in American pronunciation and vocabulary will be as striking as the changes that evolved between Shakespeare’s day and the 20th century. As we change, our speech changes. No one seems to be able to get a collar on the rough slippery best of American dialect, much less catch and cage the shifty chameleon as it slouches down Route 66 toward Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and every other city, town and hamlet in the States, seeding and fertilizing the American language as it has for 20 generations, making it “a new thing under the sun,” as Steinbeck wrote to a friend toward the end of his life, a new thing “with an ease and a flow and a tone and a rhythm unique in all the world.” It is no wonder that American dialect study can be no paradigm of scholarship. But that holds true for the dialect study of any living language, despite all our tape recorders, computers and linguistic laboratories. Intrepid scholars do their best with the beast, yet they can only be infinitely patient with our infinite changing variety. There is no general accord on the definition, but a dialect can be broadly defined as one of the varieties of a language arising from local peculiarities of pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and idiom. In other countries there may be such critters as “proper, standard dialect”; in England, for example, proper standard speech is that used by educated Londoners, variously called London English, BBC English, the King’s English, the Oxford accent, Southern English Standard and, most commonly, Received Standard. But in our own growing democracy there is no national support for any standardized speech, neither the General American that is used by radio and television announcers, nor, as is discussed in these pages at some length, the so-called Harvard accent of Boston. Americans are quite aware that we speak in different ways from one another, even if only subtly so, but for the most part, traditions of democratic individualism and strong local cultural traditions

PREFACE have staved off any attempt by dictionary worshipers to foster a standard language or a national academy that would determine correct word usages and pronunciations. If someone says greezy for greasy, as both educated and uneducated people do in southern Illinois, they are no better than the educated and uneducated speakers who pronounce greasy as greecy in the northern part of that state. Linguist Raven I. McDavid Jr. told of how his stodgy college professors, literally interpreting the pronunciations indicated in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, fifth edition, criticized his educated South Carolinian pronunciation of the word American; McDavid pointed out that there are at least five regional pronunciations, one as good as the other, these including the second syllable with the vowel of hurry; with the vowel of hat; with the vowel of hit; with the vowel of hate; and with the vowel of put. There is no all-American pronunciation of American. Similarly, many provincial Americans voted against what H. L. Mencken sarcastically called “the caressing rayon voice” of the politician Wendell Willkie because the Hoosier pronounced “American” as Amurrican; chose Herbert Hoover over Alfred E. Smith because Smith said raddio; got Henry Wallace in trouble south of the Potomac in 1946 for using the term the common man, which is regarded there as a term of contempt. Some Spokanians voted against John F. Kennedy because he pronounced their city’s name Spokane (to rhyme with cane) instead of Spoke-ann. Geraldine Ferraro’s New York accent may well have cost her votes in her bid for the vice presidency. One dialect is distinguished from another by pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar (including word construction, syntax and slang). Besides regional or geographical dialects, dialectologists recognize social or class accents, including Black English and blue-collar speech; most regional dialects include two or three such social dialects. Little work has been done on the dialects of age and sex groups; old people, for example, often use words and pronunciations outmoded in a region, and women tend to use words like lovely and darling more than men, who are generally more blasphemous and employ fewer modifiers and more slang. One study shows that where women more often say trousers, china and houseguests, men say pants, dishes and visitors. Young people, on the other hand, are even more imitative than TV newscasters in aping the speech of the more successful among them, such as popular singers, who, in turn, have been tremendously influenced by Southern white or black speech patterns. Word pronunciation is an excellent way of identifying American regional accents, but regional vocabulary is clearly the most interesting method. The different regional names for objects is among the most entertaining aspects of dialectology. Collectors have found, for

xi

example, that the famed hero sandwich of New York, named for its heroic size (not for Charles Lindbergh or any other hero), has at least 11 different names in other regions. In New Orleans, similar huge sandwiches on split loaves of French (not Italian) bread are poor boys (po’boys) because they were first given to New Orleans beggars in the late 19th century. Heroes are called hoagies in Philadelphia and thereabouts, submarines in Pittsburgh, grinders in Boston (you need a good set of grinders to chew them), torpedoes in Los Angeles, Cuban sandwiches in Miami, wedgies in Rhode Island, Garabaldis (after the Italian liberator) in Wisconsin and bombers and rockets in other places. In my own travels, I have found basic differences in common food names over distances of less than 100 miles. In New York City, for example, small red-skinned potatoes, the first of the season, are generally called new potatoes. Travel less than 100 miles east, out to Long Island’s North Fork, and these sometimes become salad potatoes, probably because they are used in potato salad. The signs pitching “Lobster and Salt Potato— Only $6.95” along the Boston Post Road in Connecticut, less than 50 miles away across Long Island Sound, puzzled me until I learned that the red-skinned potatoes are so called because they are cooked in salted water. Other discombobulating twists in the way Americans talk include the various words used regionally for the kiddie seesaw, which can be, among other terms, a teeter board, a tippity bounce, a cock horse, a dandle, a hicky horse, a tilting boar and a teeter totter. A sofa, similarly, can be a couch, a settee, a davenport, an ottoman, a settle and a daybed, while the living room where it sits can be the big room, the front room, the parlor or the chamber. The candy flecks, usually chocolate, that ice-cream cones are dipped into are called sprinkles in New York, but jimmies, for some unknown reason, in New England; in other locales they are called nonpareils, sparkles, dots, shots and even ants. Soda in New York is pop in the Midwest, tonic in Boston and dope in the South. American kids playing hide-and-goseek often shout Olly-olly-oxen-free or Home-free-all when beating the “It” to base, but Olly-olly-in-comefree is a variation. Ohio kids shout Bee-bee-bumble-beeeverybody-in-free and Montana kids for some reason, or perhaps no reason, shout King’s X! Even when Americans use the same words, regional pronunciations add variety. In the state of Washington a skid row is a skid road; in Salt Lake City you praise the Lard and put the lord in the refrigerator, while in the Bay Area of California et cetera is essetera, a realtor is a realator, hierarchy is high arky and temperature is tempature. There are also at least 175 different ways in which people describe heavy rains, from It’s raining cats and dogs (national) to It’s raining pitchforks and angle-

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worms (Michigan), It’s raining pitchforks and barn shovels (Maine) and It’s raining pitchforks and bullyearlings (Texas, of course). A heavy rain is called a dam-buster in Alabama, a leak-finder in Wisconsin, a million-dollar rain (beneficial to crops) and ditchworker in Illinois, a tree-bender in Massachusetts, a sewer-clogger in Michigan, a mud-sender in California, a gully-maker in Ohio, a gutter-washer in Georgia, a stump washer in South Carolina and a gully-washer in 33 states. Other terms include a goose-drowner, a toadstrangler and a duck-drencher. American dialects, specifically the New England dialect, first came to the attention of British writers at about the time of the American Revolution. Most observers pointed out the relative freedom of early American English from dialects, remarking that the differences in speech among Americans were far less than those found in Britain and other countries. This can be attributed mainly to the mobility of Americans, who were constantly mingling with each other and homogenizing one another’s speech. The Reverend John Witherspoon, the Scottish president of Princeton who coined the word Americanism, remarked in 1781 that the American common people, “being much more unsettled, and moving frequently from place to place . . . are not so liable to local peculiarities either in accent or phraseology.” Another explanation for the early comparative uniformity of American speech was suggested by a London editor in 1783: “[People] had assembled in America from various quarters [parts of Great Britain] and in consequence of their intercourse and intermarriages, soon dropped the peculiarities of their several provincial idioms, retaining only what was fundamental and common to them all; a process which the . . . universality of school-learning in North America must naturally have assisted.” But, subtle though they might be and slight compared to those of many other languages, there were regional dialects in America at the time these writers insisted there were none. The New England and Southern dialects had already been acknowledged, and dialects in other regions were fast developing prior to 1800. As time passed and remote regions of the country were settled, differences became more pronounced. By 1861, William Howard Russell of the London Times, reporting on a state dinner given by Abraham Lincoln a few weeks before the start of the Civil War, could observe: “There was a Babel of small talk around the table, in which I was surprised to find a diversity of accent almost as great as if a number of foreigners had been speaking English.” There were several reasons for dialects developing faster at this time, principally that forms of transportation and communication were still

crude and slow, making for less contact between people from diverse areas than when areas of settlement were closer together. Though most Americans could easily understand each other, regional language was more distinct during the first half of the 19th century than at any other time in our history. With improved forms of transportation and communication these differences began to iron out again toward the end of the 20th century, but, as amply attested here, American dialects did not disappear and are not by any means dying. Estimates of the number of present-day American dialects range anywhere from a basic three (New England, Southern and the all-inclusive General American) to 24 or so, and hundreds more if one includes the relatively small number of unique words and ways of speech heard solely in individual towns and cities. American dialects originated in several ways, but the traditional theory holds that they were born through the settlement of people speaking different dialects of British English, so that the British dialect spoken by the most immigrants to a region became the basis for the dialect of that region. An exception to this may be the widely spoken General American dialect of the Midwest and Far West, which was settled by people from many other parts of the American colonies and territories speaking different regional dialects, as well as by many immigrants from foreign countries who spoke no English at all. Here pronunciation very likely followed the rule of schoolteachers in “sounding out” words by syllables. The dominant General American dialect that most of the TV networks use as a standard was probably born in the one-room schoolhouse. General American technically includes at least six dialects and many subdialects and subsubdialects. A large number of these dialects are represented here, along with the New England and Southern dialects, some 25 at least touched upon in these pages. General American thus extends from coast to coast, covering all areas that do not come under the New England or Southern dialects. While there are differences among the dialects General American encompasses, all have much in common, and because future exhaustive studies may show that they should indeed be treated as one dialect, the term General American dialect hasn’t been completely abandoned yet, despite protests that it is a “prescientific concept.” It seems very likely that if there weren’t such a convenient term, one would have to be invented. All of the dialects comprising General American are characterized by the retention of a strong r sound in all positions of words: that is, car is pronounced caR, and hard is haRD; this r is never rolled or trilled. Another General American characteristic is the use of the flat a, never shaded to ah, in such words as class, brass, grass,

PREFACE dance, fast, ask, can’t, path and half. This makes for the monotonous nasal quality many British critics complain of in American speech; whether or not it was brought over from England, as some writers suggest, seems incapable of proof. Compared with other American dialects, General American delivery is rather monotonous in the average speaker, the tendency to stress syllables not as prevalent as it is in other regions. Among many other differences, General American speakers often drop the verb or auxiliary verb in such sentences as Is this your mail?, which becomes This your mail?, and adjectives are frequently preferred to adverbs, as in He ran quick—but these and most of their grammatical errors or preferences are common in all regions of the country. General American speakers also favor certain words, such as string bean instead of snap bean, earthworm instead of angleworm, skillet instead of frying pan and creek instead of brook or branch, but vocabulary varies among the dialects and subdialects of General American and these same terms are often preferred in other regions. Though not standardized American English, General American is spoken by far more Americans than any other dialect. It is heard, in one slightly modified form or another, in such states and parts of states as Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, California, Alaska and Hawaii. Many of the outstanding dialects

xiii

and subdialects of these areas, such as the Texas or Western drawl and Brooklynese, will be frequently referred to and used for purposes of comparison throughout these pages as the dialect spoken by twothirds of all Americans over four-fifths of the United States. It should be stressed again, however, that General American is not a standard that should be aspired to; it is only mentioned so often here for purposes of comparison. The General American dialect here is considered neither the acrolect (from the Greek acro, “topmost”), the highest level of speech, nor the basilect, the lowest level. The truth is that everybody in the United States (and anywhere else) speaks a dialect, that there are no “illogical” or “unsystematic” dialects, that no dialect is a “corrupt” version of a standard language, and that while some dialects carry more prestige than others, one is as good as another, none is inherently inferior—each dialect has its place in the procession and our diversity is the main strength of our language. “A good standard,” wrote Cornell professor C. K. Thomas 60 years ago, “is a national growth, not a manufactured article, and attempts to improve upon this standard (in dictionaries, academies or the like) are like attempts to graft wings on human shoulders; in other words, the voice of the people, in the last analysis, must decide and determine the voice of the people.” The only thing even approximating a standard in America is the speech of the best or most educated speakers of a region. No one has ever found (or probably will find) the “perfect,” “proper” or “natural” speech.

I WHISTLIN’ DIXIE: SOUTHERN WAYS OF SPEECH

S

outherners were proud of their accents and distinctive vocabulary even before that fiery statesman John Randolph of Virginia, known for his sharp, biting soprano tongue on the floors of the House and Senate, actually fought a duel over the pronunciation of a word. But then Randolph of Roanoke was widely known for his eccentricity, which some say deteriorated to dementia in his later years. Better for an alien without the slightest trace of a Southern accent to contend at the outset that “South Mouth,” despite all the fun made of it, is the most charming of American dialects. It is, in the words of Anatole Broyard, “an attempt, at least in part, to find and keep the music in the American language, in some cases almost to sing it”—even if there’s a lot of unintentional humor in it, too. There surely is a royal sound to Southern speech at its most eloquent, perhaps because, as one nameless South Georgian says, “It’s the closest thang on God’s green earth to the King’s natchul English.” Linguist Lee A. Pederson of Atlanta’s Emory University, who specializes in Southern dialects, agrees that there is truth in the anonymous claim. “The North,” he says, “was largely settled by immigrants who learned English as a second language and were heavily dependent on the written word. Southerners, on the other hand, have always relied on the spoken word. In that respect, Southern speech is closer to the native speech of England, and often to Elizabethan England. It is a much more sensitive and effective medium of communication than Northern speech, for the most part, because it is so rooted in the spoken word.” Southern dialect is extremely varied, and many linguists divide it into smaller dialects. Some experts call its major divisions the Mountain (covered separately here in Part III), the Plains, and the Coastal dialects, but others opt for the Mountain dialect plus the three classifications below: •

•

•

in some northern sections of the Shenanadoah Valley. South Carolina Low Country, spoken in an area extending from northeastern South Carolina’s Pee Dee River to northeastern Florida, also is found along the river valleys of the Deep South as far inland as Columbia, South Carolina, and Augusta, Georgia. General Southern Lowland, which is spoken by more than 60 million people in the Southern lowland (outside the mountains, South Carolina and the Tidewater) and including at least parts of 16 states: Maryland, West Virginia, Delaware, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, southern Illinois, southern Ohio, southern Indiana and all but southeast Texas.

In addition, there are the East Texas dialect; local dialects with Charleston, Baltimore, and New Orleans as focal points; and, especially, Southern dialects like Cajun, Creole, Conch and Gullah, from all of which there are abundant vocabulary examples given here or in Part VIII. Local dialect subspecies thrive in the South. One study lists some 13 separate Southern subdialects. Elsewhere it has been noted that former President Jimmy Carter’s accent isn’t merely Southern but Gulf Coastal Plain. What’s more, it appears that his home state, Georgia, includes not only the Gulf Coastal Plain dialect but also smaller dialects called Carolina Mountain, AlabamaTennessee Low Country, Northern and Southern Piedmont, Atlantic Coastal Plain and Thomaston-Valdosta. Charlestonians are particularly proud of their distinctive accent, which they describe as possessing “a smattering of Old English, a sea-island lilt and soft Southern tones.” Older Charlestonians are sometimes taken for Britains or Scots. Lord Ashley Cooper, the pen name of Frank Gilbrith, author of Cheaper by the Dozen and a columnist for The News and Courier, compiled a pamphlet called A Dictionary of Charlestonese “to assist sloppy talkers from other sections of the country to understand Charlestonians.” He defines cholmondely (pronounced chumley) as “the brick thing on a

Virginia Tidewater, a pleasing, soft dialect with little nasalization, has long been associated with the most aristocratic of Southerners. It prevails along the coast from the Delaware-Maryland-Virginia peninsula to South Carolina, with speakers found in Charlottesville and Richmond, Virginia, as well as 3

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Whistlin’ Dixie

roof that lets out smoke,” ho ho, ho as “three ladies of the evening,” poet as “pour it,” version as “the kind of queen Elizabeth I was” and tin sin stow as “the foive and doyme.” When I visited Charleston I heard the name of his newspaper (The News and Courier) pronounced as The Newsand Korea! The Cajun and Creole dialects constitute two French dialects spoken in Louisiana (Loozeeanna). The third, Gumbo, is also a dialect of the French language rather than English; it was the pidgin French of the blacks transported as slaves to New Orleans from Senegal in colonial times and is spoken by relatively few people today. Cajun takes its name from Acadia, the former French province centered on Nova Scotia, from which the British expelled the Acadians, or Cajuns, in 1755, deporting those who did not pledge allegiance to Britain, about 4,000 of whom settled in the region around St. Martinville in southwestern Louisiana. Deportees were officially designated French, but they were usually called Acadians, this word pronounced Cadian by 1868 and finally Cajun. The sufferings of the expulsion are, of course, described by Longfellow in Evangeline (1847), familiar to generations of American schoolchildren. But the Cajuns endured and soon were maintaining a separate folk culture, including their own dialect, which has been declining in use since the end of World War I, although it is still heard in the area. The Cajun’s name for the dialect they speak is Bougalie (bogue talk). Bogue and, of course, bayou come ultimately from the Choctaw word bayuk (creek), which the Creoles and Cajuns got from the local Indians. The picturesque Cajun dialect retains archaic French forms, and the Cajuns use a great number of French words in their speech, including the common and very useful oui (yes), mais (but), mais non! (no!), bien (good), grand (tall), m’sieu (mister), demoiselle (miss), comment? (how?), pardon (pardon me), adieu (goodbye), and cherie (dear). To such words and phrases are added English, Spanish, German, Native American and black American expressions and inflections accumulated over the years in Cajun country, which primarily includes the Louisiana parishes of Acadia, Evangeline, Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, Iberia, Jefferson Davis, Lafayette, St. Landry, St. Martin and St. Mary. Black American pronunciation is notable in Cajun speech in such words as aks (ask), sho’n-nuf (sure enough), ehf (if), jis (just), haw (horror), git (get), yoh (your), uh (of), ayg (egg) and uh mehs uh (a mess of). In this respect Cajun differs from Creole speech, which shows little black influence. The Creoles, descendants of the French who first colonized New Orleans, did not at first associate with blacks and Indians as the more democratic Cajuns did. The word Creole comes from the French creole, meaning “a native.” By the end of the 18th century, however, Creole began to be applied to

black slaves of the Creoles as well as to themselves, was next applied to a black person with any French or Spanish blood, then came to mean a native-born black as opposed to a black born in Africa. By the middle of the 19th century, Creole described any Louisianan, with the state of Louisiana dubbed the “Creole State.” The word is a confusing one that can be defined only in the context in which it is being used, for creole also means a pidgin language spoken by a second generation of speakers, and in Alaska of the late 1860s it even meant a native of mixed Russian and Indian ancestry. Cajun speakers tend to repeat proper names in sentences, as in “He bring Paul, but Paul, Paul he drown, Paul.” What a standard English speaker might call “grammatical errors” also enhance Cajun speech, probably giving it its peculiar flavor more than any other single feature, as these common expressions show: • • • • • • • • • • • •

For why you ask me? He been try make me mad. You see ma cow down by bayou, you push him home, yes. What for she call? He be gone tree day now—yesterday, today and tomorrow. I don’t got but ten cents, me. His horse more better as that. She the bestest child. Us, we can go. I don’t see those girl. I ain’t got noplace to go. He don’t got no more better boat.

Creole speakers traditionally had more education than Cajuns, and Creole doesn’t contain as many grammatical “errors” as Cajun, though there is a tendency in Creole speech to omit auxiliary verbs, as in “She going fall soon” (“She is going to fall soon”), to use the present tense instead of the past (“Who tell you that?”) and to use plural for singular verbs (“Those man are coming”), among other peculiarities. Generally, Creole vowel and consonant differences approximate those of Cajun, with several important differences (such as the soft pronunciation of r), and the French words and phrases Creole uses are very similar to those used in Cajun. The French accent is heard among some Creole speakers, especially in New Orleans, but Southern-type speakers in Louisiana are mostly free of French influence. Today, very few young people speak Cajun fluently, and many speak none at all. Traditionally a spoken language and not a written one, it has in recent years become a language of the old, causing a steady erosion of Cajun culture and language. But Monsignor Jules Daigle, an 85-year-old Roman Catholic priest from Welsh, Louisiana, in late 1984 published the first Cajun

Introduction dictionary, a 650-page volume that reflects a lifetime of studying the language in the Cajun community he served. Southern dialect—no matter how many subdialects such as Cajun or Creole it is composed of—is generally heard south and east of an imaginary line traced along the Maryland-Virginia northern boundary, along West Virginia’s southern boundary, then along the Ohio River and past the Mississippi (including southern Missouri) and finally down through southeastern Oklahoma and East Texas. Here South Mouth prevails and indeed has held out better than any major dialect against the encroachment of the General-American Middle Western speech that has been the darling of radio and television announcers for the past half-century. Although large migrations from the North in recent times threaten to homogenize the South, especially in growing urban areas like Atlanta, it appears certain that there will remain large pockets of resistance where the Southern dialect will prevail for many years. Certainly it will also be heard in the works of our best writers, so many of whose voices have always been framed in the inflections of the South. Southern talk, like that of New England, began as a type of speech basically southeastern English in nature. More than half of the colonists in the Virginia colony, for example, hailed from the southern part of England. Puritans, royalists, soldiers, indentured servants and transported criminals (like Defoe’s fictional Moll Flanders, “twelve year a whore . . . twelve year a thief, eight year a transported felon in Virginia”) all formed part of this largely uneducated group, whose speech among the religious often had a whine added, possibly to connote a superior piety. Some speech patterns were established early on; for example, the scholar Schele de Vere claimed that Southern disregard for the letter r should be charged to “the guilty forefathers, many of whom came from Suffolk and the districts belonging to the East Anglians.” “Proper” London English of the 18th century influenced Tidewater Southern speech more than that of most American regions for the obvious reason that these Southerners (like Bostonians and New Yorkers) were from earliest times in closer contact with England than were other parts of the country. This contact led the wealthy gentry in the region to ape fashionable Londoners down to their way of talking, a habit that remained long after their days of glory and one that, in turn, was copied from them by the plainer folk. But while Southern seaport and plantation-owner speech was largely modeled on London English, inland speech had little chance of blending into a broad regional usage because of cultural isolation, thus resulting in the great diversity of local usages in the area. Nevertheless, the aristocrats of the South made their own (and made a large part of the region’s) such upper-class English speech as

5

jin (join), pisen (poison), varmint (vermin), gwine (going), starling (sterling), widder (widow), piller (pillow), winder (window) and varsity (university). Some critics contend that the Southern accent is distinctive solely because the region was settled from England’s southwestern counties, but this seems unlikely. Although the dialect of the southeastern English counties has many similarities, Southern speech doesn’t possess its most conspicuous features, neither is there any strong evidence that the South was settled by people from England’s southwest. It does appear likely that distinctive features of black speech, different from any English dialect, have influenced Southern speech to some extent, given the enormous population of African Americans in the area and the closeness of blacks and whites on plantations, especially children, who often played together (some black children were indeed designated “play children” for the whites). On the other hand, white speech probably influenced black speech in the area even more. In general, Southern dialect is best characterized by a slower enunciation than is common in most of the country, combined with the gliding or diphthongization of stressed vowels. This so-called Southern drawl results in pronunciations like yea-yis for “yes,” ti-ahm for “time”, I-ah for “I,” fi-ahn for “fine,” a-out for “out,” tyune for “tune” and nyu for “new.” The final consonants (particularly d, l, r and t) following such slow, drawling vowel sounds are often weakened, resulting in such characteristic Southern pronunciations as hep for “help,” mo for “more,” yo for “your,” po for “poor,” flo for “floor,” kep for “kept,” nex for “next,” bes for “best,” sof for “soft” and las for “last.” Southern speech is also noted for being more melodious and various than other dialects because the vowels are long-embraced. If fully 72 human muscles are required in speaking one word, as physiologists say, it certainly seems that Southerners often employ considerably fewer in tawking so dif’runt. The Southern drawl, which makes it possible to deliver a sentence in twice as much time as in any other accent, is most noticeable at the end of a sentence or before a pause and has been ridiculed on the stage and screen in such phrases as nice white rice—lazily pronounced nigh-yes why-ut rye-is, something no elegant Southerner would do. Southern expressions color the works of our best Southern novelists, ranging from a rubber-nosed woodpecker in a petrified forest (an incompetent) to as mad as a rooster in an empty henhouse and don’t get crosslegged (don’t lose your temper). Most of these haven’t become nationally known despite their charm—often, one guesses, because they are too countrified and relaxed for our increasingly urbanized frenetic republic. Though it is hard to generalize about Southern grammatical peculiarities, which vary with a South-

6

Whistlin’ Dixie

erner’s education and regional heritage, differences from General American are heard frequently. The familiar and still fashionable use of such verb phrases, or double modals, as might could and used to could by educated Southerners is practically unique in America. American Speech editor Ronald R. Butters noted a linguistic feature “by which you can always detect a Southerner if you wait long enough” because he or she invariably inserts the word to shortly after have when asking questions like “Shall I have him to call you?” Many other peculiarities are noted throughout these pages. Millions of Southerners say scat instead of gesundheit or God bless you after someone sneezes. (People in Arkansas, it is said, prefer scat six to one.) A woman who refuses a proposal of marriage from a man turns him in the cold or puts him on the funny side in Kentucky, gives him the go-by in South Carolina and rings him off in Georgia. A South Carolinian will say outen the light for turn off the light, but cut off the light is more generally heard throughout the South. A fussbudget is generally a fussbox south of the Mason-Dixon line, and Mom is usually Mamma. Older Southerners sometimes say everwhat for “whatever” and everwho for “whoever,” while their a gracious plenty means “enough.” Southerners have their groceries packed in a sack or poke instead of a bag, call a small stream or brook a creek or run and call laurel what Northerners generally know as rhododendron. In West Virginia a big party is a belling. Southerners call a jalopy a rattletrap and tend to say they are wore out or about to give out when tired. They often use the conjunctive which in a confusing way, according to Ronald Butters, who cites: “The President was not happy with the results of the election, which I couldn’t be happier about that.” Southerners also like to say drug for “dragged.” William Faulkner had some fun with this usage in The Town (1957): Ratliff looked at me a while. “For ten years now . . . I been . . . trying to . . . teach myself words right. And, just when I call myself about to learn and I begin to feel a little good over it, here you come . . . correcting me back to what I been trying for ten years to forget.” “I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean it that way. It’s because I like the way you say it. When you say it, ‘taken’ sounds a heap more took than just ‘took’ just like ‘drug’ sounds a heap more dragged than just ‘dragged.’” “And not just you neither,” Ratliff said. “Your uncle too: me saying ‘dragged’ and him saying ‘drug’ and me saying ‘dragged’ and him saying ‘drug’ again, until at last he would say, ‘In a free country like this, why ain’t I got as much right to use your drug for my dragged as you got to use my dragged for say ‘drug?’” “All right,” I said. “Even if he drug her back.” “—even if he drug, dragged, drung—You see?” he

said. “Now you done got me so mixed up until even I don’t know which one I don’t want to say.’”

One persistent old joke has The War to Suppress Yankee Arrogance, one of the 20 or so Southern names for the Civil War recorded in these pages, caused by a dialect difference. It seems that three high-ranking Northern generals stomped into a Washington, D.C. bar and shouted, “We want a bottle right away!” A Southern spy overheard them and breathlessly reported to General P. G. T. Beauregard: “Top Union generals want a bottle right away!” Chivalrous Beauregard obliged, leaving the evening’s quadrille in Montgomery and proceeding to Charleston, South Carolina where he gave them the bottle (or battle) of Fort Sumter. In a serious vein, it is interesting to note that Southerners sometimes don’t understand their own compatriots. It is said that on September 19, 1902, in Birmingham, Alabama the cry of “fight!” was mistaken for “fire!” and 78 people were killed in the resulting panic. A real Southerner will drawl and say sho’nuff, honeychile, and y’all, and he or she will also tend to accent only the first syllable of each word, giving us pronunciations like po-lice, At-lanta, and in-come. Despite their ain’ts, however, educated Southern speakers often take great care in not talking like their compatriots, especially regarding exaggerated speech characteristics that have become the butt of Southern jokes. No honeychiles or sho-nuffs for them, unless he or she is putting you on. Another Southern peculiarity is the use of ain’t among cultured speakers. Raven I. McDavid Jr. pointed out in American Speech that during interviews he made “nearly every cultural informant . . . in South Carolina and Georgia used ain’t at some time during the interview. In fact, one of the touchstones often used by Southerners to distinguish the genuine cultured speaker from the pretenders is that the latter are too socially insecure to know the proper occasions for using ain’t, the double negative, and other such folk forms, and hence avoid them altogether.” Then again, some educated people in other regions use ain’t I? in place of am I not?, or use the aren’t I? acceptable in England. Southerners are often a genteel breed much given to euphemisms about sexual matters. Aristocratic Southerners could indeed be quite contemptuous about sex, giving more lip service to chivalrous love. When a fellow congressman chided the fiery John Randolph about his impotence, he shot back in his shrill voice: “Sir, you boast of an ability in which any slave is your equal and every jackass your superior.” Two redundancies frequently heard that illustrate the Southerner’s predilection for extravagant language are in a manner (“She acts like she’s rarin’ in a manner

Introduction 7 to go”) and standin’ in need of (“I’m standin’ in need of a stiff drink”). There are hundreds more usages often heard in the South and never or rarely heard in other parts of the country. A used-to-be is Southern for a “has-been”, dinner can be the Southern noon (not nightly) meal; airish means “drafty”; and bad to means “inclined to” (“When he gets drunk, he’s bad to get in trouble”). Like all dialects, South Mouth differs widely within the region. The Southern dialect for son-of-a-bitch, for example, can range from summumabitch to sum bitch, with infinite variations. A very distinct pronunciation heard nowhere else in the South is heard (if rarely now) among older citizens of Memphis, Tennessee who will tell you them are from Mimphis, Tinnissee. The differences are not only geographic and can even extend to Southern nationality groups. In his book A Highly Ramified Tree, Robert Canzoneri wrote of how his family mixed the lingua franca of Sicily with a Southern accent on settling in Mississippi. This resulted in an invented tongue sometimes all their own with almost incomprehensible rhythms like July gots? (“Do you like apricots?”) and Jugo Marilla tax? (“Did you go by way of Amarillo, Texas?”) Vocabulary is also strikingly different in various parts of the South. Nowhere but in the Deep South is the Indian-derived bobbasheely, which William Faulkner employed in The Reivers, used for “a very close friend,” and only in Northern Maryland does manniporchia (from the Latin mania a potu, “craziness from drink”) means the D.T.’s (delirium tremens). Small tomatoes would be called tommytoes in the mountains, (tommytoes in East Texas, salad tomatoes in the plains area, and cherry tomatoes along the coast). Depending upon where you are in the South a large porch can be a veranda, piazza, or gallery; a burlap bag can be a tow sack, crocus sack, or grass sack; pancakes can be flittercakes, fritters, corncakes, or battercakes; a harmonica can be a mouth organ or French harp; a closet can be a closet or a locker; and a wishbone can be a wishbone or pulley bone. There are hundreds of synonyms for a cling peach (green peach, pickle peach, etc.), kindling wood (lightning wood, lighted knots) and a rural resident (snuff chewer, kicker, yahoo). Notable differences occur in grammar, too. In some Southern dialect areas, for example, uneducated speakers will say clum for the past tense of climb, while in Virginia some uneducated speakers say clome (“He clome the tree”). In this case many Southerners are closer in speech to uneducated speakers in Midland dialect areas,

who also use clum, than they are to their fellow Southerners in Virginia. In parts of the Deep South, people pronounce bird boid, girl goil, word woid, earth oith, oil earl (all is an alternate pronunciation in some Southern parts) and murder moider—just as they do in Brooklyn. The rcolored vowel of these words and others is followed by a short i sound, which is somewhat inaccurately but traditionally represented as oi in dialect writing, and the pronunciation is not considered substandard where it is used. Of all the major American dialects, South Mouth is the most consistently difficult to translate. Among the most amusing examples is the expression a fade barn that the editors of the Dictionary of American Regional English tried to track down for a couple of years. The editors knew that the expression existed because field interviews had recorded it in North Carolina without establishing its meaning. When a Raleigh newspaper joined in the search, the answer was quickly apparent. Dozens of correspondents chided the editors for not knowing, in the words of one North Carolinian, that “a fade barn is whar you stow fade (feed) for the livestock.” Some pure South Mouth is becoming widespread. I’ve often heard the expression He’s three bricks shy of a load and variations on it for someone not too bright. The term to fall out is principally a Southern expression meaning “to faint” but today is also heard in communities as far north as northern Wisconsin, northern Indiana and southeastern Pennsylvania. Similarly, to tote is a Southernism now heard in all other regions, as is to carry in the sense of to transport or escort (a guest being carried out to lunch or dinner instead of taken out). Despite the increased mobility of Americans and the homogenization of speech by television, it doesn’t appear likely that Southern speech will be quietly erased from the American tape, for it is too widespread and deeply rooted in the past. There may be fewer and fewer Senator Claghorns as time goes by, but the sweet sound of the extended ou diphthong will be with us for a long time. Southerners who employ one syllable where three or four could be used will be suspect throughout Dixie for many years to come. Who knows, perhaps the lazy or relaxed rhythms of Southern speech will even become the national mode within the next century or so, if temperatures go up due to the greenhouse effect and the whole country gets as hot as Mississippi, in which case the thousands of entries that follow raht cheer (right here) may well become essential for survival.

A a In Southern speech a often replaces the indefinite article an, as in “I’ll be there in a hour.”

ABC store A liquor store run by the Alcoholic Beverage Control agency in several Southern states.

Aaron’s rod A tall smooth-stemmed herb with yellow flowers (Thermopsis caroliniana) found from North Carolina to Georgia and named after the biblical Aaron’s rod, which miraculously blossomed and produced almonds.

Abe Lincoln bug Anti-Lincoln feelings died hard in the South after the Civil War, as the name of this little bug shows. Because of its extremely bad odor and destructive habits, Southerners, especially Georgians, called the harlequin cabbage bug (Murgantia histrionica) after their hated adversary, President Lincoln. According to one old dictionary, the bug gets both its more common name and its Latin nomenclature from “the gay, theatrical, harlequin-like manner in which its black and orange-yellow colors are arranged upon its body.”

A-B-Abs The simple ABCs of the Southern schoolroom; the basics or the most elementary knowledge of anything, as in “He don’t know a letter of his A-B-Abs” [he’s stupid]. The expression is also used in New England. Synonyms are abb and ebb, B-A-Bas and abiselfa.

abide To endure, stand or tolerate, usually in the negative sense, as in “I can’t abide him.” Mark Twain used this expression, which is now common nationally and has been considered standard American English since at least 1930.

aback Behind, as in “His house is aback the others”; also used to mean ago: “It happened ten years aback.” aback of A variant of ABACK also meaning “behind,” as in “His house is aback of the others.”

able Wealthy; powerful, influential. Once a fairly common expression, able in this sense is rarely heard even in the mountains of the South today. The word dates back at least to 1578, where it appears in a Scottish song. In his famous diary, Samuel Pepys writes of “the child of a very able citizen in Gracious Street.”

abanded Abandoned, as in “That building was abanded.” The word derives from the obsolete aband, a contraction of abandon that also means “to forsake or banish.” First recorded in 1559, it was later used by the English poet Edmund Spenser. abasicky (pronounced a-bah-sicky) A children’s expression of unknown origin roughly meaning “Naughty! Naughty! Shame on you!” Children frequently taunt others with it, repeating the word while rubbing their right index finger over the left index finger in the old “Shame, shame!” gesture.

abouten A form of about. “How abouten them bootses?” writes Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings in her novella Jacob’s Ladder (1931), set in Florida’s hummock country. John Faulkner uses the expression in Men Working (1941), set in Mississippi.

abb and ebb

abouts

See A-B-ABS. 8

Nearby. “I found it along abouts here.”

adays 9 about to die Someone about to die is a person taken suddenly or seriously ill or who feels very ill, as in “He thought he was about to die the other day.” about to give out Very tired. “I’m afraid I’m about to give out.” A common variation is about give out. above one’s bend Used in the South and West, this expression meaning “beyond one’s ability, limit or capacity” has its origins in a phrase Shakespeare used in Hamlet: “To the top of one’s bent.” The “bent,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary, refers to the “extent to which a bow may be bent or a spring wound up, degree of tension; hence degree of endurance, capacity for taking in or receiving . . .” an Abraham Lincoln; an Abe; an Abe’s picture A fivedollar bill, because of Lincoln’s portrait on the front. abroad Heard especially among old-fashioned speakers in the South, a trip abroad is often not a journey overseas but a trip or visit in the community, even a stroll down to the store. It can, however, mean “at or to a distance of 50 miles or more,” as in the common newspaper expression “[Mr. Jones] has returned from his trip abroad.” An abroad or broad means a trip, as in “Mrs. Brown is back from her abroad.” abscess of the bowels An old Southern name for appendicitis that is still heard, though infrequently. abscond To hide or conceal, as in the first recorded use of the expression in 1721: “The poor man fled from place to place absconding himself.” Originating in England, abscond in this sense was very common in the American South up until the 20th century. absolute auction A property auction in which the owner is required by law to sell his property to the highest bidder. The law and expression have been in effect in Kentucky for over a century. absquatulate An old expression, obsolete except in a historical sense, that may have originated in Kentucky in the early 19th century and means to depart, especially in a clandestine, surreptitious or hurried manner. “The vagabond had absquatulated with the whole of the joint stock funds,” George W. Perrie noted in Buckskin Mose (1873). Absquatulate is a fanciful classical formation based on ab and squat, meaning the reverse of to squat. Variants are absquatilate and absquotulate.

way in her short story “Cocks Must Crow” (1939): “I almost lost him on account of I had changed.” ackempucky Any food mixture of unknown ingredients or a food of jellylike consistency such as gelatin; possibly from an Algonquin word meaning “to bake or roast on hot ashes.” acknowledge the corn Much used in the 19th century as a synonym for the contemporary “copping a plea,” this phrase is said to have arisen when a man was arrested and charged with stealing four horses and the corn (grain) to feed them. “I acknowledge [admit to] the corn,” he declared. The expression might, however, come from corn liquor, in which case it probably originally meant to admit being drunk. Not used much anymore in the South, where it probably originated, or anywhere else, it is sometimes heard as acknowledge the coin and own the corn. acorn duck Another name in the South for the common wood duck, which feeds upon acorns. acorn tree

A synonym for the oak tree.

across-the-track Poor or low-quality, as in “They’re across-the-track [or tracks] people.” It is probably based on the wrong side of the tracks, a common American expression used in the early 19th century when railroad tracks, which sometimes split a town in two, provided a clear social demarcation: well-to-do people living on the “right” side of the tracks and the poor living on the “wrong” side, in the slums or seedy area of town. act like you’re somebody Show some respect for yourself, act like you’re worth something. Adam apple Sometimes used in the South instead of the standard Adam’s apple. Adam’s housecat The Southern expression “I wouldn’t know him from Adam’s housecat” is an attempt to improve upon “I wouldn’t know him from Adam’s off ox” (referring to the “off” ox in the yoke farthest away from the driver), which in turn is a variation of “I wouldn’t know him from Adam.” Maybe it’s better than both of its predecessors, since hardly anyone drives oxen these days and, as more than one humorist has observed, Adam had no navel, wore only a fig leaf at most and would have been fairly easy to identify. Adam’s pet monkey

account of Because. “He ain’t full weight right now, account of his stomach bein’ shrunk up.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) The expression can also be on account of; in fact, Rawlings also used it that

A variation on

ADAM’S HOUSECAT.

adays An archaic expression meaning in the daytime or by day as opposed to anights. “We don’t go there adays.”

10 Whistlin’ Dixie addled Dizzy; confused. “ ‘You’re addled,’ she said. ‘Just plain addled.’ ” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

Africa you’ll never see the sun rise again as long as you live.’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, Jenny By Nature, 1961)

adieu Goodbye; a French word often used in southern Louisiana-French dialects.

Africky Temper, fighting spirit, as in the expression “to get one’s Africky up.” “To get one’s Irish up,” meaning the same, is more common countrywide, as is “to get one’s dander up.” “To get one’s Dutch up” is seldom heard.

Admiral Dewey Another unusual Southern name reported or invented by William Faulkner. See also WALLSTREET PANIC. afeared Afraid, as in, “Hounds won’t never tree a bear—they’re afeared to close in.” The expression, now chiefly Southern when heard at all in America, is used in dialects of Scotland, Ireland and England and was once widespread in the United States.

Afromobile Confined to Florida, this expression referred to an early 1900s Palm Beach vehicle consisting of a two-seated wicker chair in the front and a bicycle in the back pedaled by a black man. For many years, this taxi for rich white patrons was the only vehicle permitted in the city.

affidavy An affidavit. This is an example of folk etymology, where a more or less learned term is changed into a familiar or partly familiar one (davy), often by substituting, adding or omitting a sound or two. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings used affidavy in her novella Jacob’s Ladder (1931).

afternight The time after nightfall, evening or dusk. It is heard in the South but has a wider usage and was employed by D. H. Lawrence in one of his novels.

afflicted Mentally or physically defective, feebleminded, deformed. “One of her boys is afflicted.”

aftertimes Later, afterward. “The house was built in 1850, but that wing was put on aftertimes.”

Affrishy town An expression once used to describe a place where blacks or Africans lived, more commonly called by the offensive name “nigger town,” which is an expression not confined to the South.

afterwhile After a while, later on, as in “Afterwhile I’ll send for you-all, if you’re of a mind to come where I am.” This ellipsis is also heard in other parts of the country.

a-fleetin’ an’ a-flyin’ Moving rapidly in a grand style or succeeding very well at something.

ageable Old or getting on in years. “I’m afraid she’s gettin’ too ageable to marry.”

afore Before, as in “He was dead afore anybody knowed it,” from Jesse Stuart’s short story “The Last Round-up”; once commonly used throughout the United States but now heard mostly in the South.

agent An old-fashioned term for a traveling salesman or a door-to-door salesman.

African-American The term African-American for a black person born in Africa was first used in the American South: “ ‘I’d buy all de . . . colored African-American citizens’.” (Frederick Converse, Old Cremona Songster, 1836) African Negro An obsolete Southern term, dating back to the 1830s, for a black person born in Africa, as opposed to a black person born in America. African refugee A derogatory term used by whites for blacks. “ ‘You meddling African refugee!’ Judge Rainey said in an angry voice. ‘If I never do anything else, I’m going to court and get a writ of deportation served on you. That’ll send you so deep in

aftersupper A synonym for dessert, this expression is similar to the British dialect afters, meaning the same.

ager bumps “ague.”

Gooseflesh, the ager here meaning

aggie forti(e)s Anything very strong to drink, including medicine or liquor. As one old-timer put it: “. . . this man’s whiskey ain’t Red Eye, it ain’t Chain Lightnin’ either, it’s regular Aggie-forty [sic], and there isn’t a man living can stand a glass and keep his senses.” Also pronounced acker fortis and ackie fortis, the expression derives from aqua fortis (strong water), the Latin name for nitric acid. aggrafret

Slang meaning “to aggravate or fret.”

aggravoke William Faulkner used this Southern slang that means “to incite or provoke,” a combination of aggravate and provoke.

alarm duty 11 agin Still heard in the South, though infrequently, agin (again) can mean “by the time that,” as in “I’ll have it ready agin you come.” Other meanings are “by,” “before” and “when.”

ain’t got no call Has no reason, as in “He ain’t got no call accusing me.”

a-going

ain’t no place in heaven, ain’t no place in hell Nowhere for one to go. From a folk song quoted in William Faulkner’s Sanctuary (1931): “ ‘One day mo! Ain’t no place fer you in heaven! Ain’t no place fer you in hell! Ain’t no place fer you in white folks’ jail! Nigger, whar you gwine to? Whar you gwine to, nigger?’ ”

Going. “I’m a-going home, boys.”

agoment Annoyance, frustration, aggravation; probably based on agony or aggravation. Says a William Faulkner character in The Town (1957): “ ‘I bear the worry and the risk and the agoment for years and years, and I get sixty dollars a head for them [mules].’ ” agony No one knows why the pan used to hold fermenting fruit during the making of wine at home is called an agony or agony pan, but the expression is still used in the South. Possibly it has something to do with all the fruit’s juices being squeezed out of it. a good riddance Good riddance of someone or something. “‘And a good riddance,’ Father said. ‘I hope he stays there.’” (William Faulkner, “That Evening Sun,” 1931) aig

A common pronunciation of egg in the South.

ailded Sickened, made ill. “ ‘I don’t figger there was nothin’ ailded me but green brierberries.’ ” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) ailish Sick, slightly ill. “Hit makes us all feel ailish.” (John Faulkner, Men Working, 1941)

ain’t much

Ill, not well. “John’s baby, she ain’t much.”

ain’t only No more than. A character in William Faulkner’s The Mansion (1959) says: “ ‘I’d like to hold the bank offen you myself, but I ain’t only vice-president of it, and I can’t do nothing with Manfred de Spain.’ ” air (1) A common pronunciation of are. “ ‘Milly,’ he said. ‘Air you hungry?’ ” (William Faulkner, “Wash,” 1934) (2) Rarely, air (are) can also be used in the sense of have, as in “ ‘They mought [might] have kilt us, but they ain’t whupped us yit, air they?’ ” (William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!, 1936) air; air up To fill up with air, as in “Let’s air the tires” or “I aired up the tires.” airish (1) Drafty. “It’s plenty airish in here.” (2) Cool or chilly. “Today’s a bit airish.” (3) One who puts on airs or acts superior to others. “She’s real airish, ain’t she?”

ain’t Ain’t is of course used throughout America, but see the Introduction for a special Southern preference for the word.

A.K. An “ass kisser,” one who curries favor; possibly originated in the South but widely used in this sense for over 50 years in the New York City area, among other places.

ain’t fittin’ to roll with a pig Worthless. “Folks say he ain’t fittin’ to roll with a pig.”

aknown To be known, acquainted; the expression is not widely used anymore.

ain’t got a grain of sense Said of an exceedingly stupid person. “That old boy ain’t got a grain of sense.” A variation is ain’t got a lick of sense.

Alabama The Cotton State, our 22d, took the name Alabama when admitted to the Union in 1819. Alabama is from the Choctaw alba ayamule, which means “I open the thicket,” that is, “I am the one who works the land, harvests food from it.” Often called Alabam, Alabamy.

ain’t got but

Have only, as in “I ain’t got but a dime.”

ain’t got enough sense to bell a cat Hopelessly stupid; can’t do the simplest things. Variations are ain’t got enough sense to bell a buzzard (buzzer, bull, cow or goose). ain’t got no A common Southern double negative meaning “has no,” as in “He ain’t got no call badmouthing me” (he has no reason for calling me names).

Alabama egg An egg made by cutting a round center out of a piece of bread, putting the bread in a hot greased pan, dropping the egg into the center without breaking the yolk and frying the whole until done (sometimes turning it over). Also called a hobo egg. alarm duty An obsolete term, used before and during the Civil War, for the duty of being prepared to respond to an alarm for military service. “There is a detachment

12 Whistlin’ Dixie of citizen soldiery . . . always on what is called alarm duty.” (The Southern Literary Magazine, volume 3, 1837) Aleck A name for the black or roof rat, perhaps because it is among the smartest of rats, a “smart Aleck,” or possibly because it is also called the Alexandrine rat. Alexander Hamilton Infrequently used in the South as a term for one’s signature, similar to the use of “John Hancock.” alive Bread or fruit that is freshly made or retains its freshness well. all (1) Often used after the interrogative pronouns what and who. “What all did you do last night?” “Who all was there?” See also YOU-ALL. (2) Only. “This here is all the shirt I have.” all ahoo Awry, lopsided; derives from the English dialect ahuh, meaning “awry.” all alligator An obsolete term meaning a person of superior strength, skill, etc. “The Mississippi navigator . . . afirmed himself to be all alligator . . .” (Analectic Magazine, volume 4, 1814) See also ALLIGATOR. all around Close to, near, as in the words of a character in Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ The Yearling (1938): “‘I come all around courtin’ her, ‘fore I married your Ma.’” all dressed up like a country bride best.

Slang for an illegitimate child.

all-fired Extremely, very. “She’s so all-fired lazy no one wants to hire her.” all fired up and full of git

Well-heeled; well provided for.

alligator An old nickname for a Mississippi keelboatman. “The other [man] replied, ‘I am an alligator, half man, half horse; can whip anybody on the Mississippi, by G-d.’ ” (Christian Schultz Jr., Travels on an Inland Voyage, 1807) Alligator was formerly the nickname of any member of the Virginia House of Delegates and the nickname for a Floridian. See also ALL ALLIGATOR. alligator bait Unpalatable food; also a derogatory term for a black person. alligator cooter “The alligator cooter is the most highly prized of all inland turtle meats. He is very dangerous, a virulent fighter encased in a ridged, scaly shell from which he takes his name, with a fierce hawked beak at the end of his head and long neck that can make mincemeat of an enemy.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Cross Creek, 1942) alligator tag A game of tag played in the water where the “alligator” tries to catch the other players, who, when captured, assist him in catching the rest. all kinds of times A very good time, as in “I had all kinds of times last night.” all my lone my lone.”

Alone; all by my lonesome. “I was here all

all my whole life All my life; for as long as I can remember. “It’s been like this all my whole life.”

Dressed in one’s

alley bat slang for a promiscuous or immoral woman. alley cat

all heeled

all oak and iron bound In the best of health and spirits. “Before we went down to Dallas I was feeling all oak and iron bound.” all of a green All of one shade of green, as in “rows of young corn, all of a size, all of a green.” all of a size GREEN.

All the same size. See example at ALL

OF A

Ready to go, full of energy.

all fogged up Confused. “You just went out and got yourself all fogged up with rules and regulations. That’s our trouble. We done invented ourselves so many alphabets and rules and recipes that we can’t see anything else . . .” (William Faulkner, “The Tall Men,” 1941) all git out To an extreme degree, as in “He makes me mad as all git out.”

all one’s born days All the time passed since one’s birth. “I never saw the like of it in all my born days.” all over hell and half of Georgia Covering a wide range. “We drove all over hell and half of Georgia.” all-overs (1) The shivers; nervousness; apprehension. “It gives me the all-overs to just think of it.” Something close to the expression is first recorded in an 1820 song entitled “Oh, What a Row”: “I’m seized with an all-

and that’s a fact 13 overness, I faint, I die.” (2) Underwear. “She washed his all-overs till they turned white.” allow (1) To suppose. “It was allowed to be somewhat dangerous.” (2) To remark or declare. “He allowed I couldn’t do it.” (3) To plan or intend. “I don’t allow to go.” Often shortened to ’low. alls (1) All one owns. “We packed up our alls and moved out.” (2) Sometimes used instead of “all.” “Alls I know is how I feel.” all she wrote That’s the end of it, it’s finished. That’s all she wrote is first recorded in 1948 as college slang but probably dates back before World War II and is now common countrywide, especially in the South and West. It may have derived from the “Dear John” letters breaking up relationships that some soldiers received from wives and sweethearts while away from home. This appears to be indicated by its use in James Jones’s novel From Here to Eternity (1951), which takes place just before World War II: “All she’d have to do, if she got caught with you, would be to holler rape and it would be Dear John, that’s all she wrote.” all the far can run.”

As far as; the farthest. “That’s all the far I

all the fast can do it.”

As fast as; the fastest. “That’s all the fast I

all the high As high as; the highest. “That’s all the high I can jump.” all the longer As long as; the longest. “Is that all the longer you’re staying here in West Virginia?” all the more As much as; the most; all. “That’s all the more I know.” all the smaller As small as; the smallest. “He’s all the smaller of the two.” all the time us.”

Always. “He was all the time so good to

all tore up about it Very disturbed, emotionally upset. “His son got in a bad accident, and he’s all tore up about it.” all two Both. “I’ll tear down all two of you,” says a character in Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ The Yearling (1938). allus

Always. See also

HONGRY.

all vine and no taters Someone who is all talk and no action; a person of no substance. “He’s all vine and no taters.” all wool and a yard wide Dating back at least to the late 19th century, this expression, used in the South and other regions, may have originated during the Civil War, when shoddy cloth made from reprocessed wool and supplied to the Union Army often literally unraveled on a wearer’s back. The phrase has come to mean something or someone of high quality or reliability, as in “He’s all wool and a yard wide.” am Sometimes omitted in Southern speech, as in “I goin’ right now.” ambeer A Southern term, dating back to about 1755, that first meant tobacco juice and, later, spittle containing tobacco juice. The word may derive from the amber color of tobacco juice plus its resemblance to beer’s color and foaminess. Also called ambacker, ambarker juice, amber and amber juice. “He spat ambeer all over the floor.” ambition “In North Carolina this word is used instead of the word grudge. ‘I had an ambition against that man.’ I am credibly informed that [this expression] is even used in this manner by educated men.” (John Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms, 1877). amen corner A group of fervent believers is called an amen corner, after the similarly named place near the pulpit in churches that is occupied by those who lead the responsive “amens” to the preacher’s prayers. The term may come from the Amen Corner of London’s Paternoster Row. See ANXIOUS BENCH. American snake tree

See

CHITTAMWOOD.

ammonia Coke A popular headache cure or nerve tonic consisting of Coke (q.v.) and a dash of ammonia. Amy Dardin case; Amy’s case An obsolete Southern term for procrastination. Virginia widow Amy Dardin of Mecklenburg County submitted to Congress her claim to be compensated by the federal government for a horse impressed during the American Revolution, sending a bill every year from 1796 to at least 1815; some sources say she kept dunning Congress for 50 years before the procrastinating government paid. Ancient Dominion

See

OLD DOMINION STATE.

and that’s a fact There’s no doubt about that, it’s a certainty. “ ‘I never was one to dig much,’ Pluto said. ‘And

14 Whistlin’ Dixie that’s a fact.’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, God’s Little Acre, 1933)

antses Sometimes used as the plural for ant, instead of ants. “There was black antses all over the food.”

angel flying by (or past) chill.

anxious bench Also used figuratively, this is a term for a seat in the front of a church or at revival meetings reserved for people especially concerned about their spiritual welfare. See AMEN CORNER.

Said when one gets a sudden

Anglo-African A historical term describing someone with a mixed speech or character of English and African. “He speaks fluently, and with grammatical correctness but in the Anglo-African dialect.” (Albert D. Richardson, The Secret Service . . ., 1865) Anglo-Confederate

See

ANGLO-REBEL.

Anglo-Rebel A historical term used during the Civil War to describe British supporters of the Confederacy. “The Anglo-Rebel navy . . . was fitting out in England.” (Boston Sun Herald, April 26, 1863) Anglo-Confederate is a similar term. anigh

Nearby, near, close to. “Don’t go anigh him.”

anights

See

ADAYS.

ankle-biter A small child who is unusually rough and unruly; disobedient. ankle express Going by foot, walking. “The car broke down and we got back to town by ankle express.” anoint An old, little-used, humorous term for “to flog or to beat severely”; often pronounced noint or ninted. “He nointed him real good.” another-guess A term, probably obsolete, meaning “different, of a different sort.” “He is another-guess man.” an’t

A common pronunciation of

AIN’T.

ant cow A term used in the South and elsewhere for the aphid or plant louse, which lives on ants who carry it from plant to plant. antigoglin Out of plumb, askew. “The rope was straight till he kicked it antigoglin.” Also heard as antigodlin, antigoslin and antigadlin. ant killer An old humorous term for the foot, especially a big foot. “‘Bill Jones, quit a smashin’ that ar cat’s tail!’ ‘Well then let hir keep hir tail clar of my ant killers!’ ” (Quarter Race Kentucky, 1846) ant mashers

Big feet. See also

ANT KILLERS.

anxioused up A seldom-used term meaning “excited.” “He was all anxioused up.” any day and time Any time at all. “I’m there for her any day and time.” anymore Now, nowadays, presently. As Jesse Stuart wrote in Beyond the Dark Hills (1938): “They tell me this Armco plant only hires the best of men any more . . . Eyes not as good as they used to be. Got to take the lantern any more . . . You know, Jesse, any more I don’t worry a great lot.” any much

Very much. “We never done it any much.”

anyways Anyway, anyhow, in any case. “Anyways I’ve got my opinion.” (Mark Twain, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calveras County,” 1865) It can also mean to any degree at all: “Is he anyways hurt?”; or at any time: “Come visit anyways from May to October.” apast Past, beyond, by. “I don’t put that shouting apast him.” It can also mean finished, completed. “Winter is something apast.” ape A derogatory term for an African-American; mainly a Southern expression but used in other areas as well. ape oil Liquor, probably because of the insulting premise, to apes, that too much drink makes men act like apes. aplenty eat.”

Plenty, an abundance. “I’ve had aplenty to

appearanced Having a certain appearance. “She is very good appearanced.” appearment was good.”

Appearance. “His general appearment

Arab A street urchin; a huckster or street peddler; a roving bookmaker. ara thing Anything. “ ‘Twarn’t nothing,’ he said gently. He knelt and touched her hot forehead clumsily. ‘Do

ass in a sling 15 you want ara thing?’ ” (William Faulkner, “Wash,” 1934)

gressmen and for a time gave Arkansas the nickname the Bowie, or Toothpick, State.

arction A common pronunciation of auction. “‘The day that Texas feller arctioned off them wild Snopes ponies, I was out there.’” (William Faulkner, The Town, 1957)

Arkansas travels

are (1) Often dropped as a verb in Cajun speech: “You whistle ’cause you ’fraid,” or “You welcome.” (2) Frequently used in Cajun speech as a singular verb. “She are not right.” argufy To argue, dispute, debate. “No use argufying the matter.”

The runs, diarrhea.

Arkansas wedding cake

Corn bread.

Arkansawyer A nickname for a native of Arkansas often used by Arkansas residents themselves. artermatic A Southern pronunciation of automatic. “‘. . . I be dawg if he didn’t flench off like it was a moccasin and him barefoot, and whupped out that little artermatic pistol and shot it dead as a doornail.’” (William Faulkner, Sanctuary, 1931)

Arkansas Originally spelled Arkansaw, our 25th state, nicknamed “the Wonder State,” was admitted to the Union in 1925. “Arkansas” is the Sioux word for “and of the south wind people.”

ary Any. “Wolves was about the worst destroyed of ary of them creeturs.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

Arkansas asphalt side.

A road made of logs laid side by

as Sometimes omitted in Southern speech: “You greedy as he is.”

Arkansas chicken Salt pork. “We were so poor all we could afford was Arkansas chicken.” Also called Arkansas T-bone.

as crooked as a barrel of snakes Someone so dishonest he can’t be trusted in the slightest matters. ash-barrel baby

Arkansas fire extinguisher

ashcake Arkansas lizard

A loaf of corn bread baked in hot ashes.

Any insect louse. ash-cat

Arkansas T-bone CHICKEN.

An illegitimate child.

A chamberpot.

Salt pork. See example at

Any dirty, disheveled child.

ARKANSAS

Arkansas toothpick A bowie knife or other knife with a long blade. One writer defines the bowie knife as “the principal instrument of nonsurgical phlebotomy in the American Southwest.” This lethal instrument was probably first made for the legendary Colonel James Bowie (1799–1836), friend of Davy Crockett and hero at the Alamo. According to testimony by a daughter of Rezin Pleasant Bowie, the colonel’s older brother, it was her father who invented the knife in about 1827, though she admitted that Jim Bowie did make it famous during a fight that year at Natchez, Mississippi in which six men were killed and 15 wounded. However, most historians believe the common long-bladed hunting knife was originally made for Jim Bowie by Arkansas blacksmith James Black, who they credit as the knife’s inventor. After he killed one man with it in the Natchez duel, Colonel Bowie is said to have sent his knife to a Philadelphia blacksmith, who marketed copies of it under Bowie’s name. Its double-edged blade was 10 to 15 inches long and curved to a point. Called an Arkansas toothpick, it was even carried by some con-

ashy Angry; ill-tempered, ill-humored. “He argued awhile and then got right ashy about it.” as mad as a pig on ice with his tail froze in used especially in Texas.

Very mad;

as mad as a rooster in an empty henhouse indeed.

Very mad

as much chance as a one-legged man at an ass-kicking contest Close to no chance at all. aspersed Slandered; though this is of course not a Southern invention, Faulkner puts it in the mouth of a poor Mississippi farmer: “ ‘The Snopes name. Can’t you understand that? That ain’t never been aspersed yet by no living man.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940) as rich as six feet up a bull’s ass Very rich, fertile, like bull dung. “That soil is as rich as six feet up a bull’s ass.” ass in a sling To be or appear to be sad, rejected or defeated. Originating in the South perhaps a century

16 Whistlin’ Dixie ago, the now-national expression was probably suggested by someone with his arm in a sling, that image being greatly and humorously exaggerated. One good story claims that the ass is really a donkey, that the expression comes from a practice of blacksmiths rigging slings for donkeys, or asses, because the creatures can’t stand on their feet while being shod. But the good story isn’t a true story, donkeys can stand on their feet and, so far as is known, no blacksmith ever shod a donkey in a sling. ass licker A sycophant, toady; the expression is now heard throughout the United States. ass-ripper A dive into the water buttocks first. “He took a real ass-ripper into the old swimming hole.” assurance

Insurance; used chiefly by blacks.

as sure as God made little chickens With no doubt, definitely. “ ‘. . . or as sure as God made little chickens I’ll take off my belt and give you a whipping [Daddy said].’ ” (Calder Willingham, Rambling Rose, 1972) as sure as God made little green apples Very certain; used in the rural South as well as other parts of the country. “ ‘The lode is there [Ty Ty said] sure as God made little green apples.’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, God’s Little Acre, 1933) asthma dog A chihuahua or other hairless dog, from the belief that sleeping with one is a cure for asthma. at all

at oneself To be at one’s physical or mental best. “When he’s at himself, he’s a clever man.” Aunt Hagar’s children African-Americans; used especially among Southern black speakers; after the biblical Hagar, concubine of Abraham. Auntie An old black woman; common since the 19th century and once regarded as a term of respect and affection by white people but regarded by blacks today as a derogatory term. “If I knew their names I at once forgot them, contenting myself with ‘Sally,’ or ‘Jim,’ or if they were old, perhaps, ‘Uncle’ or ‘Auntie’—generic terms we were wont to use for Negroes whose names we did not know.” (Katherine Lumpkin, The Making of a Southerner, 1947) See UNCLE. avaytor A pronunciation of aviator. “It’s Major de Spain’s boy . . . The av-aytor.” (William Faulkner, “Shall Not Perish,” 1943) awfullest Worst. “You’re the awfullest card player I ever seen.” AWOL This nationally used abbreviation meaning “absent without leave” originated in the South, according to H. L. Mencken (The American Language, supplement I, 1945): “[In the Confederate Army] unwarranted absences of short duration were often unpunished and in other cases offenders received such trivial sentences as reprimand by a company officer, digging a stump, carrying a rail for a hour or two, wearing a placard inscribed with the letters AWOL.”

Of all. “They had the greatest time at all.”

atamasco lily The Indian name for the Virginia daffodil (Zephyranthes atamasco).

awork with Filled or covered with. “The net was awork with fish.” ay gonnies

ate supper before saying grace Said of a premarital pregnancy. “They ate supper before saying grace.”

A euphemism for “By God.”

B baaad Bad, when slowly pronounced baaad, has long been black slang, with some general use in the South and elsewhere, for something or someone good. The variation is so old that it is found in the American Creole language Gullah of three centuries ago, when baaad was used by slaves as an expression of admiration for another slave who successfully flaunted “Ole Maussa’s” rules.

back. “Let me back this letter so you can mail it for me.” (2) Held back; saved for later use. See usage example at EAT ONESELF FULL. back back A command to make a horse, mule or other animal back up. backed up Constipated. “He was all backed up from all those nuts he et.”

Babe The most famous example of Babe as a pet name for a boy in the South is baseball great Babe (George Herman) Ruth, born in Maryland in 1895. The nickname is often used in the South as a familiar name for a boy or man, especially the youngest of a family. Babe as a sometimes disparaging and insulting term for an attractive woman is a national usage. B-A-Bas

See A-B-ABS.

Baboon

See

backfin Prime crabmeat from the rear bony chambers of the Maryland blue crab, not fin meat. back in the saddle again Back at work, back in one’s regular routine; also slang for menstruating that has been used in Florida and other parts of the South since at least the 1950s. “I’m back in the saddle again.” backset A reversal of fortune, setback. “I thought I was getting well, but I took a backset.”

ILLINOIS BABOON.

backwards and forwards Back and forth. “I went backwards and forwards from my house to town all day long.”

baby-batter Sperm. “. . . it looked like I wasn’t going to be pumping any red-hot baby-batter into my own favorite womb any time soon.” (Larry Brown, “Waiting for the Ladies,” 1990)

backy baby-catcher A midwife or an obstetrician. “There was no doctor around there, and she was baby-catcher for the whole town.”

A century-old term for an outhouse or privy.

baby-waker A firecracker. “Baby-wakers are small firecrackers, but they make a lot of noise.”

bacon and collards A traditional Southern dish, with collards generally referring to the cooked leafy portion of the plant. “In the South . . . ‘bacon and collards’ are a universal dish.” (John Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms, 1877)

back (1) To address an envelope, from the days before envelopes when letters were folded and addressed on the

bacon and greens A popular dish in the South since before the 18th century consisting of bacon and cooked

17

18 Whistlin’ Dixie greens (such as turnip, mustard or collard greens). “Several gentlemen came . . . and dined and I ate bacon and greens.” (William Byrd, Secret Diary, 1740) bacon and rice aristocracy A Southern nickname for those who made great fortunes raising these commodities or selling them. “Thomas Smith bought his brother’s lot and remained [in Charleston, S.C.] to build up the ‘bacon and rice’ aristocracy.” (Mathew Poyas, A Peep Into the Past, 1853) bad as I hate to do it

As much as I hate to do it.

badmouth To speak ill of someone. Probably originating among African-American speakers and possibly deriving from a Vai or Mandingo expression, to badmouth was at first used mostly by Southern blacks but is now used nationwide. Its first recorded use in this sense came in 1941 when James Thurber used it in a Saturday Evening Post story: “He badmouthed everybody.” bad pay Someone who doesn’t pay his bills; a bad credit risk. “He’s bad pay. Don’t lend him nothing.” the bad place Hell. “I thought when I come to that I was in the bad place. I sure thought I had been knocked all the way down to there.” (Erskine Caldwell, Georgia Boy, 1943) bad place (spot) in the road A very small, seedy town or group of houses so small it can hardly be considered a town. bad sick Very ill. “He was bad sick, and I didn’t think he’d make it.” bad time; bad time of the month my bad time of the month.”

Menstruation. “It’s

bad to Inclined to. “When he gets drunk, he’s bad to be in trouble.” bag A historical term for a large bag of cotton packed and ready to be shipped. “We had one hundred bags of cotton ready for the steamship.” bagasse Crushed sugar cane or the beet refuse from sugar-making that is used as animal feed. The word is borrowed from the Spanish word bagazo. bait (1) A large armful of wood. “ ‘I’ll fetch water and Jody, you go split a good bait o’ wood.’ ” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) (2) A pronunciation of bite. “She ate three baits of turnips.” (3) Food; a meal; one serving of food.

baited for widow impress women.

Said of a man dressed to kill, to

bait tree The catalpa, because its branches provide abundant caterpillars to use as bait for fishing. Also called the fishbait tree. bake beans Baked beans. “How to make . . . dumplins of all kinds, bake-beans and so forth.” (New Orleans Picayune, January 2, 1841) bald A bare or treeless mountain top. “At length, after considerable fatigue, we came to the top of the near Bald . . .” (Southern Literary Messenger, volume 4, 1838) bald face The white-crowned American widgeon (Mareca americana), a freshwater duck hunted in the South from early times. “Went a ducking between breakfast and dinner & killed 2 mallards & 5 bald faces.” (Entry from George Washington’s diary, quoted in Paul Haworth, George Washington, Farmer, 1915) bald face whiskey An old term for raw, unaged whiskey just out of the still. “The loudest lungs were at a premium, and so was ‘bald face’ whiskey.” (Southern Literary Messenger, volume 12, 1846) Also called baldface or ballface whiskey. bale A term for a compact mass of cotton, its weight now about 500 pounds. baler A historical term for a planter producing bales of cotton. “Every farmer in the South is a planter, from the ‘thousand baler’ to the rough, unshaved squatter.” (H. C. Lewis, Louisiana Swamp Doctor, 1850) Balize pilot Balize was the historic settlement of houses built on stilts at Pass à la Outre near New Orleans in the Mississippi River and designed to take on or discharge riverboat pilots. It fell into decay at the time of the Civil War and has since disappeared. ball naked Stark naked, completely naked; derives from ballocks shortened to balls (testicles) and may have originally been naked to the ballocks or balls. ball the jack To move or work swiftly. “When he saw his father coming he balled the jack.” It was originally a railroad term: “That train is sure balling the jack.” balks Youngsters who have fits of stubborness are said to be given to the balks.

basket meeting 19 Baltimore; Baltimore oriole; Baltimore clipper An early dictionary states that the Baltimore oriole is “so called from the colors of Or (orange) and Sable in the coat of arms belonging to Lord Baltimore.” This oriole is not closely related to the orioles of Europe but belongs to the blackbird and meadowlark rather than the crow family. But whatever its true species, the Baltimore oriole definitely takes its name from the Baltimore family, founders of Maryland, the bright colors of the male bird corresponding to the orange and black in their heraldic arms. The city of Baltimore, Maryland also honors the barons Baltimore, as does the early 19th century Baltimore clipper, more indirectly, the famous ships having been built in the city. ’Bam; ’Bama; ’Bammy

Often used for Alabama.

bambache A drinking spree or a party at which there is a lot of drinking; a Cajun term from the French bambouche (spree). banana The seed of a once-prized but now obsolete variety of cotton; also called banana seed. banana ring Another name for a banana split in Louisiana and other Southern states. banana seed

See

writing.” (Larry Brown, “92 Days,” 1990.) bard Can be the pronunciation of bard (poet), borrowed, or bird, as in “The bard bard mah canary bard.” barefoot bread PONE.

CORN

barking dogs Tired or sore feet. “Let me rest these barking dogs of mine.” Barlow knife Russell Barlow, who has been called “the patron saint of whittlers,” invented the barlow knife over two centuries ago, and it has been known to Southerners under this name ever since. The barlow, a singlebladed pocket, pen or jacknife, was the pride and joy and bartering power of many an American boy and was mentioned in the works of Mark Twain, Joel Chandler Harris and many others. barnburner A gusher, an oil strike that lights up the sky; used by wild-cat oil men for a big well. The expression may have originated in the South. barnlot A barnyard. “The cow’s in the barnlot.” Stablelot and bull-lot are also common in the South, as is the widely used barnyard.

BANANA.

barnyard pipe bandy-shanked

Another name for Southern

Another name for a corncob pipe.

Bandy-legged, crooked legs or shanks.

banjo The name for this musical instrument was born in the South. Of the two theories about its origin, one holds that banjo derives from a black mispronunciation of bandore, an English word of Spanish origin denoting a musical instrument similar to the banjo; the other theory cites the Angoloa Kimbinde word mbanza, which also means a banjo-like instrument. It would be hard to prove or disprove either supposition. banker A North Carolina seacoast inhabitant. “This term of ‘Banker’ applies to a scattering population of wreckers and fishermen, who dwell on the long, low, narrow beaches . . . from Cape Fear to near Cape Henry.” (James Fenimore Cooper, The Sea Lions, 1849) banquette A raised sidewalk or a footpath; derives from the French word meaning the same. The term is mainly confined to Louisiana and East Texas. banter A dare, as in “I took up his banter.” The word is pronounced “banner.” barbecued pigskins A popular Southern snack. “I get beer, barbecued pigskins, Slim Jims to munch on while

barnyard preacher part-time preacher.

An unordained lay preacher; a

baron A name given in colonial times to any very rich Carolinian in charge of a “barony” as described in John Locke’s The Fundamental Constitution for the Government of Carolina (1669). Bars The flag of the Confederacy, now usually called the Stars and Bars. “Down your Black-a-moor Stripes and Stars! We’ll up instead the Confederate Bars!” (Anonymous old rhyme) bar thorn fence

A small, sharp-thorned hedge fence.

baseborn child An illegitimate child. In its earliest form this appears to have been base begotten child. baser A member of a gospel-singing chorus; or the lines that are sung by the gospel-singing chorus. basket meeting A picnic or other social gathering to which food is brought in baskets. Its purpose isn’t entirely social but may be religious, political or educational.

20 Whistlin’ Dixie bastard oak; bastard white oak Other names for the common Durand oak, pin oak or Bigalow oak.

bear-hug To shinny up a tree; the technique is also called bear-climbing and bear-walking in the South.

bathcloth body.

bear sign The droppings or tracks of a bear. “ ‘When kin we go, Pa?’ ‘Soon as we git the hoein’ done. And see the bear sign.’ ” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

A washcloth used for washing the face or

batter bread A light corn bread made with eggs and milk; pronounced baddy bread or batby bread. Other Southern names for it include SPOON BREAD and egg bread. battercake cake.

beast back An old term for riding horseback. “I rode beast back all the way to town.”

A pancake; also called a batter or flitter-

beat around To putter or to loaf around. “He’s not doing much, he’s just beating around.”

battle To wash clothes by pounding them with a paddle after they are boiled in water, “whuppin’ the dirt out of ’em.” Battle in this sense is an old English word first recorded in 1570.

beat bobtail To beat or exceed all expectations. “Don’t it beat bobtail what she did!”

Battle in the Clouds The Civil War battle of Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga, Tennessee. baubee A little thing not worth much, a trifle, from the Scottish bawbee for a half-penny. “I don’t care a baubee for that.” Also spelled bawbee and bobee. bay In South Carolina a bay refers to a low swampy area with many bay trees, also called bay laurels (Laurus nobilis); in Florida a bay is a water-grass meadow or flooded forests of cypresses and other trees. bay chicken A term used in Louisiana for an umbrellashaped edible mushroom that grows on wood, not on the ground, and is said to taste like chicken. bayou A marshy, sluggish outlet of a lake or river; any slow-moving body of water. Used chiefly in the lower Mississippi Valley and Gulf States, it probably derives from the Choctaw bayuk for a river forming part of a delta. Bayou State An old nickname for the state of Mississippi, whose inhabitants were sometimes called tadpoles; now a nickname for Louisiana. bazooka The weapon takes its name from the trombone-like musical instrument invented in the 1930s by Arkansas comedian Bob Burns from two gas pipes and a whiskey funnel. be Am. “ ‘Oh, I be mean, be I?’ ” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) bead tree Another name for the chinaberry tree, so called because its berries were once used to make beads.

beat-down Feeling low or beaten down by life. See example of usage at GOT A LOW EYE FOR A HIGH FENCE. beaten biscuit A light Southern biscuit made by beating the dough before rolling it out. beatin’est Most unusual, remarkable, surprising. “I declare, he’s the beatin’est child I ever saw.” (John Faulkner, Men Working, 1941) beating the devil around the stump An expression equivalent to hemming and hawing, or beating around the bush. beat out

Worn out. “She’s plumb beat out.”

beats pickin’ cotton Said when one is having an easier time of it than he might have had. “This sure beats pickin’ cotton.” beat the devil and carry a rail To beat someone decisively, the expression deriving from the rural custom of having the favorite runner in a race carry a rail as a handicap. “For a sample of honesty this beats the devil and carries a rail.” (Little Rock) Arkansas Gazette, August 25, 1872) beat the hound out of To give someone a bad beating. “He beat the hound out of him.” beau

Boyfriend, lover. See example of usage at

CON-

FEDRIT.

beaucoup Many, a lot, an abundance. A Southern term (from the French beaucoup, a great deal) pronounced boocoo, boocoos or bogoobs, which has gained wider use in recent years, and is sometimes lengthened to boogoodles. “He’s got boocoo of money.”

benasty 21 beau dollar A silver dollar. Many fanciful explanations have been given for the origins of this term, but the beau (bo) dollar probably derives from the French beau, dandy. beauticious Very beautiful, especially of face. “. . . I knew I wasn’t beauticious but that I was bodily and bountiful . . . He said I was more glorious . . . than two bare-assed Queens of Sheba getting in from both sides of the bed with him at the same time.” (Erskine Caldwell, The Earnshaw Neighborhood, 1971) beautifuller Sometimes heard instead of more beautiful. “She’s more beautifuller than her sister.” because

begone An old scolding expression, meaning “be off, get out of here,” that is still heard in the South. beholden Frequently used instead of indebted, as in “I’m beholden to you.” beignet A French-style doughnut popular in New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana. It is also spelled bignet and is sometimes pronounced ben-y¯a. being Because, since. “Being it’s you, I’ll take a dollar for it.”

Why. “Give me a good reason because.”

become to be To come to be, to come about. “This event become to be held annually.” be dawg Euphemism for “be damned.” “ ‘Yes, sir. Be dawg if I ain’t lived to be a great-grandpaw after all.’ ” (William Faulkner, “Wash,” 1934) bed baby An infant who can’t crawl yet, who remains mostly in his or her crib or bed. bedrid Confined to bed for a long time, bedridden. “He’s been bedrid over a year now.” bedroom shoes bee gum beehive.

beggar-trash Low-class, worthless people. “He comes from beggar-trash and acts like it.”

belike Probably; perhaps. “ ‘You gave it to your foster mother to keep for you, belike?’ ” (William Faulkner, Light in August, 1932) belittle To disparage; an Americanism widely used today that was invented by Thomas Jefferson in 1787. bell A dog’s baying during the chase in hunting; from the Old English bellan, to bark, bellow. bell cow The lead cow of a herd, the one that wears a bell. By transference the term has come to mean any leader or big shot. Bell ox is also used. “He’s the bell ox of that town.”

House slippers; also called bed shoes.

A hollow tree or log used as a beehive; any

belling Synonymous for a big party in West Virginia. “You coming to the belling?” bell ox

been to the bushes Been to the bathroom. “ ‘Durn it [Mink said], let me out on that bridge. I ain’t been to the bushes this morning.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959) been try Tried to; heard mainly in Cajun speech. “You been try make me mad.” beerhead Someone who habitually drinks beer. “You better stop running around with those beerheads.” beeswax One’s business or own concern. “Mind your own beeswax.” Common in other regions of the United States as well. before-day The time just before daybreak; pronounced afore-day or fore-day. beforetimes for such.”

See

BELL COW.

bellyache root Southern plant (Angelica lucida canadensis fortasse) used as a tonic for stomachaches. belly rub To dance closely, belly to belly, with someone to slow music. belly timber An old English term for food or provisions; sometimes used in the South, though not nearly as often as in the past. It was widely used in England three centuries ago. belly washer Soda pop; lemonade. “I’d rather have water than that belly washer you’re drinking.” belong Sometimes means should, ought. “Please paint that boat as it belongs to be.” It can also mean must. “Do I belong to clean the room?”

Early. “That plant’s blooming beforetimes benasty

A verb meaning to befoul or make dirty.

22 Whistlin’ Dixie bench-legged Bowlegged; applied to dogs and sometimes to people.

lady and best girl, which is also used in the sense of a girlfriend or a favorite girl.

benefit Advantage. “ ‘Ain’t no benefit in farming. I figure on getting out of it soon as I can.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940)

betimes An old English dialect word meaning “occasionally.” “I’ve worked betimes in the city.”

benne A name used mainly in South Carolina for sesame seeds. Sesamum indicum is said to be the oldest herbaceous plant cultivated for its seeds. Benne, as the seeds are called in Africa and the South, or sim sim, another African name for them, were brought to the South on the first slave ships. They have been used for everything from ink to cattle feed to flour to oil, and are a popular ingredient in cookies, crackers and candies. Benne is a Wolof word for the sesame seed. Sesamum is the Greek version of the Arabic word for sesame. be on someone like a South Texas wind To be so mad one is immediately ready to fight violently. “I’m gonna be on you like a South Texas wind.” bereft Crazy. “I’ll be clean bereft before I finish this.” Bereft here is short for “bereft of sense or reason.” bescrow and bescrew An old term meaning “to curse.” “She bescrowed and bescrewed him.” be-shame bush The mimosa (mimosa pudica) or any sensitive plant that closes its leaves when touched. This mimosa should not be confused with the mimosa tree. best Often used in place of better. “You’d best not do that.” bestest A double superlative primarily used by Southern blacks. “He’s the bestest there is.” best good The best result of an action, morally or otherwise. “ ‘Dear God [Bessie prayed], we poor sinners kneel down . . . to pray for a blessing on this new automobile trade . . . And these two men here who sold the new car to us need your bless, too, so they can sell automobiles for the best good.’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932) best-goodest A redundancy sometimes used for “a favorite,” as in “Are you wearing your best-goodest dress?”

bet straightening A term used mainly by blacks for giving unsolicited, often unwanted, advice while others play cards. “They weren’t in the game, but they was standing around bet straightening.” better had Had better. “‘Maybe he’ll change his mind.’ ‘He better had.’” bettywood Probably another name for the buttonwood tree or sycamore. The expression is rarely, if ever, used today, though it was once common, especially in Kentucky. between hawk and buzzard Twilight time, when it is too dark to tell a hawk from a buzzard. betwixt

Between. “He let him have it betwixt the eyes.”

betwixt a balk and a breakdown health.

In fair or middling

Beulah land A biblical term (Isaiah 62:4) used in the South and other regions for heaven or the promised land; also called Beulah shore. bias road A road that cuts off at a sharp angle from the main road. Bible Belt H. L. Mencken coined this term to describe parts of the United States where the literal accuracy of the Bible is widely believed, which of course is not limited to the South, despite the first use of the term: “The Baptist Record, in Jackson, Mississippi, [is] in the heart of the Bible and Lynching Belt.” (H. L. Mencken, American Mercury, 1926) More recently the term has been used to refer to the South as an area of religious or moral fervor. biblefish

See

PADDLEFISH.

biddable Obedient, docile, tractable. “He’s not a biddable servant.”

bestmost Double superlative for best, one’s very best. “I’ll do my bestmost to win.”

biddy A just-hatched or young chicken; probably derives through Gullah from the African Kongo bidibidi for a bird.

best woman Sometimes used for the maid or matron of honor at a wedding. Variations are best maid, best

bidness A pronunciation of business. “I ain’t going to stand fer this bidness any longer, I ain’t.”

blackberry baby 23 bien Good; a French word often used in the Southern Louisiana-French dialects.

big room HOUSE.

The living room of a house; also called

biff A very hard or quick blow with the fist. “He give him a biff in the eye.”

big stick

A policeman or other person of authority.

big (1) As an adverb big can mean “very, exceedingly,” as in “He got big rich.” (2) Pregnant. “If you hadn’t said you were big, he wouldn’t have married you.” (3) As a verb, to make or become pregnant; to have sex with. “‘Lov’s going to big her,’ Dude said. ‘He’s getting ready to do it right now, too. Look at him crawl around—he acts like an old stud horse.’” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932)

big time An enjoyable party or celebration; any good time. “They had a big time at the Joneses.” big water (1) A very bad flood. “Remember that big water of 1946?” (2) The Mississippi River. “The boat was slipping along, swift and steady, through the big water in the smoky moonlight.” (Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer, Detective, 1896) big word book

big as the broad daylight Vast, immense. “‘You’re lying as big as the broad daylight, Jeff Newsome!’ Aunt Annie said . . .” (Erskine Caldwell, “Uncle Jeff,” The Complete Stories of Erskine Caldwell, 1953) big-butt A conceited, self-important person; an aristocrat or big wig. Big Hungry An old nickname for the poor country area around Tuskegee, Alabama. The famous Tuskegee Institute is located in this area. Big Ike A disparaging term meaning “a self-important person, a big wheel, a loud offensive person.” “He’s a real Big Ike.” big laurel A Southern name for the rhododendron or a large variety of magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora). big lazies A state of inertia. “He had the big lazies most of the time.” Big Mama A grandmother; a woman regarded as the head of a family; a man’s wife, sweetheart or girlfriend. See also BIG DADDY. Big Mama’s Everlasting Rolls A delicate, slightly sweet and sour special occasion bread (made in the form of rolls) known throughout the South. bigmouth A species of fish, Chaenobryttus coronarius; also called the warmouth and the bigmouth perch in Louisiana. big road

BIG

billdown

See

binnyache

A dictionary. PADDLEFISH.

A bellyache.

bip into To attack with either words or blows. “They had some argument. She really bipped into him.” bird dog dog.”

The buttocks. “He knocked him on his bird

bird minder A South Carolina term for someone who frightens birds away from crops by shooting a gun, cracking a whip, etc. Bird o’ Satan A colorful name used in Virginia for the bluejay, especially among black speakers. In folklore the bird is associated with hell and Satan. birth Used as a verb, to give birth to. “She was a midwife that helped a lot of women birthin’ their babies.” biter Another term for the claw of a crab, used in Maryland and Virginia. biting frost

A severe frost that damages plants.

black ankle

See

BRASS ANKLE.

black-assed pea A humorous term for black-eyed peas, used mostly by black Southern speakers. Black Belt Any Southern region, especially in Alabama and Mississippi, with rich black soil and a large population of black people.

Any main road or highway.

big rock A jail or state prison. “He’s up at the big rock two years now.”

blackberry baby An illegitimate child, perhaps because the child was thought to be conceived in the brush. Also called a blackberry patch baby.

24 Whistlin’ Dixie blackberry winter A period of cool weather in spring, usually May or June, when the blackberries are in blossom. Robert Penn Warren wrote a highly regarded story entitled “Blackberry Winter.” It is also the title Margaret Mead used for a memoir she published in 1972. See also DOGWOOD WINTER. black bottle Any poisonous drink; an opiate; knockout drops. Giving one the black bottle was said to be a way of getting rid of patients in hospital charity wards. “Black,” of course, has always been associated with death. black bottom A low-lying section of a town inhabited solely by blacks. The dance called the black bottom, which originated among blacks in the South, is not named for this geographical description. The New Yorker (October 7, 1926) said the hip-moving dance “was constructed to simulate the movements of a cow mired in black bottom river mud.” black Christmas

A snowless late December.

black codes Southern state laws passed in 1865 and 1866 to retain white control over blacks. Also called bloody codes. As early as 1840 the term black code was used to mean a legal code applying to blacks in Southern states. black drink A former ceremonial drink and medicine made from the leaves of the Yaupon holly by Indians of the Southern states. black-eye gravy Ham gravy that is poured over dishes like rice and grits. black-eyed pea

See

COWPEA.

black flesh A term used for black slaves in the South before emancipation. black hand A witchcraft spell or charm; a term originating with Gullah speakers. blackjack (1) A Southern term for a heavy, sticky black soil not much valued because it clods when wet and is very hard when dry. (2) The blackjack oak (Quercus marilandica) common to the South, or wood from the tree. Some sources call this scrub oak good firewood, but Erskine Caldwell writes in Tobacco Road (1932): “People argued with Jeeter about his mule-like determination to sell blackjack for fuel, and they tried to convince him that as firewood it was practically worthless . . .”

black moss The famous Spanish moss of the South; it takes this name from the black fiber beneath the stem’s outer covering. Black Republican Long an insulting nickname for a Republican in the South, the term was first used to describe a Republican favoring emancipation of the slaves but came to be applied to any Republican and is still occasionally heard. blacksnake A term for a black man’s penis; used in Erskine Caldwell’s famous story “Blue Boy” (The Complete Stories of Erskine Caldwell, 1943) and by a black character in the film Platoon (1986), among other works. black stock A term used for black slaves in the South before emancipation. blast my old shoes! An emphatic expression not much used anymore. “I’ll see you a fair fight, blast my old shoes if I don’t.” (Augustus Longstreet, Georgia Scenes, 1835) bleed Another term for “to sweat.” “It’s so hot I’m bleedin’ to death.” bless Katy!

An old term meaning “Bless me!”

blind mosquito

See

CHIZZWINK.

blind pig A somewhat old-fashioned, chiefly Southern expression for a speakeasy. The origin of the term, first recorded in 1857, is uncertain but according to one tale the name blind pig comes from the nickname of a band of soldiers called the Public Guard serving in Richmond, Virginia about 1858. Their militia hats had the initial P.G. on them, the sobriquet originating because “P.G. is a pig without an i, and a pig without an eye is a blind pig.” Also called a blind tiger. blind tiger

See

BLIND PIG.

blip An old-fashioned term for a sudden blow. “He took him a blip in the back and knocked him off.” (Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer Abroad, 1885) blood kin Related by blood, not marriage. “ ‘It’s got to be done by the fellow’s own blood kin, or it won’t work.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940) bloodnoun A bullfrog, chiefly in South Carolina. Also heard as bloody-noun. blood pig

A New Orleans dish made with hog’s blood.

bluff 25 blood pudding A dark sausage with a high blood content; also called blood sausage and black pudding. blood’s thick Blood is thicker than water. “ ‘I don’t know nothing about that one Varner hired. But blood’s thick.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940) Bloody bill In 1833 Congress passed a law providing for the enforcement of the federal tariff laws in South Carolina. South Carolinians called this the Bloody bill, predicting that it would lead to bloodshed. Bloody bones A boogeyman children are threatened with when they don’t behave. “Old Bloody bones’ll get you.” Bloody bucket bloody codes

See See

BUCKET OF BLOOD.

BLACK CODES.

bloody flux See quote. “As for dysentery—the ‘bloody flux’ as the ladies delicately called it—it seemed to have spared no one from private to general . . . ‘Dey ain’ a soun’ set of bowels in de whole Confedrut ahmy,’ observed Mammy darkly . . .” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936) bloodynoun

See

BLOODNOUN.

blow fire To heal a burn simply by reciting some magic words and blowing on it, blowing the fire out of it; in the past, and still to some extent today, certain people were believed to have this magical power. blow gum Sometimes used as a synonym for bubblegum. “I’d sure like a piece of that blow gum.” blown up like a toad Very angry, silently seething with anger. “There he was in the corner, blown up like a toad while I danced with Jim Bob.” blue A very darkskinned black person, the term common among black speakers. bluebacks Paper money used by the Confederates during the Civil War; also called graybacks. “During the Civil War . . . the original Blue Backs of the Confederacy (so-called in opposition to Green Backs of the Union) soon became known as Shucks, a name sufficiently significant of their evil repute . . .” (Maximillian Schele De Vere, Americanisms, 1871) Over a billion dollars worth of bluebacks and graybacks were issued by the South during the Civil War, the bills worth about 1.7 cents in gold to the dollar by the end of the hostilities.

bluebelly A Northerner, a Yankee or a New Englander. The word, which first meant an American, was applied to Northerners shortly before the Civil War in reference to the blue uniforms worn by Union soldiers. It is sometimes used in a derogatory or humorous sense today. bluebird weather Unusually warm weather in autumn; used mainly in Maryland and Virginia. blue devils The blues, low spirits. “He lost the game and got the blue devils.” bluegrass (1) The bluegrass used so widely for American lawns isn’t very blue, having only a slightly blue tinge at most. The green grass takes its name from another grass, a pest grass that settlers on the Atlantic coast so named because its leaves were distinctly bluish in color. When these settlers moved into what is now Kentucky, they found another grass of about the same size and shape as the Atlantic coast bluegrass and gave it the same name. (2) U.S. country music played on unamplified stringed instruments, with emphasis on the banjo. Bluegrass and Bourbon State of Kentucky.

A nickname for the state

bluegrass country The region in Kentucky and central Virginia noted for its bluegrass. blue-gum A derogatory term for a black person with a blue tint to his gums; applied, but less frequently, to a Creole or a Cajun. “They making a bluegum out of you . . .” (William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury, 1929) blue hen’s chicken One who is a good fighter, because blue hens are said to breed the best fighting cocks; the term also means someone high-spirited, aggressive, quick-tempered or high-class and was applied to soldiers from Delaware during the Revolutionary War, resulting in the nickname Blue Hen’s Chicken for a native of Delaware. blue John Skim milk, because it sometimes has a bluish appearance. Blue Lodge

See

SONS OF THE SOUTH.

blue tick A hound with blue flecks on its white coat. “That big Bluetick hound running like a greyhound . . .” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959) bluff Used in the South as early as 1687 in place of the British “river bank,” bluff, according to the late Stuart

26 Whistlin’ Dixie Berg Flexner in I Hear America Talking (1976), “has the distinction of being the first word attacked as being a ‘barbarous’ American term.” Bluff City A nickname for both Memphis, Tennessee and Hannibal, Missouri because they are located on bluffs overhanging water. board To beat someone with a board on the rump. Apparently in days past a punishment for thieves involved the whole town turning out to punish offenders in this way. One account says the board used measured “four feet long and six inches wide.” bobbasheely To walk in no great rush but to move on, to saunter. “ ‘Ha ha ha,’ Butch said, without mirth, without anything. ‘How’s that for a idea? Huh, Sugar Boy? You and Sweet Thing bobbasheely on back to the hotel now, and me and Uncle Remus and Lord Fauntleroy will mosey along any time up to midnight, providing of course we are through here.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Reivers, 1962) A bobbasheely can also mean “a very close friend”; in fact, it is said to derive from a Choctaw Indian word meaning “my brother.” See also MOSEY. bobble A mistake or error. The word, which originated in the South or West, is commonly used as a verb for a mishandled chance in baseball. bobo A word, heard in Louisiana, especially New Orleans, and generally reserved for children, describing a bump, a cut or a sore. Derives from the French faire bobo, to hurt oneself. Booboo is an equivalent heard in other areas of the country, including the South. bobolition Whether this was a humorous black pronunciation of “abolition,” in the South and elsewhere, is open to question; it may have been a word scornful whites attributed to blacks. In Customs of Old New England (1893) Alice Earle writes: “The 14th of July was observed for many years to commemorate the introduction of measures to abolish the slave trade. It was derisively called Bobolition Day, and the orderly convention of black men was greeted with a fusillade of rotten fruit and eggs and much jesting abuse.” bobtailed flush A worthless flush in poker, only three or four cards of same suit. Bobtailed means “short, deficient.” bobtailed straight A worthless four card straight in poker. See also BOBTAILED FLUSH.

bobwire A common pronunciation of barbed wire. See usage example at UNHEALTH. bodacious Bold, audacious; unceremonious. Can also mean thorough, as in “He’s a bodacious idiot,” and completely, as in “That jug was bodaciously smashed.” bog A Southern dish made with wine and chicken or game, such as chicken bog or squirrel bog. bog bugle A Southern name for the pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea), which grows in bogs and has bugleshaped leaves. bogue (1) A stream or creek, from the Choctaw bog, stream. “They’d see only their heads swimming across the bogues . . .” (William Faulkner, Mosquitoes, 1927) (2) Fake, phony; either from bogus or from the African Hausa boko, fake. (3) To grope or wander aimlessly. “He was bogueing around in the dark.” bohunkus Backside. “Well, honey, they can just rest back on their little bohonkus . . .” (Eudora Welty, Petrified Man, 1941) boil Water that bursts through a break in a levee is called a boil. boil cabbage

Boiled cabbage.

boiled bacon Bacon that is boiled instead of fried or broiled. “She had finished eating a late breakfast of Texas pink grapefruit, boiled bacon, grits-and-gravy, and biscuits and gravy . . .” (Erskine Caldwell, The Earnshaw Neighborhood, 1971) boiled custard A Southern custard dessert made with eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla and other ingredients. boiled pie

A pie or dumpling cooked in boiling water.

boiled shirt A formal dress shirt starched in the front; this term has general as well as Southern usage. “‘. . . Whitfield was standing jest like pap said, in his boiled shirt and his black hat and pants and necktie . . .’” (William Faulkner, “Shingles for the Lord,” 1943) boiler (1) A saucepan for cooking. (2) A whiskey still. (3) The stomach. “He ate so much he like to bust his boiler.” (4) A pipe for smoking tobacco. boiling A crowd, a whole group. “ ‘. . . the whole damned boiling of you . . .’ ” (William Faulkner, The Town, 1957)

Bonnie Blue Flag 27 boiling corn; boiling ear corn for livestock. boiling up

Sweet, eating corn, not field

Said of storm clouds growing in size.

boiling with Filled up to the brim with, packed with. “‘[He] was born where what few other people he knew lived, in log cabins boiling with children like the one he was born in . . .’ ” (William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!, 1936) boil potatoes boil shrimp boil the pot roast.

Boiled potatoes. Boiled shrimp. To make a boiled dinner, such as pot

bold stream A swiftly running stream. “He took the raft down that bold stream.” bolichi roast A roast beef stuffed with hardboiled eggs; the Cuban Spanish boliche means “round of beef.” bolliwog Nonsense, belly wash, hog wash; also pronounced bolly wash. bollixed up Thrown into confusion; an expression common in the South, though it is often regarded as a Northern expression. The word derives from the old English bealluc, testicle. Faulkner uses it several times in his work. “ ‘Nothing,’ Butch said. ‘Nothing a-tall. Me and Sugar was kind of bollixed up at one another for a while.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Reivers, 1962) boll weevil Pronounced boweevil. Weevil comes from the Old English wifel, beetle, and boll, first spelled bowl, refers to the pod of the cotton plant, which the beetle attacks. In Enterprise, Alabama there is a monument to a boll weevil—erected at the turn of the century after the beetle so devastated the cotton crop in the area that farmers were forced to plant peanuts and as a result became more prosperous than they had ever been as cotton growers. Boll weevil has some use in the South as a term for a tenderfoot and for a contemptible person. boll weevil weather boll weevil thrives.

The cold wet weather in which the

bomb A term children in South Carolina and elsewhere use for the big marble, or aggie, in marbles. bombazine Because the silk and wool fabric called bombazine was often used to make umbrellas, a bombazine was humorously used as a synonym for an

umbrella in the South and other areas. The term is rarely heard today. bombo According to John Bartlett in his Dictionary of Americanisms (1877), a bombo is “an animal of North Carolina, said to resemble the hedgehog and by some called a badger.” The term is obsolete today. bomb-proof A historical expression used in the South during the Civil War to describe a man who occupied a safe place at home while the war raged on. “Ablebodied bomb-proofs” were the object of much derision. bone felon A felon is an acute and painful inflammation of the deeper tissues or of a finger or toe. Because it seems to ache right down to the bone, it is often called a bone felon in the South. The expression is found as far back as the tales of Uncle Remus. Rather than a redundancy, it seems like an improvement on the original. boneset A plant (Eupetorium purpureum), also known as Joe-Pye weed, regarded in folk medicine as a remedy for broken bones. Boneset is heard in other regions of the country also. bonnet squash The common vegetable sponge (Luffa cylindrica) was once so named in the South because women made bonnets out of its fibrous matter. “The girls made their hats of rye and wheat straw, and some very pretty bonnets were made of the fibrous substance that grows in the vegetable known as the bonnet squash.” (Joel Chandler Harris, On the Plantation, 1892) bonnet walker A colorful name for the purple gallinude, because the bird walks on lily pads, or bonnets, in ponds and lakes. Bonnie Blue Flag The secession flag of South Carolina, which had a blue field and a single star; also the name of a popular secessionist song. It was at a state convention at Jackson, Mississippi, when that state voted to secede from the Union, that the famous patriotic song of the South was inspired by an immense blue silk banner with a single star that someone carried through the crowd. According to one old story, Arkansas comedian Harry Macarthy witnessed the scene and began writing the song’s lyrics, which he finished when the rest of the Southern states seceded: First gallant South Carolina nobly made the stand; Then came Mississippi, who took her by the hand; Next, quickly Florida, Alabama and Georgia, All raised on high the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a Single Star . . . Hurrah, hurrah! for Southern Rights Hurrah!

28 Whistlin’ Dixie boocoodles

See

BEAUCOUP.

boody (Often pronounced booty) Originally meaning a woman’s sexual organs and sexual intercourse, this term has come to mean “buttocks” and is widely used in this sense today, even in the names of tanning parlors, such as “Tan Your Booty.” booger A ghost or hobgoblin; also called the boogerman, boogerbear and bookity Sam, among other terms. Derives ultimately from the Middle English bugge, ghost. “‘I still think you have found a booger where there isn’t one,’ the sheriff said.” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959) boojy A disparaging term, deriving from bourgeois, that is used by Southern blacks to describe rich blacks who put on white elitest airs. book (1) The third stomach of a cow; possibly so called by farmers who slaughter their cattle because this stomach has so many “leaves” in it but perhaps deriving from the Middle English bouk, belly. (2) Often used to describe a pile or stack of tobacco leaves. (3) Common term for a magazine or pamphlet throughout the South. booked on out Left hastily. “We booked on out of there, and I think it was like 3:47 when I got on in home . . .” (Larry Brown, “Wild Thing,” 1990) bookie sug “sugar.”

A sweetheart or lover; sug is short for

bookity-book Quickly; used mainly by black speakers to imitate the sound of running feet, as in “Here he comes, bookity-book, bookity-book.” bookooing great deal.

from an Old English word meaning “good, advantage, profit.” (2) Boot for the trunk of a car, chiefly a British term, was sometimes used in Georgia and other Southern states earlier in the century but apparently has little or no use there today. bootkisser

A sycophant; also called bootlicker.

bootlicker

See

BOOTKISSER.

booze A Mr. E. G. or E. S. Booze of Kentucky, circa 1840, was a distiller who sold his booze, liquor, under his own name, the bottles often made in the shape of log cabins. But booze probably has its roots in the Middle English verb bousen, drink deeply. However, the English use booze only for beer and ale, and there is no doubt that the labels on Mr. Booze’s bottles strengthened the general American use of the word for hard liquor. Today booze, in the South and the rest of the country, most often signifies cheap, even rotgut whiskey, though it also often refers to any alcoholic drink. bopper

A hard blow. “He socked him a real bopper.”

bore for the hollow horn A probably obsolete phrase once common in the South, among other regions. “A hole is bored in the horn of a cow (having a hollow horn) with a gimlet. This custom gave rise to the epithet applied to people who behaved foolishly (suggesting a hollow head): “He ought to be bored for the holler horn.” (Dialect Notes, volume 5, 1919) boresome

Boring. “He’s a kind of boresome man.”

borga; booga unknown.

A paper sack or

POKE,

the word’s origin

Loud talking, from the French BEAUCOUP, a born To give birth to, as in “ ‘She got help to born that child.’ ” (William Faulkner, “Tomorrow,” 1940)

books School or schooltime, as in “Books began at eight o’clock.” In days past “Books, books!” was a call to school.

born on crazy creek creek, you know.”

book-writer An author of books; to book-write means “to write a book.”

born tired and raised lazy worthless.

boomalally A soldier, especially one parading to music, the term apparently deriving from the sound of drums; first applied to cadets at the South Carolina Military Academy.

bosom bread These were large, flat loaves of bread that black stevedores working the Mississippi steamboats carried in their shirt fronts (against their chests or bosoms) for snacks throughout the day. They needed such fuel, as these longshoremen expended more energy than almost any other workers at the time.

boot (1) A lagniappe or premium, a little extra inducement in a sale; can also be the children a woman brings to a second marriage. The chiefly Southern term is first recorded in the early 19th century but possibly derives

Stupid. “He wasn’t born on crazy

Said of someone completely

boss dog Person in authority, top dog, big dog, an important person. “He’s boss dog around here.”

branch 29 boss-man; boss-lady; boss-woman The man or woman in charge; an employer or supervisor. “Watch it—here comes the boss-man.”

tucky. The county, in turn, was named for France’s Bourbon Kings.

apprehensive.

bourbon ball A candy flavored with bourbon whiskey made in Kentucky and other Southern states.

botherment A bother, trouble. “It’s really a botherment putting all those parts together.”

Bourbon Street A famous street in the French Quarter of New Orleans. In Love and Money (1954), Erskine Caldwell called it “that Southern gentleman’s skid row.”

bothered up Disturbed, agitated, “They’re all bothered up about it.”

both two Both one and the other. “I don’t want one, I want both two of them.” bottle A widespread pronunciation of battle, which, according to one joke, may have led to the outbreak of the Civil War. (See Introduction.) bottle-arsed tupelo A humorous Southern name for the tupelo gum tree (Nyssa aquatica) because of its bulging trunk base. bottle drink A somewhat old-fashioned Southern term for any soft drink. bottom

Low land near a river; also called bottomland.

bought Attached to bread (bought bread), clothing, champagne, and so forth, bought indicates something not made at home, something commercially made. See also BOUGHT CHAMPAGNE. bought champagne Champagne purchased from a store as opposed to homemade wine. See also SCUPPERNONG CLARET and SCUPPERNONG WINE. boughten Something commercially made, as opposed to homemade. See BOUGHT. bought flowers Cut flowers purchased from a florist. “They held the funeral on the second day with the town coming to look at Miss Emily beneath a mass of bought flowers . . .” (William Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily,” 1930) bound To bet, as in “I bound he’ll be there” or “I bound you he’ll win”; heard throughout the South but especially among black speakers.

Bowie knife

See

ARKANSAS TOOTHPICK.

bow the blinds To bring the shutters together so that they are almost closed. bow up to The opposite of bow down to; to stand up to someone. “You have got to bow up to him.” box (1) A coffin. “Addie Burden could not want a better one, a better box to lie in.” (William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying, 1930) (2) A stringed musical instrument such as a guitar or banjo. box-ankled Someone who has ankles that strike together when he or she walks. “He was a clumsy, knock-kneed, box-ankled S.O.B.” boxing A term widely used in Mississippi and other Southern states for wooden siding on a house. See also SHIPLAP. boy An insulting term for an adult black male that dates back to days of slavery and has become much less common in recent times. boys in gray Confederate soldiers; a term coined in 1861 after the color of Confederate uniforms. See also BUTTERNUT. Bradley According to Gary Jennings in Personalities of Language (1965): “All of the few Chickahominy Indians still existing in Virginia are surnamed Bradley. This commemorates either the popularity or the fecundity of an early English colonist, a runaway indentured servant, who joined and married into the tribe.” brag Excellent, fit to be boasted about. A prize dog for example is a brag dog; superlative cotton is brag cotton.

bound and determined Irrevocably committed to do something. “He’s bound and determined to leave home.”

braggable Something that can be boasted about. “We’re doin’ all right, but nothing’ braggable.”

bounden

braggadocious

Obligatory. “It’s his bounden duty.”

bourbon A whiskey that takes its name from a whiskey originally made only in Bourbon County, Ken-

Boastful, bragging.

branch A tributary stream or any stream that is not a large river or bayou.

30 Whistlin’ Dixie branch water Pure, natural water, water from a pure creek or stream, as in bourbon and branch water. brang Bring (see quotation for PECKERWOOD); sometimes used as the past tense of bring. brass ankle An often derogatory name for a person of mixed race that was first recorded in 1930 but is probably considerably older. One possible explanation has the term deriving from Portuguese settlers in South Carolina who intermarried with local blacks. These racially mixed people then tended to marry within their own group. Noted for the brass anklets they liked to wear and their dark skin, they came to be known as brass ankles or black ankles.

break land To plow. “ ‘When their mule died three or four years ago, him and her broke their land working time about in the traces with the other mule.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940) break one’s manners To become intentionally rude. “‘It was all that bumping and jolting you done,’ Ned said. ‘You talk like I brake my manners just on purpose to get caught.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Reivers, 1962) break one’s neck To get married. “He broke his neck, and he hardly knew her.” break out a path

To clear snow from a road or walk.

bray To prepare or pound up a medicine. “I brayed him a powder of elderberries and strawberry leaves.” The word dates back to at least 1386 but still has limited use in the South, or at least did up until recent times.

break western To “talk rough,” talk harshly, usually in temper and sometimes with profanity.

bread Often means corn bread in the South and can mean biscuits as well.

breath-and-britches Someone of no worth. “Don’t come around here with your breath-and-britches friends.”

break (1) A blunder, a mistake. “She made a terrible break at that meeting.” (2) To age or show one’s age. “Her prettiness was breaking.” break a breath with no one.”

To speak. “He didn’t break a breath

break a leg; break a toe To become pregnant when unmarried. “She broke her leg.” break bad To behave in a violent manner for no good reason. “He just broke bad last night and the po-leece got him.”

A harmonica.

breathing image of Very close in appearance to (someone). “She’s the breathing image of her mother.” See SPITTIN’ IMAGE. breath of spring Honeysuckle, because of its sweet smell early in spring. breeding vein A varicose vein, because varicose veins are common after pregnancies.

Sliced, smoked bacon, not salt-cured

Picking corn (breaking it off the stalk).

brer A black pronunciation of brother, made famous in the Uncle Remus tales of Joel Chandler Harris.

breakdown A noisy, rollicking country dance; also called a Virginia breakdown, an Old Virginia breakdown, an Ethiopian breakdown and a Negro breakdown.

breaking corn

breath harp

Tuberculosis.

breeding woman A term used by slaveowners for a |slave woman who was kept to bear children. Frederick L. Olmsted’s A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States (1856) reported, “A breeding woman is worth from one-sixth to one-fourth more than one that does not breed.” The term breeder was used to refer to men as well as women who were kept to produce children.

breakbone A chicken’s wishbone; also called the breaking bone or pulleybone.

breakfast bacon bacon.

breast complaint; breast disease

breaking one’s arm Bragging about yourself. “That’s really breaking your arm and patting yourself on the back.”

brickle; brickly Brittle. Sometimes heard in peanut brickle (peanut brittle). brierhopper

break it off in someone To hurt someone with a cutting, sarcastic remark. “She broke it off in him with that last wisecrack.”

A poor farmworker or farmer.

brierpatch child; brierpatch kid An illegitimate child, from the idea of a child conceived in a brier patch.

buck 31 bring To yield a crop. “That field brings beautiful tomatoes.” britches

British lady

A penny. “All I got is one brownie.”

Brown Mule A brand of chewing tobacco once very popular in rural parts of the South.

Pants, trousers.

britches riding high ing high.”

brownie

Very proud. “His britches are rid-

A nickname for the redwing blackbird.

bruder; brooder many children.

A woman who has given birth to

broadhorn dialect An old term once applied to an exaggerated language believed to be typical of Kentuckians and keelboatmen.

Brunswick stew A stew usually made of squirrel meat, lima beans and green corn seasoned with salt and pepper and said to have been invented by a cook in Brunswick County, Virginia, according to Ruth Berolzheimer’s The United States Regional Cookbook (1947). William Faulkner, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and many other Southern writers mention it.

broad open daylight

brush-ape

A derisive term for a hillbilly.

brush colt

An illegitimate child.

broad

See

ABROAD.

Broad daylight.

broadus Something given as a bonus, lagniappe, apparently deriving from the American-Spanish barata (bargain). brogan A heavy, sturdy workshoe, from the Irish brogan meaning the same. The term has widespread use but is especially common in the South. broken arms; broken victuals

Leftover food.

Bronze John A now mostly historical term for yellow fever, from bronze and the French jaune (yellow). brother Commonly used as a form of address by parents to male children (brothers) in many Southern families, as it is indeed in other regions. “ ‘Wonderful,’ she [Mother] said, sitting forward. ‘What’s she like, Brother? What is your impression of her?’ ” (Calder Willingham, Rambling Rose, 1972) brother, I’m bobbed A parlor game, once widely played in the South, in which a blindfolded player is touched by the other players. When a player touches him, he responds, “Brother, I’m bobbed” and the reply is, “Who bobbed you?” If he can identify who “bobbed” or touched him, that person takes his place as the blindfolded player. broughten

Brought; imported.

brown-eyed peas Black-eyed peas with a brown rather than black spot where they were attached to the pod; sometimes called brown-eyed crowder peas. See also CROWDER. “ ‘But where can we get fresh-shelled browneyed peas to can?’ he said, shaking his head. ‘Everybody in New Orleans eats brown-eyed peas, but nobody here grows them.’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, “Miss Paddleford,” Gulf Coast Stories, 1956)

brush mouth A drink of whiskey; used mainly among Gullah speakers. brush mover

A heavy rainfall.

bubba Bubba, chiefly among blacks in the South, is a term of address meaning “brother” and is used by friends as well as relatives. But reference works generally fail to note that the word is also commonly used to mean a white Southerner. An essay in the New York Times by Molly Ivins put it this way: “In theory, the battle for Southern voters revolves around the stereotypical white Southerner, usually known as ‘Bubba,’ who is partial to country music and conservative politics. But as Presidential politics move into the states of the Confederacy, the biggest question about Bubba may not be how he will vote but how to find him.” bubbe

A woman’s breast.

bubblegum machine The revolving light atop a police car, or the car itself; sometimes called a gumball machine. bubby The strawberry shrub (Calvcanthus glaucus), so named because of the globular blossoms’ resemblance to a woman’s breast, or BUBBE. According to Thomas Anburey in his Travels Through the Interior Parts of America (1791), the word derives “from a custom that the women have of putting this flower down their bosums . . . till it has lost all its grateful perfume.” Also called bubby blossom, bubby brush, bubby flower and bubby shrub. buck (1) A bull or a steer. (2) A derogatory term, dating back to slavery times, for a strong young black man.

32 Whistlin’ Dixie (3) From early times, short for a sawbuck, or sawhorse. (4) See BUCK; BUCK A DANDY. buck a bull off the bridge To perform a very difficult job, meet a difficult challenge.

buckra A Gullah term from the African Elik language mbakara (white leader or man), which can be a derogatory term for any white person or mean “white boss” or “poor white person.” buckra yam

buck; buck a dandy Both can mean either a young virile man or a woman-chasing fop, depending on how they are used. bucket

Often used instead of pail in the South.

bucket candy An old term for candy sold loose from buckets or other open display containers. bucket letter A historical term for any anonymous letter, deriving from a series of letters signed under the pseudonym Edward Bucket and sent to President John Quincy Adams by David Bucket of Georgia. bucket of blood; bloody bucket An old-fashioned term for a cheap, tough dive or speakeasy. A number were named the Bucket-of-Blood or Bloody Bucket. buckeyed Bugeyed, the word influenced by bucktoothed and most used by black speakers. buckhead A derisive term for a person of mixed race, perhaps deriving from bughead. bucking at the halter Resisting, trying to break away or break free. “ ‘Yes, sir,’ Miss Jenny said. ‘Horace has been bucking at the halter for some time now. But you better not run against it too hard, Horace; it might not be fastened at the other end.’ ” (William Faulkner, Sanctuary, 1931)

buckshot soil (land) Poor clay soil that when dry forms little pebbles that resemble buckshot. buckskin A term used in the past to describe a backwoodsman, especially a Virginian. buddy; buddy up went for a trip.” buddy gee black.

buck like a colt To vehemently object to something. “‘And when my family wanted me to marry a second cousin, I bucked like a colt.’” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936) buck load

To pair up. “We buddied up and

A black term for any friend or a fellow

budge An old-fashioned term for a fit of fidgety nerves. In The Deliverance (1904), Ellen Glasgow wrote: “Having unfortunately crossed her knees in the parlour after supper, she suffered untold tortures from ‘budges’ for three mortal hours rather than be seen to do anything so indelicate as to uncross them.” buffalo A name used to describe a North Carolinian favoring the North during the Civil War; the name was also given to the poor whites of North Carolina. bug To cheat. “You sure got bugged when you bought that car.” bug-eater An obsolete term once used to describe a worthless or insignificant person. bughouse

bucklety-whet An old-fashioned term for lickety-split, very quickly. “Afore you could snap your finger, he was there bucklety-whet.”

A name given to a white yam in the South.

A humorous term for a jail.

Bugtown; Bughill, Bugtressle; Bugscuffle Southern nicknames for small, insignificant, sometimes buginfested towns or villages. bug under the chip An old expression, common in the South, meaning an ulterior motive. “I can’t understand why he’d being so generous, but there must be a bug under the chip.”

An old term for a large portion of liquor.

buck-nekked Completely naked. “‘They got drunk and crashed the door in on him and found him bucknekked, dancing the highland fling. A man fifty years old, seven foot tall, with a head like a peanut.’ ” (William Faulkner, Sanctuary, 1931) Other similar terms are buck ass-naked, buck born-naked and stark bucknaked.

build the fence To get married when a child is on the way. “They planted their corn before they built their fence.” built from the ground up Sturdy, stocky. “We could use him on the line; he’s built from the ground up.” bull ant

The large black, stinging carpenter ant.

burgoo 33 bull bay The southern or great-flowered magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora).

bum jacket A short, durable everyday jacket, often made of denim.

bulldocia Boasting, threatening language, probably deriving from bull and braggadocio.

bummer During the Civil War, Union soldiers who deserted the ranks and looted and burned property, among other offenses, were called bummers by Southerners. The word had meant a loafer or sponger before this. See also SHERMAN’S BUMMERS.

bulldozer The earth-moving bulldozer takes its name from a band of political terrorists. After the Civil War a group of Louisiana vigilantes, who brutally prevented freed slaves from voting freely, were termed bulldozers, the word first printed in an 1876 newspaper account of their activities. It is not certain whether they were whites forcing blacks to vote Democratic, Republican Negroes forcing their brothers not to vote Democratic or groups of both. Neither is the exact origin of their name clear—it probably came from bulldose, to mete out a “dose of the bull” with the long heavy bullwhip often made from the animal’s penis. Bulldozer was soon used for “a revolver” and to describe anyone resembling the original terrorist bullies. Later the huge earth-moving machine, which brutally pushes everything in its path aside, became a national candidate for the designation. Few people realize that when someone is called a bulldozer today he is being named not for the machine but for the vigilantes so much like him. bulleye To hunt game at night by shining a light in an animal’s eyes and momentarily stunning it. “They bulleyed some deer last night.” bullfeathers! bull-footed bull gang

“Nonsense, horsefeathers!” Clumsy.

A crew of laborers.

bull-goaded Pestered or irritated, as a bull is by a goad. “He stood against the desk, huge, bull-goaded, impatient and outraged.” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940) bull of the woods Someone who is an important person, or thinks he is. bumblebee cotton; bumblebee crop A name given to cotton or any crop stunted by drought. “The cotton’s so low that the bees lie on their backs and suck the juice from the blooms—a real bumblebee crop.” bumfidgets bum fodder

bump bumps

A pimple or boil. A rash.

bunch oysters A Southern term for oysters that grow in clusters rather than singly. buncle

A carbuncle.

bundle

A woman; one’s wife.

bungo A type of canoe or small boat, the word probably deriving from the West African bongo, canoe or large raft. bunk The Missouri Compromise was being hotly debated that morning of February 25, 1820, when longwinded Congressman Felix Walker of Buncombe County, North Carolina rose on the floor of the House of Representatives and insisted that he be heard before a vote was taken. “Old Oil Jug,” as his fellow congressmen called him after his well-lubricated vocal cords, did not address himself to the monumental question of the extension of slavery; his interminable oration actually had little to do with anything important and members began interrupting him with cries of “Question, Question!” On being asked what purpose his speech served, Walker calmly replied, “You’re not hurting my feelings, gentlemen. I am not speaking for your ears. I am only talking for Buncombe.” Walker apparently had written his speech some time before and believed he would ingratiate himself with the voters back home if he delivered it in the midst of a great debate, but the strategy didn’t work, judging by the fact that he lost the next election. Yet his reply, “I am talking for Buncombe,” was widely published in newspapers covering the debate and became a synonym for talking nonsense. Eventually, Buncombe became bunkum and then took the shortened form of bunk (in the 1850s) meaning not only “bombastic political talk” but “any empty, inflated speech obviously meant to fool people.”

A case of nerves or the figets. Toilet paper.

bumfuzzle To confuse, used in Mississippi and other parts of the South.

burgoo The rich Southern stew of meat and vegetables called burgoo probably takes its name from a similar stew that American seamen used to make, which, in turn, may derive its name from the Arabic burghul (bruised grain). The word, however, was first

34 Whistlin’ Dixie recorded in the West as burgou in 1837 and may be a corruption of “barbecue.” Someone has noted about burgoo: “No two people tell the same story about its origin and no two people will give you the same recipe.” Kentucky is especially noted for its burgoo, and the word there can also mean a picnic at which the stew is served.

busthead Bad or illicit whiskey that can produce violent headaches; also called bustskull.

burk

busy as a cat with fur on fire Very busy, agitated. “Singing Sal had been stirring around as busy as a cat with fur on fire, and she was out of breath.” (Erskine Caldwell, “Big Buck,” The Complete Stories of Erskine Caldwell, 1953)

To vomit or to break wind.

burn To cook; especially common among blacks. “I have to go and burn supper.” burn down

bust out the middles field. bustskull

busy as a three-pricked goat Extremely busy, using the reference to the goat because of its renown for its procreative abilities. butter bean

burning green wood for kindling task.

burn the britches off To spank severely. “. . . that boy that his paw ought to burned his britches off for not being home in bed two hours ago . . .” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959) burr artichoke A globe or French artichoke, as opposed to a Jerusalem artichoke.

bush hog

A small lima bean.

Performing a futile

burnt-out on Tired or sick of. “ ‘I can’t imagine no tragedy worse than being burnt out on strawberry icecream.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Town, 1957) “ ‘U’m burnt out on sowbelly,’ [Mink said].” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959)

bush baby

BUSTHEAD.

To kill with a gun.

burning a river Being dressed up for an occasion, dressed to kill. “You’re burnin’ a river, girl. You look better than the bride!”

burrhead

See

To plow between the rows in a

butter bean teeth

Buck teeth.

butternut A term used during the Civil War for Confederate soldiers, because their uniforms were often homespun colored brown with dye made from butternut tree bark. See also COPPERHEADS. butt-headed Stubborn. “He’s a butt-headed S.O.B. if there ever was one.” but what A common expression, usually following an expression of doubt, to introduce what the speaker thinks is probably true; often used as in the following examples: “I don’t know but what I’ll eat some of them” (I think I’ll eat some of them). “I’m not sure but what he’s right” (He’s probably right).

A derogatory term for a black person. An illegitimate child. A mower for cutting brush or clearing ground.

bush line A fishing line thrown into the water and attached to brush or a tree on land. bushwhackers

See

COPPERHEADS.

busk An old-fashioned term meaning “to buss or kiss.” “I felt like busking him on his bald spot.” buss-eyed Old-fashioned term for calf-eyed. “The winner can call the loser a slew-footed, buss-eyed, cattywampus.” See also CATAWAMPUS.

by God and by Jesus! A mild oath or exclamation. “‘By God and by Jesus, Dude,’ Jeeter said, ‘ain’t you ever going to stop bouncing that there ball against that there old house?’” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932) by godfrey! Euphemism for “By God!” “ ‘Well by godfrey [Father said], that puts you one up on Manfred de Spain, don’t it?’ ” (William Faulkner, The Town, 1957) by sun Before sunset. “I’ll be there by sun to get the job finished.” by the hardest With great difficulty. “He got on the horse by the hardest.”

C cabbage patch Something, especially a place, of very little importance. “He lives in that cabbage patch town down by the river.”

calaboose A small town jail; also used frequently in the West and other parts of the country. Calhounery A historical term once used to describe political crimes such as stuffing ballot boxes, permitting illegal votes to be cast and so forth because supporters of Southern statesman John C. Calhoun (1782–1850) were known to engage in these practices.

cabin song A song sung and often created by blacks who lived in cabins on Southern plantations in slavery days. cachinnant To laugh loudly or immoderately; has some use among educated Southerners, as in the following: “Then he began to laugh, though almost at once it stopped being laughing and Ratliff knew that it had never been laughing, cachinnant, sobbing, already beyond the creature’s power to stop it . . .” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940) cackle

call hogs To snore, an old Scottish and English expression, from the Scots’ call (to drive). “He really called some hogs.” Cal-lina A common pronunciation of Carolina. “‘Yeer’d think he would learn in three years that he ain’t going to catch ere Cal-lina fox with them Yankee city dogs,’ the youth said.” (William Faulkner, “Fox Hunt,” 1931)

To laugh; used widely outside the South today.

Caddo An Indian tribe formerly living in Louisiana, Arkansas and part of Texas. Cajan

See

call one’s name To call oneself by a name. “How do you call your name?” “I calls me Sally.”

CAJUN.

call out of name To call someone abusive names. “He called me out of my name.”

Cajun A group of people of French Catholic ancestory who were expelled from Acadia in the late 18th century and settled in Louisiana and Maine. The word, deriving from Acadian, is also applied to any of their characteristics, such as the French dialect they speak. Also Cajan. cakewalk

See

call pigs

See

CALL HOGS.

callyhooting Moving at a breakneck pace, very rapidly and noisily; moving recklessly; moving licketety-split. “Here he comes a callyhootin’!” It possibly derives, according to one source, from “the confusion and noise that accompanies a calliope.”

TAKE THE CAKE.

cala A rice fritter made principally by Creoles in New Orleans, the word deriving from the African Bambara kala, meaning the same, or the Nube kare (a fried cake).

camelback house A house, usually in New Orleans, that is higher in the back than in the front.

35

36 Whistlin’ Dixie camel cricket A Southern nickname for the insect more widely known as the mantis, which has a long thorax that suggests the neck of a camel.

can-see to can’t-see at TROMP. can’t hardlies

camel walk A dance step once popular among blacks in the South. camp A name for slave quarters on a plantation before the Civil War; also called the quarters. camp meeting A religious revival meeting held outdoors in a camp for several days or longer; in days past, an important social event as well. candy Sometimes used to mean “candid” in the South. “ ‘Give me your candy opinion.’ ” (Carson McCullers, The Member of the Wedding, 1946) candy ankle A sissy; a weak effeminate man. “You know I heard you was a candy-ankle because you got a little book sense.” (Jesse Stuart, “Uncle Joe’s Boys,” 1938) candy breaking A once-popular social gathering at which individuals are paired by having the male and female guests match broken ends of candy sticks (candy canes). candy knocking An old party game at which a candy stick is tied to a string hanging from the ceiling. A person is blindfolded and given a wooden stick to hit the candy stick with. If he hits it, he is given a stick of candy.

Dawn to dusk. See usage example

Same as the all-overs (q.v.).

can’t-help-its A joking name for any imaginary disease. “He must have the can’t-help-its today.” can’t-see to can’t-see Before dawn to after dusk. “I got boys in the woods from can’t see to can’t see gettin’ me squirrels.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Cross Creek, 1942) caouane The name, taken from the French, given to the Southern alligator snapping turtle (Macrochelys lacertina), which ranges from western Texas to Florida and as far north as Missouri. cap

To beat, outdo, surpass. “Well, he capped all.”

cape bonnet “There is a kind of bonnet very commonly worn [in Virginia], which, in particular, disfigures them amazingly; it is made with a caul, fitting close on the back part of the head, and a front stiffened with small pieces of cane, which projects nearly two feet from the head in a horizontal direction.” (Isaac Weld, Travels Through the States of North America, 1799) Another writer said the bonnet “makes a face look as if it were at the far end of a cavern . . .”

candy pulling A social gathering at which molasses candy is made and pulled.

cape jasmine The gardenia. “She could look down upon the cape jasmine and syringa.” (William Faulkner, Sartoris, 1929)

candy roaster A squash variety, usually roasted or baked with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.

cape merchant An archaic term for the owner or man in charge of a general store.

cane beer Beer made with the skimmings taken from boiling sugar cane juice that is being made into molasses; the beer has a sweet-sour taste.

Capital of Miserable Huts HOLE. capper

canebrake An area overgrown with canes, a thicket of canes, especially southern cane, small cane or switch cane. Mississippi canebrake is another common designation for such a region.

See

GREAT AMERICAN MUD-

A corn popper.

cannonball A slow Southern train; this expression is used nationally, however, as a name for a fast or express train.

captain (1) Any man who excels at something. “He’s a captain to tell a tale.” (2) A form of address to white men by blacks, often obsequious. “ ‘What is it, captain?’ the Negro said. ‘I ain’t done nothing.’ ” (William Faulkner, “Dry September,” 1931) (3) A courtesy title, usually capitalized. “. . . in the South and West, nearly all tall men are called generals, stout men judges, and men of middling proportions, captains or colonels!” (James Robertson, A Few Months in America, 1855)

canoe ately.

Captain Bill vine A designation, origin unknown, for a common Southern vine that often overruns fences.

canecutter A large swamp rabbit found in many Southern states.

To have sexual intercourse; to neck passion-

carrot 37 Captain Lynch Another name for the “lynch law”: the administration of summary punishment, especially death, upon a suspect by a mob without legal authority. “Being cut off from all opportunity of bringing the offender to justice through the regular legal tribunals . . . they resolved to have recourse to that well-known arbiter vulgarly yclept [called] Captain Lynch.” (Henry S. Foote, Texas and the Texans, 1841) See LYNCH. captain’s beat A historical Southern term, now obsolete, meaning the limits within which members of a military company reside and within which the votes are received on election day. carbox

fortunes building Charleston and marking the beginning of a plantocracy considered by many to be the New World aristocracy. In any case, the Madagascar rice raised there was being called Carolina rice or golden rice by 1787. Carolina robin A smoked herring, probably because herring takes on the color of a robin’s breast when smoked according to the North Carolina recipe. Carolina rose

The Cherokee rose.

Carolinian A native of South or North Carolina, the term first recorded in 1707.

A boxcar on a train. carpetbag corruption

carcass Joking term for a person’s body or buttocks. “Park your carcass over there.” careen To lean or bend the body to one side. “I noticed a ketch in my back ever since I careened to get that pencil.” car house

A garage; also car shed.

Carolina bean

The lima bean.

Carolina glass A glass, often colored, used in the border of windows or for windows themselves. “Beside the window (the sash was raised now, with its narrow border of Carolina glass which in the winter framed her head and bust like a hung portrait) an old woman sat in a wheelchair.” (William Faulkner, “There Was a Queen,” 1933) Carolina gouger

See

Carolina potato potato.

CARPETBAGGER.

carpetbagger This expression, long associated with the American South, actually has its origins in England, where, in Victorian times, luggage made from plush red carpet became an institution and was so popular among embezzling bankers as a place to stash their loot that the embezzlers themselves were dubbed carpetbaggers. After the U.S. Civil War, carpetbags were used by many of the unscrupulous northern political adventurers, often poor whites, who packed their few worldly possessions in them to satisfy state property evidence requirements and moved to the South to take advantage of the newly enfranchised blacks and to win power and future wealth by controlling elections. Such greedy, unprincipled men, carrying their red carpetbags, and the previous association of the bags with men who milked banks just as these men were milking the South, gave birth to their name carpetbaggers, as well as the Carpetbag Era of American history.

VIRGINIA GOUGER.

carpetbag Yankee Carolina jasmine

See

Another term for a

CARPETBAGGER.

The yellow jasmine. An old, seldom-used term for a sweet

Carolina racehorse hog.

A humorous term for a razorback

Carolina rice Some sources say that the first rice successfully grown in Carolina was introduced into Charleston in 1694 by a Dutch brig out of Madagascar, while others hold that Yankee shipmaster Captain John Thurber presented a packet of Madagascar rice to one of the early settlers on pulling into Charleston harbor late in the 1680s. According to the latter story, the settler planted the rice rather than dining on it, and after it sprouted, he gave seed to his friends, who in turn raised rice on their fertile land. Charleston and the Carolina low country soon became the “Rice Coast,” rice

carpet sack An old term for a carpetbag, a piece of luggage made from carpet. carried Brought. “‘Young lady, I carried you some Bigbee pecans. I thought you might not harvest the like around here.’” (Eudora Welty, The Optimist’s Daughter, 1972) carried on to Carried on at a place or function; acted improperly or even immorally. “My how we carried on to the party.” Carried on is sometimes used in the sense of “talked incessantly.” carrion crow The turkey vulture or the black vulture, both scavengers. carrot A historical term in the South for a compressed roll of leaf tobacco 12 to 15 inches long.

38 Whistlin’ Dixie carry (1) To take or bring, as in “Carry me back to ole Virginie.” (2) To drive someone somewhere in an automobile. (3) To escort, take, lead, accompany; sometimes heard as carry out. “Are you going to carry Miss Alice to the theater?” (4) To haul by truck. “He’s carrying that wood to market.” carry guts to a bear Said of someone very stupid. “He ain’t got sense enough to carry guts to a bear.” car shed

A garage; also car house.

cart To transport by car or truck. “I’ve been cartin’ him all over town.” Carter’s oats An old term used in expressions of exaggerated comparison, as in “We had more whiskey than Carter had oats.” It is said that a Georgian named Carter, in bragging of his oatfield’s yield, claimed that “the oats were so thick that he had to move the fence to find room to stack the bundles.” cascade An old euphemistic term, originating in England, meaning to vomit a lot at one time, “from the resemblance to a waterfall,” as Bartlett says. cash down; cash over To supply cash; to pay at once. “Cash down, quick, or I’ll put you off at the next station.” cash money Cash, coins or bills rather than checks or credit. “We’ll take in a heap o’ cash money selling these at the game.” cast up

cat-and-rat rifle A small-caliber rifle used for small game. “We had an air-rifle, but wanted a cat-and-rat rifle, which used real cartridges . . .” (H. L. Mencken, Happy Days, 1940) catasterfy trophe.

An old humorous pronunciation of catas-

catastrastroke Catastrophe. Used in Calder Willingham’s Rambling Rose (1972) but nowhere else that can be firmly established: “ ‘This is a total catastrastroke,’ said Daddy. ‘That’s what it is, a catastrastroke out of the blue.’ ” (The story takes place in Great Depression era, small-town Mississippi.) catawampus (1) Cater-cornered. “He walked catawampus across the street.” Also heard as CATTYWAMPUS. (2) A hobgoblin or fierce imaginary monster; also called wampus. See usage example at BUSS-EYED. Catawba grapes A light reddish variety of grape, the Catawba was developed by John Adlum in his vineyard near Georgetown, Washington, D.C. in 1829. It was named three years later for the Catawba Indians of the Carolinas or for the Catawba River, which takes its name from the Indian tribe. The Catawba, long a traditional favorite, contains some vinifera blood and is one of the best grapes for white domestic wines. By 1860 nine-tenths of all grapes grown east of the Rockies were Catawbas, but they were thereafter replaced by the Concord, perfected in 1850, as the leading American variety. They are now making a comeback.

To vomit.

cat (1) Short for catfish since the early 18th century. (2) A term used by blacks that has passed into general use meaning “a good performer or lover of jazz”; “a good guy”; and “a prostitute or woman of loose morals.” (See also CATTING.) (3) To fish for catfish. “When we goes a catting, we goes a catting, and throws trout back into the water to pay ’em for their imperdence of biting.” (John Wilkes, Spirit of the Times, August 19, 1865) catabias Askew, out of line. “You’ve got it turned catabias.” Catahoula hound dog (cur) A large blue-spotted hound dog associated with Louisiana’s Catahoula parish and used in hunting wild hogs. Also called leopard dogs, they are said to have first been used by Indian tribes in Louisiana. cat-and-clay Clay mixed with sticks or straw and used as a mortar for chimneys.

catbird seat To be in the catbird seat means “to be sitting pretty, to be in a favorable position.” It is a Southern Americanism dating back to the 19th century but popularized nationally by Brooklyn Dodgers baseball announcer Red Barber, of Southern origin, and James Thurber’s short story “The Catbird Seat.” The catbird, or North American thrush, usually sings its song from a high place in a tree. It has the name catbird because “its ordinary cry of alarm . . . somewhat resembles the mew of a cat.” catbrier A sharp, tangling bramble growth (Smilex rotundfolia) that is a nuisance to farmers and gardeners and is called catbrier because its leaves are as sharp as the claws of a cat; also known as blaspheme vine, among other names. catch a fly Said of someone who is staring or gawking open-mouthed. “Watch out now you don’t catch a fly.” catch air To run with great, sudden speed. “He saw the police coming and did he catch air!”

cedar pencil 39 catcher

A synonym for the game of tag children play.

catch ’im! A command to a dog meaning “Get ’im!” or “Sic ’im!” catch one red hand To catch someone redhanded. “‘Ah, hah!’ she said. ‘I set a trap for you and caught you red hand!’ ” (Calder Willingham, Rambling Rose, 1972)

catstepping Walking quietly. “Out he went, catstepping down the walk.” catting A term originating with blacks that usually means “fooling around” or “going out chasing women,” but it can also mean “to fish for cats (catfish).” cattle

catch-pain back.

Low, contemptible people.

A sudden sharp pain in the side or in the

catchpenny Used in the South for any low-priced fraudulent item, this term has its origins in England, having been first recorded there in the mid-18th century. catface A scar or knot in a tree or on a piece of fruit, such as a tomato; also a disease in tomatoes and the cracks that naturally occur on a tomato near the stem. The term is used in other regions as well.

cattle droppings A Southern term for cattle dung or cow flops, as they are called in other parts of the country. “[My dog] had a few little idiosyncratic oddities about him that didn’t exactly endear him to some people, like rolling in fresh cattle droppings and then climbing up on somebody’s truck seats . . .” (Larry Brown, “Big Bad Love,” 1990) cat-tongues cat track

cat fever infection.

Small but long and slender oysters.

A disease of the eyes, trachoma.

Short for the catarrhal fever respiratory

catfish hole A hole in a stream where people fish for catfish. “Let’s go down to the old catfish hole.” catfish row

The poor black section of a town.

cattywampus (1) Catawampus, askew, awry, positioned diagonally, cater-cornered, oblique. (2) Very big, a monster of its kind. “ ‘I’ll bet we kin ketch us a cattywampus in one o’ them ponds.’ [Jody said].” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) See also CATAWAMPUS.

cat-hauling A cruel punishment used mostly on slaves in which a man was fastened down and a huge, fierce tomcat was taken by the tail and hauled down along the man’s bare back, the cat’s claws ripping flesh all the way.

caught Become pregnant. “‘So there was an old woman [Varner said] told my mammy once that if a woman showed her belly to the moon after she had done caught, it would be a gal. So Mrs. Varner taken and laid every night with the moon on her nekid belly, until it fulled and after. I could lay my ear to her belly and hear Eula kicking and scrouging like all get out, feeling the moon.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940)

cathead

A large biscuit.

caught short

catmint

A Southern name for catnip.

the Cause A Southern name for the Civil War. “ ‘And I know Charlie would like you to help the Cause he died for.’ ” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936.)

catfish stew A Southern dish made with catfish that is similar to a chowder.

catmocker BIRD SEAT.

Another name for the catbird. See also CAT-

To become pregnant while not married.

cat on a hot tin roof Best known today as the title of Tennessee Williams’ famous play, the expression has been in wide use since the turn of the century. Apparently it came to the South and then the rest of the country via a similar British phrase, like a cat on hot bricks, which has been traced back to about 1880 and means “someone ill at ease, uncomfortable, not at home in a place or situation.”

cawked An old, perhaps obsolete term for exhausted. “I’m all cawked.” Possibly a pronunciation of corked or caulked.

cat’s fur to make kitten britches A humorous answer to the question “What for [pronounced fur]?”

cedar pencil An old Southern term for a cheap, unpainted pencil.

cease (1) Used among blacks to mean a decrease in the wind. “It’s beginning to cease.” (2) As a verb, cease can mean “to die,” as in, “Now that he ceased, we got no one can fix things here.”

40 Whistlin’ Dixie cedar pine

A name for the spruce pine (Pinus glabra).

cedar robe A small piece of cedar furniture to hang clothes in, a cedar wardrobe. ceiling

Can be a synonym for an attic or a loft.

ceitful ers.

Deceitful; usually heard among Gullah speak-

celery

A frequent pronunciation of salary.

change-up A change. “We’ll have to have a change-up pretty soon.” change words To converse, exchange words. “I’d like to change a few words with you.” chanky chank

cent The singular cent is often used as a plural, as in “He had 10 cent.” center shot An old historical term for a great marksman with a rifle, one who would always hit the center of the target. certain-sure Absolutely certain. “He had all those certainsure cures.” c’est vrai It is true; a French expression often used in the Louisiana-French dialects. chain-gang pea The black-eyed pea, because it was commonly grown on farms where chain gangs worked.

A term Cajuns use for their music.

channel catfish A Southern term for a number of different catfish but generally Ictaclurus punctatus, which goes by the names blue catfish, silver catfish and black warrior, among others. chap (1) A baby or young child. “There’s a new baby downstairs. Little chaps like that can’t be comfortable on a long journey, you know.” (Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi, 1883). (2) To have children, reproduce. “‘You and me ain’t nigh done chapping yet, with just two.’ ” (William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying, 1930) chappie

Same as

CHAP.

charcoal An old derogatory term for a dark-skinned black person. charcoal out To barbecue a meal outside. “We gonna charcoal out tonight.”

chairbacker A part-time lay preacher who has no formal training in the ministry and has no church of his own, perhaps because such a preacher once carried a chair, which he turned around back to him, for his streetcorner pulpit.

charge it to the dust and let the rain settle it A sassy term meaning “charge it on the books, it probably won’t be paid anyway; in any event, it’s not my responsibility and I’m not going to worry about it”; also “charge it to the sand.”

chaland A term used in Louisiana for a small rectangular flat-bottomed boat. Chaland is French for “flatboat.”

charge it to the sand

chamber lye An old term or euphemism for urine or urine mixed with another substance used as a medicine. “She used chamber lye to treat her chapped skin.” cham-chack The red-billed woodpecker (Centurus carolinus), in reference to its cries. chance An old term for an amount, number or quantity. “He lost a right smart chance of blood.” chance off

To raffle off something.

change An euphemism meaning to castrate or alter an animal. change over

See

CHANGE.

See

CHARGE IT TO THE DUST AND

LET THE RAIN SETTLE IT.

charging school A private school where tuition is paid, as opposed to a public school. The term was popular during the Great Depression when public schools could only stay open five to seven months a year, due to budget cuts, and parents were allowed to use the facilities, paying teachers themselves to teach their children. Charles

See

MR. CHARLIE.

Charleston This peppy dance, symbolic of the Roaring Twenties, takes its name from Charleston, South Carolina where it was probably first introduced as a variation of an earlier dance originated by American blacks. The word is first recorded in 1925. Charleston brim The sheepshead fish; brim here is a variation of bream.

chew one’s bit 41 Charleston butterfly roach. Charleston buzzard

A palmetto bug or water bug; a

See

CHARLESTON EAGLE.

Charleston eagle The black vulture (Coragyps atratus); also known as the Charleston buzzard.

cheep To reveal something, to betray a secret. “I didn’t cheep it to anybody.” cheese The singular cheese is often used as a plural, as in, “Pass me them cheese.” cheesebox upon a plank

See

YANKEE CHEESEBOX ON A

RAFT.

Charlestonian A native of Charleston, South Carolina. In 1828 Mrs. Basil Hall wrote in her Aristocratic Journey, “I must do the Charlestonians the justice to say that I have not seen any chewing amongst them nor spitting.” Charlie

See

MR. CHARLIE.

charm string Buttons displayed on a string like a necklace. According to the Miami Herald, at the turn of the century: “Young girls . . . sometimes collected buttons or received them as gifts. They would be strung and counted. Supposedly when the girl reached 999 buttons, her final prize would be Prince Charming, who would come and take her away and they would live happily ever after.” chartered whiskey Whiskey that is strained through charcoal, a relatively good whiskey as opposed to ordinary moonshine. William Faulkner wrote of “good red chartered whiskey.” chase the gator A game of tag in a pool with the chaser called the “gator.” chaw (1) A common pronunciation of chew in the South, though it is used in New England and other areas as well. (2) To embarrass or belittle somebody. “He chawed her so much her face turned red.” chawbacon An old, perhaps obsolete, term for a country hick that dates back to the early 19th century. chawed

See

chaw tobacco

CHEWED.

An old term for chewing tobacco.

Chay! A cry for cattle; used in the vicinity of Williamsburg, South Carolina, whereas Cowench! is used in other parts of South Carolina. One writer points out that Chay! is duplicated in County Antrim, Ireland, “linking that present residents in a tiny area of the South with their ancestors in the old country.” cheapwad A very cheap person, a combination of cheapskate and tightwad. checks The playing pieces in a checkers set. The game itself is sometimes called checker (singular) in the South.

cheese-eater A person who cheats, informs or doublecrosses, deriving from the slang expression rat, which means the same. chere (sher) A term of endearment for a woman or girl in New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana; from the French chère (dear, beloved). cherie Darling. A French word often used in the Louisiana-French dialects. chermany A variety of the game of baseball once played in the Southern United States. According to the Dictionary of Americanisms, the origin of the word is unknown. Cherokee rose The evergreen white rose Rosa laevigata or Rosa bracteata (also known as the prairie rose and Chickasaw rose), both of which often grow wild in the South and are cultivated as hedges. cherry phosphate A favorite soft drink in the South of old, still available in some areas. “All the trails converged upon the crossroads store . . . with . . . its flyspecked window, and the bottles of Coke and cherry phosphate on a counter inside.” (Cecile Matschat, Suwanee River, 1938) Cherry phosphate was often mixed with Coca-Cola to make cherry Coke. chess pie A pie filled with a creamy mixture of eggs, butter and sugar. Chess here was probably chest originally, possibly because the pie was baked in a pan resembling a small chest. chew-bubble Blow gum.

A synonym for bubble gum; also called

chewed Can mean either angry or defeated. “He feels chewed.” cheweeka A name for the killdeer, in imitation of the sound of the bird’s song. chew one’s bit Deriving from the expression to champ at the bit, like a horse does, this old expression means the same—to be impatient or to be angry.

42 Whistlin’ Dixie chew one’s tobacco more than once To repeat oneself. “I ain’t gonna chaw my tobacker twice.” It can also mean “to be cheap; to think something over.” Chewsday

A common pronunciation of Tuesday.

chew your own tobacco Chicago of the South ton, Texas.

Rely on yourself, no one else. A name used to describe Hous-

Chickasaw A horse of mixed colors once used by the Chickasaw Indians. Chickasaw plum The common wild plum (Prunus angustifolia), found in abundance where the Chickasaw Indians lived. chicken asshole chicken-bone

See

CHICKEN BUTT.

The wishbone of a chicken or turkey.

chicken butt A humorous name for the navel; a coarser variation is chicken asshole. chicken coop

A humorous term for an outdoor privy.

chicken corn A variety of sorghum (S. vulgare drummondii); also called Chinese sugarcane in the past. chicken-eater A name given to any animal (a hog, dog, etc.) that eats chickens. chicken-eating (1) Something mean, little or generally despised. “You chicken-eatin’ fool!” (2) A word used when referring to a CHICKEN-EATER. “That chicken-eatin’ sow made short work of him.” chicken feed Something trifling, of no importance. “A hundred dollars. That’s chicken feed today.” The term apparently originated in the South in the early 19th century, but it is now a national expression.

chicken meat

A turtle’s white meat.

chicken money An old term similar to egg money: a small amount of spending money, originally earned by farm women who sold eggs or chickens. chicken ’n’ egg

Another name for the zinnia.

chicken preacher A part-time lay preacher, usually black, so named because women often served such preachers roast chicken when they preached. chicken ranch A brothel; after the name of a real brothel made famous in the play The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. chickenweed Ragwort, because its seed used to be mixed with chicken feed as a remedy for various maladies of chickens. chick nor child No one. “ ‘So you ain’t got father, mother, brother, sister, husband, chick nor child. Not a soul to call on, that’s you.’ ” (Eudora Welty, The Optimist’s Daughter, 1972) chifforobe A blending of chiffonier and wardrobe, this word, for a piece of furniture with drawers on one side and a space for hanging clothes on the other, is common in the South but used in other areas of the country as well, even in New York City. chigger This word, meaning the larva form of certain mites, especially the red bug, Trombicula irritans, is found in several African languages and may have been brought to the South by slaves. chill bumps ples.

Gooseflesh; also cold bumps, cold pim-

chillin; chillun; chillum Common black Southern pronunciation of children, also heard among whites.

chicken flutter An old dance popular among slaves on antebellum plantations in which the dancers imitate the fluttering of a chicken.

chimbley; chimbly Chimney. “. . . even when it was staring him in the face out yonder at Miz Hait’s chimbley Saturday night . . .” (William Faulkner, The Town, 1957)

chicken grape The purple medium-sized grape Vitis riparia, which grows wild and is valued for its fragrant blossoms.

chinchy older.”

chicken guts (1) A humorous term for the gold trim on the cuffs of Confederate uniforms during the Civil War. (2) A name used by children for the symbol &, the ampersand.

Stingy, miserly. “He got chinchy as he grew

chin music Loquacious, inconsequential talking made by those who like to hear themselves talk. chinning

Talking a lot. “He never stopped chinnin’.”

chunking 43 chipperdale; chippendale A whore, prostitute, chippy. “ ‘If she’s nothin’ but one o’ them lettle ol’ chipperdales, why do he mess up with her?’ ” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) See also CHIPPY. chippy A prostitute. Dating back to about 1800 and perhaps deriving from prostitutes chipping (chip: to chirp, to hiss) at men passing by in the street, the expression is common throughout the country now. chippyhouse

A brothel.

chitlins (1) See CHITTERLINGS. (2) Insides, guts of a man or woman. “His chitlin’s is made of iron.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) chitlin strut A party at which chitlins (CHITTERLINGS) and beer are sold. chittamwood The small American snake tree, Cotinus obovatus, of the central-southern United States, with yellow flowers and clusters of fleshy fruits with silky plumes. Chittam is apparently of unknown Indian origin. chitterlings Hog intestines made into a popular Southern dish; usually pronounced chitlins. chizzwink A Floridian name for the crane fly, also called the blind mosquito in Florida. chizzywink A white midge of the family Chironomedae that is prolific in the Everglades. choaty Fat, chubby; possibly deriving from shoat and often a nickname. choicy Very fussy or choosy. “I’m tired of her choicy ways.” cholmondely (pronounced chumley) The Charleston, South Carolina pronunciation of chimney, according to Lord Ashley Cooper’s (Frank B. Gilbreth’s) Dictionary of Charlestonese, which gives examples of Southern pronunciation that border on becoming new words. choog

See

Christian Besides its religious usage, a Christian can mean a “person who abstains from all liquor, a nondrinker.” Christmas (1) Can mean whiskey. “Put some Christmas in that punch.” (2) Sometimes means the gifts given at Christmas. “Look at this Christmas I got.” Christmas at you!

A greeting on Christmas day.

Christmas gift! A greeting used on Christmas morning, with the first person saying it traditionally receiving a gift. The custom, which has been traced back to as early as 1844, is no longer observed, but Christmas gift!, which used to be a far more popular Christmas greeting than Merry Christmas! is still heard among older people. “[The black children] with branches of mistletoe and holly for excuses, already lurking about the rear of the big house to shout ‘Christmas gift’ at the white people . . .” (William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!, 1936) Chuck

See

MR. CHARLIE.

chuckheaded catfish catus).

The blue catfish (Ictaclurus fur-

chuffle-jawed Large or full jaws, the word chuffle here probably deriving from an early word for jowl. chuffy (1) Plump and healthy-looking; from a Scottish dialect word meaning the same. (2) Short and fat. See also CHOATY. chug; choog ribs.” chune

To hit, jab, poke. “He chugged me in the

A pronunciation of tune.

chunk (1) To throw a stone, ball, etc. “He chunked a rock at her.” (2) As an adjective, moderately good. “He owned a chunk of a house back then.”

CHUG.

choose To wish or want. “How about some pecan pie?” “Thank you, no, I don’t choose any.” chop To weed or thin crops. “He got his hoe and begun choppin’ out young cotton plants.” chop-mouth hound, chop-tongue hound strong steady bark or chop.

chouette The French name in Louisiana for what is also called there the screech owl or “gimme bird” (Otus asia floridonus).

A dog with a

chunk-floater A heavy rain that comes on suddenly (and can float or move chunks of wood, etc.). chunking Throwing, chucking. “ ‘Quit chunking that durn ball at them there weatherboards,’ he said. ‘You don’t never stop doing what I tell you.’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932)

44 Whistlin’ Dixie chunk up To throw up, vomit. “He chunked up all over the rug.” church stick A staff with a rabbit foot on one end and a fox tail on the other, once used in the South and other areas to awaken people who had fallen asleep in church. chute

See

TAKE THE CHUTE.

City of Monuments land. City of Rocks

A nickname for Baltimore, Mary-

clap one’s fists To strike one’s palm with one’s fist in order to emphasize a speech. “He not only preached against them [the Ku Klux Klan] in his four-hour sermons but he went out on the road and clapped his fists and preached against them.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938) clapper-clawing A violent fight in which someone is badly mauled or beaten; by extension a fiery denunciation, a tirade. “There were three of them involved in that clapper-clawing, and none of them came out looking good, I can tell you.”

A nickname for Nashville, Tennessee.

City of the Hills

A nickname for Richmond, Virginia.

City of White Sand A nickname for Pensacola, Florida, long noted for its white beaches.

clawthumper A Marylander, erroneous pronunciation of crawthumper. “Those [soldiers] from Maryland were called claw-thumpers.” (Walt Whitman, November Boughs, 1888)

The English sparrow (Passer domesticus).

Clay In the 19th century numerous terms bore the name of Kentucky statesman Henry Clay (1777–1852), including a breed of trotting horse called the Clay.

city whiskey Commercially manufactured whiskey as opposed to moonshine. “ ‘Now, fellers, let’s all have a drink of this-here nice city whiskey . . .’ ” (William Faulkner, The Town, 1957)

claybank A horse of a cream or yellowish color; called either a claybank or a claybank horse.

city sparrow

civil A fairly widespread term today describing either a kind, polite, civilized person or mannerly actions. Civil War The Northern name for what some Southerners called the War, the Revolution, the War of Independence, the Second War of Independence, the War of Secession, the Glorious Cause, the War Between the States, the Unpleasantness, the Second American Revolution, the War for Constitutional Liberty, the War for Nationality, the War for Separation, the War for Southern Freedom, the War for Southern Independence, the War for Southern Nationality, the War for Southern Rights, the War for States’ Rights, the War of the North and South, the War of the Sixties, the War to Suppress Yankee Arrogance and the Yankee Invasion, the Late Unpleasantness, the Little Unpleasantness, and Mr. Lincoln’s War. All of these terms, including the Civil War, were first recorded in 1861. clabber

Sour, curdled milk.

clabber cheese clabberhead mouthed.

Cottage cheese.

clay-eater One who eats clay for its nutritional content, especially a Southern poor white or black. “He was a little, dried up, withered atomy—a jaundiced sandlapper or clay-eater from the Wassamasaw county.” (William Gilmore Simms, The Scout, 1854) The term has often been used disparagingly, along with terms like POOR WHITE, hillbilly and REDNECK. Clay-eating, also called dirt-eating, is still practiced in parts of the South, especially in the South Carolina and Georgia low country. “ ‘Coming down here every year and staying two months, without nothing to see . . . except these clayeaters and Nigras.’ ” (William Faulkner, “Fox Hunt,” 1931) clean An expression used mostly among blacks meaning “well-dressed.” cleanly An old term for clean. “Get us some cleanly clothes.” clean one’s plow To beat someone up in a fight. “As we say in Texas, he cleaned his plow.” clean up your own backyard Don’t talk about others when you can stand improvement yourself.

Someone foolish or, less often, foul-

clam A common pronunciation of climb. “He clammed up the tree.”

clearseed

See

CLEARSTONE.

clearstone A freestone peach, as opposed to a clingstone; also called a clearseed.

Coke 45 clever (1) Nice, pleasant, agreeable, good-natured; sometimes heard as clever-hearted. “He was a right clever person, never a mean word from him.” (2) Kindly, hospitable. “The new miller treated him real clever, and let him sleep in Old Master’s mill room.” (Willa Cather, Sapphire and the Slave Girl, 1940) cleverness An old term for amiability in Virginia and other Southern states. climb (crawl) one’s frame To attack someone abusively, either physically or verbally. “ ‘Don’t let ’em climb your frame, son.’ ” (Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel, 1929) clinch peach The clingstone variety of peach, in which the flesh clings to the pit, as opposed to the freestone variety; Also called cling-fast. cling-fast

See

CLINCH PEACH.

clip and clean Completely, entirely. “He missed the target clip and clean.” clod buster

coat

An old term for a slip or petticoat.

cochon de lait A French term for a pig roast or a suckling pig used in Louisiana. cock In the South cock is a name for the female sexual organ rather than the penis, as is the case in the rest of the country. “She’s a good piece of cock,” is a rather common expression. Several authorities, including Hugh Ranson’s Dictionary of Euphemisms, make note of this. “The father, he said, put his ‘dilly’ into the mother’s ‘cock’ (an odd Southernism, by the way; the word in Dixieland describes not a man’s intimate parts, but a woman’s) . . . The reverse meaning of the hideous word ‘cock’ in the South is rather bizarre—why do they have it backward? Or do we in Yankeeland, in our ignorance ‘cock-deep’ in frost and rime, have it backward?” (Calder Willingham, Rambling Rose, 1972) cock of the roost

The boss, the leader of any group.

Co’ Cola A common Southern pronunciation of CocaCola, a soft drink invented in Atlanta, Georgia. See also COKE.

A heavy sudden rain. cod; cods

clome Climbed; used by uneducated speakers in parts of Virginia. “He clome the tree.” clomper To walk with a heavy foot. “His clompering could wake up the dead.” closed for flu Sign in a store window in a small Alabama town meaning that the store is closed because the owner and/or a number of his employees have come down with the flu (recorded in the movie My Cousin Vinny, 1992). clothespress An old term for a large wardrobe used to hold hanging clothes and which also has drawers in which to store clothes flat or folded. clothes to die in Good clothing set aside for one’s funeral. “Ada, too, talked about getting clothes to die in. She wanted a silk dress, and it mattered little to her whether the color was red or black, so long as it was stylish in length.” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932) clumb Climbed. “ ‘Then I clumb up with the rope, and Pap reached it through the decking . . .’ ” (William Faulkner, “Shingles for the Lord,” 1943) coaling A place where wood is burned to make charcoal. “Take the logs down to the coaling.”

Penis; testicles.

coffin money Burial insurance, or the periodic payment for burial insurance (life insurance bought for this purpose). “ ‘When yawl go home, I gone,’ Nancy said. She talked quieter now, and her face looked quiet, like her hands. ‘Anyway, I got my coffin money saved up with Mr. Lovelady.’ Mr. Lovelady was a short, dirty man who collected the Negro insurance, coming around to the cabins or kitchens every Saturday morning to collect fifteen cents.” (William Faulkner, “That Evening Sun,” 1931) coffin-tack

A cigarette or cigar; based on coffin nail.

cohee Any Virginian living west of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. See also TUCKAHOE. Coke (1) Any carbonated soft drink, used despite the trademark. (2) Coke or Coca-Cola (both registered trademarks), was invented by Atlanta, Georgia druggist Dr. John S. Pemburton in 1886 and is so named because its original ingredients were derived from coca leaves and cola nuts. Coke is also slang for cocaine, and for this reason the Coca-Cola Company long avoided use of this name—especially because up until 1909 Coca-Cola did contain minute amounts of cocaine. Although the Supreme Court later declared Coca-Cola and Coke exclusive trademarks, cola was ruled a generic word that anyone could use. Coca-Cola’s slogans “The pause that

46 Whistlin’ Dixie refreshes” and “Coke is it” are also well known. In 1985 a Mr. Frederick Koch (pronounced “Coke”) got tired of people pronouncing his last name “Kotch” and changed it to Coke-Is-It. Coca-Cola objected to the use of its trademark but finally reached a settlement with Mr. Coke-Is-It, allowing him to keep his new name. “. . . many of those who eat out in North Carolina have become little more than sandwich munchers and Coke drinkers.” (Jonathan Daniels, Tar Heels, 1941) See also CO’ COLA. Coke money

A Southern term for pin money.

cold as flugins

See

FLUGINS.

cold bumps Gooseflesh; also called chill bumps and cold pimples. cold drink

A carbonated soft drink of any kind.

cold-out (1) certainly, actually, really. “That fox were cold-out crazy.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) (2) Full, whole, entire. “We got a cold-out day of work before we finished.” cold-out as a wedge Senseless; unconscious. “The barrel bursting on top of him and knocking him cold-out as a wedge . . .” (William Faulkner, “Shingles for the Lord,” 1943) cold-out meanness A cold, unfeeling, almost inhuman meanness. “‘I’ll be dogged if I kin understand cold-out meanness.’”(Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) coldover Leftovers saved from an earlier meal; also holdover. cold pimples bumps. cold potato

colored A common term, now considered derogatory by many African-Americans, for a black person or black people in the South, though it is frequently heard in other regions as well; short for colored person. colored people’s time; C.P.T. This phrase, meaning a different time system, or a time later than the prescribed time, possibly originated among blacks, perhaps in the South; in any case, it is considered derogatory by many African-Americans. color-struck A derogatory term apparently originating among Southern blacks and referring to a black person who acts conceited because his or her skin is lighter than that of most blacks. come a Used of weather that is going to develop, as in “It’s going to come a storm.” come across To occur to. “It come across me that I might be wrong.” come back A farewell expression, sometimes expanded to come back again, meaning “come again.” “Y’all come back, y’hear?” come by An invitation to pay a short visit. “Come by and stay for dinner.”

Gooseflesh; also chill bumps or cold

A dull, boring person or thing.

collard; collards

A Southern variety of kale.

collash To clash or collide. “The trucks collashed at the crossroad.” collogue place.”

rals or colonels or majors or maybe just privates, in Confederate armies, or who had contributed to the campaign funds of successful state governors.” (William Faulkner, The Town, 1957) The unofficial title of respect is also used in an ironic or joking sense. See also CAPTAIN , SECESH COLONEL , RATTLESNAKE COLONEL.

To conspire. “They’re colloguing to take my

Colonel An honorary title in the South, as are Major and General, since the 18th century. Faulkner explained it this way: “Jefferson, Mississippi, the whole South for that matter, was still full at that time of men called General or Colonel or Major because their fathers or grandfathers had been gene-

come-by-chance A euphemism for an illegitimate child. “All her kids are come-by-chance.” come ci Come here; a combination of the English come and the truncated French ici (here); used in Louisiana to call children. come easy, go easy Southern variation of easy come, easy go; an easygoing person; also come easy, come go. come here A southwest Virginia term for a person not born in the community. Come heres are a group of such people. come off An often unfortunate outcome or circumstance. “Well, that’s a fine come off. I thought I was going to win, and I lost by ten points.”

conch 47 come on at one’s own gait Do things at one’s own pace or in one’s own good time. “ ‘Won’t you please go to hell and let me come on at my own gait?’ ” (William Faulkner, “Uncle Willy,” 1936) come on to rain To begin raining. “Along in the afternoon it came on to rain.” come over one’s head To hit someone over the head. “He come over my head with his cane.” comer-and-goer An old term for a tourist. “We get a lot of comer-and-goers in summer.” come-see A lovely word in Gullah for a delicate child, one who has come to see this world and decide whether or not it wishes to stay, which might make its life very brief. come sick

To menstruate; also coming sick.

come stout To go beyond a certain limit. “That’s coming pretty stout, interpreting it so liberally.” come the giraffe over An unusual, though obsolete, Southern slang expression relating to cheating or getting the better of someone. “ ‘No, you don’t,’ said the watchman, ‘you don’t come the giraffe over me that-a-way.’ ” (New Orleans Picayune, October 14, 1844) Giraffe itself meant to humbug or cheat. come through To make a religious conversion, especially at a revival meeting. “He come through yesterday at the big meeting.” come to fetch fire

To come quickly and leave.

come to the end of one’s row be at the end of one’s rope.

One’s just deserts. “He’ll get his comings

coming up a cloud A storm is approaching; it is going to rain. “Don’t wander far. It’s comin’ up a cloud.” comme ça Like that; French phrase often used in the Southern Louisiana-French dialects. commence to Often used for “to begin or start.” “They commence to fight as soon as they see each other.” comment? How?; French word often used in the Southern Louisiana-French dialects. common (1) When Henry Wallace campaigned with the slogan that this was “the century of the common man,” many Southerners had trouble understanding at first, for common is often a term of contempt in the South, far more than in the rest of the United States. (2) A complimentary term for an unassuming, friendly person. It is most frequently heard in the Appalachians and Ozarks. “He’s a real common man.” common as pig tracks rural Texas.

Very common; used mostly in

commonest A pronunciation of Communist. “. . . in fact they were both fighting on the commonist side in that war.” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959) companion Often a synonym for wife. “She’s been his companion 20 years now.” compersation Conversation, from a black pronunciation of the word.

To run out of patience or

come-too-soon Euphemism for an illegitimate child or a child born less than nine months after a couple marries. come up (1) Used of developing weather, as in “Looks like its coming up a storm” or “It come up a storm.” (2) To grow up. “When I was coming up in Alabama.” comeuppance An advantage. “That way we’ll all share alike and no man have air comeuppance over no other man.” (John Faulkner, Men Working, 1941) comfort

comings yet.”

A comforter, coverlet; also comfort-quilt.

comical An old term for strange or peculiar. “She’s a comical-looking one.”

complainy (1) Disposed to complain. “Hit makes us all feel ailish and complainy sort of.” (John Faulkner, Men Working, 1941) (2) Ill. “She was quite complainy yesterday.” complete Sometimes used as an adverb meaning “completely,” as in “It’s almost complete gone.” complicate up To complicate, confuse. “ ‘. . . because for a feller in the nekkid photograph business . . . to complicate it up with peddling whiskey, would be jist pleading for trouble.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959) conch (1) Pronounced “conk,” this is the often derogatory term for a white resident of the Florida Keys, though conchs in the past also lived along the south coast of Florida and in North Carolina. The term

48 Whistlin’ Dixie dates back to the early 19th century when white native Bahamians were called conchs because they were skilled in diving for the large shellfish called the conch (Strombus alatus), an important item in their diet. The descendants of a band of Cockney Englishmen called the Eleutherian Adventurers who migrated from London to Bermuda in about 1649 in search of religious and political freedom, they came to the Florida Keys from Eleuthera in the 19th century. One persistent old story has the conchs able to dive fathoms in search of their quarry. “Nearly half of all residents [of Key West] are natives of the Bahama Islands. They are called Conch-men or Conchs [pronounced conks], by reason of their skill in diving (for conchs, which they are said to locate underwater and crack open with their teeth!).” (New York Weekly Tribune, May 1, 1852) (2) The dialect spoken by the Conchs in the Florida Keys. Confed Short for both a CONFEDERATE during the Civil War and for Confederate currency issued by the Confederacy. “For one dollar greenbacks, we can get five to ten dollars Confed.” (Louis Boudrye, Fifth New York Cavalry, 1865) Confederacy The Confederate States of America, the term used in this sense some 30 years before the Civil War. Confederate (1) A citizen of the CONFEDERACY; the term appears to have first been used in May 1861, after the Civil War began. (2) For a time after the Civil War the word signified the highest praise in parts of the South. “When a Texan wishes to express the strongest possible approval . . . he will exclaim, ‘You’re mighty Confederate!’ ” (Overland Monthly, March 1867) Confederate beef A humorous description Southerners gave to mule meat when beef was scarce during the Civil War. Confederate brigadier In post-Civil War days, a U.S. congressman or senator who had served as an officer in the Confederate States of America. The term was also applied to very loyal, patriotic and vocal Southerners after the Civil War. Southern brigadier was a synonym. Confederate candle “Another light in great vogue [during the Civil War] was the ‘Confederate’ or ‘endless’ candle. It was constructed by dipping a wick in melted wax and resin and wrapping it around a stick, one end of the wick being passed through a wire loop fastened to the end of the stick.” (Century Magazine, volume 36, 1888)

Confederate coffee A substitute coffee made of chicory, beans, etc., during the Civil War when coffee was in short supply. Confederate cotton Cotton that had to be used in the South because the Union blockade of Southern ports prevented it from reaching its markets. Confederate duck This Civil War dish wasn’t duck at all but “a tender and juicy beefsteak rolled and pinioned around stuffing of stale bread crumbs.” No one appears to know why it was so named. Confederate grayback The official currency of the Confederacy during the Civil War, so-called because of its gray back. Confederate jasmine The star jasmine, because it has been commonly cultivated in the South for well over a century. Confederate money A term that means “money not worth the paper it is printed on,” referring to the worthless banknotes of the Confederacy after the Civil War. After the war, according to Margaret Mitchell in Gone with the Wind (1936), an anonymous poem entitled “Lines on the Back of a Confederate Note” circulated in the South, sometimes written in hand on a piece of paper pasted to the backs of the “useless” Confederate notes: Representing nothing on God’s earth now And naught in the waters below it— As the pledge of a nation that’s passed away Keep it, dear friend, and show it. Show it to those who will lend an ear To the tale this trifle will tell Of Liberty, born of patriots’ dream, Of a storm-cradled nation that fell.

Confederate paper Homemade writing paper. “Dear old quire of yellow, coarse, Confederate homemade paper, here you are again.” (Mary Chestnut, Diary, 1865) Confederate rose rose.

The hibiscus; also called the cotton

Confederate shinplaster A humorous derogatory term for Confederate money during the Civil War. “In the North a carpenter got three dollars . . . In the South he got fifty—payable in Confederate shinplasters worth a dollar a bushel.” (Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, 1889) Confederate War Once a common term among Southerners for the Civil War.

cooter 49 Confedrit Common pronunciation of Confederate. “ ‘. . . like in the photographs [Ratliff said] where the Confedrit sweetheart in a hoop skirt and a magnolia is saying goodbye to her Confedrit beau just before he rides off to finish tending to General Grant . . .’ ” (William Faulkner, The Town, 1957) confidence To have trust in. “I don’t reckon I could even confidence her nohow.” congealed salad and/or fruit.

A gelatin salad made with vegetables

Congo A name in pre-Civil War days for a black person from the Congo area in Africa or the language of that person; also a popular dance invented by blacks in the South. Congo is also used for things black in color, such as a congo eel. conjure bag A collection of magic charms tied together in a ball and kept in a small bag that is used to ward off evil spirits or gain control over someone; also called a conjure ball and kungu. “The conjurer’s bag of the Africans . . . is called ‘waiter’ or ‘kunger’ by Southern blacks, and is supposed to have the power to charm away evil spirits, and do all manner of miraculously good things for its wearer.” (Edmund Kirks, My Southern Friends, 1863) conjure; conjuree conjure ball

See

To practice voodoo. CONJURE BAG.

Conjuer John The Solomon’s seal, a member of the lily family; so-called because the plant was considered a powerful charm in conjuring; also called Big John the Conjueror and Big John the Conqueror. conk A hairstyle worn by African-Americans that straightens and waves curly hair; probably takes its name from the slang conk for head and/or from the commercial preparation Congolene used to so fashion hair; also called a process. The term is used widely throughout the United States, and its point of origin is unknown but might be Southern. consarn

Damn, darn. “Consarn it!”

considerable A great deal. “It was a kind of mixed hound, with a little bird dog and some collie and maybe a considerable of almost anything else.” (William Faulkner, “Shingles for the Lord,” 1943) considerable more A lot more. “ ‘That cow wasn’t worth eight dollars last fall,’ Houston said. ‘But she’s

worth a considerable more now.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959) consumpted

Consumptive, having tuberculosis.

contintment ment.

A common pronunciation of content-

contrary

Stubborn. “He’s one contrary old boy.”

cooling board A board once commonly used for laying out a corpse before putting it in the coffin. See also LAY ON THE COOLING BOARD. coon (1) An often derogatory term for a country person; hayseed. (2) An offensive term for a black person that apparently originated in the South. (3) As a verb, to crawl on all fours like a raccoon; to climb a tree or pole. “He cooned up that tree.” coon ass Crazy. “He’s real coon ass, man,” or “He’s real coon ass, man.” coonass A vulgar offensive term for a Cajun, used chiefly in Louisiana. The word is probably a corruption of the French conasse (vulva) and a contemptuous term for a woman. A variation is coonie. coon bottom A part of town where poorer people live; used especially in Florida and Georgia. coon dick

An old term for homemade liquor.

coon dog; coon hound on coon hunts.

A dog trained to hunt raccoons

coonfine A derogatory term used in days past to describe the rhythmic gait and movement of black roustabouts when loading or unloading freight on ships. The workers, who also sang as they worked, were often called coonfiners. The word may refer to the waddling walk of the raccoon. coon juice

Homemade liquor.

coon oyster Small oysters (Lapha frons, usually) that grow in clusters along salt marshes and are a favorite of raccoons. cooter Applied to sea tortoises, the obsolete verb coot meant “to copulate,” a usage recorded as early as 1667. It may also be responsible for the common name (cooter) for two amorous American turtles (especially Chrysemys concinna). The first recorded use of the word is “The tortoises . . . coot for fourteen days together.”

50 Whistlin’ Dixie However, some authorities say that cooter is not from coot but from the African Bambara word kuta, meaning “turtle that was brought by slaves to America.” copperheads Not Southerners during the Civil War but Northerners who sympathized with the Confederate cause. They were also called, in various places, butternuts, guerillas, bushwhackers, jayhawkers and Vallandinghamers (after Ohioan copperhead leader Clement Vallandigham, who was convicted of treason). Cork ball; corks ball A variety of baseball played in the St. Louis area with four or more players, a small ball and a thin bat. cork high and bottle deep corn

corn beer Corn made into a beer, or such beer fermented into whiskey.

corncakes

See See

CORN PONE.

corncracker (1) Once a common nickname for residents of Kentucky and other Southern states. (2) A derogatory term for a poor white farmer. Corncracker State

A nickname given to Kentucky.

A corn bread cake or cornmeal dumpling.

cornfield pea

Black-eyed pea.

cornfield school A now historical term for a small schoolhouse set in a man-made clearing in the cornfield. corn juice

corn shucking A traditional social gathering at which corn is shucked. corn song A song field workers sang when harvesting corn; the custom originated with slaves in the South. corporosity An old-fashioned term for one’s body or its state of health; probably derives from corpulence. “How’s the state of your corporosity today?” correspond the idea An old term of limited, mostly black usage meaning “to give up on a plan”: “I done corresponded the idea of going.” corruption

A term for pus of any kind.

cotton bale A bale of ginned cotton, closely packed and weighing up to 500 pounds.

FLITTERCAKES.

corn coffee (1) A coffee made from parched corn and other ingredients. “The supper consisted of . . . and coffee made of burnt acorns and maize . . . He laughed at our fastidiousness and advised us to drink some of the corn coffee.” (George Featherstonhaugh, Excursion Through the Slave States, 1844) (2) Can also mean corn whiskey.

corn dodger

cornrow A hairstyle worn by African-Americans consisting of rows of small flat braids.

Very drunk.

Corn whiskey, made by distilling corn.

corn bread

for someone or something rural and unsophisticated: “That’s a cornpone accent.”

Whiskey made from corn.

corn light bread Bread made completely of cornmeal or of cornmeal and very little wheat flour. corn pone (1) A famous Southern cornmeal cake or bread, defined by Bartlett in 1859 as “a superior type of corn bread, made with milk and eggs and cooked in a pan.” It is often called corn bread. (2) A derogatory term

cotton brag An expression used in pre-Civil War times of overseers who boasted of harvesting the largest cotton crop with a certain number of slaves. “The Southern newspapers, at the crop season, chronicle carefully the ‘cotton brag’ and the ‘crack cotton picking’ and ‘unparalleled driving’ . . . We recollect . . . the editor of a religious paper at Natchez, Miss., in which he took care to assign a prominent place and capitals to the ‘cotton brag.’ ” (Theodore Weld, American Slavery As It Is, 1839) cotton broker One who brokers cotton, or in Erskine Caldwell’s words (God’s Little Acre, 1933): “ ‘Do you know why they’re called brokers?’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because they keep the farmers broke all the time. They lend a little money, and then they take the whole damn crop. Or else they suck the blood out of a man by running the price up and down forcing him to sell. That’s why they call them cotton brokers.’ ” cotton chopper A laborer who chops out or thins young cotton plants. “The cotton-chopper straddles the row, and chops wide gaps, leaving the plants in hills.” (Edward Knight, Practical Dictionary of Mechanics, 1874) cotton chopping time The time during the growing season when cotton is chopped or thinned. “It was cotton-chopping time when the long rows of thickly planted stalks had to be thinned with hoes.” (Century Magazine, May 1885)

courage bump 51 cottonclad A play on ironclad, this term was applied to Civil War vessels “armored” with bales of cotton. “He was in command of the tin-clad Indianola at Vicksburg; and after running the batteries there was engaged single-handed with two Confederate rams and two ‘cotton-clad’ steamers.” (Jacob Dunn, Indiana and Indianans, 1919) Cotton Confederacy ern Confederacy.

A humorous term for the South-

couldn’t hit a bull in the ass with a bass fiddle ble shot or marksman; any inept person. couldn’t hit the ground if he (she) fell person.

A terri-

A clumsy, inept

coulee A term used mainly in Louisiana for a number of types of waterways, including a streambed that runs dry in summer and a small bayou; from the French word meaning “a flow.”

cotton-eyed Eyes prominently white, as in the folk song “Cotton-eyed Joe.”

counterpin This folk etymology of counterpane is an old word for a coverlet or bedspread.

cottonhead A person, especially a child, with white or very light blond hair.

country block

See

country coin cottonmouth-bit cotton pickers

COUNTRY MILE.

A countrified person.

Bitten by a cottonmouth snake. A humorous term for the hands.

country cousin A euphemism for menstruation. “Her country cousin is visiting, if you know what I mean.”

cotton pickin’ Despicable, wretched, damned; now sometimes used in a humorous sense. The expression has its roots in the inferior status of poor farmers and field hands in the Southern United States. “Keep your cotton pickin’ hands off me.”

country cracker

cotton picking In pre-cotton-gin times, social gatherings of friends and neighbors to remove the seed from cotton were called cotton pickings. Such gatherings were also held to harvest cotton.

country fever

An old term for malaria.

country fries

Sliced fried potatoes, home fries.

country ham

Salt-cured, unsmoked hams.

country hotel

The county jailhouse.

country joke cotton rebel A nickname for a Southerner during the Civil War. “If there’s anything civil between us and the Cotton Rebels, we don’t exactly see it.” (Vanity Fair, May 4, 1861) cotton rose The large-flowered hibiscus; also called the Confederate rose. cotton senator A senator representing a Southern state. “. . . there are ‘silver Senators’ and ‘wheat Senators’ and ‘labor Senators’ and ‘cotton Senators’ and ‘big business Senators’ and too few United States Senators.” (Readers Digest, March 1947) couillon A stupid foolish person, a hick; used chiefly in Louisiana, deriving from a French word meaning the same. could talk a cat down out of a tree Very persuasive, loquacious. “At any rate, she could talk a cat down out of a tree and I was one of the very few people who could really listen to her.” (Calder Willingham, Rambling Rose, 1972)

A rustic or hick.

A yokel, a rustic.

country man One who lives in a rural area, usually a farmer. “ ‘Except that like you said, nobody named Vladimir Kyrilytch could make a living as a Mississippi country man.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Town, 1957) country mile Any long distance; a widely used expression that apparently originated in the South. “He hit the ball a country mile.” Also called country block. country pin

A

COUNTERPIN,

bedspread.

country steak A Southern favorite, steak cooked in a frying pan. “I’ll cook you a nice meal, Milo. You can have fried chicken and yams, or ham and red-eye dish gravy, or country steak.” (Erskine Caldwell, Jenny By Nature, 1961) courage Sexual desire or potency. “He told the doctor that he had sexual problems, couldn’t get his courage up.” courage bump

A pimple on the face.

52 Whistlin’ Dixie courting fool One who courts in high style, not necessarily one who makes a fool of himself for love. “ ‘Just look at that courting fool,’ Jimson whispered. ‘Ain’t he the biggest sport you ever did see? He’s all dressed up in yellow shoes and red necktie ready to flash them colors on the first gal he sees. That courting fool can do courting where courting’s never been done afore. Man alive, don’t I wish I was him!’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, “Big Buck,” The Complete Stories of Erskine Caldwell, 1953) covered him (her) like the dew covers Dixie To fall all over someone, usually with amorous intention. “She covered him like the dew covers Dixie.” covering the waterfront A euphemism for attending to menstruation or diapering a baby; it can also be used to indicate someone’s bisexuality. cow alligator The female alligator as opposed to the male, called the bull gator, in Louisiana and other states. “In dimmer recesses [was] the cow alligator, with her nest hard by.” (George Washington Cable, The Grandissimes, 1880) coward-hearted Chiefly a Gullah term describing a cowardly person. cowbelly A term, used mainly in Louisiana, for the soft mud on the banks of rivers. cowcumber A name for the cucumber in North Carolina, Louisiana and other Southern states, especially among older speakers.

crab-apple switch blades.

crabburger A hamburger-shaped pattie made of crabmeat and served on a hamburger roll; used mainly in Louisiana. crab cake

See

CRABBURGER.

crab soup

See

SHE-CRAB SOUP.

crack To open slightly; has some national use but is primarily a Southernism. “Crack open the door a little to let in some air.” cracker A poor white person, especially one from Georgia (the Cracker State), so called, perhaps, from their use of cracked corn. Originally the expression was corncracker, one who cracks corn to make grits or cornmeal. At one time (1766), cracker meant “a liar,” but when, after the Civil War, many people in the South became too poor to buy cornmeal and had to make their own, cracker came to mean a backwoodsman and then a poor white, generally a person living in the Southern state of Georgia and Florida. Others say that cracker was originally applied to Florida cowboys and derived from their cracking their whips as they herded cattle. In any case, the term is generally an offensive one and is now regarded as a racial epithet that is a violation under the Florida Hate Crimes Act. Many people, however, are proud to call themselves Georgia Crackers, Florida Crackers, etc., just so long as they’re doing the calling. cracker sack

cow cutter An old-fashioned euphemism for a bull; can also mean a cow or steer. cow doctor

cowhide (1) A whip made from straps of rawhide. (2) As a verb, to beat someone with such a whip. cowpea Another name for the BLACK-EYED PEA extensively cultivated in the South for forage and soil improvement as well as for food. cow-pen tea Medicinal tea made from cow manure; widely used in the 19th century. cow’s gentleman friend for a bull. See

See

Cracker State 19th century.

CROCUS SACK.

A nickname given to Georgia since the

A poorly regarded physician.

cow-dung cooter The striped mud turtle or the box turtle, both of which sometimes eat manure.

C.P.T.

A large pocketknife with folding

An old-fashioned euphemism

COLORED PEOPLE’S TIME.

crackling The crisp skin from a hog or other animal that remains after fat has been rendered. Used as food, it is famous in crackling bread, a cornmeal dish. Cracklings are also used to make soup. crackling bread crack of day

See

CRACKLING.

Dawn or daybreak.

crack one’s sides To laugh so hard you hurt yourself. “I like to crack my sides.” crack one’s teeth To talk. “ ‘E [he] nebber crack ’e teet.” A Gullah expression of which a variation is crack one’s breath. Cradle of the Confederacy A nickname given to Montgomery, Alabama where the seceded Southern states met

Creek claims 53 on February 4, 1861, to form the Confederate States of America. cramp-colic

Stomach spasms.

crank-sided

Lopsided, twisted or carried to the side.

crawl on broken glass through hell for The ultimate in devotion. “She’d crawl on broken glass through hell for him.” crawl one’s frame

crank up the car Common, especially in South Carolina, for “start up the car” or “start the car.”

See

CLIMB ONE’S FRAME.

crawthumper An old name for a native of Maryland, in reference to Roman Catholics (considered crawthumpers [chest beaters] by some) having played a prominent part in settling Maryland.

cranky A term used mainly in Virginia for the great blue heron.

crazy

crany-crow An old-fashioned term for a CARRION CROW. A popular rhyme in the game “Old Witch” goes: “Chicky-ma, chicky-ma, crany-crow, I went to the well to wash my toe.”

crazy as a betsy bug Very crazy; after the large black beetle called the betsy bug, because to some it seems to say “bessy” when touched. This bug, of the family Passalidae, is also called the horn beetle and pinch bug.

craps The game of dice as all America knows it today dates to the early 19th century and may owe its name, craps, to a Louisiana Frenchman. Johnny Crapaud was the nickname of gambler Bernard Mariginy, who introduced dice to New Orleans in about 1800 (Crapaud being slang for any Frenchman, owing to the belief that three crapauds, or toads, were the ancient arms of France). Highroller Mariginy became associated with the game, which was named Johnny Crapaud’s game after his nickname, this eventually shortened to craps. It is said that Mariginy even named the present Burgundy Street “Craps Street” in honor of his favorite pastime. Another theory holds that craps derives from the English crabs, the lowest throw in the game of hazard, which passed into French as craps and came into American usage in the present sense in early 19th century New Orleans.

crazy as a peach-orchard boar person.

Craps Street

See

CRAPS.

crawdad; crawdab (1) A crawfish (crayfish). (2) To crawl like a crawfish. “I craw-dabbed from under the house.” crawfish

The crayfish.

crawfish boil A party in Louisiana at which crawfish are boiled and eaten. crawfishing A term once applied to wet lowlands in Alabama and other Southern states because such areas were inhabited by crawfish. crawl Chasten, punish. “ ‘I reckon I’d ought to have crawled him about it,’ he thought. In his day he would have been thoroughly thrashed for slipping away and idling.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

Broken; out of line.

Said of a wild crazy

creaker An elderly person; a term used mostly by African-Americans. cream cheese A term used mainly in Louisiana for what is cottage cheese elsewhere. creamed potatoes cream gravy milk.

Mashed potatoes.

Gravy made with fat, flour and cream or

cream of the pot The ultimate, best of its kind, state of the art; said of a person or a thing. creamy ass The bird generally known as the old snow is called the creamy ass along the coast in North Carolina. crease To barely wound with a shot. “I just creased him in the leg, is all.” creation! An old-fashioned euphemism for the expletive “Christ!” “Creation, man, what’s wrong with you!” creature (1) Colloquial term for a horse in the South, especially in the form of critter or crittur. (2) Wild animal. “ ‘You no-account creature! Homin’ in on our rations and leavin’ sich as this to happen.’ ” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) creek

A small brook.

Creek claims A historical term for lands in Alabama and Georgia claimed by the Creek Indians, who formerly occupied the area as the Creek Confederacy.

54 Whistlin’ Dixie Creek Confederacy creepified

See

CREEK CLAIMS.

Scared, creepy.

creepmouse “Here comes a little mouse/creeping up to baby’s house” is the rhyme often used in this familiar game played with infants. Most common in the South under the name “creepmouse,” the game is played everywhere, the idea being to make babies laugh by tickling them slightly with one’s fingers as if a mouse was running over their bodies. The usage of creepmouse is first recorded in 1899. creep the goose A Cajun method of hunting geese where the hunters creep through the sawgrass, evading eye contact with the sentinel goose in a flock, and suddenly spring up and fire their weapons. Creole (1) A white person descended from French or Spanish settlers in Louisiana. (2) A person of mixed black and French or Spanish heritage. (3) The language used by Creoles in Louisiana. (4) A nickname for a native of Louisiana. (5) A spicy type of food or method of cooking that is common in southern Louisiana.

and whites in the area even more offensive. crocodile A Southern name for the American alligator, Alligator mississipiensis. crocus sack A gunny sack, a sack made of coarse material like burlap; so named because crocus, or saffron, was first shipped in sacks made of this material; also called a croker sack, tow sack and grass sack in the South. “ ‘What you got in that there crocus sack, Lov?’ Jeeter said.” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932) croker sack

See

CROCUS SACK.

crooked as a barrel of fishhooks Very crooked, dishonest. “He was the mayor of Memphis but crooked as a barrel of fishhooks.” crooked rail fence ginia.

The name for a rail fence in Vir-

crope Crept; used chiefly by blacks. “I crope up behind him.”

Creole coffee Strong dark black coffee laced with chicory. Popular in New Orleans.

cropper; crapper farmer.

Creole State

cross-breed A derogatory term sometimes applied to people of mixed white and Indian origins.

Louisiana.

Crescent The state flag of South Carolina. “They tore down the U.S. flag and raised the Crescent in its place.” Crescent City Nickname for New Orleans, because, according to Joseph Ingraham in The South-West (1835), “it is built around the segment of a circle formed by a graceful curve of the Mississippi River.”

crossed up To oppose someone. “We’re all crossed up on that one, we can’t find any common ground at all.” crossways In a bad, ill-tempered mood; also crosswise. “I’m all crossways today.” crosswise

cribber A horse that gnaws or sucks at trees or stumps; a stump-sucker. crimpy Cold, nasty weather. “It’s been right crimpy the last few days.” crip Something simple to do, easy. “That puzzle was a crip.” Critter

See

A sharecropper, a small or tenant

crow

See

CROSSWAYS.

A derogatory term for a black person.

crowder A variety of black-eyed pea that grows crowded together in the pod; in his diary, George Washington records growing them. crumb crusher An expression used mainly by blacks for a baby or young child, one who is still crawling.

CREATURE.

crystallized pickle Croatan Someone of mixed Indian, white and black ancestry living mainly in North Carolina. The name is objectionable to many of these people, who, however, at first asked to be called Croatan Indians after Sir Walter Raleigh’s lost colony of Croatan off North Carolina. They consider the name “Cro” given to them by blacks

A kind of cucumber pickle.

Cuban sandwich A name, generally confined to Florida, for a submarine or hero sandwich. cubbitch A term from Gullah, deriving from covetous, meaning stingy, cheap, miserly.

cymling head 55 Cuby Cuban “‘And leave me tell you, do you fill a demi-john with ’em [berries of the saw palmetto] and pour Cuby rum over ’em and leave ’em stand five months, you’ve got a drink would make even your Ma shout Hallelujah . . .”’ (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

Washington, Diaries, 1787) (2) To stab, wound with a knife. “They cut each other real bad.”

cuda A common name for the barracuda in some Southern states.

cut a rusty

cue (1) Short for barbecue or for barbecued food. “We gonna have a cue tonight.” (2) A small, round variety of muskmelon; probably based on cueball. cuffy A term commonly used for a black man before the Civil War; it derives from Kofi, a name used on the African Gold Coast for a boy born on Friday. cunnin’

Very cute. “She’s a cunnin’ thing, ain’t she?”

cup towel

To play a prank on someone or show off.

cute as a kitten on down South Very cute, adorable. “She’s as cute as a kitten on down South.” cute as a speckled pup Very cute, adorable. “That child’s cute as a speckled pup.” cut off To switch off; also cut out. “She cut off the radio.” cut off the light Widely used in the South for turn off the light, also outen the light.

A towel used to dry dishes.

curb market An outdoor market; originally one where farmers sold produce. cur dog

cut a hog To make an embarrassing mistake or fail in some way; Derives from to cut a gut, referring to a mistake made when dressing an animal.

A mongrel or any worthless dog.

curious (person) An eccentric, old or strange person. “He’s a curious one all right.” curiouser More curious. “‘But what’s curiouser than that is what you want with it.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940) curioussome Curious; used chiefly by blacks. “He looked at me kinder curioussome.” curly dirt Fuzzy balls of lint that collect, especially under beds. curly flower

cut on To switch on, to turn on. “He cut on the lights.” cut one’s eyes one’s eyes.

To glance furtively out of the corner of

cut one’s foot To step in cow dung. The Southern euphemism, first recorded in 1899, still has some currency in rural areas today. cut the cake To be married. “When are you going to cut the cake?” cut the fool (1) To behave in a stupid way. “You really cut the fool last night.” (2) To play tricks on people, joke around. cut the tail off the dog Make a long story short. “Wal, to cut the tail off the dog, he finally married her.”

A folk pronunciation of cauliflower.

currying A very sharp scolding. “I sure got some currying for coming home so late.” cush Sweetened and fried cornmeal; the word is an African one brought into this country by slaves. Cush is now also slang for money reserved for a special purpose. cut (1) n A portion of land or a field. “[I] took to laying off the 20-acre cut designed to carrots.” (George

cutting (1) A stabbing, a knife fight. (2) When applied to rodents, cutting often means chewing, as in “That squirrel’s sure cuttin’ away on those nuts.” Cyclops An officer in the KU KLUX Exalted Cyclops or Grand Cyclops.

KLAN;

often called

cymling head A stupid person, after the small round variety of melon or squash called the cymling.

D dab A small quantity, a spot, a splotch. “All we saw was cornfields and dabs of woods.”

of her well.” The term is often written as one word: damyankee.

Daddy An old-fashioned term, mostly used by blacks, for an old black man. See also AUNTIE.

dan Common black and Gullah pronunciation of than.

daddy longlegs A stallion or the male of any species kept for breeding.

dang An old euphemism for damn, dating back to before 1790.

dad-gum Euphemism for damn. “I’m dad-gum tired trying!” (Huey Long, 1935 speech)

daren’t The old English contraction of dare not is still heard, though rarely, among older speakers in the South.

Damnation to the Yankees! A favorite drinking toast in the South from the time of Fort Sumter to Appomattox and beyond.

daresome woods.”

Afraid. “I’m daresome to go through those

Dark and Bloody Ground An old name for Kentucky, possibly a translation of an Indian name. “Dark and Bloody Ground alluded not to battles between Indians and the first white settlers, but to contests between Northern and Southern tribes of Indians.” (H. L. Mencken, The American Language, Supplement II, 1948)

damn-blasted A common expletive meaning “damned.” “‘All my turnips has got them damn-blasted green-gutted worms in them, Lov,’ [Jeeter said].” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932) Damn to blue blazes! A common expletive. “Them Indians!’” Luke says. “They was fixing to———’ ‘What?’ Major hollers. ‘Damn to blue blazes, what?’” (William Faulkner, “A Bear Hunt,” 1934)

darkey A derogatory old-fashioned term for a black person; also darky, darkie. “‘Poor Handsome Brown. He was the best darkey we ever had.’” (Erskine Caldwell, Georgia Boy, 1943]

damn Yankee A Northerner. In early America, Yankee peddlers generally had a bad name, being “proverbial for their dishonesty,” according to one early observer, and Northerners probably got the name damn Yankee, coined long before the Civil War, from Yankee peddlers who worked the rural South. The opprobrious term damn Yankee appears to have first been used in the South in about 1812. By Civil War times we find a Northern soldier writing home about a Virginia woman who “wasn’t going to let the damned Yankees drink out

darling A common affectionate term used by Southern men to address all women. “It’s nice to meet you, dah-lin’.” dassant Dare not. “. . . he just could not believe that; he dassant to believe that . . .” (William Faulkner, The Town, 1957) dat A common black and Gullah pronunciation of that. 56

diddly-squat 57 daube

A kind of stew well-known in New Orleans.

Davisdom An old nickname for the Confederate States of America, whose president was Jefferson Davis. day and time Era, period of time. “In his day and time, they didn’t do it that way.” daybust

Sunrise. “We started out at daybust.”

pregnant, that’s all. She’s dead to know.” (Eudora Welty, “Petrified Man,” 1941) dear goodness! A common exclamation. “Oh dear goodness!” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) deef Deaf. “That’s Pap,’ the man said. ‘Blind and deef both.’” (William Faulkner, Sanctuary, 1931)

dayclean A Gullah term for daybreak that may be the translation of an African expression.

dee-po Depot. “‘So they’re down at the dee-po now.’” (William Faulkner, The Town, 1957)

dazed as a goose with a nail in its head Stunned. “We found him wandering around after the fight dazed as a goose with a nail in its head.”

delta dog

dead as a beef Completely dead, with no life. “‘Are you Rosie Caldfield? Then you better come out yon. Henry has done shot that deern French feller. Kilt him dead as a beef.’” (William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!, 1936) dead as a hammer Without any life at all, stone-cold dead. “My dog died. I went out there in the yard and looked at him and there he was, dead as a hammer.” (Larry Brown, “Big Bad Love,” 1990) dead cat on the line Field workers for the Dictionary of American Regional English found 21 people who used this expression, meaning “there’s something suspicious, something wrong”—but not one of the 21 could explain it. When William Safire asked readers of his nationally syndicated word column for help, an old man in Louisiana scrawled a letter explaining that the expression has its roots in fishing for catfish, when trotlines with many hooks on them are set in the water. The lines are checked every day, so if a fisherman checks a neighbor’s line and finds a dead catfish (cat) on the line, he knows there is something wrong, suspicious or fishy going on (his neighbor may be ill, be in trouble, etc.). deaden A method of killing trees by cutting through the bark all around, girdling them. “A house was half erected, and some fifty acres of trees deadened.” (A. Van Buren, Jottings of A Year’s Sojourn in the South, 1859) dead hearing Deafness; very poor sense of hearing. “She remembered her grandmother, thinking of the old woman with her dead hearing and her inescapable cold eyes. . .” (William Faulkner, “Elly,” 1934) dead to know Very anxious to know. “Just cast your mind back and try to remember who your lady was yestiddy who happ’n to mention that my customer was

A Mississippi name for a

HUSH PUPPY.

dem A common black and Gullah pronunciation of them. demoiselle Miss; French, often used in Southern Louisiana-French dialects. dese these.

Common black and Gullah pronunciation of

devil

To fool or tease. “I knew he’d devil you.”

devil’s grandmother A shrewish or otherwise undesirable woman. An old Southern rhyme goes: “I married another, / The devil’s grandmother./ I wish I was single again.” dewberry An old name, common in the South, for the low brush blackberry. dey

Common black and Gullah pronunciation of they.

dicty Stylish or wealthy; a snob, aristocrat; mainly a black term. didapper The Carolina grebe, Podilymbus podicips. “Besides these birds we have. . . the Didapper or Dapchick.” (Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1788) diddled Cheated. “Though even in his extremity Montgomery Ward had more simple sense and judgment . . . than to actively believe that ten thousand Lawyer Stevensons . . . could a diddled Flem Snopes.” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959) diddly dly.”

Nothing, very little, as in “It’s not worth did-

diddly-squat Nothing or very little. “He don’t know diddly-squat.”

58 Whistlin’ Dixie didn’t nobody go A common double negative for nobody went. “Didn’t nobody go because of the rain.”

dirty rice ance.

dientical A pronunciation of identical sometimes used by uneducated speakers in Mississippi and other Southern states.

dirty-up To soil, dirty. “‘Bessie,’ she said, ‘You’ll have to make Dude wash his feet every once in a while, because if you don’t he’ll dirty-up your quilts.” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932)

die up

A Creole rice recipe, so named for its appear-

To die. “He’ll die up shore if he gets no care.” dis

differ not To matter not. “It differs not to me whether we go or stay home.” digging one’s grave with one’s teeth Said of someone who eats too much. “She’s diggin’ her grave with her teeth.” dilbert-head A dope, a fool. “Boy. I bet David Lynch is just losing his lunch right now because you and your boyfriend thought his movie was sick. You dilberthead.” (Larry Brown, “92 Days,” 1990) dinges A derogatory name for blacks that is also used in the North and other sections of the country. “‘I haven’t seen you since Abraham Lincoln put on long pants and grew a beard and freed the dinges.’” (Erskine Caldwell, The Earnshaw Neighborhood, 1971) dinner The midday meal in North Carolina and other Southern areas.

Common black and Gullah pronunciation of this.

discomfit you.”

disconvenient Inconvenient. “It was really disconvenient for me.” disgust An old-fashioned term meaning “to be disgusted with something or somebody.” “He disgusts eggs.” dish face A slightly concave face with the lower jaw jutting out and the mouth drawn in. dismal Any lonely, forbidden swamp. “Rice is yet the grand staple production of South Carolina, and for which the planters neglect the healthy, pleasant back country in order to live in the Dismals on the coast, for so the Americans justly call the swamps.” (American Husbandry, 1775) Dismalite

dinner on the grounds A meal, often served at church gatherings, that was once an outdoor picnic meal but now can indicate a meal eaten either inside or outside. dinners

Southern slang for a woman’s breasts.

dip (1) To take snuff. “The old man sat in his rocker and dipped.” (2) Gravy. “His youth, passed largely in New Orleans and Georgia, had left him two notable survivals, the use of the phrases ‘I reckon’—instead of the Yankee ‘I guess’—and ‘dip’ instead of ‘gravy’.” (Arthur Pease, Sequestered Vales of Life, 1946) directly As soon as. “Come out of there directly as you finish.” It can also mean “before long.” “I’ll cook dinner directly.” dirt-dauber A mud dauber, a kind of wasp; also dirtdobber. “Why, boy, I knowed you when you was no bigger’n a dirt-dauber.”’ (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) dirt-dog poor

Very poor, living in poverty.

dirt-eater

CLAY-EATER.

See

To inconvenience. “I hope I won’t discomfit

A resident of the

DISMAL SWAMP.

Dismal Swamp A name given to the large marshy area extending from southeastern Virginia into northwestern North Carolina; also called the Dismal. “We ordered several men to patrol on the edge of the Dismal.” (William Boyd, Histories of the Dividing Line, 1728) dis night Gullah for tonight. “Don’t want nothin’ ‘to happen here dis night.” disputed bounds “North Carolina formerly was the South part of Virginia . . . There is a very long List of Land fifteen Miles broad between both colonies (called the disputed bounds) . . . which is an asylum for Runagates of both Countries.” (Hugh Jones, The Present State of Virginia, 1724) disremember To forget. “‘Miss What-you-may-callher, I disremember her name.’” (Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1884) distressing one’s ears Making one feel bad. “‘Don’t reproach yourself like that. You’re distressing my ears,’ he says.” (Eudora Welty, The Optimist’s Daughter, 1972)

dogged 59 ditch-edge child

An illegitimate child.

ditch hunter A Southern soldier during the Civil War, the designation arising because the Confederates were determined to “fight to the last ditch.” Similarly, the South was nicknamed ditch land. ditch land

See

DITCH HUNTER.

Dixie; Dixieland It sounds incredible, but the first Dixieland or Dixie may have been in New York City, not the South. Some etymologists lean to the following derivation of the word given by the Charleston Courier of June 11, 1885: “When slavery existed in New York, one Dixie owned a large tract of land on Manhattan Island, and a large number of slaves. The increase of the slaves and of the abolition sentiment caused an emigration of the slaves to more thorough and secure slave sections, and the Negroes who were thus sent off (many being born there) naturally looked back to their old houses, where they had lived in clover, with feelings of regret, as they could not imagine any place like Dixie’s. Hence it became synonymous with an ideal location combining ease, comfort, and material happiness of every description.” Although no slave “lived in clover,” the explanation seems somewhat less doubtful than other theories about Dixie—that it derives from the 18th century Mason-Dixon line or that the word comes from the French Creole word dix which was prominently printed on the back of $10 notes issued by a New Orleans bank before the Civil War. “Dixie” The title of a song, in full “Away Down South In Dixie,” which songwriter and minstrel Daniel D. Emmett composed on his violin in 1859 while living in New York City and wishing he were back home in Dixie. It became very popular in the South and was the favorite marching song of the Confederacy, but it was first sung as a war song in 1861 by Yankee troops heading South aboard the Star of the West in the attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter. A war correspondent reported that the song was sung over and over again on that illfated voyage. Dixie cup The American Water Supply Company’s vending machine sold a drink of water in a disposable cup for one cent beginning in 1906, the cup possibly called a Dixie cup because it was so reliable—like the old ten-dollar bills issued in Louisiana prior to the Civil War (see DIXIE; DIXIELAND). In years to come, Dixie cup was frequently applied to ice cream sold in a small cup as opposed to ice-cream cones and ice cream on sticks. Dixie mafia Organized Southern United States.

criminals operating in the

the dizzies A dizzy spell. “I’d never make a good pilot; I get the dizzies just looking down from a tall building.” do (1) Used in its plural form, do is a euphemism for dung, especially of animals. “The yard was littered with chicken doos.” (2) An old-fashioned word for duty, the best a person can do. “He’s DONE done his do.” (3) Does, as in, “That do beat all.” do about To get busy, hurry up, move oneself “Do about, boys, do about!” dobbin’ An old term for the mud chinking used to fill in between the logs of a log cabin. doctor woman A woman who practices voodoo; the term is also used for a midwife. do don’t

Please don’t. “Do don’t let me fall now.”

does Do. “You got to keep in mind he is a Northerner. They does things different from us.” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940) doesn’t know B from bull’s foot Is very ignorant, illiterate. “He doesn’t know B from bull’s foot.” dofunnies Knick-knacks. “She has a cabinet full of dofunnies.” dofunny; doofunny A thingamajig. “What do you call that doofunny on the top [of the machine]?” dog bite it! Common exclamation. “‘Dog bite it!’ Ray would say with a sad expression on his long thin face when he took one more last look at his box and left the post office.” (Erskine Caldwell, “Letters in the Mail,” Gulf Coast Stories, 1956) dogbread

A bread made with cornmeal and similar to

CORN PONE.

dog drunk Thoroughly drunk. “We got dog drunk and forgot all about the party.” dog-faced liar

A lowdown, contemptible person.

dog finger Believed by some people to be the index finger and by others to be the middle finger, the dog finger is said to be the “bad luck finger,” bringing bad luck to those at whom it is pointed. dogged Damned. “Dogged if they don’t grow tall ones up there, Ben.” (Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel, 1929)

60 Whistlin’ Dixie dog my cats! An exclamation of surprise. “Well dog my cats if he ain’t come home!” dog take it! An emphatic expletive common at least since the turn of the century.

don’t give a hoot in hell’s hollow Don’t care at all, don’t give a damn. “‘I don’t give a hoot in hell’s hollow what it means to her, I have blown a gasket on this thing,’ said Daddy.” (Calder Willingham, Rambling Rose, 1972)

dog trot cabin.

A covered area connecting two parts of a

don’t go back on your raisin’ Don’t act like a boor; don’t pretend to be something you’re not.

dogwood winter Similar to BLACKBERRY WINTER. In 1907 an issue of American Folk-lore reported this explanation by a contributor: “‘Don’t you know what dogwood winter is?’ demanded the man from Hickory, North Carolina. ‘There is always a spell of it in May, when the dogwood tree is in bloom. For several days there is cold disagreeable, cloudy weather, and often a touch of frost.’”

don’t got Haven’t or hasn’t. “He don’t got no more better boat.” (“He hasn’t a better boat.”)

do like that Do that; do something similar. “‘You’re the only man I ever knowed of who wanted to sleep in his overalls [Ada said]. Don’t nobody else do like that.’” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932) doll baby A doll or child’s toy; also a silly young girl or woman. done (1) Often used among uneducated speakers, as in “He done did it,” “She done said it” and “He’s done gone and done it.” (2) Have. “They done killed him.” (3) Already. “He’s done eaten his lunch.” done and gone

Gone. “He has done and gone.”

done to a finish Done to perfection. “Take the ham out of the oven; it’s done to a finish.” done told

Told. “I already done told you to stop.”

don’t got but Only have; heard mainly in Cajun speech. “I don’t got but a dollar, me.” don’t guess Don’t think so or suppose. “I don’t guess I know that one.” don’t look back; something might be gaining on you Don’t dwell too much on the past, go forward. Sage advice from baseball great Leroy “Satchel” Paige, who would have been one of the greatest pitchers in the major leagues if the color barrier had been broken earlier. The words may have their origins in an old Southern adage. don’t never A common double negative, as in, “He don’t never go.” don’t piss on my back and tell me it’s raining take me for a fool. don’t that beat a hen a-flying? astonishing?

Don’t

Isn’t that surprising or

don’t that take the whole biscuit! Doesn’t that take the cake; isn’t that the most outrageous thing you’ve ever heard.

don’t (1) Frequently used in Cajun for am not, is not, are not: “I don’t going to go.” (“I’m not going to go.”) (2) Often used for doesn’t. “‘Father and Ratliff say “she don’t” all the time, and so do you when you are talking to them. And Ratliff says “taken” for “took” and “drug” for “dragged” and so do you when you are talking to country people like Ratliff.’” (William Faulkner, The Town, 1957)

don’t you fret Don’t worry. “‘But don’t you fret, Miss Scarlett, it’ll be over in a month [the Civil War] and we’ll have them howling.’” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936)

don’t amount to a bucket of spit Said of a worthless, no-account person. “He don’t amount to a bucket of spit.”

dooley Another word for a sweet potato in the South, possibly named for someone who developed a superior variety.

don’t cut no ice Makes no difference. This phrase has widespread use now in the United States but possibly originated in the South. “‘He yelled some, and kicked a great deal, but that didn’t cut no ice with the boys and me.’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, God’s Little Acre, 1933) don’t get crosslegged

Don’t lose your temper.

doodle A name for a Northern soldier during the Civil War, in allusion to the song “Yankee Doodle.”

do one bad To do harm to someone. “‘Then why was he so bad?’ screamed Fay. ‘Why did he do me so bad?’” (Eudora Welty, The Optimist’s Daughter, 1972) dope “Gimme a dope” still means “Give me a CocaCola” in the South, especially among teenagers, and

druthers 61 dates back to the 19th century when the fabled soft drink was touted as a tonic and contained a minute amount of cocaine. Coca-Cola’s inventor, druggist John S. Pemberton, brewed the drink in his backyard and knew it was done when he smelled the cooked cocaine—no reactions in the man or among his neighbors are reported.

drappin’ drat!

Raining; used mostly by blacks.

Damn, darn, as in “Drat their hides!”

draw up

To shrink. “It was all drawn up into a ball.”

dressed egg dose Common black and Gullah pronunciation of those. double-dog dare To issue a defiant, often insulting, challenge to someone to do something. “I double-dog dare you to swim across that river!” downright

Very, really. “That’s downright kind of you.”

down to a gnat’s eyebrow Exactly, precisely. “She had it planned down to a gnat’s eyebrow.” dozens The art of hurling invectives at one’s enemies is an ancient one, and American slaves probably brought the verbal exchange called the dozens or dirty dozens with them from Africa, basing it on the Tuareg and Galla game of two opponents cursing one another until one man lost his temper and began fighting with his hands instead of his mouth; he was considered the loser. Alive and thriving today among blacks, the game takes its name not from dozen (twelve) but probably from the Africanism bulldoze, which meant “to bullwhip someone,” especially a slave, the insults likened to whiplashes. dozenth Twelfth. “For the dozenth time, she ran out onto the porch . . .” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936) draftee First recorded in an 1866 Civil War memoir, draftee was surely used before this during the war, probably as soon as the Confederate Conscription Act of 1862 and the Union Draft Law of 1863 were passed. In the North single men ages 20 to 45 and married men ages 20 to 35 were drafted, while the South conscripted all men ages 18 to 35. Most men volunteered, however; for example, only about 2% of the Union Army consisted of draftees. drag one’s foot To bow deeply, dragging the right foot far back while bowing at the waist. “‘Welcome to Warwick’ [she said]. He and Uncle Buck dragged their foot.” (William Faulkner, Go Down, Moses, 1942) drank Sometimes used for “drunk,” as in “I have drank.” In days past, even fastidious, educated Southern people used the expression, to avoid the association with drunk (intoxicated). drap Drop; used chiefly by blacks. “He drapped his hoe.”

A deviled egg topped with parsley.

dressed up like gals going to meeting Dressed up in one’s best. “They’re all dressed up like gals going to meeting.” dressed within an inch of her life Dressed to the nines, but sometimes glaringly, to the point of vulgarity, overdressed. “And here he was now, stepping out of an elegant carriage and handing [helping] down a woman dressed within an inch of her life.” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936) dress the bed

Make the bed.

drew Drove. “‘Just say it was following along behind the wagon when Snopes drew up to the house.’” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940) drinkin’ liquor

A good quality, smooth whiskey.

drinking mash and talking trash Said of someone drunk for whom liquor is doing the talking, who isn’t reasoning properly. “You’re drinkin’ mash and talkin’ trash, man.” drip-drop A little bit, a small amount. “My recipe calls for just a drip-drop of nutmeg.” drive a nail To make a perfect shot with a rifle or handgun; also drive the center and drive the cross. “To drive a nail is a common feat, not more thought of by the Kentuckians than to cut off a wild turkey’s head, at a distance of one hundred yards.” (John James Audubon, Ornithological Biography, 1831) drive a nail into a plank To have sexual intercourse. “‘To tell the truth,’ she said, ‘you’ve got me worried [about becoming pregnant].’ ‘You ought to be [Will said]. When I drive a nail into a plank, it stays driven.’” (Erskine Caldwell, God’s Little Acre, 1933) drive one’s ducks to a poor market To enter into a poor marriage or fall in with a bad crowd. “She had everything going for her, but she drove her ducks to a poor market.” drive the center drive the cross

See See

DRIVE A NAIL.

DRIVE A NAIL.

62 Whistlin’ Dixie drivin’ like a blue ass fly

Driving very fast.

drop his (her) candy To blunder badly and lose out as a result. The phrase may have originated at an outdoor CANDY PULLING when someone dropped a piece of candy he or she had made in the dirt and thus lost it. “He dropped his candy, and the Democrat won the election.” drop in the grease A saying common in Texas meaning to involve someone in the thick of things, in big trouble, especially when a scandal is involved. “He’d better have a better excuse than that or I’ll leak his name to the press. I’ll drop him in the grease with all the others.”

druv

Drove. “He druv off quickly.”

dry grins An embarrassed sheepish smile; a forced smile without any pleasure; possibly a folk etymology deriving from chagrin. “They found him out, and he got a bad case of the dry grins.” dry so Plain, straight, unadulterated. “I always take my whiskey dry so.”

dropped like an ox Dropped suddenly and heavily like a slaughtered ox. “‘. . . while he was shaking her loose, number one ups and hits him over the head with his rail, and he dropped like an ox!’” (William Faulkner, “The Liar,” sketch, New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 26, 1925)

dry-weather stock Said of horses and, by extension, people who can’t cope with all the problems of life, especially when the going gets rough. “‘They’ll do fine on a dry track, a fast track, but mark my words, I don’t believe the Wilkes can run on a mud track . . . when the emergency arises I don’t believe they can run against odds. Dry-weather stock. Give me a big horse that can run in any weather!’” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936)

drug Dragged. See Introduction for a good usage example by William Faulkner of drug.

dry wilts State of advanced physical deterioration, as from age, also used in the Midwest.

drunk as a bowdow Extremely drunk. The phrase is apparently a corruption of “drunk as a boiled owl.”

duck fit A state of great excitement or anger. “He throwed a duck fit when I broke the window.”

drunk as a coot Very drunk, the Coot being an American duck noted for its laugh-like cry and, to some people, its crazy or drunk-like behavior. “‘You wasn’t here, Buck, when ol’ man Twistle died o’ snakebite. Penny must o’ been right about whiskey not doin’ no good [to cure one of it]. Twistle were drunk as a coot when he stepped on the rattler.’” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

due me a compliment Owe me an apology. “You due me a compliment for the way you acted.”

drunk as a fiddler’s bitch Extremely drunk. “‘. . . I heard her scream and I ran into the kitchen and there he was, drunk as a fiddler’s bitch . . .’” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936) drunk as Cooter Brown; drunker than Cooter Brown Very drunk indeed. Who the proverbial Cooter Brown is no one seems to know, but this may have originally been a black expression from the Carolinas. “In Texas we’d call him drunker than Cooter Brown.” drunker than who shot John Uncontrollably drunk. “There he was in the Beeville bar drunker than who shot John.” druthers Choice, preference, as in “If I had my druthers, I wouldn’t be leaving”; sometimes ruthers. See also YOUR DRUTHERS IS MY RUTHERS.

du’in’ Mark Twain gave this as the Southern pronunciation of during. (See usage example at THE WAR.) durn Damn. “Because she is a durn woman.” (William Faulkner, “Mule in the Yard,” 1930) durned Euphemism for damned. “Is that what they call him? Well, I’d be durned. Hawkshaw.” (William Faulkner, “Hair,” 1931) dust-dawn to dust-dark The whole day. “‘So how is Jefferson going to be steady-blessed [Het said] without me steady willing from dust-dawn to dust-dark, rain or snow or sun, to say MUCH OBLIGE?’” (William Faulkner, The Town, 1957) Dutch A term for a Southerner who sympathized with the North during the Civil War. “Every steamer at the levee was laden with families, who . . . had hastily packed a few articles of clothing, to flee from the general and bloody conflict supposed to be impending between the Americans and the Dutch, as the Secessionists artfiilly termed the two parties.” (Albert Richardson, The Secret Service, 1865)

E e

The Gullah pronunciation of she. “E sho is nice.”

eating apron A kind of bib used to cover children while they were eating. “My poor mother led me out bareheaded with a big eating-apron on.” (Daisy Campbell, The Proving of Virginia, 1915)

earbobs; earscrews Earrings. “Now you jist give me them ear-bobs, you pirate,’ [Grandma said].” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) earthslide

eat oneself full To stuff oneself with food. “Don’t eat yourself full, Pop, there’s pie back (in the kitchen) yet.”

A landslide.

easy rider Popularized by the film Easy Rider, this term for a sexually satisfying male lover originated among Southern blacks. Faulkner in Soldier’s Pay (1926) quotes a line from an old blues song: “Oh, oh, I wonder where my easy rider’s gone.”

ebony

See

easy walker Easy Walkers, a trademarked sneaker, have been popular in the South for over 30 years, so much so that easy walkers, in the lower case, has become a synonym for sneakers.

eight-day man A disparaging term for one who joined the Confederate forces during the Civil War for just a short time.

SON OF EBONY.

egg on To urge someone to do something. “They egged her on.” Originally a Southern expression, it now is used throughout the United States.

Elberta peach The Elberta peach, the most widely sold of American peaches, was probably imported from Shanghai in 1850, but more than one source records a story that shows more imagination. According to this tale, Samuel Rumph of Marshallville, Georgia received peach tree buddings from a friend in Delaware, planted them and eventually harvested a good crop. His wife, Elberta, accidentally dropped a few pits from these peaches in her sewing basket and when their grandson wanted to start an orchard 10 years later, she dug them out and asked her husband to plant them. By 1870 trees from the pits were flourishing, and by an accidental cross-pollination, a new golden variety resulted, which Rumph named for his spouse.

eat cooter liver To tell a secret. “He must have been eatin’ cooter liver. Now everybody knows.” eat good Tastes good. “‘They do eat good,’ she said.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) eatin’ a green ’simmon The ’simmon in this 19th century Southern Americanism is a persimmon, which takes its name from the Cree pasiminan (dried fruit). Although the fruit is delicious when thoroughly ripe, a green unripe persimmon is so sour it could make you whistle, which led to the expression he (or she) looks like he’s been eatin’ a green ’simmon. On the other hand, ripe persimmons suggested walking off with the persimmons (walking off with the prize), which also dates back to the 1850s.

elsehow

63

A Gullah term for “or else.”

64 Whistlin’ Dixie Empire State of the South A nickname that has been applied to Georgia, South Carolina and rarely, to Texas, which is of course best known as the Lone Star State. enduring week.”

During. “I’ll be back sometime endurin’ the

English peas A term used for green peas to distinguish them from the black-eyed or brown-eyed varieties. enough to choke a shoat Big, a large amount. “. . . they all watched Mr. Flem . . . draw out a roll of bills . . . ‘Fore God,’ old Het said. ‘You could choke a shoat with it.” (William Faulkner, The Town, 1957) enough to make a Texas preacher lay his Bible down Enough to make anyone mad enough to fight. entitlement Name; old-fashioned term. “What is your entitlement?” enty A Gullah term for isn’t it (and for aren’t they, wasn’t it, haven’t they, didn’t it, etc.), as in “But it’s gwine to rain, enty?” -est Often used as a suffix of superlative adjectives, as in, beautifulest, believingest, dancin’est, drinkingest, Godfearingest, hurringest, kissinest, knowinest, lovingest, talkinest, vote-gettinest and so forth. This is also common in Cajun speech, as in “He the bestest child.” et

evening was already finding itself Darkness was falling. “And then it became late, what with the yet short winter days; when she came in sight of the two gaunt chimneys against the sunset, evening was already finding itself.” (William Faulkner, “Mule in the Yard,” 1940) ever (1) Always. “She was ever a pretty one.” (2) Whenever. “Ever he was grown, never would he marry!” ever’ Every. “‘He was laying there going without water and he reached himself over and bit that tube in two and drunk that glucose. And drunk ever’ drop that was in it.” (Eudora Welty, The Optimist’s Daughter, 1972) ever body Everybody. “I got to get to the Warden in time, before they try it maybe tonight even and wreck ever body.” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959) Everglades Since the early 19th century this term, apparently an Americanism, has been applied to the low, marshy region overgrown with tall grass in Florida. It has been suggested that the “ever” in the word is used loosely in the sense of “interminable.” ever I saw I ever saw; a common reversal of usual English word order, as in “He’s the ugliest man ever I saw,” or the song lyric “The first time ever I saw your face.” everthin’

Everything.

everwhat Whatever; a term used mostly by older Southerners. “Everwhat is happening down there.”

Ate; eaten. “Ain’t you et yet?” everwhich

Ethiopian breakdown

See

See

EVERWHICHWAY.

BREAKDOWN.

Evacuation Day Sunday, April 14, 1861, the day Northern troops evacuated Fort Sumter off Charleston, South Carolina after being defeated in the first battle of the Civil War. even his in-growed toenails is on the outside of his shoes An open, unsecretive person, one whose life seems an open book. “. . . he was, Ratliff said, ‘a feller that even his in-growed toenails was on the outside of his shoes.’” (William Faulkner, The Town, 1957)

everwhichway In all directions; can also be everwhichways or everawhich. “Everwhichway I turn, I see him.” everwho Whoever; another term used mostly by older Southerners. “Everwho do you think you are?” every which way In every way, in all directions. The first recorded use of this expression, in 1824, says it was originally an “odd phrase” taught by slaves to the children of Virginia gentry. Exalted Cyclops

evening Sometimes used, especially among older speakers, as the time between noon and dark (instead of beginning at sunset). “We’ll be going this evening about three o’clock.” An anonymous Virginia woman observed in 1909: “We Southerners sometimes say ‘Afternoon’ on formal occasions, but in our hearts we feel this is affectation; our natural diversions of time are ‘morning,’ ‘evening,’ and ‘night.’”

See

CYCLOPS.

excusin’ Except. “I ain’t done much today, excusin’ fret and worry, and mess with sausage.’” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) exoduster A term most likely based on exodus and describing a black person who left the South in the mass migration to the Northwest of 1878–80.

eyes 65 extry Rural pronunciation of extra. “Let’s get some extry brief ones.” eye-eating Staring at a member of the opposite sex with sexual desire. “You was eye-eatin’ that girl all night, Henry!” eyes Burners on a stove. “‘Son you’ve heard me tell. Stuffed up the windows, stuffed up the door, turned on

all four eyes of the stove and the oven,’ said Mrs. Chisom indulgently. ‘Fire department drug him out, rushed him to the Baptist Hospital in the firewagin, tried all their tricks, but they couldn’t get ahead of Roscoe. He was in Heaven already.’” (Eudora Welty, The Optimist’s Daughter, 1972)

F fandaddies A colorful Southernism of unknown origin for fried clams.

fabling Lying; telling exaggerated stories. “His fabling was well-known.” (William Faulkner, “The Liar,” sketch in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 26, 1925) face hurt

fanfoot A promiscuous woman, but not a woman who is paid for sexual favors.

Blushed. “His face hurt him.” (“He blushed.”)

failing disease

far-gone By all standards, far and away. “He was known to be far-gone the best shot in the county.”

Tuberculosis.

faintified Fainthearted; in a state in which one is ready to faint. “Suddenly, Jody could not endure the sight. . . ‘Don’t go gittin’ faintified on me,’ [his father] said.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) fair

farrer; farrest Farther; farthest. “He lives farrer on down the road.” Far South The Deep South. “Save, in fact, for a few oddities in vocabulary, it was perfectly possible to understand any man encountered along the road, even in the Far South.” (H. L. Mencken, The American Language, Supplement II, 1948)

Moderately. “It was fair late in the fall.”

fairly An adjective roughly equivalent to “nearly, almost.” “I fairly screamed when I heard what he did.” fair off To clear up, when applied to the weather. “It’s gonna fair off by tomorrow.”

fast as (or as the) Forty An old expression meaning very fast. Inspired by an express train nicknamed “The Forty” that ran from Atlanta to New York City.

fallacy A mistake or error. “That was our fallacy, and it won’t happen again.”

fat as a nigger’s hog An old, derogatory, probably obsolete phrase. “The negroe’s hogs are always fatter than those of their master. ‘Fat as a nigger’s hog’ has become a proverb with us in Virginia.” (Harper’s, May 1858)

fall out To faint; principally a Southern expression but today heard as far north as northern Wisconsin, northern Indiana and southeastern Pennsylvania. “He was standing at attention, and suddenly he fell out.”

fatback The fat and fat meat from the upper part of a side of pork, often salt-cured and a Southern favorite.

false An old-fashioned term with limited use for the wooden box in which a coffin is placed before being lowered into the grave.

fatnen’ hog Very heavy. “She needs to go on a diet, looks like a fatnen’ hog.”

family woman family way.

Father Mississippi A nickname for the Mississippi River. See also FATHER OF WATERS.

A pregnant woman, a woman in the

66

finer than frog’s hair 67 Father of Floods A nickname for the Mississippi River. See FATHER OF WATERS.

fetching Very attractive. “She’s a real fetchin’ woman.”

Father of Rivers A nickname for the Mississippi River. See FATHER OF WATERS.

fetchy

Father of Waters A nickname for the Mississippi River that may derive from an Indian name, Meact-Chassipi (the ancient Father of the Rivers), a word the French corrupted into Mississippi. For another possible derivation of Mississippi, see MISSISSIPPI. fatty-bread

CRACKLING

bread.

fault To blame; used nationally but most frequently in the South. “Don’t fault me for that.” favor

To resemble. “He favors his daddy.”

federal building A humorous term, doubtless invented by unreconstructed Confederates, for an outhouse. feel below the ford

To feel under the weather.

feel like a stewed witch

feisty Conceited, bragging, acting with impudence beyond a person’s stature. “Stop acting so feisty all the time.” fell off Lost weight. “He’s fell off a lot—lost one hundred pounds.” An old black term for a white man.

female daughter A redundancy recorded by Faulkner, among others. See usage example at FISH-BLOODED. fence lifter

F.F. A member of a first family, especially of Virginia but of any state or country. F.F.V. An abbreviation for First Families of (or in) Virginia. “The old things we could make out among the unknown writing were a set of letters that looked like a disorderly F.F.V.” (Knickerbocker Magazine, volume 29, 1847) “‘Ah,’ Benbow said. ‘An F.F.V., or just an unfortunate sojourner here.’” (William Faulkner, Sanctuary, 1931) fice; fiest; fyst; fyste; fyce; fist; fists; fise; feice; feist; faust; faus; fif; fouce A small dog; often a derogatory term. “You sell me your half of that trick overgrown fice.” (William Faulkner, “Shingles for the Lord,” 1943) “In Missouri or Mississippi he would have been labeled ‘fice,’ which is equivalent to saying that he was a terrierlike dog of no particular breed.” (Christy Mathewson, Second Base Sloan, 1917)

To have a bad hangover.

feels to me Seems to me. “‘I reckon I’ll get me a mule somewhere and some seed-cotton and guano, and grow me a crop of cotton this year,’ Dude said. ‘It feels to me like it’s going to be a good year for cotton. Maybe I could grow me a bale to the acre, like Pa was always talking about doing.’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932)

fellow

An old term for attractive, charming.

A heavy rain, but one less heavy than a

GOOSE DROWNDER.

Fiddle-dee-dee! An exclamation indicating that something is nonsense, made famous by Margaret Mitchell’s heroine Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind (1936): “She said ‘fiddle-dee-dee!’ many times. . . and vowed that she’d never believe anything any man told her.” Fiddle-dee-dee was popular long before Scarlett, being a corruption of the Italian Fedido (by the faith of God). fidgets day.”

A creepy nervousness. “I’ve had the fidgets all

Figinny An old, obsolete pronunciation of Virginia or Virginny. figures don’t lie but liars sure can figure A saying from down Texas way, where they claim to be quickest on the drawl. filé

Powdered sassafras leaves. Filé is used to thicken

GUMBO.

find To give birth to a child. “I’m a-goin’ t’ find another baby afore long. I found my ten babies all alone here in Georgia.”

Ferginny Virginia. “‘That’s right,’ Pettigrew said. ‘Thomas Jefferson Pettigrew. I’m from old Ferginny.’ ” (William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun, 1951)

fine-haired Aristocratic; conceited. “He’s a fine-haired son-of-a-bitch, ain’t he?”

ferrididdle A small ground squirrel; used mainly in Southern mountain regions.

finer than frog’s hair Very thin or fine. “That table’s nearly perfect. The scratches are finer than frog’s hair.”

68 Whistlin’ Dixie fire-eater An often violent, always uncompromising believer in the Southern cause before and during the Civil War, the term dating back to the 1840s. Anonymous doggerel of the day described the fire-eaters: Down in a small Palmetto State the curious ones may find A ripping, tearing gentleman, of an uncommon kind, A staggering, swaggering sort of chap who takes his whiskey straight, And frequently condemns his eyes to that ultimate vengeance which a clergyman of high-standing has assured must be a sinner’s fate; This South Carolina gentleman, one of the present time.

firehunt Hunting deer and other animals at night by jacklighting them (shining light in their eyes to stun them). “Now you know . . . you can’t fire-hunt deer at night.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Cross Creek, 1942)

fixing

Preparing. “He’s fixing to leave real soon.”

flang one’s thang Exhibit one’s genitals. “What would have to be wrong with a guy to make him flang his thang out in front of women?” (Larry Brown, ‘Waiting for the Ladies,” 1990) flash Stylish. “The hat was soiled now but still flash, the coat below it had been white once too, a little flash too . . .” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959) flat of the back Flat on one’s back. “She was tired of laying flat of her back.” flat out To drive very fast, with the gas pedal flat to the floor. “He drove that truck flat out, till the tree stopped him.” fled Sped; left hastily. “He didn’t answer. The car fled on.” (William Faulkner, “Elly,” 1934)

fire-time The end of November to the first warm days in spring. “Ma Baxter said, ‘Don’t seem possible firetimes here agin.’” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

fleshen To put on weight, become fleshy. “I fleshened up again.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, “Cocks Must Crow,” 1939)

first-dark

flinderation Being in the state of flinders or fragments. “That hurricane blew the house all to flinderation.”

A Gullah term for “twilight.”

first-folks Mainly black Southern usage for the bestbred people, people of quality. firstlight

Dawn.

fish-blooded Cold-blooded, cold, uncaring. “Look here, you old fish-blooded son of a bitch, are you going to just sit there and let your only female daughter . . . drive alone up yonder. . .” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959) fish fry A picnic at which fish are fried and served; the event sometimes includes actually catching the fish. Free fish fries were long a favorite entertainment of Southern politicians. fishing worm South. fish muddle served.

An earthworm; used in the coastal

A fish stew; a gathering where fish stew is

fling up

To vomit. “He flung up his dinner.”

flittercakes Pancakes, which are also called fritters, corncakes and batter-cakes in the South. flitter

An old Southern term for a pancake.

Florida The Sunshine State was the Florida Territory before being admitted to the Union as the 27th state in 1845. Florida means “land of flowers” in Spanish; Ponce de Leon named it in 1513 with “flowery Easter” in mind. See also FLY-UP-THE-CREEK. Florida cooter The Florida terrapin (Pseudemys concinna); also called the hard-backed cooter and the soft-shelled cooter. Florida cracker

A

CRACKER

residing in Florida.

A fight with just fists, no weapons

Florida room A term used in Florida and other Southern states for a living room with large windows to catch the sun.

fittin’ Fit, fitting, appropriate; pleasant. “‘If I’d of knowed you was comin’,’ she said, ‘I’d of cooked somethin’ fittin’.’” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938]

Floridy Florida. “This right here . . . is the old Spanish trail clear across Floridy.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

fist and skull fight of any kind.

40 acres and a mule 69 flounty A flaunting action. “‘Ummm-mm,’ said Mother, ‘sounds flounty.’ ‘Yeah it was flounty. One of the flountist things I ever saw.”’ (Calder Willingham, Rambling Rose, 1972) flowing bitch

A female dog in heat or season.

fooling around Depending on the context, it can mean being involved in extramarital sex. “She caught him foolin’ around and left him.” foolishment Foolishness. “Stop that silly noise right now. I’ve had enough of your foolishment.”

flugins Very cold, used mainly in the old expressions “It’s cold as flugins” and “It’s cold as blue flugins.”

fool thing to him.”

flutter mill A small waterwheel made for or by a child. “Up, over, down, up, over, down—the flutter mill was enchanting . . . Unless leaves fell, or squirrels cut sweet bay twigs to drop and block the fragile wheel, the flutter mill might turn forever.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

foot! An exclamation of anger. “‘Foot! I’m mad at you for not getting the house,’ old Mrs. Pease told Laurel.” (Eudora Welty, The Optimist’s Daughter, 1972) See also SHOOK HIS FOOT.

fly-up-the-creek Southerners don’t use this expression today, but it is recorded as early as 1845 as the nickname for a resident of Florida. Floridians were so called because fly up the creek is a popular name of the small green heron common in the state. Walt Whitman used the expression in this sense, and it later meant “a giddy capricious person.” F.M.C.; F.W.C. There were a number of freed and escaped slaves in the United States long before the Civil War. By 1840 the terms F.M.C., “free man of color,” and F.W.C., “free woman of color,” were in common use, and blacks for many years proudly affixed the terms after their names. fog-beaded Covered with droplets of condensed fog. “[She was] tall, lean, fog-beaded, in her tennis shoes and a long rat-colored cloak trimmed with what forty–fifty years ago would have been fur. . .” (William Faulkner, “Mule in the Yard,” 1930)

footwasher A foot-washing Baptist; member of a religious group, often Baptist, that practices the washing of each other’s feet as part of certain religious services. “Each of the footwashers was unlacing the left shoe of the person he faced.” (Carl Carmer, Stars Fell on Alabama, 1934) for Sometimes added after verbs showing desire and before an infinitive, as in “I don’t intend for him to go.” (“I don’t want him to go.”) force An old term for a group of slaves working on a plantation. for certain Certainly, assuredly. “It’s goin’ to snow today for certain.” forched

Fetched.

foreigner; furriner A nonresident of a Southern state. “He’s some kind of furriner, maybe from New York City.”

Foggy Bottom The U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C. has been humorously called Foggy Bottom at least since the early 1960s, due to its location near the Potomac River on a piece of land long called “Foggy Bottom.” The designation caught on because of the “foggy” gobbledygook emanating from the department.

forenoon more.

fo’ God Before God. “‘Fo’ God I wuz jes dis minute huntin fer you, she said.” (William Faulkner, “Mule in the Yard,” 1930)

for to gal.”

A synonym for morning rarely heard any-

for good and always An old-fashioned term meaning forever. “I’ll love her for good and always.” for sure

for true folderol Falderal; nonsense, foolish talk. “‘Now, Puss, tell me true, do you understand his folderol about books and music and oil paintings and such foolishness?’” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936)

Foolish thing. “Every fool thing happened

Certainly. “He is going to come for sure.” In order to. “I went down there for to see my

Certainly, truly, really. “I’ll be there for true.”

40 acres and a mule A promise, with no basis in fact, made by dishonest politicians to newly freed slaves alter the Civil War. Each freed slave, they said, would receive 40 acres of land and a mule to work it with. “When we

70 Whistlin’ Dixie were children we used to ridicule the slogan ‘forty acres and a mule’ as a stupid deception used by the Yankees to get the black men to vote for the Republicans.” (Katherine Lumpkin, The Making of a Southerner, 1947) for why? Often used as “why?” in Cajun. “For why you hit me?” fowl-crow A chiefly Gullah term for the time when the cock crows dawn, cock-crow. “Every morning she got up at first fowl-crow.”

fret To worry. “ ‘I wrote another card and said at least tell his mother what had been fretting my son, if they knew so much, and they finally got around to answering that Roscoe didn’t want me to know.’ ” (Eudora Welty, The Optimist’s Daughter, 1972) frisky as a flea on a flat dog Very frisky, lively. “I had a puppy down in Texas frisky as a flea on a flat dog.” fritter-minded Frivolous. “I felt ashamed at my fritterminded carrying on.”

fox-fire A fungi-caused phosphorescent glow on decayed wood. “They’d hunt in the wood-pile for the turquoise bits that were called fox-fire.”

fritters

frail To flail, beat. “If you’re going to whip him, you better whip the rest of us too and then one of us can frail hell out of you.” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940)

frog

frammed Spanked. “‘Now, mister Impudent Bigmouth, you’ll git yourself frammed good with a brush.’” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” DAMN. franzy

See

FLITTERCAKES.

Froze. “I like to friz to death.” Often used to mean a toad.

frogmow stew A dish made not of frogs but of seafood; originally made on Frogmore, one of the Sea Islands off South Carolina. frogsticker A pocketknife with a long blade; often called a toadsticker elsewhere.

GIVE A

frogstool A toadstool, a poisonous mushroom. “Be careful not to eat frogstools—they’re poisonous.”

Frenzy, madness, an excited state.

franzy house

A whorehouse; an insane asylum.

frazzle To severely whip or beat. “He frazzled him near to death.” frazzlin’!

friz

See

frog-strangler A humorous name for a heavy flooding rain, a long downpour; also toad-strangler. from Sometimes used to mean for: “I can’t blame him from crying”; also used redundantly, as in “I can’t help from crying.”

Damned. “I don’t like him one frazzlin’ bit!”

freehearted Very generous. “He was too freehearted with his money, but his cousin was downright stingy.” French harp An old term for a harmonica; also called mouth organ. French Quarter A well-known area in New Orleans famous for its restaurants and entertainment. fresh New, just purchased. “She got them fresh from the store today.” freshen To give birth to a baby, applied to a cow dropping a calf. “She slept by herself on a pallet on the floor, refusing even to let Lov kiss her or touch her in any way. Lov had told her that cows were not any good until they had been freshened . . .” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932)

from the jump From the very beginning. “I’ll give you a history of Henry Clay, from the first jump of him.” (Maysville [Kentucky] Eagle, July 12, 1831) frozen words An old story from Texas tells of a winter so cold that spoken words froze in the air, fell entangled on the ground and had to be fried up in a skillet before the letters could reform and any sense could be made of them. But the idea is an ancient one, not Southern in origin, used by Rabelais and familiar to the Greek dramatist Antiphanes, who used it in praising the work of Plato: “As the cold of certain cities is so intense that it freezes the very words we utter, which remain congealed till the heat of summer thaws them, so the mind of youth is so thoughtless that the wisdom of Plato lies there frozen, as it were, till it is thawed by the refined judgment of mature age.” fry-meat

A Gullah term for fried meat.

fuzzed up 71 fuck up Get drunk and raise hell. “‘Let’s go fuck up. You want to?’ ‘Fuck up? Where at?’ ‘Ah, hell. We can just go fuck up uptown if you want to. I don’t care. Just anywhere.’” (Larry Brown, “92 Days,” 1990) fulled Became full (said of the moon). See usage example at CAUGHT.

furnish A bill or account for supplies in a general store; from the verb furnish (to supply). “The storekeeper said he would put it on my furnish.” fur piece A long way, a long distance. “It’s a fur piece to Grandma’s house.” fuss

full-up

To quarrel; scold.

Completely full. “I’m full-up on coffee.”

fun To tease, fool or joke with someone. “Don’t take it so hard; he was only funning you.” funky Has a multitude of slang meanings, including repulsive, malodorous and stinking; earthy, simple yet compelling; excellent, effective; musically hard-edged and urban; old-fashioned, nostalgic; pleasantly eccentric; deviant, kinky; and highly emotional. Probably all derive ultimately from the Southern dialect word funky, meaning moldy, strongsmelling, malodorous. funny-peculiar Strange. “He says, ‘Funny-haha or funny-peculiar . . .’ And I says, ‘Funny-peculiar.’ ” (Eudora Welty, “Petrified Man,” 1941)

fuss and feathers Nonsense over nothing at all. “‘It’s a bunch of fuss and feathers,’ she said. ‘Ross just flirts, that’s all.’” (Calder Willingham, Rambling Rose, 1972) The expression is used nationally, too, and Old Fuss and Feathers was the nickname of Union general Winfield Scott, a Virginian by birth. fussbox

The usual term for a fuss-budget in the South.

fuzzed up Excited, disturbed. “They were all fuzzed up about it.”

G gallery (1) A long porch, veranda; also called piazza. “He just spent the rest of his time sitting on the gallery in summer and in the library in winter with the bottle, reading Latin poetry.” (William Faulkner, The Town, 1957) (2) A porch in front of a store. “. . . Houston ordered whoever was on the front gallery to step inside and fetch him out whatever he had come for like they were Negroes.” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959)

that is sometimes involved even in naming something. Linnaeus did honor his promise to their mutual friend and two years later dedicated a newly discovered tropical shrub to Garden, even though the Southern amateur botanist did not discover the beautiful sweet-smelling gardenia. Alexander Garden (ca. 1730–91), a ScottishAmerican physician, resided in Charleston, South Carolina where he practiced medicine and also devoted much of his time to collecting plant and animal specimens. He discovered the Congo eel and a number of snakes and herbs. An ardent Tory, he returned to England during the Revolutionary War and later became vice president of the Royal Society. Dr. Garden was by all accounts a difficult, headstrong man. When his American granddaughter was named Gardenia Garden in his honor, he still refused to see her. After all, her father had fought against the British!

galloping fence Used in South Carolina to mean a straight rail fence. galluses; gallowses held up his pants.”

Suspenders. “Bright red galluses

galvanized Yankee A term Southerners used to describe other Southerners sympathetic to the North during the Civil War; printed in many Southern newspapers of the day.

garden sass Garden vegetables; sass, apparently a variation of sauce, was first applied to stewed fruit and is used in New England as well. “Her garden sass needed cultivating, and so I just hitched up Ida and came out here to plow it a little for her.” (Erskine Caldwell, Georgia Boy, 1943)

gang A group of animals of the same kind. “We were got half way, meeting great Gangs of Turkies . . .” (John Lawson, A New Voyage to Carolina, 1809)

garret

gank-gutted Skinny, thin. “Look at that gank-gutted woman.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, “Gal Young Un’,” 1932)

Often used in Maryland to mean an attic.

Gate City A nickname now or in the past for several cities, including Atlanta and Louisville, because they are each situated at the entrance to a region. Atlanta is also called the Gate City of the South.

gardenia “Mr. Miller has called it Basteria . . . I would call it Gardenia, from our worthy friend Dr. Alexander Garden of S. Carolina.” “If Dr. Garden will send me a new genus, I shall be truly happy to name it after him, Gardenia.” These quotations from an exchange of letters between a friend of the botanist Linnaeus and the great botanist himself, 1757–58, reveal the politicking

Gate City of the South

See

GATE CITY.

gator An alligator. The word alligator is seldom heard in the South. 72

get in the wind of 73 gator-bit

Bitten by an alligator.

gaum; gom; gorn (1) v. To smear. “The baby’s all gaummed up with molasses.” (2) As a noun, gaum means “a mess.” “You’re making a gaum out of the food, child.” gay Before its present use for a homosexual, gay woman or gay often meant a prostitute in the South, just as gay house meant a bordello. Both usages are found in William Faulkner’s The Reivers, 1962. gee Old slang and dialect for agree. “The figures didn’t gee.”

itive peoples served the same purpose.” (Montgomery Advertiser, August 6, 1933) Georgia chicken

Humorous term for salt pork.

Georgia cracker

A

CRACKER

living in Georgia.

Georgia credit card Slang for a short length of hose used to siphon gas out of another person’s gas tank. Georgia flower

A nickname for fuchsia shrubs.

Georgia ice cream

Grits.

A tongue-in-cheek term similar to KENbut it can also be a derogatory term for a pretentious, self-important person.

Georgia Major gee and haw Cries, meaning “turn right” and “turn left” respectively, used when working mules, horses and oxen. “‘I’ll steer if that’s all you needs,’ Ned said. ‘I been what you calls steering horses and mules and oxen all my life and I reckon gee and haw with that steering wheel ain’t no different from gee and haw with a pair of lines or a goad.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Reivers, 1962) geechee A derogatory term, often used by both blacks and whites, describing Southern rural blacks, although it has also been applied to blacks in general. The term also refers to Gullah, a dialect of Southern seacoast or rural blacks, and can describe any low-country South Carolinian, especially from the Charleston area. Geechee may derive from northern Georgia’s Ogeechee River or from the name of an African tribe in Liberia’s Kissy region. gemmen

A pronounciation of gentlemen.

gempmuns A mostly black pronunciation of gentlemen. “‘That’s something else about gempmuns you won’t never know,’ the groom said.” general

See

TUCKY COLONEL,

Georgia man A term slaves sometimes used for slavedealers. “There I thought . . . that some Georgia man, as the negroes then called the slave-dealer—for to Georgia many of the negroes were then sold . . . would leap upon me from the woods.” (Frederick Thomas, John Randolph of Roanoke, 1853) Georgia pen A log prison common in Georgia in the early 19th century and during the Civil War. Georgia piercer A large mosquito. “The ‘Georgia piercer’ or ‘Gailinipper’, if curses could annihilate it, would be driven from off the earth.” (Harper’s Magazine, November 1862) Georgia pitch pine A valuable abundant tree also known as the Southern pine and the red, brown, yellow or long-leaved pine. get about To move around. “She can’t hardly get about anymore.”

CAPTAIN.

Georgia Georgia is named for George II of England (1683–1760), who was not a particularly popular monarch. Discovered by Hernando de Soto in 1540, it became the last of the 13 original colonies in 1732 when a British charter was granted for the establishment of “the Colony of Georgia in America.” It was the fourth state in the United States and is nicknamed the “Peach State” and the “Empire State of the South.” Georgia buggy

A humorous term for a wheelbarrow.

Georgia button “‘Skewers,’ in the South known as ‘Georgia buttons,’ are just crude forms (wooden pine, locust thorns) . . . and the bones and shell pins of prim-

get a holt of Get a hold of. “And besides, the main thing was to get a holt of Uncle Rodney and my twenty quarters . . .” (William Faulkner, “That Will Be Fine,” 1935) get-go

The beginning. “I been here since the get-go.”

get gone To depart, leave. “Give me my share so I can get gone.” get grown To grow up. “When I got grown, I moved out of there.” get in the wind of Get wind of; discover. “He was cheatin’ on his expense account till his boss got in the wind of it—now he’s lookin’ for work.”

74 Whistlin’ Dixie get in behind To egg on, push, encourage. “‘And then De Spain come home at dinner time and I reckon maybe Miz de Spain got in behind him because about middle of the afternoon he rides up to house . . . ’ ” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940) get leave of To get permission. “‘Is you going to get leave of the county to get married?’ he asked doubtfully. ‘Or is you just going to live along without it?’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932) get low for Jesus To prostrate oneself in prayer to Jesus Christ. “‘I can get low for Jesus too. I can get low for Him too.’ ” (William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun, 1951) get me pie.”

To get for oneself. “I’m gonna get me some

get one’s ashes hauled To be sexually satisfied, as in the black folk blues, “Well, you see that spider climbin’ up the wall, / Goin’ up there to get her ashes hauled.” get oneself a boss boss now.”

To get married. “He got him a new

get on the river To find employment on the Mississippi, aboard a steamboat, etc. Mark Twain used this expression in Old Times (1875). get shed of; get shut of To get rid of. “Let’s run that tire flat so we can git to town and git shed of him. I don’t like to waste time around that smell.” (Erskine Caldwell, “Savannah River Payday,” The Complete Stories of Erskine Caldwell, 1953) get the bulge on someone To get the advantage over someone. “You don’t watch it, he’s gonna get the bulge on you.” getting fair The weather is clearing up, getting good. “It’s getting fair outside.”

Southern blacks, particularly in Mississippi, for a child given to someone to raise by a relative or friend unable to raise the child. giggle soup A name for any alcoholic drink, especially in North Carolina. gime

See

GWINE.

gimme a dope

See

DOPE.

gin (1) Early on used for if, deriving from the pronunciation of the Scotch-Irish schoolteachers of the South, who were often indentured servants. (2) By; before. “I’ll be there gin supper.” (3) As a shortening of cotton gin and a corruption of the word engine, gin was first used in the South and had little use in other sections of the country. gin rickey Rickeys can be made of any liquor combined with carbonated water and lime juice, but the most famous drink in the family is the gin rickey, invented about 1895 and named after “a distinguished Washington guzzler of the period,” Colonel Rickey, according to H. L. Mencken. Just which Colonel Rickey is a matter of dispute, however. Several theories have been recorded by Mencken in his American Language, Supplement I and in other sources, but none is generally accepted. gip; gyp gitar

A female dog, bitch.

Common pronunciation of guitar.

give a damn This was originally “I don’t give a damn,” the expression probably brought back from India by military men in the mid-18th century. A dam was an Indian coin of little value. I don’t give a damn is first recorded in America in the 1890s. Its most famous use was in the film Gone with the Wind (1939), in which Rhett Butler told Scarlett O’Hara: “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

getting oneself up Dressing up to go out, putting on makeup. “‘She’s upstairs in her room,’ said Doll, ‘getting herself up.’ ” (Calder Willingham, Rambling Rose, 1972)

give a little sugar To give a hug or kiss; said especially to a child. “Come over here and give me a little sugar.”

get up backwards bed, be irritable.

give down the country to account.

To get up on the wrong side of the

To find fault with, upbraid, call

ghy Going to; used principally by blacks. “A ghy tell um! I ghy do hit!” (William Faulkner, “Uncle Willy,” 1936) See also GWINE.

give him the go-by Said in South Carolina of a woman who refuses a man’s marriage proposal: “She gave him the go-by.”

gift child A term (recorded in no other dictionary, so far as can easily be determined) used principally among

give in A Gullah phrase meaning “to tell.” “She come for the job and give in her experience.”

go hungry and ragged 75 give it a lick and a promise perfunctorily, quickly.

Do something hurriedly,

give-me-leif “‘. . . likely you never hear of Give-melief. It was a game we played. You would pick out another boy about your own size and you would walk up to him with a switch or maybe a light stick or a hard green apple or maybe even a rock, depending on how hard a risk you wanted to take, and say to him, “Gimme leif,” and if he agreed, he would stand still and you would take one cut or lick at him with the switch or stick, as hard as you picked out, or back off and throw at him once with the green apple or the rock. Then you would stand still and he would take the same switch or stick or apple or rock or anyways another one jist like it, and take one cut or throw at you.’” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959) give off To give away in a marriage reckon you can,’ said Rose. ‘You’re all weddin’, all of you, cause we want your me off.’ ” (Calder Willingham, Rambling

ceremony. “‘I comin’ to the Daddy to give Rose, 1972)

give one scissors To give someone a tongue-lashing. “He give him scissors, didn’t he?” give one the blacks To snub or ignore a person. “When I passed him on the street, he give me the blacks.” give out (1) Very tired, having no strength left. “I’m about give out.” (2) give up, gave up. “I reckon you give out expecting me to come.” give up to be Generally conceded to be. “She’s give up to be the prettiest girl in these parts.” give-way givey

A giveaway. “It was a dead give-way.”

Moist, muggy, soft. “The weather’s givey today.”

giving tongue A dog’s cry when chasing game. “. . . he heard the bellike voice of old Julia, giving tongue in great excitement.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) giving tongue like a hound in the field Talking incessantly, especially gossipping. “. . . with Honey Wilkes giving tongue like a hound in the field, the entire County would know about it before six-o-clock.” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936) gizzard-string Gullah for a supposed tendon in the stomach. “He laughed so hard he like to popped his gizzard-string.”

glid

Slid, glided. “The time just glid by.”

glom Take, grab, swipe; apparently from the British dialect word glaum or an old Scottish word, although glom had early hobo use in America. “He glommed the whole bag of them.” Glorious Cause A Southern name for the Civil War. “‘Take a good look at them,’ came Rhett’s gibing voice, ‘so you can tell your grandchildren you saw the rear guard of the Glorious Cause in retreat.’ ” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936) go goan

Going. “I hope y’all [are] go [to] remember us.” See

GWINE.

go away To lose weight or shrivel up. “When it’s cooked up, the spinach will go away.” go by cow express

To travel by foot (or shoe leather).

go chase cats Get lost, get out of here. “. . . he didn’t like Horton a bit and once in trembling fury had told him to go chase cats, scram, go home . . .” (Calder Willingham, Rambling Rose, 1972) God Almighty’s overcoat wouldn’t make him no vest Said of a very conceited person. go down Gullah for “to take to childbed.” “Her time to go down was near.” God’s nightgown! A Southern exclamation of exasperation or surprise made famous by Margaret Mitchell’s heroine Scarlett O’Hara, who uses it several times in Gone with the Wind, 1936: “‘God’s nightgown,’ cried Scarlett, leaping from the bed. ‘Aren’t things bad enough without you talking about dying?’ ” goed Went. “Away we goed.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) gogo Used mainly in Louisiana for the buttocks. “He pinched her gogo, and she slapped his face.” go halvers on it.”

To share equally. “I’ll go halvers with you

go hungry and ragged To be poor, have nothing. “‘I hear what you say, Miss Henny, but it makes no difference,’ he told her determinedly. ‘I’ll just have to go hungry and ragged, if need be.’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, Jenny By Nature, 1961)

76 Whistlin’ Dixie go in To begin, especially a church service or schooltime. “School goes in at 9 o’clock.” Gold Coast A name for that part of Louisiana on the banks of the Mississippi 30 miles or so upriver from New Orleans. Gold Coast Negro A slave brought to America from the region so named in West Africa. Golden Coast

Same as

GOLD COAST.

gollop To swallow greedily. “They golloped up that rabbit and left nothing but the bones.”

good (1) Fully, completely. “They’ll dry pretty fast soon’s the sun gits good up.” (2) Well; primarily an East Texas expression. “I’m good, thank you, ma’am.” good and heavy To a considerable extent, in a big way. “‘God is got it in good and heavy for the poor [ Jeeter said]. But I ain’t complaining.’” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932) gooder (1) Mostly a mountain term for a good one or a good thing. “That’s a real gooder!” (“That’s a good joke!”) (2) Better. “Foxes love corn gooder’n I do.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) goodest

gone where the woodbine twineth Woodbine is a honeysuckle (Lonicera pericylmenum) that was often planted on graves in years past. An 1870 song written as a tribute to those who died in the bloody Civil War went “Then go where the woodbine turneth,/ When spring is bright and fair,/ And to the soldier’s resting place/ Some little tribute bear.” From this song by Septimus Winner the expression gone where the woodbine twineth came to refer to someone who had died or even someone who had gone someplace from where he would never return. It is currently used in the South and nationally as well. gonna clean your clock Going to get even; going to beat you up. “I’m gonna clean your clock!” goober (1) Goober, for “peanut” was not coined in the southern United States. It originated in Africa as the Bantu nguba (peanut) and was brought to the American South by African slaves in about 1834. A dialect term for many years, it has achieved wider usage over the past 50 years. PINDER, another word for peanut, comes from the Kongo npinda and is used chiefly in South Carolina. (2) During the Civil War, a nickname for a resident of North Carolina. goober digger An affectionate term for a Southern backwoodsman. goober grabber; goober gabbler (1) Nickname for a native of Georgia. (2) A poor country person, one who digs for peanuts.

The best. “That’s the goodest yet.”

good for the wholesome for the health.”

good man A child’s term for God; used mostly in the Southern mountains. good ole boy A white Southern male exemplifying the masculine ideals of the region; any amiable Southerner, provided he likes guns, hunting, fishing, drinking, football and women, in roughly that order; a loyal Southerner, rich or poor, devoted to all things Southern. The term had popular use in the mid-1960s. Said the late Billy Carter, President Jimmy Carter’s brother, of the good ole boy: “A good ole boy . . . is somebody that rides around in a pickup truck . . . and drinks beer and throws ’em out the window.” (Redneck Power: The Wit and Wisdom of Billy Carter, 1977) good ole rebel Perhaps older than GOOD OLE BOY is the little-heard good ole rebel which derives from a song entitled “Good Old Rebel” written by Innes Randolph in the 1870s: “I am a good old rebel—/ Yes, that’s just what I am—/And for this land of freedom/I do not give a damn./I’m glad I fit agin ’em/And I only wish we’d won;/And I don’t ax no pardon/For anything I’ve done.” goody (1) A nut’s kernel. “Her cake had goodies in it.” (2) An egg yolk. “She broke open an egg with two goodies in it.” (3) Jam or jelly. “Spread some goody on my bread.” gooey weather

goober pea Goober State

An old term meaning “good

Muggy weather.

A peanut. A nickname for Georgia.

gooch To dog; gouge. “‘What’re you laughin’ at, son?’ said Mary, gooching him roughly in the ribs.” (Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel, 1929)

goofer A witch doctor; a spell performed by a witch doctor; derives from a word of African origin brought to the South by slaves. goofer dust doctors.

A powder used in conjurations by witch

grandboy 77 google

See

GOOZLE.

go on To carry on; show grief; make an outcry. “The widow was down on the grave cryin’ and goin’ on.” goose drownder A very heavy rain. “We’ve had some real goose drownders this year.” goose hangs (honks) high All’s well, everything is looking good. “We made the deal. Everything is lovely, and the goose hangs high.” gooses Sometimes used as the plural for goose instead of geese. goot

To go for a ride. “How would you like to go

go to the bad To spoil; deteriorate; become immoral. “She’s praying her daughter won’t go to the bad.” go to the bridge with To stand by, support. “I’m your friend and I’ll go to the bridge with you.” go to the well with To stick by someone to the end; the saying is now common throughout the U.S. go to the whole coon An old, perhaps obsolete, Southern expression patterned on go the whole hog (go all out for something).

An insane person.

goozle The windpipe or throat of a human or an animal, especially a pig; also called google, guzzle and gozzle. “‘Why, that’s his goozle. What’s a goozle? Well, if he didn’t have no goozle, he couldn’t squeal.’”(Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) gopher wood The southern yellow-wood, Cladrastis lutea, said to be one of the rarest and most beautiful trees of the American forest. Gorilla Derogatory nickname for Abraham Lincoln common in the South during the Civil War. “He was long detained in Washington, having interviews with Abe, the Gorilla; Seward, the Raven; and Feathers Scott.” (Richmond Dispatch, November 13, 1861) Lincoln was also called the “Illinois Gorilla.” His own Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, called him the “Original Gorilla.” gorn

go to ride to ride?”

See

GWINE.

gospel bird Chicken, because the bird is so often served at Southern Sunday dinners. See also DINNER. got Sometimes omitted in speech, as in “I ain’t no firewood.” got a low eye for a high fence To think too much of oneself. “‘Now think o’ that beat-down human aspirin’ to Grandma,’ Penny said. ‘He’s shore got a low eye for a high fence.’” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) go to hell in a bucket To deteriorate rapidly; also go to the hell in a handbasket. “Neither of us could figure it out, all we knew for certain was that the marriage of Rose and Dave began to go to hell in a bucket . . . (Calder Willingham, Rambling Rose, 1972)

go up An obsolete Civil War expression for “to be hanged or finished.” “Soon after the blocade many thought we Confederates should ‘go up’ on the salt question—couldn’t salt our meat and should be starved into subjection.” (London Index, June 2, 1864) gourd An old term for the head, dating back to the early 19th century. goverment Common Southern pronunciation of government, though it is also used nationally. gower An old mispronunciation of giaour, a word, Turkish in origin, for an unbeliever. graceful as the capital letter S Very graceful. “‘Well, Rosebud,’ said Daddy, ‘now you are here, darling, and I swear to God graceful as the capital letter S.’” (Calder Willingham, Rambling Rose, 1972) gracious plenty More than enough. “We’ve got gracious plenty of it.” grain A little, a bit of; chiefly used in the Southern mountains. “You might o’ been a grain warmer about hit.” gramy

To vex, annoy. “Ain’t any need to be gramied.”

grand Tall; from the French and often used in the Louisiana-French dialects. grandbaby A common term for a grandchild that isn’t recorded in any dictionaries so far as can be easily determined; heard recently (1991) from a Southern woman in the Empire State Building in New York City, of all places: “I got three grandbabies down home.” grandboy Grandson. “‘I got just as much right to a trip as you and Lucius,’ Ned said. ‘I got more. This auto-

78 Whistlin’ Dixie mobile belongs to Boss and Lucius ain’t nothing but his grandboy and you ain’t no kin to him at all.’” (William Faulkner, The Reivers, 1962)

granny-woman A midwife. “If this fails to cure, send for an old granny-woman who will cross two sticks in his mouth.” (Carl Carmer, Stars Fell on Alabama, 1934)

Grand Creole

grass sack

Sec

grave-box

A coffin.

See

Grand Cyclops

MAN OF SUMTER.

See

CYCLOPS.

CROCUS SACK.

granddaddy Used more often in the South for grandfather than anywhere else.

gravel To annoy or embarrass someone. “She gravels me with all her airs.”

granddaddy clause CLAUSE.

graveyard cough arettes.

Grand Dragon KLAN.

A variation on

GRANDFATHER

A high-ranking official of the

KU KLUX

Grandfather A form of address once often applied to elderly male blacks. “. . . and there was a Negro family in a wagon in the road and Bayard said, ‘Hold on, Grandfather,’ and turned the car off into a ditch . . .” (William Faulkner, The Town, 1957) grandfather clause A clause used by some Southern states in their constitutions after 1890 in which they disenfranchised blacks by stipulating that new literacy and property qualifications for voting applied only to those who did not have the right to vote before 1867. In other words, the clause exempted from the new literacy and property qualifications for voting all those men who were entitled to vote before 1867 or who had lineal ancestors who were entitled to vote before 1867. Since no blacks could vote or had ancestors who could vote before that time, this meant that no blacks were permitted to vote. grandfather graybeard The Southern fringe tree (Chionauthus Virginiana), which is also known as gransy greybeard, old man’s whiskers and grandfather’s beard. grandfather’s beard gransy greybeard

See

GRANDFATHER GRAYBEARD.

See GRANDFATHER

GRAYBEARD.

Grand Wizard of the Empire The head of the KU KLUX other “Grand” offices, in the Klan’s heyday, were the Grand Dragon, Grand Ensign, Grand Exchequer, Grand Giant, Grand Goblin, Grand Klokard, Grand Kludd, Grand Magi, Grand Monk, Grand Scribe, Grand Sentinel, Grand Titan and Grand Turk.

A very bad cough from a cold or cig-

graveyard rabbit A rabbit that is said to have magical powers because it lives in a graveyard. “You er one er deze yer graveyard rabbits, dat wat you is.” (Joel Chandler Harris, Uncle Remus and His Friends, 1892) graveyard stew Bread or toast in milk, sometimes with sugar sprinkled on; so named because invalids often eat it, or because it is poor people’s fare and a long diet of it is unhealthy; used in other regions as well. graveyard widow An actual widow, not a grass widow (an expression used nationwide and meaning “a woman divorced or separated from her husband”). gravy Can mean, in addition to its standard usage, grease rendered from salt pork. gray A term, first coined in 1861, for the Confederacy or the Confederate Army, from the color of its official uniforms; also boys in gray. grayback A Confederate soldier. “The gray-backs came through with a rush, and soon the musket bails and cannon shot began to reach the place, where we stood.” (Mcclure’s Magazine, October 1898) graybacks Paper money issued by the Confederacy during the Civil War in place of the Union’s greenbacks; also called BLUEBACKS and graycoats.

KLAN;

grannies!; granny! A mild expletive. “Grannies! He went and did it again.” granny An old woman; a fussy woman-like man; a midwife; a senile man.

graybeard An old man. “That night the Board of Aldermen left—three graybeards and one younger man, a member of the rising generation.” (William Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily,” 1930) graycoats

See

GRAYBACKS.

grayjacket A Confederate soldier. “A short-waisted, single breasted jacket usurped the place of the long tail coat . . . The enemy noticed this peculiarity, and called

grumtion 79 the Confederates gray jackets . . .” (Southern Historical Society Proceedings, volume 2, 1876) Great American Mudhole An early 19th century nickname for Washington, D.C.; it was also called The Capital of Miserable Huts. great balls of fire! A Southern exclamation made popular by rock-and-roll singer Jerry Lee Lewis’ song “Great Balls of Fire.” great day in the morning! An exclamation of surprise. “‘Mah Johng!’ gasped Miss Tennyson Bullock. ‘Great Day in the Morning, I’d forgotten about it.’” (Eudora Welty, The Optimist’s Daughter, 1972) Great Dismal Swamp

See

DISMAL SWAMP.

Great Rebellion The Civil War. “Unexampled success has attended our agents in canvassing for the ‘Great Rebellion.’” (Thomas Headley, The Great Rebellion, 1862) Great Revival The religious revival begun in Kentucky and Tennessee near the beginning of the 19th century. “The Great Revival of 1800 and its attendant institution, the camp-meeting, were pure products of the frontier of the Old Southwest.” (Everett Dick, The Dixie Frontier, 1948) green beans

Stringbeans.

green peach One of the many Southern synonyms for a clingstone peach; pickle peach is another one. See also CLINCH PEACH. grigri; grisgris; greegree A charm or a magical formula used to bring bad luck to a rival; derives from an African word recorded as early as 1557. Grinnich Village A Southern pronunciation of New York’s Greenwich Village. “‘Because who knows,’ I says, ‘she may done already found that dream even in jist these two days, ain’t it? three? . . . That’s possible in Grinnich Village, ain’t it?’” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959)

grits Hominy grits. Coarsely ground hominy (made from corn) that is boiled and often then fried, especially as a breakfast dish or as a side dish to serve with meat. grits mill Sometimes used for grist mill in Florida and nearby Southern states. grocer store

A grocery.

groom’s cake The name of a cake served at weddings in addition to the traditional bridal cake; often a fruit cake or chocolate cake made of layers in graduated sizes. groundhog case A last chance, a last resort, a do-or-die situation. “We got to win this one for Mississippi; it’s a groundhog case with us.” ground pea ground worm growed

A peanut. An earthworm, in Virginia coastal areas.

Grown. “Ain’t you never growed tomatoes?”

growing moon A waxing moon. “It’s not a good time to plant on a growing moon.” grow like Topsy “‘Never was born, never had no father, nor mother, not nothin’ . . . I ’spect I growed,’” the slave child Topsy replied when Aunt Ophelia, a white woman from the North, questioned her about her family. The scene in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s antislavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or Life Among The Lowly (1852), the most popular book of its day, had great impact, especially in unauthorized dramatic versions of the novel, and inspired the saying to grow like Topsy, describing any unplanned, often sudden growth. growned Grown. “‘Did you notice how all Buddy had to do was to tell them boys of his it was time to go [to the Army], because the Government had sent them word? And how they told him good-bye? Growned men kissing one another without hiding and without shame. Maybe that’s what I am trying to say . . .” (William Faulkner, “The Tall Men,” 1941) grow off To grow up. “The chickens growed off big and fine.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, “Cocks Must Crow,” 1939)

gripsack Republican A Reconstruction term for a CARPETBAGGER. “These gentlemen treat with contempt the charges of the gripsack Republicans.” (Congressional Record, March 30, 1881)

grub up To dig out. “I been grubbing up a clump of willows outen my spring pasture for fifteen years.” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940)

gris-gris A term, used mainly in Louisiana, for a magic spell made by waving hands over someone.

grumtion A term used mainly by blacks for “scrumptious.” “We all had a grumtion fine dinner.”

80 Whistlin’ Dixie guano Often used to mean commercial fertilizer in several Southern states. guardun

An old-fashioned pronunciation of guardian.

guerillas

See

COPPERHEADS.

Guinea In pre–Civil War times, a black person recently transported from Africa’s Guinea coast was called a Guinea. “It should also be noted that ‘guinea Negro’ used to be applied to any newly arrived Negro slave.” (American Speech, April 1947) guinea corn slaves.

A species of millet brought from Africa by

Gullah (1) American dialect, spoken on the Sea Islands and along the South Carolina-Georgia coast. It contains some 5,000 African terms and takes its name either from Ngola (Angola) or from the West African Gola tribe. (2) A derogatory term used by whites. “‘Goddam your Gullah hide, Sam Moxley!’ Judge Rainey shouted at him.” (Erskine Caldwell, Jenny By Nature, 1961) gully-washer A heavy rain. One old story has it that in the Ashland, Virginia Herald-Progress someone advertised: “Wanted: One good rain. No 10-minute gullywashers need apply.” gum! God.

A mild expletive, gum here being a corruption of

gumball machine

See

BUBBLEGUM MACHINE.

gumbo (1) A stew usually made with chicken and/or seafood and tomatoes and often thickened with okra. (2) The okra plant or its pods. It derives from Gombo, an African Bantu name for okra. (3) A soil that becomes

sticky and nonporous when wet. (4) The name given to a French patois spoken by blacks and Creoles in Louisiana. (5) Someone of mixed French and Indian blood; a black person. gumbo box An obsolete term from slavery times meaning “an animal-skin drum.” gumbo filé “Gumbo [is now] applied to other kinds of gumbo thickened with a powder prepared from sassafras leaves. This powder goes by the name of filé; the past participle of French filer, ‘to twist’; hence gumbo filé signifies properly, ‘ropy or stringy gumbo.’” (William Read, Louisiana-French, 1931) See also GUMBO. gumbo French gumbo town gump

See

GUMBO.

A contemptuous term for a small town.

A foolish, silly person.

gunja A sponge cake sweetened with molasses; from the African Hansa language ganga, meaning “ginger,” which apparently became the Gullah kanja, a molasses bread. guv

Gave. “I guv it to him yesterday.”

gwin

See

GWINE.

gwine Going, going to. “I’m gwine call them boys.” Also gwine, gine, goan, gorn, gwin, ghy. It is a pronunciation the South’s early aristocrats borrowed from upper-class English speech. gwyne

See

GWINE.

H hack To embarrass; annoy; rattle; confuse. “They kept calling him names till he was right hacked.” The term may come from hackle, an instrument used to break flax.

hand A charm or amulet, especially one wrapped in red flannel; used mostly by Southern blacks.

hadn’t ought Ought not, should not. “He said he hadn’t ought to have done it.”

handing down Helping down, as from a carriage. See usage example at DRESSED WITHIN AN INCH OF HER LIFE.

hae Early on used for have, deriving from the pronunciation of Scotch-Irish schoolteachers of the early South, who were often indentured servants.

hand-running In a row, in succession. “You’ve won four days handrunnin’ now.”

haint tion.

hand-gallop

handwrite An old term among rural folk for handwriting. “I’m sure it’s writ in his handwrite.”

(1) Ain’t. “I haint going.” (2) A ghost or appari-

hang up To be intimate, to have sexual relations. “‘Lov ain’t thinking about no turnips,’ Dude said, in reply to his father. ‘Lov’s wanting to hang up with Ellie May. He don’t care nothing about how her face looks now—he ain’t aiming to kiss her.’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932)

hairy dick Heretic; also HARRY DICK. “‘Called us cow hunters around these parts [Florida] because we had to hunt so many mavericks—some of them older riders called ’em hairy dicks, cause they wouldn’t stick with all the others—’ ‘Heretics,’ Mama corrected him quickly, a rose-petal flush on her pale cheeks . . .” (Peter Matthiessen, Killing Mr. Watson, 1990)

hanker To crave or desire. “I been hankering to have some grits.”

half-leg high Measuring up to the knee. “My corn is only half-leg high.”

hant A haunt, a ghost; the usage isn’t confined to the South. “The boy watched him in complete and rapt immobility. As if I might be an apparition he thought. A hant. Maybe I am.” (William Faulkner, “Mountain Victory,” 1940)

half-strainer A middle-class person, someone halfway between quality folk and “poor white trash”; someone who pretends he’s something he is not. The term probably originated with black speakers.

hantle A small crowd. “A hantle of men came out for the meeting.”

hall A haw, the fruit of the Old World hawthorn, which can be red or yellow. hamper basket

A hurry. “He lit off at a hand-gallop.”

happen-so An accidental occurrence. “Gittin’ that buck was pure happen-so.” (Marjorie Kinnan RawIings, The Yearling, 1938)

A hamper. 81

82 Whistlin’ Dixie

happen to an accident To have or suffer an accident. “He happened to a right bad accident.”

harrykin A pronunciation of hurricane. “We ain’t really got anything to worry about but Hall Creek bottom tomorrow [Boon said]. Harrykin Creek ain’t anything.’” (William Faulkner, The Reivers, 1962)

happify To make happy; an old term not much used anymore.

has Often substituted for have, as in, “We has plenty time.”

happy as a pine borer in a fresh log Very happy; content. “‘He’s living in Grandma’s shed,’ Boyle said, ‘and happy as a pine borer in a fresh log.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

hasn’t sense enough to flag a freight train pid, can’t do the simplest things.

happen to a catastrophe

hard-backed cooter

See

See

HAPPEN TO AN ACCIDENT.

FLORIDA COOTER.

hardshell A HARDSHELL BAPTIST or any severe, straightlaced, very conservative person. hardshell Baptist A strict Baptist who proclaims hellfire; a member of the Primitive Baptist Church or an Old-School or Antimissionary Baptist; a Baptist who judges everyone very strictly by his beliefs and rules, even himself in many cases. “What I don’t like about hardshells, they think everybody but them is goin’ t’ hell—even the dead little babies.” (Carl Carmer, Stars Fell on Alabama, 1934) “Everytime she heard it, Bessie always said that the other people did not know any more about God’s religion than the male preachers who talked about it knew. Most of them belonged to no sect at all, while the rest were hard-shell Baptists. Bessie hated hard-shell Baptists with the same intensity that she hated the devil.” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932) hardshell church TISTS.

A church made up of HARDSHELL BAP-

Is very stu-

hassle Originally a Southern dialect word meaning “to pant noisily like a dog,” hassle has come to be used nationally as a synonym for quarrel or trouble, perhaps because those involved might be breathing noisily. Hessle is a variation often heard. haul ass To leave with haste, depart quickly. “Let’s haul ass out of here.” The term originated in the South but has some national use today. have Sometimes omitted in speech, as in “You don’t seem to kept up with these modem ideas.” (William Faulkner, “Shingles for the Lord,” 1943) have a bloodrush

To get angry.

have a burr in one’s saddle To be extremely irritated, agitated; also have a burr under one’s saddle. “He’s got a burr in his saddle.” have a chicken to pick To have a quarrel to pick with someone. “I have a chicken to pick with you.” have a crow

See

PICK A CROW.

HARDSHELL

have brass on one’s face To be bold, sassy, impudent. “She sure has a lot of brass on her face.”

hard-tail A mule. “Machines are replacing the ‘hardtail’ or ‘fur-head.’ ”

have no time with one Chiefly a Gullah term for “can’t compare to one.” “In dancing he has no time with you.”

harm Harmful; mostly a Gullah expression. “I hate to say a harm word to him.”

have off To remove, take off. “Have off your coats, gentlemen.”

Harpers Ferry, West Virginia This beautiful little town in easternmost West Virginia on the bluffs at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers is famous in American history because the fanatic abolitionist John Brown was captured and hung there just before the Civil War. The town takes its name from one Robert Harper, who established a ferry at the site in 1747.

have one over To reprimand. “My old man comes in drunk again, I’m going to have him over.”

hardshell sermon A severe sermon by a BAPTIST or any other clergyman.

harry dick An old, once-popular expression for “heretic” in the Florida Everglades, as was HAIRY DICK.

have out To have picked from a field an indicated amount of cotton. “I suppose I have out 10 or twelve bales.” (A Florida plantation record, 1854) Haviland Fine china. William Faulkner writes in Absalom, Absalom! (1936) of “the food, on the damask before the Haviland beneath the candelabra . . .”

herb 83 haw

See

GEE AND HAW.

hawg-killin’ A hilarious celebration. “We had a hawgkillin’ time.” he (1) Often used redundantly after a masculine singular subject. “John he did it first.” (2) Sometimes used for his. “He best do he job.” headin; headen headish

A pillow.

Headstrong. “He’s a mighty headish man.”

headkerchief head.

A handkerchief wrapped around the

headmark A historical term for a merit mark given to the pupil who was at the head of his or her class in spelling at the end of the spelling lesson for the day. heap A lot, a great deal, a large quantity. “He did it a heap o’ times.” heapa folks

A large crowd.

hear? Do you hear me, do you understand me? “When you get down to Georgia, give me a call, hear?” It is often pronounced heah. hear tell To hear something said. “I hear tell you want a girl.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Cross Creek, 1942) hearn An old-fashioned term for heard. “I’ve hearn you tell that story afore.” heart The juicy, tasty center part of a watermelon. “. . . he was always busy splitting open one of those big Senator Watsons. When he had got the heart cut out, and had passed it around, he would wipe the blade of his pearl-handled knife on his pants leg and shake hands all around.” (Erskine Caldwell, “The People’s Choice,” The Complete Stories of Erskine Caldwell, 1953) hearts-a-bustin’-with-love The burning bush (Euonymous americanus), which has seed pods that burst open to reveal many scarlet seeds. It also goes by the names hearts-a-bustin’, strawberry bush, swamp dogwood, arrowwood and spindle bush. heavy case Chiefly Gullah for an extraordinary person. “She is a heavy case in dis world.” heel string

guy that drowned in a river that was only six inches deep on the average—he found the hole.” hell A colorful name for a thick tangle of rhododendron or laurel, so vast that people have become lost in it; also called Laurel hells. hell a mile An exclamation. “Hell a mile, he ain’t been out of hearing long enough to done that.” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940) hell and sulfur Exclamation. “But fifty goats. Hell and sulfur.” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940] hellborn Born to a terrible fate. “‘I hellborn, child,’ Nancy said. ‘I won’t be nothing soon. I going back where I come from soon.’” (William Faulkner, “That Evening Sun,” 1931) hell fire! An exclamation. “‘Hell fire,’ Father said. ‘You can’t do that.’” (William Faulkner, The Town, 1957) hell-totin’ A colorful old curse. “‘You great infernal, racket-makin’, smokin’, snortin’, hell-totin’ sons of thunder,’ cried the old man, cursing the steamboats.” help To put food on a plate. “Ma Baxter sat at the table waiting for them, helping their plates.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) helpless as a turtle on his back Completely helpless. “‘I never said he wasn’t [a very fine man] but he’s helpless as a turtle on his back.’” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936) helt Held. “I’ve helt back my shot.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) hem up To gather together, round up. “‘He’s [God is] like a man that’s got too many mules . . . And when Monday morning comes, he can . . . hem some of them up and even catch them if he’s careful about not never turning his back on the ones he ain’t hemmed up.’ ” (William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun, 1951) hep Common pronunciation of help. “I cain’t hep it.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) he quoi What!; French, often used in the LouisianaFrench dialects.

Achilles tendon.

he (she) found the hole Said of a very unlucky or stupid person. A shortening of the one-line joke: “He’s a

herb Herb; but it is sometimes pronounced and written yerb and yarb. “I’m gonna have me some yerb tea.”

84 Whistlin’ Dixie here Often used superfluously, as in, “This here girl is mine.” Variously pronounced hyar, heah, year, hyeh, yeah, hyer, yar, hyur, yer. See also THERE.

higher than a Georgia pine An old term for someone very drunk. “He’s higher than a Georgia pine, but not quite high as a kite.”

hern Hers. “‘She’s a right tall girl,’ he said. ‘With them skinny legs of hern.’” (William Faulkner, Sanctuary, 1931)

high-headed (1) Proud, obstinate. “It may suit my neighbor to have one of them high-headed Roanoke planters to come here.” (Southern Literary Messenger, volume 3, 1837) (2) Head held high, proudly. “. . . and Her sitting high-headed in the wagon for old Marse John to lift her down.” (William Faulkner, “There Was a Queen,” 1933)

hero of New Orleans A nickname of General Andrew Jackson, referring to his victory over the British at New Orleans in 1815. Heroes of America An secret organization, also called the Red Strings, formed in North and South Carolina after the Civil War. “The dislike of whites to the Union League was so great that the local bodies began to assume other names: Red Strings and Heroes of America in North and South Carolina.” (Walter Fleming, Documentary History of Reconstruction, 1906) See also UNION LEAGUE. her smile makes the old feel young and the poor feel rich Said of a charmin’ woman. hesh up

Heard in Texas for “hush up.”

Hessian An old term, not much used, for a loud, overbearing person. hessle

See

HASSLE.

het Heated, angry, excited; used in New England and other areas as well. “He got all het up.” he-uns uns.” hey

Himself. “He found him a new wife for he-

A salutation, as in “Hey, John, how you been?”

hickernut

Hickory nut.

hickory A switch that is made of any wood, not necessarily hickory wood. “I made me a peach-tree hickory.” Hidy Hi, hello. “‘Hidy. I see you got my cow there. Put this rope on her and I’ll get her outen your way.’” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959) high as the hair on a cat’s back Very expensive; also higher than a cat’s back. “Gas is high as the hair on a cat’s back this week.” high blood High blood pressure, low blood being low blood pressure. “He’s got high blood.”

high jamboree A once popular dance. “The dance of High Jamboree is evidently of remote mystical African origin.” (Bret Harte, Waif of the Plains, 1890) highlone An old, rare expression meaning “to go alone without any encumbrance.” “Mulatto Jack returned home with the Mares he was sent for; but so poor were they, and so much abused had they been by my rascally overseer, Hardwick, that they were scarce able to highlone, much less to assist in the business of the plantations.” (George Washington, quote from a 1760 letter, George Washington’s Writings [Worthington Ford, ed.], 1889) high lonesome A wild, drunken spree. “Old Dad and Jim Day got on a high lonesome and started to paint the town red.” (J. M. Franks, Seventy Years in Texas, 1924) high-minded Proud, touchy. “You have to walk on eggs with him, he’s so high-minded.” high sheriff A humorous, disparaging term for a local sheriff; based on the old English High Sheriff, the supreme sheriff in the land. high-tempered Very irritable; said of someone who loses his or her temper easily. high yellow; high yaller A once-common term, now considered offensive by many, referring to a mulatto of light yellow complexion. him Himself. “He aims to find him a new wife.” It is sometimes pronounced um or em. hind end end.”

The buttocks. “He kicked him in the hind

hiney Backside, buttocks; a word with widespread U.S. use. “‘She thinks flirtation is just fun, a kind of game . . . Whee-ee, I’m wearing silly clothes that show my hiney . . .’” (Calder Willingham, Rambling Rose, 1972)

hog-meat 85 hippen

A diaper; used mainly in Tennessee.

hire it done To pay to have something done. “Snopes built a new blacksmith shop . . . He hired it done, to be sure.” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940) hire one’s time An obsolete expression referring to a slave paying his master for the right to use his own (the slave’s) time for his own profit. “I decided to hire my time, with a view of getting money with which to make my escape.” (Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass; 1845) his Used for her in Gullah. “His [Mary’s] soul might be clean, but his [Mary’s] body ought to be baptized.” his comb’s getting red A sexually aroused male; based on the belief that a rooster’s comb turns red when he is sexually aroused. “His comb was getting red for her even before they was introduced.” his (her) generosity is longer than his (her) pocketbook He (she) has good generous intentions but usually can’t carry them out, especially in financial matters. “. . . mamma said papa ought to be ashamed that it wasn’t Uncle Rodney’s fault if his generosity was longer than his pocketbook, and papa said yes, it certainly wasn’t Uncle Rodney’s fault, he never knew a man to try harder to get money than Uncle Rodney did, that Uncle Rodney had tried every known plan to get it save work . . .” (William Faulkner, “That Will Be Fine,” 1935) his (her) head ain’t done dull-witted.

He (she) is feeble-minded or

hisn A shortening of his own; heard in the South but common to other areas of the United States. It is not, as generally thought, a backwoods Americanism but a contraction of long and respectable lineage, dating back to the early 15th century and used by Samuel Richardson in his novel Clarissa (1747). An old English adage goes “Him as prigs what isn’t his’n/When he’s cotch’d he goes to prison.”

hard bargain and you know it.” (2) To yield or produce fruit. “The cherry trees didn’t hit this year.” hitch To fight. “Me and you gonna hitch if you don’t look out.” The national slang hitch meaning “to unite in marriage” is also used in the South. hit for To head for. “‘Come up, rabbits,’ he said. ‘Let’s hit for town.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940) hit the grit To depart quickly, hit the road. “He threatened to jail me, and I hit the grit.” Grit here apparently means “gravel” or “gravel road.” hit up

Excited, heated up.

hobo egg

See

ALABAMA EGG.

hobsonize To kiss. Lt. Richmond Pearson Hobson (1870–1937) won fame during the Spanish-American War when he tried to sink the collier Merrimac and block Santiago harbor. The young naval engineer was honored with parades and dinners when he returned to his native Alabama in August 1898. Because of his good looks and popularity, women often flung their arms around him and showered him with kisses when he appeared in public. “Kissing-Bug Hobson,” as he was called, resigned from the Navy and ran successfully for U.S. congressman in Alabama, a state that later gave us another osculatory politician, Governor “Kissin’ Jim” Folson. An obsolete expression today, hobsonize remains in historical dictionaries as one of the more curious linguistic forms. hoecake and sorghum syrup A dish, consisting of a cornmeal cake or bread and syrup, that has formed the basis of the diet of many rural poor in the South in hard times. “We didn’t have nothin’ to eat lots of times, nothin’ at all, not even hoecake and sorgum syrup which is what we ate a lot.” (Calder Willingham, Rambling Rose, 1972) hog Pork, as in “I had me some hog and hominy [pork and hulled corn].” Hog and Hominy State

hisself Sometimes used for himself mostly in uneducated speech. “Brer Rabbit fling out de bag o’ goobers an’ jump out hisself and run home.” (Joel Chandler Harris, Uncle Remus Tales, 1881) hissy A fit. “She like to have a god-damned hissy.” (Larry Brown, Joe, 1991) hit (1) It; generally used when it is meant to be emphatic or when it comes at the beginning of a sentence. “Hit’s a

A nickname for Tennessee.

hog fat Fat in the way a hog is fat. “. . . [the horse is] hog fat. That’s just exactly how it was fat: not like a horse is fat but like a hog: fat right up to its ears and looking tight as a drum’ it was so fat it couldn’t hardly walk, putting its feet down like they didn’t have no weight or feeling in them at all.” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940) hog-meat

Pork.

86 Whistlin’ Dixie hog-smelly Smelling of hog, smelling very bad. “Get off those hog-smelly clothes and get into that bath.” hogwild

Berserk. “He went hog-wild.”

hoicked Caught, pierced and thrown. “. . . it . . . wouldn’t live even through the first hour set free, flung, hoicked on a pitchfork or a pair of long-handled tongs into a city street.” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959) hold oneself too high To act like one belongs to a higher class or station in life. “People. . . believed that the Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really were.” (William Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily,” 1931) hold one’s feet to the fire To force someone to do something. “He probably learned . . . that he could go to his mother and hold the lawyer’s feet to the fire anytime . . .” (William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!, 1936) holdover Leftovers saved from an earlier meal; also coldover. hold your tater Be patient, wait a while. “Just hold your tater and I’ll be right with you.” hollering “By far the finest of all musical gifts is the hollerin’ (also called hollering for the Lord). This is yodeling at its best—no more to be likened to what is heard on the vaudeville stage than grand opera can be compared with the hurdy-gurdy. It is the grand opera of the Okefenokee, where it is a common possession of man, woman and child.” (National Geographic, volume 65, 1934)

religious gathering. “‘When it got started in an audience, everybody would be seized with natural hardy laughter. It would last for hours sometimes. This was known as the ‘holy laugh.’” (Everett Dick, The Dixie Frontier, 1948) holy roller A term used in the South and elsewhere for a member of any religious sect whose services are often characterized by ecstatic movements that may include rolling on the ground or floor; the term is also applied to any overbearingly religious person. holy tone; holy whine The speaking of Primitive Baptist preachers who sound an audible “ah” at the end of each breath pause. “Often the preacher had no idea what he would say from one ‘ah’ to the next. This ‘holy tone’ had charms for the audience and they preferred such a sermon to that by a learned college president.” (Everett Dick, The Dixie Frontier, 1948) home folks People from one’s home town; familiar people. “‘Now that’s more like acting like home folks,’ Verly said with satisfaction as he stooped over and picked up the two worn suitcases.” (Erskine Caldwell, “Girl With Figurines,” Gulf Coast Stories, 1956) Home boy is a similar term. home-place A family home. “She managed the 1,000acre homeplace in Jackson.” hominy bread Bread made from coarsely ground hominy, puffed corn without the hulls. Often broken into a coarse meal and boiled in water or milk. hominy grits hone

hollering for the Lord

See

See

GRITS.

To yearn or pine for. “I’m honin’ after some grits.”

HOLLERING.

holp Helped. Southerners still say such things as “She holp her sister when she was sick,” the old preterit holp meaning “helped” in this case and being an archaic past tense of the verb to help that was used many times by Shakespeare and survives in speech only in eastern Mississippi. “Then I taken my slingshot and I would have liked to took all my bird eggs, too, because Pete had give me his collection and he holp me with mine . . .” (William Faulkner, “Two Soldiers,” 1943) holt Hold. “Take a-holt of this pole,’ Boon said.” (William Faulkner, The Reivers, 1962) holy laugh The hysterical laughter of one or many caught up in religious fervor at a camp meeting or other

honey A common Southern form of address to female children or young women. hongry Hungry. “Going to Grahamsville allus do make me hongry.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) honky-tonk

Any bar or tavern.

hoodoo Someone who practices voodooism; to bewitch or put under a spell. “I heard people say hoodoos was cannibals and used to eat babies.” (Robert Tallant, Voodoo in New Orleans, 1946) hooped-up with Bound together, as if in a circle or hoop. “ ‘That’s what I’ve been saying at every local meeting since the shutdown,’ Will said. The local is all

house Negro 87 hooped-up with the A.F.L.’” (Erskine Caldwell, God’s Little Acre, 1933) hooray A ruckus. “He raised a big hooray in the store ’cause they wouldn’t sell him a jug.” hoose

House. See also

PAAMS.

hooters Southern slang for female breasts. “She’s got some pair of hooters.” hootnanny A derogatory epithet. “You’re a big old fat hootnanny.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, “Cocks Must Crow,” 1939). Hootnanny, usually spoken as hootenanny, also means a lively gathering including or featuring musical entertainment. hoppergrass An old term used in east Virginia and elsewhere in the South for a grasshopper. “‘. . . she ain’t got no mo’ sense dan a hopper-grass.’” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936) hopping John An old favorite Southern dish made of black-eyed peas, rice, bacon or ham or pork knuckles and red pepper or other hot seasoning. It is traditionally served on New Year’s Day because of the superstition that black-eyed peas eaten then bring good luck for the coming year. “Before me, though at the head of many delicacies provided by papa, was an immense field of hopping John.” (Caroline Gilman, Recollections of a Southern Maiden, 1838)

horsing Acting like a mare or stallion in heat, acting as if sexually aroused; also horsing and studding. “Look at that horsing Ellie May’s doing! . . . That’s horsing from way back yonder.” (Erskine Caldwell, God’s Little Acre, 1933) horsing and studding See HORSING. “. . . that man horsing and studding at that gal, and her trying to get away from him.” (William Faulkner, The Reivers, 1962) hot as blue blazes Extremely hot. “It gets as hot as blue blazes down in Alabama.” hot as floogies Very hot, as hot as a very promiscuous woman or floogie (floozie). The expression is always in the plural. hot damn! Exclamation of joy or happiness. “What was so important about today? I bolted up in bed. Hot damn! Summer vacation!” (Tim McLaurin, Keeper of the Moon, 1992) hotel A dining hall for students. This obsolete meaning was in use early in the 19th century at the University of Virginia. hot hot A term used in Louisiana when the weather is extremely hot. “It sure is hot hot today.” hotten To heat. “I kin hotten that soup.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Golden Apples, 1936) hot-water tea

hopping like peas on a hot shovel Very active, especially said of a group of people; the term was commonly used in the 19th century and may still be in use today. hoppytoad

Tea made in a kettle.

hound dog A dog bred for hunting; a derogatory term for a mongrel or even a person, as in Elvis Presley’s “You Ain’t Nothin’ but a Hound Dog,” which was a remake of a blues standard.

An ordinary toad.

hornswoggle To cheat, bamboozle, deceive; a fanciful term, now widely used, that originated in Kentucky in the early 19th century.

hour by sun Before sunset or after sunrise. “It’s two hours by sun [either two hours since the sun set or rose, whichever was closer]”; “he quit plowin’ two hours by sun.”

A horse’s rear. “She’s a horse’s patoot.”

house (1) Concerning the word’s interesting pronunciation in Virginia, a Southern correspondent writes: “I [once] heard a little girl with a Virginia accent . . . get four syllables out of her pronunciation of ‘house.’ I’ve tried it, and although my mother was from the Byrds of Virginia, I couldn’t get more than three syllables out of it, no matter how I tried.” (2) A name for a small floating peat island in the Okefenokee Swamp of Georgia and Florida.

horsepittle A pronunciation of hospital. “‘Spec dey’s at de horsepittle.’” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936)

house Negro In pre-Civil War times, a black slave who worked in the master’s house; the derogatory house nigger was also common.

horse-reek The sweaty smell of a horse. “So we were standing there, Lightning’s muzzle buried to the nostrils in Ned’s hand, though all I could smell now was horsereek and all I could see was the handful of grass which Lightning was eating . . .” (William Faulkner, The Reivers, 1962) horse’s patoot

88 Whistlin’ Dixie house wine of the South

Lemonade.

how come? Why?; how did it happen that way? The expression, probably originating in the South, is now common throughout the United States.

phrase a ‘red hot hunky-dory contraband.’ The Christy’s [a minstrel group] made the song so popular that the American people adopted ‘hunky-dory’ as part of their vocabulary.” hurt

howdy A contraction of “how do you do?” Generally regarded as an expression born in the American West, howdy began as a Southern expression and was taken west by Confederate Civil War veterans. however you does No matter how you do it. “However you does, she don’t like it.” how many Often used to mean “the last name” or “family name” in a question. “ ‘What’s your name, fellow?’ ‘Dave.’ ‘Dave-How-many?’ ‘Dave Dawson.’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, God’s Little Acre, 1933) howsomever Howsoever, however. “Howsomever may I say this to please the gals?” hucky duck Fine, great. “Maybe he’d given up on ever finding me and had just gone back home. That’d be real hucky duck if that was the case.” (Larry Brown, “Gold Nuggets,” 1990) hullabaloo and uproar Great commotion. “Hell and damnation, all this hullabaloo and uproar because one confounded running bitch finally fixed herself.” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940) Hullabaloo is often used alone. hull the goobers for An obsolete expression meaning “to defeat.” “We hull the goobers for any team in the state.” See also GOOBER. hunk An older meaning that the current meaning of “an attractive male” is the now rarely used hunk for “a country fellow.” hunky-dory Fine, about as good as something can be. The origin is uncertain, but there may be a Southern connection, as proposed by Carl Whittke in Tambo and Bones (1930): “ ‘Josiphus Orange Blossom,’ a popular song . . . in a reference to Civil War days, contained the

To suffer or have need. “I’m hurtin’ for it.”

hurted Hurt. “You hurted the leetle thing . . . Bad hurted.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) hurting A hardship, suffering. “When a division leaves with 25,000 troops, that puts a hurting on everybody.” (New York Times, November 15, 1990) hush my mouth! Often said in surprise, as is shut my mouth. “Well, hush my mouth!” hush puppy A deep-fried cornmeal cake that is very popular in the South. The name is traceable only to the time of World War I. The most common explanation for the odd name is that hunters tossed bits of the cakes to their dogs, telling them to “hush, puppy.” A perhaps more authentic version notes that the cakes were first made in Florida, where people often fried fish outdoors in large pans, attracting dogs who would whine and bark. To quiet the dogs, the cook would fry up some cornmeal cakes and throw them to the dogs, shouting “Hush, puppies!” hush your mouth Be quiet. “ ‘You hush your mouth!’ Haw said, crying. ‘Nobody’s talking to you!’ ” (William Faulkner, “Two Soldiers,” 1943) hwich? Which?; what? It is often used in reply to an unheard question. hyar; heah

Common pronunciations of hear or here.

hydrant A faucet. “Ever’ house [in Mississippi] has got a hydrant to it. All you got to do for water is turn a tap.” (John Faulkner, Men Working, 1941) hysterical marker Pronunciation, often facetiously, of historical marker heard in Texas.

I I’d tell a man!

I be dawg I’ll be dogged, doggoned. “ ‘I be dawg if he ain’t a case now,’ he said.” (William Faulkner, Sanctuary, 1931)

idy

if it harelips the South No matter what happens. “I don’t care if it harelips the South, I’ll be home for Christmas.”

ice-cream supper A late afternoon social gathering to raise money for a church or school with ice cream as the principal refreshment; called an ice-cream social in other parts of the country. See

Idea. “I had no idy he’d be here.”

if Sometimes omitted in speech, as in “See has he come.”

Ibo-shin Slang for a black person in pre-Civil War days, deriving from the name of the Ibo tribe in the African Niger delta from which many slaves were sent to America.

I declare!

I’ll say!; I’ll tell the world!

ifn

If. “Ifn you want to come, let me know.”

if so be If. “If so be a time comes when yeh have to be kilt . . .” (Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage, 1894)

I DECLARE TO GOODNESS!

I declare to goodness! This old-fashioned but still common exclamation and its variations, such as I declare!, is often spoken with the accent on the first syllable of the second word: “I declare to goodness!”

if that don’t beat all or wonder.

Common expression of surprise

I didn’t go to do it I didn’t mean to do it. “Many of them [Southerners] say ‘I didn’t go to do it,’ meaning, ‘I didn’t mean to do it.’ ” (Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi, 1883)

if wishes were horseflesh we’d all own thoroughbreds Found in William Faulkner’s The Hamlet (1940); may be Faulkner’s invention or possibly a Southern country saying.

idn’t

if you can’t listen, you can feel A common warning to a child that if he doesn’t do what he’s told, he’s going to get a good spanking.

A pronunciation of isn’t.

I do believe! A common emphatic exclamation. “ ‘I do believe Ashley would rather read than hunt!’ ” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936) I don’t chaw my tobacco but once tell (or warn) you one time.

if you’ve got a rooster, he’s going to crow People do what nature designed them to do, despite artificial restrictions. “ ‘It’s only fair to set the boy straight at the start, seeing as he’s a male and woman are females.’ Ty Ty said. ‘I’ve had the side of my barn kicked off because I was careless enough to lead a stud horse into the wind when I should have led him with the wind.’ ‘Talking

I’m only going to

I don’t know him from Adam’s housecat HOUSECAT.

See

ADAM’S

89

90 Whistlin’ Dixie don’t help much,’ Will broke in. ‘If you’ve got a rooster, he’s going to crow.’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, God’s Little Acre, 1933) I Godfrey! Euphemism for “by God!” “I Godfrey, if him and all of them together think they can keep me from working on my own church like any other man, he better be a good man to try it . . . I Godfrey, what a day!” (William Faulkner, “Shingles for the Lord,” 1943) il dit He said; French, often used in the LouisianaFrench dialects. il est bon heur It is early; French, often used in the Louisiana-French dialects. ill as a hornet Angry, very irritable. “The boss is ill as a hornet today.” I’ll be bound. I swear, I’ll bet. “ ‘It skeered him too, I’ll be bound,’ he said.” (William Faulkner, Sanctuary, 1931) I’ll be dinged!

Euphemism for “I’ll be damned!”

I’ll drink all the blood that is spilled in a war between North and South! A common quip heard among FIREEATERS during the Civil War, a war in which 620,000 men were killed, the casualties exceeding America’s combat losses in all other wars. I’ll give you a box with five nails A humorous punning way to say “I’ll give you a good slap [or blow].” Someone might say, “Give me all that candy you have.” “What I’ll give you is a box with five nails,” might be the reply.

not the only humorous American name, for there are hundreds of gems like the following to choose from: Virgin Muse, Lana Amorous, Etta Turnipseed, Fannie Bottom, Arsie Phalla and Dill L. Pickle (who was a pickle salesman). There was even someone named La Void. I’m from Missouri During the Civil War, an officer of the Northern army fell upon a body of Confederate troops commanded by a Missourian. The Northerner demanded a surrender, saying he had so many thousand men in his unit. The Confederate commander, game to the core, said he didn’t believe the Northerner’s boast of great numerical superiority and appended the now famous expression, “I’m from Missouri; you’ll have to show me.” Dr. Walter B. Stevens recorded this proud derivation of the phrase in A Colonial History of Missouri (1921), but other authorities support the following derogatory origin: Miners from the lead district of southwest Missouri had been imported to work the mines in Leadville, Colorado sometime after the Civil War. They were unfamiliar with the mining procedures in Leadville, and fellow workers regarded them as slow to learn, their pit bosses constantly using the expression, “He’s from Missouri, you’ll have to show him.” Residents of the Show Me State obviously favor the former theory, and “I’m from Mizorra,” as they say, is a badge of distinction, signifying native skepticism and shrewdness. Imperial Wizard The highest officer in the KU KLUX KLAN. Similarly, the Klan’s headquarters is called the Imperial Palace.

-

impotent (pronounced im-POT-’nt) A pronunciation of important. I’m so mad I could spit nails

Illinois Baboon A derogatory nickname given to Abraham Lincoln in the South; sometimes shortened to “the Baboon” and sometimes changed to “Illinois Gorilla” and “GORILLA.” “To have come to reside in Charleston (S.C.) with an exequatur under the signature of the ‘Baboon’ and that obtained after the war had actually begun, would have been, to say the least, a step of doubtful policy.” (Richmond (Va.) Examiner, December 11, 1861) Illinois Gorilla

See

ILLINOIS BABOON.

Ima Hogg One of the best known of humorous American names. Ima Hogg (her real name) was the daughter of a Texas governor and was a prominent socialite. In addition to her name, she is well known for her collection of American decorative arts, now displayed in Houston in Bayou Bend, her home there. Ima Hogg is

Very mad indeed.

in Sometimes used for on. “A man stood in the floor his feet apart . . . McLendon stood in the floor and cursed the others.” (William Faulkner, “Dry September,” 1931) in a dither dither.”

In a state of excitement. “She’s all in a

in a great while In a long period of time. “I haven’t seen him in a great while.” in a manner A common redundancy in Southern speech, as in “She acts like she’s rarin’ in a manner to go.” in a sull In a sulking, sullen mood. “‘He’s been in a sull ever since you married Judge McKelva and didn’t send

I wouldn’t trust him behind a dime 91 him a special engraved invitation to the wedding,’ said Bubba.” (Eudora Welty, The Optimist’s Daughter, 1972)

irrepressible conflict The Civil War, a term coined by Secretary of State William Seward in 1858.

in a swivet swivet.”

is (1) Gullah for has. “Is you forgot?” (2) Am (mostly among black speakers); are. “I is going to church.”

in course

In a hurry. “You’re always in such a

Of course. “In course I’ll go.”

indigo planter A planter in the early South whose major crop on a great plantation was indigo. infair An old term for a dinner party or reception celebrating a wedding. in one’s country The region one hails from. “Down in my country we don’t do it that way.” in reason Logically; almost without a doubt. “I know in reason that I am right.”

is all Sometimes used as a shortened form of “that’s all” at the end of sentences. “I just pushed him, is all.” I’se I am; used mostly among black speakers. “I knows when I’se whipped.” island cotton Cotton raised on lands near the sea, especially in South Carolina; this black-seeded cotton was preferred to the green seed variety. islet An old Creole expression for a New Orleans street or square. it

insides The viscera, everything inside one’s body; common in other areas of the United States as well. “They work the insides outen a fella.” (John Faulkner, Men Working, 1941) intend for Want, mean, expect, plan. “He didn’t intend for her to hear.” in the ground Buried. “They waited until Miss Emily was decently in the ground before they opened it.” (William Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily,” 1930) Invisible Empire

The

KU KLUX KLAN.

ironclad oath A name given the stringent oath of office prescribed by Congress in 1862 and applied at the close of the Civil War for office holders in the reconstructed states, according to the Cyclopedia of America (1914). The oath aimed at the exclusion of all who had participated in the rebellion. irrepressible A person who believed that the Civil War was inevitable was called an irrepressible.

There. “It is only one man here.”

I-talian A pronunciation of Italian. “. . . Lawyer had enough to keep him occupied worrying the I-talian government.” (William Faulkner, The Town, 1957) it’s a comin’ up a cloud

See

COMING UP A CLOUD.

it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog Texas proverb. it’s raining black cats I vow!

It’s raining very heavily.

I declare!

I wasn’t done it

I wasn’t doing it.

I wouldn’t trust him behind a dime I wouldn’t trust him at all; also behind a thin dime, a dime edgeways, a broomstraw, a pin, a needle, a corkscrew, etc.

J jack A jackass. “We done made the trade and I can’t break it now. You’ll just have to keep that jack.” (Erskine Caldwell, “Meddlesome Jack,” The Complete Stories of Erskine Caldwell, 1953)

James River The name of a once-famous tobacco grown in the James River region of Virginia. “He pulled out a plug of James River and began chawing (chewing).”

jackleg Someone untrained for his work; someone self-taught; an unscrupulous worker; also jakeleg. It possibly derives from Jack + blackleg; used chiefly in the South.

Jamestown lily A name used locally in Jamestown, Virginia for JIMSONWEED; this was, in fact, the original name for the plant. jam it Stow it, stuff it. “She said: ‘I’ve bout had it with your goddamn mouth.’ ‘Jam it,’ I said. ‘Kiss my ass,’ she said.” (Larry Brown, “Falling out of Love,” 1990)

Jackson Day A legal holiday in Louisiana in honor of Andrew Jackson’s victory at the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815.

jam up In the sense of “fine, first rate, excellent” (not a tight crush of cars, etc.), jam up dates back at least to the mid-19th century. “[I] introduced him to the jam-up little company in his command.” (Southern Literary Messenger, volume 8, 1841).

Jacksoniana Many things were named after President Andrew Jackson (1767–1845), ranging from Jackson crackers (firecrackers) to Jacksonian democracy. One of the most interesting is Jacksonia, the name of a new Southern state suggested by the Tennessee senate in 1841 that was to include parts of Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi. The proposal came to naught.

jarfly Any of a number of cicadas that make strident noises.

jake A name for cheap liquor or rotgut during Prohibition days, especially in the South, where jake was the old toper’s sneaky Pete.

jarhead Mule; recorded in North Carolina but used elsewhere as well. “Jawbone” An obsolete but once popular song among slaves in the South.

jake leg Southern generic term for the various shakes, paralysis, impaired gait, and seizures caused by delirium tremors.

jaybird

jambalaya A New Orleans Creole dish made of rice cooked with ham, sausage, chicken, shellfish or a combination, with herbs, spices and vegetables, especially tomatoes, onions and peppers; hence, any diverse collection of things. “The show was a jambalaya of stunts.”

A bluejay; used in other regions as well.

jayhawkers

See

COPPERHEADS.

jazz Originally a Southern regional word of uncertain origin. In fact, enough Southern men to form a good jazz group are credited with lending their names to this word. One popular choice is Jasper, a dancing slave on 92

jimsonweed 93 a plantation near New Orleans in about 1825; Jasper reputedly was often stirred into a fast step by cries of “Come on, Jazz!” Another choice is Mr. Rass, a band conductor in New Orleans in 1904. Charles, or Chaz, Washington, a ragtime drummer of Vicksburg, Mississippi, circa 1895, is a third candidate. A variation on the first and third choices appears to be Charles Alexander, who, according to an early source, “down in Vicksburg around 1910, became world famous through the song asking everyone to ‘come on and hear Alexander’s Ragtime Band.’ Alexander’s first name was Charles, always abbreviated Chas. and pronounced Chazz; at the hot moments they called, ‘Come on, Jazz,’ whence the jazz music.” Few scholars accept any of these etymologies, but no better theory has been offered. Attempts to trace the word jazz to an African word meaning “hurry” have failed, and it is doubtful that it derives from the chasse dance step, the Arab Jazib (one who allures), the African Jaiza (the sound of distant drums) or the Hindu jazba (ardent desire). To complicate matters further, jazz was first a verb for sexual intercourse, as is still is today in slang. (1) A distinctly American form of music that originated in the South. (2) To have sexual intercourse. “ ‘Come on upstairs [Ty Ty said] and jazz a little.’ Darling Jill giggled outright.” (Erskine Caldwell, God’s Little Acre, 1933) The word is often used in the sense of prostitution. “ ‘He got two medals and when it was over they put him back in Leavenworth until one lawyer got a Congressman to get him out. Then I could quit jazzing again,’ ” says a prostitute in William Faulkner’s Sanctuary (1931). jazz up To make fancy; enliven; cheer up. “We need to jazz up that dress.” Jeff Davis coffee Confederate troops named this coffee substitute made from parched wheat after the Confederacy’s president. See also LINCOLN COFFEE. Jeff Davis money Confederate money, so named after the president of the Confederacy. Jeff Davis (musical) box A humorous name given by Confederate soldiers to “the lumbering ill-built armywagons, which were apt to creak horribly for the want of grease.” It of course “honored” the president of the Confederacy. Jeff Davis pie An old recipe for custard pie flavored with nutmeg. Named for the president of the Confederacy. Jefferson Davis The president of the Confederate States of America; his birthday is celebrated as a legal holiday (June 3, or the first Monday in June) in some Southern states.

Jefferson Day Thomas Jefferson’s birthday, April 13th; a legal holiday in Alabama. Jeffersonian simplicity An expression honoring Thomas Jefferson’s dislike of pomp and ceremony in political and social matters. Jefferson Territory A proposed name for what was to become the Colorado Territory. It was rejected by Congress in 1861 because it suggested the slaveholding South. jelly A sweetheart. “ ‘Gowan goes to Oxford a lot,’ the boy said. ‘He’s got a jelly there. He takes her to the dances. Don’t you, Gowan?’ ” (William Faulkner, Sanctuary, 1931) Jenny-Johnny A loveseat. “You’ll have the parlor all to yourself and can sit in the jenny-johnny loveseat with him and play records and so on. The jenny-johnny is a fine place for arm hugging and things—that’s what it’s made for.” (Erskine Caldwell, The Earnshaw Neighborhood, 1971) jessie A critter (creature); can be said of humans or animals. “I had me a good go-round with them jessies [the Forrester family].” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) jewlarky; jewlarker Lover, sweetheart; a person of fine dress and manners. “I’m going to see my jewlarky.” The origin of the expression, first recorded in 1851, is obscure. jig; jigaboo A contemptuous, offensive term for a black person that perhaps originated in the South but is widespread in use. jigger

A chigger or flea.

Jim Crow Blackface minstrel Thomas D. Rice, “the father of American minstrelsy,” introduced the song “Jim Crow” in 1828, claiming to have patterned it on the song and dance of an old fieldhand named Jim Crow he had observed in Kentucky. Rice’s routine became so familiar here and on tour in England that a few years later a British antislavery book was entitled The History of Jim Crow. It is from this book and similar uses of Jim Crow to signify a black that the racially discriminating laws and practices take their name, though the first Jim Crow laws weren’t enacted until 1875 in Tennessee. jimsonweed Jamestown weed was the original name of jimsonweed, or the thorn apple, a plant that can be deadly poisonous when its foliage is wilted. Datura stramonium was named Jamestown weed because it was first noticed growing in America near Jamestown, Virginia, where the Indians smoked it like tobacco; in fact,

94 Whistlin’ Dixie soldiers among the insurgents in Bacon’s Rebellion of 1675 are said to have eaten this weed when defeated and driven into the wilderness, many almost dying of it. Over the years Jamestown weed was slurred to jimsonweed in pronunciation, and by the 19th century, jimsonweed was the common name for the plant. It is also called JAMESTOWN LILY. jimswinger tailed coat.

An old term for a Prince Albert or long-

johnny-walkers

Stilts.

joogled up Mixed together, agitated. “ ‘And hot under there, too, mon,’ Ned said. ‘I don’t see how I stood it. Not to mention having to hold off this here sheet-iron cheven from knocking my brains out every time you bounced, let alone waiting for that gasoline or whatever you calls it to get all joogled up to where it would decide to blow up too.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Reivers, 1962)

jine

A black and rural white pronunciation of join.

jook

jint

A pronunciation of joint.

jookin’

jist

A pronunciation of just.

joree To make fun of; to jest. “Papa joried Woody about the way he asked for things.” (James Street, My Father’s House, 1941) The joree is also a bird elsewhere called the Chewink.

jizzywitch A katydid, which is a large, green longhorned grasshopper, the males of which produce a characteristic song sounding like “Katydid, Katydid.” job To jab. “I jobbed a piece o’ meat on a stick.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) Joe boat An obsolete term for a small rowboat once common in Kentucky. Joe Brown’s pets The Georgia militia during the Civil War; so named after Joseph E. Brown, then-governor of Georgia. Joe-darter An old term for a Jimdandy, someone or something unsurpassed. “He’s a real Joe-darter.” John Brown An old term in the South for “to damn”; after the abolitionist John Brown. “Well, I’ll be John Browned!” John Brown pike A weapon the abolitionist John Brown had made for his band of followers in Kansas but which was later copied by Southerners; sometimes erroneously called Joe Brown pike. “Many carried bowie knives in their boots and bore in their hands long thick poles with iron-pointed tips known as ‘Joe Brown pikes.’ ” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936) johnny house

A toilet, bathroom.

johnny-jug A demijohn (a large bottle with a short, narrow neck). “I got aholt of this johnny-jug.” (William Faulkner, “The Tall Men,” 1941) Johnny Reb A Civil War term for a Confederate soldier but used since then to describe Southerners in general.

See

JUKEBOX.

See

JUKEBOX.

josh A perhaps obsolete nickname for any man from Arkansas; the term became popular during the Civil War. jower

To quarrel. “All they did was jower about it.”

juba dance A noisy, jubilant dance popular among black slaves. The origin of juba is unknown. juberous Dubious; also jubious. “He was juberous about crossing the stream.” judge jughead

See

CAPTAIN.

A mule; also

JARHEAD.

the juice ain’t worth the squeeze It’s not worth doing, the effort isn’t worth the result. Heard from a Maryland correspondent but may be used in other regions as well. jukebox A juke house, or juke, is a house of ill repute, a whorehouse, taking its name from the black Gullah dialect spoken on the islands off the coast of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The Gullah word juke, or jook, in turn apparently derives from the Wolof West African word dzug or dzog, meaning “to misconduct oneself, to lead a disorderly life.” Juke naturally came to be associated with anything connected with a jukebox, even the early jook or juke organs, coin-operated music boxes that sounded like hurdy-gurdies and were often found in juke houses. When coin-operated phonographs became very popular in the early 1940s they were called jukeboxes after these early counterparts, so the name of this electrically operated machine can be ascribed to a West African tribe. A juke or jook also means a bar or

just as good 95 tavern in parts of the South, and jookin’ means to barhop from jook joint to jook joint, drinking, dancing and often fighting. jularker An expression used in North Carolina for a boyfriend. “Who’s your new jularker, Kathy?” jumping alligator hog.

A humorous term for a razorback

june

See

ZOON.

just a hoot and a holler away a hoot and a holler away.”

Nearby. “The store’s just

just as good Might just as well. “You-all jist as good to pray for the heathen.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Cross Creek, 1942)

K Kentucky Colonel Someone upon whom the honorary title of “Colonel” is bestowed in Kentucky, though no one takes the title very seriously.

kaffir corn A grain sorghum brought to the South by slaves from Africa. kah!, ki!; k-k! Gullah exclamations meaning Ha! “‘Ki, Doll,’ May said scornfully, ‘your’s a fool . . . Ki,’ she laughed. Helen burst into a raucous angry laugh. ‘k-k-kk—k-k!’” (Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel, 1929)

Kentucky corncraker A term for a Kentuckian that was used in Civil War times. Kentucky Derby A horse race for 3-year-olds held annually since 1875 on the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky; it was named after the English Derby at Epsom Downs, first held in 1780.

Kaintuck An old pronunciation for the territory and later state of Kentucky. keep up To keep a mistress. “. . . Logan who’s been keeping a woman up for years . . .” (Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel, 1929)

Kentucky fried chicken chicken.

keep your britches on; hold on to your britches be so impatient.

Kentucky Jonathan Kentuckian.

Don’t

Kentucky ark Flatboats that could carry about 150 tons of cargo were once called Kentucky arks or Kentucky boats.

See

An old, obsolete term for a rural

Kentucky oyster “There was hog jole and cold cabbage, ham and Kentucky oysters, more widely known as chittlings [CHITTERLINGS].” (Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Folks from Dixie, 1898)

Kentucky bluegrass A grass (Poa pratensis) that grows particularly well in Kentucky and is widely used as a lawn grass. Kentucky boat

A synonym for Southern fried

Kentucky rifle Famous in American history as the rifle of the pioneers, the long, extremely accurate Kentucky rifle is recorded by this name as early as 1838. The flintlock muzzle loader should, however, be called the Pennsylvania rifle, for it was first made in that state by Swiss gunmakers in the 1730s and was perfected there. “The British bayonet was no match for the Kentucky rifle,” wrote one early chronicler.

NEW ORLEANS BOAT.

Kentucky burgoo (1) A celebrated stew made of chicken or small game and corn, tomatoes and onions; traditionally served in Kentucky on Derby Day, among other occasions. (2) A picnic at which burgoo is served.

Kentucky right turn According to William Safire’s “On Language” column in the New York Times (January 27, 1991), this is humorous term meaning “the

Kentucky coffee tree Gynocladus dioica, whose seeds were once used as a substitute for coffee. 96

kiyoodle 97 maneuver performed when a driver, about to turn right, first swings to the left.” Kentucky screamer A Kentuckian. “ ‘I say, you Kentuck screamer, what kind o’ livin’ had you while you were up the stream?’ ” (Henry Wetson, Nights in a Block House, 1852) Kentucky windage A method of correcting the sighting of a rifle by aiming the weapon to one side of the target instead of adjusting the sights. Kentucky yell “A still louder laugh presently increased into a Kentucky yell.” (Solomon Smith, The Theatrical Apprenticeship of Solomon Smith, 1846) kerflummix

To fall; to fail. “He kerflummixed today.”

kin

Family, relations. “He ain’t no kin of mine.”

King The name of a famous variety of upland cotton developed in North Carolina. King Cotton A term once much used to personify the economic supremacy of cotton in the South. “Ye slaves of curs forgotten/Hats off to great King Cotton!” (R. H. Stoddard, “King Cotton,” 1861) King Kleagle An officer of the the head of a state organization.

KU KLUX KLAN,

usually

king’s cure-all A Southern plant, Oenotheris biennis, once thought to be a cure for many ailments.

kernel Colonel, based on the word’s pronunciation. See usage example at YIT.

king’s ex (excuse); king’s cross An expression used when, in playing tag or base (a variation on hide and seek), a child falls down and wants to keep from being caught.

ketch Catch. “. . . all he needed to do was jist to do what he probably done: ketching her after she had give up . . .” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959)

king’s gifts Black slaves given by agents of Great Britain to the Indians in payment for their services often called themselves king’s gifts.

ketch hound “Everybody needs a hound around the house that can go out and catch pigs and rabbits when you are in a hurry for them. A ketch hound is a mighty respectable animal.” (Erskine Caldwell, “Kneel to the Rising Sun,” The Complete Stories of Erskine Caldwell, 1953)

King’s Mountain Day October 7, the anniversary of the day in 1780 when 900 “mountain men” defeated a much larger British force at King’s Mountain, South Carolina. king snake A large, harmless snake, Lampropeltis getulus, found in the Southern states.

Key lime pie Named for the tart limes of the Florida Keys, this delicious pie has been part of the Conch cuisine for well over a century.

kinry; kinnery Relatives. “All our kinry will be home for Christmas.”

Key West This Florida place name derives from a mispronunciation of the Spanish Cayo Hueso.

kin to Related to. “He’s kin to me—he’s my second cousin.”

kick (1) To pick, cause. “He’s tryin’ to kick a fight with you.” (2) To reject a suitor, dismiss, jilt. “If [a man’s] suit was rejected, it was said: ‘She kicked him.’ ” (Everett Dick, Dixie Frontier, 1948)

kissing cousins A Southern Americanism that dates back before the Civil War. The term first implied a distant blood relationship but today more often means a very close friend who is considered family. It still is used in its original sense, however, in the sense of a relative far enough removed to permit marriage, an “eighth cousin” in the North.

kick the cat To become angry. “She kicked the cat when she lost.” kid-glove orange “The Mandarin or Tangerine orange . . . is sometimes called the ‘kid-glove orange,’ because you can break the skin and peel it without using a knife or staining the fingers.” (Thomas Barbour, That Vanishing Eden, A Naturalist’s Florida, 1944)

Kiss my grits! An exclamation of surprise made popular on the television series Alice. “Well, kiss my grits!”

kilt Killed. “You ain’t never seed a bear kilt.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

kiyoodle To sing joyously. “He goes kiyoodling along.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, “Cocks Must Crow,” 1939)

kiver A cover or blanket in North Carolina and other Southern areas.

98 Whistlin’ Dixie K.K.K.; KKK An abbreviation for the KU KLUX KLAN, recorded almost as early as the organization’s inception in 1865. Kleagle

See

To move on in a leisurely way; also knock

knock cat-west To knock out of the way, to destroy. “The train hit the car at the crossing and knocked it catwest.” A variation of to knock galley-west.

KING KLEAGLE.

kneewalkin’ drunk Very drunk indeed. “He wasn’t unconscious but he was kneewalkin’ drunk.” Knight of the Ku Klux Klan

knock along long.

A member of the KU KLUX

KLAN.

Knights of the Golden Circle A secret Southern organization, founded in 1854, that supported the Southern cause during the Civil War. Knights of the Invisible Empire An old name for the KU KLUX KLAN. “Here was a chance to dress up the village bigot and let him be a Knight of the Invisible Empire.” (Frederick Lewis Allen, Only Yesterday, 1931) Knights of the White Camellia An organization founded after the Civil War that espoused the supremacy of whites over blacks. For a time in the late 19th century, this was another name for the KU KLUX KLAN. Also called the White Camellias.

knock out To hit fly balls in baseball. “‘Come on,’ he said, ‘I’ll knock you out some flies.’ Then he said, ‘All right, you knock out and I’ll chase um.’” (William Faulkner, The Town, 1957) knowed Knew. “I’ve knowed him for some distance.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) knows Sometimes substituted for know, as in, “I knows it’s true.” Ku Klux Klan A secret organization that arose in the South after the Civil War to preserve white supremacy. From 1865 to 1877 the name was often applied to all secret political organizations with the same purpose. kungu

See

CONJURE BAG.

L War, in allusion to the brutal planter Simon Legree in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Sometimes the term was “Land of Legree and Home of the Slave.”

L An obsolete term for a fifty dollar bill; fives were called Vs, tens Xs and one hundred dollar bills Cs. la bas Down there; French, often used in the Louisiana-French dialect.

Land of Magnolias ladybird The name for a ladybug beetle in parts of the South; a common nickname, which explains why former first lady Claudia Taylor Johnson was called Ladybird Johnson.

A nickname for the South.

Land of Perpetual Youth A nickname for Florida, in allusion to Ponce de Leon’s quest for the mythical Fountain of Youth. Land of the Sky A nickname, since at least the turn of the century, for the Great Smoky Mountain region in North Carolina.

lagniappe A bonus gift often given by merchants to customers; derives from the American Indian yapa (a present to a customer), which came into Spanish first as la napa (the gift); pronounced “lanyap.”

land pike A humorous term, referring to the littlevalued fish, for a hog of an inferior breed or a razorback hog.

landgrave A term used in the Carolina colonies dating back to 1669 for a country nobleman, one who presided over a county.

larrupin’ truck A Texan’s way of saying “good food.” The word larrupin’ is sometimes used alone to mean “delicious,” as in “That pie was larrupin’.”

Land of Abstractions An old nickname, dating back to at least 1845, for the state of Virginia, due to its abundance of political thinkers.

The Late Unpleasantness Land of Blood A nickname for Kentucky since the early 19th century, when it was famous for its Indian wars.

UNPLEASANTNESS.

latitudes of lovely langour, the New England poet, novelist and travel writer Nathaniel P. Willis so described the South back in the mid-19th century.

land o’ cotton A nickname for the South since at least 1859: “I wish I was in the land o’ cotton . . .” Land of Flowers

See

An old nickname for Florida.

Land of Legree A derogatory name given to the South by abolitionists five years or so before the Civil

laurel

The general Southern term for a rhododendron.

lavish too.”

Plenty. “He’ll see trouble and a lavish of it,

law

99

To sue. “I”m going to law him in court.”

100 Whistlin’ Dixie Lawdy Mussy!; La!; Law!; Laud!; Law Sakes!; La Messy!; Lawsy Mussy!; Law me!; Lord how mercy! Exclamations meaning “Lord!” or “Lord have mercy!” lay around the house like a rug Do nothing. “ ‘All Fred does is lay around the house like a rug. I wouldn’t be surprised if he woke up some day and couldn’t move.’ ” (Eudora Welty, “Petrified Man,” 1941) lay by To cultivate a crop for the last time in a growing season; to harvest; to set aside. “After the crop’s laid by, we’ll have nothing to do.” laying-by-time less to do.

The period after harvest when there is

lay it to Attribute it to. “ ‘The only thing I can lay it to,’ my old man said, ‘is that calf just naturally likes to be around me . . .’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, Georgia Boy, 1943) lay off To mark off a field with furrows before planting. “Brought anouther of the Muddy hole-plows home . . . and set it to laying off the 20-acre cut designed for carrots.” (George Washington, Diaries, 1787) lay (put) on the cooling board the COOLING BOARD!”

To kill. “I’ll lay you on

lay up To rest, hibernate. “He’s layin’ up for the big game Sunday.” leader A term used in slavery times to describe a slave who exercised some authority, though always under an overseer. “The overseer is expected to have . . . as many leaders as there are divisions of work.” (Hugh Davies, (Alabama) Farm Book, 1862) lean Meat, as opposed to the fat in meat. “He ate his supper when they brought it—the same sidemeat and molasses and undercooked biscuits he would have had at home; this in fact a little better since the meat had more lean in it than he could afford to eat.” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959) learn Teach. “ ‘We can try him both ways and let him learn us which he likes [Ned said].’ ” (William Faulkner, The Reivers, 1962) least one

Lee’s Miserables A joking name given by Southerners to Victor Hugo’s novel Les Miserables during the Civil War. “It was a ragged copy of Les Miserables, that book which caught the fancy of the Confederate soldiers. They had read it by camp-fire light and took some grim pleasure in calling it ‘Lee’s Miserables’.” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936) leetle Little. “A leetle old light doe.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) left an orphan at the mercy of the Christians Abandoned in an alien place, said especially of someone from a different culture or environment. “‘The pore child’s an orphan . . . Left an orphan at the mercy of the Christians.’ ” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) leg down with To have sex with. “I still hadn’t legged down with anybody and I knew that my sperm was backed up pretty deep. I didn’t want the heartbreak of prostrate trouble.” (Larry Brown, “92 Days,” 1990) lept Leapt. “My heart lept.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, “Cocks Must Crow,” 1939) les oreilles de cochon Literally “pigs’ ears”; a Cajun recipe for a deep-fried pastry. less Let us. “‘Less git going’.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) levee An embankment to protect lowlands during high water periods. The word that dates back to the early 18th century in America, coming from the French, and has special reference to the Mississippi River. level down on Gullah for “to cause the level of a fluid to recede.” “Do looka how Emma duh level down on de milk.” lick

A blow. “He gave him a good lick. ”

lickblock A block of salt left out for horses and other stock to lick. lick-log “Small troughs were cut in the trunk of a fallen tree and occasionally salt was placed there, making what was known as a lick-log.” (Everett Dick, The Dixie Frontier, 1948)

The smallest or youngest child in a family. At least. “Leastways, he can pay half of it.”

lie A liar. “Don’t call me a lie or I’ll knock you down!”

leave To let, allow. “Leave him do it, leave her rest.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

Lie-all League After the Civil War, a benevolent organization called the Loyal League aided freed slaves. Some

leastways

lint-head 101 Southerners contemptuously called this the Lie-all League. lief Leave; let. “I just as lief let them stay out here, if that’s what they want to do.” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940) life does get daily An old saying meaning life gets wearisome or tiresome at times. light To leave in a hurry; also light a rag and light a shuck. “He lit off for home.” light a rag

See

light a shuck

LIGHT.

See

LIGHT.

light bread Raised wheat bread, leavened with yeast and often storebought, as opposed to CORN BREAD. lighterd knots

light out

like wildfire in the wind Very fast. “The least little thing [of gossip] can start and then spread from one end of Sallisaw to the other like wildfire in the wind.” (Erskine Caldwell, Jenny By Nature, 1961) Likker’ll make you not know your mama. Liquor will make you not know your mother. This Gullah proverb, which dates back to at least the 18th century and probably before then, was possibly adapted from an African proverb brought to America by South Carolina slaves. limping Susan No one has found a satisfactory explanation for the name of this Southern dish of okra and rice.

Kindling wood.

light in To begin. “I got to light in and fix a bed.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, “Cocks Must Crow,” 1939) lightning wood

like trying to find flea shit in a pile of pepper Almost impossible to find, harder than finding a needle in a haystack. The phrase is used by a Southern U.S. senator in the movie J.F.K. (1991).

Kindling wood.

Lincoln Brotherhood A political association of freed slaves formed after the Civil War to help protect their voting rights. Lincoln coffee A Southern name for a coffee substitute made of various ingredients and used during the Civil War. See also JEFF DAVIS COFFEE.

To depart hastily. “He lit out for the river.”

lights (1) Consciousness, senses. “What consolation is it trying to knock a bully’s lights out and having your own dimmed in the process?” (William A. Percy, Lanterns on the Levee, 1941) (2) Viscera, bowels. (3) Eyes. lightwood Resinous pine or other wood that is often used for kindling. like a chicken-eating dog in a hen house With driven, unrelenting enthusiasm. “All they do is play ball with a bunch of schoolboys all day, and when night comes, they’ll chase one woman after another like a chickeneating dog in a hen house.” (Erskine Caldwell, Jenny By Nature, 1961) like a sick kitten on a hot rock a sick kitten on a hot rock.”

Very cuddly. “She’s like

like for To like, to desire, to wish. “I would like for you to do it.” like to Almost. A common Southern expression that originated in Victorian Ireland. “I like to broke my back carrying it.”

Lincoln flag U.S. flag. “He it was who cut down the Lincoln flag at Occoqua, in spite of threats that he would be shot if he did.” (Charleston (S.C.) Mercury, June 4, 1861) Lincolnite A follower of Abraham Lincoln; a Northern soldier: a Northern sympathizer during the Civil War. “Woe to the Lincolnites when they meet those chivalrous sons of Carolina in battle array.” (Daily Dispatch (Richmond, Va.), July 22, 1861) Lincoln navy A Confederate term for the U.S. Navy during the Civil War. Lincoln skins A name for fractional paper currency in South Carolina after the Civil War. Lincoln spy A spy working for the U.S. government during the Civil War. “A Lincoln spy, named Lambert, was arrested at Manassas Junction.” (Charleston (S.C.) Mercury, June 4, 1861) lint-head A cotton-mill worker. “‘I’d rather be a Godforsaken lint-head and live in a yellow company house than be what she and Jim Leslie are.’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, God’s Little Acre, 1933)

102 Whistlin’ Dixie lip To dip or rub snuff.” “Ma Forester lipped a little snuff.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) lit a shuck Ran out, ran off quickly. “He lit a shuck as soon as he saw you.” See also LIGHT. Little Alec A common nickname for Alexander Stephens, vice-president of the Confederacy, because of his small slight stature. Little bitty

Little. “She is a little bitty woman.”

little miss A term much used in the past by older black servants in reference to their white employer’s daughter, regardless of the daughter’s age or physique. little old

Little. “Listen at that little old cricket!”

Little Peacock

See

MAN OF SUMTER.

The Little Unpleasantness

See

UNPLEASANTNESS.

live along with To get along with. See usage example at GET LEAVE OF. livestock A term used by slave-traders for the slaves they sold in pre-Civil War days. “The trader waked up bright and early, and come out to see his livestock.” (Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852) living on the lucky side of the road Having good luck. “ ‘But so far I’ve been spared that misery. Darling Jill acts crazy as hell sometimes, and about nothing. But we’ve been living on the lucky side of the road so far.’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, God’s Little Acre, 1933) Loafer’s Hall An obsolete term for prison. “He was compelled to retire for awhile from the gaities of society into the retirement of ‘Loafer’s Hall.’ ” (Daily Richmond (Va.) Enquirer, July 3, 1861) lobberheaded Stupid. “A pretty mother she would be, lobberheaded as a sow, to smother her baby.” (Caroline Miller, Lamb in His Bosom, 1933) loblolly locker loft

Mud, ooze; a mess. A closet. “He put it in the locker.”

An Arkansas term for an attic.

lone star flag Usually applied to the flag of the Texas Republic but applied to the flags of several Southern states in Civil War times, including the flags of Virginia, South Carolina and Louisiana. “The Lone Star Flag was

raised here [in Va.] today amid the exultant shouts of a tremendous multitude.” (Charleston (S.C.) Mercury, December 25, 1860) Lone Star State A nickname for Texas, deriving from the lone star on the Texas state flag. long green A variety of homegrown tobacco with very large, long leaves. long hunters An old name for the pioneer explorers from Virginia and North Carolina who first reached Kentucky and points west; they were so named because of the long time they were absent from home. long sugar An old name once used in Carolina for a ropy kind of molasses. long sweetnin’ Molasses and other syrupy, fluid sweeteners. “Long sweetin’ is to stick the finger in the molasses to the second joint; short sweetenin’ to the first joint.” See also SHORT SWEETENIN’. long-tailed blue A black minstrel comedian dressed in a long-tailed coat. look-a-here Look here. “Look-a-here what I found.” The intrusive a in look-a-here is probably a survival of the pronoun ye or you: “Look ye here.” It occurs in other expressions such as look-a-yonder, look-a-there and look-a-hush, which means “I am greatly surprised at what you say.” look-a-hush

See

LOOK-A-HERE.

looked up like a flash Looked up quickly. “He looked up like a flash and then turned his head.” looks like the back end of bad luck Looks terrible. “Now don’t he look like the back end o’ bad luck?” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) look without let Look without interruption, as long as one wants to. “. . . so that all the people . . . could . . . look without let at the pictures of men and women and children who were the same people that we were even if their houses and barns were different . . .” (William Faulkner, “Shall Not Perish,” 1943) loose-titted prostitute and a bare-assed whore A worthless, disreputable woman. “He got worked up all over again and said never mind what I wanted to call her—she was a loose-titted prostitute and a bare-assed whore as far as he was concerned . . . I haven’t heard such language since they closed the army camp down near Summer

lynch 103 Glade after the war was over.” (Erskine Caldwell, Jenny By Nature, 1961)

boot.’ ” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

loost

low man; low woman a low, fat feller.”

Loose. “Who turned him loost?”

Lord-a mercy! Common exclamation. “Lord-a-mercy! It was enough to make me cry.” See also lawdy mussy.

low quarters

A short man or woman. “He’s

An old term for oxford shoes.

Lord-God The pileated woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus), a large black and white American woodpecker with a prominent red crest. “At the Creek the pileated wood-pecker is known as the Lord-God.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Cross Creek, 1942)

low-rate To deprecate, put down. “Papa went to the man and began low-rating the dog.” (James Street, In My Father’s House, 1941)

lord of the jaybirds A mild expletive. “ ‘Lord of the jaybirds, if we weren’t all out of whiskey I’d make you sweat.’ ” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

luck Short for “a piece of luck”; heard mostly in Gullah speech. “I never had a luck in my life.”

lose one’s britches

Lose a lot of money.

losing one’s lunch

Vomiting, throwing up.

lost bread A mainly New Orleans term for French toast sprinkled with powdered sugar. Lost Cause The cause of the South in the Civil War, first recorded as the title of a book in 1866. Louisiana bit An obsolete term for a small coin, probably a picayune. Louisiana flag A kind of iris found in the New Orleans area that grows in the water and blooms around the beginning of April. love bubbles

A woman’s breasts.

low (1) Very seriously. “The sister of a friend of his was low sick.” (William A. Percy, Lanterns on the Levee, 1941) low blood

Low blood pressure.

low cotton A mainly black expression for a state of depression. “I was in what Ford would call ‘low cotton.’ ” (William A. Percy, Lanterns on the Levee, 1941) low-downer

A poor person; a poor white.

lower’n a doodle-bug Low-down, vermin. “‘Ever one of ’em’s lower’n a doodle-bug. And black-hearted to

lub

A pronunciation, mainly by blacks, of love.

“Lucy Long” The title of a minstrel song once popular with blacks in the South, a song that inspired a dance called the Lucy Long walkaround. Lum The proper name, as in the old radio program “Lum and Abner,” is a corruption of Columbus. lynch This verb for extralegal hanging comes from the name of a Southerner, but who was the real Judge Lynch? At least a dozen men have been suggested as candidates for the dubious distinction. Scholarly opinion leans toward Virginia’s Captain William Lynch (1742–1820), who was brought to light by Edgar Allan Poe in an editorial on “lynching” that he wrote in 1836 when he edited the Southern Literary Messenger. Poe claimed that the first lynch law originated in 1780 when Captain Lynch and his followers organized to rid Pittsylvania County, Virginia of a band of ruffians threatening the neighborhood. Poe even affixed to the editorial a compact drawn up by Lynch and his men. William Lynch’s identity was further verified by Richard Venables, an old resident of the county, in the May 1859 issue of Harper’s Magazine. But without evidence of any actual hanging, there was still room for doubt. Finally, additional proof was found in the diary of the famous surveyor Andrew Ellicott, who visited Captain Lynch in 1811 and gained his friendship. According to Ellicott’s diary, William Lynch related how his lynch men, as they were called, were sworn to secrecy and loyalty to the band. On receiving information accusing someone of a crime, they seized the accused and questioned him before a court of sorts. If he did not confess immediately, he was horsewhipped until he did and was sometimes hanged whether he confessed or not.

M make a blue fist of An old term meaning “to make an utter failure of.” “[He] would make a blue fist of takin’ a dead aim through double sights . . .” (William Caruthers, The Kentuckian in New York, 1834)

machine Car; an old expression heard in the South and other regions. “He got in his machine and headed off down the road.” macock A melon similar to a muskmelon, the word probably derived from an Indian dialect of the Maryland-Virginia area. mad

make accustomed To make one used to something. “‘This is the durndest automobile I ever saw,’ Jeeter said. ‘It don’t do the same thing long enough to make me accustomed.’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932)

Anger, fit of anger. “I got my mad up again.”

madam Long used as a title for the woman in charge of a house or to distinguish a woman from her daughter-in-law, who is called “Mrs.”

make a crop crop?”

To raise a crop. “Did you make a good

make a die of it To die. “Doc said, ‘I can’t take much credit for savin’ you. Your time just hadn’t come to make a die of it.’ ” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

Magnolia City An old nickname for Houston, Texas first recorded in the late 19th century. Magnolia State A nickname of Mississippi because of the great number of magnolia trees growing in the state.

make it up To plan, agree. “They was a bunch of us made it up to go yestiddy.” (John Faulkner, Men Working, 1941)

mahogany tree Another name for the Kentucky coffee tree common in Kentucky and other parts of the South.

make like To pretend. “He made like he neither had seen nor heard.” (Sidney Lanier, “9 From 8,” Dialect Poems, 1884)

main strength The strength of the human body. See usage example at TARPOLLYON. mais But; French, often used in the Louisiana-French dialects.

make one’s manners To act politely; to bow or curtsy; to say “How do you do.” “ ‘Watch now,’ Miss Reba said. ‘Lucius, this is Miss Corrie.’ I [Lucius] made my manners. ‘See what I mean?’ Miss Reba said. ‘You brought that nephew of yours over here hunting refinement. Here it is, waiting for him.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Reivers, 1962) “I got out of the car and made my best Southern manners.” (Jonathan Daniels, A Southerner Discovers the South, 1938)

mais non! No!; French, often used in the LouisianaFrench dialects. make To produce a crop. “ ‘Look at that [pear] tree [in bloom],’ Varner said. ‘It ought to make this year, sho.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940)

104

marster 105 make out; make out like like he didn’t know.”

To pretend. “He made out

make out your supper Finish your supper (dinner), don’t leave anything on your plate. makes me so mad I could spit 10 feet Makes me furious. “. . . now they turn on me and act so pious and try to make me leave town. It makes me so mad I could spit ten feet.” (Erskine Caldwell, Jenny By Nature, 1961) make the riffle To make the grade, succeed. “He couldn’t make the riffle.” male cow

A euphemism for a bull.

male hog

Euphemism for a boar.

mam; ma’am A respectful form of address to female elders. “Good afternoon, mam.” mamma A mother is more often called “mamma” than “mom” in the South. mammy A term formerly used frequently in the South for a black woman hired as a white child’s nurse or as a white family’s servant. mammy; maumer; maum; muh; muddah Man Above

Mother.

God. “It all depends on the Man Above.”

Manassas The Southern name for the Civil War battle known as Bull Run in the North. man-fever A woman’s sexual lust for a man; a woman’s lust for marriage to a man. “Now that she’s got manfever, she’s got no more shame than a naked whore on a bedquilt with a big spender on a binge.” (Erskine Caldwell, Jenny By Nature, 1961) man horse Stallion. “The Negro man had warned her: ‘He’s a horse, missy. But he’s a man horse. You keep out of there.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940) mannerable Polite. “Course she’s too mannerable to go around braggin’ about it.” (James Street, “Old Gordon Place,” 1943) manniporchia Only in Northern Maryland does this word (deriving from the Latin mania a patu [craziness from drink]) mean the D.T.’s (delirium tremens). Man of Sumter General Pierre Gustave ToutantBeauregard, the Louisiana Creole general who com-

manded the attacking Southern forces at Fort Sumter, South Carolina in the first battle of the Civil War. He was also known as the “Grand Creole” and, being a vain man, the “Little Peacock.” One story has him throwing a victory party where champagne was piped into his garden fountain and flowed all night. Much heralded at the time of Sumter, the worthy “Grand Creole,” or “Old Bory” to his troops, was soon eclipsed by greater Southern generals. marais A swamp or bayou; used chiefly in Louisiana and other Gulf States. It derives from a French word meaning “marsh” or “pool.” Mardi Gras The day before Lent, Shrove Tuesday, long celebrated in New Orleans (and other cities around the world) as a day of carnival and merrymaking. Mardi Gras, literally “fat Tuesday” in French, takes its name from the fat ox (boeuf gras) paraded through Parisian streets in ancient times by mock priests at the head of the carnival procession on the day before the beginning of Lent. The fat ox was a reminder of the required abstinence from meat during the coming Lenten season of fasting and prayer. Called Shrove Tuesday in England and previously Pancake Tuesday because pancakes were traditionally served on the day before Ash Wednesday, the festival of Mardi Gras may have its origins in the old Roman fertility festival of Lupercalia once held at the same time of the year. Mark Twain! A slurred Southern mispronunciation of mark on the twine, six fathoms!, called out when riverboat leadsmen sounded the Mississippi River with weighted twine. It is generally thought that former riverboat pilor Samuel Langhorne Clemens took his pen name from the leadsman’s call “mark twain!,” but he actually took it from another pilot, Isaiah Sellers, who had first used it as a pseudonym. maroon (1) An old term for “to camp out” or “to picnic.” (2) A historical term for a fugitive slave; also marooner. The word probably derives from the French marron, thought to be an adaptation of the Spanish cimarron (wild). Maroon also meant “a domestic animal that has run wild,” for slaves were so regarded. marr A Louisiana hunter’s term for a shallow, slushy, grassy pool in a swamp; possibly derives from mire. marry together Gullah for marry. “Dey done and got married togedder.” marster An old, mainly black pronunciation of master. “There was even a fool who tried to interfere once, whereupon the negro turned upon him with the stick

106 Whistlin’ Dixie lifted and his teeth showing a little and said, ‘Marster say; I do. You tell Marster.’ ” (William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!, 1936) Marylander Used in the past as a term for a Maryland ham as well as for a person who resided in Maryland. mash (1) To crush, press down. “Get off, you’re mashing me.” (2) To press. “I mashed the doorbell.” mashed flatter than a fritter

Completely flattened.

Mason-Dixon line Although DIXIE wasn’t named for the Mason-Dixon line, the latter term has come to be used as a figure of speech for an imaginary dividing line between North and South. The Mason-Dixon line has an interesting history. Originally the 244-mile boundary set between Pennsylvania and Maryland in 1763–67 by English surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, it was extended six years later to include the southern boundary of Pennsylvania and Virginia. The line had been established by English courts to settle a territorial dispute between the Penns of Pennsylvania and the Calverts of Maryland, but the use of Mason-Dixon line in Congressional debates during the Missouri Compromise (1819–20) gave the expression wide currency as a dividing line between free and slave states. After the Civil War, the term was retained as the boundary between North and South, especially as a demarcation line of customs and philosophy. Its existence probably did influence the popularity of the word Dixie. massa This Southern American term for master, long used by slaves, could derive from the English master or from the West African masass (chief), or it is possibly the offspring of both.

mean as a skunk

meaner than a junkyard dog with 14 sucking pups The meanest. “She’s meaner than a junkyard dog with 14 sucking pups.” mean old hound dog that wouldn’t bother to scratch his mamma’s fleas A mean, lazy, selfish person. mean to don’t pick no cotton A saying used mainly by Southern blacks equivalent to “deeds speak louder than words.” mean white A lower-class white person; a term synonymous with CRACKER and POOR WHITE TRASH. “There was no chance of patronizing this woman, if she was a mean white.” (Albion Tourgee, Toinette, 1869) measly-weight Thin, weak. “ ‘I ain’t got no time to waste on no sorry measly-weight, trifling man,’ she said finally . . .” (Erskine Caldwell, “The Courting of Susie Brown,” The Complete Stories of Erskine Caldwell, 1943) medium strip A dividing area between the two sides of a highway; used primarily in Kentucky. meet up with To become acquainted with; overtake; meet by chance. men-folks Men. “‘Men-folks has got to stick together.’ ” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) mens Men, mostly in black usage, especially in Gullah. “E has sent many mens to Hell.” menses

mate up with To marry; to have sex with. “‘When a man looks at you from behind, he ought to want to mate up with you right there and then [Jeeter said]. That’s what I heard Lov say one time, and he ought to know, because he’s mated up now.’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932) Mayor

See

COLONEL.

me Often used as a reflexive pronoun at the end of a sentence in Cajun speech, as in “I ain’t going to ask you no more, me.” me-all A pseudo-Southernism that probably originated on the stage or screen. “Do you-all have anything that will fit me-all?” mean Meanness, nastiness, pugnaciousness. “That old boy was short on understanding and long on mean.”

Very mean. “He’s mean as a skunk.”

Men. “Menses, take a seat.”

mess A large quantity, enough for a meal. “She cooked me up a mess of eggs.” mess of salet A mainly Tennessee term for a large quantity of greens served with a meal. middle-day

Gullah for noontime.

middling (1) In fair health; use not limited to the South. “She’s middlin’.” It is sometimes used in the phrase fair to middling, meaning “fairly well or perhaps a little better.” (2) Bacon, in Maryland. might could A reduction of “might be able to.” “‘Best ask Mister Watson about common knowledge, Albert. Might could tell you some common knowledge that you ought to know.’ ” (Peter Matthiessen, Killing Mr. Watson, 1990)

missis; missus 107 might near have to Might almost have to. “They’d might near have to cut my whole leg off to get rid of it.” (Larry Brown, “Old Soldiers,” 1990) might would

May. “I might would come to town.”

mighty Very, exceedingly. “Hit were a mighty purty day.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) mighty come a-shoutin’; mighty come a-right Right, quite right. “ ‘Did you see any good trucks?’ ‘You mighty come a’right. I picked out one.’ ” (James Street, In My Father’s House, 1941) mighty nice on you Very nice of you. “Like I said, that’s mighty nice on you.” mighty nigh Very nearly, almost; sometimes shortened to might nigh. “It’s mighty nigh the end of the game.” mighty right Correct, right. “You were mighty right about that man—he’s a damned liar.” mighty shouting right Darned right. “You’re mighty shouting right I’m going to come.” mikal Mica. “ ‘We calls it mikal,’ said the dirty old man. ‘It’s same as iron glass.’ ” (Jonathan Daniels, A Southerner Discovers the South, 1938) mile Often used for the plural miles. “We done cut down ever’thing in two mile.” (John Faulkner, Men Working, 1941) Mimphis Some older citizens of Memphis, Tennessee will tell you they are from Mimphis, Tinnissee, though the pronunciation is no longer heard among the great majority of Memphians. mind

To remind; remember. “You mind what I say.”

mind off To ward off (flies), shoo away. “Mind the flies off the food.” minners

A pronunciation of minnows.

minor A small, shrill, singing voice. “The shrill, melancholy minor of Prissy was raised . . .” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936) minorest Smallest, least significant. “. . . the best he could possibly hope would be to lose it quick, since any semblance or intimation of the most minorest victory woulda destroyed him like a lightning bolt . . .” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959)

mint julep An alcoholic drink, associated with Kentucky and the South since the early 19th century, made with bourbon, sugar and finely cracked ice and garnished with sprigs of mint, all served in a tall, frosted glass. mirate To wonder, admire. “I suspect that Mr. Wiggins died mirating over the powers of evaporation in his climate.” (Jonathan Daniels, Tar Heels, 1941) miscegenation Marriage or cohabitation between a man and woman of different races, especially between blacks and whites. The term did not arise in the South; deriving from the Latin words for “to mix” and “race,” it is said to have been coined in a pamphlet entitled Miscegenation: the Theory of the Blending of the Races, Applied to the American White Man and Negro, published anonymously by New York journalist David Goodman Croly (1829–1889) in 1863. mischiefs Mischievious children. “ ‘Little mischiefs! Wull you look at them showing off,’ said Miss Adele.” (Eudora Welty, The Optimist’s Daughter, 1972) miserable scarce.”

Old term for miserably. “Eggs is miserable

misery An ache or pain. “I got me a misery in my stomach.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Cross Creek, 1942) mislick An awkward slash that cuts oneself. “He was making wild slashes with a knife when he made a mislick and slashed his own thigh.” miss A Southern courtesy title used with a woman’s first name only, whether she is married or not, as in Miss Scarlett of Gone with the Wind. Miz is used before a married woman’s last name, as when Scarlett became Miz Hamilton. To complicate matters, however, Miss often sounds like Miz in Southern pronunciation. Miss Elizabeth A term used by blacks to describe any white female employer, the female counterpart of MR. CHARLIE. Missippi; Missip; Massassip Common pronunciations of Mississippi by black and white Mississippians and other Southerners. “ ‘I seen the Missippi River at Memphis once,’ Ned said.” (William Faulkner, The Reivers, 1962) missis; missus Wife; the term is common outside the South as well. “The missis is out.”

108 Whistlin’ Dixie Mississippi One theory holds that the Chippewas named the river for which this Southern state is named the mice sipi (the big river), which white men spelled Mississippi. The Magnolia State, at one time called the Bayou State, was admitted to the Union in 1817 as our 20th state. For another possible derivation of Mississippi, see FATHER OF WATERS. Mississippi bottom Mississippi River.

Any bottomland situated along the

Mississippi Bubble A disastrous financial scheme devised by Englishman John Law in France in 1717, in which he issued currency based on what he predicted would be great gains through trade in Louisiana and other parts of the Mississippi region. Mississippi butternut A Confederate soldier from Mississippi, because of the color of his uniform. Mississippi canebrake

See

CANEBRAKE.

Mississippi coondom “During the early 1840s the Whig party was frequently denounced as the aristocratic party of the slaveholders, the democracy of Mississippi designating the local organization as ‘the empire of Mississippi coondom.” (Arthur Cole, The Whig Party in the South, 1913) Mississippi jager A famous long-barreled, muzzleloading rifle used by American hunters of big game; also called a yager. Mississippi River

See

FATHER OF WATERS.

Mississippi roarer Once a disparaging term for a violent, rowdy type of person common along the Mississippi. Mississippi state An old term for any one of the states in the Mississippi Valley. Missouri Missouri is either the name of a Sioux tribe, “people of the big canoes,” living in the region, or comes from an Algonquian word adopted by the French meaning “muddy water,” in reference to the Missouri River. The Show Me State was admitted to the Union in 1821 as our 24th state, having previously been the Missouri Territory. Missouri toothpick TOOTHPICK. missy

A bowie knife. See also

Mr. Charlie Originally the term for a boss or overseer, Mr. Charlie is now black slang in the South and elsewhere for a white man or white people in general; also Charlie, Charles, Chuck. Mr. Lincoln’s War

The Civil War.

mistis A common pronunciation among black slaves for mistress. “I’ll take it to the mistis and tell her the truth.” misuse To abuse, hurt. “ ‘Fore God!’ Het hollered. ‘He [the mule] fixing to misuse the cow!’ ” (William Faulkner, The Town, 1957) mite A bit, a little; also, someone or something that is very small. “In a mite of time.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) mite of trouble A little trouble. “In all the time I’ve lived here, I’ve never had a mite of trouble with the neighbors.” (Erskine Caldwell, Jenny By Nature, 1961) Miz Mrs.; a title of respect for a married woman in the South since long before Ms., which is pronounced the same way. “ ‘They all got married sooner or later, somehow. That’s right, because whoever heard of an oldmaid whore? There ain’t no such thing Miz Jones—Miz Brown—Miz Smith—Miz Hotrocks—Miz Biggerbottom.’ She giggled again. ‘That’s what I want—a last name . . . I’ve got to get me one soon because I’m sureGod on my way to growing old.’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, Love and Money, 1954) See also MISS. mizzling Drizzling, raining fine drops. “. . . and why He should turn around for the poor, mizzling souls of men that can’t even borrow tools in time to replace the shingles on His church, I don’t know either.” (William Faulkner, “Shingles for the Lord,” 1943) Mockingbird State mommocked up

A nickname for Florida. Damaged or defaced.

monkey nigger A contemptuous, offensive expression for a black houseservant dressed in fancy clothes; the term was used in pre-Civil War times by whites, especially poor whites, and some blacks. “He knew it without being aware that he did; he told Grandfather how, before the monkey nigger who came to the door had finished saying what he said, he seemed to kind of dissolve . . .” (William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!, 1936)

ARKANSAS

An old, mostly black pronunciation of Mrs.

moodie An old, perhaps obsolete term for a sweet potato; it takes its name from Bermuda, from where it was first brought to the American South.

mud lump 109 moondown down.

The time when the moon appears to go

moon pie A round pastry with marshmallow filling sold in many parts of the South. moonshine Liquor made illicitly by individuals with no distilling license; in this sense, moonshine dates back to the late 19th century. The name reflects the fact that the liquor was made surreptitiously, at night under the light of the moon. It was first used in this sense in the American South, although the British previously used the term to mean any smuggled liquor. more Sometimes heard in constructions like more better, more lonesomer, more messier, more righter, more worser, more tireder, etc. more better Better, in Cajun speech. “My horse more better as (than) that.”

Mother of Presidents

Mother of States Another nickname for Virginia, because it was the first settled of the original states. mought Might. “‘They mought have kilt us, but they ain’t whupped us yit, air they?’” (William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!, 1936) Mount Vernon George Washington’s home, a national shrine, was named after Vice Admiral Sir Edward Vernon by George Washington’s half-brother Lawrence, who served under Vernon during the War of Jenkin’s Ear (1739). Vernon also gives his name, or nickname, to grog. He was called Old Grog by his men after the impressive grogram coat he often wore on deck. But when he cut down on his men’s rum rations and ordered that the rum be watered down, his men defiantly named the adulterated rum grog after the admiral. mouth organ

more rain, more rest A saying once popular among black workers in the South. mornglom; mornglown Morning twilight, an hour before dawn. “They left at mornglom.” mortgage-raiser A lazy or do-nothing farmer. “All Starnes had ever raised was a mortgage, so Stribling paid for the funeral.” (William Faulkner, “Hair,” 1931) mosey To stroll or saunter about in a leisurely manner, an expression used in the South, West and, to a lesser degree, in the rest of the country. According to Webster’s and most authorities, the Spanish vamos (let’s go) became vamoose in American English, which begot the word mosey as defined above. “ ‘Well I just thought I’d mosey down the street and look around.’ ” (Calder Willingham, Rambling Rose, 1972) mosquito hawk

Dragonfly; darning needle.

mossback A reactionary, a person living in the backwoods; used in other regions as well. “We thought of course that he and his new aldermen would have repealed it for no other reason than that one old mossback like Colonel Sartoris had to convince another old mossback like Mayor Adams to pass it.” (William Faulkner, The Town, 1957)

Mother of Commonwealths The state of Virginia, a term used since the 19th century.

Harmonica; also called French harp.

moves like dead lice are falling off Moves very slowly. “He moves like dead lice are falling off him.” m’sieu Mister; French, often used in the LouisianaFrench dialects. mucha Gullah for many. “Ben is gwine to stop sayin’ so mucha sinful words.” much oblige (Pronounced “muchablige”) Thank you, thanks; also much obliged. “Muchablige for the drink, ma’am.” muda grass mudcat

Bermuda grass.

A Mississippian. See also

MUDCAT STATE.

Mudcat State “Mississippi is occasionally spoken of humorously as the Mudcat State, the inhabitants being quite generally known as Mud-cats, a name given to the large catfish abounding in the swamps and the mud of the rivers.” (Maximillian Schele De Vere, Americanisms, 1871) muddy enough to bog the shadow of a buzzard Muddy enough to mire down the slightest thing. “Pa said that mud would bog a buzzard’s shadow.” mud lark

mostest Most. “He got there fustest with the mostest drinks.”

The state of Virginia.

See

SLOW BEAR.

mud lump “Small islands of bluish clay suddenly emerge from the [shallow] water . . . These are the famous mud lumps of the Mississippi.” (Putnams’ Magazine, May 1868)

110 Whistlin’ Dixie mudsill An old opprobrious term first applied to members of the white laboring class in South Carolina and then applied by Southerners to all Northerners during the Civil War period and after. “White niggers, mudsills, Northern scum, Base hirelings, hear me, and be dumb.” (James Stoddard, Vanity Fair, March 1860)

muscadine

muley

mutton corn An old term in parts of South Carolina for early (matin) corn.

Stubborn. “He sure is a muley fella.”

mumble peg Mumblety-peg, a game played with a pocketknife in which the object is to stick the knife in the ground in a number of prescribed ways. Mumbletypeg is more common, but the old Southern mumble peg is more correct as the name comes from the phrase mumble the peg, which refers to an old rule calling for the losing player in the game to pull a peg from the ground with his teeth. Murfreesboro The Southern name for the Tennessee Civil War battle called Stone River in the North.

muss

See

SCUPPERNONG.

A mess or disorder. “Things are all in a muss.”

mussy Mostly black pronunciation of mercy. “Mussy on us!”

my Sometimes omitted in speech, as in “I never in life hear Pa sing so hard before.” my heavenly day! A common exclamation. “ ‘My heavenly day!’ Ma screamed. ‘Handsome’s gone!’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, Georgia Boy, 1943) my mama didn’t raise a (or no) stupid child (or fool) Don’t take me for stupid.

N nairn

Not any, not a one. “Ah don’t have nairn.”

naked as a boiled chicken Stark naked. “‘I’ll jerk every yellow hair out of your head! I’ll rip off every piece of your clothes till you’re naked as a boiled chicken!’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, Jenny By Nature, 1961) narrow-asted; narrow-headed Epithets defined in the quotation following. “ ‘He insulted me,’ Boon said. ‘He told Son Thomas I was a narrow-asted son of a bitch.’ Now Mr. Hampton looked at Ludus. ‘All right,’ he said. ‘I never said he was narrow-asted,’ Ludus said. ‘I said he was narrer-headed;’ ‘What?’ Boon said. ‘That’s worse,’ Judge Stevens said. ‘Of course it’s worse,’ Boon said, ‘Can’t you see? And I ain’t even got any choice. Me, a white man, have got to stand here and let a damn mule-wrestling nigger either criticize my private tail, or state before five public witnesses that I ain’t got any sense.” (William Faulkner, The Reivers, 1962) nary

Not. “Ain’t nary a one come last night.”

Naw’lins Persistent Louisiana pronunciation of New Orleans, heard in other Southern states as well. nearabout Nearly. “We can make twelve bales of cotton, near ’bout every year.” (John Faulkner, Men Working, 1941) nebber

A mostly black pronunciation of never.

needcessity Necessity. “Bring all your needcessities.” (James Still, “On Double Creek,” 1940) needful

Necessary.

Negrah

A common Southern pronunciation of Negro.

Negro breakdown Negro English

See

BREAKDOWN.

An offensive term for black dialect.

Negro quarter The housing for blacks on plantations in slavery times; often called the Quarters.

nary red An old expression meaning “not a (red) cent.” “I ain’t got nary red.”

nekkid; nekked CATE UP.

Natchez Trace An old, once-popular route that began as a series of buffalo trails; it stretched over a total of 700 miles: from New Orleans to Natchez, Mississippi and then on to Nashville, Tennessee.

nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs Very nervous indeed, often with eyes darting around.

natural sorry ral sorry.” nature

Stupid, very slow. “That ol’ boy is natu-

Often used to mean “libido” or “sex drive.”

Naked. See usage example at

COMPLI-

neutral ground (1) The dividing area between the two sides of a highway; used primarily in Mississippi. (2) In New Orleans, a term for a traffic circle. never hit a lick

111

Made no effort, didn’t lift a finger.

112 Whistlin’ Dixie nevermore A word associated with the South from Poe to Faulkner. “Quentin didn’t answer. He lay still and rigid on his back . . . breathing hard but slow, his eyes wide open upon the window, thinking ‘Nevermore of peace. Nevermore of peace. Nevermore Nevermore Nevermore.’ ” (William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!, 1936) neversomeless

A black term for nevertheless.

never turned a tap ger.

Made no effort, never lifted a fin-

new ground Land that has recently been cleared of trees for farming. New Orleanian

A resident of New Orleans.

road car), nigger breaker (an overseer especially severe in his treatment of slaves), nigger hound (a person who caught fugitive slaves) and nigger dog (a dog trained to catch slaves), among many others. nigger baby “Among the cant words produced by the late Civil War, nigger babies also became very popular; the term originated with the veterans serving under the Confederate General Hardee, who gave that name to the enormous projectiles thrown into the city of Charleston by the Swamp Angel of General Gillmore, as his monstergun in the swamps was ironically called.” (Maximilian Schele De Vere, Americanisms, 1871) niggerly A perhaps obsolete term for niggardly, a folk etymology.

New Orleans boat A 19th-century flat boat, with sides boarded like a house, about six feet high, and with a roof covering it; also called a Kentucky boat. It was used in both Southern and Western waters.

nigger out An obsolete, offensive term once meaning “in Southern phraseology,” according to Bartlett, “to exhaust land by the mode of tilling without fertilization pursued in the slave states.”

New Orleans oven “The graves [in New Orleans] are also elevated. The dead are buried in [oval] sepulchral houses, which are termed here ‘ovens.’ These often contain three or four tiers. Those belonging to the wealthy are frequently very handsome, and built with marble walls.” (John Wortley, Travels . . . , 1851)

Niggra Common Southern pronunciation of Negro. “ ‘Now wait a minute! I never said a word about the niggras [Daddy said], and you misrepresent me constantly on that point. Damn you, darlin’, I am not antiniggra!’ ” (Calder Willingham, Rambling Rose, 1972)

New Orleans salt Poison. “ ‘He got off the steamboat with the six black people.’ Herman Basket said, and a big box in which something was alive, and the gold box of New Orleans salt about the size of a gold watch. And Herman Basket told how Doom took a puppy out of the box in which something was alive, and how he made a bullet of bread and a pinch of the salt in the gold box and put the bullet into the puppy and the puppy died.” (William Faulkner, “A Justice,” 1950) nick nickel

A Louisiana term for a pile of wood.

night on to Almost; also nigh on to. “It was night on to sunrise when he got home.” night rider One of a band of mounted men in the South during Reconstruction who rode at night, terrifying blacks and black sympathizers. ninny

Breast milk or a breast.

no-count No good, worthless, good-for-nothing; of no account. “ ‘All birds got to fly, even them no-count dirty ones,’ said Missouri from the porch.” (Eudora Welty, The Optimist’s Daughter, 1972)

A nickel’s worth. “Gimme a nickel of candy.”

nig An obsolete, offensive term meaning “Negro” or “nigger.”

no ham and all hominy work and no pay.” nohow

nigger An offensive term for an African-American, and often any dark-skinned person, first recorded in about 1640. The word derives from the Spanish negro (black). The derogatory term nigger has been used in many expressions, including nigger drunk (extremely drunk), nigger worshiper (one who favored emancipation or one who now supports black political causes), nigger killer (a slingshot), nigger crib (a segregated rail-

An old term meaning “all

In no manner, no way. “I can’t do it nohow.”

Noisette rose The beautiful blush noisette rose variety was crossed from two other plants in Charleston, South Carolina by plantsman Philip Noisette in 1816. nome Pronunciation of no, ma’am. “‘Nome,’ I said, ‘I ain’t hungry, I’ll eat when I git home.’ ” (William Faulkner, “Two Soldiers,” 1943)

N’Yawlins 113 no more chance than a kerosene cat in hell with gasoline drawers on No chance at all. “He thinks he’ll beat me, but he ain’t got no more chance than a kerosene cat in hell with gasoline drawers on.” no more chance than a mouse has of drinking milk out of a saucer with a cat Almost no chance. “I’ve heard it said over and over that an older woman like me has no more chance to marry a worthwhile man in this day and age than a mouse has of drinking milk out of a saucer with a cat.” (Erskine Caldwell, Jenny By Nature, 1961) no more chance than a pig in a dog race all.

No chance at

no more shame than a naked whore on a bedquilt shame at all. See usage example at MAN-FEVER.

No

non compos mentis time of the month Time of a woman’s period, menstruation. “Daddy . . . muttered something to the effect that it must be the non compos mentis time of the month for Rose . . .” (Calder Willingham, Rambling Rose, 1972) none Sometimes used for “at all” as a form of double negative in sentences like “It shouldn’t hurt you none.” (“It shouldn’t hurt you at all.”) noon Eat lunch with, or gather together with, at noon. “I’d not insult my neighbors that-a-way. We’ll noon with them.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) North Carolina; South Carolina Both states really honor three kings. Carolina derives from the Latin Carolus or Carolana (Charles). Originally dedicated to France’s Charles XI in the 16th century, the territory now comprising North and South Carolina was next named for England’s Charles I. Charles I granted the patent for the Carolinas to Sir Robert Heath in 1629, and Heath called the territory Carolana in his honor. This it remained until 1663 when Charles II granted a new patent and the colony was called Carolina in his honor. North Carolina Yankee An obsolete term for any industrious South Carolinian farmer newly arrived from North Carolina. Northern coffee

See

SOUTHERN COFFEE.

nose like a preacher for sin and fried chicken A knack for finding or discovering something. “Flem [Snopes] his-self, with his pure and simple nose for money like a preacher’s for sin and fried chicken.” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959) no slow fuckin’! Work faster, no malingering. A guard to chain gang convicts in the movie J.F.K. (1991): “Move it along. No slow fuckin’!” no such of a thing No such thing. “You’ll do no such of a thing.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, “Cocks Must Crow,” 1939) not about to something.

To have no intention at all of doing

not a circumstance to Can’t be compared with. “He’s not a circumstance to Henry.” notionate Peevish, impulsive. “She’s mighty notionate when she’s sick.” not one tittle Not one bit, not one iota. “Now, what it produced or failed to produce . . . would make not one tittle of difference in this present life.” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959) not to know beef from bull’s foot A phrase used in the South and elsewhere meaning to be exceedingly dumb; also not to know B from bull’s foot, not to know bees from bull’s foot and not to know beeswax from bull’s foot. noway Anyway. “‘I ain’t none too pleased to have you around, noway [Jeeter said]’” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932) noways In no way. “I can’t no-ways recollect.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, “Cocks Must Crow,” 1939) nowheres

Nowhere. “It won’t get you nowheres.”

now I lay me Prayer, short for the common prayer beginning “Now I lay me down to sleep . . .” “Do you say your ‘Now I lay me’ in bed or kneeling down?” N’Yawlins

A common pronunciation of New Orleans.

O obeah A word of African origin for a form of belief involving sorcery practiced in the South and other parts of the world. “Obeah is a kind of witchcraft, and is practiced by ‘obeah men’ by putting horsehair, fowl’s feet, fishes’ bones, coney-skins, and other stuff into a pot, and burying the pot in the ground or near the house of the person against whom the necromancy is to be employed.” (Harper’s Magazine, March 1872)

ol’ Old; often used familiarly as an adjective with affection or no meaning at all. “Hey, ol’ Ma.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938]

o-be-joyful

Old Bourbon

old Baptist

An obsolete word for hard liquor.

A nickname for bourbon whiskey.

Old Bourbon State

A nickname for Missouri.

Old Defender’s Day A celebration held in Maryland on September 12th in memory of the battle of North Point in 1814, in which the Maryland militia defeated an invading British army.

of It often sounds as if of is substituted for have in Southern speech, as in “He could of come,” but of here is usually a weak pronunciation of have (uhv). Sometimes have is even reduced further, as in “He shoulda come.”

old dog for a hard road An experienced person for a difficult job. “You need an old dog for a hard road on that one.”

In the morning. “I like my hot shower of

Old Dominion State A nickname for Virginia. English royalty referred to their possessions in America as dominions, Virginia becoming known as the Ancient Dominion and the Old Dominion.

offen; off’n (1) Off. “He picked all the rocks from off’n the ground.” (Sidney Lanier, “Thar’s More in the Man,” 1870) (2) From (off from). “She took it off’n him and never gave it back.”

old field(s) oh, my God in this world! An exclamation of horror. “And when he did [enter the room and see the body], he cried out, ‘Oh, my God in this world!’ ” (Joe McGinnis, Cruel Doubt, 1991, set in a Pitt County-Beaufort County, North Carolina locale) okry

HARDSHELL BAPTIST.

old blade An old-fashioned joking name for one’s wife. “My old blade’s been sick now goin’ on a week.”

octoroon An offensive term dating back to about 1850 for a person of one-eighth Negro blood.

of a morning a mornin’.”

Another name for

Abandoned, used-up land.

old field colt

An ordinary run-of-the-mill colt.

old field land

Land where a farm once stood.

old field parlor A retreat for someone in an old, unused field of an abandoned farm.

A pronunciation of okra. 114

on the carpet 115 old field pine A Southern term for any of various pine trees, including the loblolly, sand and yellow pines. They are so-called because they grow best on the exposed mineral soil of old farms. old field scrub

Same as

OLD FIELD COLT.

old haint An old disreputable woman, an old prostitute; possibly derives from hant. Old Hickory A nickname for President Andrew Jackson, because of his toughness in the War of 1812. Old Kentucky “Nearly every house had some antique furniture that had been brought in covered wagons from North Carolina or ‘Old Kentucky,’ our name for that part of the state of Kentucky east of the Tennessee River.” (Gordon Wilson, Fidelity Folks, 1946) old lady Used before the proper name of an old woman. “Old Lady Brett came into town.” old lark

A Southern term for a meadow lark.

Old Line State “Maryland bears the proud title of ‘Old Line State,’ from the Old Line regiments which she contributed to the Continental Army in the War of the Revolution—the only state that had regular troops of ‘the line’.” (Maximilian Schele De Vere, Americanisms, 1871)

Old North State A nickname for North Carolina. See also OLD SOUTH STATE. Old Roman

old salty buzzard A very old, often testy man. “That old salty buzzard’s been around since Adam.” Old South State An old nickname for South Carolina. See also OLD NORTH STATE. old-timey Old-time, traditional. “ ‘A old-timey countrified name like that? [Reba said.]’ ” (William Faulkner, The Reivers, 1962) Old Tuscaloosa

An obsolete name for potent whiskey.

Old Virginia Breakdown An old, rollicking rustic dance. See also BREAKDOWN. old woman A term for a man’s wife, in the South and other parts of the country. An example is in Erskine Caldwell’s short story “Joe Craddock’s Old Woman” (The Complete Short Stories of Erskine Caldwell, 1953). Ol’ Man River

The Mississippi River.

Ol’ Virginie Virginia, or, more often, the eastern portion of Virginia. on account of

Old Mad Jackson Jackson.

A nickname for Andrew Jackson.

See

ACCOUNT OF.

A nickname for President Andrew

old man One’s husband; common throughout the United States but frequently used in the South. Old Moster Old Master, the Supreme Being, God. “By them he didn’t mean whatever-it-was that folks referred to as Old Moster. He didn’t believe in any Old Moster. He had seen too much in his time that, if any Old Moster existed, with eyes as sharp and power as strong as was claimed He had, He would have done something about.” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959) Old Mother State An old nickname for Virginia. “Had R. M. T. Hunter’s famous pronunciation to the people of Virginia been accompanied with those last two lines, it . . . would have saved the ‘old Mother State’ from plunging into a four years’ war.” (Frazar Kirkland, The Pictorial Book of Anecdotes and Incidents of the War of the Rebellion, 1867) Old Muddy A nickname used for both the Missouri and the Mississippi rivers.

one (1) Sometimes used to mean “one or the other.” “He’ll stand there or get killed, one.” (2) Often substituted as an intensive for “a” or “an.” “She’s one fine woman.” on-faithful Unfaithful. “I figured you’d been onfaithful to me.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, “Cocks Must Crow,” 1939) onliest gone.”

Only. “She was our onliest girl, and now she’s

on one like a duck on a June bug To be aware of and capture someone quickly, without hesitation. “‘[If I did that] the Yankees would be on me like a duck on a June bug . . .’” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936) ontelling Erratic, unpredictable. “A man’s notions are ontelling.” (James Stikl, The Proud Walkers, 1941) on the carpet Said of someone very eager to get married. “They say she’s on the carpet again, and he’s only been dead a year.”

116 Whistlin’ Dixie on the cull list An old-fashioned term for an unmarried young woman. on the way Pregnant. “I doubt if she ev’n knows you’re on the way.” (Eudora Welty, “Petrified Man,” 1941) an opossum has 19 lives “A saying common among the people of North Carolina, that if a cat has nine lives, the opossum has nineteen.” (Beadle’s Monthly, July 1858) ordinance of secession An enactment passed by a representative body in a seceding state announcing the secession of that state from the Union; the first state to do so was South Carolina, which declared itself a commonwealth on December 20, 1860. or either Either . . . or. “They give the winner the automobile or either $500.” Original Gorilla

See

GORILLA.

Orlando, Florida The site of Disneyworld in Florida has an interesting etymology. It was originally named for its first settler, Aaron Jernigan, but was rechristened Orlando in 1857 in memory of Orlando Reeves, who had been killed in a skirmish with Indians.

out (1) To put out, extinguish. “He outed the fire.” (2) Gullah for finished, used up. “Cotton’s time was out.” (3) Sometimes omitted in speech, as in “She had her dress on wrongside.” outdacious; oudacious; oudecious geous, unrestrained.

Audacious, outra-

outen Out of. “And then hyer hit is about midnight and that durn fellow comes swurging outen the woods wild as a skeered deer.” (William Faulkner, “A Bear Hunt,” 1934) outfavor To be better looking than someone. “She outfavors any girl in Louisiana.” outgrowed Outgrown. “ ‘I done outgrowed that too’ [Reba said].” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959) outlander A foreigner; someone who lives in another place. “Don’t get no ideee we’re goin’ to look at no outlander.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) out’n

Out of. “Take it out’n the box.”

out of snuff of snuff.”

Very upset. “As we say in Texas, he’s out

Orleanian An inhabitant of New Orleans; an obsolete term for such was Orleanois.

outten the light Used by South Carolinians for turn off the light; also cut off the light.

Orleans boat

outward Adam An obsolete term for one’s body. “I had no sooner elongated my outward Adam, than they [had] at it again.” (Davy Crockett, The Adventures of Davy Crockett, 1836)

See

NEW ORLEANS BOAT.

ornery Mean, stubborn, inferior, poor, bad; derives from ordinary. “Mules is the orneriest critters.” (John Faulkner, Men Working, 1941) oucher A pronunciation of out there. “He’s oucher on the porch.” oudecious

See

OUTDACIOUS.

ought; ought to Often used in preference to “should.” “I ought to go to the store now.” ought to could Should be able to. “Her husband ought to could make her behave.” (Eudora Welty, “Petrified Man,” 1941) oui Yes; French, often used in the Louisiana-French dialects. ourn Ours. “Our enemy, he thought in that despair; ourn! mine and hisn both! He’s my father!” (William Faulkner, “Barn Burning,” 1939)

overplus A surplus. “We have an overplus of supplies.” (John Faulkner, Men Working, 1941) over-topped Outbid at an auction. “‘I just start the bidding,’ Eck said. ‘I don’t have to buy it lessen I ain’t overtopped.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940) over yonder In heaven; in the afterlife. “Dey don’t sell po’ niggers down the river over yonder.” (Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson, 1893) ox Used as plural instead of oxen, especially in poor rural areas. “ ‘I didn’t know there was that many ox in the whole country’ [Dude said].” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932) oxen Sometimes used as singular. “He is a mighty good oxen.”

P paams Palms. “Accustomed to the brisk voices of upland Georgia, the drawling flat voices of the low country [Charleston] seemed affected to her. She thought if she ever again heard voices that said ‘paams’ for ‘palms’ and ‘hoose’ for ‘house’ and ‘woon’t’ for ‘won’t’ . . . she would scream.” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936)

palmetto button A small button worn by nullifiers in South Carolina to distinguish them from Unionists. Palmetto Chivalry South Carolina. Palmetto City olina.

paddlefish A fish, Polyodon spathula, found in the streams of the Mississippi; also called bullfish, billdown and Biblefish. pain de babeurre

A buttermilk bread of New Orleans.

Palmetto Republic A nickname for South Carolina after the state seceded from the Union in 1860. “A salute of 100 guns was immediately fired in honor of the Palmetto Republic.” (Charleston Mercury, December 25, 1860)

paintless Unpainted. “. . . and he saw the weathered paintless store with its tattered tobacco and patentmedicine posters . . .” (William Faulkner, “Barn Burning,” 1939)

Palmetto State A nickname for South Carolina, whose state seal consists of a palmetto tree supported by twelve spears and a fallen English oak at the foot of the palmetto tree.

pairsaul Pronunciation of parasol. “You can tote this pairsaul a while.” (William Faulkner, “Raid,” 1934)

pamelas A confection made from grapefruit peel, sugar and water. This name is perhaps a corruption of the French pamplemousse (grapefruit).

palamity; palmity Without substance; highfalutin. “He’s makin’ palmity talk, fancy words, no substance.” Palm Beach suit A traditional suit made of a light fabric named after the city where the fabric originated.

palmetto STATE.

A nickname of Charleston, South Car-

Palmetto Coast An old name for the coastal area around Charleston, South Carolina.

pain perdu Pain perdu (lost bread) is usually called French toast outside of New Orleans.

palmeeter

An old term for the aristocrats of

Pamunkey Indians Once the leading tribe of the Powhatan confederacy of Virginian Algonquian tribes.

Palmetto tree. PALMETTO

Panhandle State A nickname for West Virginia because of its shape on the map.

The state flag of South Carolina.

panne meat A New Orleans dish of breaded veal cutlet browned with onions.

A South Carolinian. See also

palmetto banner flag

117

118 Whistlin’ Dixie parcel A bunch, a small group. “A parcel of men came up the path.” parch

To roast. “Parch the pindars (peanuts).”

pardon Pardon me; French, often used in the Louisiana-French dialects. parish

The designation for a county in Louisiana.

passage Reservations, tickets. “ ‘I’ve got my passage,’ Laurel said. ‘The afternoon flight from Jackson on Monday.’ ” (Eudora Welty, The Optimist’s Daughter, 1972) passel A group, many; a corruption of “parcel.” “‘Well, good-day,’ he said. ‘I just hope for the sake of the Confedricy that Bed Forrest don’t never tangle with you with all the horses he’s got.’ Then he said it again, maybe worse this time because now he was already on a horse pointed toward the gate: ‘Or you’ll damn shore leave him just one more passel of infantry before he can spit twice.’ ” (William Faulkner, “My Grandmother Millard,” 1943)

Discovers the South, 1938) (2) A joking term. “His name for me was ‘Peckerwood,’ a shortened Dixie version of redheaded woodpecker . . . he’d beckon me over . . . and sing softly in his tenor voice: ‘Heah a dime for you, Peckerwood. Brang me a nice cold dope [Coke] ’fo ah melt and run all ovah the flo’.’” (Calder Willingham, Rambling Rose, 1972) peeled out Accelerated, pulled away from other cars in traffic, drove off at high speed. “He peeled out of the parking lot, and a police car took off after him.” peert Very fast, quick. “Buck called, ‘Light me a smudge, boy, be peert.’ ” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) pelican flag The state flag of Louisiana, which consists of a red star upon a white field and the Louisiana emblem of a pelican feeding her young. Pelican State A nickname for Louisiana, because the pelican is seen so often along its waters. penny one

pass the biscuit The singular is used in this case to mean biscuits; that is, pass the platter or basket of biscuits. pavement

Used for sidewalk in parts of Maryland.

pawing Sexually molesting or feeling with the hands. “‘Stop pawing me,’ she said. ‘You old headless horseman Ichabod Crane.’” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940) pay (one) no mind To pay no attention, pay no heed; also pay no never mind. “But she never paid no mind to that neither.” (William Faulkner, “Shingles for the Lord,” 1943) peach and cane land An old term in Texas to describe land good for cultivation, from land with wild peach trees growing on it. peach-orchard coal A term used in 19th-century Kentucky for a superior variety of coal. peart Pert. “You look right peart.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) peckerwood (1) A poor white (though its earliest meaning was “woodpecker”). “The gentlemen and the Negroes are afraid of the rednecks, the peckerwoods who are pressing down upon the rich flat Delta from the hard, eroded hills . . .” (Jonathan Daniels, A Southerner

Nothing at all. “He ain’t got penny one.”

penny-piece Short, small, frail. “Lem Forrester looked down at him and said, ‘Why, you lettle ol’ pennypiece, you.’ ” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) perambulator Baby carriage; used in other regions as well. “Girls are born weaned and boys don’t ever get weaned. You see one sixty years old, and be damned if he won’t go back to the perambulator at the bat of an eye.” (William Faulkner, “Hair,” 1931) perked up To have gained weight. “Sara Jane sure has perked up.” persimmon skin An offensive term for a lightcomplexioned black man or woman. pet A boil, carbuncle, pimple, wart, etc. “I got a big pet on my cheek.” piazza A large porch; also called veranda or gallery. “Come on out on the piazza.” picayune An old term for a nickel, used in New Orleans and other areas. picayunish

Picky. “She sure is picayunish.”

pick a crow To find fault with; to have a bone to pick; also have a crow. “I have a crow to pick with him.”

plantation Negro 119 pickaninny An old offensive word for a black child that appears to have derived from African slaves’ pronunciation of the Portuguese pequenino (small child).

piller Pillow; a pronunciation bordering on a new word that early Southern aristocrats borrowed from upper-class English speech.

pick at Annoy, pester, aggravate. “Don’t pick at your sister like that!”

pin

picked before ripe Said of a short or very puny person. “He was picked before he was ripe.” pickle peach

See

A common pronunciation of pen.

pinder; pindar; pender Another word for peanut that was brought to the American South by slaves. It derives from the Kongo npinda and is used mostly in South Carolina. See also GOOBER.

GREEN PEACH.

pine straw piddle-diddle A North Carolinian term meaning “to delay or procrastinate.” “Stop your piddle-diddlen’.” piddling around Fooling around, wasting time. “I’m o’ no mind to set around waitin’ breakfast and you two piddlin’ around in the woods.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) pie Any baked dish that resembles a pie, such as macaroni pie, potato pie, etc. piece

A short way. “He lives a piece up the road.”

Piedmont rice An old story holds that Thomas Jefferson stole seeds of this rice while traveling in Italy and smuggled them home in his pockets, despite the fact that Italy wanted to continue its monopoly on this type of rice and had made the crime of stealing the seeds punishable by death. Jefferson’s introduction of the rice was important because Piedmont rice can be grown without irrigation. pigeon-tailed coat An old-fashioned coat with tails. “‘You never bought a garment of clothes or shoes or a hat neither in your life,’ Boon said. ‘You got one pigeon-tailed coat I know of that old Lucius McCaslin himself wore.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Reivers 1962) piggin A small wooden bucket with one extended stave serving as the handle. pigs’ ears

See

LES OREILLES DE COCHON.

Fallen needles of pine trees.

piney woods Woods abounding with pine trees, especially a rural backwoods area. “ ‘What is he—a locally renowned turpentine-and-rosing man up there in those Alabamy piney woods?’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, “Kathy,” Gulf Coast Stories, 1956) piney woods Georgian POOR WHITE. piney woods rooter hog. pisen

See

A derogatory term similar to

A humorous term for a razorback

PIZEN.

pissant; pisant A small, foul-smelling ant; a despicable person or thing. pitch out To leave abruptly. “He pitched out for Alabama.” pity on us Common exclamation. “ ‘Well, pity on us, we got to have our meat. Who’ll git it if you don’t.’ ” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) pizen Poison; pizen or pisen is a pronunciation that the South’s early aristocrats borrowed from upper-class English speech. “ ‘He shot a doedeer and used the liver to draw out the pizen.’ ” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) pizzle-grease An ointment used for medical purposes made from fat boiled from a hog’s pizzle (penis).

pilau A much-loved dish of the lower South consisting of rice cooked in poultry or meat broth.

pizzlesprung in Kentucky.

pile on the agony An old phrase, not much used anymore, that was once fairly common in the South and other regions and means “theatrical or extremely exaggerated emotional behavior.” “No one piles on the agony like she does, she belongs on the stage.” Also pile up the agony.

plague take it!

Slang for tired, worn out, pooped; heard

An old oath or exclamation.

plantation Negro An old term for a slave working on a plantation. “His speech was a blend of the softly blurred speech of the Southerner, some of which is frankly borrowed from the liquid vernacular of the

120 Whistlin’ Dixie plantation negro.” (Ripley Saunders, Colonel Todhunter of Missouri, 1911)

plunder room po’

plat-eye woods.

Gullah for an evil spirit that lives in the

play like money.”

To pretend. “Let’s play like we have some

An attic; used in South Carolina.

Common pronunciation of poor.

pocasin; pocoson; poquoson An American Indian word for swamp, once more commonly used. poh’ boy; poor boy; po’ boy A hero or submarine sandwich in Texas and other Southern states.

play pretty A toy; used mostly among mountain speakers, though it is recorded in Florida and other areas.

poke

A small paper bag for groceries, etc.

poke a dead cat at play the dozens To insult one another in a rapid exchange of insults, a phrase used by both whites and blacks. An example is found in a sequence in Erskine Caldwell’s God’s Little Acre (1933) where one character says to another: “If you want to play the dozens, you’re at the right homestead.” See also DOZENS. pleased as a basketful of possumheads Very pleased indeed. This uncommon expression capitalizes on the possum’s proverbial grin, or what seems to us a grin. plug ugly Plug ugly describes “a city ruffian or rowdy” or any such disreputable character. First recorded as an Americanism in 1856, the word is of unknown origin, although one early source says it derived in Baltimore “. . . from a short spike fastened in the toe of [such rowdies’] boots, with which they kicked their opponents in a dense crowd, or as they elegantly expressed it, ‘plugged them ugly.’ ” plumb; plum Very, completely, squarely, quite. “I plumb forgot about it.” According to an old joke: “There’s a town [near Bluefield, West Virginia] called Plumbnearly—plumb down in West Virginia and nearly in Virginia.” plumb curdled Completely sour, mean, nasty. “And Pat eliminated him from horse-trading. And so he just went plumb curdled.” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940) plumb stark naked plummy

Naked.

Rich, very desirable. “That’s plummy soil.”

plunder Junk, rubbish; any stored personal property. “Bessie jerked back the quilts on Dude’s bed, and ran into the next room where the roof had fallen in. It was the other bedroom, the room where most of the children had formerly slept, and it had been deserted because one section of the roof had rotted away. It was filled with plunder.” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932)

poke-easy mal.

To insult someone.

A slowpoke, a lazy or slow person or ani-

Poke stalk In the presidential campaign of 1844, Southern supporters of James Polk carried tall stalks from the pokeweed plant through the streets as their standard. In Tennessee, ox drivers who favored Henry Clay covered the horns of their oxen with clay, and the Polk supporters gathered pokeberries and stained the horns of their own oxen with them. pole fence police

A straight rail fence; used in Texas.

Often pronounced po-leese.

poltroon Though standard English meaning “a wretched coward,” the word is not heard much anymore save in the South. “It is a fact, I never lie, or not often. The writer who lies to his reader is not only a poltroon, but a bad writer besides.” (Calder Willingham, Rambling Rose, 1972) pompano A tasty fish of the genus Trachinus found along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of America and especially common on the Florida coasts. pone (1) The pone of the famous Southern pone bread and corn pone is from the Powhatan Indian word apan (something baked). Corn pone is baked in large, flat, oval, hand-shaped cakes. A variation of the word pone is recorded by Captain John Smith as early as 1612. (2) A lump, a swelling, a callous. “Marilyn had . . . pones on her feet.” (Larry Brown “92 Days,” 1990) pony bread

PONE

bread.

poontang Thomas Wolfe used this word for the vagina or “a piece” in Look Homeward, Angel, and Calder Willingham used it more graphically in End as a Man. The expression, first referring to black women and now to both blacks and whites, might be expected to have a

powerfully 121 diverting story behind it, as unusual as poontang sounds, but it probably comes from the French putain (prostitute) by way of New Orleans. poor

Often pronounced po’ or pore.

poor boy

See

POH’ BOY.

poor buckra; po’ buckra POOR WHITE TRASH. “ ‘Poor buckra,’ ‘poor white trash,’ or ‘white trash,’ are the terms by which the Negro designates them, and poor means a great deal in this connection. It includes not simply pecuniary poverty, but ignorance, boorishness and general social degradation. The Southern Negro never applies the term poor to anyone who has the manners and breeding of a gentleman, however light his purse . . . Sometimes they (the children) would have a falling-out, and the white children would say ‘nigger,’ and the colored ones would say ‘po’ buckra, po’ buckra.’ ” [Dollar Times, December 11, 1856] See also BUCKRA. poor colored trash TRASH.

A white rejoinder to

POOR WHITE

poor-do Scrapple; a term used mostly in the Southern mountains. poor Joe The poor Joe or po’ Joe, as it is called, is another name for the great blue heron, especially in the American South. No “Joe” is honored by the name. It is doubtless from the Vai language of Liberia and Sierra Leone, where pojo means “heron,” and was introduced to America by Vai-speaking slaves. poorly; po’ly

Sick, ill. “I’m feelin’ poorly.”

poor white “In discriminating Southern speech, it [poor white] was not used to include all white persons who were poor . . . The ‘poor whites’ were those who were both poor and conspicuously lacking in the common social virtues and especially fell short of the standard in certain economic qualities.” (W. T. Couch, Culture in the South, 1941) An old black Southern rhyme goes My name is Sam, I don’t give a damn. I’d ruther be black Than a poor white man.

poor white folksy Of or pertaining to POOR WHITE “I wouldn’t do my hair in a three strand braid on no account; it is too poor-white-folksy fer me.” (Harper’s Magazine, August 1864)

TRASH.

poor white trash Lower-class white people. “There were white people who were poor and there were

poor white people. The difference was absolute.” (Jonathan Daniels, Tar Heels, 1941) The offensive term goes back at least to the early 19th century. “The slaves themselves entertain the very highest contempt for white servants, whom they designate as ‘poor white trash.’ ” (Frances Kimble, Journal, 1833) Terms like POOR WHITE, poor white trash, REDNECK and PECKERWOOD are often slurs in about the same class as NIGGER. pop A peanut shell that has grown without a nut in it and “pops” when pressed. popskull Bad or illegal whiskey that can produce violent headaches. porch baby pore

A child too young to let run free.

Common pronunciation of poor.

possum To pretend, fake. “He closed his eyes and possumed sleep.” possum fat and hominy “‘Possum fat and hominy’ is a favorite dish with Western and Southern negroes.” (William Blane, An Excursion Through the U.S. and Canada . . . , 1824) possum toddy A drink made from the fruit of the persimmon tree; once a favorite drink in the South. post-bellum After the Civil War, a term that appears to have first been recorded in the South in about 1874. potato hill

A field of potatoes.

potato stomper; tater stomper sil.

A potato masher uten-

pot likker The rich liquid left after boiling vegetables with fatty meat. pounding

A

POUND-PARTY.

pound party An old custom of bringing food to a new minister’s home, each donor giving a pound of preserves, groceries, etc. The custom is still practiced today but has been modernized. Donors give any nonperishable food, often canned foods, with no emphasis on the pound measurement. powerful

Very. “That was a powerful good meal.”

powerfully Deeply. “A-studyin’ and musin’ powerfully.” (Sidney Lanier, “9 from 8,” 1884)

122 Whistlin’ Dixie powerful much A lot; very much. “ ‘When you see Tom [Ada said], tell him that his old Ma would like powerful much to see him.’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932) powerful way A considerable, imposing, sexual way; great sex appeal. “She’d marry quick enough then, because she’s got a powerful way with her, womanlike.” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932) It can also be used in a nonsexual way to mean simply “considerable,” “imposing” or “impressive.” praise the Lord! Common exclamation. “ ‘Praise the Lord,’ Jeeter said, ‘what went and done that?’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932) praline The nut candy associated with New Orleans and the South is actually a 17th-century French invention. The Marechal du Plessis-Praslin got heartburn from eating almonds, one story goes, so his servant suggested that he have his chef brown the almonds in boiling sugar to make them more digestible and voila!—the praline. They were first called Praslins and then the spelling was altered to pralines. In the American South, of course, the readily available pecans replaced the almonds in the pralines.

prong To dig, poke. “They burst into loud idiot laughter, pronging each other in the ribs.” (Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel, 1929) proud Glad, pleased, happy. “I’m proud you remembered . . . Proud to see you.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) prove up To prove. “If your hen proves up false to you . . .” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Cross Creek, 1942) prowlin’ Wandering about, hanging out. “ ‘. . . he ain’t a thing but a boy. Got his mind on nothin’ but prowlin’ and playin.’ ” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) public woman A prostitute. “But he knew what his father’s reaction to his marriage with a once-public woman would be . . .” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940) pugnuckling Feeding horses. “ ‘What’s pugnuckling?’ I said. ‘Try can you put your mind on knuckling up some feed for that horse,’ Ned said to me, still louder.” (William Faulkner, The Reivers, 1962)

pranking Fooling around; causing a commotion. “I wasn’t pranking, officer, I was just standing here.”

puke A low, contemptible person. “He, sir, is a puke of the first order.”

precious thang loved one.

puke-stomached Weak-stomached, without courage. “All right. If you are too puke-stomached to do it yourself, tell me where it is.” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940)

prespire

A term of endearment to any child or

A common pronunciation of perspire.

pretty (1) Any pretty thing—a toy, ribbon, jewel, etc. “ ‘I done everything I can think of to make her satisfied and content [Lov said]. Every week I go to Fuller on pay day and buy her a pretty.’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932) (2) The vagina. “Miss Willie’s been sitting there on that high step showing her pretty and he’s been looking at her a right long time . . . Miss Willie is bare as a plucked chicken, except for one little place I saw . . . and he’s got his pecker up.” (Erskine Caldwell, “August Afternoon,” The Complete Stories of Erskine Caldwell, 1953) prize open To pry open. “Do you mean he took that damned screwdriver and prized open your mother’s desk, too?” (William Faulkner, “That Will Be Fine,” 1935) process

See

CONK.

prone To impress deeply from an early age. “It just warn’t proned into that dog to ketch rabbits.”

pukish

Nauseated.

pulleybone Wishbone. “Who got the pulleybone last Thanksgiving?” pullikins pummy

An old term for pincers or forceps. An old term for pulp, especially cane pulp.

pumpkin yam of its color.

A yellow yam potato, so called because

pure Good, perfect; downright. “I cain’t raise young uns in a pure thicket . . . I’m in a pure fix.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) purely Exceedingly. “They’re purely friendly folk.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) purty Pretty. “She’s real purty, the purtiest girl I ever seen.”

puzzlement 123 pushencry A humorous old term for emergency. “In case of pushencry, you can depend on me.”

put him up Put the dog outside, in another room, etc. “Put Rover up, will you, he’s giving me a headache.”

puss Vagina, pussy; expertise at sex. “Lord love her, she had trouble keeping me home; her puss was just not that good.” (Larry Brown, “Big Bad Love,” 1990)

put on the cooling board BOARD.

pussel-gutted; pussle-gutted; puzzle-gutted Big, protuberant-bellied; also pus-gutted, pussy-gutted, pustlegutted; perhaps derives from purse or from the dialect term puscle, suggesting a swollen gut. “You durned fool, I sent word to you two days ago to get away from there before that pussel-gutted Hampton come prowling around here with that surrey full of deputies.” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940) pussy-gutted

Potbellied or

put a mouth on

LAY ON THE COOLING

put out Said of a tree, to make leaves in spring. “Gum is the first tree to put out.” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940) puts him on the funny side Said in Kentucky of a woman who turns down a man’s marriage proposal. “She put him on the funny side.” puttened Put. “He puttened the cub in it . . .” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

PUSSEL-GUTTED.

To cast a spell upon, put a curse upon.

put at To talk to someone persistently. “He’d put at Pop to wed me.” put down the laundry in New Orleans.

See

put the bee on someone A phrase used in the South and other regions meaning “to exert pressure on someone.” put the cat on one To get the better of someone. “He sure put the cat on him.”

Do the wash or laundry; heard

put him under the jail Said of one so bad they shouldn’t just imprison him, they should bury him, put him under the jail.

put the rug

To die. “He’s about ready to put the rug.”

puzzlement A puzzle, a mystery. “Hit’s been a puzzlement to me all these years since it happened.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

Q quadroon ball A fancy ball once held in New Orleans that, according to one old account, was “attended by part-Negro women and white men, often to enable the latter to choose mistresses.” The term is first recorded in 1805.

quietus To put an abrupt halt to. “His wife put the quietus to that flirting of his.”

quarter store.”

One-fourth mile. “I walked a quarter to the

quill An old rural term meaning “to move at a rapid pace.” “He was really quillin’ along.”

quartering An old term meaning “diagonally.” “I walked quartering across the street.”

quills A simple musical instrument made by slaves from pieces of reed.

Quarters A group of houses or cabins for blacks on a plantation in the days of slavery and after; also Negro quarter. “The black people live down in the Quarters.”

quilting Gullah term for a quilting bee. “He never said a word when she stayed all day at a quilting.”

quile down Mostly Southern mountain talk for quiet down. “Get her quiled down.”

quince drink An alcoholic drink made from quinces in the early South; often used as a purgative.

Queen City of the Mississippi St. Louis, Missouri; also called Queen City of the Mississippi Valley.

quiring An archaic word for choiring. “He went on down the hill, toward the dark woods within which the liquid silver voices of the birds called unceasing—the rapid and urgent beating of the urgent and quiring heart of the late spring night.” (William Faulkner, “Barn Burning,” 1939)

Queen of Floods An old name for the Mississippi River. “Through a vast uncultivated territory coursed the Queen of Floods and her many tributaries” began a newspaper article in 1832. qu’est-ce que c’est? What is it?; French, often used in the Louisiana-French dialects.

quituate An old humorous word meaning “to leave school before graduating,” deriving from quit and graduate.

quick as a dog can lick a dish Very quickly. “There’s not a female alive who can be trusted when they’ve got man-fever—they’ll take a man away from you as quick as a dog can lick a dish.” (Erskine Caldwell, Jenny By Nature, 1961)

quiver bug An insect apparently common in Georgia but very rarely mentioned in print. “ ‘What you see, nigger?’ Jimson asked, trembling like a quiver bug. ‘You see something scary?’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, “Big Buck,” The Complete Stories of Erskine Caldwell, 1953)

quid A political party of pro-John Randolph men that stood against Jefferson and Madison in the early 19th century. 124

R rain bullfrogs

rabbiteye blueberry A blueberry bush native to the Southern United States and widely grown there. It is so called because to some the berries on the tall (up to 20foot-high) plants resemble rabbit eyes.

rain bull yearlings

raising Rearing or breeding. “Folks around here don’t got no raisin’.”

racket store A store similar to a five and dime store. “I bought him a cheap pair at the Racket store.” (Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel, 1929)

raising more hell than a pig caught under a gate orously protesting.

Vig-

raise it A Gullah expression meaning “to begin singing a song.” “Brer Dee raised it [a hymn], and all the people joined in.”

raft A lot, a considerable amount of. “ ‘I expect he’s got a wife and a raft of children to provide for.’ (Jeeter said].” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932)

raise sand; raise some sand To make a great disturbance. “If we don’t go, the teacher will raise sand.”

A rag doll.

raggety; raggedy of here.”

To rain very hard.

raise To rear or bring up. “ ‘I’d have loved to ketched him leetle, Pa, and raised him.’ ” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

rabbit tobacco Rabbit tobacco, or “rabbit terbaker,” as Uncle Remus called it, is balsamweed, a plant used as a tobacco substitute by youngsters, despite its taste. It takes the name “rabbit” because it grows wild in fields where rabbits run.

rag-baby

To rain heavily.

Ragged. “Get that raggedy thing out

Ral

Syphilis. “He thought he had the Old Ral.”

rampageous Rowdy. “The whole rampageous bunch of them broke up the town.”

(a) rag on every bush A lot of women on a string. “That Don Juan has a rag on every bush.”

ramrod rolls “The men added as dessert some ‘ramrod rolls’ from their knapsacks, and this was the first time Scarlett had ever seen this Confederate article of diet about which there were almost as many jokes as about lice. They were charred spirals of what appeared to be wood. The men dared her to take a bite and, when she did, she discovered that beneath the smoke-blackened surface was unsalted corn bread. The soldiers mixed their ration of corn meal with water, and salt too when

rag-tag and bob-ends Mixed diverse elements; Perhaps related to ragtag and bobtail, meaning “riffraff, rabble.” (The ragtag and bobtail of every nation poured into the frontier in search of gold.) “. . . the two of them creating out of the rag-tag and bob-ends of old tales and talking, people who perhaps had never existed any where . . .” (William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!, 1936) 125

126 Whistlin’ Dixie they could get it, wrapped the thick paste about their ramrods and roasted the mess over camp fires. It was as hard as rock candy and tasteless as sawdust . . .” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936) ramshackle A ramshackle house. “They live in a ramshackle down by the tracks.” ramshagging Destroying; trashing. “But that door leads back into the house and he don’t aim to have none of us master carpenter candidates maybe ramshagging the joint as a farewell gesture on the way out.” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959) ramstudious; ramstugionus high spirits.

Unruly, mean, bad.

rare (1) To rear or raise. “She rared him and his sister.” (2) To rave, yell. “ ‘His Ma’ll rare,’ Penny said.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) (3) To rear up. rare as a virgin in a cathouse istent.

R.C. Royal Crown Cola, a favorite soft drink in the South. “I’m gonna get me an R.C. and a MOON PIE.” See also COKE and DOPE. reach To move something after reaching for it and obtaining it. “He reached our dinner bucket down from the limb and handed it to me.” (William Faulkner, “Shingles for the Lord,” 1943) realm A Ku Klux Klan term for a state or region under the control of a GRAND DRAGON.

Rambunctious, full of

’ramus An ignoramus. “The Gordons were Mississippi swamp folk, often called . . . peckerwoods, or ’ramuses, taken from ignoramuses, which is what everybody thought they were.” (James Street, In My Father’s House, 1941) rantankerous

razee An old, perhaps obsolete Southern term for a drunken spree.

Very rare, almost nonex-

rascals Slang for female breasts. “She’s got cute little rascals.” rather To prefer. “I rather that restaurant outside New Orleans.” rations Prepared food. “I had hot rations on the stove.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, “Cocks Must Crow,” 1939) rat-killing A Texas term for busy work or what one is doing. “I got to get back to my rat-killing.” rattlesnake colonel A humorous title of respect. “Had it been a rattlesnake I should have been entitled to a colonel’s commission, for it is a common saying here that a man has no title to that dignity until he has killed a rattlesnake.” (Alexander Hamilton, Works, 1885) raven Gullah for enthusiastic. “He was raven about his Daddy.”

rearing plantation A historical term for a worn-out plantation used mainly for breeding and raising slaves for sale. reb A Confederate soldier or sympathizer, this contraction of rebel arising at about the same time as the longer word in 1861. rebel

See

REB.

rebel brigadier

See

CONFEDERATE BRIGADIER.

rebel yell; rebel yale All Southerners are capable of a rebel yell, an untranslatable, peculiarly wordless cry that has been with us at least since the Civil War and may be a corruption of the English fox-hunting “tallyho” but is always “a prolonged, high-pitched, bloodcurdling cross between a yell (yale) and scream.” One expert believes that the rebel yell originally used in combat in the Civil War and intended to strike terror into the hearts of the enemy, came from the Creek Indians, loosely combining “the turkey gobbler’s cry with a series of yelps.” The high-pitched, blood-chilling yell was then (according to this theory) borrowed by Texans and adopted for their Texas yell, which eventually became the rebel yell. Others, however, say the Texans got their yell from the Comanchee Indians. In any case, everyone agrees that the “yah-hoo” or “yaaaaaheee” of fiction writers sounds nothing like the rebel yell. reckon In Life on the Mississippi, Mark Twain wrote that “the Northern word ‘guess’ . . . is but little used among Southerners. They say ‘reckon.’ ” recollection This word had use in times past as a noun, as in “He has the most recollection for remembering names that I ever heard tell of.” reconstructed rebel An old term for a Southerner forced to accept the U.S. reconstruction plan for the

right much 127 South after the Civil War. See also

UNRECONSTRUCTED

SOUTHERNER.

reconstructionist

A

RECONSTRUCTED REBEL.

redbugs Another name for chiggers, the larva of a mite of the family Trombiculidae, which cause severe itching. Red Cross Banner The Confederate battle flag is the most familiar symbol of the South but was not the official flag of the Confederacy, an honor that goes to the STARS AND BARS. The familiar Red Cross Banner was designed by General P. G. T. Beauregard following the first battle of Bull Run, after Southern troops in the confusion of battle mistook the Stars and Bars for the Union flag, which it resembled. The flag that most Southerners fly today is this Red Cross Banner or battle flag, not the Stars and Bars. redeye A cheap, potent whiskey, the term dating back to the early 19th century. redeye dish gravy A favorite Southern gravy made from the frying pan juice of country ham, thickened with flour and frequently containing a little coffee for color and flavor; also called redeye gravy. “I’ll cook you a nice meal, Milo. You can have fried chicken and yams, or ham and redeye dish gravy, or country steak.” (Erskine Caldwell, Jenny By Nature, 1961) redeye gravy

See

REDEYE DISH GRAVY.

redneck A poor, white, often rowdy Southerner, usually one from a rural area. The word, which is sometimes derogatory, has its origins in the sunburned necks of farmers and outdoor laborers and originally meant a poor farmer. “A redneck is by no means to be confused with po’ whites. Poor white men in the South are by no means all po’ white even in the hills. Lincoln and Jackson come from a Southern folk the back of whose necks were ridged and red from labor in the sun.” (Jonathan Daniels, A Southerner Discovers the South, 1938) See also POOR WHITE, RAMUS. red Republican A post-Civil War term used by Southerners for someone with violent radical Republican views. Red Strings red-tail can.

HEROES OF AMERICA.

regulator Various illegal or extralegal organizations in the Carolinas were called regulators after their intention to purge the area of horse thieves and other criminals. relish To enjoy; enjoy waiting. “ ‘We’ll dress and cook hit now,’ she said. ‘We’ll relish hit together right now.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959) retch

A pronunciation of REACH. “Retch me that cup.”

rice bird A nickname for an inhabitant of a ricegrowing area, especially a South Carolinian. Rice Coast Charleston and the South Carolina low country, where rice has been planted since Captain John Thurber, a Yankee shipmaster, presented a packet of it to an early settler on putting into Charleston harbor late in the 1680s. The only crops that rivaled rice in the region until after the Civil War were cotton and indigo. rice rat A rat, Hesperomys palustris, abundant in Southern rice fields. rid Rode. “Pap caught the mule and rid on down to Killegrow’s.” (William Faulkner, “Shingles for the Lord,” 1943) ride someone bug-hunting This century-old expression means “to punish someone by beating or whipping him severely or mercilessly ridiculing him.” “Mind your manners, or he’ll ride you bug-hunting. He’ll rub your nose in the dirt.” ridge-runner

A contemptuous term for a mountaineer.

right Very. “She’s a right pretty girl and right nice, too.” right addled Very confused, lost. “She’s right addled about the whole thing.” right by Alone, all by. “I’ll go down to Augusta right by myself.”

An old, derogatory term for a Native Amerirightly (1) Really. “I don’t rightly know the answer.” (2) Very. “Your eyes are rightly blue.”

red worm reeceet

See

refugee A term used in the South during the Civil War meaning “to leave a dangerous area for a safer place.” “ ‘But Miss Honey and Miss India . . . refugeed to Macon, so we did not worry about them.’ ” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936)

An earthworm; used in North Carolina.

Recipe. “You got the reeceet for that gravy?”

right much Very much. “It upset her, as we say in North Carolina, right much.” (Jonathan Daniels, Tar Heels, 1941)

128 Whistlin’ Dixie right on Certainly, nevertheless, anyway. “He’s a ‘thievin’ varmint, right on.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) right sharp A large quantity. “He picked a right sharp of beans from his garden.” right smart (1) A great deal or large number; very large or great; very much or many. “There was right smart of water in the ditch.” “He is right smart of a man.” (2) A good idea; also right smart idea. “‘What was hit? Remember, I got a right smart I can tell Mr. Provine and Major both now.’” (William Faulkner, “A Bear Hunt,” 1934) right smart of A great deal of. “He’s got a right smart of work there, but he’s making a right smart of money.” rings him off Said in Georgia of a woman who turns down a man’s marriage proposal: “She rang him off.” rippit

A fight, a fist fight.

rip-roodle An obsolete term meaning “to romp or go tearing about.” risin A boil; also rising, “Penny said, ‘Well, Job takened worse punishment than this. Leastways, none of us ain’t got risins.’ ” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

room-keep “The new word to room keep, arising from the exigency which forces impoverished Southern families to content themselves with renting a few rooms and keeping house in them, has not yet obtained currency.” (Maximilian Schele De Vere, Americanisms, 1871) root, hog or die To get down to work and shift for oneself; originally a Southern expression, first recorded by Davy Crockett and based on the hog’s unfailing ability to provide for itself by rooting the ground with its snout, which yields it everything from trash to truffles. rough and easy A way of living comparable to living off the land without doing much farming. “We’ll do the clarin,’ we’ll plow a field now and again, but it’s our nature to make a livin’ what I reckon you’d call rough and easy.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) rove Look or glance all around. “He poised on the balls of his feet, roving his gaze.” (William Faulkner, “Dry September,” 1931) rubber-nosed woodpecker in a petrified forest one completely incompetent for a job. ruction rud

rising

See

A quarrel or fight.

To redden.

RISIN.

rising beauties Big, beautiful, firm breasts, the expression made famous in American literature by this passage beginning: “ ‘I ain’t ashamed of nothing,’ Ty Ty said heatedly. ‘I reckon Griselda is just about the prettiest girl I ever did see. There ain’t a man alive who’s ever seen a finerlooking pair of rising beauties as she’s got . . .’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, God’s Little Acre, 1933) Roanoke An Indian wampum once used in what is now Virginia, named after Roanoke, Virginia. roasting ears Sweet corn, usually meant to be roasted or eaten on the cob. Robert E. Lee cake A kind of coconut cream cake that was a favorite of General Robert E. Lee. robustous

Some-

An old, humorous term for robust.

rode hard and put up wet To have been treated badly, abused. “I feel like I been rode hard and put up wet, like a mistreated horse.”

rue back To attempt to back out of a trade. “We swapped knives, and then he wanted to rue back.” ruint Ruined. “‘It’s already ruint, sister,’ the man said, ‘but you’ll have to put oil in it if you’re going in to Augusta and back to Fuller again.’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932) “When my clothes gets ruint or wore out [Ned said], I has to buy new ones myself.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Reivers, 1962) run

A small creek. “He’s down by the run.”

run a Mick “Running a Mick was to get an Irishman drunk; induce him to enlist for two or three hundred dollars; and obtain five times the sum from citizens desirous of procuring a substitute.” (Junius Browne, Four Years in Secessia, 1865) run around in the dark of the moon To lead a wild life. “‘Now you understand [Daddy said] we have three immature children here and don’t be offended, but the question frankly and candidly is this: do you run around in the dark of the moon, are you a wild hotcha charac-

rutting 129 ter or do you behave yourself?’ ” (Calder Willingham, Rambling Rose, 1972)

run-mad Used to describe someone who has gone mad. “He kept babbling like a run-mad man.”

run haunts An old term meaning “to chase after something really not there.” “When the dogs would rush in there was not a thing up there in the tree, and the darkies would immediately say, ‘Let’s go home; that dog was running haunts.’ ” (Congressional Record, January 11, 1900)

running one’s mouth Talking too much. “ ‘All right [Boon said]. Jump out. You want to visit Alabama. You done already made yourself fifteen minutes late running your mouth.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Reivers, 1962) rutting A euphemism for sexual intercourse. See usage example at WHY IN PLUPERFECT HELL.

S sack Small bag; a bag for groceries. “He got a paper sack of peanuts.” “I’ve got two sacks of food in the car.”

choices are the Foulah sambo (uncle) or the Hausan sambo (second son). It may be that sambo simply comes from the name of a West African tribe called the Samboses, mentioned in European literature as early as 1564.

safe A kitchen cupboard for storing food. “They’s rations in the safe . . . You hongry?” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

the same dog bit me I feel the same way about it, I share your sentiments exactly. “ ‘I’d ruther eat cold bread in the woods than hot puddin’ in the house.’ ‘Now you know,’ Penny said, ‘the same dog bit me.’ ” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

sagaciate; segashuate “. . . among Southern negroes segashuate means to associate with.” [American Speech, February 1933] Generally, however, sagaciate or segashuate means “to get along with, endure” and is always used in a jocular fashion: “How does your corporosity sagaciate the inclemancy of the weather?”

same like a dog.”

salad tomatoes A synonym for small cherry tomatoes in the Southern plains area.

sand buggers A food made of vegetables in patty- or burger-like shape. “There were poke greens with bits of white bacon buried in them; sand buggers made of potato and onion and the cooter [turtle] he had found crawling yesterday . . .” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

Saltzburgher A historical term for a member of a group of colonists from Salzburg, Austria who settled in Georgia early in the 18th century. salubration ing.”

Gullah for “just like.” “He barked same like

An old term for “celebration” or “rejoicsand-hiller A country Carolina sandy areas.

Sambo Blacks have probably been vilified with more slurnames than any other group in U.S. history. All are, of course, disparaging and offensive, and this includes sambo, a nickname for a black in the South and elsewhere. Ironically, the Little Black Sambo of the children’s story who helped give the term widespread currency is really an East Indian, but Sambo was with us long before the boy who melted the tiger to butter. Possibly of Southern American origin, the term was introduced via the slave trade. The word, some believe, derives from the Kongo nzambu (monkey), which became zambo (bowlegged) in Spanish. Alternate

CRACKER

in Georgia and South

sand-lapper Someone from the Southern swamps or lowlands as opposed to the mountains. sandy Claus

A pronunciation of Santa Claus.

sang A shortening of ginseng. “In Alleghany Co., Maryland, is Sang Run, which is a well-known sanging ground.” (John Bartlett, Americanisms, 1877) sass (1) Most garden vegetables, including lettuce, radishes, potatoes, onions, etc.; often, garden sass. The 130

scrimped and saved 131 word probably derives from sauce. (2) Talk back to. The word is an old English one used in other parts of the United States as well. “Don’t sass me, young man!” sassafac sassinger

Pronunciation of sassafras. An old, humorous term for sausage.

sattisfactual; sattafactual Satisfactory. “Everything is sattisfactual.” The word is best known for its use in the song “Zippedy-do-da.”

scaper A rascal. “You sly old scaper.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) scare-cat Scaredy-cat, one who is afraid of the slightest things. “‘Go on in yonder, scare-cat,’ ordered the mother.” (Eudora Welty, The Optimist’s Daughter, 1972) scare the puddin’ out of Humorous term for “to cause a bad fright.” “He scared the puddin’ out of me.” scarify

Save us from the devil and make a place for us in heaven. Amen. A mostly Southern prayer quoted in Erskine Caldwell’s Tobacco Road (1932). saw

See

SO.

saw gourds wood.”

An old term meaning “to snore, to saw

sawyer A log or tree caught in a river so that it hinders navigation; Mark Twain used the now-historical term in Life on the Mississippi (1883). says which? What?; often used in reply to a question that was not clearly heard. Say what?, often heard in black speech, serves the same purpose. say what?

See

SAYS WHICH?

scalawag Undersized, lean, undeveloped cattle of little use to American ranchers and farmers in the West; used toward the middle of the 19th century. The term came to be applied to disreputable people, rogues, scoundrels, rascals and those who refused to work and had a special use in the South after the Civil War to describe anyone willing to accept Yankee Reconstruction. As for scalawag itself, the word remains something of a mystery. It may derive from the Gaelic sgalag, one of the Shetland Islands that is known for its dwarf ponies and cattle, which could have been considered worthless. Other suggestions are the Scottish scurrvaig (a vagabond), the Latin scurra vagas (a wandering buffoon) and the English dialect scall (skin diseases). No one seems to know why the word, with so many possible British ancestors, is first recorded in America. In 1862 the Charleston (South Carolina) Mercury wrote of a group “composed of ten parts of Andy Johnson Union men, ten of good lord and devil-ites, five of spuss, and seventy-five of scallawags.” scamp A Southern fish, Mycterspercca falcata, so called because of its ability to steal bait off lines successfully.

To scare or frighten.

scat Gesundheit! or God bless you! after someone sneezes; scat is common throughout the South and is especially much preferred in Arkansas over the other terms. scatter-gun

A shotgun.

schiese A German term for a paddle for handling loaves of bread; the word was once common in the Shenandoah Valley area. scissortail flycatcher A Southern bird, Milyulus forficatus, also called the bird of paradise. scotch

To help out in a small way.

Scovilite One of a band of Carolina thieves put down by the REGULATORS. “The culprits . . . appealed to the royal governor for protection, and he sent a commissioner among them to adjust their differences. This was Colonel Schovel, who, instead of redressing the grievances on both sides, armed the depredators and paraded them for battle; they were, consequently, called Schofilites.” (Joseph Johnson, Traditions . . . in the South, 1851) scrape cotton plants.

To hoe weeds from around cotton

scratch A bit, very little. “‘Sometimes I think it’s just the old devil in her,’ Lov had said several times. ‘To my way of thinking, she ain’t got a scratch of religion in her.’” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932) scratchback

Corn bread.

screamer Someone or something of great size, strength, abilities, etc. Alabama screamer and Kentuck screamer are synonyms. scrimped and saved An expression used mostly in the South, though it did not originate there and is used

132 Whistlin’ Dixie nationally. “‘God damn it, listen,’ ” Miss Reba said. ‘Missie had that tooth made, so she could put it in and take it out—worked and scrimped and saved for [it] . . .’ ” (William Faulkner, The Reivers, 1962) scringe

To cringe. “She scringed away from him.”

scrouge over To squeeze over. “Scrouge over and give me some room.” scrouging Moving one’s body around restlessly, energetically. See usage example at CAUGHT. scuppernong The muscadine grape—a Southern grape, Vitis rotundifolia, with large sweet fruit. The name derives from the Scuppernong River and Lake in Tyrrell County, North Carolina where the grape was discovered in the 18th century. scuppernong arbor An arbor made of native SCUPPERgrape vines. “. . . I knew at once that he was absent without knowing that he would now be in the scuppernong arbor drinking with Wash Jones.” (William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!, 1934)

NONG

scuppernong claret A homemade wine of the native SCUPPERNONG grapes. “. . . as one man to another above the suave powdered shoulders of women, above the two raised glasses of scuppernong claret or bought champagne.” (William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!, 1936) scuppernong wine Wine made from the SCUPPERNONG. There are also scuppernong ice cream and sherbert. scutter Rascal. “That frazzling old scutter jumped three feet high.” It can also mean an expert. Sea Island cotton A long silky cotton, Gossypium barbadense, once grown extensively on the sea islands of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. secede In the sense of “to secede from the United States,” secede appears to have first been used by Thomas Jefferson in 1825: “Possibly their colonies might secede from the Union.” secesh A humorous, disparaging term used by Northerners for Southerners during the Civil War.

Second American Revolution

second settin’ A child born to a woman near menopause. “He’s the second settin’ and he ain’t to blame fer hatchin’ out peculiar.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) Second War of Independence

A humorous term for a

The Civil War.

see Gullah for seen. “Dey ain’t never see one annudder.” seed Saw. “I’ve seed a bear.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) seed-tick coffee Any of several coffee substitutes (rye, okra seed, parched wheat, sweet potato, etc.) used in the South during the Civil War. “With seed-tick coffee and ordinary brown sugar costing fabulous sums and almost impossible to be obtained, it is small matter of wonder that the unsatisfied appetite of the rebel sharp-shooter . . . often impelled him . . . to call a parley with the Yankee across the line.” (Century Magazine, September 1888) seeing of Seeing. “ ‘Sister Bessie and Dude is married,’ she said. ‘Now you go away and stop trying to see inside. You ain’t got no business seeing of them.’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932) seein’ pleasure Gullah for “having pleasure.” “When I git old an tired seein’ pleasure . . .” sell down the river A universal phrase that has its source the punishment of a slave by his owner by selling him to a sugar-cane plantation on the lower Mississippi, where work conditions were at their worst. The expression appears to have been first recorded in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852). send to hell and the devil To punish severely. “When I catch him, I’ll send him to hell and the devil.” serious as a jackass in a graveyard Very serious, often foolishly so. “Down in Texas we’d say he’s serious as a jackass in a graveyard.” settee

Often used for “couch” or “divan” in the South.

settin’ up secesh colonel

The Civil War.

A wake for a dead person.

COLONEL.

secessia A Northern term for the Southern Confederacy during the Civil War. See also SECESH. “Secession Two-step” A popular dance song written by a Georgian at the start of the Civil War.

settled “. . . and the grey-headed bachelor, avuncular and what old Negroes called ‘settled,’ incapable now of harm, slowed the blood and untroubled now the flesh by turn of wrist or ankle, faint and dusty-dry as memory now the hopes and anguishes of youth . . .” (William Faulkner, The Town, 1957)

shirt-tail woodpecker shack An old term meaning “to live like a bachelor in a shack.” “They sent their wives away and shacked for a time.” shadetail shame

A squirrel.

Gullah for ashamed. “You ought to be shame.”

sharecropper A tenant farmer who in exchange for his labor receives certain necessities, such as lodging, and a share of the crop he raises. The sharecrop system dates back to the end of the Civil War in the South; the first sharecroppers were freed slaves. sharp enough to hew his (her) own coffin Gaunt and sharp-featured from the hard living and hunger that relatively few Americans are familiar with today. “He knew then how true it was what Clem had said about Arch’s sharecroppers’ faces becoming sharp enough to hew their own coffins. His hands went to his chain before he knew what he was doing. His hand dropped when he had felt the bones of jaw and the exposed tendons of his cheeks.” (Erskine Caldwell, “Kneel to the Rising Sun,” The Complete Stories of Erskine Caldwell, 1953) Sharpsburg The Southern name for the Civil War battle known as Antietam in the North. shatters shavings

Sherman’s hairpins Southerners invented the term Sherman’s hairpins for the mutilated railroad tracks that General Sherman’s troops in their march through the South heated with fires of railroad ties and twisted into grotesque shapes so that they could not be repaired. Sherman’s monuments General Sherman’s troops burned many civilian homes to the ground in their march through the South. Often chimneys were the only part of the houses left standing, and Southerners bitterly dubbed them Sherman’s monuments. she (he) thinks he (she) hung the moon and stars Someone who loves another madly and blindly, as if that person were a god. She (he) thinks she (he) hung the moon means that one is conceited or arrogant. shin An old euphemism for damn. “Well, I’ll be dadshin’d!” shine

Moonshine, corn whiskey.

shinnery A term, meaning “a dense growth of small trees, especially scrub oaks,” that derives from the Louisiana French chênière, meaning the same, and is heard principally in Texas and the Southwestern United States. shiplap A term widely used in the South for wooden siding on a house. See also BOXING.

Pine needles that have fallen to the ground. Kindling wood, in Maryland.

she-crab soup A creamy soup made with crabmeat; also called crab soup. shed A shed snakeskin. “The shed stretches . . .” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Cross Creek, 1942) shed of; shut of

Rid of. “She couldn’t get shed of him.”

shed (cut) one’s baby teeth to not be easily duped. shell out there.”

133

To acquire sophistication,

To suddenly run away. “We shelled out from

shenanigin’ around around.”

shipoke A euphemistic pronunciation of shitepoke, a species of heron. shirttail Small piece. “He can sholy take care of this little shirttail of a farm while me and you are whupping them Japanese.” (William Faulkner, “Two Soldiers,” 1943) Shirttail can also mean “a distant relation,” as in “He’s a shirttail cousin I’ve never met.” shirt-tail boy A young boy. “ ‘Nobody but your folks’ll bother with a little ol’ shirt-tail boy like you.’ ” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) shirt-tail lads Youngsters. “ ‘Clint and me used to take off as shirt-tail lads with both our dogs and be gone all day up in the woods.’ ” (Eudora Welty, The Optimist’s Daughter, 1972)

An old term meaning “fooling

Sherman’s bummers During the Civil War, Southern civilians were, as one historian puts it, “in mortal terror of the lawless crew known as ‘Sherman’s bummers,’ who rode on the flanks of [the Union general’s] army, accounts of whose fiendish outrages were on every tongue.” See also BUMMERS; YANKEE BUMMERS.

shirt-tail run An old, probably obsolete term meaning “a fast run,” one in which one’s shirttail flutters out behind one. “It was your intention to make a straight ‘shirt-tail’ from old Kentuck for your village.” (Spirit of the Times, August 7, 1841) shirt-tail woodpecker A woodpecker found in Georgia, so named for its white tail. “The shirt-tail wood-

134 Whistlin’ Dixie pecker had been bothering us for a long time . . . The peckers lived in the old dead sycamore tree in our yard, and Ma said the sensible thing to do was to chop it down. My old man said he would rather see the Republicans win every election in the country for the rest of time than lose the sycamore.” (Erskine Caldwell, Georgia Boy, 1943) shivaree A mock serenade with kettles, pans, horns, etc., especially for newlyweds; any elaborate noisy celebration; from the Mississippi Valley French charivari, meaning the same. shivering owl The screech owl; used mostly in the South Atlantic states. sho’

Sure. “I sho’ is hot.”

shoemake

A pronunciation of sumac.

sholy A pronunciation, often but not always black, of surely. “ ‘Where’s that tobacco sack I give you to keep yestiddy?’ he said. ‘You sholy ain’t lost it?’ ” (William Faulkner, The Reivers, 1962) sho’ nuff (1) Sure enough, a pronunciation known to millions nationally from thousands of comedy routines. (2) Really, actually (in a question). “Are you that old, sho’ nuff?” shook his foot Had sexual intercourse. “ ‘Why you ever let him get on the bed without the money in your hand first, I don’t know [Minnie said]. I bet he never even took his britches off. A man won’t take his britches off, don’t never have no truck with him a-tall; he done already shook his foot, no matter what his mouth still saying.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959)

short sweetenin’ Sugar; also used in Midland United States. See also LONG SWEETENIN’. short talk

short-weight Light, weak, unsubstantial. “ ‘When I get set and ready for a man, I’m going to get me a good one,’ she said, inspecting him disdainfully. ‘I ain’t aiming to waste my good self on no short-weight plowboy.’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, “The Courting of Susie Brown,” The Complete Stories of Erskine Caldwell, 1953) shouldn’t ought to Shouldn’t. “You shouldn’t oughta go to that jook joint.” shout To clap hands, tap feet, sway the body while singing spirituals. shovelful of chicken tracks Very little; something inconsequential or next to nothing. “I wouldn’t give you a shovelful of chicken tracks in trade for that, Tubby.” (Erskine Caldwell, The Earnshaw Neighborhood, 1971) Show Me State

A nickname for the state of

MISSOURI.

shuck Shook or shaken. “He shuck down the apples from the tree.” shuck out To leave. “He shucked out for parts unknown.” shucks

See

BLUEBACKS.

shut my mouth! A Southern expression of surprise that has become a national cliché because it has been used so often in comic routines. Another similar expression is “Hush my mouth!” sich

shore Sure. “You shore kin figger.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

Cursing, vilification.

A pronunciation of such. “It was no sich thing.”

sick at (to) the stomach To be nauseous; to throw up, vomit. “He knew he was going to be sick at the stomach.” (William Faulkner, “Dry September,” 1931)

shore don’t; sure don’t According to Fayetteville, Arkansas author Ervin Lewin: “One [Southernism] that I have encountered here and nowhere else is this: When I phone a store, such as a hardware, asking about some tool or other product, the response is nearly always, if it’s not available, an almost invariably cheerful, ‘Shore don’t.’ Why the basic ‘sure’ I don’t know, but you can just about count on it.”

side meat Bacon or salt pork. “. . . and maybe he tried to pursuade her to eat too—the side meat he had probably brought home from the store Saturday night . . .” (William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!, 1936) “. . . the plate of fried sidemeat and canned corn and tomatoes stewed together . . .” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959)

shorely; sholy

side pork

Surely.

short-commons A scanty allowance of food. “These short-commons aren’t fit for a dog.”

See

SIDE MEAT.

sight A lot, a large amount. “That bear moves a sight faster.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

slave driver 135 signify A black expression meaning to try to make a big impression on someone, to be pretentious. “Stop your signifying, man.” sigogglin (pronounced sy-gog-line) Crooked, out of plumb or line. “You sawed that board off a little sigoglin.” silver gray An elderly member of the home guard in several Southern states prior to the Civil War. silver gray squirrel A hunter’s name for the Southern gray or Carolina squirrel, Sciurus carolininsis. simblin

A variety of gourd or squash.

’simmon A shortening of persimmon. “‘That’s why you see me cakewalking with the ex-rebs to the illegitimate tune about ’simmon seeds and cotton.’” (O. Henry, Roads of Destiny, 1904) ’Simmon and persimmon figure in many old Southern proverbs: “The longest pole takes the ’simmons”; “we all come down like ’simmons after frost”; “to be a huckleberry over someone’s persimmon” (to be beyond someone’s capacity); “to bring down the persimmons” (to win the prize); “to be a jump above someone’s tallest persimmons”; “to walk off with, or rake up, the persimmons” (to win the prize); and “a huckleberry to a persimmon” (nothing in comparison with something else). Simon Legree Any hard boss; after the cruel planter and slave dealer in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852). since the hogs et grandma (my little brother) A long time ago. “I haven’t had so much fun since the hogs et grandma.”

sistern

Sisters. “We are brethren and sistern here.”

sivving Sifting. “ ‘Sifting,’ he said. ‘Sivving. Like flour. Straining folks through the back yard . . .’ ” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959) skeered Scared. “Ahead of him Tommy guffawed. It skeered him too, I’ll be bound.” (William Faulkner, Sanctuary, 1931) skeet To spew water out of the mouth from between the teeth. skipper

Old term for a meat maggot.

skin the bear at once An old term meaning “to quickly get down to brass tacks, or business.” “But now, to skin the bar at once, can you give me and five other gentlemen employment?” (New Orleans Picayune, 1844) sky-winding Helpless or senseless. “I knocked him sky-winding.” slack An old term for “impudence.” “Don’t give me none of your slack, young man.” slam-bang Exactly, smack dab. “He was slam-bang in the middle of it.” slash pine Any pine tree that grows in slashes, that is, low coastal areas. In North Carolina the slash pine, Pinus taeda, is also called the swamp pine. slat A stick of chewing gum; mostly a Southern mountain term. slaunch An angle. “I guess I’ve got the right slaunch on that point.”

singing A gathering of people for the singing of songs. “I ain’t seen her since the singing down by the river.”

slave auction An auction at which slaves were sold in the “internal and infernal trade.”

sinning shame A terrible shame; an act contrary to religious standards. “ ‘They [the church congregation] always do their best to make me think everything I do is a sinning shame.’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, Jenny By Nature, 1961)

slave catcher A person, usually white but sometimes an American Indian, or even black man, who captured fugitive slaves for the reward.

sippin’ whiskey

The best quality bourbon.

sister (1) A form of address to a woman, especially in poorer rural areas. See usage example at RUINT. (2) Used as a form of address by parents to female children in many Southern families, as it is indeed in other areas. See also BROTHER.

slave depot A public area from where slaves were sold and shipped. “Along the streets you saw the sign, ‘Slave Depot—Negroes bought and sold.’” (Albert Richardson, The Secret Service . . . , 1865) slave driver One who supervised working slaves. “There was a dreadful slave-driver . . . carrying a wand with an iron tip heated red-hot.” (Frances Baylor, On Both Sides, 1885)

136 Whistlin’ Dixie slave melodies

See

SLAVE SONGS.

slave pen A holding area for slaves. “It was at Washington we first saw the slave pen. It is usually a sort of wooden shed, whitewashed, and attached to the residence of a slave-dealer.” (Andrew Reed and James Matheson, A Narrative of the Visit to the American Churches, 1835) slave quarters The area on a plantation occupied by the dwellings of slaves. slave songs A synonym, in slavery times, for what are today generally called “spirituals.” “The plaintive slave songs have won popularity wherever the English language is spoken.” (Harper’s Magazine, May 1881) These spirituals were also called slave melodies. sleazy slip

Flimsy. “She wore a sleazy red dress.”

Squarely, exactly. “It hit him smack dab in

smarter than a hooty owl

Very smart, wise.

smart up To spruce up. “She’s right pretty when she’s smarted up.” smile like a basket of chips An old, perhaps obsolete expression for someone smiling widely in great happiness. “She smiled like a basket of chips.” smithers Fragments, smithereens. “He broke it up into smithers.” Smithfield ham “Almost due south from Suffolk . . . is Smithfield, the home of the famous Virginia Smithfield hams, grown on a peanut diet and cured with smoke of the burning shells.” (Concrete Highway Magazine, September 1924)

A wheelbarrow; used in Louisiana.

slipe

An old term for a slice. “Cut me a slipe of lemon.”

slipper

An old term for any low-cut shoe or oxford.

slipperslide shoehorn.

Garbage, swill. “His pigs was eatin’ the slop.”

sloppin’ good Very good; used in reference to foods. “That sure is sloppin’ good Texas gravy.” slopsided

smoked Yankee A derogatory term, now historical, applied in the South and other areas of the country, to black people, especially black Union soldiers. In 1864 a newspaper reported: “In Baltimore they call the negro soldiers, who are abundant here, ‘smoked Yankees.’”

A colorful North Carolina term for a

slit-lip A harelip. “ ‘I bet he don’t even know she’s got a slit-lip on her [Dude said].’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932) slop

smack dab the eye.”

smooth Comb, brush; straighten. “ ‘I must run upstairs and smooth my hair,’ she told Stuart and Brent . . .” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936) s’mores A Southern treat made of toasted marshmallows and chocolate sandwiched between graham crackers and sometimes wrapped in tin foil, then heated over a campfire; so named because they are so delicious you always want “s’more”; now packaged nationally as a sandwich cookie to be heated in a microwave oven.

Lop-sided, leaning to one side.

slorate An old term meaning “to destroy or kill large numbers of, slaughter.” slouch hat A soft, floppy hat of British origins made popular by Confederate troops. slow bear A term foraging Southern troops used during the Civil War for farmers’ pigs that they killed and ate. Mud lark meant the same. slut An old term for a light made of a saucer of grease with a rag as a wick. smack Squarely, completely. “We come up with him right smack at the edge o’ Juniper Creek.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

smothered pork chops Pork chops “smothered” with a thick sauce or gravy. The term probably derived from the Cajun use of the French word etouffee (smothered). Smothered dishes are genuine Southern cuisine. snake

An old nickname for a West Virginian.

snap bean String bean. “He has become rooted in . . . the exacting business of being a Virginian. He has learned to call string beans ‘snaps.’ ” (Saturday Evening Post, July 24, 1943) snap in her tits and power in her behind (ass) An attractive, sexy young woman. “. . . there is snap in her tits, all right, snap aplenty . . . there is snap in her tits and power in her behind.” (Calder Willingham, Rambling Rose, 1972)

something on a stick 137 snapped An obsolete term meaning drunk. “You’re about two-thirds snapped.” snapping turtle An old term for a mean-tempered, unpleasant person. “I am a Mississippi snapping turtle: have bear’s claws, alligator’s teeth, and the devil’s tail; can whip any man, by G–d.” (Christian Schultz Jr., Travels on an Inland Voyage, 1807–08) snatch To treat angrily, verbally or physically; to snap at. “ ‘Why you got to snatch a man just for passing the day with you?’ Ned said.” (William Faulkner, The Reivers, 1962) snatching An old term meaning “charming, fetching.” “That’s a snatching dress you’re wearing.” sniptious snit

Smart, spruced up, neat, attractive.

A fit of weeping; a tantrum.

snollygoster “A Georgia editor kindly explains that a snollygoster is ‘a fellow who wants office, regardless of party, platform or principles, and who, whenever he wins, gets there by the sheer force or monumental talknophical assummacy.’ ” (Columbus Dispatch, Oct. 28, 1895) President Truman, however, from Missouri and famous for his use of such terms, defined a snollygoster as a “man born out of wedlock.” Snopesism A word coined by Faulkner for the taking over of the South by a grasping, greedy, money-grubbing middle class without any real culture, the word of course deriving from the Snopes family depicted in his novels of fictitious Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi. “He had to be the sole one masculine feller within her entire possible circumarnbience, not jist to recognize she had a soul still capable of being saved from what he called Snopesism . . .” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959) snot-flyin’ drunk Used in Peter Matthiessen’s Killing Mr. Watson, (1990), which is very accurate in its use of South Florida dialect ca. 1900. snuff dipping Using snuff by dipping a snuff brush or snuff stick into the snuffbox and then putting the snuff in the mouth; in earlier times the South was jocularly called “the land of snuff dipping.” snuff stick Usually a twig of the blackgum tree, its end chewed until it resembles a brush, that is used for dipping snuff. so (1) A command intended to make a cow stand still during its milking; also soo and saw. (2) An old term

meaning “straight”; used mainly in the South. “I like my coffee so.” Can also mean “the way I have it,” “this way.” sock-dodger; soxdologer thing. soda pop sody

An old term for a very large

Any carbonated soft drink.

Soda. See usage example at

UNTECHED.

sody pop SODA POP. “‘Wouldn’t you like for Mrs. Tubbs to bring you up a cup of coffee or maybe a CocaCola? She’s usually got a bottle or two of sody pop in the icebox.’” (William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun, 1951) so far back in jail you can’t shoot peas to him A saying made popular by Georgia Governor Marvin Griffin when he addressed civil rights protestors some years ago: “Well’ll put him so far back in jail you can’t shoot peas to him.” so far south they call people from Georgia Yankees Deep in the Deep South. “I’m from so far South we call people from Georgia Yankees.” so fat he’s (she’s) in his (her) own way person.

A very obese

soft berm A soft shoulder on the road; the term, although commonly Southern, is also encountered on road signs in other parts of the country. It could be argued that berm is not a regional dialect term, but a word dating back to the days of knightly chivalry, when in Norman times it meant “the ridge between the edge of the moat around a castle” and the castle. softshell Baptist A Baptist more liberal than his HARDSHELL BAPTIST counterpart. soft-shelled cooter

See

FLORIDA COOTER.

so hungry my belly thinks my throat is cut Very hungry, starving. “Jody said, ‘I’m so hongry my belly thinks my throat is cut.’ ” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) Solid South A term much used in times past when the South’s electoral votes could be counted upon by the Democratic party. something on a stick Something very special. “He really thinks she’s something on a stick.” The “stick” here probably refers to an ice-cream bar stick.

138 Whistlin’ Dixie someway Somehow; also someways. “I didn’t someway even mind.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) sommers; some’eres sommumabitch

Somewhere (somewheres).

Southern dialect for son of a bitch.

souse An old term meaning “to stick into.” “Souse a pin into him, and he’ll wake up all right.” South As a designation for the Southern states (states below the MASON-DIXON LINE), South was first recorded in 1781; the North as a term for the Northern states is first recorded in 1791.

son Euphemism for son of a bitch. “ ‘Tell them, by God!’ McLendon said. ‘Tell every one of the sons . . .’ ” (William Faulkner, “Dry September,” 1931)

South Carolina The eighth state admitted to the Union (May 23, 1788); nicknamed the Palmetto State. See also NORTH CAROLINA; SOUTH CAROLINA.

son of a biscuit eater

Southern brigadier

A euphemism for son of a bitch.

son of a bitch’s son of a bitch The absolute worst of people. “All right, that’s what we’ll do: every Snopes he’ll make it his private and personal aim to have the whole world recognize him as THE son of a bitch’s son of a bitch.” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959)

See

CONFEDERATE BRIGADIER.

the Southern Chivalry “‘The Southern Chivalry’ was a common phrase before and during the Civil War. It was claimed as a proud title by Southerners and their friends, but has always been heard and used by the North with a shade of contempt.” (Magazine of American History, volume 13, 1885)

son of ebony An obsolete term for a black man, often shortened to ebony. Harriet Beecher Stowe used the term in Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852).

Southern coffee Coffee mixed with chicory as opposed to pure coffee (Northern coffee).

Sons of the South A secret organization, also known as the Blue Lodge, formed in Missouri in 1854 for the purpose of introducing slavery into Kansas and other areas of the United States.

Southern Confederacy This is a more recent term than It wasn’t coined at the time of the Civil War but is first mentioned in the writings of James Madison in about 1788.

SO.

soo

See

sop

Gravy; bread dipped in gravy.

sora The common name of the Carolina rail, Porzana carolina, probably from an Indian name for the bird. sorry Poor, worthless, contemptible. “That’s one sorry fellow.” sorry girl A prostitute; mostly a term from the Southern mountains.

CONFEDERACY.

Southerner This word for a resident of the South may have been first coined between 1820 and 1830. The term appeared first in Western Monthly Magazine in 1828. Southern fried chicken Originally chicken fried in bacon grease, Southern fried chicken has been popular in the American South since before 1711, when the term fried chicken is first recorded there. It became popular throughout the country in the 1930s, when it was first widely sold at roadside restaurants. Southern fringe tree

soul driver A person who took slaves to market to sell them; an overseer. The expression is recorded as early as 1774. soul shark

A disreputable, often itinerant, preacher.

sour dean A pronunciation of sardine. “‘It was a sour dean,’ Ned said quietly. ‘Don’t lie to me,’ grandfather said. ‘Horses don’t eat sardines.’ ‘This one do,’ Ned said.” (William Faulkner, The Reivers, 1962) soured To have grown mean and nasty. “‘Old man Ab ain’t naturally mean. He’s just soured.’” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940)

See

GRANDFATHER GRAYBEARD.

Southern gentleman This term for a courtly, wellbred Southerner dates back at least to the late 18th century. Clare Booth Luce, in Kiss the Boys Goodbye, offered this definition: “If you can shoot like a South Carolinian, ride like a Virginian, make love like a Georgian, and be proud of it as an Episcopalian, you’re a Southern gentleman.” But an anonymous infidel Yankee defined the chivalrous species as “one who rises to his feet when his wife comes in bearing the firewood.” Southern hospitality The words “Southern hospitality,” the hospitality characteristic of Southern people and

spraddle 139 sometimes considered the epitome of sectional hospitality, have been traced back to 1819, when a traveler from the North wrote in his journal, “The mistress . . . treated us to milk in the true spirit of Southern hospitality.” But the South was famous for its hospitality long before this, as it still is today, and the much-used phrase is surely older. Southern names According to Mario Pei’s What’s in a Word (1968), in the South a greater number of first names can be both female and male than in any other area of the country. Such names include Pearl, Marion, Leslie, Beverly, Kim and Dana. Although these are all used as both male and female names in other sections as well, they are so used with more frequency in the South. Southern pine Southlander Southerner.

See

GEORGIA PITCH PINE.

An infrequently used synonym for a

Southron (1) An old synonym for a Southerner that is based on an English word and dates back to the early 19th century. (2) A pronunciation of Southern. “‘. . . two Americans, Americans, southron gentlemen . . .’ ” (William Faulkner, Sanctuary, 1931) sowbelly

Fat salt pork taken from the belly of a hog.

sow’s bosom spaded

SOWBELLY;

spang Directly, exactly. “ ‘Out there in the chaparral,’ he said quickly, ‘about nine or ten miles from town, more or less.’ ‘Right spang at Friday River!’ Bessie said severely, her whole attitude changing.” (Erskine Caldwell, “To the Chaparral,” Gulf Coast Stories, 1956) Spanish moss The epiphytic plant Tillandsia usneoides of the southern United States, which has narrow, grayish leaves and grows in long festoons that drape the branches of trees. spark An old term meaning “to court”; not confined to the South. “At first I thought he just never wanted me tagging after him, like he wouldn’t leave me go with him when he went sparking them girls of Tull’s.” (William Faulkner, “Two Soldiers,” 1943)

spere spigot

spittin’ image Exactly alike. The germ of the idea behind this phrase has been traced back to 1400 by Eric Partridge, who cites the following example in A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (1950): “He’s . . . as like these as they had spit him.” Similarly, in England and the southern United States, the expression he’s the very spit of his father is commonly heard. This may mean “he’s as like his father as if he had been spit out of his mouth” but could also be a corruption of “spirit and image.” If the last is true, it would explain the use of “and image” in the expression since the middle of the last century. Spittin’ image would then be derived from “he’s the very spirit and image of his father,” that is, the child is identical to his parent in both spirit and looks. The phrase is also written spit and image, spitting image, spitten image and spit ’n’ image. see also BREATHING IMAGE. spizzerinctum A rural Southern term meaning “energy, enthusiasm.” “I wish I had his spizzerinctum.” splinters olina.

Kindling wood, in Georgia and North Car-

mostly a mountain term.

Spayed. “They had their dog spaded.”

spatterdabs

spit cotton To have difficulty spitting due to thirst or embarrassment. “When one is very thirsty and his mouth dry, the spittle white and sticky, he is said ‘to spit cotton.’” (Bennett Green, World-Book of Virginee, 1899)

split To run away, to leave. The expression is recorded as far back as early 19th century Alabama, long before it is recorded as black musicians’ slang in the 1950s. splitting the log Getting money. “One of the most interesting methods of banking gold and silver was to bore holes in large blocks of wood, fill the holes with coins, and drive tightly fitting pegs into them. Then the pegs were sawed off short. This left no way to remove the money except by splitting the log.” (Everett Dick, The Dixie Frontier, 1948) spoon bread A baked batter of pudding consistency made of cornmeal, milk, eggs and shortening, usually served as an accompaniment to meat and served with a spoon. sporting house A brothel. “ ‘. . . in the Memphis sporting house: don’t forget that.’ ” (William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun, 1951)

Pancakes.

Common pronunciation of sphere. Sometimes used instead of faucet in the South.

spraddle To sprawl out; straddle. “They set flat on the ground . . . with their legs spraddled out on either side of the . . . bolt.” (William Faulkner, “Shingles for the Lord,” 1943)

140 Whistlin’ Dixie sprang

A pronunciation of the season spring.

sprawly Sprawling. “. . . and we watched her write in the big sprawly hand that still looked like somebody thirteen years old in the ninth grade.” (William Faulkner, The Town, 1957) spurrer water.”

An old term for a spurt, as in “a spurt of

square

The flower bud of the cotton plant.

squeezins

stay Reside. “‘Hidy, son,’ he said . . . ‘Which-a-way from here does Mr. Flem Snopes stay?’” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959) stick Penis. “A poor woman always takes better care of your stick than a rich one knows how! That’s the law of the land from Sugar Creek to Park Avenue.” (Erskine Caldwell, The Earnshaw Neighborhood, 1971)

Very powerful moonshine.

squinch To squint or draw together; to pinch or squeeze. squush bug.”

statriot A term based on “states rights” and “patriot” that was popular in the South during the Civil War period.

To squash, crush or squeeze. “Squush that

stancheous

An old term for subtantial.

standin’ in need of A common redundancy or extravagant term used in the South, as in “I’m standin’ in need of some moonshine.” stand one up and down To vehemently insist. “She stood me up and down that I was wrong.” star (1) A pronunciation of stare. (2) A pronunciation of stair, as in “He’s upstars.” starling Sterling. A pronunciation bordering on a new word that the South’s early aristocrats borrowed from upper-class English speech. Stars and Bars The official flag of the Confederacy during the Civil War. It had two broad red stripes separated by a wide white stripe commonly called the bars and a blue field in the upper left hand corner bearing a circle of stars (one for each of the seceded states). The Stars and Bars is often erroneously depicted as the RED CROSS BANNER, or Battle Flag, in Civil War illustrations. starving hungry As hungry as one can be, very hungry. “I know you must be starving hungry and all tired out . . .” (Erskine Caldwell, Jenny By Nature, 1961)

stickman

An old term for a country bumpkin.

stick to your own blood Side with your family, right or wrong. “You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain’t going to have any blood to stick to you.” (William Faulkner, “Barn Burning,” 1939) sticky A sweet bun made in Florida and other parts of the South. still have some snap left in one’s garters Probably a Southern expression dating back to the late 19th century and meaning “still energetic, not yet worn out.” “I really think,” Senator Russell B. Long of Louisiana told the press on March 17, 1985, “that it’s better to retire on Uncle Earl’s terms, when you still have some snap left in your garters.” Mr. Long was referring to his legendary uncle, former Louisiana governor Earl Long, who may have used the expression too. still in the bed Often used for still in bed: “He’s still in the bed, and we’re ready to go.” stitch A short period of time. “There was a certain stitch of afternoon while the boy waited.” (Thomas Wolfe, The Web and the Rock, 1939) stob

(1) Stab. “He stobbed a knife clean into his (2) A stake; a stump; a stub.

LIGHTS.”

stob pole

A pole used to pole a boat along.

stoled; stold; stolt

Stole, stolen.

state-rights Democrat A designation for Southern Democrats espousing the doctrine of states rights from Civil War times to the present.

stomp a mud hole in one’s ass and walk it dry To beat up someone badly. “I wish I had you down here. I’d whip your ass. I’d stomp a mud hole in your ass and walk it dry.” (Larry Brown, “92 Days,” 1990)

state-rights party The majority faction of the Democratic party in the South in Civil War times.

stomp-down retriever.”

Downright. “Spot is a stomp-down good

Sunny South 141 stone wall nobody’s yet clumb over Something no one has been able to do anything about or remedy. “ ‘I hate things dyin,’ he said . . . ‘Well [his father said], hit’s a stone wall nobody’s yit clumb over.’ ” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

sugah; sugar (1) A term of endearment in many parts of the South for a woman, girl, man or boy. (2) A kiss or kisses. “Give me a little sugar, honey.” Variations are sugah candy, sugah doodle, sugah foot, sugah plum, and sugah pie.

story

Sugar Bowl (1) A nickname for Louisiana, famous for its output of sugar. (2) A college football end-of-season game held in New Orleans since 1936 and so named because the annual trophy is an antique sugar bowl.

A lie; a liar. “You are an old story.”

straight-out straight up minute.”

Downright. “She’s a straight-out liar.” Exactly. “He was ready straight up to the

sugar corn corn.

straight up-and-dicular perpendicular. streaked meat

An old humorous term for

North Carolina term for bacon.

strollop To wander aimlessly. “I was tired of strolloping around all of Alabama.” strowed Strewn. “There was puppies strowed all over the house and yard.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, “Cocks Must Crow,” 1939)

sugar-mouthed Flattering, obsequious. “[He seconded] the nomination of Roosevelt in a regular sugarmouth speech.” (Jonathan Daniels, Tar Heels, 1941) sugar mule Best mule. “. . . Pa always had a good excuse for not going, usually saying Ida, our sugar mule, had the colic and that he couldn’t afford to leave her alone until she got well . . .” (Erskine Caldwell, Georgia Boy, 1943) sugar-pie

stubborn as a cross-eyed mule

study on To think, ponder, consider. “ ‘Father says for you to come and get breakfast,’ Caddy said . . . ‘I ain’t studying on breakfast,’ Nancy said. ‘I going to get my sleep out.’ ” (William Faulkner, “That Evening Sun,” 1931) See

Sweetheart, a term of endearment.

Very stubborn.

stubborn coal of conscience Moral principle. Perhaps the phrase is William Faulkner’s creation, but it sounds familiar. “. . . he never entered their house again after he and Ellen married. I was young then; I was even young enough to believe that this was due to some stubborn coal of conscience, if not remorse . . .” (William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!, 1936)

stump sucker

Sweet corn, as opposed to the tough field

CRIBBER.

submissionest A Southerner before the Civil War who took the part of the North. suck-egg Egg-sucking and thus base, mean, no good; applied to men, dogs and mules. “He’s as mean as a suck-egg dog.” suffocate for moisture To die of thirst. “‘Wake up, Miss Reba [said Mr. Binford], before these folks suffocate for moisture.’ Miss Reba poured the whiskey . . .” (William Faulkner, The Reivers, 1962)

sugar rag Gullah for a sugar-tit (butter and brown sugar tied in a cloth for a child to suck on). sug-jist A pronunciation of suggest. “Of course I know it. But can you sug-jist a better way than this for me to learn.” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959) sull To sulk, refuse to talk. “There he is mullin’ and sullin’ about it.” sull up Grow sullen, sad. “I didn’t know what to do. If I said it was bad, she’d sull up or maybe cry.” (Larry Brown, “The Apprentice,” 1990) sum bitch Southern dialect for son of a bitch; sometimes written as one word. “He was a wimpy sumbitch from back yonder.” (Larry Brown, “Big Bad Love,” 1990) Sumpter A frequent pronunciation and misspelling of Sumter, as in Fort Sumter, the opening battle of the Civil War. At the start of the war, many newspapers, including the New York Times, spelled it this way. William Faulkner’s characters use it in several places. sun-hot Gullah for the heat of the sun. “Sun-hot does not make people sick.” Sunny South A nickname for the Southern states since the early 19th century.

142 Whistlin’ Dixie Sunshine State states.

A nickname for Florida, among other

sup Sometimes used for sip. “‘I want a sup of water,’ she said querulously. ‘I been laying here wanting a sup of water a long time, but don’t nobody care enough to pay me no mind.’ ” (William Faulkner, “Wash,” 1934) sup dirt To eat dirt. “ ‘. . . I tried to stay in front but Frank shoved me behind him and held me and father shot him and said, ‘Get down there and sup your dirt, whore.’ ” (William Faulkner, Sanctuary, 1931)

slapping was well started now, it was getting to that fiercest time of evening. Probably them swamp angels plagued me, too, but I was too tense to pay ’em any mind.” (Peter Matthiessen, Killing Mr. Watson, 1990) (4) (Capitalized) The nickname Confederate troops gave to the big Union Parrott gun used in the seige of Charleston. “My surroundings were not cheerful and my gloomy thoughts were not dispelled by the bursting of a shell from the historic ‘Swamp Angel’ and the whirring of its fragments which passed uncomfortable close to me.” (James Morgan, Recollections of a Rebel Reefer, 1917)

suption (1) Substance, nourishment. “ ‘I wisht they wouldn’t give me so many of them celeries [celery]. I just cain’t learn to stomach ’um somehow. They don’t seem to be much suption in ’em.’ ” (John Faulkner, Men Working, 1941) (2) To suck, probably deriving from suction. “I don’t rightly know how we got the fish we ate in the Navy. Maybe it was a hole in the ship’s bottom and a pump that suptioned ’em in.”

swamp dew

sure Often used emphatically instead of “certainly.” “I’d sure like to have some of that candy.”

swamp-mucker An old term for a Georgian or a South Carolinian from the low country.

sure-God

swamp pine

Certainly. “I’m sure-God going to be there.”

the surrender For over a century, the surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House, Virginia on April 9, 1865, ending the Civil War has been known simply as the surrender. survigrous A superlative of vigorous, meaning “fierce, vicious, obstinate, angry, active, great, excessive.” “He’s a lowdown survigrous cuss.”

Moonshine liquor.

Swampers Old name for the settlers who lived in the Okefenokee Swamp of Georgia and Florida. Swamp Fox The nickname of General Francis Marion, South Carolina Revolutionary War hero, whose men hid in the swamps after attacks on the British.

See

SLASH PINE.

swamp trash A synonym for POOR WHITE TRASH. “‘Look ter me [like] . . . swamp trash.” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936) swan An old term for swear. “Well, I swan, don’t get all het up about it.” swarved

Crowded. “They’re all swarved up together.”

suspicion Suspect. “‘I thought mebbe he was calling his dog, and I was thinking to myself it was a sorry day that never suspicioned me when I was this close . . .’” (William Faulkner, “The Liar,” sketch in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 26, 1925)

swayged down Deriving from “assuage,” this expression is used to describe a swelling such as a boil decreasing in size or disappearing after being lanced or treated with medicine. “He put some salve on that cyst and it swayged down.”

swag

To sag. “The house has swagged in the center.”

swale

Swamp.

sweat and swivit and scrabble Solve a problem by worrying and working hard. The origin of the word swivit (a state of anxiety) is obscure. “‘So maybe we better do like they seem to want, and let them sweat and swivit and scrabble through the best they can by themselves.’” (William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun, 1951)

swamp angel (1) A disparaging term for someone who lives in the swamps or a backwoods area. (2) (Capitalized) An obsolete term for a member of a Southern antiblack group after the Civil War. “Jim Tiddell was there with his crowd of ‘Swamp Angels’ (for this badge was worn by them all—a green silk ribbon with ‘Swamp Angel’ on it).” (Congressional Record, December 27, 1876) (3) An old term for the Florida mosquito. “The

sweet bubby The strawberry shrub, Calycanthus florindus. “Another shrub that belongs to us and eastern Asia and that tempts one to nibble is what the people here call ‘sweet bubbies.’ It appears in old-fashioned Northern gardens under the name of sweet-scented or

swurging 143 flowering or strawberry shrub.” (M. W. Morley, The Carolina Mountains, 1913) So called because of its blossoms’ supposed resemblance to female breasts. sweeter than a suck of sugar Very sweet and appealing. “‘You look sweeter than a suck of sugar, baby,’ he shouted to her through the open window.” (Erskine Caldwell, “The Courting of Susie Brown,” The Complete Stories of Erskine Caldwell, 1953) sweet gum The gum exuded from the sweet gum tree, which was used as a chewing gum. “Them two gals ain’t moved yet, just setting there in their Sunday clothes, chewing sweet gum . . .” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940) sweet magnolia An abundant Atlantic-coast Southern magnolia, Magnolia virginiana. sweet mouth

See

sweet potato soup

Soup made with sweet potatoes.

sweet potato waffle Fanny Farmer listed this recipe in her famous cookbook. sweet talk; sweet mouth Smooth unctuous flattery designed to win over a person. There is no proof of it, but this Southern Americanism possibly comes from Krio, an English-based Creole of Sierra Leone, specifically from the expression swit mot (sweet mouth), for “flattery.” To sweet mouth someone is the opposite of to badmouth him. sweet tater

Sweet potato.

swimmy-headed Dizzy. “I was swimmy-headed all day after I walked into that post.” swinge

To singe. “All his hair was swinged off.”

swinged

Swung. “They swinged on the glider.”

SWEET-TALK.

sweet potato bun Buns made with sweet potatoes and following an old Southern recipe. sweet potato coffee the sweet potato.

A rare Southern coffee made from

sweet potato ice cream only down South.

A dish that appears to be made

sweet potato pie Quintessential Southern cuisine, the dish dating back to at least the early 19th century. sweet potato pone An old Southern bread made of sweet potatoes, flavored with spices and baked in a tin pan. sweet potato pudding One early cookbook called this “a Southern dish fit to grace the table of an epicure.”

swiome Mainly Southern talk meaning a “swinging action around to the side.” “The swing came around in a swiome and almost hit me.” Swiss broom An old expression heard among blacks in Louisiana for a whiskbroom. switch Thin branch of a bush or tree. “I’m gonna take a switch to you.” swole; swoled Swollen, swelled. “He hit his head and was all swoled up.” swurging A pronunciation of surging. “And then hyer hit is about midnight and that durn fellow comes swurging outer the woods wild as a skeered deer . . .” (William Faulkner, “A Bear Hunt,” 1934)

T tack An old, perhaps obsolete word for a messy, unfashionable person. See also TACKY.

take the bun

tadpoles A term for people; heard mainly in Mississippi, whose inhabitants were sometimes called tadpoles. take and rake An invitation to begin eating. “Everybody take and rake now.” To walk. “Take your foot in hand

take in To begin. “School takes in at nine o’clock and takes out at three.” take leave of one’s senses To become irrational or crazy; to act without any common sense. Widely used in the South and other regions of the United States.

To close. See also

win the prize.

take the chute An old term, not in much use any more, for taking a road, as in “The Douglas men are rushing to Lincoln and the Bell men are taking the same chute.” Chute at one time meant “a road or path” but is now generally confined to a small, often half-silted, sluggish channel. The word is most often heard in chute-thechute, an amusement park water ride, and shooting the chute, taking that ride.

taken; takened Took. “And we all taken off our hats.” (William Faulkner, “Shingles for the Lord,” 1943) “She cain’t fergit the time the Yankees takened her needles and thread . . .” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) take out

TAKE THE CAKE,

take the cake Cakes have been awarded as prizes since classical times, so when slaves on Southern plantations held dance contests to help a needy neighbor, or just for the fun of it, giving a cake to the winning couple was no innovation. But the cakewalk inspired by these contests was surely a black contribution to American culture. Dancers tried to outdo each other with fancy steps, struts and ways of walking (perhaps cleverly mocking their owners) while the fiddles played and the chant went up, “Make your steps and show your style!” By 1840 cakewalk was recorded as the name of these steps, which became the basis of many tap dance routines still seen today. Whether the expression that takes the cake (that wins the highest prize) comes from the cakewalk is another matter. Though the phrase is recorded a century earlier elsewhere, its modern usage almost certainly originated with the cakewalk in America. Today it has taken on a different meaning and is said of something (or someone) that is so unusual as to be almost unbelievable.

tacky Once an exclusively Southern expression, used mainly by women, for unfashionable or ugly clothes, tacky has in recent times become popular throughout the country.

take foot in hand and come along.”

To

TAKE IN.

takes like a hog after persimmons Similar in usage to “takes like a fish to water.” “He takes to you like a hog after persimmons.”

take up books To begin school. “It’s September and time to take up books.” 144

thataway 145 taking up for Defending, sticking up for. “‘Shut up, William,’ she said. ‘Stop taking up for your Pa.’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, Georgia Boy, 1943) tale A malicious lie. “I’ve heard a tale on him I want to put right.” talkingest The most talkative. “That’s the talkingest person I ever heard.” tallywags The penis and testicles; mainly Southern mountain talk. tap A nut belonging to a screw or bolt. “Get me a tap that fits this bolt.”

tearing up the pea patch Red Barber popularized this Southern U.S. expression that means “going on a rampage” when he broadcast Brooklyn Dodgers baseball games from 1945 to 1955, using it often to describe fights on the field between players. Barber hails from the South, where the expression is an old one, referring to the prized patch of black-eyed peas, which stray animals sometimes ruined. tear up Jack To raise a commotion, cut up. “Watch out or he’ll tear up Jack. He’s a real troublemaker.” tech A pronunciation of touch. “I wouldn’t tech it with a 10-foot pole.” See also UNTECHED. tell

tar

Gullah for told. “He tell me to come here.”

A common pronunciation of tear or tire.

Tara The famous plantation on which Scarlett O’Hara and her family lived in Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind (1936), hence a name for any Southern plantation, even a joking name for any Southern home. tarheel A nickname for a North Carolinian. “A brigade of North Carolinians . . . failed to hold a certain hill (in a Civil War battle) and were laughed at by Missisippians for having forgotten to tar their heels that morning. Hence originated their cant name, ‘Tarheels.’ ” (Overland Monthly, volume 3, 1869) Tarheel State TARHEEL.

tarpollyon Pronunciation of tarpaulin. “ ‘All right, all right,’ Boon said. ‘What I’m talking about, you laid there under that tarpollyon all the time and let me get out in the mud and lift this whole car out single-handed by main strength.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Reivers, 1962)

tasted

Taxas

telling Anything told, a statement. “There’s a lot of tellings about the South in that book.” tell it on To tell or inform on someone. “If you stop driving fast, I won’t tell it on you.” tell the truth and shame the devil Apparently a Southern saying. “‘Tell the truth Jody,’ he said, ‘and shame the devil.’” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) Texas T-shirt William Safire’s “On Language” column in the New York Times (March 27, 1991) defined this as a humorous derogatory term for “one of those disposable [toilet] seat bibs that are found in interstate roadside bathrooms.” Texas yell thang

See

REBEL YELL; REBEL YALE.

Common pronunciation of thing.

thankee Thank you; sometimes heard in rural areas; recorded in Peter Matthiessen’s Killing Mr. Watson, 1990.

A nickname for North Carolina. See also

Tasting. “It was a good-tasted apple.”

ta ta’s Slang for female breasts, used recently in a few works by Southern authors and in the movie An Officer and a Gentleman. tater

Told; heard in Cajun speech. “He tell for me to

A nickname for North Carolina. See also

tarnation An old expression used in the South and other regions meaning “damnation” and formed from eternal (tarnal) and damnation.

Tar State TARHEEL.

tell for go.”

A common pronunciation of potato. A frequent pronunciation of Texas in Texas.

thar

A pronunciation of there.

that (1) Sometimes omitted in speech, as in “You’ll see a heap more things is strange.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) (2) Frequently used in Cajun speech, as in “That time they go to that bayou” (“Then, they went to the bayou”). thataway That way, a shortening of that there way. “A deer’ll sink in thataway.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

146 Whistlin’ Dixie that dog don’t hunt That idea or theory isn’t logical, doesn’t wash; popularized in the movie J.F.K. (1991), set in New Orleans and Texas. that’s how the cow ate the cabbage An expression to indicate the speaker is laying it on the line, telling it like it is, getting down to brass tacks—with the connotation of telling someone what he or she needs to know but probably doesn’t want to hear. According to Little Rock attorney Alston Jennings, who submitted this Southernism to Richard Allen’s February 2, 1991, “Our Town” column in the Arkansas Gazette, the expression has its roots in a story about an elephant that escaped from the zoo and wandered into a woman’s cabbage patch. The woman observed the elephant pulling up her cabbages with its trunk and eating them. She called the police to report that there was a cow in her cabbage patch pulling up cabbages with its tail. When the surprised police officer inquired as to what the cow was doing with the cabbages, the woman replied, “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you!” A good story, regardless. that’s two different buckets of possums! Two different stories. “That’s two different buckets of possums! You tell me one thing, and he tells me another.” that takes the rag off the bush That beats everything, takes first place, etc; may have originated with hunters, possibly in the West, who fired at rags that were targets hung on bushes. the (1) Often omitted in Cajun speech. “I make whole place clean.” (2) Often used for “a” in Cajun speech. “I’m the fool, I reckon.” theirin; theirn There’s. “. . . even Miz Snopes had to admit that that was a good swap from anything that could get up and walk from Beasley’s lot to theirin by itself . . .” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940) theirselves them there apples.” them-uns

Themselves.

these here

These. “Let these here ripen a while.”

they It often appears that they is substituted for there by Southerners, as in “They’s no time left,” but such “theys” are usually a rapid pronunciation of there (THAY-uh) is. they-all they-uns

They. They.

things Gullah for animals, especially farm animals. “He left her with all the things to feed.” thisaway

This way, a shortening of this here way.

this child A humorous term used by a speaker in reference to himself. “This child is too smart for that.” thole To endure; an archaic term. “Sweet ladies, long may ye bloom,/and toughly I hope ye may thole.” (John Crowe Ransom, “Here Lies a Lady,” 1924) thorough Thoroughly. “I want you to thorough clean the house.” those Often used in Cajun for this or these: “Those man is right.” thoughty Thoughtful. “Well, that’s mighty thoughty of you.” (John Faulkner, Men Working, 1941) thout Without; unless; an expression heard mainly in East Texas. “I couldn’t go thout I had my good saddle.” th’ow A pronunciation of throw common among blacks and with some use among whites. thriblets Triplets. “If old Anse had been about seventyfive years younger, the three of them might have been thriblets.” (William Faulkner, “The Tall Men,” 1943) three bricks shy of a load Not very bright, dull-witted. “He’s three bricks shy of a load.”

Those. “I’ll have some of them there thribble; tribble Infrequently used for them, those.

there Often used superfluously, as in “That there girl’s mine.” See HERE.

throw a double duck fit To be in an extreme state of anger or agitation. “She got him so riled up he threw a double duck fit.” throwed it out

there’s more ways of killing a cat than choking him to death with butter There are many better, easier ways to do something than the difficult way someone is doing it presently.

Triple.

Threw it out.

throw off on To make fun of. “Now you’re throwin’ off on my sister.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Cross Creek, 1942)

tobacco road 147 Thump ’em and see if they talk back a melon to see whether it’s ripe. thundering herd for baked beans.

Said when testing

A colorfully descriptive Texas term

thuse An old term for a college pep rally; from enthusiastic. tie a knot in his (her) tail To impede someone from doing something by placing an obstacle in his path or making life difficult for him. “We’ll serve him with a restraining order. That’ll tie a knot in his tail.” Also put a knot in his (her) tail. tie-tongued Tongue-tied. “He is what we call tietongued.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Cross Creek, 1942) tight A difficult or dangerous position, a bind, a quandary; deriving from a tight place. “Any time you get in a tight, us is here to do what we can.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Cross Creek, 1942) tight as Dick’s hatband Stingy, an old English phrase. “He’s tight as Dick’s hatband.” Historically the expression refers to the fact that the crown was too tight or dangerous to be worn by a certain king of England. The particular king’s identity is unknown, but one popular theory suggests Oliver Cromwell’s son Richard, often called Tumbledown Dick, who was nominated by his father to succeed him but served for only seven months because he received no support from the army. Another candidate is King Richard III, this Richard said to have been uncomfortable wearing a crown bought with blood. Because “tight” is a synonym for “stingy,” the phrase came to mean stingy in the South. tighter than skin on a sausage Very cheap. “He has the first cent he ever earned; he’s tighter than the skin on a sausage.” till the last pea’s out of the dish To the very end, for a long time. “The governor’s going to stay in the race till the last pea’s out of the dish.” time When; a shortening of “by the time.” “You’ll not be so merry, time the day be done.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) tin A common pronunciation of ten. “I wouldn’t give tin cents for it.” Tinnissee PHIS.

A pronunciation of Tennessee. See also MIM-

tippy-toed On tiptoe. “A yearlin’ ’ll walk tippy-toed.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) tipsy cake

A cake soaked in wine.

tipsy parson Carolinas.

An old name for the indigo bunting in the

titi A large Gulf State shrub of the Cyrilla family; its name possibly derives from an American Indian language. to Often omitted from the infinitive in Cajun speech. “I’m going make myself a drink.” (2) Sometimes used superfluously in infinitives. “We’d best to go.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) (3) In. “I don’t reckon there’s nothin’ open to town this time of evening.” (John Faulkner, Men Working, 1941) (4) The. “ ‘What to hell are you doing here?’ ” (William Alexander Percy, Lanterns on the Levee, 1941) (5) At. “He lives to John’s place.” (6) Often used to make explicit that a verb is an infinitive. “She made us all to eat every bit on our plates.” (7) Often inserted by Southerners shortly after “have” when asking a question. “Shall I have him to call you?” toadfrog

A toad; rarely means a frog.

toad-strangler A very heavy rain. “‘Hit’s a toad-strangler of a rain,’ he said.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) tobacco road See quote for definition. “The road on which Jeeter lived was the original tobacco road his grandfather had made. It was about fifteen miles long and extended in a southeasterly direction from the foothills of the Piedmont, where the sand started, and ended on the bluffs at the river. The road had been used for the rolling of tobacco casks, large hogsheads in which the leaf has been packed after being cured and seasoned in the clay-chinked barns; thousands of hogsheads had been rolled along the crest of the ridge which connected the chain of sand hills, and they had made a smooth firm road the entire distance of fifteen miles . . . After seventy-five years the tobacco road still remained, and while in many places it was beginning to show signs of washing away, its depressions and hollows had made a permanent contour that could remain as long as the sand hills. There were scores of tobacco roads on the western side of the Savannah Valley, some only a mile or so long, others extending as far back as twenty-five or thirty miles into the foothills of the Piedmont. Anyone walking cross-country would more than likely find as many as six or eight in a day’s hike. The region, topographically, was like a palm leaf; the Savan-

148 Whistlin’ Dixie nah was the stem, large at the bottom and gradually spreading out into the veins at the top. On the side of the valley the creeks ran down like the depressions in the palm leaf, while between them lay the ridges of sand hills, like seams, and on the crests of the ridges were the tobacco roads.” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932) to get it

Get it. “I’ll have him to get it for you.”

tol-able (tolderable) well Heard in Texas for fair, pretty good. “I’m feeling tol-able well.” tole

Pronunciation of told.

tolerable ble.”

In fairly good health. “I’m feelin’ jus’ tolera-

toll To lure, entice, lead on. “That widow had tolled my Will into her clutches.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, “Cocks Must Crow,” 1939) toll away To send away with a warning; probably from the sound of a tolling bell used to dismiss as well as to summon. “They said I didn’t run away from home but that I was tolled away by a crazy man who, if I hadn’t killed him first, would have killed me inside another week.” (William Faulkner, “Uncle Willy,” 1936) tolt

took down with Came down with. “He took down with pneumonia.” tooken Taken. “A lot of these mill hands used to be tooken back home for burial.” (Jonathan Daniels, Tar Heels, 1941) too poor to paint and too proud to whitewash A term describing any impoverished Southern gentleman or lady. Whitewash is much cheaper than paint. too slow to catch the itch slow to catch the itch.”

Extremely slow. “Here’s too

too sorry to hit a lick at a snake

Extremely lazy.

tooth doctor An old-fashioned, perhaps obsolete, term for a dentist. tootle An old term for nonsense. “ ‘It all sounds like tootle to me.’ ” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936) tootling Kidding, fooling. “You jist tootlin’ me.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

Told.

tomatoeses

A plural of tomato.

tomcat A wild, sexually active man. “‘Do what?’ Varner said. ‘To who? Don’t you know them damn tomcats are halfway to Texas now?” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940) tomorrow is another day “After all, tomorrow is another day!” is the last sentence in Gone With the Wind (1939), Scarlett O’Hara speaking these words as she plans on going home to Tara and winning back Rhett Butler. The expression, however, dates to at least the early 16th century. tom-walkers too

took To have taken. “‘Then I taken my slingshot and I would have liked to took all my bird eggs, too . . .’” (William Faulkner, “Two Soldiers,” 1943)

Stilts.

Gullah for very. “I too glad you came.”

too big for his (her) britches A conceited person with too high an opinion of himself; heard in other regions as well. too high for picking cotton An old term describing someone who is a little drunk; first recorded in Parson Weem’s The Drunkard’s Looking Glass (1818).

torn-down Tough, violent, good for nothing. “He’s a torn-down scoundrel, the torn downedest I ever seen.” tossel

The tassle on a corn plant.

tote Tote is of uncertain origin but possibly comes from the African Konga and Kikonga language tota (to carry). The word may have passed into English through the Gullah dialect in the Southern United States and is now widely used throughout the United States. “I’ll be toted in dead.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, “Cocks Must Crow,” 1939) tote the mail A Southern black expression meaning “to run away fast.” “I toted the mail when I saw him coming.” touch-me-not

A very haughty or ill-tempered person.

touchous Highly sensitive or touchy. “You’re getting might touchous.” tough as puttin’ socks on a rooster time-consuming. town trash

See

TRASH.

Very difficult and

twouble 149 tow sack Towser

See

CROCUS SACK.

An energetic, personable man.

truck Stuff, nonsense. “‘Hush, white man,’ the Negro said. ‘Hush. Don’t be telling us no truck like that.’” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940)

trash (1) An old term for candy or sweets, what might be called junk food today. “Don’t eat trash before dinner.” (2) Low-class people, low-life. “Then she said quietly, aloud, without rancor, without heat: ‘Trash. Town trash.’” (William Faulkner, “There Was a Queen,” 1933) See also POOR WHITE TRASH.

truth to tell To tell the truth. “Truth to tell, I like the Florida heat.”

trashy poor and no ’count at all.

Someone with no breeding

tump To knock over, overturn; rarely recorded but still in use. “Don’t tump over my bucket of paint.”

trashy wench A prostitute, a woman of low reputation. “‘Get off those steps, you trashy wench!’ she cried. ‘Get off this land! Get out!’ ” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936)

turkey-and-hog dinner A dinner of turkey and ham traditionally eaten on New Year’s Day. “The New Year’s Day turkey-and-hog dinner had made the woman droopy and dull-eyed.” (Erskine Caldwell, “Blue Boy,” The Complete Stories of Erskine Caldwell, 1953)

treadsalve; treadsaft Spurge neetle, a very prickly plant of the nightshade family. tremblish Gullah meaning “trembly.” “His hands acted tremblish.” trembly tremenjus trick

Trembling. Tremendous.

Any article, but especially a toy.

trill “‘Ain’t you ever trilled a bell in your life?’ Preacher Hawshaw asked . . . ‘It goes ding-a-ling . . . stop tolling it and begin trilling it!’” (Erskine Caldwell, Georgia Boy, 1943) trimble

Tremble.

troll An old term meaning “to ramble, to walk around.” “There he was trolling along without a care in the world.” tromp To walk, stamp, tramp on. “If I thought enough of a rug to have to git it all the way from France I wouldn’t keep hit where folks coming in would have to tromp on hit.” (William Faulkner, “Barn Burning,” 1939) tromple on.”

Trample. “Watch out or you’ll get trompled

tuckahoe Any Virginian living east of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains; can also mean “one who speaks with a Southern accent.” See also COHEE.

turn A load or armful of something. “He brought in a turn of wood.” turn him in the cold Said in Kentucky of a woman who turns down a man’s marriage proposal: “She turned him in the cold.” turn loose; turn aloose To let go, free, get rid of. “Will turned him aloose.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, “Cocks Must Crow,” 1939) turn one every way but loose A threat to beat someone up badly in a fight. “I’ll turn you every way but loose.” turn-row A deep furrow in the center of a field that is formed by reversing the direction in which the furrows fall; land situated at the end of a field that is used for turning a plow at the end of a row. Turpentine State A nickname for North Carolina because of its large production of turpentine. twict

Twice. “Think twict before you speak.”

twistification twouble

An old term for a country dance.

Common pronunciation of terrible.

U ugly (1) Ugliness. “It was ugly, and God don’t love ugly.” (2) An old term for sexual intercourse. “He was in for thirty days for throwing bricks at a woman at a church social because she wouldn’t do ugly for forty cents.” (Atlantic Monthly, September 1938) (3) Disagreeable, mean. “Don’t be so ugly now.” (4) A historical colloquial Southernism for the quality of ugliness. In 1835 a Georgia writer noted, “I want to get in the bread of them sort o’ men to drive ugly out of my kin folks.”

Kentuckian would think no more of taking his jackknife and unbuttoning that Creek’s collar than he would of taking off his coat.”

ujinctum An old term, mostly confined to the southeastern Kentucky mountains, for hell.

Uncle Bud A Southern term for beer; derives from the popular Budweiser brand of beer. “I did that a lot. Usually while I was under the influence of Uncle Bud.” (Larry Brown, “92 Days,” 1990)

Uncle A form of address, little-used anymore, for an elderly male black, once considered a pleasant, friendly salutation by whites, as was its variation, Unkey. Today the term is considered derogatory by blacks. See usage example at AUNTIE.

unaker A famous porcelain clay found in western North Carolina.

undecent unbalm The opposite of embalm. It is possibly a Faulkner invention: “ ‘Why don’t you,’ Father said, ‘if you could just kind of unbalm Jabbo a little—you know; so he wouldn’t get cold or hungry—tie him on the back of the car like he was an extra wheel or engine, then every time you had a puncture or it wouldn’t start, all you’d have to do would be to untie Jabbo and stand him up and unbalm him—is that the word? Unbalm.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Town, 1957)

An old, perhaps obsolete term for indecent.

underminded building.”

Undermined. “He underminded the

under the hack Dispirited. “Being fired got me under the hack.” See also HACK. unfinancial

Without money.

unhealth Sickness, decline, decay, etc. “ ‘This is the penitentiary. I can’t imagine no more unhealth a man can have than to be locked up inside a bobwire pen for twenty or twenty-five years.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959)

unbleached Americans A friendly white slang term for American blacks, used from before the Civil War to the end of the 19th century. unbreathing Breathless. “We waited unbreathing.” (William Alexander Percy, Lanterns on the Levee, 1941)

Union League A society organized in the North during the Civil War to inspire loyalty toward the Union; after the war it also became a secret political society among blacks in the South.

unbutton the collar of An obsolete slang term meaning “to kill.” A 19th century newspaper observed: “This

150

us-ums 151 United Daughters of the Confederacy A patriotic, benevolent and social organization of Southern women descended from those who fought for the Southern cause, or gave aid to it, during the Civil War; founded in Nashville, Tennessee in 1894.

Unterrified Democrat An unswervingly loyal Democrat, generally from the South. The obsolete term is first recorded in 1832 in reference to supporters of Andrew Jackson, and the name was often shortened to simply the Unterrified.

Unity States United States. “And now me and Pete expected Pap to say something else foolish, like he done before, about how Uncle Marsh getting wounded in France and that trip to Texas Pap taken in 1918 ought to be enough to save the Unity States in 1942, but he never.” (William Faulkner, “Two Soldiers,” 1943)

unthoughted Thoughtless, badly thought out. “You keep saying unthoughted things.”

Unkey

See

UNCLE.

unlessen Unless. “ ‘We just sent for his jockey,’ Ned said. ‘Then you can see him work . . . Unlessen you in a hurry to get back to yourn.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Reivers, 1962) unmorals Immoral behavior. “ ‘Women are not interested in morals [Mother said]. They aren’t even interested in unmorals.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Town, 1957) unnatural

upchuck

To regurgitate, vomit.

upon the top (side) of the earth On the face of the earth. “Asheville was the greatest place upon the top of the earth to live.” (Thomas Wolfe, Letters, 1924) upped and To have acted suddenly, impulsively; also up and. “He upped and left.” uppowoc An obsolete Indian word for tobacco, first recorded in the South in 1588. up shit creek without even a piss paddle In a totally hopeless situation. “. . . ‘how’s that for an old Southern boy once up shit creek without even a piss paddle.’ ” (Calder Willingham, Rambling Rose, 1972)

Unnaturally. “It’s so unnatural quiet.”

unpleasantness The Civil War; a term used in the South and other regions after the war was over, often in the form The Late Unpleasantness, less often in the form The Little Unpleasantness. unreconstructed rebel ERNER.

See

UNRECONSTRUCTED SOUTH-

unreconstructed Southerner A term applied to a Southerner not reconciled to the results of the Civil War; first recorded in 1867, it is still used today. Unreconstructed rebel is a later variation. Following is a stanza of “A Good Old Rebel (Unreconstructed)” by Innes Randolph (1837–87): I am a good old rebel— Yes; that’s just what I am— And for this land of freedom I do not give a damn. I’m glad I fit agin ’em, And I only wish we’d won; And I don’t ax no pardon For anything I’ve done.

unteched Untouched. “. . . while she et an ice-cream sody . . . and the ice melted into the unteched Coca-Cola in front of him.” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959)

up the road a piece An undetermined distance away. “He never told anybody where he had been. Just up the road a piece.” (William Faulkner, “Hair,” 1931) us We. “Anytime you get in a tight, us is here to do what we can.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Cross Creek, 1942) A common redundancy in Cajun speech, as in “Us, we believe you right.” used-to-be A Southern term for a has-been. “He’s an old washed-out used-to-be.” used to could Used to be able to. “She used to could milk the cows.” used to couldn’t see that Couldn’t see or understand something in the past. “I used to couldn’t see that, but now I understand.” use to couldn’t A phrase often used in Cajun speech to mean “was at once time unable to.” “I use to couldn’t run” (“I wasn’t able to run”). useless as tits on a boar hog can get. us-ums

About as useless as one

Us; rarely heard anymore.

V V Formerly used in the South and other regions to mean a five-dollar bill. See also X. Vallandinghamers vanity cake time.

See

veto This was the name of an old New Orleans alcoholic drink, so named, probably, in honor of President Andrew Jackson’s vetoes of congressional bills.

COPPERHEAD.

vigilance committee A pre-Civil War and Civil War organization using extralegal means to intimidate blacks and abolitionists.

A Mississippi dessert often served at tea

vapors An old-fashioned term used in the South and elsewhere for an hysterical nervous state, often a feigned illness.

vigintial crop This old term, referring to a crop produced in 20 years, was used in reference to slavebreeding, as is witnessed by these words from a speech by C. J. Faulkner to the Virginia legislature in 1832: “Shall society suffer that the slaveholder may continue to gather his vigintial crop of human flesh?”

various At odds or variance. “They never agree, they’re various with each other.” varmint Vermin; an undesirable animal; an obnoxious person. A pronunciation bordering on a new word that the South’s early aristocrats borrowed from upper-class English speech. “ ‘I think you like me because I am a varmint. You’ve known so few dyed-in-the-wool varmints in your sheltered life that my very difference holds a quaint charm for you.’ ” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936)

Virginia Sir Walter Raleigh suggested that Virginia be named after England’s Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen, when in 1584 he founded his colony, probably on what is now Roanoke Island. (The island, which is off North Carolina, was originally part of the great area from Florida to Newfoundland that Virginia encompassed.) Virginia, the Old Dominion State, was the site of the first permanent English settlement, at Jamestown in 1607. Often called the “Mother of Presidents,” the state sent Washington, Jefferson, Monroe, Tyler, William Henry Harrison and Wilson to the White House. As to the state’s exact naming, one writer tells us that Queen Elizabeth graciously accorded the privileges proposed by Raleigh, giving to this new land a name in honor of her maiden state, and it was called Virginia. Raleigh was knighted for his service and given the title of Lord and Governor of Virginia.

varsity University. Another pronunciation bordering on a new word that the South’s early aristocrats borrowed from upper-class English speech. venture

An adventure.

veranda A large porch, which is also called a piazza and a gallery in the South.

Virginia

very spit of The spitting image of, very close in appearance to. “He’s the very spit of his father. The pure spit of him.” See also SPITTIN’ IMAGE.

Tobacco grown in Virginia.

Virginia breakdown 152

See

BREAKDOWN.

vow and bedamn 153 Virginia fence An obsolete expression alluding to the uncertain course of one who is drunk by referring to the zigzag Virginia rail fences. Virginia gouger A term once used to describe a man from Virginia who gouged an opponent’s eyes out in fighting. The term Carolina gouger was also common, and some Northerners thought all “Southlanders” fought this way. “When the trader got home, he would tell terrible stories of the Southlanders being gougers.” (James Paulding, The Diverting History of John Bull and Brother Jonathan, 1813) Virginial A festival held every five years in 19th century Jamestown. Virginianism

A Virginia Americanism.

Virginia truffle The subterranean fungus Poria cocos found in the Southern states. Also called Indian bread, Indian loaf and tuckahoe.

Virginia weed

Tobacco.

vittles Victuals, food. This backcountry Southern word is actually a very old, proper English one, and victuals is a pedantic misspelling of it. volunteer A bastard, an analogy with a “volunteer plant” in the garden (one not planted by design). vow and bedamn Strongly swear to something. “‘Now you go ahead and do what the country records is supposed to do. I’ll vow and bedamn if I’m going to be cheated out of legal marriage to Nellie after all this time has gone by.’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, “Momento,” Gulf Coast Stories, 1956)

W wagpole Tail. “‘He’s mighty playful dog, Lonnie,’ Arch said, catching up a shorter grip on the tail, ‘but his wagpole is way too long for a dog his size. . .’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, “Kneel to the Rising Sun,” The Complete Stories of Erskine Caldwell, 1953)

wampus

See

CATAWAMPUS

wanted up Wanted to get up; an East Texas expression. “He wanted up and howled like all get out.” wants up Wants to get up. “He’s tired of being in bed. He wants up.”

waiter

Gullah for a best man or bridesmaid. See also CONJURE BAG.

the War The Civil War. “In the South, the War is what is elsewhere; they date from it. All day long you hear things ‘placed’ as having happened since the War; or ‘du’in’ the War, or ‘befo’ the War.” (Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi, 1883) A.D.

wait on To wait for. “I can’t be waiting on you all morning.” walkalong Joe A dance of black origin in which dancers move in a large circle; also called walkaround.

War Between the States walking off with the persimmons SIMMON.

See

(second definition).

The Civil War.

EATIN’ A GREEN

War for Constitutional Liberty War for Nationality

wall To roll one’s eyes in an exaggerated fashion, emphasizing the whites. “If fish could bat their eyes, or wall them like El Greco’s saints . . .” (William Alexander Percy, Lanterns on the Levee, 1941)

War for Separation

The Civil War. The Civil War.

War for Southern Freedom waller To wallow, roll about. “Stop wallern’ about in that bed, boy!”

The Civil War.

The Civil War.

War for Southern Independence War for Southern Nationality

walloper A hard, heavy blow. “He must have taken some wallopers.” (Jonathan Daniels, Tar Heels, 1941)

War for Southern Rights Wallstreet Panic Faulkner created or recorded the most unusual of Southern names in The Hamlet (1940). As Ech Snopes explains: “. . . [We] figured if we named him Wallstreet Panic it might make him get rich like the folks that run that Wallstreet panic [in 1928].”

War for States’ Rights War of Secession

The Civil War.

The Civil War.

The Civil War.

The Civil War.

War of the North and South 154

The Civil War.

The Civil War.

well-knowed 155 War of the Sixties

The Civil War.

War to Suppress Yankee Arrogance

weakified Weak or tired. “I feel weakified.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) The Civil War.

was Often used in Cajun speech with a present tense verb to indicate past tense: “We was walk back soon” (“We walked back soon”). was a year; was a week; etc. saw him was a week.” wash

A year, week, etc., ago. “I

Either a bump or a depression in a road.

wash-hole

An old term for a swimming hole.

weak jerks A case of nerves, jumpiness. “ ‘I git the weak jerks thinkin’ about ’em [wolves]’ ” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) we-all We. “[A corporation] lapsed into Southern mountain talk. Thomas J. Watson, president of I.B.M., took full-page ads in the press to proclaim: ‘ “I” represents only one person. “We” may mean only two or a few persons. Our slogan now is WE-ALL . . . President Roosevelt, our Commander-in-Chief, can be certain that WE-ALL are back of him.’ ” (Time, January 12, 1943)

washing

Swimming. “Let’s go in washing.”

we-all’s

washline

A clothesline.

wear out To beat or whip thoroughly, to spank a child. “I hope she wears him out.” (John Faulkner, Men Working, 1941)

wasp’s nest White bread (from its texture). “I made some wasp’s nest bread.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Cross Creek, 1942) watch the night fully accomplish To watch darkness fall completely. “They ate supper by lamplight, then, sitting on the doorstep, the boy watched the night fully accomplish . . .” (William Faulkner, “Barn Burning,” 1939) water eye.”

Gullah for a tear. “Not a water drained out my

wave the bloody shirt Used in both the North and the South from after the Civil War until the present to indicate any means employed to stir up hostility between the North and the South. “The G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic) waved the Bloody Shirt in many a political campaign, advising its boys in blue to ‘vote as you shoot!’ ” (Jerome Kerwin, Civil-Military Relationships in American Life, 1948) wawnchalla wax ways

wear the britches To be the real authority; used especially of a wife in a family. “She wears the britches in that house.” wear the green willow To be sad or disappointed in love. “She’s wearing the green willow since he left her.” wear to a frazzle To wear out, wear thin. See usage example at WHY IN PLUPERFECT HELL. wear to a nub To wear down. “It drove me crazy and wore me to a nub.” (Calder Willingham, Rambling Rose, 1972) webfooter A term for a Southern infantryman during the Civil War. weedmonkey A mostly Southern mountain term meaning “to be a prostitute or loose woman.” “Let’s go weedmonkeying tonight.”

A pronunciation of want you all to.

An old term for chewing gum. Distance, way. “It’s a long ways from here.”

way yonder Very much, a great distance. “He’s a way yonder ahead of me.” we

Our, ours. “This property is we-all’s.”

Gullah for our. “He sent dat rat to kill we joy.”

We ain’t what we want to be, and we ain’t what we’re goin’ to be, but we ain’t what we was An old optimistic saying that originated in South Carolina.

well, I’ll be A shortening of all the other well, I’ll be . . . expressions, such as well, I’ll be damned. well, I’ll be a suck-egg mule! Common exclamation. “‘Well I’ll be a suck-egg mule!’ Ty Ty said. ‘I wasn’t doing a thing but standing there.’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, God’s Little Acre, 1933) well, I’ll be black-dogged! damned. well-knowed person.”

Euphemism for I’ll be

Well-known. “He were a well-knowed

156 Whistlin’ Dixie well, shoot a bug! take the cake.

Well I’ll be damned, if that don’t

well slap the dog (or cat) an’ spit in the fire! rural exclamation of surprise.

An old

wench A derogatory term for a black female slave in slavery times or for a black female servant. went Sometimes used for gone, as in “She’s went to the store, I reckon.” West-by-God-Virginia A humorous name for West Virginia said to have been coined by an irate native when it was said he came from Virginia. Replied the man: “Not Virginia, but WEST, by God!, Virginia!” West Virginia West Virginia is composed of 40 western mountain counties that seceded from Virginia at the outbreak of the Civil War, these counties voting not to secede from the Union and forming their own state government. After rejecting New Virginia, Kanawha and Alleghany, the new state settled on West Virginia for a name, an ironic choice since Virginia extends 95 miles farther west than West Virginia does. West Virginia had considered seceding from Virginia several times due to unequal taxation and representation, and the Civil War provided an excellent excuse. Its constitution was amended to abolish slavery, and President Lincoln proclaimed West Virginia the 35th state in 1862, justifying his action as a war measure. Nicknamed the “Mountain State” and often called the “Panhandle State,” it has an odd outline, leading to the saying that it’s “a good state for the shape it’s in.” West Virginny West Virginia, “He’s from West Virginny.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, South Moon Under, 1933) we-uns We or us. “ ‘What for you uns,’ said they, in their barbaric dialect, ‘come down her to fight weuns?’” (Harper’s Magazine, December 16, 1864) we’ve howdied, but we ain’t shook one knows but doesn’t know well.

Said of somebody

wha Who. An early Southern pronunciation of who, deriving from the Scotch-Irish schoolteachers of the South, who were often indentured servants. whang-doodle An extraordinary person or thing. “Down in Mississippi we’d call her a whang-doodle!” whapper-jawed whar

what That; which; who. Often heard in Cajun speech. “This is the man what owns the store.” “He is the man what knows.” what for? Why?; heard in Cajun speech. “What for you come here?” what the world’s going to The Southern version of what is usually what the world’s coming to in other regions of the country. “It’s pitiful what the world’s going to now.” (Larry Brown, “Old Soldiers,” 1990) wheel baw whelp

A wheelbarrow; used in North Carolina.

Welt. “He had great whelps all over his body.”

when elephants roost in trees Never. “‘You’ll get a dollar a pound [for cotton] when elephants roost in trees!’ ” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936) when the cheese begun to bind When everything came together, when the plot unfolded. “. . . Uncle Mink never seemed to have any trouble reconciling Jack Houston up in front of that shotgun when the cheese begun to bind.” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959) where’s at Often used for “where is” in Cajun speech. “Where’s at the place?” wheresomever Wherever. “‘Clare to wheresomever the hogs be.’” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) where y’at? A common greeting used instead of hello and similar greetings in the Irish Channel section of New Orleans. whet

A long time. “He stayed quite a whet.”

which (1) Who or that. “That same air Jones, which lived in Jones,/ He had this pint about him.” (Sidney Lanier, “Jone’s Private Argument,” 1870) (2) Often used as a conjunctive in a confusing way, as in: “The President was not happy with the results of the election, which I couldn’t be happier about that.” (3) Often used for what. “ ‘I shot it,’ she said. ‘You which?’ old Het said.” (William Faulkner, The Town, 1957) which-a-way Which way. “Which-a-way did he come from?” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) whiles A while. “Now we’ll set awhiles.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

WHOPPER-JAWED.

A pronunciation of where.

whilst While. “Whilst I was asleep.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938)

wild as spikehorn bucks 157 whimpery pery.”

Sad and whimpering. “He became whim-

whistlin’ Dixie white bacon white buckra

See

YOU AIN’T JUST WHISTLIN’ DIXIE.

white trash

See

POOR WHITE TRASH.

whittlety-whet When two people were running a close race, oldtimers in Kentucky said, “It is whittlety-whet who will get there first.”

Salt pork. See

White Camellias

BUCKRA.

See

KNIGHTS OF THE WHITE CAMELLIA.

white captain A title of respect, sometimes obsequious, used by a black man to a white man. “ ‘I wouldn’t eat up your mule, boss. I never thought of anything like that. But, please, sir, white captain, don’t bring no conjureman around here.’” (Erskine Caldwell, God’s Little Acre, 1933) whitefolks Form of address, often disparaging, by blacks to white people. “We just stood there, facing Butch and the other man, who now held Lightning. ‘What’s it for, Whitefolks?’ Ned said.” (William Faulkner, The Reivers, 1962) white folk’s nigger (negro) A reproachful term among blacks for a black person who toadies to white people. White League An organization formed in the South after the Civil War to maintain white supremacy. White Line A secret political organization formed in about 1875 and devoted to white supremacy. white man A term once used by white Southerners to distinguish themselves from Yankees or Northerners. “Yonder’s the Yankees on one side, and here’s the blamed niggers on t’other, and betwixt or betweenst ’em a white man’s got mighty little chance.” (Century Magazine, August 1887) white marsh An old name in Louisiana and South Carolina for Southern wild rice. white mule Potent moonshine. “. . . he hadn’t spent no twenty-five or thirty dollars worth of white mule whisley jist to purify the Snope’s name outen Atlanta, Georgia.” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959)

whit up To sharpen. “I could whit up one of Jackson’s butcher knives and finish it myself, with another drink or two.” (William Faulkner, “The Tall Men,” 1941) who laid the chuck (laid a chuck; laid the rails; tied the pup) With authority; to perfection. “They could raise hogs to who-laid-a-chuck, but they couldn’t raise children.” “She can sing from who laid the chuck.” whole enduring day The entire, whole day; long period of time. “He’s done nothing the whole enduring day.” whomper-jawed whoo-ee

WHOPPER-JAWED.

Wow. “Whoo-ee, she’s pretty as a picture.”

whop Whip. “ ‘He’ll whop any dog.’ ” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) whopper-jawed

Large or crooked protruding jaws.

whoses Whose, in the speech of some blacks and whites. “‘Whoses house?’ Jimson asked, his mouth hanging open. ‘Whoses house did you say?’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, “Big Buck,” The Complete Stories of Erskine Caldwell, 1953) who tied the pup whupped

See

WHO LAID THE CHUCK.

A pronunciation of whipped.

why in pluperfect hell An exclamation of exasperation. “ ‘Why in pluperfect hell can’t he leave the woman alone? There ain’t no sense in a man going rutting every day in the whole year. The woman will wear Shaw to a frazzle.’ ” (Erskine Caldwell, God’s Little Acre, 1933) widder Widow. A pronunciation bordering on a new word that the South’s early aristocrats borrowed from upper-class English speech. widder woman; widow woman

A widow.

white nigger (negro) An offensive term for a black person of very light color, sometimes an albino; a white person who does hard manual labor.

wild as an acre of snakes Very wild. “He’s the wildest man in Texas, wild as an acre of snakes.”

white Republican An old post-Civil War term for a white member of the Republican party.

wild as spikehorn bucks Very wild. “I remember them—two little criters exactly alike, and wild as spike-

158 Whistlin’ Dixie horn bucks, running around here day and night . . .” (William Faulkner, “The Tall Men,” 1941) will Often dropped as an auxiliary verb in Cajun speech. “What you do now?”

wobble Shake. “Sheena Baby was getting smaller in the distance with each step, and I could see that fine ass she has wobbling. I knew she’d wobble it harder when she heard something [a car] coming down the road.” (Larry Brown, “Falling Out of Love,” 1990)

willipus-wollopus A huge, fabulous creature. “The [Southern] newspapers showed cartoons of Northern corporations as tigers, money bags, willipus-wollopuses, rolling over helpless little men.” (Saturday Evening Post, January 3, 1942)

womens Women. “Some Negro womens come by.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Cross Creek, 1942)

winder Window. A pronunciation bordering on a new word that the South’s early aristocrats borrowed from upper-class English speech.

won’t Heard in North Carolina for “wasn’t.” “It won’t me that did it.”

windowlight (pronounced wenderlight)

Window.

wine book According to an October 31, 1989, article in the New York Times, a wine book is a ledger in which the crew leaders or bosses of migrant workers in Southern states “record the claims that they make on the worker’s wages, beyond the $40 or $50 per week that they charge for their meals. The name of a worker is written at the top of each page, which, except for the occasional date and odd notation is nothing but a list of numbers showing dollars and cents. But the crew leaders know what transaction each charge represents.” Transactions often include wine, of course, and also cocaine and crack, the crew leaders rarely telling a worker the high price of the drugs until the money is deducted from his salary. Such are the more subtle ways of debt servitude today. The expression wine book has been around at least two or three decades but is not often recorded. wiry as hog-bristles Said of hair that is very stiff and unmanageable. “Sometimes he could manage to make it [his hair] lie down for a few minutes by sousing his head in a pan of water and then combing it hurriedly, but as soon as the water began to dry, the hair would stand up straight as if it were attached to springs. Dude’s hair was as wiry as hog-bristles.” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932) witch woman A witch. “She was known far and wide as a witch woman.” with a penny to bless him (her) With a penny to his (her) name. “ ‘Oh, Captain Butler, I haven’t a relative with a penny to bless him!’ ” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936) without Unless. “Can’t you come without I have to carry you?”

wonderment A curiosity or cause of wonder. “It was a wonderment how fast they growed.”

woods colt An illegitimate child. “. . . everybody else in ten miles of the Bend knew that old Will Warner was going to have to marry her off to somebody, and that quick, if he didn’t want a wood’s colt in his back yard next grass.” (William Faulkner, The Mansion, 1959) wool-hat boys croppers.

Small farmers, tenant farmers, share-

woolyhead An offensive term for a black person dating back to the early 19th century. woon’t

Won’t. See also

wopple-jawed

PAAMS.

WHOPPER-JAWED.

words and trickery and flummery Euphemistic pretense. “‘It sounds like a farm to me,’ said Mother. ‘Calling it a dairy establishment that’s just words and trickery and flummery.’ ” (Calder Willingham, Rambling Rose, 1972) wore out

Tired. “I’m all wore out.”

working without a full set of lights working without a full set of lights.”

Stupid. “He’s

work like hell-on-fire To work to the utmost of one’s capacity. “That’s when he said he made up his mind to work like hell-on-fire and never be poor like that again.” (Erskine Caldwell, The Earnshaw Neighborhood, 1971) worried up Worried. “There she was, all worried up about every little thing.” worrisome work.”

Wearisome. “It was a worrisome place to

worryation Gullah for worry. “I done had enough worryation.”

wusser 159 worth doodley squat Worth nothing, of no value; sometimes shortened to worth doodley. “He ain’t worth doodley squat.” worser Worse. “Mrs. Killigrew was worser deaf than even Killigrew.” (William Faulkner, “Shingles for the Lord,” 1943) worse than the plagues of Egypt! A terrible pest, a very bothersome person. “ ‘In Heaven’s name, what are you doing home again? You’re worse than the plagues of Egypt!’ ” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936) worstest

Worst.

would use to Would. “I would use to watch it all the time . . .” (William Faulkner, “Shingles for the Lord,” 1943)

wrastle Wrestle. “. . . I was the one Father had to grab and hold, trying to hold me, having to wrastle with me like I was another man instead of just nine.” (William Faulkner, “Shall Not Perish,” 1943) wrenching out Heavy cleaning. “ ‘Now I get all that wrenching out to do over.’ ” (Eudora Welty, The Optimist’s Daughter, 1972) wring-jaw An old term for especially potent hard cider. There was an expression wring-jawed for drunk as well. write Wrote; heard in Cajun speech. “He write me many letters.” writhen Twisted. “He was writhen by shame.” (Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel, 1929) wusser

W.P.&A. The Depression-era W.P.A. (Works Progress Administration).

See

WORSER.

X X Formerly used in the South and other regions to mean a ten-dollar bill. “Is there not . . . an X left to

redeem the MSS?” (Louisville (Ky.) Public Advertiser, August 21, 1840)

160

Y yager A long-barreled rifle with a large bore popular in the South from about 1777 until the late 19th century and often called the Mississippi jager.

Monitor, which fought the famous Civil War battle against the Confederate Merrimac; also cheesebox upon a plank.

yahoo

Yankee dime

y’all

A rural resident. See

YOU-ALL.

Yankeedom Occasionally used as a Southern term for the North during the Civil War.

yam Yam can be traced back to the Senegal nyami (to eat) and was introduced to America in the South, via the Gullah dialect njam, meaning the same, in 1676. The word, however, had come into European use long before this. Yam is often used interchangeably with sweet potato.

Yankee Invasion

Yankee

the Yankees are coming! A common expression that struck fear in the hearts of Southerners in many towns toward the end of the Civil War. “She gathered up her skirts and ran down the street, and the rhythm of her feet was ‘The Yankees are coming! The Yankees are coming!’ . . . This was an inferno of pain and smell and noise and hurry-hurry-hurry! ‘The Yankees are coming! The Yankees are coming!’ ” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936)

A Northerner, one more scurrilous than Yankee. See

The Civil War.

Yankeeland A chiefly Southern expression for the northern U.S. states.

Yamassee The name of a tribe of Carolina Indians important in early Carolina history. Yank

An old expression meaning “a kiss.”

DAMN YANKEE.

Yankee bummer A Civil War term for deserting Northern soldiers who looted and burned without restraint, the most infamous among them being Sherman’s bummers, who rode on the flanks of General Sherman’s army.

Yankee shot The navel or belly button. “That’s your Yankee shot, child. That’s where the Yankees shot you.” Yankee tea Urine; a term used by Southern soldiers during the Civil War.

Yankee bump A bump or depression in a road; heard in West Virginia and other areas.

Yankee vegetables Undercooked greens, which in true Southern cooking should simmer as long as half a day.

Yankee catchers A company of Confederate soldiers organized in Virginia in 1861.

yapped up Marked up, messed up. “Hit wouldn’t do to have the earth all yapped up with the tracks o’ the dead.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, South Moon Under, 1933)

Yankee cheesebox on a raft A widespread derisive Southern description of the U.S. armored warship the 161

162 Whistlin’ Dixie yarb

See

HERB.

Yazoo Fraud (Claims, Purchase) Expressions pertaining to Georgia’s 1795 sale of lands near the Yazoo River to four crooked companies who profited immensely from their resale to the U.S. government. year Often the pronunciation for ear. “I ate a year of corn.” yearling age.

Often applied indisciminately to a calf of any

yearth Earth. “ ‘Ye kin dig and ye kin dig, young man,’ the reedy voice said. ‘For what’s rendered to the yearth, the yearth will keep until hit’s ready to reveal it.’ ” (William Faulkner, The Hamlet, 1940) ye gods and little fishes! Common exclamation. “We heard a noise at the back door and then an astonished exclamation: ‘Ye gods and little fishes!’ It was Daddy, hunched forward and staring through the curtains of the back kitchen door.” (Calder Willingham, Rambling Rose, 1972) yell

See

tracted by a beautiful woman with yellow roses in her hair.” We have this nice story on the authority of Stephen Scanniello, rosarian of the Cranford Rose Garden in the New York Botanical Garden who told it to garden columnist Anne Raver of the New York Times (6/18/92). yerb

See

HERB.

yessum A pronunciation, both black and white, of yes ma’am. “ ‘Yessum,’ Quentin said. ‘Yes,’ the grim quiet voice said from beyond the unmoving triangle of dim lace . . .” (William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!, 1936) yester

Yesterday; mainly a Southern mountain term.

ye-uns

An old term for the plural you.

y’heah You hear; a common Southern redundancy added to the end of sentences in the form of a question. “Y’all call us soon, y’heah?” yit A pronunciation of yet. “ ‘Well, Kernel, they kilt us but they ain’t whipped us yit, air they?’ ” (William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!, 1936)

REBEL YELL.

yellow jasmine yellow jessamine

The Carolina jasmine. The Carolina jasmine.

yellow leg A rare Union term for a Confederate soldier during the Civil War. yellow; yeller Since at least the early 19th century Southern blacks of a brown or mulatto color have been called by such contemptuous terms as yellow or yeller boy, yellow darky, yellow girl, yellow woman, yellow bitch, yellow skin and high yellow. yellow plug A cheap plug of chewing tobacco. “He took a fresh chew of yellow plug. There was nothing else he could do.” (Erskine Caldwell, God’s Little Acre, 1933) yellow rose of Texas The yellow rose of Texas, which is part of that state’s folklore and even has a famous song written about it, actually originated in the 1830s on a farm in New York City near the present-day Pennsylvania Station. There a lawyer named George Harison found it as a seedling growing among the other roses on his property and began cultivating it. Settlers soon took the yellow rose west with them and legend has it that Texans finally claimed it as their own when Mexican General Santa Anna, the villain of the Alamo, “was dis-

yo An eye; a country term once common among small farmers. Also a pronunciation of “your.” Yoknapatawpha The fictional county William Faulkner created in Mississippi, based loosely on the area where he lived around Oxford, Mississippi. yon Yonder, over there. “The second time he said: ‘Yon’s yo wife wantin something.’ ” (William Faulkner, Sanctuary, 1931) york An old, probably obsolete term meaning “to vomit.” you ain’t just whistlin’ Dixie You’re not just talking or making small talk, you’re saying something important, worthwhile. DIXIE refers to the popular song. you-all The plural of you. You-all (often pronounced y’all) is widely considered the ne plus ultra of Southern dialect, but this expression, used throughout the South, is much misunderstood. Mainly applied to two or more people, you-all can be used when the speaker is addressing one person, but only when the sentence implies plurality. Except for some speakers in the Ozarks and rural Texas, only a ham of a stage Southerner would use youall so undiscriminately as to say “That’s a pretty dress you-all are wearing.” But a Southerner might well say “How you-all?”—the question intended to inquire of

yuther 163 the health of you and your entire family or group. Further, the inflection of the phrase is all important. When the you in you-all is accented, as in “You-all must come,” this means that the group near the speaker is invited. The contraction of you-all, y’all, is always used in this plural sense. Recently the American Southernism y’all (or yawl) has been explained, though hardly to the satisfaction of everyone, as a calque (a filling in of an African structure with English material) from the West African second person plural unu, which is also used in the American black Gullah dialect. This interesting theory is advanced in a study by Jay Edwards in Hancock and Decamp’s Pidgins and Creoles (1972): “In the white plantation English of Louisiana the form y’all (semantically unu) was probably learned by white children from black mammies and children in familiar domestic situations.” In any case, the closest thing that has been found in English to the collective second person plurals you-all and you-uns is the collective second person you-together that is sometimes heard in England’s East Anglia dialect today. (See also INTRODUCTION.) you-all (y’all) come! taking.

Come back again; said in leave-

you-all’s The possesive plural you. “We were just coming over to you-all’s.” See YOU-ALL.

you come!

Come back again; said in leave-taking.

youngling

Gullah meaning “a child.”

young sapling A young man, usually in his teens. “ ‘I never seen a woman preacher carry-on over a young sapling like that before,’ Jeeter said.” (Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road, 1932) young’un A child; a shortening of “young one.” “It’s for the young’un.” your cotton is low

Your slip is showing.

your druthers is my ruthers A mostly black phrase meaning “Your preference is mine.” yourn Yours. “Them bloodhounds of yourn . . .” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, 1938) you’uns yuther

You people. “You’uns come right on over.” Other. “Any yuther folks comin’?”

Z zebra The obsolete term zebra for a convict (suggested by the striped suits prisoners wore) appears to have originated in the South in the late 19th century.

alive were called zombies. African slaves shipped to the South may well have brought the term with them. Another explanation is that zombie comes from the Louisiana Creole word for phantom or ghost, which in turn derives from the Spanish sombra (ghost).

Zephyrinas An old Charleston biscuit recipe, named after Zephyras, Greek god of the west wind, because the biscuits are so light. zink

zondike The zodiac. “Zondike signs.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, South Moon Under, 1933)

The kitchen sink, in Texas. zoon To go fast, run fast, often with a hum or buzz; also june. “He went zooning across the meadow.”

zombie Though widely used today for one of the “walking dead” or for any unresponsive, oafish “dummy” with a vacant corpse-like manner, zombie came into national use from the South. Zombie may have originally been the snake god (called a nzambi) worshiped in West Indian voodoo ceremonies based upon the python god in West Africa—since dead people were said to be brought to life in these ceremonies, such imagined corpses shuffling along half-dead and half-

Zouave A soldier serving in any of certain Southern volunteer units in the Civil War. “[He] stood out in the crowd like a tropical bird—a Louisiana Zouave, with baggy blue and white striped pants, cream gaiters and tight little red jacket . . .” (Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, 1936)

164

II YANKEE TALK: NEW ENGLAND EXPRESSIONS

T

1790 British pronouncing dictionary called “a characteristic of the elegant and learned world,” is ironically of “vulgar” Cockney origin! In any case, it was unknown in polite circles during the Elizabethan era (when a cahff came down the pahth to take a bahth was simply pronounced a calf came down the path to take a bath) and is relatively a pompous upstart; the “flat” sound of a in words such as dance and bath, which is common to General American speech, preceded it by many, many years. It is interesting to note that the broad a is far from universal in England today. John Braine’s lower-class heel of a hero in Room at the Top (1965), who is clawing his way up the social ladder, says before he reaches the top rung: “I was going to pronounce Aunt with a broad a, but decided not to attempt it yet.” While there is of course no “pure” or “proper” or “correct” or “best” pronunciation of American English, the New England accent is still decidedly different from other accents heard in America, even if television and the increased mobility of Americans has tended to blur many of its distinctions in recent times. Yankees proudly possess not only their own accent but a vocabulary peculiar to the region, as they have since the earliest days of the Republic. New England authors (and authors who wrote about New England) range from Captain John Smith, who first recorded the term New England in 1616, to modern best-selling novelists such as Mainer Stephen King and George Higgins, who has been called “the man with the golden ear” for his command of the patois around Boston, home to some Irishmen with, in the happy phrase of Mark Helprin, “a dialect strong enough to make the planet green.” They include such renowned authors as Cotton Mather, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne, James Russell Lowell, Richard Henry Dana Jr., John Greenleaf Whittier, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Louisa May Alcott, Emily Dickinson, Amy Lowell, Edwin Arlington Robinson, William Dean Howells, Henry James, Edith Wharton, Thornton Wilder, Eugene O’Neill, Robert Frost, John P. Marquand, Kenneth Roberts, Robert P. Tristram Coffin and Robert Lowell, as well as comparatively little-known writers (often quite as good) such as Rowland Robinson,

he New England, Yankee, Boston or Harvard accent, as it is variously called, has a formidable reputation. Back in 1920, for example, an Oxford professor of English, George Gordon, proclaimed that the King’s English, or “standard” English, is spoken only in Boston, Richmond, Virginia and Edinburgh. In a study three decades later, the American Linguistic Institute polled “experts” to discover just where they thought the best English was spoken in the United States. The three winners were Boston, Nashville and Washington, D.C., with New York talk, my own native tongue, coming in dead last! At about the same time, on March 10, 1948, the “Director of Speech Improvement” for the Boston public school system intoned that “Bostonians certainly speak the purest cultural English of any section of the country,” a blessing she attributed to Boston’s geographic location near the ocean, because “the salt in the air makes our Boston speech more forceful, gives it more strength.” It is probably safe to bet that the majority of Americans agree with the Director of Speech Improvement & Co. and still regard the New England accent as the “purest” English in the country—possibly because Harvard College has long been located there, or perhaps because so many of our earliest literary luminaries and statesmen were New Englanders, or maybe just because the Cabots, who spoke only to God, would be expected to do so in high style (though that would surely be a sin of pride). Then there is the “dominant WASPs” theory, as explained tongue in cheek by philologist Bergen Evans: “It is more likely that God is conceived of as belonging to the dominant group. If He no longer speaks in Hebrew or Latin, He at least has a Boston accent.” All stuff and nonsense, certainly. What impresses most people about the Boston accent, for example, is its elegant or affected (depending on one’s ear or psychology) pronunciations of such words as ask, brass, class, grass, half, fast, dance, bath or can’t with the broad ah sound (Bah-th, cah-nt, dahnce, etc.). Granted, this is King’s English too, but most people fail to realize that the broad ah sound in such words, the so-called Boston Brahmin a, is quite possibly an affectation introduced on the stage by the famed English actor David Garrick in the 18th century. Others say that the broad a, which a 167

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Yankee Talk

Sarah Orne Jewett, Mary Wilkins Freeman, Thomas Bradley Aldrich, John Gould, Joanna Colcord, Edward O’Connor, and André Dubus—to name a few. All of these authors have provided interesting words and expressions peculiar to the region, whether they are in current use or obsolete and only of historical interest (although “obsolete” language often has an embarrassing way of turning up in current speech and writing). From poet James Russell Lowell on, they also have provided examples of New England pronunciation. Besides sometimes pronouncing a’s broad enough to launch a missile from, New Englanders often strengthen the a sound in such words as far, park, dark and heart, producing a sound somewhere between the one most Americans make in pronouncing hat and father. This characteristic is also found in the Southern Tidewater region, especially in eastern Virginia. A minority of dialectologists call it “the Boston a” and believe that it may have come over with the Irish in the 1830s—those same Irish whom Boston Mayor Theodore Lyman believed with Yankee certitude were “a race that will never be infused into our own, but on the contrary will always remain distinct and hostile!” The lack of consonantal strength of the r in the new England accent is also a development that most likely began in southern England, proceeding until the end of the 18th century, when the r finally was heard no more in a Londoner’s pronunciation of such words as car. In 1791 Walker’s Critical Pronouncing Dictionary observed that “in England, and particularly in London, the r in bar, bard, card, regard, etc. is pronounced so much in the throat as to be little more than the middle or Italian a, lengthened into baa, baad, caad, regaad.” New England settlers brought this mannerism with them, and their slighted r, along with the broad a sound previously mentioned, eventually provided the color of the so-called Haavaad accent, which yields gems such a Pahk the cah in Hahvahd yahd (Park the card in Harvard yard). It should be noted, however, that the r is not dropped before vowels, as in carry, or Tory, which are pronounced carry and Tory. Anyway, New Englanders were constantly dropping their r’s midway through the 18th century, which is why liberty is so often misspelled libety in early American documents. The surest proof that r was not formerly sounded as ah, as it is in eastern New England and in parts of the South today, is the fact that it was once called “the dog letter.” Since Roman times r had been thought of as the “dog’s letter” or “the snarling letter,” because its sound resembles the snarling of a dog: r-r-r-r. Said Ben Jonson, in his English Grammar Made for the Benefit of Strangers (1636): “R is the dog’s letter, and hurreth in the sound; the tongue striking the inner palate, with a trembling about the teeth.” Shakespeare has Juliet’s nurse in Romeo and Juliet call r the “dog name” when she tells Romeo that his name and

rosemary, an herb associated with weddings, both begin with r. Today, however, r has become “a vocalic glide or a retroflexed central vowel” (that is, sounded with the tip of the tongue curled back)—except, of course, in the coastal Southern states, New York City and eastern New England, where the ah sound holds forth. “R-dropping” America has inspired a humorous theorem called the Law of Conservation of R’s (formulated by Edward Scher in 1985), which holds that an r missing from one word will turn up in excess in another: fawth (fourth), for example, is balanced by idears or the common second r in sherbert. “R-dropping” reached its zenith of popularity in the early 1960s, when John F. Kennedy was president. “Politicians all over the country began affecting his nasal r-dropping style of speech,” the late Chicago-based columnist Mike Royko wrote in a nostalgic piece. I can remember a member of the Cook Country (Chicago) Board, who had been born and reared on the West side, standing up at a political gathering, tucking his hand into his coat pocket, hunching his shoulders, and trying to talk like Kennedy. The effect on the audience was electrifying. Between his native Chicago West Side accent and his attempt to sound Boston Irish, nobody in the hall understood a word he said and thought he was drunk. The mayor was so alarmed at this kind of behavior that he ran the man for judge.

The vagrant r appears lucky when its fate is compared to that of t and d in New England regional speech, according to one astute New Englander. “Harsher is the fate of t and its soft sister, d, which often vanishes outright, albeit to a saving of time,” William Howells of Kittery Point, Maine, observed in a letter to The New York Times. “In long words, it is usually every other t that goes, so I call the syndrome the all-knit t. Thus, in the television weather report: Sal light pictures show inner mitten showers. My favorite evening television newscaster manages to say nightly news with no t at all (he uses what cognoscenti call a glottal stop). By dispensing with many t’s and d’s he can save a hum ridden twenny seconds in half an hour, which translates into a lot of money.” While there is no such thing as the “correct” pronunciation of American, there is little doubt that New England still echoes accents of the earliest English immigrants to America (who came mainly from the eastern and southern counties near London), or that speech in the region is closer to the standard English spoken in England than any other American dialect. It is the one region in the United States where the dialect clearly owes most to the migration of people from England, specifically Puritans from East Anglia, who constituted twothirds of the 15,000 colonists who sailed to New England from 1620 to 1630. Even the nazalization, or “nasal twang,” that the British twitted New Englanders about had its origins in England, specifically in places

Introduction where the Puritans held sway. English writers for many years associated this nasal twang (also called a whine and said to be affected to show piety) with the Puritans of East Anglia. Shelley described a rather nasty pious Puritan in this way: His eyes turned up, his mouth turned down; His accent caught a nasal twang.

Some New Englanders, their tongues arched up in the mouth, the pitch of their dialect somewhere higher than General American, still nasalize cow as keow, a pronunciation old Ben Franklin kidded them about. The y glide of the u sound after d, n and t, resulting in such pronunciations as nyu (now), dyu (due) and tyune (tune), is responsible for the “Yankee drawl” that Noah Webster noted in his Dissertations on the English Language (1789). But there is generally a sharp, clipped quality to New England speech—“a dryness that almost crackles,” as one writer put it. May Lamberton Becker, in Golden Tales of New England (1931), suggests that the frigid New England weather has something to do with “the habits of laconic speech” because of “what it does to your throat to do much talking in the open air.” Anyway, a common characteristic is the glottal stop in the place of a final t or nt, so that twant (it was not) often becomes twan. New Englanders also commonly pronounce the o in such words as not, box, pot and hot as an open o sound, with the lips rounded, while the rest of America generally voices the o more like the broad a in father. Another characteristic New England dialect feature is the vowel shift of au to ah, Boston thus becoming Bahston and caught transformed into something like caht. However, while this is common in the Boston area, the reverse is true in several other New England areas, especially in Cape Cod, where Cape Cod is surrounded by wotta. Cape Codders, whose speech is less nasal than that of most New Englanders, also differ from Bostonians not only in dropping their r’s but in adding another syllable as well; a Cape Codder’s there thus becomes they-uh (instead of the Bostonian’s theah) and air becomes ey-uh. Obviously, then, the Boston or New England accent is not the same in all parts of New England. Perhaps the designation Boston accent has stuck because the accent is so strong in the city, with specimens similar to the following commonly heard on streets around the Common: back—bark bee-ad—bad bey-eh—bear bee-eh—beer cod—card cotton—carton dock—dark

moa—more noo-klee-eh—nuclear outer—order owah—hour potty—party shop—sharp shut—shirt

gahd—guard gull—girl hot—heart

169

such—search sutton—certain waw—war

More likely the term Boston accent is heard so often because Boston is the eastern New England dialect’s “focal area”—that is, an area that strongly influences the speech of surrounding areas because of cultural, commercial, political and other factors. But the differences remain within the region. Another is the pronunciation of home and stone as hum and stun, once common in many New England areas but now largely confined to Maine, which has in many respects a dialect unto itself. While the u in words such as up is generally pronounced aw in New England, it is pronounced as a deep-back-of-the-throat ah in Maine: Ahp. Mainers also pronounce the “pure” New England ay sound of maybe as eh, saying meh-be. To give still another example of differences within the region, rural New Englanders often pronounce far, not with the typical New England broad a, but as fu-uh. Rhode Islanders speak differently from Bostonians, and New Havenites speak differently from both of them. There are, in short, many subtle pronunciation variations throughout the speech region, even among the “focal area” residents of Boston. In Maine many residents even speak a Canadian French dialect called joual. Vocabulary also varies throughout New England. Nantucket, for instance, has the local expression greasy luck (good luck), a carryover from whaling days, when well-wishers hoped that a whaleman would fill his ship with oil on a voyage. Coof, special Nantucket talk for a summer visitor and “off-islander,” may derive from a Scottish word meaning a dull, spiritless person. The expression swatson (to chat or chew the fat—probably from the German schwatzen) possibly originated in the Connecticut area, while quzzle, for a small channel between two sandbars of a stream through a marsh, comes from Cape Cod. One of the earliest New Englandisms was the amusing Vermont term quyascutus for a cow with shorter legs on one side so that it could better walk around the steep Vermont hills! Two seldom (if ever) recorded New England expressions that are very typical of the area are mighty small potatoes and few in a hill (something or somebody of little consequence) and he has too many shingles to the weather (he’s trying to do too many things at one time). As would be expected, New England nautical life is responsible for many national and local expressions. Switchel, for example, is old Yankee sailor slang, origin unknown, for a very thirst-quenching drink of molasses and water seasoned with vinegar and ginger. Quoddy boats, the double-ended keelboats used in lobstering, take their name from the Passamaquoddy Bay between New Brunswick, Canada, and Maine, where they were first used.

170

Yankee Talk

The word Yankee itself was first applied, in America, to Yankee sailors. The most popular of dozens of theories holds that Yankee comes from Jan Kee (little John), a Dutch expression the English used to signify “John Cheese” and contemptuously applied to New England seamen. From a pejorative nickname for New England sailors, the term Jan Kee, corrupted to Yankee, was applied to all New Englanders and then to all Americans during the Revolution, the most notable example of this being found in the derisive song “Yankee Doodle.” Nowadays, the British and others use Yankee or Yank for an American; Southerners here use it for Northerners; and Northerners use it for New Englanders, who are so proud of the designation that they gladly call themselves Yankees. There are, of course, thousands more words and pronunciations characteristic of New England Yankee speech than those already mentioned. And like every dialect, the New England patois has its share of typical grammatical “errors” or differences, mainly used by rural or uneducated people and all becoming less common in recent times. Among those historical examples not already noted, the following stand out conspicuously: • • • • • • • •

Be used in place of are. (How be you today?) Like substituted for almost. (He like to drowned.) Knowed used for knew. (I knowed he was coming.) Verb and subject often don’t agree, as in Where’s them boats? The singular is used instead of the plural for quantitative words, as in It’s been eighty year now. Are is omitted after where. (Where you going?) Shouldn’t wonder takes the place of think. (I shouldn’t wonder but what it’s true.) Should is used in place of to after the word want. (He wants you should stop it.)

Most of western New England speaks what is often termed Inland Northern, a branch of the General American dialect. What is called the New England dialect, with numerous variations, is spoken from the Connecticut River north and eastward through the eastern strip of Connecticut and Rhode Island, the eastern half of Massachusetts and Vermont, all of New Hampshire, except in the mountains, and all of Maine. The dialect was the first to be recognized by visitors to the colonies. It is probably the earliest in the United States to be honored (or derided) with a name, New England dialect, first recorded in 1788, when the phrase was noted in the diary of a visitor to the region. A year before that the “Yankee type” made his debut on the stage in the first comedy written by an American, Royall Tyler’s The Contrast. In the play, Jonathan, the trusty Yankee retainer of the serious-minded American Revolutionary War officer Colonel Manley, is a servant full of home-

spun shrewdness, regional sayings and Down East dialect. Some 3,500 Yankee words and phrases are recorded here. Among these, New England cooking terms are the most distinctive in the country. Johnnycake or journey cakes (they were used as food on long journeys) were invented in New England. The area is also historically noted for bean porridge, pronounced to rhyme with Norwich, as in There was a young man from Noritch/Who burnt his mouth on bean porritch. New England’s butternuts are called oil nuts. In Maine, huffpuffs are small balls of raised bread dough fried in deep fat; they are called holy pokes in Connecticut and Baptist bread elsewhere. Sap coffee is a New England coffee in which maple sap has been added to the water. Bean swagger is stewed dried beans cooked with salt pork pieces, and bloaters are large cured herring. Bean-hole beans are beans cooked for 24 hours in a hole lined with coals and covered with soil; a dido is the slash made in a pie crust to let out steam; garden sass is rhubarb; and slip gut is an old-fashioned pudding. Hasty pudding, which of course has odes written to it, is a New England invention that has the honor of being the only food besides macaroni mentioned in “Yankee Doddle.” Our word squash comes from the vegetable’s Narragansett Indian name, asquatasquash (eaten raw), which came to be pronounced squash by New Englanders. Similarly, the corn-and-bean mixture called succotash was early taken by New Englanders from the Algonquian misickquatsh (kernel of corn), and the name of the fish called the menhaden was adapted from the Algonquian munnoquahatean (“that which enriches the soil”). In New England place-names reside many stories. To take just the Boston area, Milk Street is so named because country slickers used to water their milk at a stream there before selling it to city bumpkins; Beacon Hill recalls a beacon on a high pole there that guided ships into Boston Harbor; the Common was once used “in common” by all the people for grazing their cattle; and Damnation Alley was wide enough for only one oxcart, so that whenever two teamsters met going in opposite directions the air was blue with damns and much stronger curses. Pronunciation of New England place-names is no easy matter, and there are no easy rules to follow. Groton, for example, is pronounced Grah-ton; Quincy is Kwin-zi; and Billerica is Billrikker. Those interested in unusual and even outrageous New England family names should turn to the entry Goddams in the word list following. As for curses, there are plentiful there too—New Englanders aren’t always the pious euphemizers they have often been depicted as. In the words of Burgess Johnson (As Much As I Dare, 1947): “Upon the farms of Vermont and New Hampshire, and along the coast and in the forests of Maine, there has been since the days of Ethan Allen an easy flu-

Introduction 171 ency in cursing that never sought the least disguise [because] . . . all of the northern territory was peopled by folk who had fled the Massachusetts and Connecticut clergy and their dour god.” New England euphemisms often aren’t euphemisms anymore and aren’t heard as much today as in earlier times. In 1933 Hans Kurath listed no fewer than 42 New England euphemisms for the virile bull, the most widely used of these being, in order of popularity, gentleman cow, male, toro, sire, animal, male critter, mancow, cow-man, bullock, cow topper, doctor, bullit, paddy and bungy. The euphemistic exclamations most commonly associated with New England, at least in historical or literary use, would include the following, in no particular order:

Pshaw! landsakes alive! landsakes! sakes alive! gee whittakers! godfrey! dad blame it! my gracious! what in tarnation! what in tunket! don’t that beat all get out! chowder! Jerusalem crickets! ginger! blow my shirt! gehosephatt! I swear! I’ll be jiggered! I’ll be dinged! I’ll be danged! not by a jugful! and gracious me! To which I finally should add the rather archaic but nice exclamation my dear old grandmother (a New Englander) used to exclaim: My stars and body! Which is as good a note to end on as any, except perhaps New Englander James Russell Lowell’s good advice that “Life is short and prefaces [or introductions] should be.”

A A The capital letter adulterers were forced to wear as a badge when convicted of the crime of adultery under a law in force in New England from 1639 to 1785.

aback Stalled, at a standstill, behind. “I’m all aback in my chores.” abeam A nautical term sometimes used on land in New England to mean at a right angle to something. In nautical use it means at right angles to the fore-and-aft, or center line, of a vessel.

There was likewise a young woman, with no mean share of beauty, whose doom it was to wear the letter A on the breast of her gown, in the eyes of all the world and her own children . . . Sporting with her infamy, the lost and desperate creature had embroidered the fatal token in scarlet cloth, with golden thread; so that the capital A might have been thought to mean Admirable, or anything rather than Adulteress. (Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Endicott and the Red Cross,” 1838)

Abe Lincoln War

See

ABOLITION WAR.

able Strong. “He lifted it by himself. He’s an able man, all right.”

Hawthorne, of course, also wrote about the A of adultery in his novel The Scarlet Letter (1850). See also SCARLET LETTER, THE.

able to set up an’ eat a few porridges In good health, or coming along fine after an illness. Cited as a common Maine and northern New Hampshire expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914).

a (1) The broad a of New England (as in cah for car, fah for far etc.) is heard regularly in the Boston area (within an area of about 40 miles from the city) and again in Maine from about Portland eastward. Elsewhere in the region its occurrence is not as frequent and in western New England it is rare. (2) “The Yankee has retained something of the long sound of the a in such words as ax and wax, pronouncing them ex, wex (shortened from aix, waix).” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1866).

Abolition War A historical name given to the Civil War in New England, the only region where names associating the war with slavery were commonly employed. The ABE LINCOLN WAR, The War for the Blacks, and The War to Free the Slaves were others. about east A synonym for okay, all right, or the proper thing to do. “The late Mr. Horace Mann . . . commented at some length on the beauty and moral significance of the French phrase s’orienter, and called on his young friends to practice upon it in life. There was not a Yankee in his audience whose problem had not always been to find out what was about east, and to shape his course accordingly.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867)

Aaron’s rod A name used mainly in New England for the garden orpine (Sedum telephium). Aaron’s rod comes from the sacred rod that the patriarch Aaron placed before the ark in Numbers 17:8, a rod that Jehovah caused to bend, blossom and bear ripe almonds. Many tall-stemmed, flowering plants that resemble rods, such as orpine, mullein and goldenrod, are called Aaron’s rod in other regions. 172

alewife 173 Acadian owl Mainers and other New Englanders call the little saw-whet or barn owl (Ulula acadica) by this name. accommodatin’ as a hog on ice Very unobliging or disagreeable. Cited as a common Maine and New Hampshire expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). accommodation Short for accommodation train. A term for a train that stopped at every station, no matter how small, on a New England line, thus accommodating all the people in an area. Today accommodation trains are mixed passenger and freight trains. acts like folks Said of a down-to-earth person, a regular guy, male or female. Adam’s ale Water. The humorous term is an old English one used in other regions as well. A variation is Adam’s wine. Adam’s cup A folk name for the pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea) because of the cuplike shape of its leaves.

many imitators that he said he knew himself only by the scar on his left arm. His character Major Downing inspired cartoons that were the prototype of Uncle Sam as a symbol of the United States. afterclap An old term for any unexpected or unpleasantly surprising happening. “. . . he shrinked and sheered away from whales, for fear of afterclaps.” (Herman Melville, Moby Dick, 1851) aftergrass Heard in Maine for aftermath; that is, grass that grows after the hay has been harvested and is then cut itself. Also called after cutting. agin A pronunciation of “again” in Maine and other parts of New England. ahp The typical Maine pronunciation of up; pronounced with a deep back-of-the-throat ah: AHp. aiglefin A name French-speaking inhabitants of New England sometimes give to the cod-like fish more generally known as haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus). aim

Intend. “I aim to go, Fred, whatever you do.”

ain’t all there adder’s tongue The origin of this New England name for the dogtooth violet (Erythronium amercanum) is unknown. Admiration A vocabulary-testing word game very popular in 19th-century New England. admire to you.”

To like to, be glad to. “I’d admire to go with

See

HAS A SCREW LOOSE.

ain’t got nothing? Used in Maine to mean “Have you got a drink?” Nothing here is pronounced nawthin’. ain’t got sense enough to carry guts to a bear Hasn’t the most rudimentary common sense. Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914).

adrift A seafaring team used on land in Maine and other New England states, adrift can mean to be tied improperly, to become untied. “That package is all adrift; you don’t know your knots.”

ain’t worth a fart in a gale of wind

advanced female This name was sarcastically bestowed upon any woman who fought for women’s rights in the last half of the 19th century.

alderman in chains A Yankee recipe for turkey cooked with link sausages spread over it, resembling a potbellied alderman trussed in chains.

adz into Used, primarily in Maine, to mean “bite,” “dig into,” “eat heartily.” “He really adzed into that roast.” The reference is to an adz or ax biting off chunks of wood.

alewife This member of the herring family returns in spring from the sea to spawn in fresh water. The Indians taught the early colonists how to trap the alewife both for food and for use as an excellent fertilizer. In Cape Cod Yesterdays (1935) Joseph C. Lincoln calls the fish the Cape Cod herring. Writes Henry Beston in The Outermost House (1928):

afore Before. “Afore we could say Jack Robinson.” (Seba Smith, Letters Written During The President’s Tour, “Down East,” by Myself, Major Jack Downing of Downingville, 1833) Smith, a Mainer, was the first of the homespun Yankee political philosophers and had so

Totally worthless.

ain’t worth wrappin’ your finger around no value.

Is of little or

This “aloofe” of the colonists, better known as the “alewife,” and often incorrectly called a “herring,” is really not a herring at all but a related fish, Pomolobus

174 Yankee Talk pseudoharengus. It is distinguished from the true sea herring by its greater depth of body and by the serrations on the midline of its belly, which are stronger and sharper than those of the true herring—so sharp, indeed, that the fish is sometimes called a “saw belly.” In April they leave the sea and run up our [New England] brooks to spawn in freshwater ponds.

In Maine, according to Robert P. Tristram Coffin’s Kennebec, Cradle of Americans (1937), alewife “is pronounced ell-y, in case you don’t know.” alewife in his air chamber Said of someone using a Flimsy excuse to explain his poor performance on a job. The saying possibly originated when two fire engines were drawing water from a brook while attempting to put out a fire in a New England seacoast town. One engine company performed poorly; its crew claimed that its poor performance resulted from a big alewife caught in the engine’s air chamber. See ALEWIFE. all bones and sinner

See

ALL HIS (HER) BORN DAYS.

all chalk and water An old expression meaning worthless nonsense, balderdash. “That’s all chalk and water.” all druv (drove) up Very busy, over worked; the druv (drove) derives from the droving of cattle in early times, a busy occupation. “I was all druv up trying to get things together.” all-fired An intensive meaning extremely that is heard in New England and other regions. “Don’t be so all-fired sure of yourself.” all fluking Fast sailing; originally a nautical term suggesting the way a whale moves swiftly by strokes of its great flukes. “We arrived on the following day, having gone all fluking . . .” (Richard Henry Dana Jr., Two Years Before The Mast, 1840) all good Americans go to Paris when they die FROZEN YANKEE DOODLE.

See

all hair by the nose Very angry. “He’s all hair by the nose.” all hands and the cook! All hands and the cook on deck! was a cry probably first heard on New England whalers in the early 19th century when everyone aboard was called topside to cut into a whale, work that had to be done quickly. Fishermen also used the expression, and still do, and it had currency among American cowboys to indicate a dangerous situation—when, for example, even the cook was needed to keep the herd under control.

all her (his) born days All his or her life. “Ma herself was dreadful poor, never weighed ninety pounds in all her born days, but she was powerful strong, all bone and sinner to the last.” (Annie Trumbull Slosson, “A Local Colorist,” 1912) all humped up like a hog going to war A Maine expression describing a determined person off on an unlikely mission that seems destined to fail despite his or her determination. all in a pucker home.”

In a hurry. “He’s all in a pucker to get

all nature Everybody or everything, “all creation.” “All nature was at the fair.” all of a biver An old-fashioned expression meaning very excited. “She was all of a biver.” all of a high Heard in Maine for very anxious, eager. “They were all of a high to go.” all of a rush Suddenly, abruptly. “Everybody came at the last minute, all of a rush.” all of a scatter Widely scattered. “The papers were all of a scatter over the room.” Also all of a scatteration. all of a shiver An old expression meaning shivering. “The child was all of a shiver and we put her to bed.” all of a washing sweat Used in Maine to describe someone sweating profusely. Also all of a lather. allot upon A synonym, rarely if ever heard anymore, for intend. “I allot upon going to Boston.” all over East Jesus Widely scattered, all over the place. “. . . Teddy’s brushes with the law are scattered all over East Jesus. I have visited . . . Vermont . . . New Hampshire . . . Maine . . . Rhode Island . . . as counsel of record for Edmund M. Franklin.” (George V. Higgins, Kennedy for the Defense, 1980) all smiles and johnnycake Affable, happy. “Emily . . . was all smiles and johnnycake.” (Susan Hale, Letters, 1989) See JOHNNYCAKE. all standing A seafaring term meaning fully dressed that was once commonly heard on land. “He turned in ‘all standing,’ and was always on deck the moment he was called.” (Richard Henry Dana Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, 1840)

ant-bed all stark alone Living without anyone else in the house or nearby. “. . . as nice an old man as you ever saw—all alone, all stark alone.” (Dorothy Canfield, “Old Man Warner,” in Raw Material, 1925) all’s well alow and aloft A Yankee nautical expression popular in 19th-century New England. It means everything is all right; alow means on deck or belowdeck and the aloft means in the rigging. allus A pronunciation of “always.” “It’s the same as it allus was.” all used up Worn out, tired, very old. “He just worked a few hours and was all used up.” alst Common in Maine for all or all that. “That’s alst I heard about it.” always astern of the lighter This Nantucket expression means always dead last, according to Marion Nicholl Rawson in From Here to Yender (1932). always reefer down and standing on the inshore tack A Nantucket expression used to describe someone much too prudent or cautious; cited in William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket (1916). amalgamationist “Blending of the two races by amalgamation is just what is needed for the perfection of both,” a white Boston clergyman wrote in 1845. Few American abolitionists were proponents of amalgamation (miscegenation), but many were called amalgamationists by slave holders in the two decades or so before the Civil War. This Americanism for one who favors a social and genetic mixture of whites and blacks is first recorded in 1838, when Harriet Martineau complained that people were calling her an amalgamationist when she didn’t know what the word meant. American The first person recorded to have used this term for a citizen of the United States or of the earlier British colonies was New England religious leader Cotton Mather in his Magnolia Christie Americana (1702). Amherst Correctly pronounced AMM-urst in New England; the name of towns in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Amherst, Mass. was the home of poet Emily Dickinson and is the site of Amherst College. a mind to A rural expression meaning disposed to. “Don’t matter what you say, she’ll do as she’s a mind to.” amongst

Among. See

FOLKSY.

175

amoosement In Elsie Venner (1861) Oliver Wendell Holmes gives this as a pronunciation of “amusement.” amost A common New England pronunciation of “almost.” ample Enough or more than enough; often used in reference to food. “I can’t eat another morsel, had ample of everything.” anadama bread This Yankee cornmeal recipe offers one of the most humorous stories connected with any foodstuff. Tradition has it that a Yankee farmer or fisherman, whose wife Anna was too lazy to cook for him, concocted the recipe. On tasting the result of his efforts, a neighbor asked him what he called the bread. The crusty Yankee replied, “Anna, damn her!” Another version claims that the husband was a Yankee sea captain who endearingly referred to his wife as “Anna, damn’er.” Anna’s bread was much loved by his crew because it was delicious and would not spoil on long sea voyages. The captain is said to have written the following epitaph for his wife: “Anna was a lovely bride, / but Anna, damn’er, up and died.” anesthesia After William Thomas Green Morton successfully employed ether at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital in 1846, New England poet-physician Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote in a letter to him on November 21: “Every body wants to have a hand in a great discovery. All I will do is give you a hint or two as to names—or the name—to be applied to the state produced and the agent. The state should, I think, be called ‘Anaethesia’ (which derives from the Greek anaisthesia, “lack of sensation”). This signifies insensibility . . . The adjective will be ‘Anaesthetic’ . . .” Thus, Holmes clearly coined the term anaesthesia so commonly used today, even though it had been recorded in a different sense over a century before in England. The word is usually spelled anesthesia today. See also BETTER A HASH AT HOME THAN A ROAST WITH STRANGERS. angledog A name still occasionally heard for an earthworm that is used as bait in fishing. animal An old-fashioned euphemism for bull used mainly in rural areas when it is used at all. a’n’t A pronunciation of ain’t. “That a’n’t my way.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Professor at the BreakfastTable, 1860) ant-bed nest.

An old-fashioned term for ant hill. Also ant

176 Yankee Talk ant heap Once a familiar term for carbuncle; so named for its shape. antifogmatical An old humorous name used in Massachusetts for rum, which was said to be able to clear up any fog. antimacassar A crocheted covering for the back or arms of a stuffed chair or sofa. It takes its name from the Macassar oil men used as hair tonic in the 19th century: men with the oily tonic on their hair or hands often soiled the chairs and sofas they sat on. Macassar oil was made from a bean Yankee ships brought back from Macassar in the East Indies. antiques and horribles A historical term for men who used to march in small-town Fourth of July parades wearing masks and ragged clothing, parodying the veterans called “ancients and honorables” who marched in such parades. any God’s amint (amount) A large number of. “There’s any God’s amint of deer around here now.” Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). apple bee

See

APPLE CUT.

apple brown betty

See

APPLE PANDOWDY.

apple cut An autumn social gathering at which apples were pared and strung to be dried for winter use. “A apple cut? A parin’ bee? / You just try it an’ see.” (Rowland Evand Robinson, Danvis Folks, 1894) apple duff The duff in this dessert’s name simply means dough, which New England sailors often pronounced as if it rhymed with “rough.” A kind of brandy made from apple cider.

apple Johnny DOWDY. apple Jonathan

Another Yankee name for

See

apple-peru Another old-fashioned Maine term for rhubarb or pieplant. (Rheum rhubarfarum). apple pie order An expression often heard in New England and elsewhere for neat and orderly. One old story holds that New England housewives were so meticulous and tidy when making their apple pies—carefully cutting their slices of apples, methodically arranging them in rows inside the pie, making sure that the pinches joining the top and bottom crusts were perfectly even, and so on—that the expression arose for prim and precise orderliness. While it is a nice story, the phrase apple pie order is probably British in origin, dating back at least to the early 17th century, and its derivation is unknown. apple pot-pie

See

APPLE PANDOWDY.

applesauce turnover A turnover filled with applesauce rather than sliced apples. “Father helped himself to a handful of cookies and a fat applesauce turnover.” (Hayden Pearson, New England Flavor, 1961)

apple-cabbage A Maine term once commonly used for rhubard or pieplant (Rheum rhubarbarum).

apple John

apple pandowdy This is a Yankee dish, despite the popular song praising “Southern” treats such as “shoofly pie and apple pandowdy . . . I never get enough of that wonderful stuff.” Imogene Wolcott’s New England Yankee Cookbook (1939) gives several recipes for the deep-dish apple dessert, noting that the modern version is often called apple brown Betty. It is also called apple pot-pie, apple Jonathan, apple Johnny and apple slump.

APPLE PAN-

APPLE PANDOWDY.

apple knocker An outhouse; so called because outhouses are usually located back of the house, out in the trees where apples might fall and knock against the roof. This term is not related to the old slang term apple knocker meaning a rural person, hick.

apple shaker Any autumn storm short of a hurricane that shakes apples off the trees. “That was some apple shaker we had last night.” apple slump Apple slump, a popular New England dessert, takes on another meaning in Louisa May Alcott’s story “Transcendental Wild Oats” (1876), an account of her father Bronson Alcott’s failed utopian community Fruitlands 32 years earlier: “ ‘Poor Fruitlands! The name was as great a failure as the rest!’ continued Abel [Bronson Alcott], with a sigh, as a frostbitten apple fell from a leafless bough at his feet. But the sigh changed to a smile as his wife added, in a half-tender, half-satirical tone—‘Don’t you think Apple Slump would be a better name for it, dear?’ ” The dessert is sometimes called apple pandowdy and flummery. So much did Harriet Beecher Stowe like the dish that she named her Concord, Massachusetts house Apple Slump. apple snow A dessert made of apples, sugar and egg whites, according to Imogene Wolcott’s New England Yankee Cookbook (1939), which gives the recipe for

ass-up 177 this frothy concoction elsewhere known as an apple float. appletreer A ship that stays close to the coast, in sight of land or the apple trees; sailors have long used the word contemptuously. Also spelled appletree-er. applicant An old term, possibly obsolete now, used for someone who applies him- or herself diligently to studies or work. Arab Any wild, unruly child; said to derive from the savage Barbary pirates of old encountered by New England sailors. Often pronounced Ay-rab and used humorously. Arlington Pronounced AAH-lingtun by the natives; a suburb of Boston. Aroostook County A county in Maine known throughout the state as The County. around

See

HANGING AROUND.

around Cape Horn An expression once used in whaling communities to mean “being away on a whaling voyage.” One old poem went: “I’ll tell your father, boys,” I cried. To lads at play upon my lawn. They chorused back, “You’ll have to go Around Cape Horn!”

smell in the hot school room was something to lift the scalp. Mrs. Meigs, our beloved teacher, said more than once that the only thing she disliked about teaching was asafetida time. (Hayden Pearson, New England Flavor, 1961)

as bad as all possessed Used to describe someone who acts as if he or she is possessed by the devil. as big as old Cuffey An old expression not often heard anymore describing someone or something of great size. After Captain Paul Cuffey, a black ship captain of New Bedford who in about 1787 recruited free African Americans to settle in Sierra Leone and transported them there on his ship. as busy as a man on the town Indolent; a man on the town is someone on relief or welfare. as chirk as a chitterdiddle on a pokeweed as close as the bark to a tree

See

CHIRK.

Cheap, stingy, tight.

ask no odds of anybody Ask no favors. “. . . as nice an old man as you ever saw . . . asking no odds of anybody . . .” (Dorothy Canfield, “Old Man Warner,” in Raw Material, 1925) as mad as a beaver An old simile meaning very angry that apparently originated in New England.

arter (1) A pronunciation heard in Maine for artery. “He was so mad we thought he’d bust an arter.” (2) A pronunciation of “after.”

as Maine goes, so goes the nation A common political saying since the late 19th century; it means that the political party that wins the most votes in Maine in a national election will win nationally. This has often, but not always, been the case. The saying originally referred to New York, being first recorded in 1848 as “As goes Dutchess County, so goes the State, and as New York goes, so goes the Union.”

artistic purposes POSES.

as mean as turkey bitters New England.

around time All over. “[He’s] been fixing up all the roads around time but mine.” (Hayden Pearson, New England Flavor, 1967)

See

MECHANICAL AND ARTISTIC PUR-

ary An old-fashioned word meaning either. “Take ary one or the other.” asafetida bag Asafetida is a foul-smelling resinous material made from roots of several plants of the parsley family. Its odor was thought to ward off illness, and it was often placed in small bags that were worn under the clothing by children. . . . we wore an asafetida bag beneath our long underwear [to fight off illness]. Unless you are personally acquainted with the aroma of this fetid Oriental gum, you can not comprehend the meaning of spring [in New Hampshire] a few decades ago. Day and night we wore that bag; the

A simile once common in

as poor as Job’s turkey An old saying possibly invented by Canadian humorist Thomas C. Haliburton, who combined shrewd New England talk with the boastful tall talk of the frontier. He apparently invented the common Americanism in one of his tales, explaining that the turkey was even poorer than the biblical Job, who had been stripped of all his worldly goods by God. Job’s turkey so poor that it had but one feather to its tail, and so poorly fed that it had to lean up against the fence when it gobbled, lest the exertion make it fall down. ass-up This small woodpecker of the family Sittidae, found in Connecticut and other New England states,

178 Yankee Talk runs up and down tree trunks with its head held lower than its tail. It is sometimes called a nuthatch. astern the lighter Belated, far behind in doing something. The Nantucket expression is related in some unknown way to the barge called a lighter once used to transfer cargo between a ship and the shore. “You’re astern the lighter a’ready with all your garden chores.”

Aunt A large flavorful winter apple, considered to be one of the best eating apples in New England since at least the early 19th century. Also called the Aunt Hannah. auntie Often used in the past as a respectful form of address for any unrelated old woman, as well as one’s real aunt. Aunt was similarly used.

as the feller says As they say. “As the feller says, take things as they come.”

autymobile bile.”

as thick as huckleberries An expression common in the 19th century meaning very thick.

avast This was originally a nautical word meaning to stop hauling; it possibly derives from the Portuguese abasta, “enough.” Avast came to be used figuratively in coastal New England areas to mean “stop doing anything,” from talking to working.

as tight (drunk) as a peep See quote. “[The] New England mind . . . has long since endorsed the locution ‘as tight as a peep’ to express an utter state of tipsification.” (Boston Daily Telegraph, July 27, 1864)

An old rural pronunciation of “automo-

away Down East A place far down in New England, usually meaning Maine; the term has been used since the early 19th century.

ataunto A seafaring term meaning with all sails rigged that came to mean “all ready” among landlubbers, though it is rarely heard anymore. “[Some ships] were all a-taint-o . . .” (Herman Melville, Redburn, 1849) The word probably derives from the French autant, meaning the same. Pronounced atanto.

awful got.”

Atherton gag A historical term for a congressional resolution made in 1838 by Representative C. G. Atherton of New Hampshire, which provided that all bills relating to slavery should be tabled without debate. It remained in force until 1844. John Quincy Adams called Atherton “the man of the mongrel gag.”

awnt Aunt, commonly pronounced with a broad a in New England.

Atlantic Monthly A national magazine founded in Boston in 1857 by leading New England literary figures and named by Oliver Wendell Holmes. The magazine, first edited by James Russell Lowell, has long been influential in literary and political affairs. Augusty The way Mainers pronounce the name of their capital city, Augusta.

A synonym for ugly. “That’s one awful face he’s

awful old fart Someone, not necessarily old, who is compulsively neat and meticulous to the point of being prissy and unbearable.

ayuh Yes, though the word has shades of meaning ranging from the affirmative to the sarcastic. Chiefly heard in Maine, ayuh is found throughout New England in variations such as eyah, ayeh, eeyuh, ehyuh, aaay-yuh, and even ayup. A touch stone of New England speech, it possibly derives from the nautical aye (yes), which in turn probably comes from the early English yie (yes). Another theory has ayuh coming from the old Scots-American aye-yes meaning the same. “ ‘Oh, ayuh, I guess I did hear that, but you know how people on the island talk.’ ” (Stephen King, Dolores Claiborne, 1993)

B apply to any vacillating or irresolute action—to hemming and hawing.

babbitt Congress deemed the invention of babbitt metal so important to the development of the industrial age that it awarded inventor Isaac Babbitt (1799–1862) a $20,000 grant. Babbitt is a soft, silver-white alloy of copper, tin and antimony used to reduce friction in machine bearings. It was discovered as a result of the inventor’s experiments in turning out the first Britannia metal tableware ever produced in America. After the Taunton, Massachusetts goldsmith successfully manufactured Britannia in 1824, he experimented further with the same three metals and ultimately invented babbitt, which he used to line a patented journal box in 1839. The metal proved far better than any other substance used for reducing friction and is still widely used for machine bearings today. Babbitt soap, no longer marketed, also bore the inventor’s name. Babbitt wasn’t the prototype for Sinclair Lewis’s ambitious, uncultured and smugly satisfied American businessman in his novel of the same name, but Lewis’s early memories of advertisements for the soap probably suggested the character’s name.

Back Bay The Back Bay area, built on land reclaimed from the waterfront, has been a fashionable residential district in Boston, Massachusetts since the mid-19th century. So much so, in fact, that Back Bay has been synonymous for the culture of Boston for almost as long. “‘That’s what they call in Boston being very ‘thoughtful,’ Mrs. Luna said, ‘giving you the Back Bay (don’t you hate the name?) to look at, and then taking credit for it.’” (Henry James, The Bostonians, 1886) “He had lodged himself in the grid of Back Bay a few blocks from where she had grown up.” (John Updike, “Killing” in Trust Me, 1987) backcheeks son.

Heard in Maine for the posterior of a per-

backhouse An outhouse, so named because it was usually located in the rear of a dwelling. Most backhouses accommodated two people at a time (two-holers), but there were some one-holers and three-holers.

back An old term meaning to address. “Please back this letter for me.”

backhouse lily The day lily (of the genus Hemerocallis), which is a common “escape” from gardens and got this name because it often grew near backhouses or privies.

back along In days past, in former times. “She said she was a good old-timer, dating back along.” back and fill Very little progress is made when you back and fill a sailing ship; that is, when you are tacking the craft while the tide is running with her and the wind is against her. In this sailing maneuver, the sails are alternately backed and filled and the ship seems to remain in roughly the same place, going backward and then forward. The term was a natural for landlubbers, especially New Englanders with their strong ties to the sea, to

backlog The large log placed at the rear or back of a fire in a fireplace; the term is heard in other regions as well. Back Side

(1) The backyard of a house.

“Back Side” and “Bay Side” . . . are terms to remember when you visit Cape Cod. A prim Wellfleet housewife who

179

180 Yankee Talk rents rooms to summer people once confessed to me that she had somehow shocked her guests by ‘a perfectly civil answer’ she had given them! They wanted to know the best place to take a sunbath and, of course, she told them the best place was on the Back Side.” (Jeremiah Diggs, Cape Cod Pilot, 1937)

(2) See quote. “. . . Bath [Maine] was considerably more than a hundred miles from the backside (our word for the backshore) of Mount Desert [island] . . .” (Norman Mailer, Harlot’s Ghost, 1991) back states An old name for all the New England states. “. . . those folks from the back states are mighty green, they say.” (James Hunter, Western Border Life, 1859) backyard trots

An old term for diarrhea or the runs.

bag plant The orpine (Sedum telephium), because the plant’s leaves can be blown up like small bags or bladders until they pop. bag yer head Be more modest, pull in your horns. “You better bag yer head!” Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes Vol. IV (1914). bahstid A Maine pronunciation of “bastard.” “He’s a mean old bahstid.” Bahston A common pronunciation of Boston in Boston and environs. A recent ad employing two dialects heralded a coming “New York vs. Bahston” baseball game. Also Bahstin.

baldheaded See quote. “Baldheaded: ‘to go it baldheaded;’ in great haste, as where one rushes out without his hat.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867) bald-headed ship A colorful old term for a schooner without topmasts. Baldwin In 1800 Colonel Loamine Baldwin (1740–1807) of Wilmington, Massachusetts found the seedling that was developed into the much-grown winter apple tree and the fruit that bear his name. bale of hay An old name, its origin unknown, for a dish of peas, string-beans and potatoes mixed together. balky A term for wino heard in Connecticut. “He’s nothing but an old balky.” ballast for her (his) balloon A person who is a downto-earth or steadying influence on another. “It was a little remarkable that only one woman ever joined this community [Bronson Alcott’s utopian Fruitlands]. Mrs. Lamb [the fictional name for Alcott’s wife] merely followed wheresoever her husband led—‘as ballast for his balloon,’ as she said, in her bright way.” (Louisa May Alcott, “Transcendental Wild Oats,” 1876) balled up Dashing through the snow on a horsedrawn sled could be hazardous in old New England. One difficulty was the balls of snow or ice that formed in the curve of a horse’s shoe and often made a horse slip and fall. When horses did fall, especially a team of them, the resulting confusion and entanglement gave rise to the expression all balled up.

bake Short for clambake, where foods such as clams, lobsters and corn are not baked but steamed in the heat of a fire made of layers of wood, rock and seaweed.

Ballyhack lyhack.”

baked beans A New England staple. “One ov the old blue laws ov Massachusetts wuz, ‘thou shalt eat baked beans on Sunday.’ ” (Josh Billings, Old Probability, Perhaps Rain, Perhaps Not, 1876)

balm o’ Gilead Heard in New England and other regions for the balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera), the biblical name appropriate because the tree’s resin was used for medicinal purposes.

baker’s cart A small horsedrawn wagon bakers used a century ago to sell their bread, rolls, cakes and pies from door to door. Trucks later replaced it.

balmy Used ironically by Mainers for very cold weather. “It’s balmy out.”

bakeshop meal An old-fashioned term for a meal cooked in a bakery oven, as baked beans and other dishes were in the past, or for a meal one doesn’t take much time or effort to prepare. “ ‘He gets some sort of bakeshop meals together . . .’ ” (Robert Frost, “The Housekeeper,” 1914)

A euphemism for hell. “You can go to Bal-

bange around To hang around; to impose on someone by staying where one isn’t invited. “It’ll interest him to go out there; and we can make him believe it’s just to bange around for the winter.” (William Dean Howells, The Landlord at Lion’s Head, 1897) A bandgeeing place is a place, like a country store or courthouse, where people lounge around.

Bartlett pear 181 Bangor rule, the A rule devised by lumbermen in Bangor, Maine to determine the total of board feet in a log. Figuratively, the Bangor rule has become a measure of honesty and fairness in a person; one who goes by the Bangor rule is an honorable person. banker Rudyard Kipling’s Captains Courageous (1897) celebrates the rugged fishermen who worked the rich waters called the Grand Banks off Newfoundland. The two-masted Yankee schooners that worked these fishing grounds were called bankers. banking (1) Dirt piled against a building’s foundation as insulation for winter protection. (2) The stretch of grass between a curb and the sidewalk; however, the New England regional term for this is tree belt. banned in Boston In its heyday during the 1920s, the phrase banned in Boston made a number of books bestsellers throughout the rest of the country. Books were frequently banned in Boston for foolish reasons because the local ultraconservative Watch and Ward Society wielded great power in the city. While this is no longer the case, the expression is still used jokingly. bannock A bread made from (in one recipe) cornmeal, salt, boiling water and butter. It can be baked in an oven or cooked on a griddle. In Maine bannock sometimes has the connotation of poor food fit for the dogs, which were commonly fed bannock cakes before commercial dogfoods were available. baptist cake The comparison is to Baptists baptized in water, for these sweet rolls, known also as holy pokes, are cooked by being dropped in hot fat. barber A strong frigid northwestern wind bearing moisture that can cut the face and often clings to the hair and beard, forming ice crystals.

Bar Harbor The name of the famous resort in Maine is pronounced BAH-HAH-buh by the natives and most summer people too. bark To scuff or skin a knee or elbow; usually said of children who fall and injure themselves this way. “He fell off the slide and barked himself.” bark nutmeg A false nutmeg made of tree bark reputedly sold by crooked Yankee peddlers. “We of the south are mistaken in the character of the people [New England Yankees], when we think of them only as peddlers in horn flints and bark nutmeg.” (Southern Literary Messenger, III, 1837) barm (1) A word used for yeast and sourdough, especially in Maine. Barm-bread made from it. Barm is an Old English word long preserved in New England. (2) A load, usually heard in coastal areas in expressions such as “They got a barm of fish”; origin unknown. barmy A Maine word for silly, foolish that probably derives from balmy. barney (1) Soured milk; also barney clapper. (2) A term used by Harvard students in the early 19th century for a poor recitation in class. Barnstable Pronounced BARN-stuhbul by locals; a town in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. barnyard golf old-timers.

Horseshoes (the game), in the speech of

Barre Properly pronounced BAA-ree; towns in Vermont and Massachusetts.

bare as a milkpan when the cat’s been round Impoverished. “‘That Frome farm’s always ’bout as bare’s a milkpan when the cat’s been round.’” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911)

barred rock See quote. “[Connecticut poultrymen] crossed an American chicken, the Dominique, with a bright-eyed import from Asia, the Black Cochin. The new breed has become one of the most useful of all modern chickens, the familiar Barred Plymouth Rock.” (Science Illustrated, July 1947) Light and dark gray bars constitute the bird’s distinctive plumage.

bareassed Completely naked, an expression used mainly in New England and the Northeast.

barrel Often pronounced bar’l. “He’s a cracker bar’l philosopher.”

barefoot See quote. “ ‘I take my tea barefoot,’ said a backwoodsman when asked if he would have cream and sugar.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867)

Bartlett pear The yellow Bartlett grown commercially mostly in Oregon and Washington, where it is less susceptible to blight than in the East, represents 70% of the country’s 713,000 ton pear crop and is certainly America’s most commonly grown pear. It is a soft Europeantype fruit, in season from July to November, as opposed to earlier hard Asian varieties like the Seckel. The

bareneked neked.”

A redundancy for naked. “They swam bare-

182 Yankee Talk Bartlett was not, in fact, developed by Enoch Bartlett (1779–1860), a merchant in Dorchester, Massachusetts, as is generally believed. Bartlett only promoted the fruit after Captain Thomas Brewer imported the trees from England and grew them on his Roxbury farm. An enterprising Yankee, Bartlett eventually purchased Brewer’s farm and distributed the pears under his own name in the early 1800s. They had been long known in Europe as Williams or William Bon Chretien pears. Bartlett’s For many years John Bartlett owned the University Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Harvard teachers and students came for assistance in tracking down the source of a quotation. Bartlett’s erudition soon made the saying “Ask John Bartlett” a customary one when anyone sought the origins of a phrase, a faith that was justified when Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, or Bartlett’s, appeared in 1855. John Bartlett died in 1905 at age 85, and his book remains a standard reference today, unequaled by any similar English work except The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. barvel

A leather or oilcloth fisherman’s apron.

Bashaba A historical title once used for the chief of the Maine Abnaki Indians. basket A leaky ship, the word used figuratively to mean “someone who can’t keep a secret”: “That old basket told everybody about it.” basket fish The brittle starfish (Astronphyton agassizii), which resembles a basket when the tentacles are not extended. Also called a sandstar. bass-ackwards A euphemism for ass-backwards, head over heels. “He fell over bass-ackwards.” Also barseackward in Maine. basswood pumpkin seeds A humorous name for wooden pumpkin seeds carved from basswood and sold as real pumpkin seeds. Such seeds were said to be sold by YANKEE PEDDLERS. basting big An expression used mostly in Maine for something very large of its kind. “That’s a bastin’ big lobster.” Baster, from which this expression derives, also means something very large, and was probably first a euphemism for bastard, as in expressions such as “He’s a big baster, ain’t he?”

baufat A probably obsolete term for a corner cupboard or a dresser that is a corruption of the French buffet. bay

A large, tall barn compartment for storing hay.

bayberry wax Wax made from berries of the common bayberry bush, which were sometimes called “light on a bush.” “The vexed question of light was settled by buying a quantity of bayberry wax for candles . . .” (Louisa May Alcott, “Transcendental Wild Oats,” 1876) Bay Colony A 17th-century name for the colony of Massachusetts Bay. bayman (1) An old name for a Yankee fishing vessel. (2) A name used in eastern Long Island, New York and Connecticut for fishermen who make their living from the local waters. Bay Province, the Massachusetts. “The following story . . . awakened some degree of interest . . . in a principal seaport of the Bay Province.” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Wives of the Dead,” 1832) bay scallop The aristocrat of scallops, especially the unsurpassed Peconic Bay scallop of Long Island, New York, across Long Island Sound from New England. Bay scallops are found from the estuaries of Long Island Sound, up to the coast of Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. Bay Psalm Book The popular name of the hymnal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; published in 1640 and the first major work printed in the American colonies. Its proper name is The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre. bay shrimp A small, difficult-to-peel but delicious shrimp found off the Maine coast. Also called Red shrimp. bay side

bathe

Swim. “They went bathing.”

BACK SIDE.

Bay State Massachusetts, so called because its original name was the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Bay State dialect See quote. “’Tis but my Bay-State dialect—our fathers spoke the same!” (James Russell Lowell, “Look on Who Will,” 1848) Bay Stater

bate A pronunciation of bet. “ ‘I’ll bate ye a quarter.’ ” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie Venner, 1861)

See

A Massachusetts resident.

be (1) Sometimes used in place of “are.” “How be you today?” (2) An old-fashioned way to say is. “Be there any other way to do it?”

begin with b! 183 beach out To wash ashore. “The boat beached out near the rocks there.” beach plum (1) A shrub (Prunus maritime) growing near the shore in New England and other areas; its fruit is used in making preserves. (2) An old name for the bunchberry (Cornus canadensis), a low-growing plant with scarlet berries. Beacon Hill An area in Boston so named because a signal was placed there in 1635 to warn against Indian attacks, or because a beacon there guided ships into Boston Harbor at night. It is now the site of Beacon Street above the Boston Common. “. . . she had private pangs at committing herself to give the cold shoulder to Beacon Street for ever . . .” (Henry James, The Bostonians, 1886) be all day with one Be in a hopeless situation. “It’s all day with him now; and I must say it kinder sarves him right.” (Thomas Haliburton, The Clockmaker, 1840)

enough there’s more where that come from—I want you to beat ’em all hollow,’ he repeated.” (Edith Wharton, Summer, 1917) beatenest Most unusual. “That’s the beatenest thing as ever I seen.” beat out Tired. “ ‘I’m pretty nigh beat out a’ready,’ said she, ‘before any of the folks has come.’ ” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie Venner, 1861) beat out all creation! An old exclamation meaning this surpasses everything. “If this don’t beat out all creation!” beau An old term meaning to escort or to date someone. “I’m going to beau her to the dance.” bee-ad A pronunciation commonly heard in Boston for bad.

Bean Eater A humorous nickname for a Bostonian since at least the late 19th century. “The second baseman of the Boston Beaneaters . . . never was noted for his long ball hitting.” (Chicago Tribune, September 1, 1948)

beech seal A beech rod used in floggings in Vermont during the troubles of ca. 1775 over conflicting land grants. “The Vermonters . . . caught one of the [New York] officers, tied him to a tree, and laid upon him, what they called a ‘beech-seal’, which grows in the woods in the shape of what the boys call switches.” (Congressional Globe, 1856)

bean hole A hole dug in the ground to hold a lidded pot filled with beans; the pot is set on top of hardwood coals and the hole is sealed with dirt until the beans cook, which can take as long as 24 hours.

bee-eh A pronunciation commonly heard in Boston for beer. “I cahn’t believe they call this bee-eh.”

bean swagger A New England dish made of stewed dried beans cooked with salt pork pieces. Bean sweater, boots, etc. Clothing sold by the noted L.L. BEAN store in Maine. “He shrugged comfortably in his new Bean sweater; it was just the thing for this chill Sunday morning in October.” (E. S. Goldman, “Way to the Dump,” 1987)

beef To kill an animal for beef. “Well, I shant call it no disgrace / To beef that critter on the place.” (Daniel Cady, Rhymes of Vermont Rural Life, 1919) beef animal A cow raised for its meat. Also beef cow, beef creature, beef ox. beef creature beef critter

Bean Town

A mature bull or cow raised for beef. A cow or bull.

A nickname for Boston.

beat Superior, best. “What a fine party. I never saw the beat of it.” beat all nature To be extraordinary, almost unbelievable. “I hed to cross bayous an’ criks, (wal, it did beat all natur’,) / Upon a kin’ o’ corderoy, fust log, then alligator . . .” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867) beat ’em all hollow Beat them decisively. “. . . she saw that he had given her two twenty-dollar bills. ‘If it ain’t

beeline Any straight or direct path, like a bee’s course to its hive, an expression that apparently originated in New England in the early 19th century. “He made a beeline for the food.” been known to Often used as a strong affirmative. “How about having a drink?” “I’ve been known to.” bee’s honey

A redundancy heard in Maine for honey.

begin with b! A venerable nautical saying regarding the naming of ships. Because ships whose names began

184 Yankee Talk with A had a history of misfortune, Begin with B! became almost a rule among sailors and shipowners when naming their vessels.

best feller A term common a century ago in New England meaning a girl’s favorite suitor. “He was her best feller and she secretly wished he’d propose.”

begrutch A pronunciation of begrudge. “If she’d ha’ known that folks would begrutch craving a blessin’ over sech a heap o’ provisions, she’d rather ha’ staid t’home.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie Venner, 1861) Also begretch.

best parlor The living room in which guests are entertained. “In the ‘best parlour,’ with its black horsehair and mahogany weakly illuminated by a gurgling Carcel lamp, I listened every evening to another and more delicately shaded version of the Starkfield chronicle.” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911)

being as

Now that. “Being as I’m here, let’s start.”

being done for Having something done for one, having hospitality shown on. “Some don’t think o’ these things, but mother was very set about not being done fer when she couldn’t make no return.” (Sarah Orne Jewett, “The Guests of Mrs. Timms,” 1895) belay A nautical term used ashore in coastal towns to mean “stop,” “wait,” “stop talking.” “Belay your jaw, I’ve got a headache.” bellows New England slang for the lungs, cited in James Russell Lowell’s The Biglow Papers (1866). The plural of bellows was often bellowses. belly-bump One of several New England terms meaning falling down on a sled for a ride over the snow. Also bell-bunt, bell-bunk. belly bumping Running with a sled in the snow and falling down onto it to take a ride, usually down a hill. belt of wampum A belt up to five inches wide used by New England Indians for ornamental and religious purposes. “These belts are made of shells found on the coasts of New England and Virginia, which are sawed out into beads of an oblong form, about a quarter inch long, and round like other beads. Being strung on leather strings, and several of them sewed neatly together with fine sinewy threads, they then compose what is termed a Belt of Wampum.” (Jonathan Carver, Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America, 1778) ben A common pronunciation of been heard in Maine and other places. “He’s ben up to no good.” bendy bow ice Ice that is thin and flexible, barely bearing the weight of a person. Berlin Properly pronounced not like the German city, but BURR-lin; towns in Connecticut and New Hampshire. bespoke An old-fashioned term for engaged to be married. “She’s bespoke to him.”

be taken aback To be caught off guard, as in sailing when the wind is caught on the wrong side of the sails. Cited in William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrapbook (1916). be they Are they. “James Russell Lowell listened enchanted to the talk of two farm-boys watching a pair [of seals in Boston harbor]. ‘Wal, neaow,’ asked one, ‘be them kind o’ critters common up this way, do ye suppose? Be they—or be they?’ and the other replied, ‘Wal, dunno’s they be and dunno ez they be.’ ” (May Lamberton Becker, Golden Tales of New England, 1931) better a hash at home than a roast with strangers A saying coined by New England poet-physician Oliver Wendell Holmes in a letter he wrote home while traveling far from Boston. See ANESTHESIA. betterments A word coined in New England around 1785 meaning improvements made on undeveloped lands, including cultivation, erection of buildings, and so on. bettermost An old-fashioned synonym for the best. “That’s the bettermost of the two.” between grass and hay Between boyhood and manhood; an expression heard nationally that was originally a Nantucketism first recorded in 1848. bey-h A pronunciation commonly heard in Boston for bear. “I cahnt bey-h it.” biddy A hen; usually in the call to chickens, “Here biddy, biddy, biddy.” big as a Dutch oven Very big. An old-fashioned simile not much heard anymore. big as all outdoors Used to describe anything very big of its kind, from a house to a fat or imposing person. big frog in a little puddle Someone important in a small place where he or she has little competition. Used by Daniel Webster in Stephen Vincent Benét’s “The Devil and Daniel Webster” (1937).

black ice 185 big iron dollar A 19th-century term for the five-dollar bill customarily presented to a fisherman who had no share of the catch coming to him. bigness The size of someone or something whether small or large. “He was about your bigness—a little feller.” big stick The ladder on a fire truck, such ladders in use since the late 19th century. bile A common pronunciation of “boil.” “She biled it about ten minutes.” biled cider apple sass A concoction of boiled thickened cider and apples often used as a relish. “In New England what the ‘hired man’ on the farm called ‘biled cider apple sass’ took the place of apple butter.” (Alice Morse Earle, Old Time Gardens, 1901) biled dinner

A boiled dinner.

bill Short in New England for bill of divorcement. “He just got a bill from his wife.” billdad This little mythical woodland creature resides mostly in Maine, feeding mainly on fish; descriptions of it vary. Billerica The name of the Massachusetts town is properly pronounced Bill-rikker, or BILL-ri-kuh. birch Synonymous for a birchbark canoe. “The lake today was rougher than I found the ocean coming or returning, and Joe remarked that it would swamp his birch.” (Henry David Thoreau, Atlantic Monthly, June 4, 1858) birchen bark

Birch tree bark.

bird See quote. “There are men in every college, of whom Yale has its full number, denominated in college slang as ‘birds.’ The ‘birds’ are firm believers in the old Epicurean theory that everything in life is subservient to pleasure.” (A. Jenks, Lippincott’s Magazine, August 1887) The expression is now obsolete. bird-foot violet A common pansy with large light blue or purple flowers. bird of freedom The bald eagle; James Russell Lowell’s character Birdofredom Sawin in The Biglow Papers (1846) preserves the old expression. In the same book Lowell also calls the bald eagle the bird of our country: “Ef the bird of our country ketch him, she’ll skin him.”

biscuit bread A redundant term for biscuit; the old pleonasm is still heard occasionally in New England. bishop The word for a woman’s bustle in late 18thcentury New England. bit Often used for bitten. “ ‘The mountain got bit away a few fractions of an inch.’ ” (Thorton Wilder, Our Town, 1938) bitch hopper A derogatory term common in Massachusetts a century ago for a very provocative woman. bitter as boneset Very bitter, like the plant boneset, once widely used in treating broken bones. “The preserves was bitter as boneset! I went hungry to bed, you’d better believe.” (Rose Terry Cooks, “Town Mouse and Country Mouse,” 1891) bitters Any alcoholic drink; the expression is rarely used today. black as the king of hell’s riding boots Old-timers used this ornate expression to describe something as black or dark as could be. black as zip Extremely black or dark. “It’s black as zip out.” Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). Black Betts A historical term for any potent alcoholic liquor. “There I was loaded . . . with plenty of what some call ‘Black Betts’ or ‘o be joyful’ . . .” (L. Crawford, History of the White Mountains, 1845) black cap An old-fashioned term for black raspberries, referring to their color and shape. Also called thimbleberries. Black Daniel A nickname for Daniel Webster because of his black hair and eyes. Noted in Stephen Vincent Benét’s “The Devil and Daniel Webster” (1937). blacker’n a stack of black cats very dark night.

Heard in Vermont for a

black growth See quote. “The fir has the darkest foliage, and together with the spruce, makes a very dense ‘black growth.’ ” (Henry David Thoreau, The Maine Woods, 1858) black ice A term used in New England and other areas meaning both smooth ice with a dark appearance that forms on ponds and lakes and the dangerous thin trans-

186 Yankee Talk parent layer of ice that forms on black road surfaces, making it appear as if the road is ice-free. black jacks Old-fashioned candy sticks of many flavors originally made a century ago in Salem, Massachusetts. black locust See quote. “. . . the golden yellow of our black locust grove [in autumn]. This tree isn’t native to Cape Cod, but like so many of us who aren’t, it thrives here. It was brought from the South in the 1800s, to grow in the nitrogen-poor soil, and Cape Cod would be a bleak place without it.” (William Martin, Cape Cod, 1991)

bloody back A contemptuous name New Englanders gave the red-coated British soldiers. “The Mob still increased, and were outrageous . . . calling out ‘Come, you Rascals, you bloody Backs, you Lobster Scoundrels; fire if you dare.’ ” (Massachusetts Gazette Extraodinary, June 21, 1770) bloomer car A streetcar once used in Providence, Rhode Island with a high side runningboard that forced women to hike their skirts, exposing their “bloomers,” on boarding it.

black moose Alcesa Americanus, a color variety of the moose. “He had the horns of what they called ‘the black moose’ that goes in the lowlands.” (Henry David Thoreau, The Maine Woods, 1858)

blow (1) A single blossom or flower on a plant. “With us [New Englanders] a single blossom is a blow.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1866) (2) An expression popular among Harvard students in the early 19th century for a drinking spree. “They were out on a blow.” See BLOWTH.

Black Protestant A derogatory term not frequently heard anymore used by Catholics to describe Protestants.

blow-down A tree that has been uprooted and blown down by strong winds. “We’ve got three blowdowns on the place.”

black snap A folk name for the black huckleberry (Gaylussacia baccata) because its seeds snap when bitten into.

blowed An old-fashioned rural way to say “blew.” “The wind blowed from the north.”

blackstrap An old term for a liquor made of rum and molasses. “It was afterwards observed . . . that instead of making SWITCHEL of the molasses, the Yankees had it converted into blackstrap.” (J.M. Scott, Blue Lights, 1817) blanket fever A lumberjack term for laziness, a liking for staying in bed under the blankets mornings. “The only thing wrong with him is blanket fever.” blare Used mostly in eastern New England for the sound made by a cow. “Listen to the cows blaring.” Another New England word for this sound is blart. blart

See

BLARE.

blind as a Burma bat Daniel Webster uses this expression meaning totally blind in Stephen Vincent Benét’s “The Devil and Daniel Webster” (1937). blinger Heard in Massachusetts for an uproarious joke, a thigh-slapper. “That’s a real blinger!” bloaters Large herring that are cured by salting, smoking and half drying them. block (1) A large building in which space for stores and offices is rented. (2) A large building in which apartments are rented. (3) A pad or tablet of writing paper.

blow in Someone who has recently moved into a town or area, though “recently” is subject to interpretation: “He’s a blow in; just moved here ten years ago.” blowin’ fit to make a rabbit cry

Very cold and windy.

blowing A colorful old term meaning blossoming. “The apple trees are blowing.” blow leaf The orpine (Sedum telephium), so called because the leaves can be made into a small bladder that pops when blown up. blow my shirt! An old-fashioned euphemistic exclamation. “Well, blow my shirt if it ain’t Andy!” blowth

See quote.

I thought as I see the apple trees with their spranglin’, crooked, knotty branches showin’ a’ready signs of the spring life, thinks I, “They’ll be pink with blowth afore we know it.” And then . . . I went and begun guessin’ if there was any other word in any part of the world that stood for “blowth.” Certain sure there couldn’t be a word that described things so plain. Why, you can’t only see the posies as you’re saying’ it, but you can act’ually smell ’em. (Annie Trumbull Slosson, “A Local Colorist,” 1912)

“. . . blowth, which I heard again this summer after a long interval, means the blossoming in general. A farmer would say that there was a good blowth on his fruit

bog trotter trees.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1866) See BLOW. blue (1) Synonymous for a blueberry. “One day [she] came to her door with a bucket of fine ripe blues.” (Edith A. Holton, Yankees Were like This, 1944) (2) A term used at Yale and Dartmouth in the mid-19th century for a studious person or a grind. blue as calm water An old-fashioned simile. “She had eyes as blue as calm water.” blue-bellied A contemptuous term Southerners used to describe a New Englander, or any Northerner, or any Northern soldier during the Civil War. “. . . the mackerel-eating, blue-bellied, psalm-singing Abolitionist . . .” (Gold Hill Nevada News, May 8, 1865) blueberrying The gathering of blueberries. “The four of us went blueberrying this morning.”

187

bluenose The term bluenose to describe a person of rigid puritanical habits was first applied to lumbermen and fishermen of northern New England and referred to the color of their noses, the blue induced by long exposure to cold weather. Only later was the word applied to the aristocratic inhabitants of Boston’s Back Bay area in the sense that we know it today, possibly in alluding to their apparently “frigid” manner. Bluenose also is used as an opprobrious nickname for Nova Scotians, but there the word probably derives from the name of a popular Nova Scotian potato. blue-skin Historically this now-obsolete term meant both an ardent patriot during the Revolutionary War and any person of grave deportment, especially a Presbyterian. boat shell A designation heard in New England and nearby areas such as Long Island, New York for the slipper snail (Crepidula fornicata) because it resembles a little rowboat with one bench. The boat shell is so named scientifically because it multiplies very rapidly.

blue book The name for this booklet of blank pages used for college exams is first recorded in a 1893 book called Harvard Stories.

boat steerers fritters.

blue-bottles A fly with a metallic blue body of the genus Calliphora. “The garden was a poisonous tangle of nettles, burdocks and tall swamp-weeds over which big blue-bottles hummed.” (Edith Wharton, Summer, 1917)

bob house According to Yankee Magazine (January 1974), this is a little hut built on a frozen lake for fishing. The fishermen fish through holes cut through the wooden floor and through the ice. The term is mainly heard in New Hampshire.

blue claw The blue crab (Callinectes sapidus); also called the blue-clawed crab.

bob-tail The New England word for quail, the game bird Southerners call partridge.

blue laws Blue laws usually means excessive Never-onSunday moral laws. The expression may take its name from a nonexistent Connecticut “blue book” rumored to contain such fanatical laws. The vengeful rumor was spread by the Reverend Samuel Peters, an American Tory who returned to England after the Revolution. Peters claimed that the fictitious blue-bound book contained laws prohibiting such activities as kissing one’s wife on Sunday.

bodgo! Marblehead, Massachusetts sailors used to hail vessels passing in the fog or at night with the cry Bodgo! When the reply Molly Waldo! was heard from a vessel, it was known to be a Marblehead fishing schooner. The origins of both cries seem to be lost in history.

Blue-law state A historical name for Connecticut after the puritanical laws said to have been enforced there in the 17th and 18th centuries. See BLUE LAWS. blue light Blue light, an early American term for a traitor, originated during the War of 1812 when pro-British Americans flashed blue lights to British ships off the coast as a signal that Commodore Stephen Decatur’s two frigates would soon be sailing from their New London, Connecticut harbor. The British acted on this information and blockaded the port.

An old name, its origin unclear, for clam

body, a Frequently means a person. “What’s a body got to do to get something to eat around here.” body meeting An advertised public meeting held in Boston in the early 19th century that any citizen might attend in person. body-pew A square church pew built to hold one person. “In one of the foremost body-pews sat John Arnold.” (Mary Wilkins Freeman, The New England Nun and Other Stories, 1891) bog trotter A derogatory term heard mainly in New England for an Irishman, though it has a wider currency in print.

188 Yankee Talk bogue in To pitch in, take part with. “‘I didnt get much done ‘thout I bogue right in along’th my men.’ ” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1866) boiled dinner (1) A dinner of meat (usually corned beef) and vegetables boiled together. The term is recorded as early as 1805. (2) An old term for a heated argument. boiling spring An expression used in Maine for a bubbling spring of fresh water. bollicky Naked; probably derives from ballock, testicle. “We all went in bollicky at the old swimming hole.” bolt

To split trees or timber into bolts.

bone dish A century ago, narrow curved dishes called bone dishes were set close to each dinner plate on a table for the disposal of bones and gristle from the meat that was served. bones The popular name for Yale’s Skull and Bones society, which is the university’s oldest, founded in 1832.

classical writers of antiquity, but because they were inscribed in a hoax over a door in the Hall of Graduate Studies at Yale University. The line is from contemporary novelist Rafael Sabatini’s (1875–1950) rousing Scaramouche, beloved to generations of romantics, and the full quote, referring to the hero, is “Born with the gift of laughter and the sense that the world was mad, and that was his only patrimony.” The words apparently were written on Yale’s hallowed walls as the result of a hoax. At least the building’s architect, John Donald Tuttle, confessed in a letter to the New Yorker (December 8, 1934) that collegiate Gothic repelled him. It is, he wrote, “a type of architecture that had been designed expressly . . . to enable yeomen to pour molten lead through slots on their enemies below. As a propitiatory gift to my gods . . . and to make them forget by appealing to their senses of humor, I carved the inscription over the door.” Yale authorities apparently didn’t enjoy the joke. After employing medievalists, classical scholars and Egyptologists to find the source of the quotation, only to learn it was from a mere adventure novelist, they planted the ivy that hides the words today.

bonnyclabber An old term for the sour curdled milk used in many New England recipes.

borough A designation used in Connecticut for a municipal corporation roughly similar to an incorporated town or village.

book larnin’ Book learning, formal education; often used contemptuously. “He’s got plenty of book larnin’, but no common sense.”

Bosox A nickname for the Boston Red Sox baseball team. Also called the Rouge Hose, though not nearly so frequently. See BOSTON RED SOX.

book-writer An old-fashioned term for author. “When I was a mite of a child, I was always sayin’ that I’d be a book-writer when I growed up . . . just a plain author, no partic’lar sort.” (Annie Trumbull Slosson, “A Local Colorist,” 1912)

boss This relatively recent nationwide slang for excellent seems to have first been used on Cape Cod in about 1850. “Those pancakes are boss.”

boots See quote. “Boston is the only city in America in which boots is a common equivalent for shoes . . .” (George Philip Krapp, The English Language in America, 1925) This is not common usage in Boston anymore. boozefuddle Cheap liquor. Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). born in the middle of the week and looking both ways for Sunday A colorful old expression describing someone extremely cross-eyed. born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad These words became famous not because they are from Shakespeare, Milton or any of the great

Boston (1) The capital of Massachusetts, named for a borough in Lincolnshire, England. (2) A term once used by northwestern Indians for any white American, as opposed to the English or French. The Indians also called these people Bostonians and Boston men because so many settlers in the Northwest came on sailing vessels from the port of Boston or had connections with that great hub of commerce. (3) A name for the summer mackerel. Boston accent Often used outside New England as a synonym for New England accent, perhaps because the accent is so strong in the city, although the New England accent is not the same in all parts of New England. In Boston one commonly hears such pronunciations as gull for girl, shop for sharp, back for bark, hot for heart, and bee-ad for bad. See the Introduction. Boston bag An old name for a handbag with a handle on each side of the top opening.

Boston folks are full of notions 189 Boston baked beans (1) Famous since at least the mid19th century as the best of baked beans; made with navy beans flavored with molasses and slowly cooked with pork. Baked beans have been the traditional Saturday night supper in New England since early times, though recipes for them vary greatly. Leftover beans were traditionally Sunday breakfast fare. (2) See quote. “The choice of candies was extensive. There were all-day suckers, delicious sugarcoated peanuts in little pots (Boston Baked Beans) . . . Foxy Granpas, and Jackson balls. I had to look over everything before I made up my mind: the Chewy Bagdads, Half Hours, Gibraltars, Humbugs . . . Hokey Pokies . . .” (Hayden Pearson, New England Flavor, 1961) (4) A once-popular variety of the card game whist. (5) A modified form of the waltz. Boston baseball A name once used in the Boston area for what is called stoop ball in other places. In the game a tennis ball is bounced (thrown) off the steps by the “batter” and the other players try to catch it to put him or her out. Boston Bees The name given to the BOSTON BRAVES in 1936, after a contest was held to rename the team. The new name never caught on and the team became the Boston Braves again in 1941. Boston bluefish Not really a bluefish but a pollack (Pollachius virens). Boston boy See quote. “A ‘Boston boy’ is a melancholy picture of prematurity. It might be said that every man is born middle-aged in that and every other great city of the Union.” (Thomas C. Grattan, Civilized America, 1859) Boston Brahmin An aristocratic, upper-class, conservative Bostonian; named after the highest or priestly caste of the Hindus and first recorded in January 1861 by Oliver Wendell Holmes in his novel Elsie Venner as “the Brahmin caste of New England.” Holmes found the Boston Brahmins a “harmless, inoffensive, untitled aristocracy . . . which has grown to be a caste by the repetition of the same influences generation after generation” so that it has acquired a distinct character and organization. In November 1947 the Atlantic Monthly noted: “The Brahmins do not think of themselves as Brahmins: the word is antique as the wooden cod hanging in the State House.” Antique or not, the term is still used today. Brahmin caste is a synonym. (See BOSTON SCORN.) Boston Braves A National League baseball team that was named after the New York City Tammany Hall political machine. Tammany politicians had invested in the club in 1912, and since members of the political club were called “braves,” in honor of the Indian chief for

whom Tammany was named, the name was applied to players on the baseball team. The Braves moved from Boston to Milwaukee in 1953 and later moved on to Atlanta. See BOSTON BEES. Boston brown bread A steamed brown bread flavored with molasses that is often served with Boston baked beans. Boston chips

An old term for house shingles.

Boston coffee (1) A name common in other regions for a cup of coffee that is half coffee and half cream, perhaps because coffeeshops in Boston often serve coffee with cream already added. (2) A humorous term used in the early 19th century for whiskey. Boston Common

See

BOSTON GARDEN; COMMON.

Boston cooler Currently heard in Pennsylvania for a half cantaloupe with a scoop of ice cream in it. Apparently the term isn’t used in Boston for this or for a tall glass of root beer with vanilla ice cream—a Cleveland specialty. Boston cracker A thick round cracker often served with New England clam chowder. Also called the COMMON CRACKER. Boston cream pie A two-layer cake with a custard filling between layers and covered with chocolate icing. Boston culture Once a widely used term denoting a culture superior to most others in the United States. Boston dip An old, rather stiff and ungraceful form of the waltz. Also called the Boston. Boston dollar A humorous historical term used in the West for a penny, so called by cowboys who regarded New Englanders as tightfisted. Bostonese (1) See quote. “Bostonese . . . is a method of speech or manners supposed to be specially affected by the residents of that city.” (John Farmer, Americanisms, 1889) (2) An obsolete term for learned talk. (See also BOSTONITE.) Boston fern Nephrolepis exalta, var. Bostoniensis, a very popular variety of the sword fern, which originated with a sport or mutation in a shipment of these ferns from Boston. Boston folks are full of notions Once a common rural New England saying referring to the “newfangled” ways of Bostonians.

190 Yankee Talk Boston Garden The now-closed Boston sports arena, former home of the Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins. “‘Boston Garden,’ I said, ‘Singular, as in the Public Garden. Hayshakers from New York and Los Angeles are always looking ignorant by saying Boston Gardens and Boston Commons, and generally disgracing themselves in front of us Beantown sophisticates.” (Robert P. Parker, Spenser’s Boston, 1994) Bostonian

See

BOSTONITE.

Boston is a state of mind the 19th century. Bostonism anism.

An old saying dating back to

A typical Boston expression; also Bostoni-

Bostonite A native of Boston, the term recorded as early as 1775. Also Bostoner, first recorded in 1671, Bostoners and, most commonly today, Bostonian. Boston ivy An attractive climbing vine (Parthenocissus tricuspida) native to eastern Asia that first became popular in the United States in Boston. Boston mackerel Another name for the Atlantic or summer mackerel (Scomber scombus). Boston massacre (1) March 5, 1770, when British troops fired into a Boston crowd and killed three people, inflaming the colonists. (2) A nickname for the 1978 fall of the Boston Red Sox baseball team when they were in first place, which they had held by 141/2 games. Boston notions Small items, such as beads or pottery, used as trade articles by Yankee traders. Boston philosophy See quote. “What is the Boston philosophy? Why, it is not to care about anything you do care about.” (Harper’s Magazine, November 1886) Boston pine A popular midseason strawberry variety of the 19th century. Boston Pops A nickname for the Boston Symphony orchestra, founded in 1881 and one of America’s oldest symphony orchestras. Boston Red Sox The name of Boston’s American League baseball team since 1904. The team had previously been called the Boston Americans, Boston Somersets, Boston Puritans, Boston Plymouth Rocks and Boston Speed Boys. See BOSOX.

Boston resolves Laws originating in Boston in 1767, with the intention of seeking a return to puritanical simplicity by not importing any luxuries from abroad. Boston rocker A modified form of the Windsor wooden rocking chair with a spindle back and curved seat. Boston scorn A look supposed to be a typical expression of what Boston Brahmins thought was their superiority. “Graven on his face was what is called the ‘Boston scorn.’ ” (Winston Churchill, The Crisis, 1901) See BOSTON BRAHMIN. Boston screwdriver A humorous disparaging term used in the Boston area for a hammer, which some workers use to drive in screws, thus saving time. Boston strawberries A humorous slang term for Boston baked beans. “ ‘Give me a plate of beans,’ he said to the waiter. ‘One plate of Boston strawberries,’ yelled that functionary.” (American Speech, February 1945, citing a usage of the term made in 1884) Boston strong boy A nickname of John L. Sullivan, late 19th-century bareknuckle boxing heavyweight champion. He was also called The Boston Hercules, Boston’s Pet, Boston’s Pride and Joy, The Boston Miracle, Young Boston Giant, Boston’s Goliath and Boston’s Philanthropic Prize-fighter, among many more nicknames. Boston style See quote. “To do a thing in ‘Boston style’ is proverbial throughout the county, as signifying a thing done with superior promptness and execution.” (Monthly Magazine, January 1834) Boston Tea Party The first act of violence in the disputes leading to the Revolutionary War, occurring on December 16, 1773 when members of the Sons of Liberty, incensed by the tax on tea, boarded British ships and dumped 342 chests of tea in Boston Harbor. Boston terrier A dog bred from the English bulldog and white English terrier. Boston type An embossed type for the blind that a Boston doctor, S.G. Howe, invented in about 1830. Boston Whaler A trademarked small boat noted for its seaworthiness. “Geoff leaned on the throttle of Rake Hilyard’s Boston Whaler and pointed toward Eastham.” (William Martin, Cape Cod, 1991) botheration! An exclamation indicating impatience. “Botheration! Ain’t you finished yet?”

Brook Farm 191 bouchots

See

MOULES.

boughten An old-fashioned word meaning something store-bought as opposed to being homemade. boughten beans A disparaging term for canned baked beans used instead of beans prepared and baked at home (or baked in a baker’s oven). bound Often pronounced with the d dropped. “When a Yankee skipper says that he is boun’ for Gloster (not Gloucester, with the leave of the Universal Schoolmaster), he but speaks like Chaucer or an old ballad singer, though they would have pronounced it boon.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867) bouquets A name for shrimp in parts of New England, Louisiana and Canada where there is a French influence. Also crevettes. box tortoise A New England land turtle of the genus Terrapine that can dose itself up completely in its shell. boxwood An old name once widely used in Connecticut for the dogwood tree (Cornus florida). braces Suspenders. “He’s so cautious he wears braces and a belt.” Brahmin

See

Brahmin caste

BOSTON BRAHMIN.

See

BOSTON BRAHMIN.

brash (1) Coarse, unrefined. “This meal is too brash.” (2) An old term, rarely used anymore, for wood that is brittle. brass-eyed whistler A New England name for the American golden-eye duck (of the Bucephala genus). Brave An often derogatory designation heard in Massachusetts for someone of Portuguese descent. “ ‘I haven’t got time to do that, sit here entertaining a bunch of stupid Braves . . . having them yell at me in Portuguese.’ ” (George V. Higgins, Imposters, 1985) breachy Said of a cow that often breaks out of or breaches enclosures. breakers ahead! Watch out, your action or conduct is leading you into trouble. Originally a nautical phrase warning of the breakers or white water that usually form over submerged rocks or other dangerous objects.

break the Pope’s neck An indoor children’s game once played in New England, its name reflecting antiCatholic prejudice a century and a half ago. breedin’ up a storm to cloudy.

Said when the sky turns from clear

brewis A kind of pudding made of brown bread, salt, water, butter and cream, according to Imogene Wolcott’s Yankee Cookbook (1939). Also called New England Hard-Scrabble. See HARDSCRABBLE. breezing up Said of increasing winds. “It’s really breezin’ up out there.” Brewster chair A spindle chair named after William Brewster (1566–1644), elder of the Pilgrim Church. bridesman wedding.

An old-fashioned term for an usher at a

bright as a button

A common New England simile.

Brimstone Corner A nickname for Park Street Church in Boston because it served as a munitions store during the War of 1812 and because fiery sermons were preached in the landmark church. brindle In the past, brindle was not always used by New Englanders in the sense of its dictionary definition. It often meant any dark color, usually a cow of no known breed. Shit brindle meant a dark unattractive color. Bristol This Connecticut city takes its name from its sister city in England. Bristol, England, in turn, got its name from the habit its residents had of tacking an l onto words ending in a vowel. This local dialectical eccentricity, which persists there today, changed the seaport’s name from Bristowe to Bristol. British soldier An old name heard in Nantucket for the star moss, a lichen whose light red color suggests a British soldier’s uniform. broke of one’s rest To be deprived of one’s rest. “ ‘I ain’t goin’ to be broke of my rest this way.’ ” (Mary Wikins Freeman, A New England Nun and Other Stories, 1891) brook

See

CRICK.

Brook Farm A famous socialistic and literary collective that was established in Massachusetts in 1841 and failed five years later.

192 Yankee Talk brook-southerntine An old name for the snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus). broom clean Said of a room swept up with a broom but not mopped or scrubbed. “Within, the cluttered kitchen floor, unwashed (broomclean I think they called it) . . .” (James Greenleaf Whittier, Among the Hills, 1869) Brother Jonathan

See

brown bread A dark steamed bread traditionally served with baked beans. Made from various recipes, but usually including molasses. Also called Boston Brown bread. See

HARDSCRABBLE.

brunonian Any student or alumnus of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Also called Brownies. brush brustle

See U. Bristle. “He got all brustled up about it.”

bub A term of address. “ ‘Why, yes, bub,’ said the old man, beaming down a kindly glance through his round glasses . . . ‘it’s turrible nice . . .’ ” (Rowland Robinson, “The Paring Bee,” 1900) bubblegum machine Used in New England and elsewhere for a police car with a flashing light on the roof. bubbler

The water cooler common in business offices.

bubble-work Insubstantial work, work that comes to nothing. “. . . I am wearing half my life away / For bubble-work that only fools pursue . . .” (Edward Arlington Robinson, “Dear Friends,” The Children of the Night, 1897) bucket

buddy Maple sap dark in color and strong in flavor. Maple syrup is buddy when made from sap running at the time the maple buds begin to open. budge Friendly with, familiar with. “She’s very budge with Mary.”

JONNY-CAKE.

Brothertown Indians According to records of the Massachusetts Historical Society dated 1795, these were “the scanty remnant[s] of the Moheakaunuck Indians, called formerly the seven tribes on the sea coast. They lived in Farmingon, Stonington, Mohigan, and some other towns in the state of Connecticut, and Narragansett, in the state of Rhode Island.”

brown bread brewis

(2) A whelk found in southern New England waters. See ALEWIFE.

The preferred New England term for pail.

buffle-brain A stupid person. “He’s the buffle-brain of the buffle-brained.” Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). The word derives from the English dialect word buffle meaning fool. bug Lobsterman lingo for lobster. “He already had eighteen ‘bugs’ in the box, he’d likely have thirty or more by the time he was through . . .” (Peter Benchley, White Shark, 1994) bug-bite and moonshine Unbelievable nonsense. “That’s bug-bite and moonshine!” Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). build a better mousetrap Ralph Waldo Emerson is often credited with “If you build a better mousetrap the world will beat a path to your door,” mainly because a book entitled Borrowings by Sarah S. B. Yule and Mary Keene, published in 1889, reported that he had said it in a speech. But many scholars believe that Emerson was too wise to believe that the world would always seek out the best, and nothing concerning a mousetrap can be found in any of Emerson’s published writings. bulkhead A term heard in eastern Massachusetts and elsewhere for an outside cellar entrance with sloping doors, one opening to the left, the other to the right. “The bulkhead double-doors were double-locked / and swollen tight and buried under snow.” (Robert Frost, “The Witch of Coos,” 1923) “An old woman came out and fastened the door of her bulkhead.” (Henry David Thoreau, Cape Cod, posthumously published 1865) bull To labor long and hard. “The old-timers bulled from sunup to sundown.”

buckle A cake filled with cooked fruit that often “buckles” in the middle as it cooks in a hot oven.

bullheads A name New England colonists gave to the freshwater catfish, which they also called bullhead cats.

bucky (1) An old name for the alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus), which is also called the buckboard herring.

bull pad Once commonly heard in Massachusetts for frog. Also bull paddock, bull-paddy.

bury the hachet 193 bull’s eye A small, thick, silver watch. “With some trouble he dragged up an ancient-looking, thick, silver bull’s-eye watch . . . then opened the watch and handed me the loose outside case without a word.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, 1858) bully boy A historical term for the class leader at Yale; an enforcer of order and discipline, he was usually the strongest of his class and carried a thick oak stick called a bully club as an emblem of his office. “The bully club is said to have been taken from a sailor by a powerful student in 1801, and, until 1841, was handed down from class to class as an emblem of supremacy.” (Bachelor Arts Monthly, May 1895) bully club

See

BULLY BOY.

bundling A historical term for a custom that was practiced mainly in New England and other parts of the Northeast. In the late 1700s many tracts pro and con were written about the custom of bundling, which was all the rage in America at the time. When bundling, courting couples would lie in the same bed partly or fully clothed, sometimes with a special bundling board between them. Often the bundling board was breached or hurdled and the couples groped in the dark for additional ways to keep warm, and that is where the controversy came in. In his Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, Grose defined bundling “A man and woman lying on the same bed with their clothes on; an expedient practiced in America on a scarcity of beds, where, on such occasions, husbands and parents frequently permitted travelers to ‘bundle’ with their wives and daughters.” But there was more to the practice than the scarcity of beds or the lack of heat, as Washington Irving noted in his History of New York. Irving cited those “cunning and ingenious” Yankees who permitted young couples to bundle due to their “strict adherence to the good old pithy maxim about ‘buying a pig in a poke.’ ” On the other hand, one old gentleman, explaining the custom to his grandson late in the last century, emphasized the practicality of bundling and denied any wrongdoing on the part of the participants. “What is the use of sitting up all night and burning out fire and lights, when you could just as well get under cover and keep warm?” he said. “Why, damn it, there wasn’t half as many bastards then as there are now!” bung up and bilge-free (1) An old Nantucket way to describe good health, in reference to the way casks are correctly stowed in a ship’s hold. Cited in William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket (1916). (2) In proper order, stowed neatly. Originally a nautical term, referring to casks of whale oil stowed neatly on whalers. “‘Bung up, and bilge free!‘ he cried, in an ecstasy.” (Herman Melville, White-Jacket, 1850)

Burbank potato Plant breeder Luther Burbank (1849–1926) was born in Lancaster, Massachusetts and there developed the Burbank potato, his most important achievement, while just a boy experimenting with seeds in his mother’s garden. At 26 he moved to Santa Rosa, California, using the $150 he made from the sale of his potato to pay for the journey. It was in Santa Rosa, his “chosen spot of all the earth,” that he bred almost all the other varieties of fruit, vegetables and ornamentals for which he became famous. burden An old term for crop. “We had a good burden of corn.” burn off Said of fog that lifts or clears up; a term heard on Long Island, New York and in other areas, but mainly in New England. “The fog burned off before noon.” burnt blacker than a crow Said in Maine of anything burnt so that its inedible, especially toast burnt to a crisp. buryin’ A Maine expression for funeral. “We had his buryin’ yesterday.” burying ground A graveyard. “Poor little widow’s boy, riding tonight in the mad wind, back to the village burying ground where he never dreamed of sleeping! Ah! the dreamless sleep!” (Emily Dickinson (of a widowed neighbor’s son killed in the Civil War), Letters, ed. by Thomas H. Johnson, 1958) bury the hachet Buried was the bloody hatchet; Buried was the dreadful war-club . . . There was peace among the nations.

Longfellow wrote this in Hiawatha (1855), but the expression bury the hatchet, “to settle all differences, to let bygones be bygones,” goes back much further. Recorded as early as 1794, it stems from an old Indian custom. Crude stone axes, or hatchets, were long the most important weapon of northeastern American Indians. Such ceremony was attached to these tomahawks that when peace was made between two tribes, it was customary to take the tomahawks of both chiefs and bury them. If hostilities broke out again, the hatchets were dug up as a declaration of war. The earliest record of this practice is found in a 1680 letter of New England author Samuel Sewall: “Meeting with the Sachem they came to an agreement and buried two axes in the ground . . . which ceremony to them is more significant and binding than all the Articles of Peace, the hatchet being a principal weapon.”

194 Yankee Talk bust your haslet out

See

HASLET.

buttonwood

See

BUTTONBALL.

butcher An old term for copyeditor, because copyeditors typically cut short reporters’ stories. “These are the manuscript poems we receive, and the one sitting at the table is commonly spoken of among us as The Butcher.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Guardian Angel, 1867)

buy your luck An old nautical expression describing the practice of throwing a lucky charm or coin overboard before departing on a voyage to bring good luck.

butcher cart The horse-drawn wagon butchers used in selling meat door to door. See BAKER’S CART.

by Godfrey A euphemism for by God heard mainly in New England.

butter and sugar corn Yellow and white kerneled ears of corn; sometimes called bicolor corn in southern New England and Long Island, New York. The scientific name is Zea mays var. rugosa.

by guess and by God At random, without planning. “I did it by guess and by God.” Also by guess and by gosh; by guess and by gorry; and by guess and by golly.

butternut Juglans cinera, a common New England tree sometimes tapped for syrup and whose fruits were used by pioneers to make a yellow dye. buttery more.

An old word for pantry not often heard any-

butt fiend

A compulsive cigarette smoker.

butt floss Slang heard in New England for a skimpy bikini bathing suit, or string. “She was wearing one ofthose bikini bathing suits . . . what did they call them. Butt floss . . .” (Peter Benchley, White Shark, 1994) buttonball A name for the sycamore tree (Platanus occidentalis), which has fruits resembling ball-like buttons. Also called the button tree and buttonwood. button box A box in which odd buttons are kept. “Hand me my button box—it must be there.” (Robert Frost, “The Witch of Coos,” 1923) button up for the winter To get ready for winter, making sure storm doors and windows are in place, that the woodpile is full, and so on.

by fire!

A common exclamation in days past.

by the great horn spoon An early euphemism for By God! “Sez Mister Foote, / I should like to shoot / The hull gang, by the gret horn spoon!’ sez he.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1848) by the livin’ law! Cited as a common exclamation by George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). by the Old Lord Harry! A common exclamation heard in Maine and elsewhere. by the prophet’s nippers! A colorful nautical exclamation noted by Shebnah Rich in Truro-Cape Cod, 1883. by the snakes of Babylon! An old exclamation rarely, if ever, heard anymore. Other old-fashioned New England exclamations include: By chowder! By crackie! By crimus! By dad! By fire! By gary! By ginger! By gorry! By the great deludian! By gull! By gum! By gravy! By hen! By the holy smut! By hokey! By Joe Beeswax! By King! By the livin’ laws! By mighty! By scissors! By smutt! By swan! and By zounds!

C cabbage night A name in times past for the night before Halloween when young pranksters (usually in rural areas) dumped cabbage roots, rotten cabbages, and other field refuse on people’s porches.

called aft Died. Originally a nautical term referring to a seaman being called to the captain’s quarters at the rear (aft) of the ship for “final judgment” about his conduct. calling hours, the ing hours?”

cabinet A term heard in Massachusetts and Rhode Island for what is commonly called a milkshake in other areas; it was possibly so named because the drugstore that first concocted it in Fall River, Massachusetts kept the ice cream in a cabinet attached to the soda fountain. But perhaps the name has something to do with the earlier CABINET PUDDING, which is also a sweet dessert.

A funeral wake. “When are the call-

call it up Recall, recollect. “ ‘You see, I can look back and call it up in his mother’s day, before their troubles.” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911) calm as a clock Said of someone very calm, unexcited no matter what the situation, going like a clock at the same pace.

cabinet pudding A dessert made of layered ladyfingers, macaroons and custard; the origin of its name is apparently unknown.

cambric tea A tealess children’s drink served at play tea parties made of cream and sugar added to hot water. Also called Cambridge tea.

caboose A word once commonly used by New England sailors for the galley of a ship.

Cambridge A city across the Charles River from Boston in which Harvard University, Radcliffe College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are located. “ ‘Cambridge is not,’ Rachel Wallace said, ‘technically part of Boston . . .’ ‘That’s right,’ I said. ‘There are those who say that, technically, Cambridge is not part of this world.’ ” (Robert P. Parker, Spenser’s Boston, 1994)

cade Used in Massachusetts and Rhode Island to describe an orphan lamb raised by bottle-feeding as a pet. calculate To reckon, guess, figure, expect, suppose, intend. Often used in place of know, as in “I calculate he’s comin’.” “She calculated to have one piece of work join on to another.” (Sarah Orne Jewett, “A Lost Lover,” 1878) Frequently pronounced cal’late.

Cambridge flag A popular name for the first flag of the American Continental Army at the start of the Revolutionary War. Its official name was the Grand Union flag (because it had been patterned on the British Grand Union flag with its red and white stripes and crosses) but was popularly called the Cambridge flag because it was first flown near Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts.

calibogus An alcoholic drink usually made with rum, spruce-beer, and molasses, though the term is sometimes applied to any drink. The word is of unknown origin.

195

196 Yankee Talk camphor chest A chest containing camphor, which protects against moths that might ruin clothes and fabric stored in it. candleberry bush Another name for the bayberry bush, whose berries often were used to make candles in days past. Also called the bayberry tallow, candleberry tree and light on a bush. Candlemas Day, Half Your Wood, and Half Your Hay This old farmer’s saying indicated how one’s supply of hay and wood should stand by Candlemas Day, February 2. candle wood A resinous wood like pitch pine, whose splinters were burned for lighting. canker rash An old term for scarlet fever accompanied by throat ulcerations. cannikin A covered wooden bucket generally used to store flour or sugar. canoodle To caress, fondle, pet, “fool around,” usually in secret, out of sight. “There they were canoodlin’ in the parlor while Mother made the tea.” can’t for the life of me Utterly unable to. “I can’t for the life of me understand.” can’t rightly know for sure itive.

I can’t be sure; I’m not pos-

can’t spin a thread Is powerless to act. Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). Canuck Canuck as a derogatory name for a French Canadian has been around since about 1865, with both Canadians and Americans using it. It derives from Canada + the Algonquin Indian ending uck. “ ‘Polish town’s across the tracks, and some Canuck families.’ ” (Thornton Wilder, Our Town, 1938) Cape, the The name most New Englanders use for Cape Cod in Massachusetts. “It is true they had a place on the Cape and trips to Europe in the years they didn’t go to Florida, but then so did everybody else, more or less.” (John Updike, “The Afterlife,” 1986) See CAPE CAUD. Cape Ann turkey Same as CAPE after Cape Ann, Massachusetts.

COD TURKEY;

named

cape catboat A fishing and pleasure boat developed in Cape Cod and once common there. Cape Caud Commonly heard on Cape Cod as a pronunciation of the place-name. Thoreau called Cape Cod “the bare and bended arm of Massachusetts” in his Cape Cod (1865). The place was named by English navigator and colonizer Captain Bartholomew Gosnold on his voyage to the New World in 1602 when “Neere this Cape . . . we tooke great store of Codfish . . . and called it Cape Cod.” See also the LANGUID CAPE. Cape Cod cat The name of a popular pleasure boat, said to have been designed by one Andrew Crosby and finished by his sons in 1850 after he had died and they consulted him about several construction problems in a seance held by his wife. The boat takes its name from an old sea captain’s remark that “She comes about as quick as a cat.” All this from Donald G. Trayser’s Barnstable: Three Centuries of a Cape Cod Town (1939). Cape Cod clam chowder

A milk-based clam chowder.

Cape Cod clergyman An old humorous name for the large, flat-headed sculpin fish (of the genus Cottus). “They might have been permitted . . . to take some few sculpins . . . known in the rude dialect of our mariners as Cape Cod Clergymen.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1846) Cape Cod cottage A type of cottage common on Cape Cod. It is usually one or one-and-a-half stories high and has a gabled roof and a central chimney. Cape Codder (1) A native or longtime resident of Cape Cod. (2) A drink of cranberry juice and vodka. “ ‘For a nice change of pace, grapefruit juice and vodka makes a salty dog. Cranberry? A Cape Codder.’ ” (George V. Higgins, Imposters, 1985) Cape Cod fence A white picket fence, like those often seen on Cape Cod. Cape Cod Girls A sea chanty once very popular on Cape Cod and in other parts of New England. It has many verses, including: “Cape Cod girls they have no combs . . . /They comb their hair with codfish bones . . . and Cape Cod doctors have no pills, / They give their patients codfish gills.” Cape Cod measure See quote. “We call it four miles, more or less. That’s Cape Cod measure—means most anythin’ lineal measure.” (John McLean, Cape Cod Folks, 1881)

cat-ice 197 Cape Cod turkey New Englanders have called baked codfish Cape Cod turkey for many years, at least since the mid-19th century, but Imogene Wolcott in the New England Yankee Cookbook (1939) points out that it has come to mean any cooked fish, “what kind doesn’t matter unless you are literal.” If one is literal, she says, it is “stuffed codfish well-larded with salt pork.” In times past Cape Cod turkey was a large cod nailed on the wall of the barn, a piece regularly cut off for supper. People of Irish descent in the Boston area use the term to refer to the Friday night meal of fish.

carrelet Used in parts of New England for the saltwater fluke (Paralichthys dentatus).

Cape Flyaway A nautical expression used in the New England and Long Island, New York areas for a cloud bank that appears like a cape of land from a distance.

Castine

Cape of Eternal Peace capful of wind

See the

Carver chair A type of chair with three vertical and three horizontal spindles named for John Carver, first governor of the Plymouth Colony, who first owned one so designed. case Used in Maine to describe a practical joker. “He’s a case, ain’t he?” Cited in E. K. Maxwell, “Maine Dialect,” American Speech (November 1926). Pronounced cas-TEEN; a Maine town.

cast-iron sweat Once a common term for a highly nervous state but rarely heard anymore.

LANGUID CAPE.

A gentle, pleasant breeze for sailing.

Cap’n Cap’n is the title of almost anyone along the New England coast who captains anything bigger than a rowboat. Captain’s walk Another name for the WIDOW’S WALK, so named, in this case, for the retired sea captains who liked to walk these small fenced platforms on the roofs of houses and look out at the ships coming in and going out of the harbor. “When he sighted it, he would come down from his Cap’n’s walk . . . and cart an empty keg over to the packet landing.” (Joseph Lincoln, Cape Cod Yesterdays, 1935) cardboard carton Pronounced kahd-booud kaht’n, which is as good a test of Yankee speech as pahk y’r cah in Hahvud yahd or Hahdah than a hoah’s haht. See the Introduction. cards beat all the players, the Fate or luck is all. It is not certain that this saying originated in New England, but Ralph Waldo Emerson was familiar with it, meditating on the words in his essay “Nominalist and Realist” (1844): “For though gamesters say that the cards beat all the players, though they were never so skillful, yet in the contest we are now considering, the players are also the game, and share the power of the cards.”

cat and bull story An old expression not much heard anymore that is euphemistic for a cock and bull story. catch a crab When an oarman catches a crab, he of course doesn’t catch one on his oar. The expression, dating back to the 19th century, means that the oarsman has slowed down the speed of the boat either by missing the water on a stroke or, more commonly, by making a poor, awkward stroke that doesn’t clear the water when completed. The phrase is heard most frequently in Maine. catch a weasel asleep To catch an aware, shrewd person off guard. “Trying to trick him is like trying to catch a weasel asleep.” catch a Yankee, to To catch a Tartar, that is, to deal with someone or something that proves unexpectedly troublesome or powerful. catching weather Getting caught in a storm. “He said just what anybody anywheres would say, that it was goin’ to be catchin’ weather like the day afore, when he got soppin’ wet over to the medder lot, and he cal’lated ’twould keep on thataway till the moon fulled.” (Annie Trumbull Slosson, “A Local Colorist,” 1912) catering Not plumb, askew; from cater-cornered. “He built it all catering.”

Careboo The Maine pronunciation of Caribou, as in Careboo County.

caterpillar An old-fashioned term meaning body hair standing on end, gooseflesh. “I was so scared it made me caterpillars.”

careful Very conservative in spending money. “ ‘I would not have been able to run this house and keep my head above water, if I had not been ‘careful.’ There’s another word for you, Mr. North.’ ” (Thornton Wilder, Theophilus North, 1973)

cat-ice See quote. “ ‘Cat-ice’ is a good old New England word and thing; it is the thin layer of brittle ice formed over puddles, from under which the water has afterward receded . . .” (Alice Morse Earle, Old Time Gardens, 1901)

198 Yankee Talk catouse A commotion, a big fuss. “What a big catouse he made about it.” See MAKE A TOUSE. cat-road A poor narrow dirt road. “I shall never forget . . . in Dublin, New Hampshire, driving through what our delightful Yankee character and guide called ‘only a cat-road.’ ” (Alice Morse Earle, Old Time Gardens, 1901)

certain See quote. “. . . Chapman and Ben Jonson use certain, as the Yankee always does, for certainly.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867) Lowell was referring, of course, to people of his time. chair bottomer The occupation Yankee humor gives to a lazy man. Cited in E. K. Maxwell, “Maine Dialect,” American Speech (November 1926).

cat’s hind foot! An exclamation of contempt, disgust or disbelief for another’s foolish remark or action. “Cat’s hind foot! There he goes again with those opinions of his.” Also cat’s foot! Possibly a euphemism for Christ’s foot!

chalk above, a Superior to. “They [foreigners] reckon themselves . . . a chalk above us Yankees.” (Thomas Haliburton, The Clockmaker, 1836)

catslide roof house saltbox house.

chocorua plague A plague of cattle also called cripple all, which occurred in New Hampshire near the foot of the White Mountains, apparently due to the lack of phosphate in the area. According to Frederick Hodge in Handbook of American Indians (1907), Chocorua was the name of an Indian, “the legendary last survivor of a tribe . . . who, previous to 1766, inhabited the region about the town of Burton, New Hampshire. He was pursued by a white hunter to the mountain which bears his name and driven over the cliffs or shot to death. Before dying he is reported to have cursed the settlers and their cattle.”

A term used on Nantucket for a

cat spruce The white spruce (Picea canadensis), because of its strong smell. catstick (1) A historical term for a bat used in a ball game. (2) A small piece of kindling wood. (3) Spindly sticks of cut wood or growing wood, wood of poor quality. “Don’t bring me a load of catsticks next time.” cattle show An old term for a county fair, where cattle usually were exhibited and judged for prizes. caught Froze. “We ran out of oil and the pipes caught, bust in a few places.” caught milk A phrase used in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for slightly burned milk, according to Frederic D. Allen, “Contributions to the New England Vocabulary,” Dialect Notes, Vol. I (1890). Caught is used in this sense of other foods too. cellar bang A colorful term for a sloping cellar door, which makes a loud noise when dropped closed instead of gently closed. cellar case doors.

An outside cellar entrance with sloping

cellar way

Same as

CELLAR CASE.

cemetery pink Pink flowers of the Dianthus species that were often planted near grave markers in cemeteries. cent shop A historical term describing a small shop in which all or many cheap articles were sold for only a cent each. “Reduced now, in that very house, to be the huckstress of a cent-shop!” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of Seven Gables, 1851)

chamber

A bedroom on the upper floors of a house.

chamber mug A historical term heard mostly in New England for chamber pot. Champ A fabled water creature said to reside in Vermont’s Lake Champlain, the American counterpart of the Loch Ness Monster. Samuel Champlain first sighted the creature in 1609, describing it as a “barrell thick monster . . . [with a] horse-shaped head.” Descriptions have varied since. chance blow A euphemism for an illegitimate child. “Some chanceblow of a splendid worthless rake, doomed to inherit both parts of her infecting portion— vileness and beauty.” (Herman Melville, Pierre, 1852) chaney An ancient Cornish word for China commonly used in 19th-century Cape Cod, according to Shebnah Rich’s Truro-Cape Cod (1884). chankings A corruption of “chewings,” the peels, cores and other remains of apples pared for a pie or the like, or discarded when eaten out of hand. “Put those chankings in the compost pile.” Chappy A local nickname for Chappaquiddick, a small island off Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Chappaquiddick means separated island in Algonquian.

chockablock 199 charge Amount, quantity. “He ate some charge of them.” charge all outdoors To charge an exorbitant price. “[He] fixes up your teeth and don’t charge all outdoors for it.” (Joseph C. Lincoln, Cape Cod Yesterdays, 1935) Charlie Noble Commander, captain or ship’s cook Charles Noble (ca. 1840) demanded that the cowl of the copper funnel of his galley stove always be kept brightly polished. So obsessed was he with the idea that galley funnels were dubbed Charlie Nobles in his honor. The Charlie Noble in question may have been a Mainer, though others have claimed the honor. charter oak A tree that stood until 1856 near Hartford, Connecticut; said to be the hiding place of the colonial charter of New England.

cheese and crackers!

cherrystone The name for a small quahog clam (Venus mercenaria). chestnutting The gathering of chestnuts in the fall, at a time before the great chestnut blight killed all the native American chestnut trees. “There are still many of us living who remember with delight those joyous occasions when we went ‘chestnutting’ in the crisp October days.” (Yankee Magazine, September 20, 1946) chew over Think about carefully. “James would take time, of course, to chew it over / Before he acted . . .” (Robert Frost, “The Code,” 1914) chewy bagdads chickadee

chat See quote. “Nor is there any government, however despotic, that ventures to deny the least of its subjects the privilege of a sociable chat . . . For chat man must and by our immortal Bill of Rights, that guarantees to us liberty of speech, chat we Yankees will . . .” (Herman Melville, White Jacket, 1850) Chatham Properly pronounced CHAT-um; towns in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. cheap John For well over a century cheap John has meant inferior goods, a person who deals in them and, by extension, any cheap person. There is even a chain of stores called Cheap John’s today in New England. “None of your cheap-John turnouts for me. I’m here to have a good time, and money ain’t any object.” (Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872) chebacco See quote. “Certain fishing-boats, used in the Newfoundland trade, were called, from Chebacco, the name of a place near Ipswich, Mass., where they were fitted out, ‘chebacco-boats.’ Through corruption, or by jesting alteration of the name, they were also known as ‘tobacco boats.’ ” (American Folklore, April 1902) The boats were the progenitors of the popular pinky schooners. checker bee A gathering of people who play checkers until one person emerges as the winner. “The jiff the prison guards was free / They’d start a guardroom checkerbee.” (Daniel Cady, Rhymes of Vermont Rural Life, 1919) cheeky as a man on the town Nervy, overbearing, conceited. Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914).

A euphemistic Maine oath.

See

BOSTON BAKED BEANS.

The state bird of Maine; of the genus Parus.

chicken bird Another name for the chicken plover (Arenaria interpres morinella), because of the clucking sounds it makes. chicken lobster A small lobster of about one to one and a quarter pounds in weight; the term is also heard on Long Island, New York, where it once also meant a lobster weighing under the legal size limit. chimbley An ancient Cornish word for chimney said to be commonly used in 19th-century Cape Cod in Shebnah Rich’s Truro-Cape Cod, 1884. chimney shelf

The mantel over a fireplace.

chirk Cheerful, full of good spirit. The old-fashioned term was once heard in the expression as chirk as a chitterdiddle on a pokeweed. Chitterdiddle is an old word for katydid. chism Vulgarism heard in Maine for gravy or cream sauce, the texture of which resembles jism—slang for “semen.” chist A common pronunciation of “chest,” as in chist of drawers, a bureau. chit The shoot or sprout that germinates from a seed or plant, like the sprouts on old potatoes. chivey A name used in Maine for whitefish (of the genus Coregonus), which is called poisson blanc in French-speaking parts of New England. chockablock Originally a nautical term meaning no more slack can be taken on rope, chockablock came to

200 Yankee Talk mean “completely full” ashore. Chukfull, which has more currency countrywide, comes from the same source. chocolate root A plant (Geum revale) whose boiled roots are said to taste like chocolate. Also called Indian chocolate and water avens. choice of Appreciative of. “Because he was very choice of it, they were to have only one drink apiece.” (Imogene Wolcott, The New England Yankee Cookbook, 1939) chopping An area of forest where the trees have been felled or are being felled. “. . . the state of Maine had paid for a ‘chopping’ of five acres on each of the hundred acre lots . . .” (John Wilson, Aroostook, 1937) chore

To work. “He chores down at the post office.”

choring round Doing general chores that need to be done. “Moses White [the name used for Joseph Palmer in Louisa May Alcott’s fictional recreation of her father Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands community] placidly plodded about, ‘chorin’ raound’, as he called it, looking like an old-time patriarch, with his silver hair and flowing beard, and saving the community from many a mishap by his thrift and Yankee shrewdness.” (Louisa May Alcott, “Transcendental Wild Oats,” 1876) See also MEN WITH BEARDS. chowder (1) Breton fishermen who settled the Maritime Provinces of Canada contributed the word chowder to the language. The soup called a chowder or clam chowder is made with milk in Maine and Massachusetts, this being the famous New England clam chowder. But in Rhode Island and farther south, it often is made with water and tomatoes. The two schools are not at all tolerant of each other. One Maine state legislator, in fact, introduced a bill making it illegal to add tomatoes to chowder within the state of Maine, the penalty being that the offender must dig a barrel of clams at high tide. (2) In New England chowder also can mean “wobbling” or “vibrating”: “The drill chowdered back and forth.” (3) An old-fashioned euphemistic exclamation equivalent of damn! (4) A party or social gathering where chowder is made for all. “Nearly 10,000 persons assembled [at a political meeting] in Rhode Island, for whom a clambake and chowder were prepared.” (John Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms, 1848) See also CLAM CHOWDER. chowderhead A term that has currency nationwide but is associated with New England. According to one theory, neither clam chowder nor any other chowder has anything to do with the expression chowderhead, used to mean “a dolt, a stupid clumsy person.” Chowderhead,

this theory holds, is a mispronunciation of cholterhead, which dates back to the 16th century and derived from the older term jolthead. Unfortunately, we’re all a bunch of chowderheads when it comes to the origin of jolthead. On the other hand, chowderhead, defined as “a muddlebrain” in James Russell Lowell’s The Biglow Papers (1867), does suggest a mixed-up mind, in pieces, like the ingredients of a chowder. “We resumed business; and while plying our spoons in the bowl [of chowder], thinks I to myself, I wonder how if this here has any effect on the head. What’s that stultifying saying about chowderheaded people!” (Herman Melville, Moby Dick, 1851) christened in salt water Said of old salts. “. . . but as uncle Parker used to say, they have all been christened in salt water, and know more than men ever learn in the bushes.” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Village Uncle,” 1835) christer (1) A wild hell-raising person. “He’s a real christer.” (2) Said of anything unrestrained, excessive. “What a christer of a winter we had.” Variations are christly and christless. Christopher Columbus! A once-common exclamation. “‘Christopher Columbus! what’s the matter?’ ” (Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, 1868) chrysocracy Coined by Oliver Wendell Holmes in his novel Elsie Venner (1861). Holmes later wrote in a letter: “In ‘Elsie Venner’ I made the word chrysocracy, thinking it would take its place; but it didn’t; plutocracy, meaning the same thing, was adopted instead.” See also ANESTHESIA. chum Sometimes used as a hostile form of address. “Watch your mouth, chum.” chunked Chunky, thick and short. “She was a chunked baby.” chunkwood Large, knotted pieces of firewood so big that they burn all the night in a stove and a roaring fire can be made from their coals in the morning. church stick A staff with a foxtail or rabbit’s foot attached to the end. Ushers monitoring church aisles used this stick to tickle the face of and awaken anyone who fell asleep during Sunday services. cider beggar See quote. “In olden times there was a distinct class of itinerants in New England called ‘cider beggars.’ ” (Knickerbocker Magazine, no. 37, 1851) cider frolic An old term for a party at which hard cider was drunk in great quantities.

clove apple 201 cider toast

Toast with cider poured over it.

citified Said of someone having the ways of city people. “It’s all citified . . . They’re all getting citified.” (Thorton Wilder, Our Town, 1938) City of Elms cut.

A nickname for New Haven, Connecti-

City of Nations chusetts.

An old nickname for Boston, Massa-

City of Spindles A nickname for Lowell, Massachusetts, when it was one of the world’s greatest textile centers. clabbered milk

See

An old name for clam fritters.

clam chowder Soup made with clams. “Oh sweet friends! hearken to me. It was made of small juicy clams, scarcely bigger than hazel nuts, mixed with pounded ship biscuit, and salted pork cut up into little flakes; the whole enriched with butter, and plentifully seasoned with pepper and salt.” (Herman Melville, Moby Dick, 1851) See also CHOWDER. clam pie mixture.

clear thing An old expression meaning the real thing, the genuine article. “That’s the clear thing, that chowder.” clever (1) Said of animals that are docile, managed easily. (2) An old expression meaning good-natured but not especially smart. cleverly A term, little used now, that means in good health, well. “She is cleverly now, although she had a severe turn for a week.” (Abigail Adams, Letters, 1784)

LOPPERED MILK.

clam boil Not a clambake but often prepared on the beach, a clam boil consists of potatoes, carrots, onions, clams, frankfurters, sausage and corn boiled or steamed in a pot together. clam cakes

ans and settlers. “I am as clear a Yankee . . . as the Major himself.” (Charles Davis, Letters of J. Downing, 1834)

click A perhaps obsolete word meaning to walk in a sprightly manner. “He clicked across the green.” clim Heard in Maine for climbed. “The little one clim a tree and fell out of it.” cling john An old term for a kind of soft cake. “I subjoin a few phrases not in Mr. Bartlett’s book [the Dictionary of Americanisms] which I have heard . . . Cling-John; a soft cake of rye.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1866) clip in Make a hasty call upon someone. “I’ll just clip in on Mary.” Cited in William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket (1916).

A pie of one or two crusts filled with a clam

clitchy An old term that used to be common for clammy or sticky.

clamshell hoe A hoe made of a long stick with a clamshell tied to the end that was used by Indians in early New England.

close Cheap, stingy, closefisted. “Mr. Cranston laughed. ‘In Rhode Island say close [instead of ‘near’ used in most of New England]. I’m not ashamed to say that I am fairly close in my dealings.’ ” (Thornton Wilder, Theophilus North, 1973)

claw out A term, probably nautical in origin, used in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and elsewhere in New England meaning to make excuses or extricate oneself from a difficult situation. “He sure clawed out of that one.” Cited by Frederic D. Allen in “Contributions to the New England Vocabulary,” Dialect Notes, Vol. I (1890). Claw off also is used. cleaning lady A common term in New England for a cleaning woman. cleanser Heard in Boston and vicinity for a dry cleaner. “My clothes are in the cleansers.” clear A historical term for someone whose ancestry is regarded as “unmixed, full-blooded.” Said of both Indi-

closed the door A Mainism describing someone who falls in the water and goes under (not necessarily to drown). “She fell off the boat and closed the door.” close upon Nearly. “So began the worst winter on the Cape for close upon fifty years.” (Henry Beston, The Outermost House, 1928) clothes press closet.

An old, perhaps obsolete, term for a

clove apple “Do you remember the clove-apple on grandmother’s parlor whatnot long ago?” Imogene Wolcott writes in The New England Yankee Cookbook

202 Yankee Talk (1939). “Call it a ‘pomander’ today, but it still remains an apple solidly embedded with cloves and guaranteed to last half a century.” cloy Full, satisfied. “He was cloyed, couldn’t eat another morsel.” Sometimes pronounced “cly.” coasting A venerable term for riding down hills on a sled. “We used to go coasting every winter.”

coffin

A humorous term once used for a large shoe.

coffin canoe An unsturdy canoe. “Like a whaleboat these coffin canoes were without a keel.” (Herman Melville, Moby Dick, 1851) cohoes An area overgrown with pine trees; from a Native American word of the same meaning. Often used as a place-name.

cobbler This may originally have been a tropical fruit drink New England sailors encountered in the West Indies, but it came to mean a fruity filling covered with pastry. Others say its name derives from its “cobbled” look when the fruit filling is topped with dollops of dough.

cohog A northeastern New England term for a quahog (Venus mercenaria) clam.

cock the hay To arrange hay cut in the fields in conical piles called cocks. “ ‘To cock the hay?—because its going to shower? / I said that more than an hour ago.’ ” (Robert Frost, “The Code,” 1914)

Cold Arse One of the most uniquely named places in New England: an island near Port Clyde, Maine, said to be so called after a fisherman who was marooned there one freezing night.

cod A pronunciation commonly heard in Boston for card. “He’s a real cod.”

cold as a clam digger’s hands in January indeed.

codfish aristocracy The term codfish aristocracy, for a pretentious, newly rich person, apparently comes from the Boston area. It’s hard to think of any group haughtier than the Lowells and Cabots (who spoke only to God in the land of the bean and the cod), but the Boston nouveau riche who made their money from the codfishing industry in the late 18th century apparently gave a grandiose imitation of those haughty Yankees in Back Bay Boston. As Wallace Irwin’s old poem goes:

cold as a dog and the wind northeast A colorful expression that means extremely cold and suggests a dog huddling out in the middle of nowhere while a brutal northeast wind blows.

Of all the fish that swim or swish In ocean’s deep autocracy, There’s none possess such haughtiness As the codfish aristocracy.

codfish gentility

A chowder featuring codfish. See

A synonym for the

CODFISH ARISTOC-

RACY.

Codfish State

cold as Christmas

Very cold

A Mainism for a very cold night.

cold as the north side of a January gravestone by starlight Quoted as a contemporary saying in James Russell Lowell’s The Biglow Papers (1867). cold cellar A walled-off cellar room where foods including fruits, vegetables, and meats were stored for later use. It was the refrigerator of its day.

codfish ball A codfish cake or patty made of codfish and mashed potatoes and generally fried. codfish chowder CHOWDER.

cohosh A medicinal plant (Actaea spicata) of New England popularly named from the Algonquian koshki meaning it is rough.

cold enough to freeze the tail off a brass monkey Brutally cold. The origin of the expression, possibly a nautical one, is unknown. The unexpurgated version substitutes balls for tail. cold enough to freeze the tail (etc.) off an iron dog The “iron dog” here refers to the iron ornament often seen on the lawns of the well-to-do in days past.

A nickname for Massachusetts.

codge up Heard on the Maine coast for botch up. “He codged it up again.”

cold enough to freeze two dry rags together. A Maine expression recorded in John Wallace, Village Down East (1943).

codhead boots on Cape Cod.

cold-water man A term once used commonly to mean “a man who didn’t drink” or “a temperance worker.”

Knee-high leather boots once common

complications 203 college ice Once a common synonym in Massachusetts and Maine for an ice-cream sundae.

gland, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914)

collywobbles, the An old-fashioned term for stomachache. “He had an attack of the collywobbles.”

come up with To even the score with. “He cheated me, but I got come up with him.”

combat zone The name of a well-known red-light district in Boston featuring prostitutes, porno shops, topless bars, and the like. See ZONE.

come Yankee over To cheat, the expression inspired by Yankee peddlers of old. “He come Yankee over him.”

combed with a hatchel

See quote.

Hatchel-combs consisted of sets of iron teeth inserted in strong boards . . . Flax was moistened and pulled between the teeth, in such a way that the short pieces were combed out and only the long, even fibers were left . . . Hatcheling brought a pithy saying into New England conversation, for many a mother, reprimanding her tousled-haired boy, reminded him that his hair “looked as if it had been combed with a hatchel!” (Ella Shannon Bowles, Homespun Handicrafts, 1931)

come day, go day, God send Sunday Said of a worker who doesn’t do more than he or she has to do, if that; a clockwatcher or loafer; the expression is probably nautical in origin. come it over Once common in Massachusetts for trick, deceive. “Don’t try to come it over me.” come on the town Go into the town old-age home or the like. “And then he was ninety-one, and then ninetytwo; and we were surer he would ‘come on the town’ before the fiscal year was over.” (Dorothy Canfield, “Old Man Warner,” in Raw Material, 1925) come-outer

comfort powders See quote. “These were tiny bits of folded white paper filled with medicinal powders (and often peddled door to door). Opened, each revealed a verse of Scripture of a distinctly comforting nature.” (Mary Ellen Chase, A Goodly Heritage, 1932) common (1) A piece of land in a central spot belonging to or used by the community as a whole. The word is first recorded in this sense in New England in 1634 in a law stating “No man shall fell or cut down any timber trees upon the Common.” (2) Short for the Boston Common, a public park in Boston once used in common by all the people for grazing their cattle. “ ‘Common’s full of elms,’ he said.” (John Cheever, “The President of the Argentine,” 1976) (3) Can be used to describe someone unaffected, one of the guys, a nice guy. “He’s a real common, doesn’t put on airs.” common crackers (1) A famous light crisp cracker originally baked in Vermont and known as Montpelier biscuits because they were made with water from hill springs around the Vermont capital. (2) Hard round unsalted crackers often served with clam chowder; these are also called Boston crackers.

See quote.

A name originally applied to certain religious dissenters . . . Such a group flourished in New England about 1840, including that group of non-resistance Abolitionists who advocated “coming-out” from the church and state because of the attitude of both toward the slavery question. Also applied to ultraradical reformers, particularly in political and religious matters. (The Cyclopedia of American Government, 1917)

come out of here, you damned old rat

See IN THE NAME

OF THE GREAT JEHOVAH AND THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.

come out the little end of the horn To end in failure, in allusion to the pointed end of the cornucopia or horn of plenty. “Can you wonder that people who keep such an unprofitable stock, come out of the small end of the horn in the long run?” (Thomas Haliburton, The Clockmaker, 1838) come up amongst the missing To die, or to be lost. Given as a common expression in George Allen En-

common pin straight pin.

Used mostly in New England for a

common talk Common knowledge. “It’s common talk that he’s going out of business.” Commonwealth Officially, Massachusetts is not a U.S. state, but a commonwealth, as are Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. Technically, Rhode Island is not exactly a state either; its official title is the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. complications

Serious medical problems.

Ethan knew the word for one of exceptional import. Almost everybody in the neighborhood had “troubles,” frankly localized and specified; but only the chosen had “complications.” To have them was in itself a distinction, though it was also, in most cases, a death-warrant. People struggled on for years with “troubles,” but they almost always succumbed to “complications.” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911)

204 Yankee Talk Concord (1) Properly pronounced Con-cord; cities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. (2) A coach made in Concord, New Hampshire in the 19th century; weighing about 2,500 pounds, it could carry nine passengers inside.

England, possibly introduced there directly from England’s Essex dialect.

Concord grape A large blue-black grape developed by Ephraim Wales Bull, who lived in Concord, Massachusetts next to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Wayside.” Bull found a wild vine of good flavor on his property and cultivated seedlings from it for six years until he developed the Concord grape, which brought him fame but little money. His gravestone in Concord states “He sowed—others reaped.”

consarn A euphemism for damn. Jabez Stone’s mother frequently admonishes him for using it in Stephen Vincent Benét’s “The Devil and Daniel Webster” (1937).

conducts like To conduct or behave oneself like. “The preacher was glad to see she conducts like a Christian.” Connecticut See quote. “Connecticut derives its name from the river by which it is intersected, called by the natives Quonectacut. This word, according to some, signifies the long river; it has, however, been stated that the meaning of the word is River of Pines, in allusion to the forests of pines that formerly stood on its banks.” (Maximillian Schele De Vere, Americanisms, 1871) Other authorities say the Connecticut River takes its name from the Mahican quinnitukqut, “at the long tidal river.” Connecticut Jonathan kin a century ago. Connecticut peddler

The name for a country bump-

Same as

YANKEE PEDDLER.

Connecticut River pork A common name for shad (Alossa sapidissima) when the fish were abundant in the Connecticut River. Connecticut stone A coarse garnet-colored stone found in Connecticut. Connecticut warbler This bird (Oporornis agilis) is not seen much in Connecticut and New England. It is so named because the first specimen was collected while migrating through Connecticut. It is mainly found in south-central Canada and northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and Washington.

conquedle Another name for bobolink, the name imitative of the bird’s cry.

considerable Considerably. “‘Joe . . . got smoothed down considerable.” (Sarah Orne Jewett, “Miss Debby,” 1883) consult your feelings Reconsider. “[He] brought home a lovely turn of phrase from a lonely farmhouse where he had stopped for dinner . . . and where he had regretfully declined a second portion of mince. ‘Consult your feelings, sir, about the meat pie,’ said his host.” (May Lamberton Becker, Golden Tales of New England, 1931) coof Heard on Nantucket island for a Cape Codder, any off-islander or anyone not a Nantucket native. Originally it meant a lout or coward, but it has lost most of its contemptuous bite. Cited in William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket (1916), the word may derive from a similar Scottish word meaning a dull spiritless person. coon cat A long-haired cat with a ringed tail once believed to be a cross between a raccoon and a cat. The breed is actually the descendant of Angora cats that were probably brought to New England from Turkey. coot stew Apparently a few generations ago some New Englanders enjoyed this dish. Wrote one feisty Yankee world traveler in the late 19th century: “Frederick’s pressed duck at the Tour d’Argent isn’t bad, but it can’t hold a candle to coot stew.” There is a real recipe for coot stew, but the anonymous old Maine recipe for it is more famous: Place the bird in a kettle of water with a red building brick free of mortar and blemishes. Parboil that coot and brick together for three hours. Pour off the water, fill the kettle, and again parboil three hours. Once more throw off the water, refill the kettle, and this time let the coot and brick simmer together overnight. In the morning throw away the coot and eat the brick.

Connecticut Yankee An old term for a very sharp and cunning person; Mark Twain used it in his A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889), in which an ingenious Yankee mechanic, knocked out in a fight, awakens to find himself in Camelot.

corker Something or someone extraordinary in some way. “Crandall regarded him . . . and said, ‘Ayuh, corker, ain’t she?’ ” (Stephen King, Pet Sematary, 1983)

conniption fit Though this term, meaning a fit of violent emotion, is national in use, it originated in New

corky Said of tough, stringy vegetables. “These turnips are so corky I can’t eat them.”

cow yard tar 205 corn chowder A thick soup made with milk or cream and corn niblets. corner (1) In the early 19th century, the west end of all New England villages. (2) A name for small New England villages, which are also called notches, hollows and clearings. A famous example is Grover’s Corners in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town (1938). corn husk mattress A mattress made of corn husks that was commonly used up until the early 1900s. These mattresses rustled every time one moved and often contained corncobs to add to one’s discomfort. corn lightning Maine.

country-fair job, a An extensive job. “ ‘Now I already said I’m going to do a country-fair job of talking before we’re done in here . . .” (Stephen King, Dolores Claiborne, 1993) County, the

See

AROOSTOOK COUNTY.

courting stick A slender wooden tube about six feet long, round at one end and octagonal at the other, and fitted at either end for ear- and mouthpieces. It is said by some historians to have been used by New England courting couples to speak to each other privately while in the presence of others. Some regard the story as folklore.

A name for heat lightning heard in

corn money A historical term for corn used as currency in 17th-century New England. cornstealers Humorous old slang for hands. “Give us a shake of your cornstealer.” corn weather Hot weather in July and August that is excellent for the corn crop, a time when one can almost hear the corn growing. corpse candle A nautical term for St. Elmo’s fire, which was considered an omen of bad luck among Maine sailors, though it is generally considered a good luck sign by mariners elsewhere. cosset (1) A pet lamb brought up without a mother. (2) Any favorite or spoiled child in a family.

cousining Visiting distant relatives. “I went cousining in California.” coverlid A coverlet. “Our rustic coverlid is nearer its French original than the diminutive coverlet, into which it has been ignorantly corrupted in politer speech.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1866) cow See quote. “It is said that one of Calvin Coolidge’s remarkable achievements was the pronunciation of ‘cow’ in four syllables.” (Charles Edward Crane, Let Me Show You Vermont, 1937) The U.S. president, a Vermonter, was noted more often for his laconic speech. cow, the

cowberry A popular name for the mountain cranberry (Vaccinium Vitisidaea). cow corn

cottage cheese This nationwide term is widely used throughout New England except in cities. Regional terms for it include pot cheese in southwestern Connecticut and along the upper Housatonic to the Berkshires; sour milk cheese in eastern New England and Narragansett Bay to the Penobscot; and Dutch cheese in western Massachusetts and Vermont as well as farther east, where it competes with sour-milk cheese. cotton A pronunciation commonly heard in Boston for carton. couldn’t hit a bull’s arse with a barn shovel Said of a poor marksman, someone who couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn, a barn shovel being a wide shovel. counter A Maine lobster that is big enough to be kept under the state’s legal limits law; called a keeper in other places.

A humorous term for can of condensed milk.

Field corn.

cow dressing

Cow manure.

cow puncher A term used in Maine for a veterinarian a century or so before it was used in the West for a cowboy. Said to derive from the practice of veterinarians’ punching a cow’s stomach with a sharp instrument to let excess gas escape. cowslop A humorous name for the cowslip or marsh marigold (Caltha palustris). cow tight See quote. “A lady summoned a jack-of-alltrades to repair her fence. After contemplation he enquired, ‘Well, marm, will you hev it hen-tight or cowtight?’ She replied: ‘As we haven’t any hens, I think cowtight will do.’ ” (Katharine M. Abbott, Old Paths and Legends of the New England Border, 1907) cow yard tar

A farmer who also works at lobstering.

206 Yankee Talk coydog A cross between a coyote and a dog; coyotes came east through Canada and into Maine. cracked

See

creatures A Maine term for women; said to be a borrowing from the Canadian French les creatures meaning the same. “The creatures are out in the parlor.”

HAS A SCREW LOOSE.

cracker Unlike its use in Southern speech for a poor, ignorant white person, cracker for many years in Maine speech meant a fine-looking, stylish lively person, as in “She’s a real cracker!” The expression is old-fashioned today, if used at all.

creeter Creature. “Some poor creeter came a-beggin’, and your ma went straight to see what was needed.” (Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, 1868) crevettes French-speaking New Englanders use this name for shrimp. See BOUQUETS.

crackling A name New Englanders give to the crisp tasty skin of turkey, chicken and other fowl, as well as crisp bits of fried pork.

crick Commonly used in colonial times for what is generally called a brook in New England today; a pronunciation of creek.

Cradle of American Liberty (1) A nickname for Massachusetts, where the Revolutionary War began. (2) A nickname for Faneuil Hall in Boston. Also Cradle of Liberty. See GRASSHOPPER.

crimmy An old term used in Marblehead, Massachusetts for chilly, or “under the weather.”

Cradle of New England A nickname for Plymouth, Massachusetts, where the Pilgrims landed. Cradle of the Revolution A nickname for Boston since at least the early 19th century. Cranberry Capital of the World Carver, Massachusetts.

A nickname for

crawm Garbage, rubbish. “Clean up that crawm over there.” Also crom, krom. crazier than a backhouse rat Utterly stupid, to the point of being unbalanced; an expression heard chiefly in Maine. crazier than Gideon’s geese A biblical expression meaning very crazy, disoriented. crazy Using crazy as a synonym for a crazy person didn’t originate in modern slang, as this 19th-century quotation shows. “ ‘There ain’t no use bringin’ that kind of crazy on the town.” (Mary Wilkins Freeman, A New England Nun and Other Stories, 1891) crazy as a loon Someone very crazy. This old simile is heard in New England and other regions. The loon has a laughlike cry that sounds crazy or deranged to many people.

cronch To chew noisily, “crunch.” “I heard the cronching of the snow.” (Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854) Also craunch. croping right.”

cross as Sam Patch Very angry. “He was cross as Sam Patch.” The identity of the original Sam Patch is a mystery. crossing

cream toast Toast served covered with a cream sauce made of milk, flour and butter.

See

JUNCTION.

crotchical A 19th-century synonym for crotchety. “He’s a crotchical old cuss.” crowbait Originally an exclusively New England term for a broken-down horse or mule, this term spread to other regions as well. crowner, the The final, crowning act. “ ‘Wal if that a’n’t the crowner!” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie Venner, 1861) cruelize To treat a person or an animal cruelly. “He cruelized his wife.” (Joseph Lincoln, Cry Whittaker’s Place, 1908) cruller gland. cruncher

crazy bone A name once common for the funny bone, technically the medial condyle of the humerus.

Stingy, mean. “He’s a croping person all

A term for doughnut throughout New En-

A synonym for a large male deer.

crust coffee An old-fashioned beverage made from hard crusts of brown bread and hot water, sometimes sweetened with molasses, that was used as a coffee substitute.

curious 207 crusting A method of hunting once widely practiced in New England and other areas. “Crusting is the term applied to taking large game amid the deep snows of winter, when the crust of ice which forms upon the surface after a slight rain, is strong enough to support the weight of a man, but gives way at once to the hoofs of a moose or deer; while the animal, thus embarrassed, is easily caught and despatched with clubs.” (The Mirror, October 28, 1837) cry one’s wife down To disown all the debts of one’s wife in a newspaper ad, such as “As of 1/1/95 I will no longer be responsible for the debts incurred by anyone but myself . . .” cry over spilt milk Canadian humorist Thomas C. Haliburton, whose Down East humor strongly influenced American literature, had a friend say this to his famous character Sam Slick, a shrewd Yankee peddler, in The Clockmaker; or the Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick of Slickville (1836). The exact words were “What’s done, Sam, can’t be helped, there is no use cryin’ over spilt milk.” This is the first use of the expression in print, though to cry over spilt milk seems homely enough to be of much older origin. It expresses, of course, the folly of vain regret, meaning to grieve over something beyond saving, something you can’t do anything about. Haliburton, a Canadian jurist, later returned to England and became a member of Parliament. culch

See quote:

Culch is the New England word for that clutter of partly worn-out or obsolete objects that always gathers . . . There’s everything there—old bolts, old wrought-iron cut nails, bits of unrelated metal, old wool, wiping rags, coffee cans, broken hacksaw blades, a divorced work glove or two, parts of a dog team harness . . . It’s a mess, but it’s better to have this one big mess in the corner of the kitchen than a patina of messiness spread all over the house. (Louise Dickinson Rich, We Took to the Woods, 1942)

cup plate An old-fashioned plate in which a teacup was set after the tea in the cup was poured into its saucer for cooling, and then poured back into the teacup. curfew Up until the end of the 19th century, church bells in many New England towns rang at nine at night to warn children that they must be off the streets. This curfew became less strict with time and finally vanished completely. cusk Brosmius brosme, a large fish that looks like the cod and is common in New England waters. cut along To run along; heard along the New England coast and probably originally a nautical term.

cut a pie, to To meddle in something. “You had better not cut that pie, mind to your own affairs.” cut behind To hitch a ride on a wagon or sleigh. “. . . a boy that loves to ‘cut behind’ anything on wheels or runners.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Professor at the Breakfast Table, 1860) cut dingdoes An old-fashioned term meaning to put on airs, show off. cut dirt To depart, quickly, run away. “Why twothirds of the Rebels would cut dirt.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1862) cute

An obsolete synonym for acute, sharp, keen.

cute as a shithouse rat Clever, in a devious, often criminal way. “Teddy is cute as a shithouse rat. He is an expert.” (George V. Higgins, Kennedy for the Defense, 1980) cut it To run off, skip out. “ ‘You thought I meant to cut it?’ ” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911) cutter A large sled. “ ‘But look a here, ain’t it lucky I got the old man’s cutter down there waiting for us?’ ” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911) cutting A clearing in the woods where logging has been done. cuttyhunk An especially strong fishing line made of linen that is named for Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts, where it was developed early in the century. cutty pipe

A pipe with a short stem used for smoking.

cut your foot To step in cow flop. Used in rural Maine, though it seems to have first been recorded in the Appalachians in 1899. cultch This word describing objects placed in the water for oyster spawn to grow on has come to be a synonym for rubbish in New England, especially Maine, and also can mean a worthless person. Anything cultch is worthless or inferior. See CULCH. cunner A common name for saltwater perch (Tautogalabrus adspersus) in New England. curious A New England term, historical now, for something fine or interesting. “These are curious apples.”

208 Yankee Talk cuss The use of “cuss” for “curse” in New England is recorded as early as 1759. “. . . man the cus o’ man.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1846) cut one’s eyeteeth To come to maturity; heard since early times in New England, though the expression is British in origin. “The expression is somewhat literal, for the implication is that by the time a person has got his permanent set of canine teeth, has reached the age of twelve or fourteen, he has passed out of babyhood and has reached years of discretion.” (Charles Funk, A Hog on Ice and Other Expressions, 1948) cutting cross-lots to get there.”

Taking a shortcut. “We cut cross-lots

cymbal See quote. “The genteel form of doughnut called in the native dialect cymbal . . . which graced the board . . .” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Guardian Angel, 1867) Also called simball. czar This Russian title is given to any powerful person today, but the first American to be called a czar was the Maine congressman Thomas B. Reed (1839–1902), who was Speaker of the House of Representatives and so nicknamed for his strict application of parliamentary rules and great power.

D danburite A yellow or white silicate of lime; the mineral was found first in Danbury, Connecticut.

D A historical term that was used in colonial New England as an abbreviation for Drunkard and required to be worn as a red badge for a year by anyone convicted of drunkenness. See A.

dandle A name for a children’s seesaw in the Narragansett Bay area of Rhode Island. Also dandle board.

d The final d in many words often is dropped in New England, resulting in pronunciations like san for sand and han for hand. For more about the syndrome of the vanishing d and t in New England speech, see the Introduction.

dandy funk See quote. “This appears to have been a dish of class . . . made of powdered hard-tack, molasses and water and baked in the oven—evidently a sort of pudding.” (William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket, 1916)

dander Anger, temper. “‘Whut’ll git your dander riz?’” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1866) dad blame it! tion.

dangleberry Another name for the common huckleberry (Gaylussacia frondosa).

An old-fashioned euphemistic exclama-

daow! An authentic Maine expression meaning an emphatic No!

daddock Once a common term for an old log rotting in the woods.

daown daisy ham A boned and rolled pork shoulder butt; the term is heard mainly in the Boston area.

dark as a pocket Heard in Vermont for a very dark night. “It’s dark as a pocket out.”

Dalton plan An educational plan in which students work at their own speed to learn; named for Dalton (Mass.) High School, where the plan was first used in 1922.

dark as Egypt Very dark. “ ‘. . . it’s as dark as Egypt outdoors. We might go tomorrow if there’s a moon.’ ” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911)

Damnation Alley An alley in Boston so named because it was wide enough for only one oxcart, so that whenever two teamsters met going in opposite directions, the air was blue with damns and much stronger curses. damn yankees

See

dark-hole An unlighted closet under the stairs or in another dark place. darnation An old-fashioned term that can be a euphemism for damnation, or mean very (“I had a darnation good time”).

YANKEE PEDDLER.

damn-you-straight-to-hell

See

A common pronunciation of “down.”

darning needle

SUICIDE SIX.

209

See

DEVIL’S DARNING NEEDLE.

210 Yankee Talk darsn’t Dare not. “Used indiscriminately, either in singular or plural.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1866). “‘You darsn’t!’ he shouted out with sudden passion.” (Edith Wharton, Summer, 1917) darst Dared. See quote. “When he [the Yankee] says darst, he uses a form as old as Chaucer.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867) Dartmouth College Named for British Lord Dartmouth because he financed it in large part after it was founded as a free school for Indians by the Reverend Eleazar Wheelock in 1769. dast An old-fashioned word meaning dare; dasn’t is sometimes used for didn’t dare. “He dasn’t come.” Daughters of Liberty A woman’s society formed in Boston in 1769 to boycott British products and shopkeepers. daur

A term once used in Maine for small village.

day-lazy An old euphemism for damned lazy. “. . . that day-lazy rascal’s been fixing up all the roads around time but mine.” (Hayden Pearson, New England Flavor, 1961)

a case [of shoes] put on the books as done, and you’d get your money for it. But then on the next Monday morning you’d have that empty case to do, and no pay for it. A dead horse sure looked dead on Monday morning.” (John Healy, “The Lynn Shoe Worker,” Living Lore of New England, Federal Writers’ Project, 1938) dead whale or a stove boat, a An old motto of Yankee whalemen, which meant either they would kill the whale they were pursuing or it would wreck the boat. deafer n’ a coot A venerable simile describing someone completely deaf. deal, a A lot, a good deal. “Tonight she had on a deal of wide cotton lace.” (Mary Wilkins Freeman, A New England Nun and Other Stories, 1891) dear Besides being used as an exclamation of surprise (“Oh, dear me!”) dear, pronounced de-ah, is an oldfashioned term of address to anyone, regardless of sex, even from one grizzled old lobsterman to another. dear, dear, bread and beer / If I were rich I wouldn’t be here An old rhyme that possibly originated in Massachusetts.

deacon To make something seem better than it is, as in arranging strawberries in a box with the biggest berries on top. “. . . the strawberries [were] not as ripe as they looked, having been skillfully ‘deaconed.’” (Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, 1870)

dear me suz An exclamation. “Oh, dear me suz, I dunno what I am goin’ to do.” (Mary Wilkins Freeman, A New England Nun and Other Stories, 1891) Suz is said to be a corruption of sire, or the phrase may be a corruption of the French Dieu mon suzerain. The expression also has been recorded as La suz; Suz; Dear suz; Suz a day; and Law suz.

deacon off To give a cue to. “An important part of the office of deacon was to deacon off, to read aloud the hymns given out by the minister, one line at a time, the congregation singing each line as soon as read.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1866)

dear only knows, the Perhaps a euphemism for “God only knows.” “The dear only knows / What will next prove a rose.” (Robert Frost, “The Rose Family,” 1928) dear suz

Deacon Porter’s hat A tasty sweet pudding named after Andrew W. Porter, a trustee of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, whose stovepipe hat was similar in shape to the pudding mold. Holyoke students gave the pudding its name in 1837, and it became traditional to serve it every February 28 to honor the birthday of Mary Lyon, the college’s founder. deader than a pelcher (pilchard) Indisputably dead. Variations are deader than a mackerel and deader than a duck. dead horse See quote. “A dead horse was something you got paid for before you finished it. Say you had half

See

DEAR ME SUZ.

death baby A name for a toadstool of the genus Ithyphallus that is fabled to foretell death. deep cake See quote. “A deep cake is a Yankee dish not unlike a fritter.” (Imogene Wolcott, The New England Yankee Cookbook, 1939) deep cold Heard for bitter cold in Maine. “ ‘Hangin sheets in deep cold is a kind of torture.’ ” (Stephen King, Dolores Claiborne, 1993) deep-dish pie An old name, now heard in other regions as well, for a fruit pie made in a deep pie pan or casserole dish.

didn’t go to 211 deermeat

A synonym for venison.

democrat A versatile wagon much used in New England in olden times. “. . . farm families drove to the village in sturdy democrats in summer and pungs in winter.” (Hayden Pearson, New England Flavor, 1961) derail drink. derail, tin’.’ ”

Heard in Maine for a cheap, toxic alcoholic “‘. . . not Jim Beam, not Old Duke, not even which is antifreeze strained through cotton bat(Stephen King, Dolores Claiborne, 1993)

Derne Street A street near the State House in Boston named in honor of the battle of Derne during the war with Tripoli. In this famous battle General William Eaton of Massachusetts led eight U.S. Marines and a company of Greek soldiers to victory. Derryfield beef An old name for eels, Derryfield being the original name of Manchester, New Hampshire. Wrote an anonymous New Hampshire poet in explanation: From the eels they formed their food in chief, And eels were called the Derryfield beef; It was often said that their only care, And their only wish, and their only prayer, For the present world and the world to come, Was a string of eels and a jug of rum.

despizable A despizable person, in Maine, is someone a notch below despicable. devil and Tom Walker!, the Once a common exclamation, apparently it derived from an old folktale about the devil and a greedy New Englander named Tom Walker. The folktale may have inspired Stephen Vincent Benét’s story “The Devil and Daniel Webster” (1937). devil’s apron A long kelp of the genus Laminaria that often washes up on New England beaches. devil’s dancing rock A name given to wide flat rocks the size of tabletops often found in New England fields. It was once believed that the devil did wild solo dances on such rocks in the light of the full moon. devil’s darning needle Thoreau and other New Englanders called the dragonfly the devil’s darning needle and devil’s needle because of its big eerie eyes, which are far out of proportion to its long, needlelike body. But the two colorful expressions yielded to the shorter darning needle over the years. Another colorful Americanism was devil’s riding horse for the praying mantis. It was also called the cheval du diable, devil’s horse, devil’s mare, devil’s rear horse, and devil’s war-horse.

devil’s footsteps See quote. “. . . a series of marks called the ‘Devil’s footsteps.’ These were patches of sand in the pasture where no grass grew.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Professor at the Breakfast Table, 1860) devil’s half acre A term used in the past for a rough section of town noted for its drunken brawls. devil’s picture book, the A colorful, little-known term for playing cards that was used by the Puritans, who considered it sinful to play cards or even have a deck of cards in the house. In fact, not until the mid-19th century were playing cards deemed permissible in devout New England homes. Long before this, however, 16th-century clergymen issued playing cards bearing scriptural passages. Cardinal Mazarin taught France’s Sun King (Louis XIV) history, geography and other subjects by printing instructive text on “educational” playing cards. devil to pay and no hot pitch, the

See HELL TO PAY AND

NO PITCH HOT.

Dewey Decimal System The famous library classification system invented by Melvil Dewey was first used in the Amherst (Mass.) College Library in 1873. Diana An early New England grape variety developed from Catawba grape seed by Mrs. Diana Crehore of Milton, Massachusetts, in the mid-19th century. dicker A bargaining. “He’s always the best man in a dicker.” The expression did not originate in New England. Deriving from decem, “ten,” decuria was the Latin word for the bundle of ten animal hides that Caesar’s legions made a unit of trade in Britain and elsewhere; this word eventually was corrupted to dicker. On the frontier in America the haggling and petty bargaining over dickers of pelts became the meaning of the word itself. diddledees An unusual word Nantucketeers and other New Englanders use for fallen pine needles. It may derive from the Falkland Island shrub called the diddledee, which was a source of kindling for whalers, the name transferred to Nantucket pine needles, which also were used as kindling. “In some sections [of New England] a big hogshead of ‘diddledees’, the name given to the brown evergreen [pine] needles, was always kept well filled in the woodshed [for kindling].” (Hayden Pearson, New England Flavor, 1961) Such pine needles have been called pins, shats, spills, straws, tags, and twinkles in other sections of the country. didn’t go to Didn’t intend to. “Didn’t go to, Sir.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie Venner, 1861)

212 Yankee Talk dido A slash in the top of a pie crust to let out steam while the pie is baking.

divinity A soft homemade candy or fudge for which there are a number of New England recipes.

dight A dab, a little bit. Also a little dight. “Give me a little dight of butter, will you?”

dock A pronunciation commonly heard in Boston for dark.

dingclicker Something or someone exceedingly pleasing. “That’s a real dingclicker of a carriage.” Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914).

doctoring Giving medical treatment to. “. . . He thinks I’ll be all right / With doctoring . . .” (Robert Frost, “A Servant to Servants,” 1914)

dingdie A Maine term for dingus, doodad, thingamagig. “You just have to tighten that dingdie near the carburetor.” dinging Used on Isleboro, off the Maine coast, for nagging. “Stop dinging me.” dingle cabin See quote. “A dingle cabin is two log camps set end to end, with a roofed-over open space between.” (Saturday Evening Post, April 5, 1941)

dod blast ye to Hilshibub A colorful old Yankee oath that, according to Burgess Johnson in As Much As I Dare (1937), “seems to avoid both hell and Beelzebub [the Devil], but gains strength from each.” doesn’t amount to a fiddle of sticks Used to describe someone worthless, lazy. “He doesn’t amount to a fiddle of sticks.”

dirty water Water difficult to sail due to many rocks, shoals and other obstructions. “We went through a stretch of dirty water.”

doesn’t know beans Boston, home of the “bean eaters,” “home of the bean and the cod,” may be behind the phrase. Walsh, in his Handbook of Literary Curiosities (1892), says that the American expression originated as a sly dig at Boston’s pretensions to culture, a hint that Bostonians knew that Boston baked beans were good to eat, that they were made from small white “pea beans”— even if they knew nothing else. The American phrase also may be a negative rendering of the British saying “he knows how many beans make five”—that is, he is no fool, he’s well informed—an expression that probably originated in the days when children learned to count by using beans. But he doesn’t know beans, “he don’t know from nothing,” possibly has a much simpler origin than either of these theories. It could refer to the fact that beans are little things of no great worth, as in the expressions doesn’t amount to a hill (or row) of beans and not worth a hill (or row) of beans.

dishwater diarrhea A joking term for an imaginary ailment one fabricates as an excuse for not doing the dishes after dinner or any other chore.

do for To care for. “ ‘The doctor don’t want I should be left without anybody to do for me,’ she said in her flat whine.” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911)

District of Maine Until 1820 the area that is now the state of Maine was a part of Massachusetts known as the District of Maine. “His fame went abroad through all the country round about, that is, the District of Maine—for that was long before it was a State—and even to the farthest corner of New England.” (Anonymous, “Father Moody,” quoted in May Lamberton Becker, Golden Tales of New England, 1931)

dogan-headed Heard on the Maine coast for thickheaded, dense; origin unknown.

dite A bit, a few. “‘One mustn’t be too hard on the newcomers / But there’s a dite too many of them for comfort . . .’ ” (Robert Frost, “The Generations of Men,” 1914)

dogberry Another name for the poison ash or sumac (Pyrus arbutifolia).

dinglefuzzie Mainers use this term for someone whose name they can’t remember, like whatshisname or WHATSHISFACE. Dingley A high protective tariff proposed by Maine Congressman Nelson Dingley and enacted into law in 1897. ding-toed Pigeon-toed, but often applied to anyone awkward on his or her feet.

dog barking navigator A humorous derogatory description of a poor navigator who hugs the shore making his or her way by landmarks rather than navigation, or one who knows where he or she is by the barks of various dogs known along the shore.

dogfish

See

SUMMER COMPLAINT.

don’t that beat all get out! 213 dog’s age A long period of time. The phrase was first recorded in early 19th-century New England and then spread countrywide. “I haven’t seen you in a dog’s age.” dogwatch Originally a seafaring term meaning the two watches between 4 P.M. and 8 P.M., properly called the first and second dogwatches. On the New England coast it came to be applied to the evening hours of 4 P.M. and 8 P.M. doin’ for oneself Taking care of oneself. “[He] would soon get tired of living alone and ‘doing for himself.’ ” (Dorothy Canfield, “Old Man Warner,” in Raw Material, 1925) dollar bugs A nickname for the whirligig beetle (of the family Gyrinidae), because an old story holds that if you catch one in your hand, you’ll find a dollar in it. Called lucky bugs for the same reason. dollar-fish An old name in Maine for what is called butterfish (Poronotus triacanthus) in Massachusetts and other places. dolphin striker Another name for the martingale spar on a sailing ship. This spar would plunge into the water in rough weather, and old salts would tell landlubbers aboard that the “dolphin striker” often speared dolphin fish for supper. donkey’s breakfast Borrowed from seafaring usage, this old expression means a straw-filled mattress. “I slept good all night on my donkey’s breakfast.” don’t See quote. “The use of don’t [for doesn’t, as in ‘He don’t care’] is the most common grammatical error current in Vermont, possibly defensible as it was sanctioned by the highest classes in the 18th century.” (Charles Edward Crane, Let Me Show You Vermont, 1937) Don’t is commonly used this way throughout New England, especially in rural areas. don’t bust your biler (boiler) overindustrious. don’t drown the miller

Don’t be too eager,

Don’t water the whiskey.

don’t have enough sense to pound sand Has no sense at all, can’t even do a simple thing such as pounding sand with a hammer. don’t know as I know See quote. “Dunnow’z I know: the nearest your true Yankee ever comes to acknowledging ignorance.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867)

don’t know enough to lap salt To have no common sense, to be thoroughly stupid. Cited as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). don’t know enough to pound sand in a rat hole Extremely stupid. Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). don’t know enough to pour water out of a boat no common sense at all.

Has

don’t know no more than a goose knows God Said of someone completely ignorant, who knows nothing at all about anything. don’t know whether he’s (she’s) afoot or ahorseback Is very confused or very stupid. “He’s not got much up there; he don’t know whether he’s afoot or ahorseback.” don’t like the cut of his jib The cut of the jib, or triangular headsail of a ship, indicates the ship’s character to a sailor. Jib also means face in sailor’s talk. Thus don’t like the cut of his jib, a nautical phrase that probably came ashore in New England a century ago, translates as “I’m suspicious of him; I don’t like the expression on his face.” don’t look no higher than his (her) head fer my savior He or she is all the world to me, my whole life. Cited as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). don’t need it any more than a dog needs two tails Given as a Vermont expression in Charles Edward Crane’s Let Me Show You Vermont (1937). don’t need it any more than a pig needs a wallet no use at all for something.

Has

don’t plant corn until the bobtail whistles An old New Hampshire planting saying, bobtail being the New England word for quail. don’t strain your pooper Don’t work too hard; heard on Isleboro, off the Maine coast. don’t take any wooden nutmegs

See

YANKEE PEDDLER.

don’t that beat all get out! An old-fashioned exclamation of surprise or amusement.

214 Yankee Talk door dung A colorful old term for manure taken from the backyards of farm dwellings. door rock A term, rarely used anymore, for a door stone or step of a house. dooryard call A short visit by friends or neighbors made outside the house in the dooryard, that is, on the grounds of a house, not inside. Dorr’s rebellion An 1842 insurrection led by Thomas Dorr (1805–54) in Rhode Island seeking to extend suffrage to more people. doss over more often Come again, stay with us again soon, doss meaning a bed or to sleep. “As we left, making our way toward the car, he shouted, ‘Doss over more often!’ ” doted

Decayed. “That wood got doted.”

do tell! Recorded as early as 1815 for really! indeed! is that so! “ ‘Dew tell, naow!” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie Venner, 1861) the expression still has some currency regionally and nationally. do they climb when he walks? A Maine expression that asks if an animal has been castrated. “ ‘My daughter’s got a cat . . .’ ‘Do they climb when he walks?’ ‘I beg your pardon?’ ‘He still got his balls or has he been fixed?’ ” do trading To shop. “He paid spot cash for what he bought in his semi-yearly trips to the village to ‘do trading,’ as our [Vermont] phrase goes.” (Dorothy Canfield, “Old Man Warner,” in Raw Material, 1925) double-barrel A four-lane highway with a dividing strip. Also called a double-barrel road. double house A house with rooms off each side of a main entrance hall. Dover An eggbeater invented in Dover, New Hampshire about 1866. “The Dover eggbeater has two revolving flat loops on different shafts, each passing alternately inside the other, gathering the egg towards the center of the bowl and whirling it in cross currents.” (Edward Knight, Knight’s American Mechanical Dictionary, 1883) down

See

HOUSE.

down along See quote. “No one has ever been able to locate just where this popular destination is located in

Nantucket. The North Shorer, the Upper Main Streeter, or the Chicken Hiller means when he says ‘I’m jest going down along’ that he is going downtown. The Newtowner . . . uses it to express a port in the opposite direction . . .” (William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket, 1916) down bucket! See quote. “When two Marbleheaders meet, they say to each other, ‘Down bucket!’ or else they say, ‘To hell I pitch it!’ Why they say it, or how they began, the Marbleheaders themselves can’t tell you.” (Jeremiah Digges, Cape Cod Pilot, 1937) May have originally been a warning that a chamber pot was being emptied out a window. See DRAWN BUCKET. down by the head A person bowed by old age; the old expression, not much heard anymore, derives from a nautical term for a ship with its bow too deep in the water. down cellar LAR.

Down into the cellar. See

GO DOWN CEL-

down East (1) The New England region, especially northeastern New England. (2) Maine, but see quote. . . . Maine people are indisposed to accept without challenge the name so universally applied to them of Down Easters. We do not say down to the North Pole, and we do say down South. The higher latitude we make northwardly the farther down we get. Nevertheless, disposed as I avow myself to present the case fairly, the people of Maine uniformly say “up to the westward”, when speaking of Massachusetts. Of one thing I am persuaded— Down East is nowhere in New England.” (Samuel Adams, Nooks and Corners of the New England Coast, 1875)

Some authorities say the term down East derives from early ships sailing out of Boston with the northeasterly winds toward Maine. “There are three towns lying in a line with each other as you go down East, each of them with a Port in its name.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie Venner, 1861) Downeaster (1) From the end of the Civil War to the early years of this century any large ship built in Maine was called a Downeaster. (2) A person hailing from Maine. (3) A New Englander. downhill side of March spring begins.

The last part of March, when

down on one’s uppers The upper in this phrase, meaning to be in bad financial condition, is the upper part of a shoe. Anyone walking down on his or her uppers then would be someone very needy indeed.

dry-ki 215 down street In town, down town. “He’s down street to the dentist.”

drift whale A term early New Englanders used for a dead whale that drifted near shore.

down to the heel Often heard instead of down at the heel for poor, seedy-looking.

drinked drive

doze Wood with rot in it, usually but not always firewood. Sometimes called dozey wood. dragging anchor Used to describe someone who has no control over him- or herself, who is drifting to disaster like a ship whose anchor isn’t holding and is drifting toward rocks or the shore. “He’s been dragging anchor for the last year or so.” dragoness plant An old name for wild lily of the valley (Convellaria borealis). drail

Throw. “Did you drive a rock at them?”

driver (1) Said of someone who is always a very hard worker. “I’d hire her anytime, she’s a real driver.” (2) A Maine lumberman whose job consisted of guiding floating logs downstream. drizzly-drazzly Foggy with a drizzling rain. “It’s sure been drizzly-drazzly weather.” drop a stitch To have a sharp sudden pain in the back. “He stamped his foot on the ground, dropped a stitch and couldn’t move.”

See quote.

The drail is made of heavy metal, is bright and shiny and has the hook rigidly set in its after end. I mention the “rigidly” because the hook attached to a feather bait usually swings loose from a ring. Pulled—or “hauled”— through the water . . . [the drail] looks like a rapidly swimming sand eel or “shiner” and the bluefish darts to snap it. (Joseph C. Lincoln, Cape Cod Yesterdays, 1935)

drastic Adventuresome. “He was feeling drastic and went on the bungee jump.” draw

Drank. “He drinked a lot of it.”

Drag, pull. “We drawed in a load of wood.”

draw lots of water A nautical term for a ship loaded down in the water with cargo; on land the expression came to mean an important person, one who carries a lot of weight. “He draws lots of water up in the capital.” drawn bucket A greeting heard in Marblehead, Massachusetts when one sees a friend. One theory has it that the words originated in the old days as a warning when chamber pots were being lowered from windows to the street. But the warning could be nautical in origin. The reply to the greeting “Drawn bucket” is usually “Up for air.” See DOWN BUCKET, a variation on the term. dreadful Often used for dreadfully. “Life is dreadful uncertin,” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie Venner, 1861) dressing An old term for horse manure. “He added some dressing from the milkman’s horse to the compost heap.” dribs and drabs A little at a time. “He gave us the money in dribs and drabs.” The expression is now national in use.

drop of, a A drink of, considerably more than a drop. “ ‘We’ll have the game, / Assuredly,’ said Isaac; ‘and I think / That I will have a drop of cider, also.’ ” (Edward Arlington Robinson, “Isaac and Archibald,” Captain Craig, 1902) dropped egg A term used only in New England for poached egg. drowsy cape, the

See the

LANGUID CAPE.

drunkards The young leaves of the checkerberry plant or the wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens), probably because they were once used in brewing beer. druv An old-fashioned way of saying driven. “He’s been druv around all day.” dry as a prune with a dry wit. dry bridge

Very witty, usually said of someone

An overpass that doesn’t cross over water.

dry goods cart A specialized New England peddler’s cart in days past carrying clothes of all kinds, ranging from calicos to silks. dry-goods store Stores that may take their name from stores run by New England shipowners, many of whom were merchants in colonial times. Their two chief imports were rum and calico, which usually were displayed on opposite sides of the store—a wet-goods side containing the rum, and a dry-goods side containing the calico. dry-ki Driftwood in a lake or river. “We made a fire from the dry-ki we found along the shore.”

216 Yankee Talk dry salvages, the A small group of rocks, with a beacon, off the coast of Cape Ann, Massachusetts. Salvages here rhyme with assuages, perhaps because “the dry salvages” is a corruption of les trois sauvages. “The Dry Salvages” is the title of a famous poem by T. S. Eliot. dry skin (1) A whale without much blubber. (2) A person who died without leaving much of an inheritance. dub around Putter, tinker. “He dubbed around with his car all day.” dubersome

dummy

A term for a traffic circle used in Connecticut.

dunderfunk A hash made with molasses; the word dates back to colonial times. dunderment Astonishment, confusion. “You never see’d a fellow in such dunderment in your life.” (Thomas C. Haliburton, The Clockmaker, 1835) dunnow Don’t know. “Well then, it’s Granny speaking: ‘I dunnow! / Mebbe I’m wrong to take it as I do . . .’” (Robert Frost, “The Generations of Men,” 1914)

A word used for doubtful a century ago.

Dublin Once used as a name for the section of towns where people of Irish descent live. duff (1) To work hard. “I’m beat. I’ve been duffing here all day.” (2) A pudding made from flour, water and raisins or other fruit. (3) A staple on New England whaling ships, said to have been made with flour dampened with seawater, then mixed with lard and yeast into a sticky dough that was boiled in a bag until it could be dropped from the topgallant crosstower without breaking. dull To make a bad or stupid mistake. “She sure dulled when she married him.” Given as a common term in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). dull as a hoe Heard in Massachusetts for very dull. “That party was dull as a hoe.”

dunstable A type of woman’s straw hat made at Foxboro, Massachusetts and popular in New England during the 19th century. dursn’t Dare not. “ ‘. . . I dursn’t go nigh him.’ ” (Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, 1868) dust as high as a cat’s back big fight, quite a row.

An old Nantucketism for a

dust bunnies See quote. “‘. . . dust bunnies. You know what I mean: those little balls of dust that collect under beds and behind doors and in corners. Look sort of like milkweed pods, they do.’ ” (Stephen King, Dolores Claiborne, 1993). This term and dust kittens are now used throughout the U.S. Dutch cap

See

Dutch cheese

HAYCAP.

See

COTTAGE CHEESE.

dumb Betty A washing machine or any other household appliance; the term is first recorded in 1766 and was used in 1820 for a washing machine.

Dutchman’s anchor Derived from an old tale of a Dutch sea captain who lost his ship because he forgot to bring along his anchor. The story gives us this term meaning anything important that has been forgotten.

dumb-fish An old term once used for the dunfish, a thick codfish salted, dried and kept until it became mellow, or “dumbed.”

dying man’s dinner, a An expression used when a bite to eat instead of a meal is served when work is going on in a house; originally a nautical term.

E eaceworm A term used in Rhode Island and Massachusetts for earthworm. eastard

eel stifle A stew made of eels, onions, potatoes and salt pork. Imogene Wolcott’s excellent New England Yankee Cookbook (1939) calls it Martha’s Vineyard eel stifle.

A pronunciation of “eastward.” eenamost An old-fashioned way to say “almost” that is rarely, if ever, heard anymore.

eastern hemlock Tsuga canadensis, a common New England tree with feathery foliage and coarse wood.

ef A rural pronunciation of “if.” “Ef he can ketch him, he will.”

eastern parts, the A term once used in Massachusetts for the area that is now Maine. eastern white pine Maine.

egg pop An eggnog drink popular in New England in the 19th century, the term first attested in 1776.

Pinus strobus, the state tree of

ehyuh East India captain, an Used to describe an excellent sailor, one as good as the captains of old who sailed their ships to the East Indies and brought home valuable cargos.

See

AYUH.

Eighteen-hundred-and-freeze to death Clifton Johnson in his New England (1931) gives this as a humorous name in Maine for 1817, when an unusually cold winter was followed by a cold spring, and the weather continued to be so unseasonable that many crops failed. Other sources put the years as 1816–17 and include the summer of 1816 as a very cold one when crops failed.

easygoing as old Tilly A simile heard in New England meaning very relaxed. eating tobacco A once-common regional name for chewing tobacco.

elastic eaves spouts The channels or gutters along the edge of a roof for carrying off rainwater are most often called eaves spouts or eaves troughs in New England.

A rubber band. “Put an elastic on it.”

election cake Also called Dough Cake, Hartford Election Cake, ’Lection Cake, and March Meeting Cake, this delicious cake is said to have originated in Hartford, Connecticut, over 150 years ago. An old story says it was served only to those who voted the straight ticket.

eelgrass A word commonly heard in New England, Long Island, New York and the coastal area of New York City for the marine grass Zostera marina, called grass-wrack in Europe.

election pink A pink rhododendron or azalea (Rhododendron prinophyllum) that blooms in June in New England, around the time of the old election day.

eelspear A long spear with three or more barbed prongs used for spearing eels in the mud. 217

218 Yankee Talk elegant A synonym for excellent. “That pie was sure elegant.”

eperlans French-speaking New Englanders use this name for the small fish generally known as smelts.

Eli A name for a Yale student or graduate since the late 19th century; after early Yale benefactor Elihu Yale (1648–1721), for whom the school is named.

essence peddler (1) A Yankee peddler of potent medicines. “He was not exclusively an essence peddler, having a large tin box, which had been filled with dry goods, combs, jewelry, etc. . . .” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, American Notebooks, 1838) (2) See quote. “Essencepeddler: a skunk.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867)

Elm City “New Haven in Connecticut is known as . . . Elm City from the number and magnificent size of the elm trees that adorn its public squares.” (Maximilian Schele De Vere, Americanisms, 1871) Since then elm disease has destroyed the trees. Emmanuelism The use of both mental and moral healing and modern medical practices to cure nervous diseases; named after the Emmanuel Protestant Episcopal Church in Boston, where its originators introduced the healing method in 1906. emptyin’s

The yeasty settlings in beer barrels.

end for about The other way around, or inside out; originally a nautical term. “You’ve got the front for the back, you’ve got it end for about.” English elementary school An obsolete term for a public school that also has been used in proper names, such as Boston’s English High School. English monkey A cheese dish poured over toast or crackers that is similar to Welsh rabbit or rarebit, a humorous play on the old name.

every hair a rope yarn Heard in New England for a rugged seaman. The complete old nautical phrase is Begotten in the galley and born under a gun, every hair a rope yarn, every tooth a marline spike, every finger a fishhook, and all his heart’s blood good Stockholm tar. everything’s drawing An affirmative reply, nautical in origin, to the greeting “How are you?” It originally referred to a ship sailing well. every which way All over the place. “[It] set off briskly for so slow a thing / Still going every whichway in the joints, though.” (Robert Frost, “The Witch of Coos,” 1923) ex Heard for over a century in New England for axle. “The car sank to its exes in the mud.” Often written as X in the past. exercised Upset, angered. “She was right exercised when she lost her job.”

enjoyin’ dretful poor health Cited as a humorous Vermont expression in Charles Edward Crane’s Let Me Show You New England (1937).

eye of America, the An old nickname for Boston because of its intellectual and cultural leadership.

enough sight A lot. “It was enough sight better than being cooped up in the shop.” (Mary Wilkins Freeman, A New England Nun and Other Stories, 1891)

eyes like two burned holes in a blanket Used to describe someone very ill, his or her eyes standing out prominently in a pale drawn face.

enough to gag a maggot Said of someone or something very dirty, filthy. “It’s enough to gag a maggot the way he keeps that place.”

eyestone A small piece of chalky material that is moistened and put in the eye to absorb and remove foreign matter such as cinders.

entire wheat bread wheat bread.

ey-uh Cod.

An old-fashioned term for whole

A common pronunciation of “air” on Cape

F faculized An old-fashioned usage meaning good at many things, versatile. “He’s the most faculized person I know.”

Fameuse Long a leading New England apple variety; the name is French for “famous.” fancy work Needlework, crocheting. “She does her fancy work every evening by the fire.”

faculty See quote. “. . . the Potters had that trait which conquers the world far more surely and subtly than grit,—‘faculty,’ i.e., a clear head and a quick wit, and capacity of adaptations . . .” (Rose Terry Cooke, “Grit,” in Huckleberries Gathered from the New England Hills, 1891)

Faneuil Hall Pronounced FAN-ul or FAN-yul; a historic building in Boston, Massachusetts. An old rhyme instructs how to pronounce this famous landmark: When you speak of the market That’s known as Faneuil, Kindly pronounce it To rhyme with Dan’l.

failed up Failed; gone bankrupt. “He lost everything when the bank failed up.” See faint at the stomach Nauseated. “I’m awful faint at my stomach.” (Mary Wilkins Freeman, “Gentian,” 1887) faint away

See

fannie daddies A name for fried clams on Cape Cod and in other places, according to Imogene Wolcott’s The New England Yankee Cookbook (1939).

GOOD LAND!

fair (1) Excellent, terrific, the best of its kind. “That’s a fair chowder you made.” (2) Quite. “She was fair foolish about it.” fall afoul of

See

GRASSHOPPER.

far piece A long distance. “It’s a far piece from here to Boston.” farrow cow A cow that doesn’t produce milk, or one that is unable to conceive.

RUN AFOUL OF.

fallen away Wasted away, usually from illness. “He’s really fallen away since we last saw him.”

farziner A humorous word used a century ago for as far as I know.

fallen away to a cartload Thin, wasted, sickly looking. “He looks delicate to her! All fallen away to a cartload, as the Maine saying goes.” (Robert Tristram Coffin, Captain Abby and Captain John, 1939)

fascinator A fancy head scarf. “. . . the lively young man . . . drew forth a girl who already wound a cherrycolored ‘fascinator’ about her head . . .” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911)

fallow Said of land recently cleared of trees and brush. “He walked up in the fallow.” Sometimes pronounced follow.

fast To tie, make secure. An old New England saying had it: “A woman ties a horse, a man hitches him, but a sailor makes him fast.” 219

220 Yankee Talk fast as a cat in a gale meaning very fast.

A simile heard in New England

fast day (1) A day of fasting and prayer formerly widely celebrated in New England and now observed in New Hampshire on the fourth Monday in April, according to Yankee Magazine (February 1969). (2) Once common in New England for spring days designated for various religious observances. faster than a cat lapping chain lightning Cited in The Old Farmer’s Almanack (1946) as a common Yankee saying. fat as a butterball Used to describe a plump, healthy animal. “Teeth are good and she’s fat as a butterball. Good mare, Bessie . . .” (Hayden Pearson, New England Flavor, 1961) fat as a doe Pleasingly plump. “I was fat as a doe but still pretty spry.” father God and Sonny Jesus! An exclamation heard in Maine. “‘And you shoulda heard him. Loud? Father God and Sonny Jesus!” (Stephen King, Dolores Claiborne, 1993) father longlegs An old New England name for the insect commonly called daddy longlegs. Father of His Country, the Long before being applied to George Washington, this title was given to Governor John Winthrop of the Massachusetts colony. fatter’n a settled minister Very fat. Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). fat up Fatten up. “A few months of home cooking and she’ll fat up.” fay A once-common word meaning to fit in, fill in, agree. “That piece doesn’t fay with the rest of the puzzle.” fearnaught A humorous term for a winter jacket made of a very heavy woolen fabric. “You have to put on your fearnaught in this kind of weather.” Feast of Shells A festival held until about 1806 to honor the founding of the Massachusetts colony. It was probably so called because the early settlers subsisted to a large extent on shellfish.

feather white (1) A sea windwhipped and full of whitecaps. (2) A very angry person. “He made her all feather white.” feel bluer’n a whetstone, to A Vermont saying meaning to be in a very low or blue mood. feeling stones Stones worn very smooth from the water and a small pleasure to hold in the hand. feetings An old word for woolen stockings. “She was knitting feetings for them.” Also footings. feller Fellow. Besides its usual meaning, a feller has long been a young woman’s sweetheart, a meaning that has spread from New England to other regions of the country. To a young woman in the past, her feller was the young man who was “sparkin’ ” her, her “stiddy company.” fell flat on his floot Fell down hard, often used figuratively. “He lost by ten points, fell flat on his floot.” The origin of floot here is unknown. fence viewer A New England official who inspects fences to see that they have been erected and maintained according to the law. “Non-New Englanders often regard appointments to these seemingly antiquated posts as amusing; yet fence viewers officiated only very recently in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.” (American Notes and Queries, November 1944) fer An old-fashioned pronunciation for “for.” “Ninepence a day fer killin’ folks come kind o’ low fer murder.” (Words of a “Private in the Massachusetts Regiment“) (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1846) fetched

Gave. “He fetched the dog a kick.”

fetched up (1) Brought up. “That’s the way I was fetched up.” (2) To end up in a certain place, or come to a sudden stop. “His ship fetched up on the rocks.” fiddlehead ferns The finest fiddlehead ferns come from Maine. The delicious greens, which taste something like a combination of asparagus, broccoli and artichokes, are so named because their delicate fronds resemble the head of a fiddle. Legend has it that when Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden, the Archangel Gabriel guarded the gate through which they left to earn their bread by the sweat of their brows in the wilderness. Stepping aside to let them pass, Gabriel brushed a wing against a boulder and a feather dropped to the ground. The feather took root and grew

fish ball 221 into the fiddlehead fern, which has ever since been sacred to the archangel. fiddleheading Gathering fiddleheads. “We arrived in time to get fiddlehead ferns for supper . . . Someone had been ‘fiddleheading’ before us.” (William O. Douglas, My Wilderness, 1961) fiddlesticks! A once-common exclamation roughly meaning nonsense. “ ‘Fiddlesticks!’ returned Jo, slamming the door.” (Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, 1868) field driver

See

finnan haddie

See quote.

Finnan haddie [smoked haddock] is, strictly speaking, a Scotch and not a Yankee dish. It gets its title from the reputation of the haddock cured around Findon (or Findhorn), a fishing village near Aberdeen, Scotland. Once our American supply was almost entirely imported, but now the great bulk of it, and some of the very finest, comes from New England. (Imogene Wolcott, The New England Yankee Cookbook, 1939)

fin out Badly injured, close to dying. The old expression is nautical in origin, first referring to a dying whale that rolls over, showing its fin. “She’s near ninety and just about fin out.”

TOWN POUND.

fierce (1) Agitated. “She was some fierce.” (2) Eager, excited. “That dog was fierce to get outside.” (3) “The New England ferce for fierce, and perce for purse, are also Norman [pronunciations].” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867) filer’s two inches Because poorly filed chainsaws were turning out bolts of wood that could run an inch or so over or under the traditional 48-inch lengths, buyers in Maine demanded 50-inch lengths so that they could be sure they got at least 48 inches of wood. These filer’s two inches came to mean a gratuitous extra amount. Filene’s bargain basement A Boston institution in Filene’s department store famous for its bargain merchandise. “She wanted to buy her shoes in Filene’s Shoe Salon on the third floor instead of in the bargain basement . . .” (Joyce Kornblatt, “Offerings,” 1985)

fire balloon A paper fireworks device (outlawed because it caused fires) that contained kerosene and was ignited, causing hot air to fill the balloon and make it rise into the dark sky. fire hangbird A name for the Baltimore oriole because of the male bird’s orange color and the hanging nests orioles make. fireroom Once a common term for any room in a house with a fireplace. fire trumpet A brass trumpet or megaphone that oldtime fire officers used to shout instructions to their men. first (1) Sometimes pronounced “furst.” “ ‘I’ll see y’ darned furst!’ ” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie Venner, 1861) (2) Used in the past to mean eager. “He was quite first to get there.”

Filliloo bird An imaginary bird of Maine fables that flies backward to see where it’s been or to keep the wind out of its face.

first along At first. “First along, I thought he’d easily win the race.”

fillit A word used by Maine fishermen for filet. “He fillited some haddock with his fillitin’ knife.”

First Fathers The first or early settlers of New England; also called Pilgrim Fathers.

fill to the north To take a last drink in a bar before leaving. Among sailors it was considered lucky if the sails were filled initially to the northward.

fish (1) In New England nautical language, fish can mean to repair or mend a spar, usually by splinting it. The word sometimes is used on shore to mean “to repair something”: “Will you fish that cabinet for me today?” (2) A term of historical interest meaning to fertilize land with fish or fish parts, a practice the first European settlers in this country learned from the Indians: “He fished the corn ground.”

find the devil’s golden tooth, to A saying once common in Massachusetts that refers to a story about the pirate Captain Kidd, who was fabled to have stolen the devil’s eyetooth, which gave one the power of changing all metals into gold. finest kind The very best, used to describe anything from one’s health to the weather. “Have the finest kind of day.” Also the finest kind of pork, as in “That’s the finest kind of pork.”

fish ball Shredded fish and mashed potatoes rolled into little balls, dipped in egg and fried until golden brown in deep fat. “Eating fish balls for Sunday morning breakfast is part of Boston’s tradition, like reading the Transcript or taking visitors to see the glass flow-

222 Yankee Talk ers.” (Imogene Wolcott, The New England Yankee Cookbook, 1939)

fittings roused a suspicion.” (Sarah Orne Jewett, “The Gray Mills of Farley,” 1898)

fish, cut bait, or go ashore Do something or leave the premises. This was originally an order to Yankee fishermen working on dories on the Grand Banks who had to either be fishing with their lines or cutting bait for their hooks, otherwise the captain would set them ashore. The expression is heard often as fish or cut bait in Maine and elsewhere.

fit with a Yankee jacket, to To tar and feather someone. “He commanded some of the crew to furnish the d——d English rascal with a good Yankee jacket, which in plain English is a quantity of tar besmeared over the human body, upon which an abundance of feathers is immediately strewn.” (Seine Painter, The Emigrants Guide, or a Picture of America, 1816)

fish draft A curious home remedy that was said to draw (draft) fever or infection from a patient by tying a salt fish to the sole of each foot.

five-fingers A starfish with five arms. “She [found] several five-fingers.” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, 1852)

fisherman farmer See quote. “Said of such persons as alternate farming and fishing at different periods, especially such as customarily farm in one, and fish in another part of each year [on the] seacoast of Massachusetts.” (John Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms, 1877)

fizzy Another name for the American scoter (Melanitta nigra), a diving duck found in New England.

Fisherman’s Monument A famous monument honoring New England fishermen in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

flake (1) Heard in Massachusetts for a piece, a part, a section. “They put it together flake by flake.” (2) A platform on which fish are dried.

fish hash A New England dish of dried, soaked codfish chopped up with boiled potatoes. fish pea A term heard in Maine for roe, caviar, fish eggs, especially when they are massed together. fish warden An official, often of the town, who enforces local fishing regulations. fit

Fought. “They fit and fit and he finally won.”

fit like a Mediterranean pass, to A 19th-century Nantucketism no longer heard that means to fit very well. A Mediterranean pass was a pass issued to sailing vessels for a fee. It was severed in two pieces by the issuing government so that the two pieces fit exactly when placed together, to prevent counterfeits. fitout An outfit of clothing. “Go-ashore jackets and trousers [were] got out and brushed; pumps, neckerchiefs, and hats overhauled . . . so that among the whole each one got a good fit-out.” (Richard Henry Dana Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, 1840)

flacket An expression once heard down east for a woman whose clothes hang off her too loosely.

flamigigs Affectations, airs. “She put on flamigigs for his benefit.” Given as a common term in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). flaming falls Autumns with especially colorful foliage, which are the rule rather than the exception to it. “New England has brief summers and long, cold winters, sudden springs, and long, ‘flaming falls.’ ” (Robert P. Tristram Coffin, New England, 1951) flapdoodle Foolish talk, nonsense. “The whole speech was nothing but flapdoodle.” flapjack The preferred word for pancake or griddlecake, though these are also heard, as is flatjack. flared Mentally deranged or disturbed. “She’s kind of flared.” flatjack

See

FLAPJACK.

fits like a shirt on a beanpole Fits very poorly, is much too large. Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914).

flat out, to See quote. “Generally, disappointed and broken down men are those who have failed in trade . . . or to use an expressive Yankee phrase, have flatted out in a calling or profession.” (Josiah Holland, Plain Talk, 1865)

fitting An old-fashioned expression meaning the moving of a household to a new home. “These mysterious

flax out To become weary, exhausted. “These dretful, smart, handsome folks are just the ones that flax out

fool 223 sometimes.” (Mary Wilkins Freeman, A New England Nun, 1891)

flummery A sweet cornstarch pudding made with fruit and served with cream and sugar.

fleet Once said in Massachusetts of dishes that are shallow. “Put out one of those fleet dishes.”

flummydiddle An old-fashioned term meaning nonsense. “That’s a lot of flummydiddle.”

Fletcherize To masticate food thoroughly; after Horace Fletcher (1849–1919), a Lawrence, Massachusetts nutritionist who advocated 32 chews to each bite of food for better health. His slogan was: “Nature will castigate those who don’t masticate.”

flushration An expression, coined in the early 19th century, for a state of frustration. Also flusteration.

flew An obsolete word for flowed noted in James Russell Lowell’s The Biglow Papers (1866). “The stream flew down the hill.” flicker A detective. “ ‘Are you a flicker?’ . . . In France ‘flic’ is a police detective; the word must have crossed the Channel, entered the slang of the English underworld, and had probably been imported to Newport [Rhode Island] by Henry himself.” (Thornton Wilder, Theophilus North, 1973) flicker up

Heard on Cape Cod for failing. Also flicker.

flint corn

See

flipper

JOHNNYCAKE.

flying axhandle A humorous old name for an attack of diarrhea; alluding to the fact that a wild flying axhandle can’t be controlled and can land anywhere. fly off one’s jib A Nantucketism meaning to become old or be in poor health. “He’s not long for this world, he’s flyin’ off his jib.” fly off the handle To lose one’s self-control or head, like an ax head flying off its wooden handle. The expression may have been invented by 19th-century humorist Thomas C. Haliburton, who wrote of the itinerant Yankee peddler Sam Slick in many books. The saying is now commonly used throughout the United States.

Another term for flapjack.

flirt o’ snow A very light sprinkling of snow. “We had a flirt o’ snow last night.” flop

flush-to-bung town! Reported as a colorful New Hampshire Yankee oath by the Federal Writer’s Project in 1937.

To flap. “The bird flopped its wings.”

Flora’s paintbrush A name in Maine for the beautiful orange hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum). Floridy Maine.

A pronunciation of “Florida,” especially in

fodder corn Field corn; that is, corn grown for fodder, feeding animals, rather than for human consumption. fog mull (1) A heavy fogbank without wind but usually accompanied by a drizzle of rain. (2) Sometimes used to describe drunkenness: “He’s in a fog-mull.” fogo A bad smell; an unusual word of unknown origin rarely if ever used anymore. “. . . he had to take out his handkerchief, all scented with muck, to get clear of the fogo of it.” (Thomas Haliburton, The Clockmaker, 1840)

flow Flood. “They flowed the cranberry bogs every spring.”

fog’s so thick you kin hardly spit A Maine saying recorded in John Wallace, Village Down East (1943).

flower-pot judge A humorous term for an associate judge once commonly used in New England, the term suggesting that such judges just sit on the bench for show.

folks Can be used in Maine to mean “friends” and even one’s wife, as in “How’s your folks?” “She ain’t feelin’ very well.”

flume (1) A narrow ravine worn or cut out by a stream. (2) Capitalized, the name of a famous flume in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. “Nobody could help laughing at the child’s notion of leaving a warm bed and dragging them from a cheerful fire, to visit the basin of the Flume—a brook, which tumbles over the precipice, deep within the Notch.” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Ambitious Guest,” 1835) See NOTCH.

folksy Gregarious. “ ‘I’m real folksy; grasshoppers ain’t no neighbors to me. I want to be amongst them that’ll talk back to me.” (Rose Terry Cooke, “Town Mouse and Country Mouse,” 1891) fool An English dessert made of fruit, cream and sugar that has long been popular in New England. Its name is of unknown origin.

224 Yankee Talk foolhead An old-fashioned expression heard in Massachusetts for a fool. “You old foolhead, that’s not how you do it!” foolish (1) A term once common for the orange file fish (Alutera Schoepfic) in southern New England because of what fisherman considered its absurd way of swimming. (2) Another name for the eel-back flounder, which bites at any bait, including a rag on the hook. (3) Sometimes used to describe a feebleminded person, someone not of normal intelligence. foolkiller A character of folklore who kills fools. “Whenever he heard of the death of somebody he didn’t like, he’d say, ‘Well, the Fool-Killer’s come for so-andso,’ and sort of smack his lips.” (Stephen Vincent Benét, Tales Before Midnight, 1939) fool plover Another name for the bird commonly called the dowitcher (Limnodromus griseus). foopaw A mistake, the word a corruption of the French faux pas. Cited in William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket (1916). footin’ around Doing needless work, fussing, fooling around. “Stop your footin’ around.” footins

in worldly affairs, and hours reclaimed from indolence and vice . . . follow in the wake of the converted man.” (Richard Henry Dana Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, 1840) foreigner A word used in New England meaning someone not born in a town or area, even if he or she has lived there for many years. forelay A nautical expression meaning both to lie in wait for and to plan in advance. “You’d better forelay for a cold winter.” foreroom Once commonly used for the living room or parlor of a house, where people were entertained. fore-royal The first morning cup of coffee on a ship or on shore in some coastal areas of New England; the expression takes its name from the foremast sail on sailing ships. Forest City Portland, Maine has had this nickname for over a century and a half due to the many trees in its vicinity. Cleveland, Ohio and Savannah, Georgia share the name. for goodness-goodness Agnes! An old exclamation of surprise, usually a pleasant surprise.

Heavy winter stockings.

footstove A small tin box with small holes in it that was filled with hot coals and taken to the unheated church to keep one’s feet warm during services. forceput Heard along the Maine coast for necessary. “Theirs was a forceput marriage.” fore-and-after (1) A square dance once popular in New England. (2) Heard in Maine for something trim, alluding to a fore-and-aft rigged ship. foredoor A name dating back three centuries or more for the front door to a house. forefather’s cup The pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea); also called forefather’s pitcher. Forefather’s Day A New England holiday, celebrated mostly in Massachusetts on December 21, that commemorates the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth in 1620. Traditionally, samp porridge is served on this day, which is not a legal holiday. The annual holiday was first celebrated at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1769. forehanded Said of someone foresighted and prudent. “Regular habits, forehandedness (if I may use the word)

fort An old pronunciation of “fault.” “Well, Mister, if you don’t understand plain English, that isn’t my fort.” (David Humphreys, A Yankey in England, 1815) forth-putting Used to describe a badly behaved, arrogant, forward person. “‘I’d ha’ got my ears took off if I’d been so forth-putting when I was little.’” (Sarah Orne Jewett, “Lost Lover,” 1878) Fortino See quote. “Fortino (for aught I know). This remarkable specimen of clipping and condensing a phrase approached the Indian method of forming words. The word is very common throughout New England, Long Island, and the rest of New York.” (John Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms, 1848) Fortino is now an obsolete expression of historical interest only. forty eleven A large amount. “She put up forty eleven kinds of fruits and vegetables.” fourcorners A name given to any crossroads, especially in Maine. fourpence ha’penny This term is not important because it meant a Spanish half real worth about five cents but because the pronunciation fourpence ha’penny was a Yankee shibboleth in the early 19th century. If you said

from away 225 fourpence ha’penny you were set down as a New Englander. Most others said four pence half penny.

Frenchman The most common term in Maine for people of French descent. See P.I.

fowl An old hen or chicken, tough and chiefly used for stewing. “Never use fowl to make fried chicken.”

fresh cook A cook who uses very little salt. Said to be used commonly in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, according to Frederic D. Allen, “Contributions to New England Vocabulary,” Dialect Notes, Vol. I (1890). A heavy cook, or heavy-handed cook, according to the same source, is one who uses a lot of salt.

fowy Rancid, spoiled. “The butter she used was fowy.” The word was once common for anything inferior in quality, especially wood that is spongy or brittle. Foxes An old name for residents of Maine. According to Walt Whitman, writing in the North American Review (November 1885): “Among the rank and file [in the Civil War] . . . it was very general to speak of the different States [men] . . . came from by their slang names. Those from Maine were called Foxes; New Hampshire, Granite Boys; Massachusetts, Bay Staters . . .” Whitman gives no reason for the names. fox grape A wild purplish-black grape (Vitis labeusca) common in New England. “ ‘Now you know how it feels,’ my brother said / ‘To be a bunch of fox grapes, as they call them . . .’” (Robert Frost, Wild Grapes, 1923) foxy granpas

See

BOSTON BAKED BEANS.

frappé (1) What is called a milkshake—a drink made of milk, flavored syrup and ice cream—in some places is often called a frappé in New England, where a milkshake is made of milk and syrup. “Just south of Boston, ordering a milkshake would get you milk mixed with flavored syrup; no ice cream was included. ‘Frappé’ was the order if ice cream was included . . . Incidentally, the French ending of frappé . . . was never pronounced; it came out ‘frap.’ ” (William Safire, On Language, 1980) (2) Chilled, iced; from a French word meaning artificially chilled. “The air you drink is frappé.” (James Russell Lowell, My Study Windows, 1871) free belt

See

BANKING.

freshet A word Mainers use for a stream caused by heavy rain. freshwater clam A bivalve of the family Uniosidae found in inland waters; sometimes called the freshwater mussel. freshwater lobster The preferred name for crayfish found in New England inland waters. fret Worry. “‘The next time you’ll know better’n to fret like this.’ ” (Edith Wharton, Summer, 1917) frettish

An old-fashioned word for fretful. Also fretty.

fried pie A name used in New England and the South for a fruit-filled turnover fried in deep fat. fried pudding Fried leftover cornmeal mush; called fried mush in other regions. frig around Putter around, fool around. Though the term may once have been a euphemism for fuck around, the word frig has no sexual connotations in Maine (as it does in other places) and is used in mixed company. “I frigged around on my car all morning.” See FUB. frock A denim work jacket, any outer coat; the word is heard mainly in northern New England. Often barn frock.

Freestone State A nickname for Connecticut since the early 19th century because of the state’s freestone quarries. More frequently called the Nutmeg State.

frog it (1) To jump or hop like a frog from place to place, especially over puddles or across swampy areas. (2) To walk a canoe through shallow water.

freeze down To stick closely, become established. “I friz down right where I wus, merried the Widder Shennon.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1862)

frolic Another name for the bees (gatherings), such as apple-cut bees or quilting bees, that used to be common in New England. “Every one has heard of the ‘frolic’ or ‘bee,’ by means of which the clearing of lots, the raising of houses, the harvesting of crops is achieved [with all the neighbors working together].” (Harriet Martineau, Society in America, 1837)

freezy

A Mainism for cold. “Sure is a freezy morning.”

Frenchers A historical term for Frenchmen. “. . . he is appointed of the escort to bring the captivated Frenchers and Indians home to the province jail.” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Wives of the Dead,” 1832)

from away Used to describe anyone residing in Maine who doesn’t hail from the state. Heard in one tourist

226 Yankee Talk center: “He’s from away, she’s from away—sometimes it seems the whole state’s from away.”

often is attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes and Oscar Wilde.

front parlor The parlor near the front of the house. “She awoke on the horsehair sofa in her own front parlor. The air was musty, for the room was unused and unloved.” (Susan Dodd, “Rue,” 1984)

fry pan Fry pan and frying pan for a skillet were once New England regionalisms, but both are now in general use.

front room The living room, which is usually nearest the front of the house; frequently heard along the Maine coast. front yard fence

A picket fence, often with sharp pickets.

fub Used in Maine and New Hampshire to mean “putter or fuss about doing unworthwhile things.” “He fubbed around with his car all day and it still won’t start.” See FRIG AROUND. fuddy-duddy A derogatory term describing someone very fussy or unmanly. “He’s an old fuddy-duddy.”

frostbird Chiefly the golden plover (Pluvialis dominica), but the name is given to several other birds as well, including the black-legged kittiwake and the red-backed sandpiper.

full Sometimes used instead of “much” in comparisons. “He’s full smarter’n you are.”

frost blow The aster Aster ericoides, because it often flowers after the first frost in autumn.

full chisel An old-fashioned expression meaning full speed. “He driv into the yard, full chizel, with his pig.” (Harriet Beecher Stowe, “The Minister’s Housekeeper,” 1871)

frostfish The tomcod or whiting (Microgadus tomcod), so called because it is plentiful in early winter after the first frost.

full stick

Same as

fulled up them.”

Shrunk. “My socks fulled up when I washed

frost flower Asters (of the genus Aster) in general, because many of them bloom into late fall, after the first frost. frost heave Bumps in the road caused by very cold weather; often indicated by small orange signs reading “Frost Heaves.” frothed up

FULL CHISEL.

full of ginger Peppy. “The plump horse was full of ginger as I drove to Johnson’s sawmill.” (Hayden Pearson, New England Flavor, 1961) full of weasel juice Full of vim and vigor; the quick movements of the weasel inspired the phrase.

Angry. “She was all frothed up about it.”

frouch An apparently obsolete old word meaning botch. “He frouched up the job.” frowzy Ill-smelling, partly decomposed. “He never got queer and frowzy and half-cracked.” (Dorothy Canfield, “Old Man Warner,” in Raw Material, 1925) frozen Yankee Doodle A famous saying by Thomas G. Appleton about the Boston Art Museum, torn down in 1908. Appleton said that if architecture was “frozen music,” this building was “frozen Yankee Doodle.” Called “the first conversationalist in America” by Emerson, the rich, worldly Appleton, Longfellow’s brother-in-law, was according to Van Wyck Brook’s in New England: Indian Summer (1940) “the only man who could ride over Holmes and Lowell and talk them down.” He also coined the now-familiar phrases, mutual admiration society and All good Americans go to Paris when they die, the latter of which

funkify An obsolete term meaning to frighten or alarm someone. funny eye Heard in Maine and other areas for the round opening in a lobster pot. Also called funny hoop. furrow out To make a furrow or trench and plant potatoes and other crops in it. fush out To play out, die out, fail. “This wind should fush out by morning.” fusspot

Someone who is fussy or finicky.

fust A pronunciation of first. “That’s the fust thing I thought of.” fuzzle To act in a confused or aimless way. “They fussed and fuzzled till they’d drinked up all the tea.” (Harriet Beecher Stowe, “The Minister’s Housekeeper,” 1871)

G gad A small whip used for livestock, or the stock of a whip without the lash.

whale-ships, generally on a cruising-ground; when, after exchanging hails, they exchange visits by boats’ crews; the two captains remaining for a time on board of one ship, and the two chief mates on the other.” Gam was later used ashore, as in “I had a long gam with John yesterday,” and the author heard it employed a year or so ago to describe two police patrol cars in Connecticut “gamming at the side of the road.” Some etymologists suggest that the word gam for a pod of whales is the source, while others opt for the obsolete English word gammon, meaning animated talk or chatter.

gaffle Used chiefly in northern New England to mean “seize hold of and carry.” “He gaffled the hay into the barn.” Also gaffle up. “He gaffled up the anchor.” gahd

A common Boston pronunciation of “guard.”

galamander A large-wheeled wagon with a derrick once used to lift large blocks of granite. The term’s origin is unknown but perhaps is based on salamander. gal boy gale wind

gambrel roof A ridged roof with two slopes on each side, with the lower side having the steeper pitch. John Bartlett’s Americanisms (1848) says the roof is “so called from its resemblance to the hind leg of a horse which by farriers is termed the gambrel.”

An old New England term for tomboy. A redundancy for gale.

gallied, gallyied Rattled, frightened and excited; the word originally applied to whales. Cited in William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket (1916).

gambrel stick

A redundancy for gambrel.

gander (1) A rubberneck, one who ganders at people. (2) An awkward gangling person.

gallus An old-fashioned term New Englanders used for a suspender or an overall strap. Galluses is the plural. “He wore overalls, with only one arm through a gallus.”

gander party See quote. “Gander-party: a social gathering of men only.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867)

galvanized Yank Used in the South during the Civil War for a Southerner who was pro-Union.

ganging The twine used to make fishing line. Pronounced gan-jing.

gam No one knows the origins of this word for a sailor’s bull session, or chat, or conference, although it appears to have been first recorded in reference to a sociable visit between two whaleships at sea. Herman Melville used and defined the word in Moby Dick (1850), which owed much to Melville’s personal experiences and to whaling chronicles of the day. Melville defined the word as “A social gathering of two (or more)

gannet-gutted Someone with a voracious appetite, one like that of the gannet, a bird that knows no limit. “He’s a gannet-gut if I ever saw one.” ganted out Gaunt, wasted. “She’s been workin’ too hard. All ganted out.” 227

228 Yankee Talk gansey Heard down East for a sweater; a corruption of guernsey.

gentleman cow An old euphemism for bull; also called a gentleman and a gentleman ox.

gap-and-swallow A humorous term for soft food such as cornmeal mush or crackers and water. “‘Gap and swallow’ was another venerable emergency dish, not unlike Hasty Pudding.” (Imogene Wolcott, The New England Yankee Cookbook, 1939). Gap here is a variation of “gape.”

gent’s walk

gape Sometimes used in New England and other regions for “to yawn.” “He stretched up his arms and gaped.” garb up good.”

To dress. “It’s cold out, you’d best garb up

garden hash An old-time term for compost from the compost heap. garden sass (1) Fresh vegetables grown in the home garden. “Garden sass always was the most of my living, and there’s some tailoring to be did . . .” (Rose Terry Cooke, “Town Mouse and Country Mouse,” 1891) Sometimes heard as garden sauce. (2) Another name for rhubarb. gaum (1) To move clumsily. (2) A clumsy oaf. (3) To act in a stupid, bungling way. “He really gaumed that job.” Also gorm. gaumy Clumsy, stupid. “Of all the gaumy cusses I know, you take the cake.” Also gauming. gaunted up Thin. “The gaunted-up long-legged animals.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie Venner, 1861) gaup

See

LADIES WALK.

gerrymander Above editor Benjamin Russell’s desk in the offices of the Centinel, a Massachusetts Federalist newspaper, hung the serpentine-shape map of a new Essex County senatorial district that began at Salisbury and included Amesbury, Haverhill, Methuen, Andover, Middleton, Danvers, Lynnfield, Salem, Marblehead, Lynn and Chelsea. This political monster was part of a general reshaping of voting districts that the Democratic-Republican–controlled state legislature had enacted with the approval of the incumbent governor, Elbridge Gerry. The arbitrary redistricting would have enabled the Jeffersonians to concentrate Federalist power in a few districts and remain in the majority after the (then-yearly) gubernatorial election of 1812 and was of course opposed by all Federalists, although it was a fairly common practice of the times. When the celebrated painter Gilbert Stuart visited the Centinel offices one day before the elections, editor Russell indignantly pointed to the monstrous map on the wall, inspiring Stuart to take a crayon and add head, wings, and claws to the already lizardlike district. “That will do for a salamander,” the artist said when he finished. “A Gerry-mander, you mean,” Mr. Russell replied, and a name for the political creature was born, gerrymander coming into use as a verb within a year. get a wiggle on it Heard in Isleboro, off the Maine coast, for hurry up. get done To be fired, laid off a job. “I’m going to get done down at the store next Friday.”

To gape or stare. “Stop gauping at me.”

Gawdfreediamonds! A euphemistic exclamation heard on Isleboro, off the coast of Maine. gawky An old-fashioned term for fool, simpleton. “She’s a regular gawky.” gawnicus This synonym for dolt is given by James Russell Lowell in The Biglow Papers (1867). gee-bucking Children hitching a ride on a horse-drawn sled by attaching the rope of their smaller sleds to it. gee whittakers! mation.

An old-fashioned euphemistic excla-

general court A name for the legislative assembly in New Hampshire and Massachusetts; in early times these bodies had judicial as well as legislative powers.

get one’s dander up, to Many of the early Yankee humorists—such as Seba Smith, Charles Davis and Thomas Haliburton—used this Americanism for to get angry, and it is found in the Life of Davy Crockett. It is one of those expressions with a handful of plausible explanations. The most amusing is that the dander in the phrase is an English dialect form of dandruff that was used in the Victorian era; someone with his dander up, according to this theory, would be wrathfully tearing up his hair by the fistful, dandruff flying in the process. Another likely source is the West Indian dander, a ferment used in the preparation of molasses, which would suggest a rising ferment of anger. The Dutch donder, “thunder,” also has been nominated, for it is used in the Dutch phrase op donderon, “to burst into a sudden rage.” And then there is the farfetched theory that dander is a telescoped form of “damned anger.” And if these aren’t enough, we have the possibilities that dander comes from an English dialect word for anger; from the

glauackus 229 Scots danders, “hot embers”; and from the Romany dander, “to bite.”

gism ent.

get one’s goin’-home-acryin’, to To get one’s comeuppance. “He started the fight and got his nose broken, got his goin’-home-acryin!”

git A pronunciation of get in Maine and other places. See quote under MORE’N COMMON STUPID.

get onto yourself and ride the jackass Get up and get moving; an old saying heard in Massachusetts. get out! Bartlett’s (1848) gives this as a mid-19thcentury New Englandism meaning “leave me alone!” gets up so early he (she) meets himself (herself) going to bed Said of a very early riser. Recorded in Ernest Poole, The Great White Hills of New Hampshire (1946). getting up the wood See quote. “‘Getting up the wood.’ That was a term we always used [in New Hampshire] for hauling the wood from the wood lot to the yard behind the house and starting it, ready for the saw rig.’ ” (Hayden Pearson, New England Flavor, 1961) get your bait back An expression heard in Maine meaning to catch just enough fish to cover your expenses for bait. “I didn’t catch enough to get my bait back.” gibraltar A hard candy often flavored with peppermint or lemon, long a favorite in New England. See BOSTON BAKED BEANS. gill-ver-the-ground (Nepeta glechoma).

A folk name for ground ivy

gimp Courage, guts, spirit. “She’s got lots of gimp.” The word possibly derives from the fishing line strengthened with wire called gimp. gin Once used as a past-tense form of “give.” “He gin me ten dollars.” ginger! An old-fashioned euphemistic exclamation, usually in the form of by ginger! ginger plum (1) The berry of the wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens). (2) The plant itself. Also called ginger berry.

Heard in Rhode Island for strength, genius, tal-

git a holt A synonym in Maine and New Hampshire for take hold of. “You watch out or I’ll git a holt on you.” give a turn Startle, upset. “ ‘George! You gave me such a turn.’ ” (Thornton Wilder, Our Town, 1938) give a whaling to Give a beating to. Many etymologists believe this phrase should be give a waling to, as a wale is a mark raised on the flesh by the blow of a stick or whip. But the key word in the phrase has been spelled with an h ever since it first appeared, over a century ago. This suggests that a whaling, “a terrible beating,” was one given with a whalebone whip, though the wales it raised may have contributed to the phrase, making it more vivid. In the past riding whips were commonly made of whalebone. Whalebone, incidentally, is a misnomer: It’s not made from the bones of a whale but from a substance found in the whale’s upper jaw. Whaling is first recorded in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852): “How did yer whaling agree with yer, Tom?” give her honest measure, but don’t kick the salt An old saying meaning be honest but don’t cheat yourself. A merchant who kicked the salt container would settle the salt and the customer would get too much for his or her money. give one’s eyeteeth for To give one’s most prized possessions for. “I’d give my eyeteeth for a horse like that.” give the very Jesse To curse someone out vehemently. “She gave him the very Jesse.” give Yankee Doodle An old expression meaning to give hell to. “They gave him Yankee Doodle and then some.” giving down Used especially in Maine for a cow producing milk. “The cow was unhappy . . . She wasn’t ‘giving down.’ ” (John Gould, It Is Not Now, 1993)

ginger water A refreshing New England homemade drink of water, molasses and a little vinegar and ginger.

glare Bright, smooth and slippery ice. “The roads were glare and slippery.” (Mary Wilkins Freeman, A New England Nun and Other Stories, 1891) The word glare in this sense dates back to the 16th century. Glare ice, an Americanism coined in about 1825, is ice having a smooth glassy surface that reflects sunlight.

girling A Mainism describing a boy courting a girl. “He went girling.”

glauackus The name of an imaginary monster first reported in Connecticut in 1939, when a wire service

230 Yankee Talk story told of a mysterious beast variously resembling a lion, panther or boar, among all sorts of descriptions, that terrified the people of Glastonbury. It has been sighted since by all sorts of people except skeptics. glinning up Said when a bright streak breaks through the clouds in the sky. “It’s glinning up in the east.” glorit Heard in New Hampshire and Maine for to glory. “They glorited in their victory.” Gloucester Pronounced GLOSS-ter; a Massachusetts town. See BOUND. glow-shoes An old way of saying galoshes. “. . . the necessity of the young man providing a certain number of superfluous glow-shoes, and umbrellas . . . before he dies?” (Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854) glut An old Maine and New Hampshire word for a fresh, impertinent reply to a question. “Don’t glut me like that.” go around Robin Hood’s barn To go in a circuitous way. The expression originated in England centuries ago. “Her way of going round Robin Hood’s barn between the beginning of her story and its end.” (Sarah Orne Jewett, “Miss Debby,” 1883)

dian Bill Cosby’s routine in which the child thinks his name is “Damnit” because his father so often summons him with a “Commere, damnit!”—there’s truth behind every fiction! More examples of this odd custom can be found in Jeremiah Diggs, Cape Cod Pilot (1937). godfrey! A euphemistic exclamation meaning roughly By God! godfrey dorman! godfrey lijah!

Same as

Same as

GODFREY!

GODFREY!

godfrey’s might! An exclamation heard on Cape Cod that is a euphemism for God almighty! godfrey mighty!

Same as

GODFREY.

Godlike A nickname for New England statesman Daniel Webster. “Black Dan, alias the Godlike, as he has been cognomened by his especial admirers, is a sort of intellectual hippopotamus.” (Quincy [Ill.] Whig, Nov. 3, 1850) God made the food, but the devil made the cook Said of a poor cook; the expression is of nautical origin. Cited in William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket (1916).

go ashore to windward To go wrong or fail with no excuse for it. Cited in William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket (1916).

go down cellar Go down into the cellar. “And Archibald, with a soft light in his eyes, / Replied that if he chose to go down cellar, / There he would find eight barrels . . .” (Edward Arlington Robinson, “Isaac and Archibald,” Captain Craig, 1902)

go bag yer head! Shut up. Given as an angry exclamation in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914).

God rock Any small pure white stone a child finds and keeps in his or her pocket as a treasure.

go-billy vehicle.

An old-fashioned term for any four-wheeled

Goddams Cape Cod fishermen of Portuguese descent often bestowed nicknames on each other and used the nicknames so consistently that they virtually replaced the surnames of the families concerned after several generations. One family, for example, became known as the Codfishes, another as the Rats. The most extreme example recorded is the Goddams. Captain Joseph Captiva explained this oddest of surnames to Alice Douglas Kelly of the Federal Writers’ Project and she recorded it in Living Lore of New England (1938): “That’s cause the old lady she couldn’t speak English so good and she’d call the children when they was little: ‘You come here, goddam,’ ‘Don’t you do that, goddam.’ So they call ’em the ‘Goddams’.” Many readers have heard come-

God’s amount (amint) Heard in Maine for a large amount. “They’s God’s amint o’ woodchucks in them woods.” God sometimes shows his contempt of wealth by giving it to fools An old New England saying. go fry some ice Get out of here, don’t bother me; an expression heard in Massachusetts. going around Robinson’s barn Doing something in an involved, complicated way. A New England, chiefly Maine version of the much older going round Robin Hood’s barn. going down to salt water An expression once used by inland farmers to describe an outing to the seashore. “We’re going down to salt water tomorrow.”

go pleasurin! 231 going full stick

Going very fast.

wind was blowing hard.

going greening table.

Going to gather wild greens for the

good land! A common old-fashioned exclamation. “‘Good land, Luella, how you look! You’ll faint away.” (Mary E. Wilkins, “Life-Everlastin’,” 1891)

going out on a flink Going out for a good time; flink here may be a corruption of “fling.” Cited in William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket (1916). go it, Sal! An old-fashioned exclamation meaning roughly go ahead! goldarn! A euphemism for God damn heard in New England and other regions. golly-wopper bird An extraordinary imaginary bird that figures in New England folklore. go ’long! An old-fashioned command to a horse meaning Get up! gone by (1) Said of old tough vegetables. “They’re gone by carrots not even fit for a stew.” (2) Dead. “He’s gone by ten years now.” gone goose, a Someone “lost past recovery,” as Bartlett’s (1848) puts it; someone sure to lose. goneness Extreme weariness, complete exhaustion. “I feel a goneness I’ve never felt before.” gone to his long home Has died, gone to his final resting place, the “long” indicating the duration of his stay. “He’s gone to his long home three years now.” goney An old, perhaps obsolete, term for a stupid person. See GOONEY. good Often used in New England and other parts of the Northeast for best. “[It was] her good dress.” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911) good earth and seas An old-fashioned rural exclamation. “But good airth an’ seas, he’d saw that fiddle all up into tunes.” (Rowland Robinson, “A Paring Bee,” 1900) good fences make good neighbors An old saying that became associated with New England poet Robert Frost, who used it in his famous poem “Mending Wall” (1914). good holding ground A place where one can stay even when conditions are bad. Originally a nautical term referring to a place offshore where an anchor could catch and hold fast even when the sea was rough and the

good land a mercy! exclamation.

Once a common euphemistic

good morning, damn you See the following quote from a story based on Bronson Alcott’s idealistic community Fruitlands. “One youth [a member of the community] believing that language was of little consequence if the spirit was only right, startled newcomers by blandly greeting them with “Good-morning, damn you,” and other remarks of an equally mixed order.” (Louisa May Alcott, “Transcendental Wild Oats,” 1876) good pear or apple costs no more time or pains to rear than a poor one, a See quote. “It is commonly said by farmers, that a good pear or apple costs no more time or pains to rear, than a poor one; so I would have no work of art, no speech, or action, or thought, or friend, but the best.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nominalist and Realist,” 1844) good riddance to bad rubbish An old saying, still occasionally heard, that dates back to at least 1815 and is used in other regions as well. Goody A polite form of address for a “goodwife,” a good woman of humble means in old New England. “‘. . . my broomstick hath strangely disappeared, stolen, as I suspect, by that unhanged witch Goody Cory, and that, too, when I was all anointed with the juice of smallage and cinque-foil and wolf’s-bane—’ ” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown,” 1835) go-off The start, the beginning. “He was doomed from the go-off.” gooney Any awkward, stupid person, a fool or simpleton, the word an English dialect term that is first recorded in New England in the early 19th century: “If the feller has been such a ravin’ destracted gooney, I hope they will hang him.” (Thomas Haliburton, The Clockmaker, 1838) go on with your bird’s-egging An expression little heard today meaning get on with your story, say what you have to say and get it over with. go pleasurin! Take a pleasure trip. “Virgil asked us to go ‘pleasurin’ down to one of the islands [in Maine] for a Sunday picnic . . .” (John Gould, It Is Not Now, 1993)

232 Yankee Talk gorby bird A Maine and New Hampshire term for the woodland Canada jay (Perisoreus canadensis), which is considered a good-luck omen. The bird also is called the camp thief, after its habit of stealing bright objects and food. gore A long narrow piece of land that is often triangular in shape, roughly resembling a cow’s horn. Such pieces of land, frequently worthless and unwanted, often are found between the boundaries of farms, towns and counties. go right along out See quote. “She laughed at him . . . and told him to ‘go right along out’ and leave her to see to things.” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911) gorm A gooey mess. “He had a gorm of worms in his hook.” gorming Used to describe a stupid, clumsy person or animal, or even an inanimate object that is in one’s way. “Move aside, you great gorming lummox.” Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). The word, however, can be used in a less offensive way, as in the following quote. “I asked her how her little granddaughter Dorry was. ‘Little?’ say she . . . she’s a great big gormin’ girl now.’ That ‘gormin’ did bring back old times and pa. He always applied that term to me when I was growin’ up, and it’s scrumptious word. I do lot on words that pictur’ things out like that.” (Annie Trumbull Slosson, “A Local Colorist,” 1912) go-round The action of going around and around, like a merry-go-round. “All this go-round [to find someone lost].” (Mary Wilkins Freeman, A New England Nun, 1891) gorry! A common Maine exclamation. “ ‘Gorry! What makes some men so dumb?’ ” (Stephen King, Dolores Claiborne, 1993) go sandpaper the anchor Get out of here, go do any foolish thing so long as you leave. Usually said to children underfoot. gosh all fish-hook! almighty!

go snucks Share the expenses of something. “They went snucks on the candy.” go to Ballyhack! Go to hell. “Go to Ballyhack!—a common expression in New England. I know not its origin. It savors in sound, however, of the Emerald Isle.” (John Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms, 1859) Bally and hack are old English dialect words for town and hell go to grass! An old-fashioned expression meaning get out! begone with you! go-to-hell Said of someone who has no concern for what anyone else thinks of him or her. “Rake looked like the original go-to-hell dory fisherman—leathery face, dirty cap, dirtier deck shoes, and flannel shirt stuffed into trousers so dirty you could chop them up for chum.” (William Martin, Cape Cod, 1991) go-to-meetin’s A humorous term often used in the past for one’s best clothes, those worn to Sunday church meetings. Go to poodic! Poodic is an Indian name for a point of land on the Maine coast; the saying translates as “Go jump in the bay!” Cited in George R. Stewart, Names on the Land (1945). go us

Last us. “We’ve got enough food to go us the week.”

governor’s meat son.

Deer and other game shot out of sea-

Governor Winthrop A combination desk-bookcase like one owned by Governor John Winthrop (1588–1649) of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. gownd, geound A once-common pronunciation of “gown.” “The Yankee, who omits the final d in many words, as do the Scotch, makes up for it by adding one in geound.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1866) gracious evers! A euphemistic exclamation, like the more common gracious me! gracious me!

See

gra’ma’mam

An old form of “grandmother.”

GRACIOUS EVERS!

A euphemistic oath meaning God

gosh all hemlock! An old exclamation that is a euphemism for God almighty!

grammy A form of “grandmother” or “grandma” heard mostly in Maine.

goshfrey mighty dorman! Reported as a colorful New Hampshire oath by the Federal Writers Project in 1937.

gramp, grampy, grandser, granther Synonyms for grandfather; the last three are old-fashioned terms.

greenhead 233 grandsir Grandfather. “I can make out old Grandsir Stark distinctly—/With his pipe in his mouth and his brown jug/Bless you, it isn’t Grandsir Stark, it’s Granny . . . ” (Robert Frost, “The Generations of Men,” 1914) Also grandsire. FOXES.

Granite boys

See

Granite City setts.

An old nickname for Boston, Massachu-

granite insides An iron constitution. “She was a little widow, with granite insides, a native of Whiteridge [New Hampshire].” (Bliss Perry, “By the Committee,” 1899) Granite State, the A nickname for Vermont. It is said that Vermont’s granite industry was established as a result of Vermonters drilling for salt. In 1827 Montpelier citizens drilled hole after hole searching for precious salt, only to give it up as a bad job upon striking layer after layer of granite. Soon after, they decided to mine the granite. granny (1) A nickname for any old woman or crone in times past. “Granny Gordon, so she was familiarly denominated . . . thin and withered away in person . . . bore no small resemblance to a newly exhumed mummy, and to all appearance promised to last as long as one of those ancient dames of Egypt.” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Haunted Quack,” 1831) (2) Sometimes used in Maine for a fussy, officious man. granny knot A poorly tied knot that often comes loose; though it is a nautical term referring to a landlubber’s knot, granny knot is heard on land as well in New England and New York, including New York City (and wherever else, I would guess, that seamen have introduced it). grass about the bows A humorous term for whiskers, or for the beginnings of a beard. “He’s got some grass about the bows.” Originally nautical in use. grasshopper All true Bostonians know that this is the creature represented on the weather vane on the cupola of Faneuil Hall. Faneuil Hall, “the Cradle of Liberty,” was erected as a public market in 1742 by merchant Peter Faneuil. grassing Lovemaking outdoors. grassin’ down by the lake?”

“Remember

us

graveyard Often the preferred word for cemetery among older speakers. greasy luck Good luck. A local Nantucket expression that first arose among whalemen trying out oil from whale blubber on the decks of whaleships. The decks became very slippery at such times, and this was considered lucky because it meant a more prosperous voyage. Well-wishers often wished departing whalemen greasy luck when they embarked on a voyage. Cited in William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket (1916). great Heard in Maine and other parts of New England for a great amount. “I guess she won’t be troubled no great with ’em.” (Sarah Orne Jewett, “White Heron,” 1886) Great Awakening A religious revival that began in New England in 1734. Great Carbuncle

See quote.

There are few legends more poetical than that of the “Great Carbuncle” of the White Mountains. The belief was communicated to the English settlers, and is hardly yet extinct, that a gem, of such immense size as to be seen shining miles away, hangs from a rock over a clear, deep lake, high up among the hills. They who had once beheld its splendor, were enthralled with an unutterable yearning to possess it. But a spirit guarded that inestimable jewel, and bewildered the adventurer with a dark mist from the enchanted lake. Thus, life was worn away in the vain search for an unearthly treasure, till at length the deluded one went up the mountain, still sanguine as in youth, but returned no more. On this theme, methinks, I could frame a tale with a deep moral.” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Sketches from Memory,” 1835)

Hawthorne did later write “The Great Carbuncle” (1837), noting that the tale was based on an “Indian tradition.” great Keezer’s ghost!

An exclamation heard in Maine.

great sufficiency, a Ample, more than enough. “More pie, Ezra?” “No thanks, had a great sufficiency.” green corn (1) Growing corn plants or corn plants cut green for feed. (2) Corn picked when it is milky but before it is completely mature. green front A Maine state liquor store; so called because such stores once had green fronts. Also Dr. Green’s. greenhead (1) See quotes. “And the first greenhead found them. This is a fly that breeds in the salt marshes. It is born with an enormous green head, a taste for salty

234 Yankee Talk flesh and a sting like a hot needle.” (William Martin, Cape Cod, 1991) “Not only mosquitoes and midges and gnats but a curious plentitude of ticks and greenheaded, bloodthirsty flies breed in the marshes and the winding saltwater channels.” (John Updike, “Wildlife,” in The Afterlife, 1994) (2) A name given to the American golden plover (Pluvialis dominica) in Massachusetts.

grind one’s own bait Do one’s own work, do as one pleases, be independent. “I don’t want to work for anyone else, I want to grind my own bait.”

Green Mountain A popular New England potato variety named after Vermont’s Green Mountains.

griping of the gizzard An attack of diarrhea. “He went home with a griping of the gizzard.”

Green Mountain boy A nickname for a Vermonter; originally a member of the Vermont militia organized in 1771.

groaner (1) A foghorn, because foghorns make a groaning noise; (2) A whistling buoy whose whistles sound like groans.

Green Mountain City capital of Vermont.

Groton The Connecticut city’s name is properly pronounced Graton.

Green Mountaineer

A nickname for Montpelier, the

A nickname for a Vermonter.

and sauce, eggplant parmigiana, and so on. It is made of split loaves of Italian bread. The sandwiches are called grinders because you need a good set of grinders (teeth) to chew them. See WEDGY.

Green Mountain State A nickname for Vermont since the early 19th century. The word Vermont comes from the French for “green mountain.”

ground bird Heard in Massachusetts for the field sparrow (Spizella pusilla pusilla), the song sparrow (Melospiza melodia melodia) and the vesper sparrow (Pooedetes gramineus), all of which often make their nests on the ground.

green sauce Vegetables. “Green sauce for vegetables I meet in Beaumont and Fletcher . . . and elsewhere.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867)

grounded out Used in seacoast towns to describe a vessel grounded in the mud at low tide and unable to sail until higher water comes.

green snake A name given to two green snakes (Opheodrys aestivus and Opheodrys vernalis) found in New England.

ground hemlock Though a misnomer, this is a synonym for the common yew (Taxus canadensis), which is not native to the region.

green to green All’s well, there’s clear sailing. Originally a nautical term referring to the port and starboard lamps on a sailing ship.

Groundhog Day February 2, when the groundhog is supposed to come out of its hole to evaluate the weather. If it sees its shadow winter will last six weeks more; if it doesn’t there will be an early spring.

Greenwich Commonly pronounced GREN-itch, or GRIN-itch, but sometimes pronounced GREEN-witch; a Connecticut town. greezy

A pronunciation of “greasy.” See

GREASY LUCK.

gret Often a pronunciation of “great.” “He’s got a gre’t cur’osity t’ see ye . . .” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie Venner, 1861) griddlecake

ground swamp robin Heard especially in Maine as a name for the hermit thrush (Turdus pallasi), which often frequents the undergrowth of secluded woods.

A pancake or flapjack.

grinder Used chiefly in New England, especially Boston, for what is called submarine sandwich, hero, hoagie, torpedo, poor boy, Cuban sandwich, wedgy, guinea grinder and Dagwood in other regions. The sandwich filling consists of meats, cheese, lettuce and tomato, when cold, but can be filled with hot meatballs

grouties, the See GROUTY.

A general feeling of discomfort, illness.

grouty Surly, cross, sullen. “Old Black Hoss was awfully grouty about Miry’s refusin’ Tom Beacon.” (Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sam Lawson’s Fireside Stories, 1872) Grover’s Corners A fictional place in New England often cited as a typical rural town. From Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town (1938). In the play one character refers to a letter addressed to “Jane Crofut; The Crofut Farm; Grover’s Corners; Sutton County; New Hampshire; United States of America . . . Continent of

guzzle 235 North America; Western Hemisphere; the Earth; the Solar System; the Universe; the Mind of God . . .”

gumption Courage, nerve, guts. “He sure has a lot of gumption.”

growthy weather An old-fashioned rural term for good growing weather. “ ‘At any rate,’ he said, ‘it’s growthy weather for grass!” (Annie Trumbull Slosson, “A Local Colorist,” 1912)

gumshoe A term heard among older people for overshoes, galoshes and rubbers.

grue

gum tickler A humorous early expression for a draft of rum or other spirits.

Heard in Maine for a shiver. “It give me a grue.”

grunt A fruit pudding or dumpling made with apples or various berries. Said to be so named after the satisfied grunts of those who eat them, or because of the sound the dough makes when it steams. gudgeon A name given to several little fish of the Cyprinidae family called golden shiners, silvery minnow and killifish elsewhere. guess Think, suppose, calculate, reckon. “The northern word ‘guess’—imported from England, where it used to be common—is little used among Southerners. They say ‘reckon’,” wrote Mark Twain in an 1883 letter. Observed James Russell Lowell in The Biglow Papers (1867): I have never seen any passage adduced where guess was used as the Yankee uses it. The word was familiar in the mouths of our [English] ancestors, but with a different shade of meaning from that we have given it, which is something like rather think, though the Yankee implies a confident certainty by it when he says, ‘I guess I du!’ ”

gull (1) A pronunciation commonly heard in Boston for girl. (2) To gulp food down ravenously, as a gull does. “He gulled his meal in a minute.” gull hunter The jaeger, a smaller bird that attacks large gulls in midair and steals their food, forcing them to drop it as they dive down and then catching the food as it falls. gullup A belch, or to belch; the word derives from gulp. Also gollup. gummer A Maine term for a person who collects spruce gum (used as a chewing gum) in the woods. gump This word meaning a fool, a stupid person, is recorded in James Russell Lowell’s The Biglow Papers (1867) and accounts for the last name of the early comic strip character Andy Gump as well as the last name of the eponymous hero of the 1994 film Forrest Gump.

gundalow A kind of scrow or barge long used along the New England coast for hauling lumber, salt-marsh hay, coal and other freight, propelled by the tide, poles and a square sail. Few, if any, gundalows operate today. The word is a corruption of “gondola” first recorded in 1733. Also gundalo. gunkhole A gunkhole is just a mudhole, in Maine. The word gunk is an old Scottish one meaning to hoax or fool. According to the “Sayings of the Oracle” column in Yankee Magazine (October 1971), “likely someone once thought they could walk on the mud and it let ’em down.” gunning season The hunting season, when the gunners come out in force, usually in the late fall. gunshot wedding A synonym for a shotgun wedding, that is, a marriage people are forced into because a child has been conceived. gurnet Heard chiefly in Maine and Massachusetts for an ocean inlet. No one knows the word’s origins, and it is sometimes found in place-names such as Simons Gurnet in Maine. gurried up To be in a mess, all messed up. A figurative use of GURRY. gurry (1) The remains of fish after cleaning them; fish oil. “He cleaned the fish as he caught them and used the gurry as chum.” The origin of the word, first recorded in 1776, is unknown. (2) Refuse or dirt in general. guyascutus One of the earliest New Englandisms, this amusing Vermont term described a cow with short legs on one side so that it could better walk around the steep Vermont hills. The pronunciation is generally guy-ascut-as. guzzle A term used in Cape Cod for a small channel between two sandbars of a stream through a marsh.

H H A letter burned on the hand in early New England for the crime of heresy. See A.

hahnsome A frequent pronunciation of “handsome.” Also harnsome.

Haavaad accent

hail (1) Heard in New England for a catch of fish, the word an old form of “haul.” “We caught a good hail of mackerel.” (2) A vessel’s home port. “Her hail was painted on the stern after her name: Pequod—New Haven.” (3) Any address. “He carved his name and hail on the wood.” (4) A telephone call. “Give me a hail tomorrow.”

See the Introduction and

HARVARD.

habbage A word that apparently originated in Newfoundland for a rough, cruel dishonest person; possibly a corruption of savage. hacking and hammering Vacillating, backing and filling; said of someone who won’t take a stand on an issue.

haint An old-fashioned rural contraction of “have not.” “I haint gone there yet.”

hackmatack A New England name for several conifers; the name is a corruption of an American Indian designation for the trees. “Here and there was a larch or hackmatack whose roots were used in the old days as knees in building ships and tree nails or wooden pegs.” (William O. Douglas, My Wilderness, 1961)

haired up

hairlegger A name, its origin unknown, that early New England fishermen used for farmer. New England farmers, in turn, called fishermen herring chokers.

Haddam A Connecticut town. Of literary interest because Wallace Stevens in The Letters of Wallace Stevens (1966) remarked about its use in his poem “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” (1923): “I just like the name. It is an old whaling town, I believe. In any case, it has a completely Yankee sound.” hadn’t oughter had out

Very angry or excited. “He’s all haired up.”

hairpin An early term for crook, liar or cheat. “That hairpin would cheat his own mother.” hake

See

half hours

Shouldn’t. “I hadn’t oughter go.”

MERLAN.

See

BOSTON BAKED BEANS.

half the bay over Drunk, though not completely. “He’s half the bay over—a few more drinks he’ll be over the bay.”

Took out. “He had her out last night.”

had the pork Gotten in bad trouble. “He knew he had the pork when the game warden showed up.”

Halfway Rock A famous rock formation halfway between Boston Light and Cape Ann onto which fishermen bound for the Grand Banks used to cast pennies for good luck.

hagdon A shearwater (of the genus Puffinus); a fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis). This name for the birds derives from an old British word, its origins unknown. 236

harness bull 237 Hampton boat A dory-type sailboat often used in lobstering and probably named for Hampton, New Hampshire. “It is the Hampton boat, the reach-boat, the backbone of the profession of lobstering, which is the boat that now most means Maine.” (Robert P. Tristram Coffin, The Yankee Coast, 1947) Handkerchief Moody The nickname of eccentric York, Maine pastor Joseph Moody (1700–53), who for 20 years preached with his back to his congregation. Moody wore a crepe mask when in public. Upon his death it was revealed that he had once accidentally killed a man and was ashamed to be seen. Nathaniel Hawthorne based his short story “The Minister’s Black Veil” (1836) on Moody: “. . . [his] face is dust; but awful is still the thought that it mouldered beneath the Black Veil!” handle A newborn male child is said to have a handle (in reference to its penis). “They put a handle to this one.” handsome Once common for best clothes. “I wore my handsome Sunday.” handy as a pocket in a shirt Quoted as a contemporary saying in James Russell Lowell’s The Biglow Papers (1867). hangbird The Baltimore oriole, because its nest hangs from the trees. hanging around This expression meaning to idle or loiter about is possibly the ancestor of “hangout,” a place for hanging around, and today’s popular phrase hanging out, idling about. The Dictionary of American Slang gives its origin as the late 19th century, but it is definitely older than this for Oliver Wendell Holmes uses it as a New England expression in his novel Elsie Venner (1861), putting it in quotes: “He had been ‘hangin’ ’raown’ Alminy.” hang on by one’s eyelids To be in a precarious situation. “I tarred down all the head-stays, but found the rigging about the jib-booms, martingale, and spritsail the hardest. Here you have to hang on with your eyelids and tar with your hands.” (Richard Henry Dana Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, 1841) hang up your boots To die, or to retire from work. It’s said that in early times the boots of a riverman who died on the job would be hung on the cross over his grave. ha’n’t Haven’t. “Ha’n’t I tol’ y’ a dozen times?’ ” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie Venner, 1861)

happy as a clam at high tide Very happy and content, like a clam with high water covering it so that most of its enemies can’t reach it. Clams are usually dug at low tide. Also happy as a clam and happy as a clam in the mud. The expression is first recorded in 1834 and is now used throughout the United States. Wrote an anonymous poet over a century ago: Happy as a clam, sez you— It surely gives me jitters, To think my happiness will end On a blue plate full of fritters.

happy as a pig in mud Very contented; heard in Massachusetts, but used in other regions as well. happy as bean water Once a common New England simile, but rarely, if ever, heard anymore. hard day’s work makes a soft bed, a gland saying. hard fisted cheap.

An old New En-

a synonym for tightfisted; stingy, mean,

hardhack Spiraea tomentosa, a flowering plant also called steeple-bush. hard pushed Hard-pressed, pressured, short of money. “I’m hard pushed for cash this month.” hardscrabble A bread pudding made from brown bread, butter and cream. Imogene Wolcott’s The New England Yankee Cookbook (1939) also calls it brown bread brewis. hardshell clam The common quahog (Venus mercenaria); from Narragansett Bay eastward it is usually called the quahog. hard wood In days past, woods that decayed relatively quickly, such as beech, birch and maple, were called hard wood in Maine, while they were called light wood in the South and West. Oak, generally considered a hard wood today, wasn’t so regarded at the time. hark! Be still, keep quiet, listen. “Hark, hark, the dogs do bark!” as my grandmother used to say. harker Someone or something fine or strong. Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). harness bull A bull trained to pull a buggy, so that his owner could drive him to the animal’s well-paid matings with cows.

238 Yankee Talk harness cask A wooden barrel once used on sailing ships for preserving salted meat. “Before any of the beef is put into the harness-cask, the steward comes up, and picks it all over, and takes out the best pieces.” (Richard Henry Dana Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, 1840) The black hoops on the barrels resembled harness straps, giving them their name, or they may be so named because each barrel was attached to the deck through four horseshoes nailed to its side. The meat in them may have been called salt-horse because of these associations with horses. harry wicket The yellow-shafted flicker Colaptes auratus, because the bird’s cry sounds like harry wicket, harry wicket. harsh

See

HASH.

Harvard Frequently pronounced Hahvard. “He was a real Hahvard, by which we outlanders meant graduate of Harvard College with a broad a.” (William Alexander Percy, Lanterns on the Levee, 1941) Harvard, the first institution of higher learning in North America, has since 1637, three years after its founding, borne the name of John Harvard (1607–38), an English minister who lived for a time in Charlestown, Massachusetts and later willed the fledgling university half his estate and his library of over 400 books. Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Harvard University is located, was named for England’s Cambridge University. It was originally called Newe Towne. See the Introduction. Harvard accent A name sometimes given to the Boston and New England accent. See the Introduction. Harvard beets Harvard beets, often called pickled beets, are made from sliced beets cooked in sugar, cornstarch, vinegar and water. There is no record that the dish was invented at Harvard University, but it is said that the unknown chef who did invent it named it after the resemblance of color of the deep-red beets to the crimson jerseys of the then-vaunted Harvard football team. Harvard University

See

HARVARD.

Harwich Pronounced HAR-witch or, less formally, HAR-itch; a town on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. has a screw loose Is crazy, eccentric; apparently this common saying had its origins in New England, as perhaps did the similar expressions in the following quote. “They have different names for sech folks. They say they’re ‘cracked’, they’ve ‘got a screw loose,’ they’re ‘a little off,’ they ‘ain’t all there,’ and so on.” (Annie

Trumbull Slosson, A Local Colorist and Other Stories, 1912) has no more suavity than a swine Recorded as a Maine expression in Marion Nicholl Rawson, From Here to Yender, 1932. hash

A frequent pronunciation of “harsh.”

has his sitting britches on Used to describe someone who won’t go home, or won’t go on about his or her business, who sits and sits and talks and talks, often while he or she drinks and drinks. haslet The viscera (heart, liver, etc.) of a slaughtered pig. Also harslet. Sometimes used in the threat “I’ll bust yer haslet out.” hasn’t got a snowball’s chance in hell all; heard in other regions as well.

Has no chance at

hassock A small hump of thick grass growing in a marsh or swamp. Hummock is used more often. has too many shingles to the weather Such a person is trying to do too many things at one time. hasty pudding John Bartlett in his Dictionary of Americanisms (1859) defines this as “Indian meal stirred into boiling water until it becomes a thick batter or pudding . . . eaten with milk, butter, and sugar or molasses.” It is mentioned in a verse of the Revolutionary War song “Yankee Doodle”: “Father and I went down to camp, / Along wi’ Captain Goodin, / and there we see the men and boys, / As thick as hasty puddin’.” But its most famous mention is in Joel Barlow’s mock epic The Hasty Pudding (1793), which the poet wrote in a Savoyard inn in France when he was served a dish of boiled Indian meal that reminded him of Connecticut. Part of it goes: Thy name is Hasty Pudding! thus our sires Were wont to greet thee fuming from their fires; And while they argued in thy just defence, With logic clear they thus explain’d the sense: “In haste ’t is serv’d; and then in equal haste, With cooling milk, we make the sweet repast.” Such is thy name, significant and clear, A name, a sound to every Yankee dear.

hatchway doors a house.

Sloping cellar doors on the outside of

Hat City of the World, the An old name for Danbury, Connecticut, where numerous hat factories were located and many “mad hatters” suffered from the tremor known as the hatter’s shakes, caused by the mercury used in the making of felt hats.

heavens to Betsy! 239 hatter’s shakes

See

HAT CITY OF THE WORLD, THE.

have a brick in one’s hat To be drunk. According to Mainer Timothy W. Robinson (American Speech, April 1948): “At the time [matches] were made so that one using them had to have a brick to scratch them on, and the saying was that he carried a brick in his hat, so when anyone had been to the store [for liquor] and walked a little crooked, the boys would say ‘he had a brick in his hat.’ ” This may or may not be the origin of the New England expression, but it is an old one—Longfellow used it in his poem Kavanagh (1849).

have the luck of Hiram Smith A historical expression meaning very unlucky; after Hiram Smith, the only soldier killed in the Aroostook War of 1836 to 1839. have the stouts An old expression meaning to be conceited, too cocksure. Hawkins’ whetstone See quote. “Hawkins’s whetstone: rum; in derision of one Hawkins, a well-known temperance lecturer.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867)

have a great good mind to To have a strong inclination to. “I have a great good mind to leave you here by yourself.”

haycap A covering for haystacks or formerly, other crops as well. Also called a Dutch cap. “The white haycaps, drawn over small stacks of beans or corn in the fields on account of the rain, were a novel sight to me.” (Henry David Thoreau, The Maine Woods, 1864)

have an edge on Maine.

hayfield lobsterman ing.

To be drunk. Pronounced aidge in

haven’t seen you in an age of years in a very long time.

Haven’t seen you

haven’t seen you since the Concord fight Haven’t seen you for a very long time. The reference is to the Battle of Concord and Lexington on April 19, 1775, when the American Minute Men, with local Yankee militia, fired the shot heard round the world at the British Redcoats. have one’s head in a bucket, to To be led by the nose, easily controlled. From the practice of putting a pail over the head of pigs to ease them on freight cars. have one’s high-heeled shoes, to An expression commonly used a century ago for a conceited woman; to be conceited, stuck-up. “To say of a woman that she ‘has on her high-heeled shoes is to intimate that she sets herself up as a person of more consequence than others allow her to be . . . that she is ‘stuck up.’ ” (John Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms, 1859) Infrequently said of men as well. Also to have on one’s highheeled slippers. have one’s nose broke, to An old-fashioned expression used to describe a child who has to relinquish his or her place as the youngest in a family when a baby is born to his or her parents. Haverhill Pronounced HAY-vril, or HAY-vir-ill; towns in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. have the horrors An old expression meaning to be in low spirits, have the blues.

haybunner old nag.

A farmer who works at lobster-

A humorous term for a horse, especially an

haystack A term used in whitewater canoeing for a dome-shaped wave created by the rush of the water and the topography of the riverbed. heared Sometimes used for heard. “I’ve heared a good deal of talk.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Professor at the Breakfast Table, 1860) hearn Once common in rural areas for heard. “I hearn that he’s selling his place.” heater piece The New England name for the corner piece of land that results when two streets intersect at an acute angle, so called because its three-sided shape resembles that of a flat iron (or heater piece). “They slipped [the small house] along as if it had been a handsled . . . and left it settin’ there right on the heater piece.” (Sarah Orne Jewett, “Miss Debby,” 1883) heave and haul See quote. “. . . down our way, in August and September and early October, to ‘heave and haul’ means to cast for bluefish from the beach with a hand line and it does not mean anything else.” (Joseph C. Lincoln, Cape Cod Yesterdays, 1935) heavens to Betsy! even annoyance.

An exclamation of surprise, joy or

Possibly the phrase was known in Revolutionary War days, but I doubt it. Nor do I think, as some friends have suggested, that it pertained in any way to the maker of the first American flag, Betsy Ross. It is much more likely

240 Yankee Talk to have been derived in some way from the frontiersman’s rifle or gun which, for unknown reasons, he always fondly called Betsy. However, despite exhaustive search, I am reluctantly forced to resort to the familiar lexicographical locution, ‘Source unknown.’ ” (Charles Earle Funk, Heavens to Betsy and Other Curious Sayings, 1955)

In his book Mr. Funk devotes a full two pages to the expression’s possible origins. heavy cook

See

FRESH COOK.

heavy dictionary Used to describe a big or unabridged dictionary. “He opened the heavy dictionary.” heavy water

The main current in a body of water.

he (she) couldn’t carry a tune in a basket expression meaning someone can’t sing.

A Maine

he-cow An old euphemism for bull; also called hecreature. hedgehog A term heard frequently in New England for porcupine, because the European hedgehog has quills similar to those of the North American porcupine. he doesn’t know beans when the bag’s untied He’s really stupid or ignorant, can’t identify beans when he sees them. he (she) don’t know whether he’s afoot or ahossback He or she is very puzzled, is in a quandary, or doesn’t have any common sense. heel tap

The end slice of a loaf of bread, the heel.

hellbent for election Very fast. “ ‘Then I tore out of his fist and pelted into the brambles, hellbent for election.’ ” (Stephen King, Dolores Claiborne, 1993) hell-bent n’ crooked In a quick, excited and disorderly way. “He lit out after him hell-bent and crooked.” Given as a common expression by George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). hell to pay and no pitch hot A fouled-up situation, a bad predicament. Originally a nautical term referring to a bad leak in a boat when there was no hot pitch to patch it with. Also the devil to pay and no hot pitch. help Used mostly in New England to refer to a hired laborer or servant, but is heard in other regions as well. helpkeeper

Once commonly used for housekeeper.

hen-hussy A derogatory name common a century ago for a man overly concerned with household duties. hennery

A henhouse. Also called hen roost.

hen roost

See

HENNERY.

hen tight

See

COW-TIGHT.

he (she) pries up the sun with a crowbar Said of someone who rises long before sunrise each morning. Cited as a common New England saying in The Old Farmer’s Almanack (1946). her Sometimes used for “she.” “Him and her has the prettiest baby.” herdie A historical term for a small horse-drawn carriage invented in about 1880 by American Peter Herdie and often used as a taxi. herd’s grass A New England name for Timothy grass (Phleum pratense) and redtop (Agrostis stolonifera major); possibly named after someone named Herd. here

This place. “Do you like here?”

here’s to swimmin’ with bowlegged wimmin Is this a humorous New England toast? Possibly. It is given by Captain Quint in the movie version of Peter Benchley’s Jaws, set in New England. hermit A chewy homemade cookie often filled with raisins and dates. hern Hers. “His heart kep’ goin’ pitypat, but hern went pity zekle.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1866) Herod all handsaws! “God Almighty!” herring bird

A euphemistic oath meaning

The phalarope (Boreal phalaropes).

herringbone fence

A rail fence made of split rails.

herring-choker A name applied to Prince Edward Islanders in Maine and New Hampshire, and a derogatory term for Scandinavians in other regions. Also applied to any French Canadian and to those from all the Maritime provinces. The name was given to these people because they were said to eat so many herring that they choked on the bones. Cited as a common term in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914).

hit between the face and the eyes 241 he’s (she’s) got an unfinished attic setts to describe a stupid person.

Used in Massachu-

he’s got short arms and long pockets Heard by the author on one occasion in Connecticut as a description of someone very cheap, whose arms don’t reach the pockets where he keeps his money. he’s (she’s) so contrary he (she) could float upstream Vermont description of a very stubborn person.

A

he’s (she’s) the whole team and the little dog under the wagon He’s (she’s) a one-person operation, the whole show. Cited as a Vermont expression in Charles Edward Crane’s Let Me Show You Vermont, 1937, but the term had had wide currency throughout New England and was cited as a New England saying in James Russell Lowell’s The Biglow Papers (1867). hickory An adjective old-timers in Massachusetts and Martha’s vineyard use for rough, tough. “He’s all hickory.” hide and coop An old name for the children’s game hide and seek in New Hampshire. hidey-hole Hiding place. “ ‘[We] could play hide-andgo-seek the whole day long, and not use the same hideyhole twice.’ ” (George V. Higgins, The Mandeville Talent, 1991)

“‘Highty tighty,’ said the elder matron, ‘[some people] remember when the hull family [ate] out of airthenware [earthenware] bowls . . .’ ” (Rowland Robinson, “The Paring Bee,” 1900) highway patrol

hill countryman A name old rural New Hampshire residents often called themselves. “ ‘The cities are all right for them who want them . . . But I’m a hill countryman . . . I’ve had my life and I’ve spent it among these hills and it’s here among them I’m going to sleep. It’s hard to say what I feel, but men who like the hills will know what I mean.” (Hayden Pearson, New England Flavor, 1961) him (her) and wuk (work) has had a fallin’ out Said of a very lazy person. Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). hinder

high check rein behavior Behavior that is snobbish, pretentious. Refers to check reins, a part of the reins that forces a horse to hold its head very high. high hook The angler among a group of fishermen who catches the most fish or the largest fish. “The three of us went out at dawn and Tom was the high hook with a four-pounder.” Also used on commercial fishing vessels. highlander A word used chiefly by Maine fishermen for farmer or woodsman. high time Long overdue, the time to do something before the best time for doing it passes forever. “It was high time / Those oats were cut, said Isaac . . .” (Edward Arlington Robinson, “Isaac and Archibald,” Captain Craig, 1902) highty tighty Said of someone pretentious or haughty. Pronounced hoity toity in the rest of the country.

See

INSTEAD.

hindside Once heard on Cape Cod for behind. “It’s hindside the shed.” hind side to hinny

highbush blueberry Any cultivated blueberry species, as opposed to species growing in the wild. So called because the cultivated varieties are much taller.

A Maine road repair gang.

A euphemism for ass-backward.

The buttocks or backside.

hired money An old expression dating back to the 18th century meaning to borrow money, paying interest. “You hired the money, you’ll have to pay it back.” his (her) head looks as if it has worn out two bodies Said of someone old and wrinkled. Given as a Vermont expression in Charles Edward Crane’s Let Me Show You Vermont (1937). his name is Dennis He is finished, has had it, is fired. The old term, rarely used anymore, derives from the whaling expression Dennis that meant a harpooned whale spouting blood and likely to be taken. Why such whales were named Dennis is not known. hist Hoist. “Grandmother histed the cover off the dish.” hist-a-boy! An exclamation used in setting a dog on an animal. “And cry Hist-a-boy to every good dog.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Illusions,” 1841) hit between the face and the eyes The preferred expression in Maine for hit squarely in the face.

242 Yankee Talk Hitchcock chair Any style chair designed or made by Lambert Hitchcock (1795–1852) in his Barkhamsted, Connecticut factory. Hitchcock chairs come in a variety of designs and sizes, but were characterized by strong legs, curved-top backs and seats that were wider in the front than in the back. The chair maker won such renown that Barkhamsted renamed itself Hitchcocksville in his honor, although the town changed its name again to Riverton in 1866. hitch horses To get married. “An’ so we fin’lly made it up, concluded to hitch horses.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1862) hitch your wagon to a star Set your goals high. Famous words written by Ralph Waldo Emerson in Society and Solitude (1870). hit the felt Go to sleep. Felt once was widely used for blankets in lumber camps. hither an’ yen See quote. “The Yankee says ‘hither an’ yen’ for ‘to and fro.’ ” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867) hoarsed up

Hoarse. “A cold had me all hoarsed up.”

hobby A hobby horse or a pet project or idea. “Each member [of Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands community] was allowed to mount his favorite hobby and ride it to his heart’s content. Very queer were some of the riders, and very rampant some of the hobbies.” (Louisa May Alcott, “Transcendental Wild Oats,” 1876) ho-cake Not a cake made on a hoe, but a meal of parched corn made in New England since colonial times. It derives from the Indian name nokehick for the parched corn.

hog’s back son-of-a-bitch A name, probably nautical in origin, for a dish of boiled salt codfish topped with pork scraps. It is no relation to the Western dish son-ofa-bitch stew. hog-tied & weary A nickname for the HT&W railroad, whose initials actually stood for the Hoosac Tunnel and Wilmington Railroad. Variations were the Hoot, Toot & Whistle and the Hot Tea & Whiskey. Noted in Archie Robinson, Slow Train to Yesterday (1945). hog walnut A synonym for the pig walnut of the pignut hickory tree (Carya glabra). It is not the walnut but the hickory nut that is a favorite of pigs. hold her, Newt! An expression used when anyone (a Jim, Phil, Carol, Irene, etc.) is trying to keep something under control, especially a horse, wagon or car. Who the original Newt was, if there was one, is anybody’s guess. hold one’s tongue Be quiet, not speak. An old New England expression widely used today. “‘. . . I don’t see’s there’s much difference between the Fromes up at the farm and the Fromes down in the graveyard; ’cept that down there they’re all quiet, and the women have got to hold their tongues.’” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911) hold the thought To make a mental note of something that can’t be acted upon or discussed immediately. “Hold the thought, we’ll talk about it later.” hole A small deep bay, such as Wood’s Hole, Massachusetts or any deep place in the water. holiday A spot missed in painting or other jobs such as dusting; the spots are called holidays because the painter, duster or whomever did not work on them. hollow

See

CORNER.

hoe out To clean out a room or anyplace. “I want you to hoe out that room by noon.”

holt Hold. “I got a holt on it and pulled it toward me.”

hog age A Nantucketism of old meaning between boyhood and manhood.

Holyoke The place-name is pronounced HULL-yoke by local residents, but HOLY-oke elsewhere in Massachusetts.

hog Howard A colonial town official in New England whose duty it was to collect stray pigs. Also called hogreeve or hog-ward.

holy old mackinaw! A common expletive among loggers in the Maine woods.

hog Latin Pig Latin, a simple secret language long used by children to confuse others. It usually consists of the addition of ery preceded by the hard g sound to each word; thus Wiggery youggery gogerry wiggery miggery means “Will you go with me?”

holy poke Bread dough formed into large, round balls and deep fried. Imogene Wolcott in The New England Yankee Cookbook (1939) says that holy pokes are called huff jiffs in Maine and Baptist bread in other parts of New England.

horribles 243 holy sailor, call the water! An old exclamation of surprise whose origins are unknown.

honker Another word for anything large. “That was some honker of a deer.”

home correction

honor jar A jar put out at country farmstands whose operators trust customers to pay for produce on their own. The system usually works well, customers even honestly making change for themselves from the jar.

Wife or child beating.

“No one calls it home correction anymore—the term has passed right out of conversation, so far as I can tell, and good riddance—but I grew up [in the 1940s] with the idear that when women and children step off the straight n’ narrow, it’s a man’s job to herd them back onto it. I ain’t tryin’ to tell you that just because I grew up with the idear, I thought it was right, though . . .” (Stephen King, Dolores Claiborne, 1993)

homely as a stone fence New Hampshire.

A simile heard in Vermont and

homely enough to stop a down train Very ugly. Mainly a Vermont saying, with variants such as homely as hell is wicked and homely as a stone fence. home of the bean and the cod Boston, from the poem by John Collins Bossidy given as a toast at the Holy Cross Alumni Midwinter Dinner in 1910: “And this is good old Boston, / The home of the bean and the cod, / Where the Lowells talk to the Cabots, / And the Cabots talk only to God.” honeypot Used chiefly in Maine for a mucky hole in the ground that one can sink down deep into, or for a soft clay spot under the sand on a beach. “Most of them . . . dyke marshes have what you call ‘honey pots’ in ’em; that is a deep hole . . . where you can’t find no bottom. Well, every now and then, when a feller goes to look for his horse, he sees his tail a stickin’ right out . . . from one of these honey pots, and wavin’ like a head of broom corn . . .” (Thomas Haliburton, The Clockmaker, 1838) honeysuckle A name for red clover, whose blossoms people sucked for nectar, though the name is applied to other clovers as well. honeysuckle apple A fungus that grows on the branches of the false honeysuckle (Rhododendron nudiflorum) and has the crisp cool juicy taste of an apple but is not sweet or flavorful. honey wagons A truck used to empty cesspools. “[He] leaned against the truck, one of those big red tankers with a shit-covered hose squirming like a tail out the back and a smell that seemed to be rusting the paint from the inside. On Cape Cod they called them honey wagons.” (William Martin, Cape Cod, 1991)

hooby A name used chiefly by Irish Americans around Boston for a large rock too heavy to be lifted by one person. Hoodsie A trademarked name for a paper cup of ice cream sold in the Boston area since the 1920s by H. P. Hood and Sons dairy. “We all bought Hoodsies and ate them on the bus.” hoojee An old term used on the Maine coast for a really dirty or frightening tramp. hook Jack To play hookey; used mainly in the Boston area, the term dates back to the 1860s. “As often as we could we boys played hook Jack from school.” hooraw’s nest Said of anything very disordered, disorganized. Originally a sea term whose origin is unknown. “Your room is a regular hooraw’s nest.” hoper See quote. “We are not ‘hopers,’ Irish who go to bed hoping that when they wake up they will be Yankees.” (Alice Hennessy, vice president of the West Roxbury, Massachusetts Historical Society, as quoted in the New York Times, July 22, 1986) hope to die and cross my throat To swear, to affirm that one is telling the truth. “ ‘No, honest now, twant nothin’ but jest that,’ affirmed Plupy, ‘hope to die and cross my throat,’ he added, drawing his fingers crosswise over his skinny neck, which with the boys was then and may possibly be now the most solemn oath possible.” (Henry A. Shute, Plupy, 1910) horned gentleman, the An old name for devil. “Uplifting his ace, he hit the horned gentleman such a blow on the head, as not only demolished him, but the treasureseeker also . . .” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Peter Goldthwait’s Treasure,” 1838) horning A noisy mock serenade for newlyweds; used mainly in western New England. horns

honk To move along rapidly; probably after the sound of a car’s horn. “She was honking on down the road.”

Often used to mean “a deer’s antlers.”

horribles

See

ANTIQUES AND HORRIBLES.

244 Yankee Talk horrt A pronunciation of “heart.” “‘Here’s Flud Oirson, fur horrd horrt, / Torr’d an’ futherr’d an corr’d in a corrt / By the women o’ Morble’ead.’” (John Greenleaf Whittier, “Skipper Ireson’s Ride,” 1828) horse clogs Four round pieces of hardwood attached to a horse’s hooves enabling the animal to walk better on soggy soils such as marshes. horse corn

The tough field corn fed to livestock.

horse dressing

A euphemism for horse manure.

horsefeathers! Another euphemism for horseshit! A statement expressing disbelief, this word has been around at least since 1925. It may or may not be related to the term horsefeathers once used in carpentry, which were the large feathering strips used in roofing and siding houses. How these horsefeathers came to be a euphemism for “horseshit!” is not clear—unless it came easily to some roofer’s tongue when he had half said “horseshit” and a lady abruptly appeared upon the scene. On the other hand, horsefeathers may have first been a synonym for “nonsense,” originating with a saying such as “That’s nonsense, that’s like saying horses have feathers!” horsefoot

See

HORSESHOE CRAB.

horse-mackerel A name heard in New England for bluefin tuna, which is nicknamed the “chicken of the sea.” horseshoe crab A name used in New England, New York and other areas for what is less frequently called the king crab (Linulus polyphemus), which is not a true crab but a relative of the spider. An old New England name for the horseshoe crab is the horsefoot crab. horseshoe violet The bird’s-foot violet (viola pedata) of Massachusetts. hosey To claim or reserve something. The term is used chiefly in Maine and in the Boston area. “I hosey that chair.”

hot ass A guessing game played among lumberjacks in which a circle was formed and a blindfolded person put in the middle. He was swatted hard on the rear end and had to guess who in the circle hit him, remaining in the circle until he did; thereupon the identified swatter took his place. Also called hot back. hot as the Devil’s kitchen Extremely hot. Quoted as a contemporary saying by James Russell Lowell in The Biglow Papers (1867). hot cross bun A sweet bun filled with raisins and marked on the top with a white frosting cross. Imogene Wolcott’s A New England Yankee Cookbook (1939) says they go “good at church suppers.” Such Lenten buns were, of course, not invented in New England; they date back to 16th-century England. hot-me-tot A term used in Maine meaning someone who is always in a state of agitation; the expression possibly derives from hot-to-trot. “He’s what we call a hotme-tot.” hotter’n a skunk (1) Very drunk. See HOT. (2) Said of very hot weather or anything extremely hot. hotter’n love in hayin’ time Extremely hot. Cited as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). See HOT. hotter than a Methodist Hell About as hot as it can get; an expression used chiefly in Maine. hot-top To pave with asphalt. “If it was up to you . . . you’d fill the cracks and hot-top the beach.” (William Martin, Cape Cod, 1991) house Often pronounced haouse in Maine, Vermont and other areas, just as round is pronounced raound and down is pronounced daown. “I suppose this vowel twisting was a direct inheritance from certain counties in England where it can still be noted; but I think to some extent our twisting has been deliberate—a sort of contemptuous effort of the Yankee to show he was not of the aristocracy, but good common folk.” (Charles Edward Crane, Let Me Show You Vermont, 1937)

hot (1) A Mainism for drunk or half drunk. “It’s only noontime and he’s hot already.” (2) A pronunciation commonly heard in Boston for heart. “He had a bee-ad (bad) hot.”

housen An ancient Cornish word for house said to be used commonly in 19th-century Cape Cod, according to Shebnah Rich’s Truro-Cape Cod (1884).

hot as a red wagon Very drunk. Given in George Allen England, “Rural Locuations of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914).

house names In Memories of My Boyhood Days in Nantucket (1923), Joseph Farnum writes of the “unique, catchy, original and forcefully cute titles . . .” given to

hull 245 many of the old houses there by “a hardy farmer and fishermen people of days long agone.” He remembers, among many others, such house names as Takitezie, In and Out, Bigenough, Nonetoobig, House of Lords, Seldomin, Thimble Castle and Waldorf Astoria, Jr.

like other places of its size—only, perhaps, considering its excellent fish market, paid fire-department, superior monthly publications, and correct habit of spelling the English language, it has some right to look down on the mob of cities . . .” Also hub of the universe.

house with lungs, the See quote. “There’s a [Newport, Rhode Island] house [the Wyckoff House] that the famous Italian architect, Dr. Lorenzo Latta, has called the most beautiful house in New England—and the healthiest. Built in the nineteenth century, too. He called it ‘The House That Breathes,’ ‘The House With Lungs.’” (Thornton Wilder, Theophilus North, 1937)

hubbard squash A noted squash variety named for Mrs. Elizabeth Hubbard, the Massachusetts woman who first cultivated it over a century ago.

hovel

A shed for cows or chickens.

how? See quote. “Haow?—said the divinity-student. He coloured . . . A country-boy . . . caught a little too old not to carry some marks of his earlier ways of life . . . Gentlemen in fine linen, and scholars in large libraries, taken by surprise, or in a careless moment, will sometimes let slip a word they knew as boys in home-spun and have not spoken since that time—but it lay there under all their culture. That is one way you may know the country-boys after they have grown rich or celebrated—haow means what.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Professor at the Breakfast Table, 1860) how are they crawlin’? Fish “run” but lobsters “crawl” in Maine. A lobsterman wanting to know how good the lobstering is in a certain area will ask, “How are they crawlin’?” how be you? are you?

hubbly Used to describe rough uneven dirt roads with frozen ruts. “The road was all hubbly.” hubbub The word hubbub used to mean “loud noise or din” probably comes from a Celtic word meaning the same, but the word also was used by New England colonists to describe a Native American game: Chiefs who have seen eighty snows look on stoically while the young men strike on the beach a wooden bowl containing five flat pieces of bone, black on one side and white on the other; as the bones bound and fall, white or black, the game is decided; the players sit in a circle making a deafening noise—hub, hub, “come, come”, from which it was called hubbub. (Katherine M. Abbott, Old Paths and Legends of New England, 1904)

hub of the universe

See

HUB.

huck A word used by Mainers for foot or shoe. “My huck got stuck in the muck.” huckabuck towel A linen or cotton towel with a rough surface and of a special weave. “[It was] a huckabuck towel.” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911)

Heard in Maine and other areas for how huddle An old-time name for dance or ball cited in William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket (1916).

how much tobacco have you got? See quote. “. . . a notorious romancer is often interrupted [by the whalers] in the midst of a thrilling story, with the inquiry, ‘How much tobacco have you got?’ meaning, ‘How much can you give us to believe it? We’ll believe anything, if you’ve got tobacco enough to put it through.’ ” (William Hussey Macy, There She Blows, 1877) how they actin’?

huddup Giddup, to a horse or cow. “ ‘Huddup! said the parson. Off they went.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, “The Deacon’s Masterpiece,” 1858) huff-puffs The Maine name for small balls of raised bread dough fried in deep fat; they are called holy pokes in Connecticut and Baptist bread elsewhere.

How are the fish biting?

Hub, the A nickname for Boston. The name possibly originated from all the roads leading into the city like spokes to the hub of a wheel. However, in The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858), Oliver Wendell Holmes writes of a young man who told him he had heard that “Boston State-House is the hub of the solar system.” Holmes replied that to the residents of every other town or city, “the axis of the earth sticks out visibly through the center of each.” He concludes that “Boston is just

huge paw A colorful term for laborer or farmer that is said to have been coined by Daniel Webster. hugger Disorderly, jumbled. “Till having failed at hugger farming / He burned his house down for the fire insurance.” (Robert Frost, “The Star-Splitter,” 1923) hull A pronunciation of “whole.” “. . . the hull town can hear the yelling and screaming from those schoolyards.’ ” (Thornton Wilder, Our Town, 1938)

246 Yankee Talk Hullahwee tribe, the A name given by Maine natives to out-of-state hunters, fishers and campers.

hummer Any bad guy or generally unworthwhile person with some saving grace, such as a sense of humor.

hulled corn Called hominy in the South, this is dried corn kernels with the hulls removed and boiled until ready to eat. Also called samp.

hungry as a graven image Quoted as a contemporary saying in James Russell Lowell’s The Biglow Papers (1867).

hull koboodle, the The whole caboodle, the whole thing, entire group. Variations on the old-fashioned expression are the hull kit and bilin’ and the hull kit an tolie.

hungry enough to eat a boiled owl enough to eat almost anything.

Hull-yoke

See

humbug A peppermint-flavored taffy candy dating back to the early 19th century. See

hurrup! A command for a horse to start moving or go faster. A corruption of “hurry up!”

HOLYOKE.

hum A pronunciation of “home” heard primarily in Maine. “He hummed ‘Hum sweet Hum.’ ”

humbugs

Starving, hungry

BOSTON BAKED BEANS.

humdurgan A large stone tied in the crotch of a tree on shore to serve as a boat’s anchor. Also called killick. humility (1) A name for the wilet (Symphemia semipalmata), perhaps because of its bowing movements. The name is also applied to several other birds. (2) A nickname given to the snipe (Gallinago gallinago) for over three centuries in New England, because of the long-billed bird’s bowing habit or because it “probes for worms in the humble mud,” as one ornithologist put it. hummock Used in New England and other regions for small hill or knoll.

husband Once used aboard New England sailing ships for the man in charge of all business affairs. husher A crocheted piece fitted over a chamber pot cover so that the chamber pot could be used quietly, especially at night. hush-up-with-you Be quiet, shut up. “‘Ma, I hate that dress.’ ‘Oh, hush-up-with-you.’ ” (Thornton Wilder, Our Town, 1938) husking A party held at harvest time to strip ears of corn from their husks. Also called a husking bee. hyper Hurry, move quickly. “ ‘I mus’ hyper about an’ git tea.’ ” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867) hyper out-a there Run, go quickly. Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). Also hiker out-a-there.

I an ice-storm, when living in Maine is living inside a diamond with all the walls cut and polished so they flame.” (Robert P. Tristam Coffin, Yankee Coast, 1947)

I Those convicted of incest in colonial New England were sentenced, according to a 1734 law, to wear a capital I “two inches long and of a proper proportionate bigness, cut out in cloth of a contrary color to his coat, and sewed upon his upper garment on the outside of his arm, or upon his back in open view.”

idear Heard along the New England coast as a pronunciation of “idea.” idee Often heard since early times as a pronunciation of “idea.”

I bought his thumb An old-fashioned expression meaning that someone is sure a storekeeper was cheating by pressing his or her thumb on the scales when weighing something.

if you don’t like the New England weather, just wait a minute A saying referring to the mercurial nature of New England weather attributed to Mark Twain, who despite his many years in the region, never got used to the weather.

Ichabod A name given to Daniel Webster by John Greenleaf Whittier in his 1850 poem of that title, which expresses the Abolitionists’ disappointment with Webster’s support of the Compromise of 1850. “Ichabod” means inglorious in Hebrew. Webster figures in much New England history, including Stephen Vincent Benét’s famous story “The Devil and Daniel Webster.”

if you’re a mind If you care to, if you feel like it or want to. “ ‘You come over, if you’re a mind.’ ” (Stephen King, Pet Sematary, 1983)

icebound A word used to describe a cold, reserved person unable to care or show emotion. Icebound was the title of a 1922 Pulitzer Prize–winning play by Maine playwright Owen Davis about the tight-lipped, “icebound” Jordan family in Veazie, Maine.

I guess Often used to mean “without a doubt.” “Do you like her?” “Like her? I guess. No one compares.” I guide

The state motto of Maine.

I just ate chagrin A Maine saying expressing embarrassment over a faux pas; recorded in Marion Nicholl Rawson, From Here to Yender (1932).

ice-cream shot In summer hunting camps, ice cream was made in large wooden tubs filled with ice and salt. After use, this ice and salt was dumped in the woods, and often attracted deer. Deer occupied with such treats made easy targets, and shots taken at them came to be called ice-cream shots, a term soon applied to any easy shot.

I’ll be blowed! tion.

An old-fashioned euphemistic exclama-

I’ll be buggered! A common curse that probably originated among seamen.

ice storm A winter storm in which rain freezes on and bejewels all it touches, though often causing trees or tree limbs to break and fall. “We have days in January, after

I’ll be danged! 247

A euphemism for I’ll be damned!

248 Yankee Talk I’ll be dinged!

Another euphemism for I’ll be damned!

I’ll be jiggered! An old-fashioned exclamation not heard much anymore. I’ll be vummed! damned!

Still another euphemism for I’ll be

I’ll bust yer haslet out! A violent threat; haslet means intestines or guts. Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). ill news flies fast See quote. “ ‘Ill news flies fast, they say,’ thought Dominicus Pike; ‘but this beats railroads.’” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Mr. Higginbotham’s Catastrophe,” 1834) I’ll take the longboat and go ashore An old nautical expression used by mariners wanting to back out of an argument or other difficult situation. I’m doing nicely no complaints.

Indian Bible A Bible translated by John Eliot into a Massachusetts Indian dialect and published in 1663. Indian corn Sweet corn, which, of course, the Indians showed the first European New Englanders how to grow. In his famous poem “The Hasty Pudding,” Joel Barlow wrote that all his “bones were made of Indian corn.” See also INDIAN. Indian dog See quote. “The Indian dog is a creature begotten ’twixt a wolf and a fox, which the Indians . . . bring up to hunt the deer with.” (John Josselyn, New England Rarities Discovered, 1674) Indian-named New England places These include Connecticut, Housatonic, Kennebec, Massachusetts, Merrimack, Narragansett, Passamaquoddy, Pawcatuck, Penobscot and Quinneoug, among many, many others.

I’m doing very well, thank you; I’ve Indiany A term once heard on Cape Cod for like an Indian. “He’s Indiany looking.”

improved Once a common synonym for an occupied house, an unoccupied house being unimproved. improvement The conclusion of a sermon, especially a long-winded one. in a bit of a tight Being in trouble. “He had . . . come across to see if he could help when it seemed they were ‘in a bit of a tight.’ ” (Stephen King, Pet Sematary, 1983) in a pucker Heard in Maine for mad, angry. “He’s still in a pucker over what she did last month.” in a terrible wacket hurry.

A Mainism meaning in an awful

in a tickle Heard in Isleboro, off the Maine coast, for in a happy mood. in a tight place

Indian barn A colonial term for a hole in the ground where corn is stored. The hole is covered with bark and then dirt.

See

SHADE.

Indian (1) Used historically to describe participants in the Boston Tea Party, who disguised themselves as Indians. (2) Once common for Indian corn. “The newcomer from another part of the country, when he first crosses the Connecticut River, is startled at being asked by an innocent-looking girl waiter in a village tavern if he will have some fried Indian.” (Century Magazine, April 1894)

in good case In good condition, healthy. “Those pigs were in good case when I sold them.” inheaven Boston transcendentalists invented this word, which is explained in the following excerpt from a sermon from about 1850: “The One circumflows and inheavens us. The infinite Father bears us in his bosum, shepherd and flock.” Injun See quote. “Our people say Injun for Indian. The tendency to make this change where i follows d is common. The Italian giorno and French jour from diurnus are familiar examples.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867) injun bannock

An early name for the

JOHNNYCAKE.

inna Heard in Boston for in the, which can be used by the same speaker, depending on the emphasis. “ ‘I go inna Men’s,’ Walmsley said. ‘Nothing there. I go in the Women’s, and also nothing there.’ ” (George V. Higgins, Outlaws, 1987) innards The entrails of a butchered animal. See PIE; LIVER AND LIGHTS.

LIGHT

in one’s naked bed To be in one’s sickbed. Cited as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural

I vum! 249 Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914).

Irish turkey bage.

in primlico order In good, neat or prime order. Said to be commonly used in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, according to Frederic D. Allen, “Contributions to New England Vocabulary,” Dialect Notes, Vol. I (1890).

iron men and wooden ships Old New England salts said this of the old days: “When I went to sea there were iron men and wooden ships; now there are iron ships and wooden men.”

instead See quote. “While the New Englander cannot be brought to say instead for instid (commonly ’stid where not the last word in a sentence), he changes the i into e in red for rid, tell for till, hender for hinder, rense for rinse.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867)

irregardless Often used in Maine as a synonym for regardless. “He’s going to do it, irregardless.”

inter

Heard in Boston for corned beef and cab-

Isleboro An island off the Maine coast that has a distinctive vocabulary; an excellent collection of these Isleboroisms is given by Darrel A. Roberson in Yankee Magazine (January 1977).

A pronunciation of into. “I went inter the house.” I snum!

interestin’ A pronunciation of interesting. “This, however, made him look more interesting, or, as the young ladies at Major Bush’s said, ‘interestin’.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie Venner, 1861) intervale Once a common distinctive term in New England for a narrow tract of low-lying land, especially a piece so situated along a river, intervale still has some use in the region. The word is a combination of interval and valley or vale. in the Cape Ann stage An old, obsolete expression meaning to be drunk; after Cape Ann in northeast Massachusetts. in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress The traditional words attributed to Vermonter Ethan Allen when he demanded the surrender of New York’s Fort Ticonderoga by the British commander during the Revolutionary War. There is another story, however. According to John Pell in Ethan Allen (1929): “Professor James D. Butler, of Madison, Wisconsin, has informed me that his grandfather Israel Harris was present and had often told him that Ethan Allen’s real language was, ‘Come out of here, you damned old rat.’ ”

Once a common euphemism for I swear!

I swan! / I swanny! / I swow! / I swum! Old euphemism for I swear! An anonymous 19th-century poet wrote: “The Yankee boy, with starty eyes, / When first the elephant he espies, / With wonder swum, and swoons and cries.” Italian sandwich Used in Maine as the designation for the many-named sandwich also known as the Cuban sandwich, grinder, guinea grinder, hero, hoagie, hooker boy, poor boy, submarine and torpedo, among other names. it blows so hard it takes two men to hold one man’s hair on Said of gale-force winds. Cited in William F. Macy, The Natucket Scrap Basket (1916). it’s a poor back that can’t press its own shirt Cited as a Vermont expression in Charles Edward Crane’s Let Me Show You Vermont (1937). it’s as thick as marsh mud

Used to describe a thick fog.

it’s raining pitchforks and barn shovels A colorful Maine term for a very heavy rain. See TREE BENDER.

in the seeds In the midst of things, in the swim. “He’s right in the seeds of things.”

it’s some hot today place of very here.

in the wood Destined, fated. “It wasn’t in the wood for it to happen.”

it takes a voyage to learn Experience is the best teacher; a saying quoted in William F. Macy, The Natucket Scrap Basket (1916).

into Sometimes used to mean “in.” “It had a big crack into it.” Ipswitch sparrow A songless sparrow (Passerculus princeps) first sighted and recorded near Ipswitch, Massachusetts in 1868.

It’s a very hot day; some takes the

I vowny! A century ago this expression was used to mean “I swear!” “I vow!” I vum! Old-fashioned for I swear! “Well, I vum!” Also I vummy!

250 Yankee Talk ivy An old term for mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia). Often pronounced ivory.

I want to know! An exclamation of surprise meaning Really! Do tell! You don’t say!

Ivy League The colleges referred to as the Ivy League are Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Cornell, Brown, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania. They are all “old-line institutions,” with thick-vined, aged ivy covering their walls, and the designation at first applied specifically to their football teams. Sportswriter Caswell Adams coined the term in the mid-1930s. At that time Fordham University’s football team was among the best in the East. A fellow journalist compared Columbia and Princeton to Fordham, and Adams replied, “Oh, they’re just Ivy League,” recalling later that he said this with “complete humorous disparagement in mind.”

I wish I had a neck as long as a cartrut New Hampshire praise for a good drink recorded in Marion Nicholl Rawson, From Here to Yender (1932). I wouldn’t know him from Adam’s off ox The off ox in this national expression is the ox in the yoke farthest away from the driver. The expression probably began life as the Nantucketism I wouldn’t know him from God’s off ox, the Adam substituted as a euphemism. I wouldn’t touch it with an eleven-foot pole A variation heard in Maine of the old expression I wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole.

J jack Fun, mischief, as in full of jack. “Mr. Holmes and James Lowell were full of jack, chaffing each other and going on.” (Sarah J. Hale, Letters, 1919)

Jesus to Jesus and eight hands around! An exuberant exclamation of astonishment that may have had its origin among lumbermen describing a huge tree.

Jackson balls

jibbers Heard among hunters for small game such as rabbits; from the French gibier, meaning the same.

See

BOSTON BAKED BEANS.

jag Bartlett’s gives this as a 19th-century term for a load or large quantity of something. “He’s got a jag of corn on the wagon.”

Jill-o’er the ground A New England flower. “Jill-o’erthe ground is purple blue, / Blue is the quakermaid, / The alder-clump where the brook comes through / Breeds cresses in its shade.” (William Vaughn Moody, “Gloucester Moors,” 1901)

jam A 19th-century term for a party or other social gathering; possibly derives from GAM.

jill-poke Any log stuck in the mud. Cited as a common term in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions in Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914).

jeeroosely Big, enormous, mighty. “That’s a jeeroosely tree he cut down.” Rarely used today, but given as a common term in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914).

jimmies A name given in New England to the candy flecks, often chocolate, that ice-cream cones are dipped into. They are called dots, nonpariels, shots, sparkles and sprinkles in other regions.

jeezly cold Used in Maine to describe very cold weather. “It’s jeezly cold out.” jeezly-crow An old Maine exclamation. “ ‘Jeezly-crow, you ain’t never shook the ants out of your pants, have you?’ ” (Stephen King, Dolores Claiborne, 1993)

Jim-slicker Said of anything excellent. “That’s a real Jim-slicker of a car.” Jim Whittiker!

Jerusalem cherry Another name for the tomato when it began to be widely used in New England in the 19th century.

jingled

An old-fashioned rural exclamation.

Drunk. “He was half jingled by noon.”

Jerusalem crickets! An old-fashioned exclamation. “Jerusalem crickets, ain’t it hot today!”

jizzicked Said of something worn out and beyond repair. “When are you going to get rid of that jizzicked stove?”

jest A pronunciation of just. “Jest look at the picters!” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie Venner, 1861)

Joe Booker A hearty stew famous in Boothbay Harbor, Maine; named after a long-forgotten Joe Booker. 251

252 Yankee Talk Joe Frogger A cookie made of molasses and ginger, baked and sold in Marblehead, Massachusetts said to be invented by and named for a black Gay Head Indian called Black Joe who lived during colonial times near a local pond inhabited by many frogs. Joe-Pye weed A weed, according to the old saying, is only an uncultivated flower. Sometimes a weed also has beneficial properties. The Joe-Pye weed (Eupatorium purpureum) for instance, may have been named for an Indian medicine man of that name because he “cured typhus fever with it, by copious perspiration.” This tall, common plant, with clusters of pinkish flowers (also called purple boneset), might well be the only weed ever named after a real person. Records from 1787 reveal the existence of a Josephy Pye, or Shawquaathquat, who was possibly a descendant of the original Salem, Massachusetts healer, but the colonial Joe Pye has not been unequivocally identified yet.

John Yankee An 18th-century American equivalent of England’s John Bull. join the great majority majority.”

jo-jeezly Used to describe someone or something stubborn, ornery. “He’s so jo-jeezly he’ll never admit he did it wrong.” jolly Flirt with. “. . . he felt as heavy and loutish as in his student days, when he had tried to ‘jolly’ the Worcester girls at a picnic.” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911) Jonathan A nickname the British gave to a New Englander and finally to any American; the word in this sense is first recorded in 1765, and its origin is unclear. jonny-cake

johnnycake (1) “New England corn pone,” someone has dubbed this flat corn bread once cooked on a board over an open fire. Most scholars agree that the cakes are not named after a cook named Johnny who had a hand in inventing the bread. Johnnycake is usually traced to Shawnee cakes, made by the Shawnee Indians, who even in colonial times were long familiar with corn and its many uses in cooking. Not everyone agrees, though. One popular theory holds that johnnycake is a corruption of journeycake, which is what early travelers called the long-lasting corn breads that they carried in their saddlebags. However, johnnycake is recorded before journeycake in the form of jonnikin, “thin, waferlike sheets, toasted on a board . . . eaten at breakfast with butter,” a word still used for griddle cakes on the eastern shore of Maryland. The word apparently progressed from Shawnee cake to jonnikin and johnnycake, and then to journeycake. When people no longer needed to carry the cakes on journeys, johnnycake probably became popular again. Today there is a Rhode Island Society for the Propagation of Johnnycakes and an annual Usquepagh, Rhode Island Johnnycake Festival. The bread is properly made of white Indian corn called flint corn. “ ‘Your Johnnycakes are getting cold,’ he said. ‘Eat.’ ” (Susan Dodd, “Rue,” 1984) (2) A New Englander. “I’ve been through the mill, ground and bolted, and come out a regular down-east johnnycake.” (Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before The Mast, 1840) See JONNYCAKE. John R. Braden, a A winner, any sure thing; after a Maine horse who won almost all his harness races in the early 1900s.

To die. “He’s joined the great

See quote.

[Do not] describe the name of Rhode Island’s chiefest luxury with an “h” sticking up in the middle of it . . . [its] original spelling . . . was “journey-cake” . . . that of “jonny” substituted in its place [at the close of the Revolutionary War] in honor of [Connecticut] governor Jonathan Trumbull, the honored and trusted friend of General Washington, who always addressed the sterling patriot with the affectionate pet name of Brother Jonathan . . .” (Thomas Robinson Hazard, The Jonnycake Papers of “Shepherd Tom,” 1915)

See

JOHNNYCAKE.

jorum Old-timers used this term for a large mug, especially one containing hard cider or another alcoholic beverage. joual A French dialect heard in Quebec and Maine that takes its name from a regional pronunciation of cheval (horse). Joual, also spelled jooal, borrows many words from English and has its own grammar. It is perhaps the least-known dialect speech in the United States. jucket This word apparently derives from the surname Jacquet and is used to describe a poor uneducated person, often one who marries within his or her family; by extension it means anything inferior. Judas Priest! An old-fashioned exclamation of surprise or disapproval. judge

See U.

jumped like a cat out of the wood box Cited as a Vermont expression in Charles Edward Crane’s Let Me Show You Vermont (1937).

just staggerin’ around 253 jumping around like a pea in a hot skillet describe someone very active, even antsy. jumpin’ gehosephatt! exclamation.

Used to

An old-fashioned euphemistic

jumping jings! An exclamation of surprise not much heard anymore. “Jumping jings, I never expected to see you!”

junction A small town that grew in a place where two railroads meet. Also called crossing. junk

A chunk. “Throw that junk of wood on the fire.”

just staggerin’ around A humorous Maine reply to “How are you?” Cited in E. K. Maxwell, “Maine Dialect,” American Speech (November 1926).

K keeper

Kancamagus Pronounced kan-cah-MAWG-us; a noted highway in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

See

SHORTS.

keeping room Parlor or sitting room. “Nobody ever went away unconsoled from Miss Eunice’s ‘keepingroom’.” (Rose Cooke, “Uncle Josh,” 1857)

katouse Din or tumult. “What a katouse you people made last night!” kaybecker A Maine name for a Canadian from a province of Quebec.

keeping vegetables Vegetables such as potatoes and onions that can be harvested and kept over the winter, unlike parsnips and other vegetables that are better left in the ground to “sweeten” over the winter.

kedge An old-fashioned, perhaps obsolete, way to say “in good health or spirits.” “I’m feeling pretty kedge today.”

keeps Mainers use this word in the sense of “operates” or “functions” in referring to the school system. “When school keeps again at the end of summer, things’ll be back to normal.”

kedgeree There’s an interesting story behind this delicious dish of rice, fish, milk and eggs often made in Connecticut. Originally this was an Armenian dish called kidgeri. New Englanders not only changed the spelling to kedgeree but substituted eggs for the eggplant that the Armenian recipe calls for, as at the time they were not familiar with that vegetable.

Keezer’s ghost! Cited as a common exclamation in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). Also Great Keezer’s Ghost. Both expressions apparently are variations of the widespread exclamation Great Caesar’s ghost!

kedidoes Tricks or pranks. The word is recorded in Maine and New Hampshire.

kelp A valuable seaweed of the family Laminariaceae, often used for fertilizer, that is abundant along the New England coast.

keeled up Disabled, laid up with illness or injury. “He’s keeled up with a broken leg.” keep (1) To stay at a house. “Where do you keep these days?” (2) A name for New England herdsmen in colonial times. (3) Maintain. “Well I know where to hie me—in the dawn, / To a slope where the cattle keep the lawn.” (Robert Frost, “The Vantage Point,” A Boy’s Will, 1913)

Kennebecker A term used for packsack; named after Kennebec, Maine. Kennebec turkey

See quote.

“I know there is a Yankee joke in this name for herring . . . But there is substance and truth behind the joke. For any Kennebec [Maine] man would rather have a slab of that dark meat that grows in the sea than one off the best speckled and bearded bird that ever blushed and gobbled

keep an eye to windward Be prudent. Cited in William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket (1916). 254

knock galley-west 255 on a Vermont hill. And herring is a foundation stone of Maine life and character . . .” (Robert P. Tristram Coffin, Kennebec, Cradle of Americas, 1937)

ketch Catch. “‘. . . let Jotham Powell drive me over with the sorrel in time to ketch the train at the Flats.’” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911) kick and stram Said of a child having a temper tantrum. “He kicked and strammed for an hour.” kicked to death by cripples A contemptuous expression, as in “You ought to be kicked to death by cripples!” Cited as a common saying in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). kicking the dashboard The dashboard on a buggy protected the driver from the horse pulling the vehicle, but sometimes the horse kicked up its heels, refusing to go forward, its heels hitting the protective shield. From this derived the phrase kicking the dashboard to describe a difficult, stubborn person. “We can’t reason with him, he’s just kicking the dashboard.” kill-devil

A colorful word for liquor.

killhag A wooden trap used by hunters in Maine; according to Bartlett’s (1859), it derives from an Indian word. killick (1) A stone anchor. Also killock, kellock. (2) See HUMDURGAN. Kilroy was here No catchphrase has ever rivaled Kilroy was here since it appeared on walls and every other surface capable of absorbing it during World War II. It was first presumed that Kilroy was fictional; one graffiti expert even insisted that Kilroy represented an oedipal fantasy. But word sleuths found that James J. Kilroy, a politician and an inspector in a Quincy, Massachusetts shipyard, coined the slogan. Kilroy chalked the words on ships and crates of equipment to indicate that he had inspected them. From Quincy the phrase traveled on ships and crates all over the world, copied by GIs wherever it went, and Kilroy, who died in Boston in 1962, at the age of 60, became the most widely published man since Shakespeare. On December 5, 1941, I started to work for Bethlehem Steel Company, Fore River Ship Yard, Quincy, Mass., as a rate setter (inspector) . . . I was getting sick of being accused of not looking the jobs over and one day, as I came through the manhole of a tank I had just surveyed, I angrily marked with yellow crayon on the tank top, where the tester could see it, “KILROY WAS HERE.” (James J. Kilroy, New York Times Magazine, January 12, 1947)

kinder Sort of, kind of. “He kinder choked.” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911) kinder sorter Somehow, rather. “I kinder sorter think so.” (Thomas C. Haliburton, Nature and Human Nature, 1855) kindling wood wagon A peddler’s wagon of days past that carried pine kindling door to door. King’s English

See the Introduction.

kiss my back cheeks A Maine euphemism for kiss my ass. “. . . no highsteppin’ kitty like Vera-Kiss-MyBack-Cheeks Donovan was going to listen to a plain old country doctor.’ ” (Stephen King, Dolores Claiborne, 1993) kitchen closet closet. kittencornered

An old-fashioned term for pantry. Also

Diagonal, catercorner.

kittens Balls of dust under a bed or other furniture. Also kitties. See DUST BUNNIES. kiver

A common old pronunciation of “cover.”

kivy Once commonly used as the name for an ocean sunfish (Mola mola). knee-high to a scupper Said of someone very short or very young. “She was knee-high to a scupper when she learned to ride.” The scupper on a ship is an opening at deck level that allows water to run off. knockabout The first knockabouts were pleasure boats built in Marblehead, Massachusetts in 1892. They had no bowsprit and were rugged ships, hence their name. Soon after, fishing schooners were so rigged. knock galley-west No one has been able to explain why a ship’s galley or the compass point west have anything to do with this expression meaning to knock into smithereens. They may not. The words may be a corruption of the English dialect term collyweston, which in turn derived from the town of Colly Weston in Northamptonshire, a town reportedly given to excessive violence. Colly Weston itself may have been named for a local, violent troublemaker of the same name. In any case, the expression still is used in New England. “He stopped so abruptly that the second man banged into him, scattering the dream galley west.” (John Cheever, Falconer, 1977)

256 Yankee Talk knowed Often used by rural old people for “knew.” “He knowed she was there.”

kub A pronunciation of “curb,” especially in rural areas.

kof

kyat

A frequent regional pronunciation of “cough.”

A common pronunciation of “cat.”

L “L”, the

See quote.

translating into English as “You fish on your side, we fish on our side, nobody fish in the middle.” For those who want to try pronouncing this Indian name, its Lake Chargogagogmanchaugagogchaubunagungamamaug.

I saw then that the unusually forlorn and stunted look of the house was partly due to the loss of what is known in New England as the “L”: that long deep-roofed adjunct usually built at right angles to the main house, and connecting it by way of storerooms and toolhouse, with the wood-shed and cow-barn. Whether because of its symbolic sense, the image it presents of a life linked with the soil . . . or whether merely because of the consolatory thought that it enables the dwellers in that harsh climate to get to their morning’s work without facing the weather, it is certain that the “L” rather than the house itself seems to be the center, the actual hearthstone of the New England farm. (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911)

lalock An old pronunciation and spelling of “lilac.” Also layback. lamb A name Mainers give to venison poached out of season. land! An old-fashioned exclamation. “But, land! victuals and drink ain’t the chief o’ my diet.” (Rose Terry Cooke, “Town Mouse and Country Mouse,” 1891)

laborin’ oar Someone who works very hard. “He’s a real laborin’ oar.”

Land of Baked Bean A humorous nickname for New England. Also Land of Baked Beans and Hard Cider.

labrador tea An evergreen shrub (Legum groenlandicum) common in New England and used to make a tea substitute during the Revolutionary War.

Land of Johnnycake New England. “This was the mystery connected with his visit to the land of johnnycake and wooden nutmegs.” (James Russell Lowell, Lowell Offering, 1844)

lace-curtain Irish A name given to successful people of Irish descent by the CODFISH ARISTOCRACY.

Land of Lumber A nickname for Maine, due to its vast forests and lumber companies.

lace curtains An old term often used in Maine for any kind of curtains, regardless of the material they are made of.

Land of Pork and Beans setts.

Ladies Walk A euphemism for the women’s privy (bathroom) in days past. The men’s privy was called the Gents Walk.

A nickname for Massachu-

Land of Punkins A nickname for New England. “The most confirmed drunkard we ever knew, was an old man in the land of Punkins.” (Boston Transcript, February 20, 1832)

Lake Webster The body of water with the longest name is located near Webster, Massachusetts and is called Lake Webster by almost everyone. But its official, Indian-derived name is of 40 letters and 14 syllables,

Land of Steady Habits (1) A nickname for Connecticut, in reference to the strict morals encouraged by its 257

258 Yankee Talk early BLUE LAWS. (2) A nickname for all New England, for much the same reason as above.

larruping rupin’.”

Land of the Wooden Nutmegs New England, after the sharp Yankee traders who were said to have sold carved wooden nutmegs (and hams, pumpkin seeds, etc.) for the real thing. “A Yankee mixes a certain number of wooden nutmegs, which cost him 1–4 cents apiece, with a quantity of real nutmegs, worth 4 cents apiece, and sells the whole assortment for $44; and gains $3.75 by the fraud.” (James Hill, Elements of Algebra, 1859)

last rose of summer A name in New England for the late-blooming New England aster (Aster nova angliae), a field flower that the Indians called It-brings-the-frost.

landshark A merchant or boarding-house proprietor who cheated sailors. As an old whaling song went: They send you to New Bedford, that famous whaling port And give you to some landsharker to board and fit you out . . .

la suz later

A beating. “Gerald gave him a good lar-

See

DEAR ME SUZ.

Used in Maine as a synonym for good-bye.

laundress An old-fashioned, decidedly politically incorrect term heard in Maine for one’s wife, though usually said in a humorous way. law and order This term was used long before present times in New England, notably by the Rhode Island Law and Order Party, which opposed various insurrections in the state in 1844.

land sakes alive! An old-fashioned euphemistic exclamation. Often lands sakes alive.

law is off, the Refers to the open season for hunting in Maine; when the hunting season ends, the law is on.

Languid Cape, the Cape Cod. “Ransom had heard that the Cape was the Italy, so to speak, of Massachusetts; it had been described to him as the drowsy Cape, the languid Cape, the Cape not of storms, but of eternal peace.” (Henry James, The Bostonians, 1886)

law sakes alive An old-fashioned exclamation. “ ‘Law sakes alive, S’manthy [after] twenty year, I guess he c’n stan’ one evenin’s catousin.’ ” (Rowland Robinson, “A Paring Bee,” 1900) law suz

Lapland rosebay A flowering matforming evergreen (Rhododendron lapponicum) that is found on the peaks of higher New England mountains such as Mount Washington, New Hampshire. lap tea See quote. “A few phrases not in Mr. Bartlett’s book which I have heard include: Laptea; where the guests are too many to sit at table.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1866) lard eaters A Maine nickname for French Canadians noted in Robert P. Tristram Coffin, Kennebec, Cradle of Americans, 1937.

See

DEAR ME SUZ.

lawsy! Once a common exclamation. “Lawsy! we can get in good enough,’ said Melinda, alertly climbing over the hind wheel . . .” (Rose Terry Cooke, “Town Mouse and Country Mouse,” 1891) lay An old term for price. “I got the goods at a good lay.” lay away Put away. “The book is completed / and closed like the day / And the hand that has written it / Lays it away.” (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Seaweed,” 1849)

large as life We owe this popular phrase to one of Thomas C. Haliburton’s Sam Slick tales, The Clockmaker (1837), in which Sam Slick of Slicksville says of another character: “He marched up and down afore the street door like a peacock, as large as life and twice as natural.” Sam’s words became a popular catchphrase in America and still survive in both the original and abbreviated versions.

lay by! Pull up close to, save. “Sailed away from a sinking wreck, / With his own town’s-people on her deck! / ‘Lay by! lay by!’ they called to him. / Back he answered, ‘Sink or swim!’ ” (John Greenleaf Whittier, “Skipper Ireson’s Ride,” 1828)

larrigan A boot or “shoe pac” made of leather with a long leg that reaches above the knee. The origin of the word, used mostly in Maine, is unclear.

lazy dog A log situated so that it has to be rolled uphill. Loggers originated the pun slope up = slow pup = lazy dog.

lay off To take off one’s clothes or coat. “Come on in and lay off your things.”

life-everlasting 259 leewardly A word nautical in origin that means very clumsy or stupid, even unlucky. left holding the bag To be made a scapegoat (also the one who’s forced to suffer the consequences of a group’s deeds). First recorded in Royall Tyler’s The Contrast (1787), the first comedy written by an American. In the play Jonathan, the trusty Yankee retainer of the seriousminded American Revolutionary War officer Colonel Manley, is a servant full of homespun shrewdness, regional sayings and downeast dialect. After referring to Shay’s Rebellion, a 1786 revolt of Massachusetts farmers against high land taxes, Jonathan says: “General Shay has sneaked off and given us the bag to hold.” leg stretcher An early 19th-century expression meaning a drink. So named after passengers in coaches going into a tavern for a drink with the excuse “I think I’ll stretch my legs for a while.”

liar’s bench The bench in front of a country store where men gathered in good weather to swap news and stories and do a bit of trading. liberty tea A substitute tea made of four-leaved loose strife (of the family Lythraceae) popular in New England during the American Revolution. liberty tree, liberty elm A tree in Boston from which effigies of unpopular people were hanged during the protests over the Stamp Act in 1765. The ground under the tree became known as Liberty Hall. In 1775 the British cut the venerable elm down, and for a time it became known as the Liberty stump. Soon after liberty trees were being planted all over New England and in other regions, some say in almost every American town. lickety larrup

Same as

LICKETY WHITTLE.

Lemon Fair River This Vermont river’s name is the subject of several stories. One claims it derives from the old English phrase lemon fair, meaning mistress fair. Another says an Indian massacre occurred on the stream’s banks and the massacre was called the lamentable affair, which over the years was corrupted to lemon fair. George R. Stuart, in Names on the Land (1945), says “the most likely explanation is that the strange name is only a Vermonter’s attempt to render Les Monts Verts (The Green Mountains).”

lickety split Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms (1859) defines lickety split as “very fast, headlong; synonymous with the equally elegant phrase ‘full chisel.’ ” Today lickety split is heard only infrequently, and it is folksy rather than “elegant.” The lick in the phrase probably is associated with speed because of the rapidity with which the tongue moves in the mouth, and split perhaps is associated with “split second.” The Puritans used the phrase, but it wasn’t very popular until the mid19th century. Lickety brindle, lickety click, lickety cut, lickety liver, and lickety switch are variations on the expression.

Leominster town.

lickety whittle Very fast, at great speed. “She got there lickety whittle.”

let on

Pronounced LEM-inster; a Massachusetts

Pretended. “He let on like he was ailing.”

let’s talk turkey Let’s get down to real business. According to an old story, back in colonial days a white New England hunter unevenly divided the spoils of a day’s hunt with his Indian companion. Of the four crows and four wild turkeys they had bagged, the hunter handed a crow to the Indian and took a turkey for himself, then handed a second crow to the Indian and put still another turkey in his own bag. All the while he kept saying “You may take this crow and I will take this turkey,” or something similar, but the Indian wasn’t as gullible as the hunter thought. When he had finished dividing the kill, the “ignorant savage” protested: “You talk all turkey for you. You never once talk turkey for me! Now I talk turkey to you.” He then proceeded to take his fair share. Many scholars believe that from this probably apocryphal tale, first printed in 1830, comes the expression let’s talk turkey.

licking good good!”

Very tasty, excellent. “That pie’s licking

lief An old form of “leave” still heard in New England. “I’d just as lief stay home.” lie like a tombstone Used to describe a great liar; the comparison is with the tombstones of old, whose inscriptions often exaggerated the good qualities of those who lay beneath them. “He lies like a tombstone.” life-everlasting

See quote.

No native son [of New England] needs a description of the plant . . . At the height of summer, life-everlasting lies along pasture slopes and in sunny hollows like patches of snow. Looking closely, the blossoms have a tidy look of artifice, clusters of miniature roses with petals of straw. They seem to demand that something be done with them . . . (Mary Lamberton Becker, Golden Tales of New England, 1931)

260 Yankee Talk The flowers (of the genus Anaphalis) are used to make bouquets and wreaths. In times past, women filled pillows with them to relieve asthma sufferers, as Mary E. Wilkins mentioned in A New England Nun, 1891. life-of-man (1) A New England name for the medicinal spikenard plant (Aralia racemosa), also called pettymorel. (2) Another name for the stonecrop plant (Sedum telephium), also called live-for-ever. lifted Hit. “He lifted him so hard he knocked him into the next county.” light and shut Used to describe weather where the sun comes out at intervals; the expression apparently derives from the New England maxim Open and shet’s a sign of wet. Cited in Frederic D. Allen, “Contributions to the New England Vocabulary,” Dialect Notes, Vol. I (1890) as a common Portsmouth, New Hampshire term. light pie A pastry containing the innards of a slaughtered animal, which were usually thrown away; in days past this dish was often a hardtimes meal. See LIVER AND LIGHTS. lights

See

LIVER AND LIGHTS.

like (1) See quote. “The [New England] uneducated, whose utterance is slower, still make adverbs when they will by adding like to all manner of adjectives (as in ‘he ran rapid-like’)” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1866) (2) See quote. “Like for as is never used in New England but is universal in the South and West. It has on its side the authority of two kings . . . Henry VIII and Charles I . . . without throwing into the scale the scholar and poet Daniel.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867) Lowell was writing, of course, of the usage in his time. (3) Almost. “She liked to drown.” like a cat in a strange garret Said of someone not at ease, wary, timorous. “She didn’t know anyone there— acted like a cat in a strange garret.”

like Barney’s brig In complete disorder. The expression probably has its origins in some terribly disorganized Maine sailor named Barney. like diarrhea through a duck THROUGH A GOOSE.

Same as

LIKE SALTS

like eatin’ pie Said of any untaxing enjoyable task. “It was like eatin’pie.” like haulin’ a hog out’n a scaldin’ tub Difficult work. Cited as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). like salts through a goose Very fast; the salts here are a laxative, something geese hardly need. “She ran out of there like salts through a goose.” like the mill tail o’ thunder In a quick, disorderly fashion. Cited as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). lilac A flower (Syringa vulgaris) long associated with New England. Lilacs, False blue, White, Purple, Colour of lilac. Heart-leaves of lilac all over New England, Roots of lilac under all the soil of New England, Lilac in me because I am New England, Because my roots are in it, Because my leaves are in it, Because my flowers are for it, Because it is my country . . . (Amy Lowell, “Lilacs,” 1925)

limande A name given to the lemon sole (Pseudopleuronectis americanus) by French-speaking New Englanders; the fish is found off the New England coast in deep water.

like all get out Very fast, quickly. “He ran after them like all get out.”

limb In Victorian times, limb was a “mock-modest” term used in New England, and other places, instead of “leg.” It was even used for the legs of animals and piano legs.

like all possessed To act wildly, violently, as if possessed by demons. “He began dancing like all possessed.”

limb out To severely humiliate or dress down someone; in reference to the limbing or pruning of trees. “His father really limbed out John last night.”

like a thousand of bricks Violently or vigorously. The term is first recorded in New England in 1836 and today is usually like a ton of bricks. “She came down on him like a thousand of bricks.”

limpsy Lethargic, slow. “There comes Sam Lawson down the hill, limpsy as ever; now he’ll have his doleful story to tell, and mother’ll give him one of the turkeys.” (Harriet Beecher Stowe, Oldtown Folks, 1869)

lock horns 261 limp-to-quaddle An old-fashioned expression meaning to walk or hobble with a limping gait. limsy An old word, rarely heard anymore, for weak, flexible. line storm A term heard mainly in New England for a storm supposed to occur when the sun crosses the equator; therefore, line storm means any heavy storm occuring within a week to 10 days of the equinox, an equinoctial storm. linguister An obsolete humorous word for a very talkative person. Literary Emporium, the A nickname for Boston, Massachusetts, once the cultural center of America. “The literati of our Literary Emporium comprises but a small proportion of its inhabitants.” (James Russell Lowell, Lowell Offering, 1840)

live short Live in poor circumstances, to live in an undesirable place. “Every once in a while somebody from Maine who is ‘living short’ in a far place will come home to visit . . .” (John Gould, It Is Not Now, 1993) L.L. Bean A mail-order business, store and Maine institution that L.L. Bean of Freeport, Maine started with the famous Maine Hunting Shoe. . . . It was because his feet got tired and sore on hunting trips, in the period when he was managing a store, that he got the idea which founded his business. As an experiment, one day, he left off the heavy lumberman’s boats which hunters customarily wore in the Maine woods, and went out hunting with only a pair of ordinary rubbers over three thicknesses of stockings. These kept his feet warm, dry and comfortable, but he felt the need of some support around the ankles, so he took the rubbers to Dennis Bibber, the local cobbler, and got him to sew some leather tops on them. This became The Maine Hunting Shoe with which Bean first went into the mail-order business. (Arthur Bartlett, “The Discovery of L.L. Bean,” Saturday Evening Post, December 14, 1946)

little lady Haley, a An old expression meaning a wellbehaved little girl; origin unknown. “Now, isn’t she a little lady Haley.”

load of cork-stopples An old-fashioned expression heard in coastal Massachusetts for a fishing boat that returns with little or no catch.

little million A lot, a great quantity. “He had a little million of them.”

loaned See quote. “Only a parcel of spoons—‘loaned,’ as the inland folks say when they mean lent, by a neighbor.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie Venner, 1861)

little mite A bit. “ ‘I felt a little mite better . . .’, she said in her flat whine . . .” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911) little off

See

HAS A SCREW LOOSE.

Little Rhody, or Rhody A nickname for Rhode Island, the smallest of the 50 states. An anonymous poet used it this way in an 1850 poem: Old Newport, billow-craddled, sea, On my Rhody’s verdant shore; ’Tis there old Ocean shakes his mane, Resounding evermore.

lobbered milk Used for clabber in southwestern New England. Also called loppered milk. lobscouse See quote. “. . . a prominent feature of the menu of a whaleship. It was a stew of soaked hard-tack, port fat, or ‘top o’ the pot’ (grease left after boiling ‘salt horse’—salted beef) or any sort of ‘slush’ (sailor’s term for grease), boiled with molasses and water.” (William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket, 1916) Lobster Capital of the World, the A title claimed by Rockport, Maine, or at least by the town’s chamber of commerce.

little skeezicks A mischievous child. The word, altered slightly, became the name of a popular character in the comic strip Gasoline Alley. Also skeezucks.

lobster glop A Maine dish of lobster pieces, bread crumbs, milk and butter.

live free or die See quote. “New Hampshire . . . Live free or die is our motto; low taxes our boast.” (John Updike, Memories of the Ford Administration, 1992)

Lobster Scoundrel A contemptuous name New England colonists gave the red-coated British soldiers before and during the Revolutionary War. See quote under BLOODY BACK.

liver and lights Once a common term for the liver of slaughtered animal and all the rest of its innards. Only the liver was of commercial value and normally used. See LIGHT PIE.

lock horns This expression may have derived from New Englanders who witnessed moose fiercely battling over a female—their massive horns locked together— and invented this expression for a violent clash. There is

262 Yankee Talk no evidence of this derivation in the first American literary use of the phrase in 1839, however. When Swinburne used the phrase in 1865, he spoke of a heifer and her mate locking horns, which also could be the source of the expression. lollygag One old source says “Lolly-gaggin’ was Grandmother’s word for lovemaking.” Maybe so, but I never knew Grandmother meant that by it. She always used the word lollygag to mean “fooling around,” “wasting time,” “talking idly.” The word was first recorded in 1868, but its origin is unknown, though it may have something to do with the British dialect lolly (tongue). Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). long drink of water

longways

look-a-here Sometimes still heard in rural areas for look here. See CUTTER. looked as if the devil kicked him (her) on end A simile heard in the region meaning he or she looked as if he or she had gone through hell. looking for salt pork and sundown Said of a worker poor, hungry and tired. “He’s lookin’ for salt pork and sundown.” Cited as a Vermont expression in Charles Edward Crane’s Let Me Show You Vermont (1937). The expression also is used when a hired hand avoids work. loppered milk An old Connecticut name for thick sour milk, which is called clabbered milk in Massachusetts and other parts of New England.

A very tall person. lot on

longer’n the moral law Very long or tall. Cited as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). longer than a hard winter An excessively long time. “He’s been talking longer than a hard winter.” longer than a wet week Said of something that takes an interminably long time, such as a week spent indoors in rainy, dreary weather. longful while A long time. “It’s been a longful while since I saw her.” long-jawed Prolonged and tiresome. “He sure made a long-jawed speech.” long lick An old term for molasses. “She added some long lick to it.” long of

Lengthwise. “Put it down there longways.”

Because. “He did it long of her.”

long ones Long underwear. “My grandfather wore his long ones until the day he died . . . [despite] subtle methods to modernize him . . .” (Hayden Pearson, New England Flavor, 1961) long sauce A term old-timers had for beets, carrots and parsnips. long sweetening Early New Englanders used this term for molasses. See LONG LICK.

Like, dote on. See quote under

GORMING.

lot upon To count on; an old term deriving from allot upon. “He lotted upon going there.” love-car This may be a New Englandism for a car parked in a lonely place with a couple making love in the front or backseat, or it may have been invented by Robert Lowell in his poem “Skunk Hour” (1959): “I watched for love-cars. Lights turned down, / they lay together, hull to hull . . .” I’ve not seen or heard it used outside the poem. Either way, it’s a nice description. love-cracked Said of someone who acts foolishly or irrationally because he or she is deeply in love. “Christmas Jenny’s kind of love-cracked.” (Mary Wilkins Freeman, A New England Nun, 1891) Lowell A cheap cotton cloth once manufactured in the Lowell, Massachusetts mills and used for many articles of clothing, including Lowell pants. lower than whale shit As low as you can get; usually used to describe a person’s character. Lubberland An imaginary country in nautical mythology and once the name of a real village near Portsmouth, New Hampshire. lucivee A “half-mythical” kind of wildcat also called the loup-cervier or Injun devil. Cited in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). Pronounced lucy-vee.

Lyme disease 263 lucky bugs

See

DOLLAR BUGS.

lug along To move at good speed. “They lugged along and made it with time to spare.” lull down

Die down. “The wind is lulling down.”

lumbago Rheumatism. “ ‘Old Farmer McCarty . . . He had the lumbago.’ ” (Thornton Wilder, Our Town, 1938) Lumber State Another nickname for Maine, the PineTree State, because of its important lumbering industry.

lumper’s helper dock worker. lumpus

An unskilled laborer; a lumper is a

Once heard in Massachusetts for clumsy person.

Lyme disease A serious disease transmitted to humans via deer ticks. “Then, worse yet, it developed that the deer population was crawling with the tiny tick Ixodes dammini, which in turn harbored the spirochetes of Lyme disease, named after the town in Connecticut where it was first recognized.” (John Updike, “Wildlife,” in The Afterlife, 1994)

M mackerel gull

See

MACKEREL HAWK.

Maine Maximillian Schele De Vere in Americanisms (1871) says that the name Maine may have been chosen for the New England state “in compliment to the Queen of England, who had inherited a province of the same name in France.” According to George R. Stewart in Names on the Land (1945):

mackerel hawk A name for the gull Larus ribibundus, also called the mackerel gull. “The mackerel . . . come in August with the mackerel hawks, marked with the same markings and moulded into the same projectile-like bodies, crying and screaming over the fish.” (Robert Tristram Coffin, Yankee Coast, 1947)

In a New England charter of 1620 the lawyers wrote “the country of the Maine Land,” words which suggest a general description rather than a name. Two years later, however, a charter was granted to two old sea-dogs of the Royal Navy, Sir Ferdinando Georges and Captain John Mason, and in it the word had certainly ceased to be a description. Dated on August 10, 1622, the charter declared that “all that part of the mainland” the grantees “intend to name the Province of Maine.” Some have thought that this name arose because of the greater number of islands off that northern coast, which made men have more reason to speak of “the main.” Others have tried to connect it with the Province, or County, of Maine in France. But again, main as equaling chief or important would have been of good omen, if a little boastful. Moreover, about 1611 Captain Mason had served in the Orkneys, and must have known the name as used there.

mackerel sky A sky filled with small clouds suggesting a mackerel’s markings. mad Heard in Maine, meaning to anger. “She can really mad a person.” mad as a hopper anymore.

Very angry. This simile rarely is heard

madder’n snakes in hayin! Extremely mad. Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914).

Maine black fly A small dark biting fly of the family Simuliidae that is a terrible pest to Mainers and SUMMERCATERS alike. “That mystic oriental goddess with sixteen arms is the only thing I’ve run into that can cope with the Maine Black Fly.” (John Gould, The Parables of Peter Partout, 1964)

madder than a wet hen Very mad. “She was madder than a wet hen and he knew enough to stay away from her.” Mahershallalhashbaz In early New England children commonly received long names from Scripture. This admirable, almost unpronounceable one is from the book of Isaiah and documented in Shebnah Rich’s Truro-Cape Cod (1883).

Maine hunting shoe

See L.L.

BEAN.

Maine molasses doughnuts An old Maine recipe, which concludes with this advice for men: “If you are looking for a wife, take one of the doughnuts, hold it up to the window and call in the first maiden lady who comes in sight and kiss her through the hole and she is yours.”

mahn A pronunciation of man. “Bush was what the natives of the town called a ‘hahnsome mahn.’ ” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie Venner, 1861) 264

Martha’s Vineyard 265 Mainer A native or resident of Maine. “The traducers of the great Prohibition State assert that the Mainers get corned as often as they can.” (Courier Journal, January 31, 1887) Mainite is an obsolete term meaning the same. See also MAINIACS. Mainiacs A humorous name given to residents of Maine, who are more properly called Mainers. Mainite An old obsolete nickname for an inhabitant or native of Maine. See MAINIACS, MAINER. make a goose-run An expression used in Maine for any delay: “She would have been here earlier, but she had to make some kind of goose-run.” Originally the term applied only to a hunting stop for a raft of ducks and the like that a coastal ship captain might make on a voyage. make a great splather and splurge show.

To put on a big

make a touse To make a great fuss, an uproar. “He’s been making a great touse over his broken toe.” Also make a catouse. make long arms Help oneself at the table. “Make long arms, everybody!” Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes (1914). make of An old Maine expression meaning to pet or fuss over. “The child was making of her cat when it scratched her.” make out

To make. “I have to make out the butter.”

make things hum Since at least the early 18th century, humming, suggesting the blending of many human voices or the activity of busy bees and other insects, has been used to express a condition of busy activity. Two hundred years later, the expression to make things hum was invented in New England. Possibly the hum of machines in New England textile factories was the source for the phrase, in reference to the fabled Yankee mechanics who made things hum again when the machines broke down. making land Clearing land of rocks, trees and brush for planting. “ ‘Making land’ is a term I no longer hear. But in 1910 when I was a boy, I can remember Father saying [it] . . .” (Hayden Pearson, New England Flavor, 1961) making up to Going to become, especially when used in regard to weather. “It’s making up to rain.”

malahack An old word noted in James Russell Lowell’s The Biglow Papers (1866) meaning to cut up in haste, unskillfully. “He malahacked it.” man-cow A euphemism for a bull once commonly used; also called a cow-man. mantilly A mantilla. “[She wore] a black lace mantilly.” (Mary Wilkins Freeman, A New England Nun and Other Stories, 1891) man works from sun to sun but woman’s work is never done An old New England proverb. “Many of [the women mill workers] came from farms where ‘man works from sun to sun but woman’s work is never done . . .’ ” (May Lamberton Becker, Golden Tales of New England, 1931) maple honey Another name for maple syrup heard in New England and eastern Canada. maple sugar, maple syrup “There can’t be a remedy better for fortifying the stomach” than maple sugar, a pioneer wrote in 1705. Maple sugar, boiled from maple syrup and the only sugar the first settlers had, has a long history that dates from the time American pioneers learned how to make it from the Indians. The same, of course, applies to maple syrup, another maple-tree product Americans are still familiar with; other maplederived products included maple water, maple vinegar, maple wax, maple beer and even maple wine. What’s true of maple sugar May be true of you and me! The more we are fired and beaten The finer-grained we’ll be. (Evelyn R. Cheney, 1845)

March meeting Once the annual town meeting in many New England towns. “Town meeting was an important event in our community when I was growing up. We called it March meeting then, and would have continued to do so if some busybody hadn’t succeeded in shifting the date back to February.” (Edith A. Holton, Yankees Were Like This, 1944) march of soldiers Sparks moving straight up the chimney from the back for a fireplace fire. Martha’s Vineyard Possibly discovered by Leif Erikson in the 11th century, Martha’s Vineyard, an island about five miles off the southeast coast of Massachusetts, was once an important center for whaling and fishing. The Indians called the island Noe-pe, “Amid the Waters,” while the Norsemen named it Staumey, “Isle of Currents.” It was christened Martin’s Vineyard by English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602, for no reason

266 Yankee Talk known to history. After a century it took the name Martha’s Vineyard, probably because its name was confused with that of a little neighboring island to the southeast called Martha’s Vineyard that Gosnold also had named. That little island is now called No Man’s Land, after an Indian named Tequenoman. See NANTUCKET.

others. An anonymous 1650 broadside verse went: “You English Massachusettsians all / Forbear sometime from sleeping, / Let every one both great and small / Prepare themselves for weeping.”

Martha’s Vineyard eel stifle

master chilly Very frightening. “The tale of Stafford’s cabin, which was good, / Though ‘master chilly’ / after his own phrase . . .” (Edward Arlington Robinson, “Isaac and Archibald,” Captain Craig, 1902)

See

EEL STIFLE.

Mary had a little lamb Mary had a little lamb, Its fleece was white as snow And everywhere that Mary went The lamb was sure to go; He followed her to school one day, That was against the rule; It made the children laugh and play To see a lamb in school . . .

There seems to be no doubt that the Mary and little lamb in the well-known nursery rhyme were real, but there is some uncertainty about who wrote the poem. Sarah Josepha Hale first published the 24-line verse over her initials in the September 1830 issue of Juvenile Miscellany. Over the years it became known that it was based on the true experiences of 11-year-old Mary Sawyer, who had a pet lamb that followed her to the schoolhouse at Redstone Hill in Boston one day in 1817. In fact, half a century later Mary Sawyer confirmed the story during a campaign to save the famous Old South Church of Boston from being torn down. Massachusetts Roger Williams said that Massachusetts took its name from an American Indian word meaning Blue Hills. Writes George R. Stewart in Names on the Land (1945): Captain John Smith wrote Massachuset as an Indian town. Though Smith may not have known it, the meaning is fairly clear, being the tribal name Mass-adchuseuck, “big-hill-people”, which in English ears was blended with the name of the place, “Mass-adchu-ut, “at-big-hills”. Smith made of the Indian word an English plural to indicate the tribe, and so came Massachusetts.

The Bay State was admitted to the Union in 1788 as our sixth state and had been called the Massachusetts Bay Colony before then. It is now officially called the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Massachusetts game, the A version of baseball, similar in some respects to the present game, whose rules were codified in about 1858 and is one of the forebears of baseball. Massachusettsian This tongue twister was once used as the name for an inhabitant of Massachusetts, employed by Cotton Mather and John Adams, among

master job.”

A synonym for excellent. “He did a master

Mast pine A tall straight eastern white pine (Pinus strobus), the kind once used for the masts of sailing ships. matterating Festering or supperating. “His wound was matterating.” matto wacca An old name once heard in southern Connecticut, on Long Island Sound, for the saltwater herring (Clupea harengus harengus); from an Indian name meaning Long Island. Matt Peasley, a A tricky sea lawyer; after a character in Mainer Peter B. Kyne’s Captain Rick’s Stories (ca. 1920). Also called a Matt. May breakfast Traditional breakfast held in Rhode Island in May in celebration of Rhode Island’s declaration of independence from England on May 4, 1776; it was the first colony to do so. The most traditional of these breakfasts include clam fritters, ham and scrambled eggs, and apple pie—but there are many variations. Mayflower American A term describing someone descended from the colonists who come to Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620 on the ship named the Mayflower. Mayflower Compact The former wine ship that transported the early settlers to America took its name from the mayflower, another name for the blossom of the hawthorn tree. The Mayflower Compact was signed aboard the ship by the 51 adult passengers. All agreed to stay together where they landed, choose their own leader and abide by majority rule; the compact marked the beginning of American democracy. me See quote for one peculiar Maine usage. “Earle said he had been listening to this phonograph recording called ‘Burt and I,’ and he says if it was really Maine it would be called ‘Me and Burt.’ ” (John Gould, The Parables of Peter Partout, 1964)

men with beards 267 meadow dressing

Manure.

mean Poorly. “ ‘I just felt so mean I couldn’t sleep.’ ” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911)

meechin’ kind, thet sets an’ thinks fer weeks . . .” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867) “Told me all about her last days, how white and meechin’ she looked, and how dreadful poor and skinny, and yet how she hung on, hung on till seem’ds if she never’d pass away.” (Annie Trumbull Slosson, “A Local Colorist,” 1912) Cited as a common Nantucket expression by William F. Macy in The Nantucket Scrup Basket (1916).

mean enough to steal acorns from a blind hog Quoted as a contemporary saying in James Russell Lowell’s The Biglow Papers (1867).

meeting Church services. “ ’Twas Sunday and Square Hole was dressed for meeting.” (Robert Frost, “The Gold Hesperidee,” 1936)

mean enough to take his wife’s egg money Said of a very stingy man, one who would steal or forcibly take the pin money a woman had saved by selling eggs.

meeting house (1) A synonym for a church. (2) Another name for the flower usually called the columbine (Aquilegia canadensis).

meaner’n tripe Lowdown, worthless. “ ‘That so, Plupy, your old man’s meaner’n tripe.’” (Henry A. Shute, Plupy, 1910)

meeting seed A name used for dried seeds such as anise, caraway, dill and fennel because they often were chewed during meeting or church services.

meaner than goose grease Very mean and nasty. A simile once heard in New England.

meet-up A close friend, buddy. “He’s an old meet-up of mine.”

mean woman An old Maine and New Hampshire term for a loose or disreputable woman.

meet with the rubbers To have bad luck, misfortune. Cited as a common Portsmouth, New Hampshire expression in Frederic Allen, “Contributions to the New England Vocabulary,” Dialect Notes, Vol. I (1890).

mealin’ An old Maine term for taking meals at a boarding house. “He’s mealin’ to Drewbie’s.” The mealer did not have to reside at the boarding house.

meat pie Mince pie. “Mixed conversation chopped very small, like the contents of a mince-pie—or meat pie, as it is more forcibly called in the deep-rutted villages.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie Venner, 1861) Also mince-meat pie. mebbe A common rural pronunciation of maybe. “Well then, it’s Granny speaking: ‘. . . Mebbe I’m wrong to take it as I do . . .” (Robert Frost, “The Generations of Men,” 1914) mechanical and artistic purposes Heard in Maine for devious purposes. Often shortened to artistic purposes, the expression originated with the old Maine prohibition law that permitted the use of alcohol when prescribed by a doctor for “mechanical and artistic purposes.” meddle and make Interfere. “I ain’t one of them that meddles an’ makes.” (Alice Brown, “Mis’ Wadleigh’s Guest,” 1895) medrick A term in New England for a small gull (also called a swallow-tail) or tern. meech A many-purpose word that can mean sneak, cringe, be falsely humble, be sickly, lack backbone, procrastinate and the like. “She’s so meeching butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.” “But I ain’t o’ the

mehbe

The typical Maine pronunciation of “maybe.”

mellered Made mellow. “I guess you mellered him some.” (Alice Brown, “Mis’ Wadleigh’s Guest,” 1895) menhaden This abundant oily fish has a name related to its use. Caught in great numbers by American Indians and buried in their corn fields, it bears an Algonquian name meaning that which enrichens the soil, or fertilizer. It is also called moss-bunker, bunker, marshbunker and some 30 more popular names. (See the American Naturalist 12, 1878, pp. 735–739 for a listing.) In 1949 Brevoortia tyrannus was called “America’s No. 1 fish . . . yielding some $10 million worth of oil, meal, and dry scrap last year.” men with beards

See quote.

Joseph Palmer [a member of Bronson Alcott’s short-lived Fruitlands community] was jailed [in 1843] for wearing a beard . . . At eighty-four he died and was buried under a stone at North Leominster that gives his name and age, his portrait with the offending decoration, and the words “Persecuted for Wearing the Beard.” Even Emerson, it seems, was not without a slight sense of superiority to the unshaved; he classified certain reformers as “men with beards.” They were not tolerated in business or the professions in the [1840s]; curiously enough, by the seventies

268 Yankee Talk public sentiment had swung in precisely opposite directions.” (May Lamberton Becker, Golden Tales of New England, 1931)

See also

CHORING ROUND.

cabinet in which the mixer used to be encased; a milkshake in Rhode Island is just milk and syrup shaken up together. In northern New England the drink most Americans call a milkshake is called a velvet or a frappé.

mercy no! An old-fashioned exclamation. “ ‘Mercy no! Not on such a night.’ ” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911)

Milk Street A Boston street so named because country slickers used to water their milk at a stream there before bringing it into market and selling it to city bumpkins.

merlan French-speaking New Englanders often use this name for the whiting (Merluccius bilinearis), a fish New Englanders also call the hake.

millionist Maine parlance meaning millionaire. “The man was a millionist before he was 30.”

merluche A name given to the hake (Merluccius bilinearis), also called the New England hake or whiting, by French-speaking New Englanders. Merrimac A popular cotton fabric once made in Lowell, Massachusetts mills on the Merrimac River. miching An old-fashioned word meaning skulking. “She went miching off, like a cat that had missed its mouse.” She also MEECH.

mind Remember. “I mind the time he wasn’t so proud.” mind your orts Orts here means odds and ends or scraps left on one’s plate. Mothers exhorted youngsters to eat with the admonition mind your orts, that is, clean your plate. Recorded in Katherine M. Abbott, Old Paths and Legends of New England (1904). minge A midge, a gnatlike biting insect of the family Chironomidae often found near ponds and lakes. The word is generally heard in Maine and New Hampshire.

middlesex Said in Maine of something ordinary, so-so. “It’s a middlesex kind of day.” Also the name of a Massachusetts county.

mingo A humorous obsolete term for a chamber pot; it derives from the Latin mingo, “I make water.”

midnight ride of Paul Revere, the A literary reference to the ride of Paul Revere from Charlestown to Lexington and Concord, to warn Americans of the approach of British troops at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. It comes from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem Paul Revere’s Ride (1861).

Minister’s Rib Factory, the A name people jokingly gave to Mount Holyoke Seminary (which later became Mount Holyoke College) “because the South Hadley, Mass. school turned out so many wives for ministers and missionaries,” according to Imogene Wolcott in The New England Yankee Cookbook (1939).

mighty small potatoes and few in a hill An old New England saying meaning something or someone of little consequence. “That’s mighty small potatoes and few of a hill.”

minnim An old word, perhaps obsolete now, for a minnow. Minute Men

See

HAVEN’T SEEN YOU SINCE THE CON-

CORD FIGHT.

miglet A word used in Massachusetts long ago for marble. Milan Pronounced not like the Italian city but MYlan; a town in New Hampshire. milden Grown mild. “There was more wet in the air and it seemed likely to both men that the weather would ‘milden’ toward afternoon and make the going safer.” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911) milkshake In most of America a milkshake is a thick sweet drink made of milk, ice cream and syrup. An exception is Rhode Island and eastern Massachusetts, where such a drink is called a cabinet, after the wooden

Mr. Man Often used as a hostile form of address: “Watch your step, Mr. Man.” Also mister. mite A little bit. “. . . it ain’t a mite too fur back fer the fashion.” (Mary E. Wilkins, “Life-Everlasting,” 1891) mite of a body, a A very small person. “A mite of a body she is, you know, lookin’ as if you could blow her over with one breath, but tough and rugged.” (Annie Trumbull Slosson, “A Local Colorist,” 1912) Moby Dick Mocha Dick, the stout gentleman of the latitudes, the prodigious terror whale of the Pacific, the redoubtable white sperm whale that fought and won

more’n common stupid 269 over 100 sea battles against overwhelming odds—such was the reputation in the extravagant language of the time of the whale Herman Melville immortalized as Moby Dick. Melville probably first read about Mocha Dick in a piece by Jeremiah N. Reynolds in the May 1839 Knickerbocker Magazine; undoubtedly, though, he had heard of him long before in the forecastles of the New England whaling ships he had sailed on. The last mention in history of Mocha Dick is dated August 1859, when off the Brazilian banks he is said to have been taken by a Swedish whaler. He had already become legend when Herman Melville wrote Moby Dick in 1850— Melville changing his prenomen to Moby probably to suggest his amazing mobility and to avoid association with the color mocha for his white whale.

winter of 1932–33, attributed the wrench’s invention to a Yankee mechanic by the name of Monk employed by Bemis & Call of Springfield, Massachusetts. Monk supposedly invented the movable jaw for a wrench in 1856, and although it was given another name at first, workers in his shop were soon calling it monkey wrench. The tale has not been confirmed, but the 1856 date coincides with the first use of the word in the Oxford English Dictionary (1858). None of the standard dictionaries make an attempt to trace the word’s origin, not even to say that the wrench resembles a monkey’s jaw, just as a crane resembles a crane’s neck.

mockbird A mockingbird. “Singing she wrought, and her merry glee / The mock-bird echoed from his tree.” (James Greenleaf Whittier, “Maud Muller,” 1854)

Montpelier biscuits

mockernut Another New England name for the squarenut hickory (Carya tomentosa), also called the walnut and white-heart. moger An old word once used in Maine for logy or slow-moving. mohuh Boston.

A common pronunciation of “more” in

mollyhawk To tease in an abusive way. “Stop mollyhawking that cat.” monadnock A hill on a plain worn by erosion; the word derives from New Hampshire’s Mount Monadnock, whose name comes from the Massachusetts Indian word meaning prominent mountain. money cat A Maine term for a calico cat with three or more colors, perhaps because such cats were once thought to be worth a lot of money because they were so rare. monkey wrench One would think the monkey wrench was so named because the wrench’s sliding jaws reminded someone of a monkey’s chewing apparatus. This may be the case, but there is some reason to believe that the tool was named after its inventor. While one source suggests that this mechanical wizard was London blacksmith Charles Moncke, the British use adjustable spanner wrench or just spanner, for what Americans call a monkey wrench, so this theory is suspect. A more likely explanation turned up several years ago in some clippings on word origins collected by a Boston doctor. One article from the Boston Transcript, appearing in the

Montpelier Vermont.

Pronounced mon-PEEL-yur; the capital of

See

COMMON CRACKERS.

mooncussers So called because these people cursed (cussed) the moon and the light that it brought, robbing them of their livelihood. During the early 19th century, these lowlifes lured merchant ships to shore on dark nights by waving lanterns that were mistaken for the lights of other vessels. When the ships were destroyed on rocks, their cargo was collected as salvage. American sailors called inhabitants of the “back-shore” of Cape Cod mooncussers. Though these people were not often accused of luring ships to their destruction, they did salvage wrecks off the Cape. An old story tells of a man running up to a Cape church door one stormy Sunday morning and shouting “Wreck ashore!”: “The minister called out authoritatively, ‘Keep your seats until I have pronounced the benediction,’ in the meantime making his way down the aisle as rapidly as his dignity permitted. Pausing at the door, he gave the blessing, adding, ‘And now, my friends, let’s all start fair.’ ” See WHITE GRAVEYARD OF THE ATLANTIC. moonglade See quote. “Moonglade: a beautiful word for the track of moonlight on the water.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867) more airs than a country stud horse simile heard in old New England.

Very conceited. A

more grog shops than water pumps An East and South Boston boast in the mid-19th century. A grog shop was a bar or a liquor store. more’n common stupid Very stupid. “‘Lobsters climb int’ the pot through the hole in the nettin’ ’t the end,’ explained one Down-East lobster fisherman . . . ‘Eat the bait, ’n then, being more’n common stupid, can’t find the hole t’ git out agin.’” (Bruce Ballinger, The Lobster Almanac, 1988)

270 Yankee Talk morey To a Mainer something morey is something one wants more of, something excellent. “We had a real morey chowder.” Morgan horse Justin Morgan is the only American horse ever to sire a distinctive breed. A bay stallion foaled in about 1793, he was probably a blend of Thoroughbred and Arabian with other elements and fairly small at 14 hands high and 800 pounds. Justin Morgan (1747–98), a Vermont schoolteacher and an aspiring musician, bought his colt in Massachusetts, naming him Figure and training him so well that he won trotting races against much larger Thoroughbreds. Eventually Figure came to be called after his master. When his owner died, Justin Morgan was bought and sold many times in the 28 years of his life. One of those unusual horses whose dominant traits persist despite centuries of inbreeding, his individual characteristics remain essentially unchanged in the Morgan breed of horses he sired. Morgans are still compact, virile horses noted for their intelligence, docility and longevity, many of them active at 30 or more years of age. Heavy-shouldered, with a short neck but delicate head, they are noted for their airy carriage and naturally pure gait and speed. Morgans were long the favorite breed for American trotters until the Hambletonian strain replaced them. Morocco shop The name for Yankee tanneries that processed goatskins, as the process they used had been developed in Morocco. mortal Very, extremely. “It’s cause they’re so mortal homely themselves.” (Mary Wilkins Freeman, A New England Nun and Other Stories, 1891) mortal sight o’ A great deal of. “My old woman soon got well of her fit . . . and she says the stuff [medicine] did her a mortal sight o’ good.” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Haunted Quack,” 1831) most Almost. “Most everybody’s asleep.” (Thornton Wilder, Our Town, 1938) Mother Hubbard sling

the island even shares the local accent. As decreed by the natives, one spells it Mount Desert, but the pronunciation is Mount Dessert. The view is as fine as sugar frosting to a New Englander’s eye.” (Norman Mailer, Harlot’s Ghost, 1991) Mount Katahdin a peak in Maine.

Pronounced Mount Kuh-TAH-dun;

move like a toad in a tar bucket Said of someone who works very slowly. “He’ll never get finished—moves no better’n a toad in a tar bucket.” mow Usually used with away in New England speech; “We mowed the hay away last week.” Moxie Wrote the late E. B. White of this soft drink: “I can still buy Moxie in a tiny supermarket six miles away. Moxie contains gentian root, which is the path to the good life. This was known in the second century before Christ and is a boon to me today.” The rather tart flavor of Moxie, a popular New England tonic (as soda pop is often called in the area), may be the reason it yielded the slang word moxie for courage, nerve or guts. Or maybe Moxie braced up a lot of people, giving them courage. These are only guesses, but the tonic, a favorite since at least 1927, is definitely responsible for a lot of moxie and other phrases, which, however, aren’t recorded until about 1939. I’ve read that Moxie was originally a nerve tonic, dating back to the 1880s. This would go far in explaining moxie (nerve or courage), if earlier uses for the term could be found. much of a man An old expression meaning a man of good qualities. “He’s very much of a man.” muckle (1) Heard in Nantucket for to bother, fret. “’Twould muckle me dredful to go to the bottom in an old tub like this.” (2) To putter. “He muckled with it all day.” mud season Used jokingly for the time between winter and spring when the roads are exceedingly muddy.

A humorous old name for

SWITCHEL.

Mother of States Usually applied to Virginia, because it was the first state settled by the English, this nickname also has occasionally been given to Connecticut.

mud time See quote. “It is not many years since the schools let out for three weeks in March because ‘the bottoms of the roads had fell out.’ The children were always jubilant at mud time, shrilling their yearly cry of ‘Mud time! Six weeks to bare feet!’ ” (Marion Nicholl Rawson, New Hampshire Borns a Town, 1942)

moules A name French-speaking New Englanders use for mussels, along with bouchots.

mudworm

Mount Desert An island off the Maine coast south of Bangor. “. . . Mount Desert—indeed, one’s affection for

muggid An old-fashioned word heard in Maine for muggy. “It’s a muggid day out.”

An old term for earthworm.

my care! 271 muggs A word, origin unknown, once used for a root cellar where vegetables were stored. “They had lots of potatoes in the muggs.”

mussel chowder A milk-based chowder made with mussels instead of clams that is commonly served on Nantucket.

mug up

mustarded coffee A historical term for a crude coffee flavored with powdered mustard that 18th-century settlers in Maine drank; they later used the “mustarded coffee” to spice meat gravy.

A Maine fisherman’s coffee break.

mulberry mania A craze for planting the white mulberry variety Morus multicaulis in expectation of making great profits in the silk industry. The leaves of these trees were said to be superior to all others for silkworm feeding, and millions of them were planted in the multicaulis fever that ensued. The fever began in Connecticut, where the seven Cheney brothers founded America’s first silk mill at South Manchester in 1838. It ended a few years later when mulberry trees glutted the market. mummichog, mummachog A name used in Connecticut and other areas of New England for the barred killifish and killifish. It derives from the Narragansett Indians’ Moamitteaug, “a little sort of fish,” and is first recorded in 1787 as “Mummy Chog.” musical An obsolete synonym for amusing that had its day in the mid-19th century. “He’s a very musical fellow.” muslin toast A rye shortcake. “Muslin toast was a favorite New England supper dish, prepared with nicety and precision.” (Alice J. Jones, In Dover on the Charles, 1906)

mutual admiration society Two or more people form a mutual admiration society when they continually praise each other. Oliver Wendell Holmes did not coin the expression in his Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858), as is generally believed. For its true inventor, see FROZEN YANKEE DOODLE. mux Muss; an old variation not heard anymore. “Don’t mux my hair.” my care! A once-common old-fashioned exclamation, of which there are many beginning with “my,” including my goodness alive! “ ‘Oh my goodness alive!’ exclaimed Mrs. Flagg . . .” (Sarah Orne Jewett, “The Guests of Mrs. Timms,” 1895); my gracious! my land! my land o’ livin’! my sakes! “ ‘My sakes, you must be her greatgrandaughter!’ ” (Dorothy Canfield, “Almera Hawley Canfield,” 1925); my sakes alive! my soul and senses! my soul and deliverances! my soul and body! and my stars and body! an archaic but rather nice exclamation my dear old grandmother (a New Englander) used to exclaim.

N Nahant Pronounced na-HAHNT; a Massachusetts resort village.

Nantucket sleigh-ride This expression refers to a whaleboat fastened to a whale, which runs off furiously towing the boat behind it. Such Nantucket sleigh-rides, often lasting for miles, are described in Melville’s Moby Dick (1850) and other great books of the sea.

nail to the counter Here the allusion is to a storekeeper nailing a counterfeit coin to the counter, where clerks could easily compare it with others of its kind. Figuratively, the expression came to mean “to declare publicly that a lying statement is just that.” Oliver Wendell Holmes is the first recorded user of the expression, in Homeopathy and Kindred Delusions (1842), where he writes of alleged facts that “have been suffered to pass current so long that it is time they should be nailed to the counter.”

naow A common pronunciation of now in Maine and elsewhere. “Let go o’ that are coat, naow.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie, Venner, 1861) Narragansett (1) An Algonquian Indian tribe of New England, especially Rhode Island; their name is from an Algonquian word meaning small point of land, in reference to their original dwelling place. (2) A small horse developed in Rhode Island near Narragansett Bay in the 17th century; the breed was later used as pacers. Also Narragansett Pacer.

nanny-plum tea An old-fashioned, thankfully or hopefully obsolete, home remedy for the measles and other ailments; it was made of sheep droppings soaked for a few minutes in rainwater. Nantucket There is a hoary tale, probably untrue, that an old seaman owned an island group off Massachusetts. To his oldest daughter he gave his most productive island, which he named Martha’s Vineyard; to his next, he gave the island closest to home, Elizabeth’s Island; and to his last daughter, Nan, he just offered what remained and Nan-tuck-it. No one is sure of Nantucket’s real derivation. See MARTHA’S VINEYARD. Nantucketer teer.

Narragansett draft A popular beer in Rhode Island. “‘I’ll have the chowder, onion rings, a burger mediumwell, and a Narragansett draft. You want a beer?” (Susan Dodd, “Rue,” 1984) narrow-contracted Stingy, tightfisted. “He’s a narrowcontracted man.” Also narrow-gutted. narsty A pronunciation of “nasty.” “That’s narsty weather up there.”

A Nantucket inhabitant. Also Nantucke-

nary Not any, not even, no; an old-fashioned usage. “I ain’t got nary one.”

Nantucketism A word or expression heard exclusively or mainly on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Nantucket owls codfish.

nash Used chiefly in Maine to describe someone very sensitive to nature; sometimes used in a derogatory way for a man with a sensitive disposition.

A humorous old term for a meal of

272

New England hardscrabble 273 nasty Bad, disagreeable. “ ‘Nasty place. Even in 1917 it was a nasty place.’ ” (Stephen King, Pet Sematary, 1983) nasty-neat Fanatically clean and orderly. “She’s nastyneat, you’re afraid to sit on a chair in her house.” nation! New Englanders once used this exclamation as a euphemism for Damnation! Not in currency anymore. native beef

Deer and other game shot out of season.

native corn Locally grown eating corn in Connecticut. Across Long Island Sound in New York it is called local corn. nat’ral how d’ye do Charisma. “Though the pastor had never been altogether liked by the out-districts—not having enough ‘nat’ral how d’ye do’ about him, it was thought . . .” (Bliss Perry, “By the Committee,” 1899) natural turn Natural ability. “Mattie had no natural turn fer housekeeping.” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911) nature nawthin

never grab with both hands, just grab with one A New England maxim instructing a person not to be greedy and grasping but not to be too altruistic either, especially in business dealings. New Connecticut A 4-million-acre tract in northwestern Ohio claimed by the state of Connecticut in the early 19th century. New England Captain John Smith thought that the area now called New England in North America greatly resembled England. He was the first to record the name, on a map he made in 1616: “That part we call New England . . . betwixt the degree 41. and 45.” New England aster in New England.

A perennial purple aster common

New England boiled dinner Meat, often corned beef, boiled with vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, turnips and onions. “Such a dish was a meal of itself, neither dessert nor bread being regarded as necessary to its completeness.” (Mary Caroline Crawford, Social Life in Old New England, 1914) New England boxwood A regional name for the common flowering dogwood tree (Cornus florida).

See U. A common pronunciation of nothing.

New England Brahmin near Cheap, miserly. “Alvah Bayley is ‘near’; he has made money and it will no doubt continue to squeal under his clutch . . .” (May Lamberton Becker, Golden Tales of New England, 1931) necessary An old term in eastern New England for outhouse; also called a necessary house. necessity mess

See

VERY POOR MAN’S DINNER.

neck twister A potent Yankee drink, the recipe for which is apparently lost to history. neighborin’, go in rural Maine. nekkid

See

BOSTON BRAHMIN.

New England Clam Chowder

See

CHOWDER.

New England conscience A stern, unrelenting conscience. This phrase is often illustrated by a story about William Ellery of Rhode Island, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. When Ellery was a collector of customs in 1790, his grandson dropped into the office. Casually taking a sheet of paper off his grandfather’s desk to write a letter, he felt Ellery’s hand restraining him. “My boy,” the old man said, “if you want paper, I’ll give you some, but this is Government paper.”

To make an informal visit; used chiefly

A common rural pronunciation of “naked.”

nervous as a rat Very nervous, jittery. “‘Ruth Varnum was always as nervous as a rat . . .’ ” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911) netop An Algonquian Indian word meaning close friend, crony or loved one that was adopted by early colonists. Neatrup, meet-up and eat-up were among the ways the colonists pronounced the Indian word.

New England dialect The first dialect in the United States to be given a name. New England dialect was recorded in 1788 in the diary of a visitor to the region. New England diamonds Gravel. “Sometimes a poor farmer finds that his hills are heaps of ‘New England diamonds’ and sells whole hills to the road maker.” (Robert P. Tristram Coffin, New England, 1951) New England hardscrabble A pudding made from hard crusts of brown bread, milk and water and served with syrup. See also BREWIS.

274 Yankee Talk New Englandish Resembling or pertaining to New England. “A respectable-looking woman . . . decidedly New Englandish in figure and manner, came to my office.” (Nathanial Hawthorne, Our Old Home, 1863) New Englandism A term first recorded in 1831 for a word or expression typical of New England. New England mansion house A stately 19th-century style of New England architecture. “It was one of those old buildings which aped the New England mansion houses without once approaching their solid state.” (Mary E. Wilkins, “Life-Everlastin’,” 1891)

New English (1) obsolete term for New England inhabitants. (2) Anything of or pertaining to New England. “All their unconscious training by eye and ear, were New English wholly.” (James Russell Lowell, Among My Books, 1870) New Hampshire When John Mason was granted the land including this state in 1622, he named it after his homeland—England’s Hampshire County. The Granite State was admitted to the Union as the ninth state in 1788.

New England Mayflower Another name for the trailing arbutus of ground laurel (Epigaea repens).

New Hampshire screwdriver A humorous term heard in Maine for a hammer; the expression suggests that Maine carpenters are superior to their New Hampshire brethren.

New England of the West An old nickname for Minnesota, after the many New Englanders who settled there.

nigh Used in times past for near, nearby, close. “I’m pretty nigh beat out . . .” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie Venner, 1866)

New England pine (Pinus strobus).

The valuable timber tree white pine

night mail A name given to a night express train that speeds through New England.

New England Psalmody A collection of hymns popular in New England. “They roll onward . . . shuffling their heavy heels into an instinctive dance and roaring out some holy verse from the New England Psalmody.” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Sir William Pepperell,” 1833)

niminy piminy Spoiled, precious, conceited. “ ‘I detest rude, unlady-like girls.’ ‘I hate affected, niminy piminy chits.’ ” (Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, 1868)

New England short o A vowel sound closely resembling the short u that many New Englanders use in such words as home and stone. New England twang See quote. “There would be a tone in the [New England] voices, a blend of timbre and tempo that we call a “twang” because, like a plucked string the last note lingers . . .” (May Lamberton Becker, Golden Tales of New England, 1931) New England weather An old term for very varied, unpredictable weather. Mark Twain had this to say about it at a dinner of the New England Society in 1876: There is a sumptuous variety about the New England weather that compels the stranger’s admiration—and regret. The weather is always doing something there; always attending strictly to business; always getting up new designs and trying them out on people to see how they will go. But it gets through more business in Spring than in any other season. In the Spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of twenty-four hours.

New England whiting The silver hake (Merluccius bilinearis), a common New England fish.

nimshy An admiring old-fashioned name for a person, especially a young woman; from the biblical character Nimshi. “She was a right smart young nimshy.” Also nimshi. Cited as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). nine months winter and three months late in the fall An old saying about New England weather quoted in Arthur G. Crandall, New England Joke Lore (1922). ninepence cents.

A historical term for a coin worth 121/2

nippers Large woolen mittens fishermen wear, to keep the cold from nippin’ their hands. no bigger’n a pint o’ cider Very small. Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). no breakfast; no supper Old derisive terms used in New England for vessels hailing from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia; the names derive from the initials N. B. or N. S. on their sides.

nothing marrying nothing 275 nocake A meal made of parched Indian corn; from the Narragansett Indian nokehick, “it is soft.”

to eat.” Quoted in William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket (1916).

no earthly good An old-fashioned expression meaning no good at all. “He’s up to no earthly good, that’s for sure.”

northern fox grape A wild grape ranging from New England to Illinois and south to Georgia that is so named because it supposedly “smelleth and tasteth like unto a foxe.” It is the source of the Concord and other cultivated grape varieties.

noggin A lightweight milk bucket. “No home in central New Hampshire in the old days was considered completely equipped if it had not a noggin for milk and a PIGGEN for sap . . . Its lightness is part of the noggin’s efficiency. One of its uses . . . was to carry out to barn or pasture . . . when milk fell short in the house.” (Cornelius Weygandt, New Hampshire Neighbors, 1937) no great kill or cure Of no great importance. “It ain’t no great kill-or-cure whether they come or don’t.” Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). no great of An old-fashioned expression meaning no excellent example of. “She is no great of a cook.” noise See quote. “The elegant Gray said naise for noise just as our westies do.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1866)

Norwegian steam A humorous, mildly derogative term used by old salts for human muscle power. norwester Norwich Nor-itch.

A northwester, a northwest wind. The Connecticut city’s name is pronounced

no-see-um The name for the small stinging flies Henry David Thoreau mentioned in his Maine Woods (1848); the name is possibly Penobscot Indian in origin or is simply a humorous name for the small flies. not as much light as a yellow-eyed bean Used by Mainers to describe very poor lighting; the yellow-eye is a favorite bean in the state.

No Man’s Land The name of a small island close to MARTHA’S VINEYARD, Massachusetts. It is named after an Indian named Tequenoman, who once lived there.

not backward in going forward Used to describe a very pushy person. Cited in Annie E. Perkins, “Vanishing Expressions of the Maine Coast,” American Speech (December 1927).

no more heat in the sun than a yellow dog described a cold winter day in Maine.

not by a jugful! tion.

Used to

no-nation An old-fashioned term meaning no good, worthless. “You’re a no-nation S.O.B.!” nooning A noon rest period or lunchtime in Maine. “So, as you harvesters / Make glad their nooning underneath the elms / With tale and riddle and old snatch of song / I lay aside grave themes.” (James Greenleaf Whittier, “Among the Hills,” 1867) nor-easter A northeaster, a wind or gale from the northeast. “Weather would hit oddly hard, so that power would be lost for the week after a non-easter that had hardly touched the rest of the coast . . .” (John Updike, “Wildlife,” in The Afterlife, 1994) nor more use for them than Meader had for his teeth A saying that derives from the old story about a man named Nick Meader who at about the time of the War of 1812 borrowed a hammer to knock out all his teeth, claiming “I have no need of them, for I can get nothing

No way! An old-fashioned exclama-

notch (1) A mountain pass. Used in place-names such as Franconia Notch. (2) Franconia Notch. “They had found the herb, ‘heart’s ease,’ in the bleakest spot of all New England. This family were situated in the Notch of the White Hills [White Mountains] where the wind was sharp throughout the year, and pitilessly cold in the winter . . .” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Ambitious Guest,” 1835) For the best lengthy description I know of the notch, see Hawthorne’s story “Sketches From Memory” (1835). See also FLUME. notches

See

CORNER.

nothard Northward. “It blowed fresh from the nothard.” nothing marrying nothing Used to describe a poor marriage. Cited in Annie E. Perkins, “Vanishing Expressions of the Maine Coast,” American Speech (December 1927).

276 Yankee Talk notional Once a common synonym for fanciful, whimsical. “He’s a very notional fellow.” notions An old word that still has some currency as a term for small wares or goods. not right Mentally unfit, crazy, “My father’s brother wasn’t right. They kept him / Locked up for years back there at the old farm.” (Robert Frost, “A Servant to Servants,” North of Boston, 1914) not to know beans The nationally used not to know beans may initially have been a Boston expression, suggesting that anyone who didn’t know how to make baked beans in Boston, “the home of the bean and the cod,” would have to be incredibly ignorant. not worth a chaw of tobacco See quote. “[Among New England Whalers] a thing which is nearly worthless is ‘not worth a chaw of tobacco.’ ” (William Hussey Macy, There She Blow! 1877) not worth a Hannah Cook Worthless, of no account, insignificant. “He’s not worth a Hannah Cook.” The expression originally was nautical, but no one has identified a real no-account Hannah Cook behind the phrase. It may be folk etymology for a hand or cook aboard a ship, hands and cooks making less money than other seaman and thus having lower status. not worth a hole in the snow

Worthless.

now See quote. “ ‘Now,’ he said, pronouncing it naiow, ‘it’s not as though a man looked real close up at my district . . .’ ” (George V. Higgins, Victories, 1990)

nowadays At the present time, currently. “I never twist a spigot [on a hard cider barrel] nowadays . . . But I thank God for orchards . . .” (Edward Arlington Robinson, “Isaac and Archibald,” Captain Craig, 1902) nubblin A poor ear of corn, small or with kernels missing; often called a nubbin in other places. nubbut A pronunciation of “nothing but” heard in New Hampshire and Maine. “He’s nubbut a lot of trouble.” numb A polite way to say “dumb” in Maine. “Let’s not be numb about this, Bill.” numb as a hake

Very stupid, as dumb as a dead fish.

nummy Food or a meal, especially lunch. The term once was common in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Nutmeg State

Connecticut. See also

YANKEE PEDDLER.

Nutmeg Stater A resident of Connecticut, the Nutmeg State. “Driving down Route 86 into the blinding splinters of a sunset, he heard the disc jockey crow, ‘Get your long johns out of the mothballs, Nutmeg Staters, we’re going to flirt with zero tonight!’” (John Updike, “Grandparenting,” in The Afterlife, 1994) Nutmeg Yankee A nickname for a Connecticut inhabitant. “He had expected him, also, to be taciturn, as befitted in Nutmeg Yankee.” (Eric Hodgins, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, 1946) nyu A pronunciation of now frequently heard in New England.

O oak-acorn A redundancy heard in Maine. “He gathered a bagful of oak-acorns.”

extension, the term can describe anyone having a hard time getting his or her bearings.

o-be-joyful Any potent liquor. “He was full of o-bejoyful.” Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). See quote under BLACK BETTS. Also heard as OBJ.

o fush! An old-fashioned interjection similar to o fudge! or nonsense. “O fush! What a lot of foolishness that is!” o-grab-me The Embargo Act of 1807, and acts of following years, restricted the number of American ships departing from ports, to prevent hostilities on the seas. But since it harmed our British and French enemies less than it harmed Americans, New England shipowners began spelling embargo backward and called the acts the o-grab-me acts.

obleeged An old pronunciation of “obliged.” “Much obleeged to you.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie Venner, 1861) obstropulous An old-fashioned humorous word meaning obstreperous.

oh dear me, suz! An expressive Yankee exclamation that translates as “Oh dear me, sorrow!” Recorded in Katherine M. Abbott, Old Paths and Legends of New England (1904).

ocean pout A named used mostly in Boston for the eellike fish generally called lote or eel-pout (Zoarces viviparus). Off An abbreviation of “off-island” used on Nantucket, as in “Haven’t seen you lately—have you been Off?” or “When did you come On from Off?” Cited by William F. Macy in The Nantucket Scrap Basket (1916).

oh fiddlesticks! A common old-fashioned expression of annoyance, impatience, disbelief and disapproval.

off islander (1) name given by Nantucketers to people who do not live on their island. (2) Someone who lives on the mainland rather than on any of the islands off New England.

oh Rinehart See quote. “. . . ‘Oh, Rineheart!’ began . . . after a student of the name had repeatedly been shouted to by noisy friends. In the course of time it has become a sort of Harvard battle-cry, and the word is now used to describe any yard uproar, in which the calling of Mr. Rineheart’s undying name is an inevitable feature.” (Samuel Eliot Morison, Three Centuries of Harvard, 1936) It has been established that the man the historical expression honors was James Brice Gordon Rinehart, Harvard class of 1900.

off soundings Far out at sea, in deep water where soundings of depth can’t be made with the lead line; by

oh the devil! An old-fashioned exclamation. “. . . [there] appeared a story [in a mid-19th century Lowell,

Off-Caper A name Cape Cod residents give to anyone who doesn’t live on Cape Cod.

277

278 Yankee Talk Massachusetts magazine] about the doom of a girl not so careful about her language as she should have been— indeed, on one fatal occasion, while entertaining a young man believed to be on the edge of proposing, she pricked her finger on the embroidery needle and cried out, ‘Oh the devil!’ The young man immediately left for South America and has never yet returned.” (May Lamberton Becker, Golden Tales of New England, 1931) oh, we jist fumigate A humorous reply of Mainers to summer people who ask, “What on earth do you do here after the summer people leave?” Quoted in Arthur Bartlett, “Maine,” Holiday (August 1947). oilnuts

Another name for butternuts.

old baster (1) An affectionate name for male friend. “Haven’t seen you for ages, you old baster.” (2) Said of anything large in size. “He sure caught himself an old baster.” Old Bay State

A nickname for Massachusetts.

“Old Cape Cod” A popular romantic song of the 1950s about love on Cape Cod. Old Clock on the Stairs, the Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

cried: “Huzza! Her sides are made of iron!” And Old Ironsides she has been since that day. In 1830 Oliver Wendell Holmes, hearing that she was to be sold by the navy, wrote his famous poem “Old Ironsides” in protest and she was saved. old jeezer A term used in Maine for old fellow, old guy. “The old jeezer still does his share of the work.” Perhaps suggested by geezer and old geezer. Old Man of the Mountain A natural formation on a mountainside in New Hampshire’s White Mountains that resembles the face of an old man. Old Manse, the The name of Emerson’s and later Hawthorne’s house in Concord, Massachusetts. old man, the/the old woman When any old man or old woman is mentioned, the expression usually is prefaced with the. “How’s the old woman Carson today?” old Medford rum A potent rum made in Medford, New Hampshire. “I saw an inchworm take a drop of this [old Medford rum] one day and he stood right up on his heels and bit a bee.” (Stephen Vincent Benét, “The Devil and Daniel Webster,” 1937)

A landmark in the city of

Old Colony A historical term for the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. Old Driver See quote. “Old Driver, Old Splitfoot”: the devil.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867) older than Methuselah’s billy goat saying meaning very old.

An old-fashioned

old fuddy dud Someone very fussy or finicky; used especially in Maine rather than fuddy duddy, which may be more common nationwide. Also an old fubdub. Old Glory This popular name for the American flag was coined by Captain William Driver, who was presented with a U.S. flag before sailing from Salem on his brig Charles Doggett on August 10, 1831. Captain Driver so christened the flag on that day or shortly thereafter. Old Ironsides The famous nickname of the U.S. frigate Constitution, built in 1797 and now moored in the Boston Navy Yard, America’s oldest warship still afloat. The high point of her illustrious career came On August 19, 1812, when she engaged and defeated the British frigate Guerrière off Nova Scotia. During the battle an American sailor, watching British shots fall into the sea,

Old Nick The devil. “Such pounding and expounding . . . such slapping with his open palm, thumping with his closed fist, and banging with the whole weight of the great Bible, convinced me that he held, in imagination, either the Old Nick, or some Unitarian infidel at bay . . .” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Passages from a Relinquished Work,” 1834) old niddy-noddy, an Once a common expression for someone very erratic and unsettled. The niddy-noddy is a device for winding yarn; persons using one had to move their hands in a seemingly erratic fashion. Old Scholar, the mariners. old seed folks England Old Splitfoot

A term for God once common among

Ancestors; old residents born in New

See

OLD DRIVER.

old stock People whose ancestors have been in New Hampshire or other parts of New England for generations. “ ‘But don’t you think we sometimes make too much / Of the old stock? What counts is the ideals . . .” (Robert Frost, “The Generations of Men,” 1914) Old Town Turkey A nickname among Nantucketers for any resident of Martha’s Vineyard; Edgarstown on

our folks 279 Martha’s Vineyard once was known as Old Town. Cited in William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket (1916). old whale glanders.

A term once applied to sailors by New En-

on (1) Frequently used in past years for of. “. . . if y’ a’n’t afeared on him!” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie Venner, 1861) (2) Used in such expression as “Seein’ on ’em home,” “Doin’ on it.” one and another One after another. “Minty . . . milked the cows, one and another.” (Mary Wilkins Freeman, A New England Nun and Other Stories, 1891) one fishball The popular song “One Meatball,” with its well-known line “you get no bread with one meatball,” was adapted from a New England song called “The Lay of One Fishball,” apparently written by Harvard professor George Martin Lane in 1857 or thereabouts. Lane’s line was: “We don’t give bread with one fishball!” one holer

See

BACKHOUSE.

one perry and one porter were too much for John Bull to swallow! A popular Yankee slogan after the War of 1812, this punning expression refers to American naval heroes Oliver Perry, whose last name means a hard cider made of pears, and David Porter, whose last name means a strong, dark beer. John Bull, of course, is the national nickname for England. on the coast A Nantucketism meaning nearby, close at hand. “A gallant lover will assure his lady-love that if she will only fix the day, ‘he’ll be sure to be on the coast with the parson.’ ” (Maximilian Schele De Vere, Americanisms, 1871) on the flakes Dead, laid out, as fish are on a flake (a drying platform). “Old Billy’s on the flakes down at Hannigan’s Funeral Parlor.” on the gain Recuperating, getting better, on the mend. “She’s been very sick but is on the gain.” on the hind tit (or teat) Used to mean someone “isn’t getting as much as everyone else”: “I’m always on the hind teat when it comes to overtime.” The analogy is to a last pig feeding on a sow, though there is no proof that a mother pig’s last teat offers any less milk than any other. on the mending hand Said of someone convalescing. Cited as “a common New England phrase” in Frederic

D. Allen, “Contributions to the New England Vocabulary,” Dialect Notes, Vol. I (1890). on the town Someone on welfare or public assistance, someone who receives financial help. “He’s been on the town three years now.” on your own hook On your own. This expression comes to us from New England fishermen working the Grand Banks on big boats in the 19th century. They were paid according to what they caught individually on their own hooks and lines. open and shet’s a sign of wet open and shut day out of the clouds. open day clouds.

See

LIGHT AND SHUT.

A day when the sun pokes in and

A sunny day, when the sun isn’t behind

open weather

Clear weather; no clouds.

opodildocs A humorous term once used to describe a very spirited horse. “He’s on his opodildocs.” An opodildoc was apparently a strong liniment. oquassa A tasty freshwater trout (Salvelinus oquassa) found in western Maine’s Lake Oquassa and others of the Rangeley Lakes. Orleans Pronounced orr-LEENS; Vermont and Cape Cod towns. orpicues A term used on the Maine coast meaning flourishes in handwriting, curlicues, and the like. orts Leavings or refuse, from table scraps and inedible hay to cattle droppings and fish entrails. This Old English word meaning spoiled hay survives in New England speech, chiefly in Maine. otter A pronunciation commonly heard in Boston for “order.” ought Sometimes used for the zeroes in dates, as in 19 ought three (1903). our country’s bird The bald eagle. “Our country’s bird alookin’ on an’ singin’ out hosanner.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1846) our folks Local people, people who belong to one’s community. “Miss Ophelia took Topsy home to Vermont with her, much to the surprise of that grave deliberative body whom a New Englander recognizes under

280 Yankee Talk the term ‘Our folks.’ ” (Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852)

out Yankee To outwit or get the better of, especially in trading. “He out Yankeed him at every turn.”

oursins A name used by French-speaking New Englanders for sea urchins (Arbacia punctulata).

over in one’s book Getting old, near the last chapter or page of one’s life. “I’m getting over in my book and want to thank everyone now—wouldn’t have lasted this long without a lot of understanding folk.”

out See quote. “Along the [New England] seaboard, the wind is ‘out’ or ‘has got out’ when it blows from the sea. The expression is known in Portsmouth, Salem, and Plymouth. I do not think it is common in Boston.” (Frederic D. Allen, “Contributions to New England Vocabulary,” Dialect Notes, Vol. I, 1890) outlandisher Someone from out of state, a “foreigner”; an expression once commonly used in Massachusetts. out of kin Mainers use this expression to mean “no relation.” “He’s out of kin to me.” out of pure cussedness To do something solely because one is mad and spiteful. “ ‘He done it o’ pure cussedness,’ and ‘He is a nateral cuss,’ have been commonly thought Yankeeisms . . . But neither is our own [going back centuries].” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867) out-of-the wayest Strangest, most unusual. “She had out-o’-the-wayest words for everything.” (Annie Trumbull Slosson, “A Local Colorist,” 1912) outspoken as a norwester Very outspoken. “He wuz as outspoken as a norwester, he wuz . . .” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867)

over street In town, downtown. “He’s over street to the doctors.” Also down street. over the bay Drunk; perhaps patterned on the expression half-seas over. over to Over at. “‘Howie Newsome says it’s ten below over to his bar.’” (Thornton Wilder, Our Town, 1938) over to the continent An expression used by natives of Nantucket when they leave the island to visit the mainland: “I’m going over to the continent.” owah hour.

A pronunciation commonly heard in Boston for

owlin’ around Said of someone up late at night, from a reveler to an insomniac. owning to it Admitting something. “‘I’m a Yankee,’ said Slick, ‘and I ain’t above ownin’ to it . . .’ ” (Thomas C. Haliburton, The Clockmaker, 1837)

P Padanaram Pronounced PAD-uh-neer-um; a Massachusetts town. paddy wagon

paper birch A common New England tree (Betula papyrifera) once much used to make canoes, canoe paddles and snowshoes.

Heard in Boston for police car. paper the wall To talk excessively. “He went on and on, papered the wall with it.” Used chiefly in Maine.

pahk the cah in Hahvahd yahd Park the car in Harvard Yard. Often cited as a humorous example of the Boston broad a. See the Introduction.

parin’ bee

See

APPLE CUT.

painted Jezebel A prostitute; the words rarely are heard anymore. “ ‘I have told him that you are a radical, and you may tell him, if you like, that I am a painted Jezebel.” (Henry James, The Bostonians, 1886)

park Often pronounced pack. “The inhabitants [of Ayer, Massachusetts] pronounced ‘park’ as if it were ‘pack’.” (Frank Sullivan, The New Yorker, February 22, 1945)

paint up An old-fashioned way to say “to paint.” “‘We did pretty well with the hotel, and my wife was always at me to paint up . . . Well, I put it off . . . till one day I gave in, and says I, ‘Well, let’s paint up.” (William Dean Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham, 1885)

parkway A divided highway with plantings on each side and in the middle. parlor stove The woodburning stove kept in the parlor in days past; basically no different from any other such stove but handsomer, often nickel plated.

pale as dishwater Very pale. Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914).

Parmachenee Belle An artificial trout fly named after Parmachenee Lake in Maine.

pally Often heard in Boston for pal, friend, buddy. “‘Keep yah shirt on, pally,’ Brennan said complacently in the driver’s seat.’ ” (George V. Higgins, Bomber’s Law, 1993)

parson’s nose The walnut-size protuberance on the end of a turkey or other fowl that is actually the bird’s tail (minus the feathers) and is also jocularly called the part that went over the fence last. “Thanksgivings Aunt Edwina always asked for the ‘parson’s nose.’ ”

pan fried potatoes

Home fries. parted her fasts A nautical term that means a ship that strayed from its mooring. Often applied figuratively.

pantod Frequently used in Massachusetts and Connecticut in former times to describe anything from a violent pain to a mild discomfort “You act like you had the pantod.”

partridge Used in Maine, which has no native partridges, for grouse. Pronounced pa’tridge. 281

282 Yankee Talk part that went over the fence last

See

PARSON’S NOSE.

passel This pronunciation of parcel is found in New England, Southern and New York City speech. The form dates back to the 15th century, though the use of passel as a collective noun indicating an indefinite number dates back to 19th-century America. patched like a whaleman’s shirt An old nautical term used for anything in poor repair, barely held together. Patriots Day A legal holiday marking the anniversary of the battle of Lexington on April 16, 1775; celebrated in Massachusetts and Maine since 1894. payback Revenge. “‘Oh, bitch, ain’t you gonna get a payback,’ he says.” (Stephen King, Dolores Claiborne, 1993) pea beans Small white beans used in many New England dishes. Peabody Bird Peacham peaked

See

SAM PEABODY.

Pronounced PEE-chum; a Vermont town. Often pronounced PEE-kid in Maine.

Peaked Hill Bars A dangerous reef off Cape Cod. The Peaked in the name is pronounced pick-ed or picket. pea soup fog A very thick fog through which a fisherman can barely see the end of his outstretched arm on the water. This expression is used in other regions as well. peavey A short pole with a book used in logging, invented in 1858 by Maine blacksmith Joseph Peavey. pecker-fretted Riddled with holes made by a woodpecker. “A few old pecker-fretted apple trees.” (Robert Frost, “Directive,” 1947) peep A nickname for any sandpiper (Actitis macularia), especially the least sandpiper; after the sound this shore bird makes. peep of day Dawn. “ ‘Home, or we’ll set you in the stocks by peep of day.’ ” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, “My Kinsman, Major Molineux,” 1832) peg out To die. “He’ll peg out before winter ends.” Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions in Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914).

pell-mell for a cat-race! sion a century ago.

Very fast. A common expres-

pelter An old, worn-out horse; the term was heard mostly in Massachusetts in the early 1900s. Penobscot An Indian tribe of the Maine Penobscot River and Bay area. “When the first Europeans came blowing by, the Maine coast was the home of the Abenakis, a tall Algonkian Indian race—Sokokis, Anasaqunticooks or Androscoggins, Canibas or Kennebecs, Wawennacks or Penobscots.” (Robert P. Tristram Coffin, Yankee Coast, 1947) Penn Yan, New York This old New York town, settled by New Englanders, is said to have been named from the first four letters of Pennsylvania plus the first three of Yankee. Pequot An Algonquian Indian tribe once dominant in southern New England. “The Pequots were probably the bravest and most ferocious of all the New England tribes.” (Clarence Webster, Town Mutiny County, 1945) perambulate the bounds To inspect the boundaries between towns, a practice required by law since colonial times in New England. Selectmen from the towns periodically meet to do this to make sure their boundaries have not been relocated. perceivance An old term meaning notice. “He took no perceivance of it.” perch A measurement of 16 1/2 feet once commonly used in New England. Better known as a rod, a perch was usually measured off with a perch pole of that length. Perkins’ tractors A historical term for a set of three-inch-long rods, once brass and one steel, that were said to relieve aches and pains by magnetism when they were drawn over affected areas of the body. Named for their inventor, Dr. Elisha Perkins (1741–99) of Norwich, Connecticut, they were very popular in their day. persnickety Overly concerned about small details, fastidious, fussy. The origin of the word is unknown. pesky A nationally used term meaning troublesome or annoying that originated in New England, where it possibly was introduced directly from England’s Essex dialect. pestle around A Vermont term dating back to the days of mortar-and-pestle describing any hasty, puttering actively. “He’s been pestlin’ around all day.”

pilgrim 283 petoncles, pelerines Names French-speaking New Englanders use for scallops. petticoat government A household ruled by the women or woman of the house. “ ‘I am a poor good-fornothing critter . . . I am under petticoat government here.’ ” (Henry David Thoreau, Cape Cod, 1865) peverly bird A name in New England for what is more commonly called the peabody bird and whitethroated sparrow elsewhere. The little sparrow is said to sound like it’s singing, “Old Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody,” hence peabody bird. As for peverly bird, an old story has it that a Mr. Peverly, a New England farmer, was walking in his fields one early spring day trying to decide whether he should plant his wheat yet. A little sparrow in the adjacent woods seemed to sing, “Sow wheat, Peverly, Peverly, Peverly!” so Mr. Peverly went ahead and did so, reaping an abundant harvest that fall. Ever after the little sparrow was called the peverly bird in New England. P.I. See quote. “Strictly speaking a P.I. is one who hails originally from Prince Edward’s Island; but around here [Maine] it has come to mean any Canadian who isn’t a Frenchman. A Canadian Frenchman is just a Frenchman. If you mean a man from France—and you very seldom do—you say a French Frenchman.” (Louise Dickinson Rich, Happy the Land, 1946) piazza A porch. “‘That’s right. Mrs. Lothrop said they’d have the Herreshoff teas on that porch.’ ‘The correct term,’ said Ma, ‘is piazza.’ ” (Susan Minot, “Thanksgiving Day,” 1986) pick In most places potatoes are dug, but in Maine they are picked. pick-ed Pointed. “He stepped on the pick-ed end of the eel spear.” pickled oyster

See

SHELL-OYSTER.

pictur Picture. “The Yankee always shortens the u in the ending ture, making ventur, natur, pictur and so on.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867) picture pie

See U.

See quote. The pie is an English institution, which, planted on American soil, forthwith ran rampant and burst forth onto an untold variety of genera and species. Not merely the old traditional mince pie, but a thousand strictly American seedlings from the main stock, evinced the power of

American housewives to adapt old institutions to new uses. Pumpkin pies, cranberry pies, huckleberry pies, peach, pear and plum pies, custard pies, apple pies, Marlborough-pudding pies—pies with top crusts and without—pies adorned with all sorts of fanciful flutings and architectural strips laid across and around, and otherwise varied, attested the boundless fertility of the feminine mind, when let loose in a given direction. (Harriet Beecher Stowe, Old Town Folks, 1869)

piece out Last, make do. “We’ve get enough wood to piece out the winter.” pieplant Another name for rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum), because it often is used in pie fillings. pierce

See

FIERCE.

pigeon roost A large area, often up to 100,000 acres, where passenger pigeons once roosted, so many of them that the sun never reached the ground. piggin A small bucket used to collect sap from maple trees. See NOGGIN. pilch

A quilted mattress cover.

pile on the agony To act theatrically or very emotionally. “Don’t you think you’re piling on the agony a bit too thick?” pilgrim

See quote.

“Pilgrims” is little more than a century old, having come into common usage since 1840 . . . The Pilgrims had no name for themselves as a group. For generations they were known to their descendants merely as the Forefathers, a name preserved in the only holiday officially dedicated to their memory, Forefathers’ Day, tardily instituted in Massachusetts in 1895 . . . (George F. Willison, Saints and Strangers, 1945)

Willison adds that the name “Pilgrims” for the “Forefathers” or “First Comers” was used first by Governor William Bradford in 1630 in the phrase “they knew they were pilgrims” in his manuscript chronicle of Plimoth Plantation, a manuscript that wasn’t widely available for over two centuries. The story of the 102 Pilgrims who founded Plymouth Colony is too well known to bear repeating here, except to say that these Pilgrim Fathers landed on Plymouth Rock instead of in Virginia, as planned, because bad weather had kept them too long at sea and they had run out of beer, among other supplies. Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, Massachusetts is a recreation of the second permanent settlement in America as it appeared in 1627, seven years after the Pilgrims landed. The word pilgrim means wanderer, traveler, person who journeys a long distance to a sacred place. It has an interesting history, coming

284 Yankee Talk from the Latin peregrinus, “stranger.” It came into English as pelegrin in about 1200, but dissimilation and slothful pronunciation over the years eventually made pilgrim out of pelegrin. Thus, the Pilgrim Fathers, a proverbially industrious group, take their name from a lazy man’s word. Pilgrim City

An old nickname for Boston.

Pilgrim mothers One of the women founders of the Plymouth Colony in 1620. Pilgrim people chusetts.

A nickname for inhabitants of Massa-

Pine-tree stater

A Mainer.

pinkletink An old term for a young frog of the genus Hyla heard on Martha’s Vineyard and in southwestern Massachusetts. pinkwink A Cape Cod term for a tadpole, based on the sound tadpoles make. pinky This old type of sharp-sterned New England fishing schooner probably took its name from the Dutch pinche, “narrow,” in reference to its long, narrow counter (the part of the stern that hangs over and protects the sternpost).

Pilgrim shell An old name for what is now generally called the scallop shell.

pint! An order to behave quietly; heard on Isleboro, off the Maine coast.

Pilgrim society An organization founded in 1820 to honor the Pilgrims who founded Plymouth, Massachusetts.

piny An unusual New England pronunciation of “peony,” which is bested only by the old Washington State rendering of the name peony: piano plant.

pillow bier An old-fashioned word, rarely used today, for pillow case.

pious as a barn rat A sarcastic old expression used to describe a sanctimonious person.

pimping This obsolete term is far removed in meaning from the modern definition of the word. Pimping was used in the 19th century to mean “little, petty”: “It’s such a pimping thing to fight about.”

pismire one.

pindling A child, adult or even an animal who is pale, small, undernourished. pine cone and tassel pine knot firewood.

The state symbol of Maine.

A knot of wood from the pine tree used for

pine-tree cod A name for cod (Gadus callarius) in southeast Maine.

Used in New Hampshire for ant, usually a red

piss-cutter A show-off, often said to a man who is all dressed up; heard mostly in Maine. pissybed A dandelion, because folklore holds that eating it causes nocturnal wetting of the bed. pistol The word for a Maine lobster with only one claw or none. pixilated Dazed, bewildered, daffy. Used frequently in the screenplay Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936).

pine-tree flag An early New England flag with a pine tree as an emblem.

pizen neat An old often complimentary term heard in Maine and elsewhere for very neat. Pizen here is a pronunciation of person.

pine-tree shilling A coin with a pine tree as an emblem issued by the Massachusetts colony in 1652.

plagued Cussed, ornery. Often pronounced pleg-ged. “I wish those plegged tourists would go home.”

His enemies had a ridiculous story that Master (“Ichabod”) Pigsnort (“a weighty merchant and selectman of Boston”) was accustomed to spend a whole hour, after prayer time, every morning and evening, in wallowing naked among an immense quantity of pine-tree shillings, which were the earliest coinage of Massachusetts. (Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Great Carbuncle,” 1837)

Pine Tree State

A nickname for Maine.

plaguey sight, a A great deal. “I’d a plaguey sight rather see Ascot than anything else in England.” (Thomas C. Haliburton, The Attaché or Sam Slick in England, 1843–44) plaguing Annoying, teasing. “He’s been plaguing the little ones all day.” Often pronounced pleging.

polpisy 285 plaguing at Insisting in an annoying way. “And there he stuck year after year, with the whole town plaguing at him to quit.” (Dorothy Canfield, “Old Man Warner,” in Raw Material, 1925) plain speaking Speaking directly to the point, bluntly, without any euphemism or adornment. “ ‘Folks in her day were given to plain speaking.’ ” (Robert Frost, “The Generations of Men,” 1914) plantations

Plymouth Pilgrim A term Southerners used derisively for Union soldier during the Civil War. Plymouth Rock (1) A large granite boulder in Plymouth Harbor where the first European settlers landed in 1620. (2) A variety of chickens first bred in Plymouth, Massachusetts in the mid-19th century.

A humorous old term for human feet.

plaster A name used in Massachusetts for the surf scoter duck (Melanitta perspicillita), because of the large plasterlike splotch on the adult male’s bill. plate full up with Filled with. “‘Sickness and trouble: that’s what Ethan’s had his plate full up with, ever since the very first helping.’ ” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911) playing possum Making believe one is dead. “Winter only was playing possum.” (Robert Frost, “Two Tramps in Mud Time,” 1936) play Yankee with

poach Used a century ago to mean “tread soft ground and leave deep tracks” as cattle do. podge To move slowly. “There he goes podgin’ along.” Podunk Small backward towns have been called Podunks since before 1841, when the term is first recorded. The first Podunk was an Indian place-name between what is now Hartford and Windsor, Connecticut, the name deriving from the Mohegan Algonquian word for neck or corner of land. The humorous sound of Podunk led Americans to use it derisively for little, insignificant place.

An obsolete term meaning to cheat.

please one about to death Please someone greatly. “. . . we’ll go right over an’ see poor old Miss Nancy Fell; ’t will please her about to death.” (Sarah Orne Jewett, “The Guests of Mrs. Timms,” 1895) please up

Plymothean An inhabitant of Plymouth, Massachusetts; the term was first recorded in 1631.

Please, “I’m sure that we’ll please him up.”

pleasuring Holidaying, vacationing, anything done for pleasure as opposed to work; often said of sailing for pleasure. “Let’s go pleasurin’ this weekend.” plucky Courageous, full of spirit. “We grew plucky women in New Hampshire.” (Stephen Vincent Benét, “The Devil and Daniel Webster,” 1937) plum Blueberries are not picked in Maine but plumed. They are also raked, after the implement used to harvest lowbush berries. The berries certainly are not anywhere near plum size, so the origin of expressions such as “Let’s go plumming tomorrow” are something of a mystery.

pogy Often used in New England for menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus), a fish caught mainly for its oil in days past. Apparently a corruption of porgy, which is another fish entirely. poisson blanc A name for whitefish (of the family Coregonidae) used in parts of New England where there is French influence; it is French for white fish. poke (1) A synonym for stomach. “My poke’s all filled up.” (2) Poke means a paper bag in other regions. pokeloken bay area.

A word used by lumbermen for a marshy

Polack fiddle A lumbering term for bucksaw, which Polish lumberjacks in Maine used so expertly that they made it sing. pole cat

See

POLE CAT TRAIL.

plumb smackety-dab Squarely. “He stepped plumb smackety-dab into it.”

pole cat trail A pole cat is another name for skunk, and a pole cat trail is an easy skiing trail for poor skiers or beginners without sharp turns or pitches. See WILD CAT TRAIL.

plum crazy Completely crazy, an expression once common in New England speech.

polpisy Heard in Nantucket for awkward, countrified. “He acts polpisy.”

286 Yankee Talk pom-pom-pete-away A once-popular game of tag. Also pump-pump-pullaway.

Porchmuth A New Hampshire pronunciation of “Portsmouth,” a seaport in southeast New Hampshire.

pond Often applied to any inland waters, no matter how large or small. Indeed, the Atlantic and Pacific oceans have been described humorously as ponds.

porcupine

poochin’ out Sticking out. “ ‘. . . his lower lip poochin’ out in that ugly way it had.’ ” (Stephen King, Dolores Claiborne, 1993) pooquaw Ask for a pooquaw in New England today and all you’ll get is a “What?” But the term was once common for the quahog clam, especially in Nantucket. It derives from a Narraganset Indian word. poor as poverty in a gale o’ wind Very poor. Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions in Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). poored away Grown thin, wasted away. “He has poored away.” poorly In bad health. “I been poorly all this year, but I think I’m feeling better now.”

porridge Frequently pronounced por-ritch, as in the old rhyme “There was a young man from Noritch / Who burnt his mouth on Bean Por-ritch.” Portagee Portuguese. “What’n thunder’r’y abaout, y’ darned Portagee?” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie Venner, 1861) Port Clyde sardines A sardine caught in Port Clyde, Maine, said to be the equal in taste to any in the world. Portlander Oregon.

popple A rural pronunciation of “poplar.” “It’s under the popple tree.” popular In the 1867 Biglow Papers, James Russell Lowell gave popular as a New England synonym for conceited. porch

An ell kitchen.

The word porch is dictionary-defined as a “covered way or entrance whether enclosed or unenclosed.” In ecclesiastical architecture, where it presumably originated, it describes the covered and usually enclosed entrance built on to a church or cathedral—for all the world, in general outline and appearance, like the ell kitchen of a typical old Nantucket house . . . The use of the word porch as applied to a veranda is modern U.S. and more or less local at that. (William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket, 1916)

A native of Portland, Maine or Portland,

Portsmouth Pronounced PORTS-muth; a New Hampshire city and Rhode Island town. Often pronounced pertetter in Maine.

potato bargain An inexpensive traditional New England dish made of salt pork, potatoes, onions and bread. pot cheese

poor old country railroad A nickname given to Maine’s Portland & Oxford Central Railroad, the appellation based on its initials and the many mishaps on the line.

HEDGEHOG.

porkpick Another word for porcupine heard in Maine and vicinity; a corruption of the French porcpeque for the animal. See also HEDGEHOG, QUILL-PIG.

potato poor man’s manure Snow that falls in early spring; it is thought to provide the soil with nutrients and to provide a better source of moisture because it doesn’t run off and cause erosion. The term is also used in other regions.

See

See

COTTAGE CHEESE.

pot head In Maine this term has nothing to do with habitual users of marijuana, meaning instead someone of very limited intelligence. pot luck See quote. “From the town of East Lee [Massachusetts] is said to come the phrase ‘pot luck’ as applied to a delectable New England boiled dinner . . . ‘Potluck’ was well-known in 1791, in the town of Lee which was settled by Cape Cod people mostly.” (Federal Writers’ Project, The Berkshire Hills, 1939) See NEW ENGLAND BOILED DINNER. Pot luck has come to mean eating anything your host is having for dinner when you drop in unexpectedly (“You’re welcome to have pot luck with us”), or any dinner to which the participants bring a dish of their own making. potty A pronunciation commonly heard in Boston for party. pound up Beat up. “He pounded him up so bad his own mother didn’t know him.”

pung 287 poverty grass Hudsonia tomentosa, a beach grass found on Cape Cod and elsewhere. “All winter long [the carpet of] this grass has been a kind of rag gray . . . but now it wears one of the rarest and loveliest greens in nature. I shall have to use the term ‘sage green’ in telling of it . . .” (Henry Beston, The Outermost House, 1928) powerful Very. “ ‘It is powerful cold down here.’ Ethan assented . . .” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911) prayer-handles A humorous word for knees. “He got down on his prayer-handles.” Given as a common term in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). Praying Indian A term used in early New England for an Indian converted to Christianity. presume likely The Nantucket equivalent of the Southern “reckon” or the “guess” other Yankees might use. “I presume likely they’re coming.” pretty nigh fin out An old Nantucket way to say one is seriously ill, the reference to the way a dying whale rolls over on its side, showing a fin above water. Cited in William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket (1916). privileged A nautical term for a vessel with the right of way that is sometimes applied to traffic on the road. Someone who had the right of way on the highway might say “I was privileged.” prized up professor

Pried up. “He prized up the nails.” An obsolete word for a fervent church member.

prolly A common Boston pronunciation of “probably,” though both can be used in the same sentence depending on the emphasis, as in this quote: “ ‘I guess prolly though his can’t be as good, probably, the first one that he got, I mean.’ ” (George V. Higgins, Bomber’s Law, 1993) Also common in Maine. prop’ty An old-fashioned pronunciation of “property.” “A real lovely friendship with a young woman who had, as Mrs. Tarrant expressed it, ‘prop’ty’ . . .” (Henry James, The Bostonians, 1886) prudent Sometimes used for prudently. “Spend it prudent!” (Alice Brown, “Mis’ Wadleigh’s Guest,” 1895) P-town A nickname for Provincetown used on Cape Cod. “P-town was a strange two-faced kind of place, he thought. And it had been that way even in his youth, a

hard-working town where a lot of people seemed to be playing all the time.” (William Martin, Cape Cod, 1991) public school Grammar school. “ ‘Public School’s over yonder. High School’s still farther over.’ ” (Thornton Wilder, Our Town, 1938) puckerbrush A word used in Maine and New Hampshire for the woods or wilderness. “He went up into the puckerbrush and ain’t been seen since.” puckersnatch The term proud seamstresses of old used to mean “hasty and poor sewing,” often all bunched up. Pudding Town An old nickname for Northhampton, Connecticut; from the widespread custom in the town of having hasty pudding and milk for Saturday supper. Recorded by Clifton Johnson, Historic Hampshire in the Connecticut Valley (1932). Residents of Pudding Town were called Puddingers. pudgetty

Sullen, grouchy. “He’s a pudgetty old man.”

pudge up An old-fashioned expression meaning to prod or stimulate. “She tried to pudge him up.” puffing like a grampus (whale) Breathing hard. A simile once heard commonly in New England. pug

A synonym for hair bun.

Pumpkin-Heads

See quote.

New Haven is celebrated for having given the name of “pumpkin-heads” to all New Englanders. It originated with the “Blue Laws,” which informed every male to have his hair cut round by a cap. When caps were not to be had, they substituted the hard shell of a pumpkin, which being put on the head every Saturday, the hair is cut by the shell all round the head.” (Rev. Samuel Peters, LL.D, General History of Connecticut, 1877)

pumpkin pie See quote. “Punkin pi iz the sass ov New England . . . Enny man who don’t luv punkin pi, wants watching cluse . . .” (Josh Billings, Old Probability— Perhaps Rain, Perhaps Not, 1875) pumple-footed Club-footed. Given as a common term in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). pumple stones Round beach stones used for flower gardens, borders and the like. pung A shortening of the old-folk term tompung for toboggan.

288 Yankee Talk pungy A small boat or schooner once used in Massachusetts. Also called a pungo. punk punkin

pussyflage Nonsense, foolishness. “ ‘I was reading the pussyflage you wrote about plantin’ gardens . . .” (John Gould, It Is Not Now, 1993)

A name old-timers gave to any rotten wood. A common pronunciation of pumpkin.

purgatory See quote. “Along the coast of New England, and in the interior, narrow ravines with nearly perpendicular walls are called purgatories.” (Alexander Whitney, Names and Places, 1888) Puritan Fathers

Same as

PILGRIM FATHERS.

Puritan Provinces New England. “Within the boundaries of the Puritan Provinces . . . no depth of solitude of the wilderness could exclude youth from all the common opportunities of moral, and far more than the common ones of religious education.” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Sir William Phips,” 1830) purse A New Hampshire pronunciation of “pierce,” as in Franklin Pierce (1804–69), the New Hampshireborn 14th President of the United States. “She [New Hampshire] had one President. (Pronounce him Purse, / And make the most of it for better or worse. / He’s your one chance to score against the state.)” (Robert Frost, “New Hampshire,” 1923) push rowing A fisherman’s term meaning rowing a boat while facing forward. pussley See quote. “Purslane, whose lovely, Elizabethansounding name farmers from New England to Georgia corrupt into ‘pussley.’ ” (The New Yorker, March 10, 1943) pussy An old term heard in New Hampshire and Maine for a fat man; a corruption of “pursy.” “He was considerable pussy.”

put a flea in one’s ear Giving someone a hint, warning or suspicion of something; to put an idea in someone’s head. put for

To hurry. “She put for the house.”

put on a corn sweat Make a great effort: “He put on a corn sweat to get the job finished.” The expression, heard chiefly in Maine, has its roots in an old cure that used ears of corn to help a sick person sweat out a cold or fever. putter An old term heard on Cape Cod meaning to walk faster, hurry. “He was really puttering along.” put the John D. to her John D. Rockefeller, of course, made his great fortune in oil. Therefore, loggers used his name to mean kerosene, especially in the expression put the John D. to her!, that is, kindle or start a fire. put the oakum to To shut someone up with sharp or clever words; oakum is used to caulk or close up boat seams. put to one’s stumps Made to put forth one’s best efforts. “[I urged] them to show these Britishers what the Yankee could do when put to his stumps.” (Ward McAllister, Society As I Knew It, 1890) putty day.”

To putter around. “He putted with the car all

Q quahog or quahaug Venus mercenaria, the edible hardshell clam. Indians introduced this name and the clams themselves to the first European settlers in New England. Quahogs usually are divided into chowders, as large as four inches at the widest point; cherrystones, half-grown quahogs; and littlenecks, the most tender and smallest of quahogs at two inches or so. “Certain words trap the stranger. Quahog is the worst offender. Let us at once solve the mystery of its pronunciation by saying that if you call it ‘co-hog’ you will be talking the language of the native fishermen.” (Arthur Wilson Tarbell, Cape Cod Ahoy! 1932) See HARDSHELL CLAM.

Quincy The Massachusetts city’s name is properly pronounced KWIN-zi. quint An old-fashioned word for a fussy old maid heard in Massachusetts. quishion A probably obsolete pronunciation and spelling of “cushion” once commonly heard in Massachusetts and other parts of New England. quitter Used to describe the sound a turkey makes. “The old tom-turkey a struttin’ and a-sidlin and aquitterin’ sayin’, ‘Talk! talk! and quitter! quitter!’ ” (Harriet Beecher Stowe, “The Minister’s Housekeeper,” 1871)

Queen’s-arm An old term for musket mentioned in James Russell Lowell’s The Biglow Papers (1867).

quoddy A fast sloop-rigged boat used by fisherman and lobstermen in New England; named after Passamaquoddy Bay, where it was developed. Passamaquoddy is an Indian word meaning plenty of pollock.

queer Strange, odd. “‘Queer the barn ain’t open,’ she thought to herself.” (Mary E. Wilkins, “Life-Everlastin’,” 1891). Commonly pronounced quee-uh. quee-uh

See

QUEER.

Quonset hut The Quonset or Quonset hut is a prefabricated corrugated metal building shaped like a tunnel that is named for its first place of manufacture, Quonset Point, Rhode Island, during World War II. Virtually the same thing by another name is the Nissen hut, designed by British engineer Lt. Col. Peter Nissen in 1930.

quick To boil something rapidly, just until it is tender. “Just quick it, don’t have it on the stove too long.” quill-pig

A synonym for porcupine. See

PORKPICK.

quilting bee A gathering in which women assembled to sew together the squares that were to be the outside covering of the quilt.

289

R R

See quote.

raise Ned To make a great disturbance, to raise Cain or the devil.

The . . . Eastern American habit of adding superfluous (r), as in the idear of it, is frequently misunderstood. This is subject to the same law—the superfluous (r) is added only when a vowel quickly follows. The Bostonian . . . is apt to say Americar and France, though he says France and America as Westerners do. I recently heard from a native of Boston, “No, this is not the piazza; the piazzar is here.” (John S. Kenyon, “Some Notes on American R,” American Speech, March 1926)

raising hightantrabogus good time. raked

race A strong or swift channel of water. “The other evening my friend Bill Eldridge, of Nauset, told me that there had been a disaster that same morning off the Race.” (Henry Beston, The Outermost House, 1928)

ramming Having a wild time out on the town. “He was ramming around the whole night.” rantum scoot

rackergaited Loose-jointed. Given as a common term in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914).

rap full Full to capacity. “He stuffed himself till he was rap full.” Originally a nautical phrase for sails filled with wind.

rag out To outfit with clothes; probably from the old nautical practice of sailors outfitting themselves from the “slop chest” kept on board for that purpose. STING

or

See quote.

A term, we believe, peculiar to Nantucket, and very old. It means a day’s “cruise” or picnic about the island, usually a drive, but it might be on foot. The distinctive feature of such an excursion is that the party has no definite destination . . . in which respect such a trip differs from a SQUANTUM. “Rantum” is probably a corruption of random. (William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket, 1916)

racing Said of an animal in season or heat. The term is not commonly heard today.

See

PLUM.

raking down Reprimanding, dressing down someone severely. “She gave him some raking down for being so late to school again.”

See also the Introduction.

raie

See

Raising hell, having a noisy

raspberry sounded.

Often pronounced raspberry, with the p

STING RAY.

rat A Maine cheese. “ ‘I got a wedge of rat that’s just about ripe.’ ” (Stephen King, Pet Sematary, 1983)

raise a ruction To make a big fuss out of something that may not be worth the effort. “No sense raisin’ a ruction about death or taxes.” Ruction may be a corruption of insurrection.

rather be shaved by a sharp razor than by a dull one Rather a clean fast cut, which hurts less than a dull slow 290

rid 291 one. “The peddler . . . was . . . keen at a bargain, but none the worse liked by the Yankees; who, as I have heard them say, would rather be shaved by a sharp razor than a dull one.” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Mr. Higginbotham’s Catastrophe,” 1834) rauncher (1) A large male deer. (2) Any large oversize thing, from a wave to a tree. Rauncher may derive from raunchy in reference to male deer during the rutting season. razoo An old term used in Maine for to treat roughly, manhandle. r-dropping

See the Introduction.

Reach See quote. “A Reach is a body of water between two bodies of land, a body of water which is open at either end. The old lobstermen’s joke went like this: know how to read y’compass when the fog comes, boys; between Jamesport and London there’s a mightly long Reach.” (Stephen King, “The Reach,” 1981) real blinger, a Heard in Massachusetts for a good joke, a thigh-slapper. “That’s a real blinger!” receipt A recipe. “Give me your receipt for those beans.” reddance A pronunciation of “riddance,” as in “Good reddance to you!” red flannel hash A traditional New England hash made with corned beef, potatoes, turnips, spices and a few chopped red beets for color. White flannel hash eschews the beets. redhead

Another word for coral, a lobster’s orange roe.

Red Paint Men An extinct Indian tribe once resident in Maine. “Before the dawn and the Dawn People, there were the Red Paint Men . . . They have been gone so long now that not even the teeth of them are left [in their graves], only the red paint, color of life, they smeared their bodies with.” (Robert P. Tristam Coffin, Yankee Coast, 1947) Also called Red Paint Indians, Red Paint People. red shrimp

See

BAY SHRIMP.

Red spruce Picea rubens, a common New England tree whose wood is used to make pulp. reelin’ An expression used in Maine for unrelenting noise, a din or racket; after the hammers called reels

once used by workers in granite quarries. “You kids better stop that reelin’.” regular coffee Throughout the United States this is generally coffee served with cream and sugar on the side but not added to it. In Boston and other New England areas it is coffee with cream added to it and just sugar served on the side. In Rhode Island it means with milk and sugar. regular hurrah’s nest, a A mess. “That house is a regular hurrah’s nest.” Given as a Vermont expression in Charles Edward Crane’s Let Me Show You Vermont, 1937. But the term has had wide currency throughout New England and elsewhere. Rehoboth ho-both.

The city’s name is properly pronounced RE-

rent Heard in Maine for an apartment or any rented quarters. “We have a nice rent near the water.” reverse nod True Yankees don’t even wave, it’s said; they simply nod lifting the chin up, a “reverse nod.” rheumatiz Rheumatism. “He’s all crippled up with rheumatiz.” Rhode Island One story has Verrazzano, in 1524, observing the island now called Aquidneck in Narragansett Bay and naming it Rhodes Island because it reminded him of the island of Rhodes in the Mediterranean. Later, the island gave its name to the state. Most scholars contend that Rhode Island takes its name from the Dutch Roodt Eylandt, “red island,” for its red clay. See COMMONWEALTH; ROGUES ISLAND. Rhode Island clambake Perhaps the most famous of New England clambakes, though all the other states might strongly dispute this. Exclaimed Christopher La Farge in his poem “Rhode Island Clambake”: O O O O

clams that are still fresh from mud! lobsters slowly turning red! delicate young Irish spread! corn whose husk has not been shed!

Rhode Island Red A breed of fowl with brownish-red feathers that was developed in Rhode Island by crossing a Brown leghorn with a Malay hen. The Rhode Island Red is a prolific layer of brown eggs. Rhode Island White RHODE ISLAND RED. rid

See

INSTEAD.

A white-feathered variety of the

292 Yankee Talk ride-out Messy, disorderly. “The house looks like rideout.” Cited as a common expression in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and on Cape Cod in Frederic D. Allen, “Contributions to New England Vocabulary,” Dialect Notes (Vol. I, 1890). right around

riz bread Bread made with yeast, raised bread. “I’d have some riz biscuit.” (Mary Wilkins Freeman, A New England Nun and Other Stories, 1891) roader A good horse, a roadster. “He’s some smart roader.”

Early. “He’s right around this morning.” A simile not heard much anymore.

robin snow A light snow that comes in midspring when robins are already in evidence.

right as rain The best of anything, something unsurpassable, that couldn’t be better.

rock See quote. “Every Maine boy calls a stone of throwing size a ‘rock.’ ” (Expressions of the Maine Coast, 1880)

right as bean water See RIGHT AS RAIN.

righten up room.”

Tidy up. “Why don’t you righten up your

right off An expression coined in 19th-century New England that means directly, right away. “I’ll be with you right off.” right quick

Ream. “Rim out the hole so the peg will fit.”

rinktum Once commonly used for a party or dance; a contrivance, design. Also spelled rinctum. “That rinktum didn’t end till early in the morning.” rinse rise

See

An old nickname for Plymouth Rock.

rock crab A species of crab (Cancer irroratus), commonly caught and eaten in Maine. rock maple Another name for the sugar maple (Acer saccharum), which is widely tapped for maple sugar.

Quickly. “She learned it right quick.”

right smart (1) Considerable. “. . . it must have been a right smart walk / That we had that day from Tillbury Town . . .” (Edward Arlington Robinson, “Isaac and Achibald,” Captain Craig, 1902) (2) Accomplished, talented. “He’s a right-smart ballplayer.” Used in the South as well as New England. rim

Rock, the

rock round the corner To stone someone for an offense or supposed offense; today such stonings are rarer than the expression. rockweed The typical name for seaweed in Maine and other areas. roll-way, roll-a-way sloping doors. roost

An outside cellar entrance with

A term for toilet used in lumbering camps.

rootle A Massachusetts and Maine word for the rooting of a pig. “Pigs don’t root, they rootle.”

INSTEAD.

Raise. “He’s going to rise chickens.”

risse Used for the past tense of rise. “Of Yankee preterites I find risse and rize for rose in [the English writers] Middleton and Dryden.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867) ritiracy A word once used as a synonym for retirement. “I’m in my ritiracy now.” Ritiracied meant retired. river-driver Bartlett’s (1848) defined this old term as “A log man who conducts logs down running streams.” riz Risen. “‘I say, isn’t bread ‘riz’ enough when it runs over the pans?” (Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, 1868)

Rogues Island A humorous nickname for RHODE in the days shortly after its founding. It was also called “the Sink of New England.”

ISLAND

rose

See

RISSE.

rose bread rises.

Any bread made with yeast; a bread that

Rosebud Senator A nickname for U.S. Senator Henry Anthony (1815–84) of Rhode Island because of “the healthful glow that mantled his cheek, or as a tribute to the fact that he constantly wore a bud or other flower,” according to the Congressional Record, January 21, 1885. rotary

A synonym for traffic circle.

rut 293 rotten apple cider Homemade cider made from whatever apples are available, apples in any usable condition. Considered a good drink with body.

rugged weather Bad weather, though not the worst possible weather; weather when outside activities can’t be enjoyed.

Rouge Hose

rummy Sometimes heard for drunkard. “He’s an old rummy.”

round

See

See

BOSOX.

HOUSE.

round clam An old southwestern New England word for QUAHOG.

rum sweat A sweat worked up by drinking rum or other liquor to relieve a cold. run a slack ship

rowen field.

An aftermath or second crop grown in a hay-

rowty

Argumentative. “He’s a rowty old man.”

Roxbury Russet A late, long-keeping apple variety developed in Roxbury, Massachusetts early in the 19th century. rubbage, rubbidge

A pronunciation of “rubbish.”

rub the time close Allow little time. “You’re rubbing the time too close to catch the train.” Cited as a common Portsmouth, New Hampshire expression in Frederic D. Allen, “Contributions to the New England Vocabulary,” Dialect Notes, Vol. I (1890). rud

A pronunciation of “road.”

ruddle A synonym for a house’s attic. “There’s a lot of family treasures up in the ruddle.” ruff

A common pronunciation of “roof.”

See

RUN A TAUT SHIP.

run a taut ship To be a thoroughly efficient employer or supervisor. The saying dates back to the age of sailing ships and captains who ran neat perfectly maintained vessels with no slack in the rigging anywhere. The opposite expression is run a slack ship. run afoul of In its seafaring use, this expression means entangled. On land in New England it means to meet accidentally. “I ran afoul of Gerald Pierce this morning.” Sometimes fall afoul of. running the wangan Used by Maine lumbermen for taking a loaded boat down river in swift water. See WANGAN. russet cider apples.

An excellent cider made from high-quality

rut An old expression, once common in Massachusetts, for the noise of waves breaking on the beach.

S Sabbaday Once used as a synonym for Sunday, the Sabbath Day.

Salem Gibralter A candy bar first sold in the early 19th century in Salem, Massachusetts and still available recently.

Saco Pronounced SAH-co or SACK-oh; a Maine town and river.

salted down An old term that means money saved in a safe place; the reference is to preserved salted meat or fish. “He’s got plenty salted down in the bank.”

Sacred Cod (1) Cod (Gadus callarias) is said to be the world’s most important edible fish. So important was it to the fisheries of New England that it was early called the Sacred Cod. (2) The pine codfish hanging opposite the speaker’s rostrum in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in the State House on Beacon Hill in Boston. A wooden codfish has hung there since colonial times. One was lost in a 1747 fire, its replacement lost during the Revolution. The present cod was hung in 1784. Harvard pranksters stole the 4-foot-11-inch cod in 1933, but returned it within a few days after a great uproar.

salter’n the briny ocean Extremely salty. Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). salt horse Beer or pork pickled in brine was often called salt horse on the New England coast and elsewhere. An old rhyme went: “Old horse! old horse! what brought you here?” “From Sacarap to Portland Pier I’ve carted stone for many a year; Till, killed by blows and sore abuse, They salted me down for sailor’s use. The sailors they do me despise, They turn me over and damn my eyes; Cut off my meat and scrape my bones And heave the rest to Davy Jones.”

safe as in God’s pocket Cited in The Old Farmer’s Almanac (1946) as a common New England saying. safen

Make safe. “They’ll safen your brakes.”

Sage of Concord A nickname for Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose home was in Concord, Massachusetts.

The Sacarap in the verse was a part of Westbrook, Maine, near Portland Pier. See also HARNESS CASK; LOBSCOUSE.

said it right out In plain words, bluntly. “ ‘I said it right out to our minister once, and he was shocked at me.” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911)

salt potatoes Small red-skinned potatoes, often the first of the season, are called salad potatoes on Long Island’s North Fork (on the fringe of New England) because they are often used in potato salad. But along the Boston Post Road in Connecticut, less than 50 miles away across Long Island Sound, they are called salt potatoes (signs often advertise “Lobster and Salt Pota-

sail too close to the wind To be reckless, take too many chances. Cited in William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket (1916). sakes alive!

An old-fashioned euphemistic exclamation. 294

scarlet letter, the 295 toes—Only $9.95”) because they are cooked in salted water. salty dog

See

CAPE CODDER.

same as a singed cat Said of someone very wary due to a bad experience, like a cat singed in a fire that remains suspicious of fire ever after. same as if As though. “He acted same as if they had never fought.” samp An old name for hasty pudding or cornmeal mush. Sam Peabody A New England name for the whitethroated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis), which has been called the nightingale of the north and whose flutelike song often sounds like the words “poor old Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody.” Also called the Peabody or Peabody bird. See PEVERLY BIRDS. san

sarvant A pronunciation of “servant.” “Sarvant, Ma’am (means I am your servant).” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Professor at the Breakfast Table, 1860) sarve A pronunciation of “serve.” “It sarves him right.” sass (1) Sauce. (2) Garden vegetables. (3) Impudent talk. “He was always sassing his mother.” sauceman An old name for a peddler of vegetables. “Behind comes a ‘sauceman’, driving a wagon full of new potatoes, green ears of corn, beets, carrots, turnips, and summer squashes.” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Toll-Gatherer’s Day,” 1837) save out Put aside. “The old Maine fisherman said he’d ‘save’ out some clams for us.” saw Mainers a century ago commonly used this word to mean “scold.” “Every time I turn around he’s sawing me.”

A frequent pronunciation of “sand” in the region.

sanctimonious old bastard Someone, usually an old person, who appears to be holier than thou but really has hardly any scruples at all.

sawdust sorter Heard in Maine for someone whose intelligence is limited. “He’s in training for a sawdust sorter.” Saw-ko

sand carpets “Carpets” made of sand in early New England parlors. Housewives often drew designs and pictures in the sand, which were renewed again after company called and left. Especially valued were the blue sands from Ipswich beaches and the black sands from Mackerel Cove in Beverly, Massachusetts.

The Maine pronunciation of “Saco.”

saxon James Russell Lowell gives this as a pronunciation of “sexton” in The Biglow Papers (1866). says I

See quote under

S’bay-go sandwich glass A pressed glass originally made at Sandwich, Massachusetts. sannup A mischievous boy always getting into trouble; from a Maine Abnaki Indian word for young boy. “Get out of that tree, you little sannup.” sap coffee A New England coffee in which maple sap has been substituted for the water. saphouse A small house or hut where maple sugar is made and stored. sap’lasses

An obsolete term for maple syrup.

sap orchard

A sugar maple grove.

sardines A humorous name New Englanders had for sailors a century ago. sarpent

An old pronunciation of “serpent.”

PAINT UP.

The Maine pronunciation of “Sebago.”

S-boat A large racing boat once popular in New England. “Off ’Sconset, where the yawing S-boats splash . . .” (Robert Lowell, “The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket,” 1946) scalawag Another name for a culpin, a freshwater fish of the genus Cottus, along the New England coast. scarified pavement Sign seen in Vermont indicating pavement that has been scored to help prevent slipping. scarlet letter, the The first mention of people being forced to wear a scarlet capital A that branded them adulterers is reported in the Plymouth Colonial Records (1639): “The Bench doth therefore censure the said Mary . . . to wear a badge upon her left sleeve.” The letter I was used for those found guilty of incest. Any woman “suffering an Indian to have carnal knowledge of her,” in John Josselyn’s words (An Account of Two Voyages to New England, 1674), was made to

296 Yankee Talk wear the figure of an Indian cut out of red cloth. See also A. scholard

Scratch A name for the devil. “ ‘My name is Scratch. They often call me that in New England.’ ” (Stephen Vincent Benét, “The Devil and Daniel Webster,” 1937)

An old pronunciation of “scholar,” a student.

schoolmarm A humorous lumberman’s term for a tree that forms two trunks from its crotch, resembling someone with two legs in the air. schooner Some etymologists say this word originated in Gloucester, where an onlooker supposedly exclaimed, “Oh, how she scoons!” when Captain Andrew Robinson launched the first vessel of this kind back in 1713 and she glided gracefully over the water. Captain Robinson, overhearing the remark, dubbed his ship a scooner, which came to be misspelled schooner over the years. The only trouble with this story is that the word scoon (a Scottish word meaning to skip a flat stone over the water) doesn’t seem to have been used in New England. Scituate Pronounced SIT-u-ate or SIT-u-et; towns in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. scoff To gulp down food or drink. “He scoffed his lunch in a minute.” Scarf, meaning the same, is more commonly heard in the United States, as in “He scarfed down his food.” scoggins A fool, an object of ridicule. “They made scoggins out of him.” ’Sconset A common pronunciation of the name of Siasconset on eastern Nantucket. See quote under S-BOAT. scooch To crouch, hunker down. “He scooched down in the corner.” Cited as a common Maine and Portsmouth, New Hampshire expression in Frederick D. Allen, “Contributions to the New England Vocabulary,” Dialect Notes, Vol. I (1890). The word is usually pronounced scrootch in the rest of New England. scoots, the; scootberry The scoots was 19th-century New England slang for diarrhea (which sent one scooting to the outhouse); because the sweetish red berries on the shrub Striptopus roseus almost always acted as a physic on youngsters who eagerly ate them, the plant was named the scootberry. scottin’-long-the-shore An old name for hashed brown potatoes, because the dish was often made by Cape Cod fishermen while they were at work on their boats. Scrap Islander A name given to Nantucketers by residents of Martha’s Vineyard. Cited by William F. Macy in The Nantucket Scrap Basket (1916).

scratched along Barely made ends meet, perhaps like a chicken scratching for food. “She ‘kinder scratched along,’ as she phrased it, and earned her living, if no more, in the various ways Yankee ingenuity can discover in a large country town.” (Rose Terry Cooke, “Town Mouse and Country Mouse,” 1891) scrawl An old term for “the ragged, broken branch of tree or bush” that I can find only in Barlett’s (1859). screwed hay Hay that is baled in coils rather than rectangular bales. scrid A little bit, a small portion. “I’ll just have a scrid more of that pie.” scrimp To economize severely. Used nationally now, the word was first used in New England, where it was possibly introduced directly from England’s Essex dialect. scrimshander An old term for someone who carves The origin of shander in the word is unknown. SCRIMSHAW.

scrimshaw Until relatively recently sailors on long voyages, especially New England whalers, often spent their spare time carefully carving whalebone, shells or ivory into decorative and useful objects, ranging from clothespins to elaborate canes and jewelry boxes. This intricate work was called scrimshaw, a word whose origins are rather mysterious. Webster’s traces scrimshaw to the French escrimer, “to fight with a sword,” in the sense of “to make flourishes,” while other dictionaries suggest scrimshank, English military slang meaning to evade duty, be a shirker. Just as many authorities believe the word comes from the proper name Scrimshaw, referring to some once-illustrious sailor-carver noted for his craftsmanship. But Scrimshaw, if he did exist, hasn’t been identified. Scrimshaw work also was called skrimshander, and today it can mean any good piece of mechanical work. scrimshonting Another term for SCRIMSHAW. “. . . ‘scrimshonting,’ as it is termed by whalers, ingeniously fabricated from whales’ teeth and jaw bones . . .” (William Hussey Macy, There She Blow! 1877) scrod

See quote.

The story goes that the Parker, a famous old restaurant in Boston, always had the freshest fish of the day on its

selectman 297 menu. But the manager never knew which this would be on a given day. So he invented the word scrod as a catchall name for it. Thus, although scrod now officially means young cod, it is historically correct to use it for, e.g., young haddock, too. (Alan Davidson, North Atlantic Seafood, 1978)

More likely, the word scrod derives from the Middle Dutch schrode, “strip or shred.” New England scrod may be immature cod (Gadus callarias) or haddock (Melanogrammus aiglefimus) weighing one and a half to two and a half pounds. Sometimes the term is applied to cusk (Brosme brosme) of about the same weight, or to pollack (Pollachius pollachius) weighing one and a half to four pounds. When New England fishermen use the word, they usually are referring to gutted small haddock. In an old joke, a New Englander just back from Europe and hungry for a Yankee fish dinner directs the airport cabbie to “Take me where I can get scrod.” “Okay,” the cabbie says, heading toward a brothel, “but I must say that’s the first time I ever got the request in the past pluperfect tense.” scrods

Pieces of fish cut up for boiling.

scrog A shrub or tree stunted by the wind. Used mostly in Maine and New Hampshire.

a pointed stick into the sand before him. When this enters between the valves of a clam, he closes them on it, and is drawn out. It has been known to catch and hold coot and teal which were preying on it.” (Henry David Thoreau, Cape Cod, 1865) sea corn The eggs of the whelk, which are yellow and when piled in a heap suggested corn to early New England fishermen. sea dogs A name frequently given to seals along the Maine coast. The Portland Sea Dogs (named after the seals) are a Maine minor-league baseball team, according to Yankee Magazine, April 1, 1995. sea duck A New England name for the eider duck, because they are often found on ledges jutting into the sea. sealer A town official in days past who inspected weights and measures. sea room An old nautical term meaning enough room to navigate a large sailing ship; thus, by extension, a lot of room or space.

scronch Spirit, courage, spunk. “He had a lot of scronch in him.”

sea squall Another name for jellyfish in Cape Cod and along the New England coast.

scrooch Crouch down in a small place, hunker down. “He scrooched down beside her bed.” See SCOOCH.

seater An obsolete term used in colonial times for a settler already established on land.

scummer An instrument used to skim scum or impurities when maple syrup is being made.

sea turn A refreshing breeze off the water; a cool breeze that is a relief from the heat of summer or a warm breeze in the winter.

scunner A deep dislike, an aversion; originally a Scottish dialect word. “I took a scunner to him right off.” scup (1) Menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus); from an Indian word for the fish. (2) Another name for the saltwater porgy (Pagras pagrus). Also scuppang. (3) Short for the scuppaug (Stentotomus veriscolor), a marine fish of southeastern New England. scurry funge Used in coastal areas of Maine to mean a quick straightening up of the house when someone is about to come calling. “I had to scurry funge the kitchen when I saw Hilda coming up the walk.”

Sebago lage.

seem See quote. “Seem: it is habitual with the New Englander to put the verb to strange uses, as ‘I can’t seem to be suited,’ ‘I couldn’t seem to know him.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867) seen Often used for saw. “I seen him coming into town.” seesaw

seabeach knotweed A rare plant now found only on beaches in Massachusetts and New York. sea-clam See quote. “Our host told us that the seaclam, or hen, was not easily obtained . . . The fisherman sometimes wades in water several feet deep, and thrusts

Pronounced seh-BAY-go; a Maine lake and vil-

See

DANDLE; TEEDLE BOARD; TILT.

selectman A member of a board of town officers chosen each year in New England towns to manage local affairs. The term has been in use for several hundred years. “Her father is first selectman in our village . . .” (Robert Lowell, “Skunk Hour,” 1959)

298 Yankee Talk serve A nautical term used on Nantucket meaning to fit together and then bind with cord a broken wooden object such as a broomstick or mop handle. Cited by William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket (1916). set Sometimes used for sat, usually by elderly rural people. “Set over there, please.” set fire, you! Pay attention. “Set fire, you, or you’re not going to graduate.” setting Often used for sitting. “He was setting right there.” set up one’s Ebenezer A probably obsolete expression meaning to make up one’s mind. “He set up his Ebenezer and stood firm.” seven tribes of the sea coast

See

BROTHERTOWN INDI-

ANS.

sewer of New England, the See quote. “Rhode Island . . . ‘The fag end of creation’ and ‘the sewer of New England’, Cotton Mather called the region. Never meant to be a separate polity, settled by outcasts like the bewitching, soon-to-die Anne Hutchinson . . .” (John Updike, The Witches of Eastwick, 1984) shacket A word for a yellow-jacket hornet once common in the Narragansett Bay area. shade, a A little. “ ‘See here—you ain’t in a tight place [in financial difficulty] are you? . . . Because I am, a shade.’ ” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911) shade it A term meaning to bring down the price when used by old-timers dickering over the sale of something. “‘Guess you don’t care much whether you sell or not, Jim.’ ‘Might shade it a little. But Bessie’s worth $60.’ ” (Hayden Pearson, New England Flavor, 1961) shadow potatoes An interesting name Fanny Farmer’s Boston Cookbook (1909) gives for potato chips. shag Another name for a cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo). Shagimaw An imaginary creature of the woods with two feet like a moose and two like a bear. sham-built Poorly built. “A mis’able sham-built little house.” (Sarah Orne Jewett, “Miss Debby,” 1883) shan’t Shall not. “I shan’t be gone long.—You come too.” (Robert Frost, “The Pasture,” The Poetry of Robert Frost, 1969)

sharking The old sport of fishing for sharks in Narragansett Bay. sharp as a meat axe A simile heard in New England meaning someone or something is very sharp. shay A carriage. “Have you heard of the wonderful one-hoss shay, / That was built in such a logical way / It ran a hundred years to a day . . .” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, “The Deacon’s Masterpiece or, The Wonderful ‘One-Hoss Shay,” 1858) Shay’s Rebellion

See

LEFT HOLDING THE BAG.

sheet anchor to windward Another nautical term that came ashore in New England, this expression has come to mean “to take precautions.” People have a sheet anchor to windward, for example, if they save money for retirement, or make sure their house has ample smoke alarms. On sailing ships, the heaviest and best anchor was the amidships sheet anchor. Putting it out to windward often saved ships from being blown onto a lee shore. Making sure one’s ship had a good one was an excellent precaution. she (he) has a leak that will send her (him) to hell of someone or something with a fatal flaw.

Said

. . . the Colonel’s lady . . . appeared at meeting in a style not exactly accordant with the pastor’s ideas of Christian female propriety. One morning she came sweeping into church, in a new hooped dress, which was then very fashionable. “Here she comes,” said Father Moody from the pulpit. “Here she comes, top and top-gallant, rigged most beautifically, and sailing most majestically; but she has a leak that will sink her to hell.” (Anonymous, “Father Moody,” quoted in May Lamberton Becker, Golden Tales of New England, 1931)

sheldrake Synonymous with the American merganser duck of the family Merginia. shell-oyster

See quote.

“Have some of these shell-oysters,” said the Colonel . . . A deliberate emphasis on the word shell implied that the Colonel knew what was what. To the New England inland native, beyond the reach of the east winds, the oyster unconditioned, the oyster absolute, without a qualifying adjective, is the pickled oyster. Mrs. Trecothick . . . knew very well that an oyster long out of his shell (pickled, that is) . . . gets homesick and loses his sprightliness . . . The word “shell-oyster” had been overheard; and there was a perceptible crowding movement towards their newly discovered habitat, a large soup tureen. (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie Venner, 1861)

shingle In old New England to shingle meant to chastise a child. John Bartlett in his Dictionary of Americanisms (1859) explained that “A shingle applied a pos-

sitfast 299 teriori is a favorite New England mode of correcting a child.”

shut A pronunciation commonly heard in Boston for shirt.

shoal Shallow. “Letting her feet cool . . . in the shoal water.” (Sarah Orne Jewett, “White Heron,” 1886)

shut down on Clamp down on, suppress, dismiss, fire. “She thought it prudent not to attempt to cut short the phrase . . . prematurely—an imputation she should incur if, without more delay she were to ‘shut down,’ as Verna said, on the young connoisseur.” (Henry James, The Bostonians, 1886)

shook Shaken. “You look all shook up.” (Thornton Wilder, Our Town, 1934) shool To loiter, saunter about idly; one who does so is a shooler. Cited by William F. Macy in The Nantucket Scrap Basket (1916). shoot one’s grandmother See quote. “A common though vulgar phrase in New England [that] means to be mistaken or to be disappointed; to imagine oneself the discoverer of something in which he is deceived. The common phrase is ‘you’ve shot your granny.’ ” (John Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms, 1859)

side-hill ranger A mythical animal of the lumber camps. Cited as a common term in George Allen England’s “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). side-winder See quote. “The boys of my time used to call a hit (verbal thrust) like this ‘a side-winder.’ ” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Professor at the Breakfast Table, 1860)

shop A pronunciation of “sharp” commonly heard in Boston.

sight A lot, as in “I had a sight of them.” An ancient Cornish expression that is still heard in New England and was very common in 19th-century Cape Cod, according to Shebnah Rich’s Truro-Cape Cod (1884).

shore dinner A restaurant dinner featuring clams, clam chowder and boiled lobster that originated in New England about a century ago. Not a clam bake, it is cooked and served inside a restaurant.

sightly Said of a good view. “The hilly view was turrible sightly.” simball

shore-hugger A nautical term now applied to any very cautious person. shorts Lobsters under the legal size requirements for keeping them, the opposite of a keeper. “The other [lobster] was much smaller, probably a ‘short,’ a youngster that should be thrown back and allowed to grow for another year or two.” (Peter Benchley, White Shark, 1994)

CYMBAL.

since God made sour apples For ages. “I haven’t seen you since God made sour apples.” since the Concord fight A very long time, in reference to the battle of Concord during the Revolutionary War. “He hasn’t been home since the Concord fight.” singing beach

[A fisheries inspector] boarded a boat once, and caught a fisherman with thirty-seven shorts, all banded and plugged and ready to take home. Naturally, he asked about them. “I don’t go through my catch until after I’m on my mooring,” the fisherman said. “Why are they plugged then?” the inspector asked. “It keeps them from hurting each other,” said the fisherman. (Bruce Ballenger, The Lobster Almanac, 1988)

shouldn’t wonder true.”

See

See quote.

Manchester, Massachusett’s peculiar attraction is that beach of ruddy sand—a warm tawny pink—which, when a carriage drives over it or people tread on it, gives forth a crisp note, something like snow under foot in dry cold weather. This odd formation of the atoms which makes them triturate together in keen musical vibration has poetically christened it the Singing Beach, a wonder of the world and a never failing source of entertainment.” (Agnes Edwards, The Romantic Shoe, 1915)

Think. “I shouldn’t wonder it’s

show him (her) where to head in WHERE TO HEAD IN.

sink of New England, the See

TELL HIM (HER)

shrub A cool fruit drink, such as raspberry shrub, similar to the drinks we call coolers today but without alcohol.

sire

See

ROGUES ISLAND.

A bull.

sitfast Stationary, fixed. “ ’Tis good when you have crossed the sea and back, / To find the sitfast acres where you left them.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Hamatreya,” 1847)

300 Yankee Talk six weeks sleighing in April Used to describe a long winter that lasts until the end of April, often with snow on the ground at that late date. skag

Cut. “They skagged the trees with axes.”

skinch Skimp on, cut short. “Don’t skinch on the sugar.” skipple An old measure equaling about three-quarters of a bushel; from the Dutch scheful, which means the same. skive (1) To scrape. “He skived up his shoe.” (2) To skimp on. (3) To hurry, run. skoodle An obsolete term for squat. “He skoodled down by the fire.” skrid Heard in Maine and New Hampshire for a little bit. “He et every skrid of it.” skrivvel

slatcky sky clouds.

A sky with blue showing through the

sleek as a whistle New England.

A simile once commonly heard in

sleeping A tender euphemism for buried used mainly by old-timers. “My older boy went to war in ’14. He’s sleeping over in France . . . My wife died in ’19. Always thought her heart never healed after Robert went.” (Hayden Pearson, New England Flavor, 1961) slice See quote. “It was a sort of iron shovel (by housewives termed a ‘slice’), such as is used in cleaning the oven.” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, “An Old Woman’s Tale,” 1830) slick as a school-marm’s leg Very pretty, pleasing, successful. Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914).

Shrink, dry up. “The corn was all skrivveled.”

skulheeg A term used in Maine for deadfall trap, that is, a trap for large animals in which a heavy weight is arranged to fall on and kill the prey. skully-jo See quote. “. . . Provincetown youngsters used to carry around bits of a delicacy known as ‘skullyjo’, which was a kind of dried fish, cured until it was very hard, and they munched on this as other children of other places ate candy . . .” (Jeremiah Digges, In Great Waters, The Story of the Portuguese Fishermen, 1941) skunk blackbird bird.

slicker’n a smelt Very smoothly. “She steered her in slicker’n a smelt.” slimpsy Shoddy, cheap, poorly made. “She was wearing that slimpsy dress.” slip A term used mainly in New England for a long narrow church pew without doors, possibly because one can just slip into it. slip gut

An old-fashioned New England pudding.

Another name for the marsh black-

slipper-down A punning name once used in Connecticut for HASTY PUDDING.

slacker’n dishwater Extremely dirty and untidy, slovenly. Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914).

slippernoose An old term for slipnoose. “Ketched ye with a slipper-noose, hey?” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie Venner, 1861)

slack salted pollock An old-fashioned dish made of dried pollock and served with potatoes and salt pork gravy. slat Heard in New Hampshire and Maine for to go. “Let’s slat on over to the store.” slatch See quote. “A short gleam of fine weather, an interval in a story or heavy rain.” (William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket, 1916) Also means a lull between breaking waves. From an Old English word meaning the same.

slipper-toe A Vermont expression meaning a no-good, a no-account person. “That old slipper-toe’s never worked a day in his life.” slipping An old-fashioned term for sleighing. “We went slippin’ yesterday.” sliver To cut each side of a flounder away in one piece from the head to the tail. A Nantucket term cited by William F. Macy in The Nantucket Scrap Basket (1916). slopdozzle Heard in Maine for someone very careless. “He turned out to be a real slopdozzle.”

snug by 301 slower’n (slower than) stock-still Extremely slow. Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Vol. IV (1914). slower than a hop toad in hot tar Cited in The Old Farmer’s Almanack (1946) as a common Yankee saying.

smudder Once used in Maine for a cloud of dust raised from sweeping a floor or the like. Also smutter, smother. smurr up east’ard.” smurry

slumgullion A stew or soup made from whatever leftovers are at hand. slump

A fruit dumpling dessert.

slunk school, to

An old term meaning to play hooky.

slut’s wool Dust balls under the bed; slut here is an old word for a slovenly woman. smaaht

A commonly heard pronunciation of “smart.”

smarm To smooth or plaster down. “His hair was smarmed down.” smart Accomplished, talented; the word also is used this way in the South. smart as a steel trap Very smart and very alert. “He’d come up again as smart as a steel trap.” (Seba Smith, The Life and Writings of Major Jack Downing, 1833) smart as a whip

Very smart, alert, mentally quick.

smart to work Full of energy, not lazy. “The old woman always was smart to work.” (Mary Wilkins Freeman, Six Trees, 1903) smart up Spruce up. “It looks as natral as the hogs, / Just as you used to be, / When you get smarted up to go / And take a walk with me.” (Anonymous, Boston Globe, May 3, 1831) smell like a beamster To smell very badly indeed, the expression dating back to the days when tannery workers, called beamsters, were avoided by all because of the odors that clung to them even after a bath. smiley Smiling. “All kind of smiley round the lips.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867) smilin’ Drinking. “He was out smilin’ last night in Augusta.” smooth as a smelt A coastal term meaning things very smooth or pleasant. “That syrup was smooth as a smelt.”

To become hazy. “It’s smurrin’ up to the

Hazy. See

SMURR UP.

smush To mash. “She smushed everything on her plate all together.” snapper A humorous term for whatever it is in baked beans that causes gas. “The beans we serve here have the snappers removed.” Incidentally, not long ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture introduced a “gasless bean.” snedricks Snide tricks. The punning word may be nautical in origin. snew Often used in the past for snowed. “It snew all day.” snicker A nationally used term meaning a snide, slightly stifled laugh. The expression originated in New England, possibly introduced there directly from England’s Essex dialect. snivver Immediately after, as in “I’ll be over to your house snivver dinner.” Cited by William F. Macy in The Nantucket Scrap Basket (1916). snow eater A warm breeze from the sea in late February that melts the snow. snowed up Snowed in. “. . . Tell him about the time / In Stafford’s cabin, forty years ago, / When four of us were snowed up for ten days / With only one dried haddock.” (Edward Arlington Robinson, “Isaac and Archibald,” Captain Craig, 1902) snow roller Instead of shoveling the roads in winters past, New Englanders often rolled the snow with snow rollers, packing it down for the horse-drawn sleighs. “The huge roller, looking like two big slatted barrels, went groaning and creaking down the country road, pressing down the snow.” (Hayden Pearson, New England Flavor, 1961) snug A synonym in Maine and New Hampshire for stingy. snug by

Close by. “She used to live snug by here.”

302 Yankee Talk soak A heavy, hard rain. “I s’pose I hadn’t ought to come ’way down here in such a soak.” (Mary Wilkins Freeman, A New England Nun and Other Stories, 1891) soaker A swindler. “She might have heard about his temper and his reputation as a ‘soaker’ who put scallops in fresh water and cornmeal to make them swell [and weigh more].” (William Martin, Cape Cod, 1991) Sock Saunders A mythical character of the Maine woods. “If a man . . . slips on a log, but catches himself in time, he says, ‘Foxed you that time, Sock Saunders.’ If he cuts his foot, he explains, ‘Sock Saunders got me.’ There are no stories about Sock Saunders. He’s just the guy who hangs around and makes life complicated.” (Louise Dickenson Rich, We Took to the Woods, 1942) sody

Soda pop.

some good Excellent, very good. “This chowder is some good.” Also some old good. something to lift the scalp Used to describe a terrible, fetid smell. See ASAFETIDA BAG. some tired A little tired. “ ‘Matilda and our girls and I made ’most all the cake with our own hands, and we all feel some tired . . .’ ” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie Venner, 1861) some ugly Mean, bad-tempered. “He was some ugly with the kids last night.” some wicked good is.”

Very good. “Some wicked good it

so neat she (he) squeaks annoys others.

Someone so neat she (he)

so-fashion In this way or fashion. “I’ll knock sofashion and peep round the door / When I come back, so you’ll know who it is.” (Robert Frost, “A Hundred Collars,” 1914)

son of a bitch Once a common and respectable name for boiled salt cod-fish covered with scraps of pork; heard on shipboard and in houses along the Massachusetts coast.

soft as mush

son of a sea cook Son of a sea cook, which can mean either a “good guy” or a “mean SOB,” depending on the context, really has little to do with the sea. No sea cook had any hand in it. It seems that the earliest American settlers appropriated the word s’quenk, for skunk, from the Indians around the Massachusetts Bay Colony, pronouncing it see-konk. Thus, a son of a see-konk was first a stinking son of a skunk. Because see-konk sounded something like “sea cook,” it came to be pronounced “sea cook” long after the Indian word was forgotten. The fact that sea cooks often were cantankerous old men probably reinforced the term’s present ambivalent meaning.

A simile heard in New England.

softer than a stewed pumpkin (punkin) An old expression used to describe a mawkish person or sentiment. soft sawder, to To flatter someone, talk a lot of blarney. This old term is still heard occasionally, although it isn’t recorded in most dictionaries. The derivation of the expression is unclear, apparently having something to do with “solder,” but it is first recorded in Thomas C. Haliburton’s The Clockmaker (1836): “If she goes to act ugly, I’ll give her a dose of ‘soft sawder.’ ” soft water men A term New England sailors had for amateur sailors. A saying went: “Anyone who would go to sea for pleasure would go to hell for a vacation.” sofy

An old pronunciation of sofa.

some Often used to mean “very,” as in “He’s some ugly.” “She’s some pretty.”

son of a whore This commonly used epithet is not taken too seriously in northern England, where it is heard most frequently. It does yeoman service in describing everything from a beloved friend (“How are you, you old son of a whore?”) to an avowed enemy, and is applied to situations of good luck as well as bad luck, even to women as well as men. This is not to say, however, that someone might not take exception and punch you in the nose for using it.

some dearer Once commonly used for more expensive. “To the Editor of The Atlantic Monthly . . . noticin’ by your kiver thet you’re some dearer that wut you wuz, I enclose the deffrence . . .” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867)

soon or late Sooner or later, eventually. “ ‘Sh! not so loud: he’ll hear-you,’ Mary said. / ‘I want him to: he’ll have to soon or late.” (Robert Frost, “The Death of the Hired Hand,” 1914)

some desperate Said of someone very ugly or otherwise undesirable. “Some desperate he is!”

sopysyvine A pronunciation of the old apple variety called the saps-of-wine.

spitting spell 303 sortilege A method of divination practiced in times past in which a person with a problem would open a Bible randomly and study the verses on the two pages for guidance or an answer. sot A pronunciation of “set.” “All during my [Vermont] childhood and youth he was a legendary figure of ‘sot’ obstinacy and queerness.” (Dorothy Canfield, “Old Man Warner,” in Raw Material, 1925) so that Used by Mainers for as if. “It felt so that I had broken my hand.” so thievish they [the neighbors] have to take in their stone walls nights Quoted as a contemporary saying in James Russell Lowell’s The Biglow Papers (1867). sounded like a bull with his pizzle caught in the garden gate Bellowed in pain at the top of his lungs. “ ‘You shoulda heard him . . . Sounded like a bull with his pizzle caught in the garden gate.’ ” (Stephen King, Dolores Claiborne, 1993) souple Heard in Maine for supple. “He jogged a bit to get soupled up.” sour as swill

A simile heard in New England.

sour milk cheese

A term not much heard anymore for

COTTAGE CHEESE.

sour morning A morning with bad weather. “It was what Jonathan called a sour morning for work.” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911) souse A kind of pickled pig’s feet; also called hog’s head cheese, panhas and souse meat. soused clams

Shucked pickled clams.

south-end An old area in Boston; early mention of it was made by Nathaniel Hawthorne in his story “Old News” (1835), in which he writes of one “Mary Salmon, who shod horses, at the south-end” ca. 1759. sowbug A small crustacean found under logs and stones that is so called because of its piglike shape. Also called a wood louse. “ ‘I am a sowbug and a necrophile,’ / Said Pretzel, ‘and the gods are growing old . . .’ ” (Edward Arlington Robinson, “Captain Craig,” 1902)

New Hampshire expression in Frederic D. Allen, “Contributions to the New England Vocabulary,” Dialect Notes, Vol. I (1890). spare room visitors.

The bedroom in one’s house reserved for

spark An old-fashioned term meaning to make love, court. “They’ve been sparking over a year now.” However, this word is also used in other regions and may be of Scandinavian origin. See FELLER. sparrowgrass A folk etymology of “asparagus.” Heard in New England and other regions. spat This word, still commonly used throughout the United States for a little fight, apparently originated in New England a century ago. specie cat.” spell

Once used for species. “It’s a specie of wild

While. “Let’s set for a spell.”

spell baker, to An interesting though obsolete term meaning to be fairly able, up to snuff; from the fact that baker was the first word of two syllables in Noah Webster’s “Blue-back Speller.” “If an old man will marry a young wife, / Why then . . . he must spell Baker!” (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Poetical Works, 1868) spider (1) See quote. “He was one of the kind sports call a spider, / All wiry arms and legs that spread out wavy / From a humped body nigh as big’s a biscuit . . .” (Robert Frost, “The Code,” 1914) (2) A lobster, because lobsters are members of the same genus. (3) A cast-iron frying pan. spile A spigot that is used in taking sap from a tree, or a plug in a cider barrel. “From one of [the barrels] . . . a bright pine spile stuck out alluringly.” (Edward Arlington Robinson, “Isaac and Archibald,” Captain Craig, 1902) spills spindle

A synonym for pine needles in Maine. An old-fashioned term for corn tassel.

span, to An old term meaning to complement each other. “The horses span well.”

Spindle City Lowell, Massachusetts used to be called this in its heyday, after the thousands of spindles in its cotton factories.

spandy (1) Very good or new. (2) Very, perfectly. “Her shoes are spandy new.” Cited as a common Portsmouth,

spitting spell A very short spell. “He hasn’t stopped working for more than a spitting spell.”

304 Yankee Talk spity Spiteful. “They’re so spity.” (Mary Wilkins Freeman, A New England Nun and Other Stories, 1891) spleeny (1) A word Mainers use for someone too sensitive about pain. “Don’t be so spleeny about it—it’s just a scraped knee.” (2) Sissified. (3) A little ill. (4) Touchy or morose. Splendid Splinter, the The nickname of slugger Ted Williams, the best-known baseball player to play for the Boston Red Sox since Babe Ruth. Often shortened to the Splinter. splinter-broom A broom made of yellow birch, closeshaved, that used to be common in New England. spoon victuals Food for an invalid. Cited as a common term in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). spoopsie A word with some currency a century ago for a silly person. sport Another mildly derogatory term for a nonresident vacationer in Maine, this term used mostly inland. See SUMMERCATER. spouting

A trough to carry off rain.

sprawl (1) Life, vigor, animation. “She has no sprawl.” Cited as a common Portsmouth, New Hampshire expression in Frederic D. Allen, “Contributions to New England Vocabulary,” Vol. I (1890) (2) energy, courage. “He’s got more sprawl than most folks.” Springfield Any of many firearms made at the U.S. armory at Springfield, Massachusetts. sprout lands An area where small young trees are growing after sprouting in a forest that has recently been cut for lumber. “And sprout-lands flourish where the axe has gone.” (Robert Frost, “The Generations of Men,” 1914) spruce See quote. “The kitchen was a poor place, not ‘spruce’ and shining as his mother had kept it in his boyhood . . .” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911) spruce beer An old northern New England drink made from a decoration of the fresh twigs of black and red spruce trees. spruce gum Spruce gum is still collected in Maine and New England, sometimes as a small business, but in

nothing like the 150-ton-a-year quantities collected in the early 1900s. This natural chewing gum (see my The Great American Chewing Gum Book, 1976) is collected in winter and comes from punctures made on the trunks of both black and red spruces the previous spring. I knocked down a couple of good big chunks and took them back to the house. It was a good idea to trim the pieces of gum before I put them away in a shoebox . . . I got rid of the bits of bark that clung, and trimmed off the rough edges and any soft spots. Then from time to time I’d cut off a chunk and chew it into a pleasant purplishmagenta ball. If it was first-quality gum it was chewable a considerable number of times. (Hayden S. Pearson, New England Flavor, 1961)

“What this man brought in a cotton sack / Was gum, the gum of the mountain spruce. / He showed me lumps of the scented stuff / Like uncut jewels, dull and rough. / It comes to market golden brown; / But turns to pink between the teeth.” (Robert Frost, “The GumGatherer,” 1916) sprung An obsolete term for drunk, tipsy. “He reckoned they were a little bit sprung.” (Harriet Beecher Stowe, Deed, A Tale of the Dismal Swamp, 1856) spry Although this word meaning lively, active, originated as a provincialism in England, it was first used with any frequency in the New England dialect. It is part of the American vocabulary today. “ ‘Why I’m kinder sorter middlin’, Mr. Slick, what you call considerable nimble and spry.’ ” (Thomas C. Haliburton, The Clockmaker, 1837) spry as a cat Very lively and nimble. “I was fat as a doe, but spry as a cat.” spudge An old, perhaps obsolete, term for to stick with a knife. spunk (1) Spirit, vivacity; a word that originated in New England. “You have convinced me of your spunk.” (David Humphreys, The Yankey in England, 1814) (2) To kindle. “He’d spunked up a fire and hung on the kittle.” (Rose Terry Cooke, “Uncle Josh,” 1857) squale Bartlett’s (1848) defines this as “to throw a stick or stone so that it skims across the ground or water”; the expression is probably obsolete by now, skim generally being used. squam A yellow oilskin hat worn by fishermen; after the fishing village Anniquam, Massachusetts. squamish

A pronunciation of “squeamish.”

still as mouse work 305 squantum This term was defined by John Bartlett in his Dictionary of Americanisms (1848): The name of a species of fun known to the Nantucket folks, which is thus described by the New York Mirror: A party of ladies and gentlemen go to one of the famous waterplaces of resort, where they fish, dig clams, talk, laugh, sing, dance, play, bathe, sail, eat, and have a general “good time.” The food generally consists of chowder, baked clams, and fun. No one is admitted to the sacred circle who will take offence at a joke, and every one is expected to do his or her part towards creating a general laugh. Any man who speaks of business affairs (excepting matrimony) is immediately reproved, and on a second offence publicly chastised. Care is thrown to the wind, politics discarded, war ignored, pride humbled, stations levelled, wealth scorned, virtue exalted, and—this is “squantum.”

Squantum is an Indian word whose meaning is uncertain. An annual celebration held near Boston as early as 1812 and called the feast of Squantum may have inspired this Nantucket term for clambake or picnic. In any case, squantum was still in general use at the turn of the century in Nantucket and other areas of New England places for a good time, merrymaking, a picnic party, a high old time. square day

The whole day.

There are more kinds of weather to the “square day” in this north-eastern corner of the United States than in any other part of the country. An early geographer described a sample day on the Kennebec River. It had thunder, rain, hail, frost and snow. Perhaps if he had covered two days, he would have included fog. And he left out the sun. New England has almost 60 per cent of the total amount of sunshine possible. (Robert P. Tristram Coffin, New England, 1951)

See

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE NEW ENGLAND WEATHER,

JUST WAIT A MINUTE.

squarenut hickory

See

stands out like a blackberry in a pan of milk Conspicuous. Given as a Vermont expression in Charles Edward Crane’s Let Me Show You Vermont (1937). stars and stripes An old Boston term for pork and beans eaten cold on Sundays. start

Shock, surprise. “What a start you gave me!”

startle a body out of her (his) wits Scare someone greatly. “ ‘Startle a body out of her wits,’ Miss Rainey muttered.” (Susan Dodd, “Rue,” 1984) starved fit to eat the Lord’s supper A colorful rural phrase meaning very hungry that was common in Maine and New Hampshire a long lifetime ago. staver An old-fashioned term for an excellent person. “He’s a real staver.” stave up place.”

To break up. “She staved up the whole

steam doctor A doctor who followed the medical system advocated by Massachusetts Dr. Samuel Thomson (1769–1843), who stressed the use of herbal remedies and steam baths in treating illnesses. steboy! animal.

An exclamation used in setting a dog on an

stemmy Said of males sexually aroused. “She sure made me stemmy.” stent An allotted amount, a stint. “He did his stent of work.”

MOCKERNUT.

squash Our word squash comes from the vegetable’s Narragansett Indian name, asquatasquash, “eaten raw,” which was shortened to squash by New Englanders.

stewed as a fresh boiled owl Very drunk. The origin of the expression is anybody’s guess. Maybe someone desperate did shoot and stew an owl whole for food and noticed its stewed resemblance to someone deep in his cups.

squat Squeeze, crush. “He squat his finger in the door.”

stiddy company

squeezay An old term believed to have been used only in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and meaning fretful. staddles Stakes arranged in a circle in a marsh so that salt hay can be stored in cocks within them.

FELLER.

stiff as a church Used to describe a person ill at ease, unrelaxed; the expression was suggested by someone sitting in church in starched stiff collar and uncomfortable clothes. stifle

stands in hand Behooves. “It stands you in hand to be careful.” Cited as a widely used expression in New England in Frederick D. Allen, “Contributions to New England Vocabulary,” Dialect Notes, Vol. I (1890).

See

Vegetables sliced and fried in a

SPIDER.

still as mouse work Very quiet, stealthy. “I came up on ’em still ez mouse work.” Cited as a common New England expression in George Allen England, “Rural

306 Yankee Talk Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914).

straight as a boar’s leg straight.

An old-fashioned term for very

Still Corners A small town in New Hampshire. “Still Corners” (so called not because / The place is silent all day long, nor yet / Because it boasts a whisky still— because / It set out once to be a city and still / Is only Corners, crossroads in a wood.)” (Robert Frost, “New Hampshire,” 1923)

straight as a gun barrel region.

A simile once common in the

sting or sting ray A name used in New England for the fish generally called a skate. It is also called the raie in New England. stinkin’ Benjamin Purple trillium (of the genus Trillium), which has a fetid odor when picked for a bouquet. stiver An old-fashioned word meaning to get going, get moving. “Now stiver along to school, child, or you’ll be late.” stivy Used in Maine for crowded, crammed, stuffy. “It was stivy in there.” Also stived up. stone drag A vehicle without wheels that is used to collect stones from fields. stone fence Originally the New England term for what is now generally called a stone wall. stone’s got a pretty heavy mortgage on that land See quote. “A man speaking to me once of a very rocky clearing said, ‘Stone’s got a pretty heavy mortgage on that land.’” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867) stone sloop Not a ship built of stone but a ship that carried granite from New England quarries to cities along the East Coast in days past. stone wall Used for stone fence. “They hev to take in their stone walls nights.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867) stook An old term for a shock of corn, that is, a number of sheaves of grain stacked upright in a field for drying. stoop one’s head Stoop. “He had to stoop his head to hear her.” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911) store choppers

straight as a hair straight.

An old expression meaning perfectly

straight as a yard of pump water Given as a Vermont expression in Charles Edward Crane’s Let Me Show You Vermont (1937). stram To stride with self-importance. “He went stramming along the street.” stram about Flounder, kick about. “He strammed about in bed.” stramming around Said of children running back and forth creating a disturbance. “Strop stramming around and sit still!” strams

An old term used in Nantucket for children.

straw sailor

A farmer who also works at lobstering.

streaked bass Another name once used for striped bass (Morone saxatilis). stream In Maine a creek is always a stream, unless it’s small enough to be a brook. strike-out Recorded in Maine for a new love affair; from to strike out meaning to start, not the strike-out of baseball. strimmered See quote. “I looked up to the sky, such a pretty blue, and the little soft woolly clouds strimmered all over it, and I wondered if there was any dialectic [dialect] word that answered to strimmer. Seems’s if there couldn’t be one that pictur’d out the real thing so good. For them clouds was strimmered and nothin’ else.” (Annie Trumbull Slosson, “A Local Colorist,” 1912) stromp An old term recorded in New Hampshire for “a woman with a mannish or bold manner”; said to originally have been a variation of “strumpet.”

Heard in Maine for false teeth.

straight ahead Words of assent, usually in reply to a question. “How about we go fishing?” “Straight ahead. Looks like a good day for it.”

struck with the Spanish mildew Said of someone who is pretending or imagining he or she is ill. studdle

Stir up. “She studdled her tea.”

swad 307 stuffy An old New England term meaning sullen, sulky, obstinate, bad-tempered.

sumac The tree (of the genus Rhus) is often pronounced shoo-mak in New England.

stun A pronunciation of “stone” heard primarily in Maine.

summer boarder An old Maine name for summer resident. Cited in E. K. Maxfield, “Maine Dialect,” American Speech (November 1926).

stunded Stunned. “ ‘Been stunded’, Abel said.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie Venner, 1861) sub-spucky Another name for an Italian hero sandwich in Boston. succotash The first succotash was made by American Indians, who cooked corn and beans together in bear grease. New England colonists used the word in the early 18th century, if not before then, and it apparently derives from the Narragansett Indian misickquatash, “an ear of corn,” or manusqussedah, “beans.” such A pronunciation commonly heard in Boston for search. sucking the nether teat Not doing very well. “I’d better make some money this year; I’ve been sucking the nether teat all year.” The origin of the expression is unclear. sugar bush A name Vermont and New Hampshire farmers give to their holdings of sugar maple trees that yield maple sugar. Sugar Loaf The name of various hills and mountains in New England. The term derives from the cone-shaped loaves of sugar people used in olden times. A ski resort in Maine also shares the name. sugar-lot A lot of rock maple or sugar maple trees from which maple sugar and syrup are made. sugar maple Acer saccharum, the source of sap from which maple sugar and syrup is made; the state tree of Vermont. Suicide Six A nickname for Route Six on Cape Cod. “Nervous damn stretch—two lanes runnin’ straight and flat through pine woods for thirteen miles, speed limit fifty and damn-you-straight-to-hell if you were an old man who didn’t go over forty. Somebody always itchin’ to pass. Tourists comin’ the other way. No wonder they called it Suicide Six.” (William Martin, Cape Cod, 1991)

summercater Possibly a combination of summer and (va) cat (ion) plus er, summercater is used in coastal Maine meaning people who come to the state to vacation for the summer. The term often is used in a mildly derogatory way. “That summercater’s been given’ us a lot of trouble.” See SPORT. summer complaint Another word used by Mainers for summer visitor. Also called a dogfish and a rusticator, among a number of choice terms. sunapu Char (trout of the genus Salvelinus) of brilliant color found in Sunapee Lake, New Hampshire and other lakes in New Hampshire and Maine. As one icthyologist put it, “As the October pairing time approaches, the Sunapu fish becomes illuminated with the flushes of maturing passion.” sunck A name once used for the female chief of certain New England Indian tribes. “Awaking one night . . . and finding his sunck (queen) lying near another Indian, he . . . took his knife, and cut three strokes on each of her cheeks.” (Massachusetts Historical Collection, lx, 1804) supawn

HASTY PUDDING.

supper The last meal of the day, after breakfast and the noon dinner; commonly used elsewhere. surl

To be surly, mean. “He surled around the house.”

surprisedly Sometimes used for surprisingly. “It was surprisedly cold out.” suspicion sut

To suspect. “We suspicioned he stole it.”

An old pronunciation in Connecticut for soot.

sutton A pronunciation commonly heard in Boston for certain. Suz

See

suz a day sulphur and molasses tonic in days past.

An Indian name for

DEAR ME SUZ.

See

DEAR ME SUZ.

A concoction used as a spring swad

An old term for lump, mass or bump.

308 Yankee Talk swaddle out To wash clothes poorly. “She swaddled out his sheets.” swag! 1815.

swatson To chat or chew the fat; the word is probably from the German schwatzen meaning the same, but possibly originated in the Connecticut area.

An old exclamation recorded as far back as sweeten

See

KEEPING VEGETABLES.

swagun Used in Maine lumber camps for soup or porridge. “We had bean swagun for dinner.” Also swagin.

swept hold A nautical expression for an empty stomach. “I’ve got a swept hold, haven’t eaten in two days.”

swale A marshy depression in level land; originally an English dialect word.

switchel Recorded as early as 1779 for a drink made of sweetened water and ginger with a little vinegar and hard cider in it, sometimes with a bit of hard stuff added. It was popular on land and sea, but the word was originally Yankee sailor slang, origin unknown.

swallow the anchor Originally a nautical term meaning to retire from the sea but now used for retirement in general. swamp Yankee See quote. “. . . the Speaker, after all, was a swamp Yankee from [southwestern] Massachusetts, and he was a Yankee from Vermont . . .” (George V. Higgins, Victories, 1990) swan, I

Also I swang. See

I SWAN.

swan boats Famous pedal boats in the shape of swans used for rides on the pond in Boston’s Public Garden. swang, I

See

I SWAN.

swankie A refreshing drink made of water and molasses, with ginger and sometimes vinegar added.

swivel-eyed Once a common nautical expression for a cross-eyed person. Sailors considered cross-eyed people bad luck, especially, for some reason, a cross-eyed Finn. symptom book A book carried by the masters of oldtime New England sailing vessels. It described the symptoms of illnesses that might befall their men and gave treatments. syrup Often pronounced sur-up, as in “I’ll have more maple surup.”

T tantoaster

t The syndrome of the vanishing t and d in New England speech is discussed in the Introduction. t’ain’t

tap the admiral To take a drink of any liquor; this expression may date back to 19th-century England when Admiral Nelson was embalmed in rum temporarily after he was killed at sea.

Isn’t. “T’ain’t a joke, is it?”

take a scoocher To ski down a slope in a squatting position. Cited as a common Portsmouth, New Hampshire expression in Frederic D. Allen, “Contributions to the New England Vocabulary,” Dialect Notes, Vol. I (1890).

tarnal Eternal. “ ‘This tarnal son of yours got me this mawnin’ to fix him a stick fer firin’ apples . . .’ ” (Henry A. Shute, Plupy, 1910)

take a seat of work out on him To thoroughly criticize someone, piling complaint after complaint on the person. The “seat of work” comes from the pile of leather shoemakers used to pile around their seats, this representing the amount of work they intended to do at a sitting.

tarnation! The interjection tarnation! a euphemism for damnation! or damn! has been used in New England since colonial times and is familiar to millions of Americans from its use in books, movies, radio and television. The best guess is that it derives from the English tarnal! which itself derives from the mild interjection eternal!

take a walk up ladder lane and down hawser street A humorous old nautical term for to be executive hanging, a hawser being a thick nautical rope.

tarred and feathered At Salem, Massachusetts on September 7, 1768, an informer named Robert Wood “was stripped, tarred and feathered and placed on a hogshead under the Tree of Liberty on the Common.” This is the first record of the term tarred and feathered in America. Tarring and feathering was a cruel punishment in which hot pine tar was applied from head to toe on a person and goose feathers were stuck to the tar. The offender was then ignited and ridden out of town on a rail (tied to a splintery rail), beaten with sticks and stoned all the while. A person’s skin often came off when he or she removed the tar. It was a common practice to tar and feather Tories who refused to join the Liberty Boys, but the practice was known long before the Revolution, dating back at least to the days of Richard the Lion-Hearted (Richard I). Though no one has been tarred and feathered or ridden out of town on a rail in recent years, the

take to do An old-fashioned term meaning to reprove, or take to task. “I took him to do for saying that.” take up the hatchet Go to war; an Indian expression first recorded in New England in 1694. talking big Bragging. “He was aware that he was ‘talking big’ . . .” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911) tall as a beanpole New England.

An old term for a severe storm.

A simile once frequently heard in

tamarack Larix laricina, a common New England tree used to make railroad ties and telephone poles; also called the American larch. 309

310 Yankee Talk expression remains to describe anyone subjected to indignity and infamy. tautog An Indian name for the blackfish (Tautoga onitis), the term once widely used in Rhode Island. team

A Maine term for a single horse and buggy.

teared

Torn. “It was all teared.”

ted To spread out mown grass or hay for drying. Used mainly in New England now, the verb ted is first recorded in 15th-century England. The tedder, invented in America over a century ago, is a machine that teds hay. “He tedded the hay last week.” teedle board A name for a children’s seesaw in northeast Massachusetts. teeter totter Once common in western New England for seesaw, today this word is used largely by older speakers. teethache An obsolete term for toothache. “He had a teethache.” tell him (her) where to head in Nautical in origin, this expression means to put a person in his (her) place, to reprimand him (her), to show him (her) who’s boss. “She sure told him where to head in.” Also Show him (her) where to head in. tell the truth and shame the devil An old New England proverb. “ ‘I’m sorry if that hurts your feelings, but I’ve got to—tell the truth and shame the devil.’ ” (Thornton Wilder, Our Town, 1938) tempest

Heard in Massachusetts for rain storm.

tend Attend, work as a salesperson. “I used to tend in a store till I got worse.” (Mary Wilkins Freeman, A New England Nun and Other Stories, 1891) tend out on Heard mostly in Maine for attend, attend to, watch out for. “Tend out on him, he’s pretty slippery. tenement An apartment building; used in New England with no implications of poverty. tennis Sometimes used for sneakers or tennis shoes. “Put on your tennis.” thack An old-fashioned Maine pronunciation of “that.”

Thames A river in Connecticut, pronounced there not like the Thames (Tems) in England but as written—with the “th” and a broad “a.” thank-ye-ma’am An American courtship term that dates back to 19th-century New England. Roads at the time had diagonal earthen ridges running across them that channeled off rainwater from the high to the low side and prevented washouts. Rural Casanovas driving their carriages along these rude roads made sure that they hit these ridges hard so that their female companions would bounce up in the air and bump into them. With the head of his sweetheart so close, the gentleman could steal a kiss, and usually expressed his gratitude with a Thank-ye-ma’am, that expression becoming synonymous with a quick kiss or any hole in the road that caused riders to bump up and down. It wasn’t long before some salacious wit took this innocent phrase between the sheets, or to the side of the road somewhere, and elaborated on it, for in 1895 we find recorded the related expression wham bam (thank-yema’am) for quick coitus. As a matter of fact, the first recorded use of both expressions occurs in that year. Another explanation of the expression can be found in the following quotation: The thank-you-ma-am (a bump or hole in the road) only to be found in the more primitive roads in American rural districts is thus described in a newspaper: “To protect the road from wash-outs in the spring it is the custom to construct water bars, familiarly known as thank-you-ma’ams, across the road on grades.” The peculiar name is said to have been suggested by the fact that, when a vehicle passes over such an obstruction, the passengers bob their heads as though making a curteous bow. (Herbert Hoswill, A Dictionary of Modern American Usage, 1935)

thank you kindly An old-fashioned way to say please. “I’ll thank you kindly to leave.” that butters no parsnips That isn’t worth much, means nothing at all; an old expression dating back to the 19th century but still occasionally heard. thatchy Said in New Hampshire of a certain taste in milk. “The milk tastes ‘thatchy’ because the cows eat ‘thatch.’ A long, coarse grass, growing in the salt marshes, is known as ‘thatch’ on the New Hampshire and Massachusetts seacoast. The thatch New Hampshire cows eat seems to be different from this. It is described as a sort of weed, growing in low places.” (Frederic D. Allen, “Contributions to the New England Vocabulary,” Dialect Notes, Vol. I, 1890) that’s a fact See quote. “ ‘. . . I won’t have you gobbling like wolves. It’ll stunt your growth—that’s a fact.’ ” (Thornton Wilder, Our Town, 1938)

tighter than a teddy bear 311 that’s a great spoon An old, probably obsolete Nantucketism meaning good, promising.

throughway Used for expressway in western New England. “He took the throughway.”

thay A pronunciation of “there.” “Thay’s a meeting down at the church.”

throw a tub at a whale See quote. “To offer a sop to keep anyone quiet, said to be the survival of a very ancient custom when approaching a sperm whale suspected of being ugly . . . to throw a cask overboard so it would drift toward the whale to distract its attention while the boat was approaching.” (William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket, 1916)

theah A pronunciation of “there” in Boston and elsewhere. the child is born! An expression Mainers sometimes use to mean “a job is done.” the hell I pitch in

See

DOWN BUCKET!

they call a house a house, but a house with a shed is a village An old saying about Cape Cod quoted in Massachusetts: A Guide to Its Plows and People, 1904. they-uh A pronunciation of “there” on Cape Cod; Cape Codders add another syllable to the Bostonian’s theah. thick as fiddlers in hell Very numerous, plentiful. Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). “It was some crowd, thick as fiddlers in hell.”

throw a tub to the whale To give up and let someone have his or her own way. The expression is nautical in origin, referring to whale hunters throwing their rope tubs into the water, thus letting a harpooned whale loose, after all the rope had paid out and the whale threatened to pull a boat down with it as it sounded. throw off To say. “‘Well, Matt, any visitors?’ he threw off.” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911) throw up Jonah To be very nauseated. In reference to the biblical story of Jonah in the whale. “I threw up Jonah.” Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914).

thick of snow The kind of snowfall composed of big moist flakes that forms a white curtain in front of one, allowing no visibility at all. “We couldn’t see land in the thick o’ snow.”

tickled as a cat with two cocks Very happy indeed; the euphemistic version of the expression substitutes heads for cocks.

thimbleberry An old-fashioned term for black raspberries referring to their size and shape. Also called black caps.

tickle grass A name used for the barbed native grass Trichodium laxiflower.

thin as vanity Very thin, said of both people and things. Cited as common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914).

tie a rag to your tongue An old-fashioned expression meaning hold your tongue, be quiet.

thither An old-fashioned word for over there. “Only one from a farm not far away / strolled thither . . .” (Robert Frost, “The Generations of Men,” 1914)

tied hand and foot Unable to act, incapacitated. “ ‘I’m tied hand and foot, Matt. There isn’t a thing I can do.’ ” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911) tier A child’s apron that was tied on rather than buttoned and used as a play garment.

three sheets in the wind Drunk. This old expression still is heard in New England. It generally is heard in the rest of the United States as three sheets to the wind.

tie up Used in Maine for cow stable, a place where cows are kept secure.

three sheets in the wind and dragging anchor Someone very drunk, unable to control his or her movements. See DRAGGING ANCHOR.

tighter than a bull’s mouth in fly time Very tight. A bull keeps his mouth tightly closed during the black fly season to prevent the flies from stinging the inside.

three sheets to the wind and the fourth shaking drunk.

tighter than a teddy bear drunk.

Very

Heard in Maine for someone

312 Yankee Talk tight-stowed Arranged tightly, using up all available room. “Then I had told Howland that he must reserve for me a span of good horses and a sleigh that I could pack sixteen small children into, tight-stowed.” (Edward Everett Hale, “Christmas Waits in Boston,” 1867) Tilbury Town The setting of many poems by poet Edgar Lee Masters (1868–1950), modeled on his native Gardiner, Maine where he was raised from the age of one, through he was born in Head Tide, Maine. till

See

INSTEAD.

tilt A name for a children’s seesaw in southwest New England. Also tilting board. tinker A small mackerel (Scomber scombrus), a common New England food fish. tippet A cape. “Or rather—He passed us—/ The Dews drew quivering and chill—/ For only Gossamer, my Gown—My Tippet—only Tulle.” (Emily Dickinson, “Because I could not stop for death . . .” published 1890) tip-toe Nancy A young woman who puts on airs. Cited as a common term in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). tithing man

See

CHURCH STICK.

titman This word has no vulgar connotation among farmers in New England, who often refer to the runt in a litter of pigs as a titman or tit. Tit here derives from an old Germanic word meaning small, whereas tit as slang for a woman’s breast comes from the Old English titt. A century ago titman meant a small or stunted person, as when Thoreau called his generation “a race of titmen.”

to hell I pitch it A common exclamation of protest in Marblehead, Massachusetts where it is not taken as a profane or offensive term. to home At home. “There ain’t a soul but me to home.” (Mary Wilkins Freeman, A New England Nun and Other Stories, 1861) toil and moil Work practically without relief. “ ‘I shall have to toil and moil all my days, with only little bits of fun now and then . . .’ ” (Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, 1868) tol’able A common pronunciation of “tolerable.” “ ‘I hope you are enjoying good health.’ ‘Tol’able,’ replied the store keeper, absently.” (Bliss Perry, “By the Committee,” 1899) tomally The soft green liver of cooked lobster, which many lobster lovers consider a delicacy. tonic A bottled carbonated soft drink (soda or soda pop) in Boston and environs. Also used in Maine. took (1) Taken. “I’d have got my ears took off.” (Sarah Orne Jewett, “Lost Lover,” 1878) (2) Hit, struck. “He took that deer with a long shot.” took a fit Did something impulsively. “He took a fit and run up the road.” took sick Come down with an illness. “ ‘But I ain’t never took sick,’ snapped Melinda, looking like a sturdy oak-tree utterly incapable of ailments.” (Rose Terry Cooke, “Town Mouse and Country Mouse,” 1891) tooser An antique word for a clay marble used in the game of marbles.

tivis To wander about aimlessly. Cited in William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket (1916).

toosted Lifted. “We toosted him up in the tree.” Possibly derives from boost.

to See quote. “The corrupt use of to in the Yankee ‘he lives to Salem,’ ‘to home’, and others, must be a very old one . . .” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867)

tooth carpenter for dentist. top cow

tobacco boat

See

A humorous term Mainers once used

A bull in eastern New England; also toro.

CHEBACCO.

top dressing toe injection A boot in the backside to cure someone of malingering or other ills. toe the chalk An old expression synonymous with toe the line. “That ’ere’s most frequently the kin o’ talk of critters can’t be kicked to toe the chalk.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867)

Manure.

top gallant A colorful but probably obsolete term for corn tassel. topping Proud. “You needn’t look so topping.” (Mary Wilkins Freeman, A New England Nun and Other Stories, 1891)

tree squeak torch up Recorded in Maine and New Hampshire for to incite, urge, inspire.

town fathers town.

to-rights Right away, immediately. An old poem about a slaughtered pig went: “If you eat the liver / you’ll live forever / If you eat the lights [lungs], / you’ll die to rights.”

town pound A pasture once set aside for stray animals such as sheep, cows or pigs that the town field driver collected so that they would not ruin the cultivated fields.

tortience A perhaps obsolete word for the youngest child, the baby, the pet of a family. “That there’s my tortience.” Origin unknown but it may derive from the Nauset Indian Taushunts meaning the same. Also toshence, toshiens, tossance, tossiance, tossions. tote A Maine synonym for the verb to carry that is used in other regions as well. tote road A lumber camp road used mainly for hauling supplies. tote sled tote-team

A sled used for hauling supplies. A team of horses used for hauling.

t’other The other. “He stood a spell on one foot first, / Then stood a spell on t’other.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1866) touch a hundred Live to 100 years old. “ ‘Wust kind [of accident],’ my informant assented. ‘More’n enough to kill most men. But the Fromes are tough. Ethan’ll likely touch a hundred.’ ” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911) touchin’ up Used by Maine fishermen for stealing. “Someone’s been touchin’ up my nets,” that is, stealing fish from them. touch of the holy bone, a Said to be an Irish aphorism heard among workers on the Boston docks to describe sexual intercourse. tough as a boiled eel

A simile heard in New England.

tougher than a bagful of hammers tourtiere

Very tough.

A French-Canadian word for pork pie.

touse A fight, as in to make a touse, to take on someone in a fight. Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). town farm house.

A term used in the 19th century for poor-

The

313

SELECTMEN

or elected officials of a

trade Once a common term in Rhode Island for a medical prescription. trading

An old, perhaps obsolete, term for shopping.

train To travel with someone or a group, to be familiar with. “She trains with a fast set.” trainer

An obsolete term for soldier.

traipsin’ about Traveling around without a purpose. “ ‘. . . it might make him discontented with Grover’s Corners to go traipsin’ about Europe . . .’ ” (Thornton Wilder, Our Town, 1938) trap war A fight among lobstermen over where traps or pots are put, usually occurring when one lobsterman encroaches on another’s traditional territory. “Trap wars are legendary, especially in Maine, where lobstering territories are often legacies from father to son. A halfhitch knot on a buoy spindle is a warning. A severed pot warp is a threat . . . On very rare occasions, territorial disputes flash into genuine war, as groups of lobstermen retaliate against other groups.” (Bruce Ballenger, The Lobster Almanac, 1988) trash Something considered worthless; one great New England poet uses the word this way: “My green hill yonder, where the sun goes down / Without a scratch, was once inhabited / By trees that injured him [the sun]—and evil trash / That made a cage, and held him while he bled.” (Edward Arlington Robinson, “Archibald’s Example,” The Three Taverns, 1920) traveler’s-joy Clematis vitallba, a New England flower. “. . . the steam . . . tightening her rough hair into little brown rings like the tendrils on the traveller’s joy.” (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, 1911) traverse

Another word for sled.

tread on

Step on. “Don’t tread on the flowers.”

tree-bender A term heard for a heavy rain in Massachusetts. See IT’S RAINING PITCHFORKS AND BARN SHOVELS. tree squeak An imaginary creature of the Maine woods, so named because it is said to squeak like tree limbs in the wind.

314 Yankee Talk triangular trade In the triangular trade, ships carried New England rum to the African Gold Coast on the first passage, traded the rum for slaves and transported the shackled slaves to the West Indies on the middle passage, where the slaves were sold for molasses and sugar, which were brought back to New England to make more rum on the final passage. The middle passage was, of course, the worst and most inhumane of the three legs of the journey. trifflers An old New England name for puddings; probably derives from the dessert called a trifle. trimming Cutting back on expenses. “Here followed some staggering [Newport] examples of penuriousness and ‘trimming.’ ” (Thornton Wilder, Theophilus North, 1973) Trimontane peninsula Refers to Boston. “The dusk has settled heavily upon the woods, the waves, and the Trimontane peninsula.” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Mrs. Hutchinson,” 1830) See TRIMOUNT CITY. Trimount City An old nickname for Boston, Massachusetts, also called Trimountain City, for the three mountains or hills it was built upon. See TRIMONTANE PENINSULA. trot around all day in a bushel To be busy but getting nowhere. “He’s trotted around all day in a bushel.” troubles

Minor medical problems. See COMPLICATIONS.

trout chowder A fishing camp dish made with trout and milk that is said to put New England clam chowder to shame. trudge

See U.

true as preachin’! tuckered

A simile heard in New England.

tunnel

Sometimes used to mean “funnel.”

turned around some Lost, a less embarrassing way to say one was lost in the woods. “I would have been home soon but I was turned around some.” turn the paunch A term used a century ago meaning to disgorge, vomit. ’twarn’t A pronunciation of “it weren’t,” especially in Maine. “If ’twarn’t for you they’d have lost.” twenny A pronunciation of 20 heard in Boston. “ ‘He was big, in fact. Probly twenny-five years old, maybe twenny-six . . .’ ” (George V. Higgins, Outlaws, 1987) twenty tailors around a buttonhole Too many cooks spoiling the broth. Cited as a Vermont expression in Charles Edward Crane’s Let Me Show You Vermont (1937). twice as cold as zero This old expression is still heard in northern New England on bitterly cold days. twink! A mild oath heard mostly among women on Isleboro, an island off the coast of Maine. twitch A distance of about 200 yards. “A good twitch is the distance a horse (called a twitch horse) can drag a full-length pulp log without resting. Distances are frequently measured in twitches or fractions thereof by woodsmen.” (Louise Dickenson Rich, We Took to the Woods, 1942) twizzle See quote. “Every now and then the men would come across a snare in their nets that they called a twizzle, and often a good deal of time and patience were required to pick and shake it out. ‘All sorts of fish make twizzles,’ Dan said. ‘Sometimes a little alewife will make one of the meanest sort.’ ” (Clifton Johnson, Highways and Byways of New England, 1916)

Very tired. “I’m tuckered, I’ll tell you.” two-holer

tumble

See

BACKHOUSE.

A synonym for a haycock, a small pile of hay.

tump An Indian word used in Maine meaning to drag a deer home through the woods after it has been killed. tunk To tap something lightly. “He tunked it with the wrench.” tunket Hell. “He’s madder’n tunket.” Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914).

two lamps burning and no ship at sea Used to describe a foolishly extravagant person. Someone with ships at sea in the days of sail was rich and could afford to burn two expensive oil lamps. Anyone else who burned two lamps was likely a fool. Cited in William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrapbook (1916). Also two lamps burning and no ships out. ’twould break a snake’s back to follow that furrer (furrow) Said of a poorly plowed field. Quoted in John Wallace, Village Down East (1943).

U u See quote. “E sometimes takes the place of u [in Yankee dialect], as in jedge, tredge, bresh . . . The Yankee always shortens the u in the ending ture, making ventur, natur, pictur, and so on.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867)

up-along Sometimes used for up or along. “You going up-along to the store?” up and died Died suddenly. An old poem goes: “Anna was a lovely bride / But Anna, damn’er, up and died.” See ANADAMA BREAD.

ugly In New England alone ugly is applied to cows, horses and other large farm animals that are hard to handle. “That’s one ugly horse you’ve got there.”

up a stump An old euphemism for pregnancy outside of marriage. “She’s up a stump and he’s left the country.”

uncle Often used in the past as a respectful form of address for an unrelated old man as well as one’s own uncle. Uncle Sam

See

up attic Up in the attic. “Then we asked was there anything / Up attic that we’d ever want again.” (Robert Frost, “The Witch of Coos,” 1922) See also DOWN CELLAR.

AFORE.

up for air

uncomfortable as a short-tailed horse in fly time An expression meaning very uncomfortable that was common in New England and other regions a century ago; a variation was uncomfortable as a stump-tail bull in fly time.

See

DRAWN BUCKET.

up on one’s beanwater To feel good, strong, raring to go. “I’m right up on my beanwater this morning.” Perhaps because beanwater, the water beans were soaked in for hours before baking, smelled so strong one’s head snapped up after one bent to take a whiff of it. Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914).

under the window See quote. “Nantucketers always sit under the window, never at the window. There is perhaps no phrase which is more noted in our speech than this . . . The reason is obviously, that Nantucket windows usually are rather high from the floor [and] we sit under them.” (William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket, 1916)

up on one’s shoe taps Fit and fine, as in “He’s up on his shoe taps.” Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914).

unfinished attic Heard in Massachusetts for someone stupid, empty-headed. “He’s got an unfinished attic.”

upstair Used in northern Maine for upstairs. “I’ll be upstair in a minute.”

unthawed Used to mean “thawed out,” “warmer.” “He stood by the fire till he was unthawed.”

upstropolis An unusual word for “confused”; heard on Isleboro, off the Maine coast. 315

316 Yankee Talk up to the westward

See

DOWN EAST.

use it up, wear it out, make it do A New England proverb illustrating native thriftiness.

V vaggers!

An obsolete exclamation.

Vermont kindling Newspapers tightly rolled into a log for use when one is out of wood or hasn’t got the money to buy wood.

vamp it up Strengthen, beef up, patch up. This oldfashioned expression arose among shoemakers repairing the vamp, or upper portion of shoes.

Vermont psalm, the Psalm 121 from the Bible, a psalm often used to start funeral services in Vermont: “I lift my eyes unto the hills.” This was noted in a New York Times news story on May 2, 1994 from Woodstock, Vermont: “Psalm 121 . . . They call it the Vermont Psalm here.”

veal To kill a calf (for veal), used in New Hampshire and Maine. “We’re going to veal the heifer.” velvet Heard in Maine for the soda fountain frappé made of milk and ice cream. See MILKSHAKE. venture

very poor man’s dinner A Maine dish made of thinly sliced potatoes and onions fried in the grease of salt pork. A similar dish made in Massachusetts is called “Necessity Mess.”

See U.

Vermont (1) The state’s name comes from the French monts verts, “green mountains.” The Green Mountain State was admitted to the Union in 1791 as our 14th state. It was once called New Connecticut. (2) A horse raised in Vermont.

view See quote. “According to my v’oo. (The unspellable pronunciation of this word is the touchstone of New England Brahminism).” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Elsie Venner, 1861)

Vermont charity According to Hugh Rawlins in Wicked Words (1989), this refers to “cheapness . . . what hoboes call sympathy which is accompanied by nothing else.” Vermontese

vowel twisting

See

HOUSE.

voyage Sometimes used to describe a clamming or berrying expedition.

A Vermonter or a group of Vermonters. vum A New England word that means vow, or swear, as in the expression of surprise, “Well, I vum!” The old term derives from the verb vum, dating back to the 18th century.

Vermont gray An old, obsolete term for the common winter outer clothing long worn by rural New Englanders.

317

W wamble-jawed Recorded in Maine for loose-jawed or loose-tongued, given to gossiping, unable to keep a secret.

wadgetty Fidgety, nervous. Cited in William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket, 1916. wageworker wages.

A wage-earner, one who works for wampum Wampumpeak was a name American Indians in New England gave to shell money. Like most Indian names—including the longer forebears of squash, hickory and raccoon—the colonists found wampumpeak too long and shortened it to wampum, which is how it remains today. All Indians didn’t have the same name for shell money. Virginia Indians called wampum roanoke; the Mohave Indians called it pook; in northern California it was called aliqua-chick; and in the Northwest it was hiaqua. But only wampum remains well known today.

wagon A baby carriage. “The whole town assembled, down to the babies in their wagons.” (James E. Cabot, A Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1887) wait on

Wait for. “Wait on me a minute, will you?”

wake snakes Noted in James Russell Lowell’s The Biglow Papers (1866) as meaning “to get into trouble.” wal Well. “Wal. Spoken with great deliberation . . . I have used wal in the Biglow Papers because if enough nasality be added, it represents most nearly the average sound of the interjection.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1866)

wangan A term used by Maine lumbermen for a boat carrying supplies or tools, though the word has other meanings as well. [Wangan] refers to the store where the cook sells candy, tobacco, snuff, and clothing . . . The cook may say, ‘I lost my wangan when the work boat swamped,’ and that means his dishes are at the bottom of the lake. Or he may complain, ‘The wangan’s runnin’ low,’ meaning this time that he’s short of food. Or a man may take his wangan and fly—leave the job with his little bundle of personel belongings. You can only tell by the context what the word means. (Louise Rich, We Took to the Wood, 1948)

Walden Pond A pond near Concord where Henry David Thoreau lived from July 1845 to September 1847, an experience that resulted in his classic book Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854). walk it to him! Words urging a fighter on during a fight, meaning roughly “Give it to him good!”

See also wallop Heard in New Hampshire for belch. “I walloped up my food.”

RUNNING THE WANGAN.

wanigan A boat or chest filled with lumber camp supplies. The word derives from the Ojibwa waanikaan, “storage pit,” and is used in Alaska as well as northern New England. Also called a wangan.

wamble-cropped An obsolete expression meaning sick at the stomach, or, figuratively, crestfallen.

318

well, I vum! 319 wan’t not.”

A common New England contraction of “was

wear out To beat someone thoroughly. “I’ll wear out a stick on your backside!”

warm from the cow A term referring to milk drunk as soon as a cow was milked, a rarity now in these days of pasteurization.

weather breeder The New England name for an unusually clear, cloudless day when there is extraordinary visibility. Folklore holds that such days are always followed by severe storms. “Once on the kind of day called ‘weather breeder,’ / When the heat slowly hazes and the sun / By its own power seems to be undone . . .” (Robert Frost, “An Encounter,” 1916)

warm it to him Sock him, hit him. Cited as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). warn’t

Weren’t. “We warn’t going together.”

War of Inequity A historical term used in New England for the War of 1812. Warwick Island.

Pronounced WAH-rick; a town in Rhode

wash-ashores A current term meaning summer residents or tourists on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. “Seems like there’s more wash-ashores on the island this year.” wash out the dishes Heard in New Hampshire and Maine for “wash up the dishes” or “wash the dishes.” watcher An obsolete term for someone who sits up, or “watches,” a corpse in a time when wakes were held at home. Watch Night An old name for New Year’s Eve, when people watch the old year go out and the new year come in. In small towns services were often held on Watch Night, after which a traditional oyster stew was served. water bar A gravel ridge that extends across hill roads at a downward angle to carry rainwater to a ditch at the other side. water bewitched, meal begritched An old Cape Cod term for very weak thin porridge. Bewitched in the expression is a nautical word meaning very weak, and begritched means begrudged. Waterbury A popular, inexpensive watch made by the Waterbury Clock Company of Waterbury, Connecticut. water witch A water douser, one who divines underground water with a divining rod. waw war.

weather varieties See quote. “The varieties of weather known to Nantucketers often surprise the inland visitor, who recognizes only two kinds, good and bad. We have fair, good, fine, foul, dirty, nasty, bad, thick, rough, heavy, and several other sorts, including owlish and ‘mirogenous’, whatever that may mean.” (William F. Macy, Nantucket Scrap Basket, 1916) wedding-elms A New England custom calls for newlyweds to plant a pair of elm trees known as wedding-elms by the front door. wedgy A name given in Rhode Island to large sandwiches made of loaves of Italian bread and most commonly known as heroes in the rest of the United States. See GRINDER. wee-wawing Shaking, bouncing, as in “The wagon was wee-wawing all over the road.” Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). we have two seasons: winter and the Fourth of July An old New England saying quoted in Louise Dickinson Rich, Happy the Land, 1946. well James Russell Lowell, in The Biglow Papers (1867), gave five different New England ways of pronouncing well at the time: “A friend of mine . . . told me that he once heard five “wells,” like pioneers, precede the answer to an inquiry about the piece of land. The first was the ordinary wul, in deference to custom; the second, the long, perpending ooahl, with a falling inflection of the voice; the third, the same, but with the voice rising, as if in despair of a conclusion, into a plaintively nasal whine; the fourth, wulh, ending in aspirate of a sigh; and then, fifth, came a short, sharp wal, showing that a conclusion had been reached.”

well, I’ll be Shorthand for well, I’ll be damned often heard in New England.

A pronunciation commonly heard in Boston for well, I vum!

See

VUM.

320 Yankee Talk well, knock me off the Christmas tree! An old expression indicating great surprise. “Well, knock me off the Christmas tree if she hasn’t gone and done it!” well to live To be so drunk that one had no cares. “He’s been well to live all night.” we must take it as it comes from the cook A saying, nautical in origin, meaning we must accept things as they are. Cited in William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket, 1916. went

A euphemism for died. See

SLEEPING.

weren’t Sometimes used as a singular verb. “He weren’t home.” wet

Humidity. See

wet as sap

MILDEN.

Sweating profusely; a Mainism.

Whaleman’s Chapel The Seaman’s Bethel, a famous church in New Bedford, Massachusetts, with many memorials to New England whalemen. “In this same New Bedford there stands a Whaleman’s Chapel, and few are the moody fishermen, shortly bound for the Indian Ocean or Pacific, who fail to make a Sunday visit to the spot. I am sure that I did not.” (Herman Melville, Moby Dick, 1851) whaler (1) A whaling man. “Dan and Shorty . . . brought up from the depths of their chests . . . fancy articles or ‘scrimshonting,’ as it is termed by whalers . . .” (William Hussey Macy, There She Blows, 1877) (2) Something very big. “That’s a real whaler.” whale the daylights out of Give a beating to. “She whaled the daylight out of him.” whaling

A beating. “She gave him a good whaling.”

whap over

Knock over. “He whapped it over.”

wharves Bartlett points out in his Dictionary of Americanisms (1848) that this plural of wharf originated in Massachusetts in about 1735; the English always said wharfs. whatcheer

See quote.

The shibboleth of the people of the State of Rhode Island. When Roger Williams, the founder of the ancient colony, pushed his way from Salem, Massachusetts, in the year 1636, through the wilderness, he embarked in a canoe with five others, on Sekonk river, and landed near the present site of the city of Providence. As the party approached the shore, they were saluted by a company of Indians with the friendly interrogation of “What cheer?” a common English

phrase which they had learned from the colonists, equivalent to the modern How do you do? and meant by the natives as Welcome! The cove where the party landed is called “Whatcheer Cove,” which term is also applied to the lands adjacent; besides which there is in Providence a “Whatcheer Bank,” a “Whatcheer Church,” “Whatcheer hotels,” a “Whatcheer Insurance Company,” and, last of all a “Whatcheer Lager Beer Saloon!” (John Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms, 1848)

what-da-ya-think? A common greeting when two people meet in Maine. The reply is often: “I think, damn, that’s what I think.” what in tarnation! exclamation.

An old-fashioned euphemistic

what in tunket! A euphemism for what in hell! “What in tunket do you mean?” what’s the state of your mind and the stem of your constitution? A joking man-to-man inquiry about the state of one’s health. See STEMMY. what’s the word?

Another Maine greeting.

what time be it? what time is it?

Heard in Maine and other areas for

wheat and Indian A historical term recorded as far back as 1643 for “a mixture of white flour and the meal of Indian corn,” in Bartlett’s (1848) words. wheel An early name for a bicycle. “. . . his brother helped me select a ‘wheel,’ as we generally called them in those days.” (Thornton Wilder, Theophilus North, 1973) wheelbarrow fashion See quote. “They were . . . ordered to kiss each other ‘wheelbarrow fashion’—You would then see a young man and a girl meet on the floor, close their right and left hands, on both sides; and with a whirl . . . turn through their arms, bring the back part of their shoulders in contact—each with the head resting upon the other’s right shoulder, their mouths meeting.” (Yankee, April 1828) when it rains porridge hold up your dish Take advantage of a situation. Probably an old New England proverb. “ ‘When it rains porridge hold up your dish,’ said Mrs. Flagg, but Miss Pickett made no response . . .” (Sarah Orne Jewett, “The Guests of Mrs. Timms,” 1895) when you don’t know what to do, do nothing Yankee maxim.

An old

where are you preaching? Said in Maine to somebody all dressed up, formally dressed.

wigs on the green 321 where you going? Where are you going? “Are” often is omitted after “where.” whickering owl

A small screech owl (Otis asio).

whick-whack Heard in Nantucket for run here and there. “They were whick-whacking back and forth.” Whip City An old nickname for Westfield, Massachusetts, which in 1900 had 40 whip factories that turned out 90% of the world’s supply of horse whips. whippet (1) A small person. (2) A female animal. Heard mostly in Maine.

who beat? Who won? “‘Who beat?’ interjected a voice that should never have been allowed to disturb the silence . . .” (James Brendon Connolly, “From Reykjavik to Gloucester,” 1920) whole boodle, the An old slang term meaning the whole lot, everything. “I would like to have the whole boodle of them.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, 1858) whole caboodle An old expression heard in New England and elsewhere for everything, all of it, the whole thing. “He has a whole caboodle of baseball cards.” whole tote, the

whistling up the wind Talking wishfully. The expression has its origins in the superstitious practice of sailors in the days of sail whistling for a wind during a calm. white-faced New England What P. T. Barnum called “the meanest kind of New England rum.” white flannel hash

See

whore’s egg A colorful name fishermen give to the sea urchin (Arbacia punctulata), which is unattractive to all but other sea urchins. Wianno Pronounced we-ON-o; a village on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

RED FLANNEL HASH.

White Graveyard of the Atlantic, the A name given to the shifting shoals of Race Point, Nauset and Monomoy on Cape Cod, where so many ships were wrecked over three centuries. Noted in Elizabeth Reynard’s The Narrow Land, 1934. See MOONCUSSERS. white hen’s chickens Very pleasant, desirable people. “She thinks he’s one of the white hen’s chickens.” Cited as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914). White Mountain freezer The first hand-crank icecream machine sold in America; made from New England pine and cast iron by New Hampshire’s White Mountains Freezer Company beginning in 1853. White Mountains Famous mountains in New Hampshire. “. . . we had been loitering towards the heart of the White Mountains—those old crystal hills, whose mysterious brillancy had gleamed upon our distant wanderings before we thought of visiting them.” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Sketches from Memory,” 1835) white oak

Everything. “I’ll take the whole tote.”

Quercus alba, the state tree of Connecticut.

whittle Used in Nantucket to mean “to fuss,” “to be uneasy”; also “to tease or pester.” Cited in William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket, 1916.

wicked good good.”

Very good. “The fishing was wicked

widow maker (1) A sailing ship’s bowsprit or job boom, so called because sailors who lost their hold on it while working on the headsails in rough seas often lost their lives. (2) The sea. (3) A tree in a precarious position that looks as if it will fall and kill a man. widow’s walk An elevated observatory on a dwelling, usually with a railing and affording a good view of the ocean. These watchtowers, often seen on the roofs of old houses in New England, date back to colonial times and were so named because many woman walked in vain on them, waiting for incoming ships that never returned. Taking the form of a cupola, railed-in deck or balcony, they also have been called, less poetically, the CAPTAIN’S WALK, the lookout, the observatory and the walk. wife of It was once common in New England to call wives by the first and last names of their husbands to distinguish them from relations with the same name; for example, Mrs. Peter Walker. A lengthier way to make the same distinction uses wife of: “This is Mrs. Mary Walker, wife of Peter Walker.” wigs on the green An all-out fight, a donnybrook. The expression dates back to times when men wore powdered wigs and suggests two or more such men fighting on the village green, their wigs having fallen on the ground.

322 Yankee Talk wilcox To spend an uneasy, sleepless night. “I wilcoxed all night long.” The term is said to have originated with a Nantucket family named Wilcox that had to sleep five in a bed one night when they had a lot of company. Cited by William F. Macy, The Nantucket Scrap Basket, 1916. wildcat trail A steep, fast skiing trail with sharp curves for expert skiers. See POLE CAT TRAIL. wild geese

with-its The vegetables and other dishes served with the main course of a dinner. “We had leg of lamb and with-its.” without

Unless. “He done it, without I’m mistaken.”

withy Strong and wiry. Given as a common expression in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914).

Sparks flying up and out of a chimney.

wind blew straight up and down, the A Yankee description of a gale cited in The Old Farmer’s Almanack (1946). wind is out, the Used to describe wind blowing in from the sea. “The wind is out.”

wizzled Wrinkled, wizened. “The grapes were all wizzled up on the vine.” wolf fish Anarchichas lupus, an excellent eating fish caught in New England waters. Also called ocean catfish. wonder

window stool

Used in Maine for windowsill.

wind-pudding See quote. “It is all of piece with windpudding, which is a (joking) word for a dinner consisting of tightening the belt.” (Robert P. Tristram Coffin, Kennebec, Cradle of Americas, 1937) winkum An old word for cider brandy once heard in Connecticut. winter never rots in the sky This old saying assures us that though spring may be here at last, there’s always the chance of winterlike weather around the corner. wishing book A rural name a century ago for the Montgomery Ward and the Sears catalogs, both no longer published. Also WISH BOOK. witchgrass A weed (Panicum capillare) that is called quack grass in other regions. witching wand A divining rod, a branch or stick thought to help a dowser locate water. “The water for which we may have to look / In summertime with a witching wand . . .” (Robert Frost, “Two Tramps in Mud Time,” 1936) with all sail set A nautical term used on land to mean “hurriedly,” “with great determination.” “He was on his way home with all sail set.” Witherlick A mythical animal of the lumber camps. Cited as a common term in George Allen England, “Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,” Dialect Notes, Vol. IV (1914).

A word once used in Nantucket for doughnut.

Here in my adopted city of Providence I have produced occasional merriment by calling a doughnut . . . a “wonder.” The name is a “quaint” belonging exclusively to the place (Nantucket) where it is used . . . Wonders were simply doughnuts made in a certain prescribed regulation form—cut out round, jagged across and separated in the center two or three times, but not cut through to the edge; made in that way the fat, while they were frying, passed between these jagged cuts, with the result of crisp, deliciously browned crosspieces, so that the “wonder” easily broke into such separate sections, or bars, and was peculiarly appetizing.” (J.E.C. Farnham, Brief Historical Data and Memories of My Boyhood Days in Nantucket, 1923)

wonder cakes Doughnuts in the shape of twisted fingers that are dipped in sugar syrup. wonderful (1) Exceptionally, wonderfully. “ ‘The morning star always gets wonderful bright the minute before it has to go—doesn’t it?” (Thornton Wilder, Our Town, 1938) (2) Very. “He’s wonderful handsome.” woodchuck (1) A New England name for the groundhog (Marmota monax), woodchuck probably derives from a New England Algonquian Indian word meaning the same. “A boy always had woodchuck holes to explore after the leaves were down in the fall . . .” (Hayden Pearson, New England Flavor, 1961) (2) A derogatory slang term currently heard in New England for a poor white person, according to the New York Times Magazine, March 27, 1994. wooden nutmegs

See

woodpile cousin

A very close friend.

woods

YANKEE PEDDLER.

A term New Englanders chiefly use for the forest.

wust 323 wood’s queer See quote. “[Getting out of touch with conventional society] is known in Mrs. Rich’s country as going ‘wood’s-queer.’ ” (Clifton Fadiman, The New Yorker, November 21, 1942) wood wax A yellow flower that grows plentifully on poor land and has a bitter taste. “This deceitful verdure was occasioned by a plentiful crop of ‘wood-wax,’ which wears the same dark and glossy green throughout the summer, except at one short period, when it puts forth a profusion of yellow blossoms. At that season to a distant spectator, the hill appears absolutely overlaid with gold . . .” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Alice Doane’s Appeal,” 1835) Also called green grass. woolyneag A name once used in New England for the fisher (Martis pennanti), the largest member of the mink family; from an Abnaki Indian word meaning handsome squirrel. wopse Wrap up quickly, entangle. “She’s all wopsed up in the blanket.” Worcester setts.

Pronounced WUSS-ter; a city in Massachu-

that New England boatmen used to pole their boats along in shallow waters. Possibly the words were first something like I wouldn’t touch that with the ten-foot pole of a riverman, this shortened to the present phrase with the passing of pole boats from the American scene. The image first appears in the Nantucketism can’t touch him with a ten-foot, meaning he is distant, proud, reserved. In the sense of not wanting to get involved in a project or having a strong distaste for something, the words aren’t recorded until the late 19th century. The expression is now used throughout the United States. wouldn’t touch with a barge pole A variation heard in Boston on wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. “ ‘Screw this package, buddy, I wouldn’t touch this one with a goddamned barge pole.’ ” (George V. Higgins, Outlaws, 1987) wouldn’t wear it to a dog fight Said of apparel very unfashionable: “I wouldn’t wear that shirt to a dog fight.” wreck

The Maine pronunciation of rack.

wosh

The usual pronunciation of “wash” in the region.

wreck of the Hesperus A huge submerged rock off the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts caused so many shipwrecks in the 18th century that it was called Norman’s Woe. Wrote Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his diary for December 17, 1837: “News of shipwrecks horrible on the coast. 20 bodies washed ashore near Gloucester, one lashed to a piece of wreck. There is a reef called Norman’s Woe where many of these took place; among others the schooner Hesperus . . . I must write a ballad upon this.” The ballad proved to be “The Wreck of the Hesperus,” which became so well known that “wreck of the Hesperus” also became an expression for any battered or disheveled thing, as in “You look like the wreck of the Hesperus.”

wotta

A Cape Cod pronunciation of “water.”

wringing wet

world’s a sorry schoolroom sometimes, the A Maine saying “ ‘I still believed . . . that love would eventually rise to the top like cream in a bottle of milk. I learned better over the next ten years. The world’s a sorry schoolroom sometimes, ain’t it?’ ” (Stephen King, Dolores Claiborne, 1993) worse than a Massachusetts driver Used in Maine to describe the worst, most reckless type of driver; there is no record of Maine driver being used for the same in Massachusetts.

Soaking wet.

wouldn’t give him (her) hell room The very lowest estimate of a person, that is, one wouldn’t provide room for him (her) even in hell. (Though this suggests that there must be some worse place where he (she) would have to find room).

wrote up Written up, reported. “‘He chose his own epytaph . . .’ ‘Why, it’s just some notes of music—what is it?’ ‘Oh, I wouldn’t know. It was wrote up in the Boston papers at the time.’” (Thornton Wilder, Our Town, 1938)

wouldn’t know him (her) from a side of sole leather An old expression meaning I don’t know him (her) at all, never saw him (her) before. A “side” was shoemaker talk for half of a cow’s hide.

wudge Recorded in New Bedford for a little bunch. Also wudget.

wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole This expression may have been suggested by the ten-foot poles

wunt

A common pronunciation of “won’t.”

wust

A pronunciation of “worst.” See

DRED.

TOUCH A HUN-

X x

See

EX.

324

Y Yale Yale University, ranking after Harvard and William and Mary as the third oldest institution of higher education in the United States, is named for English merchant Elihu Yale (1649–1721). Founded in 1701 as the Collegiate School of Saybrook, Connecticut, the school was named Yale College at its 1718 commencement, held in the first college building at New Haven. Yale might have been called Mather University, for Cotton Mather suggested naming it so in return for his financial support, but Elihu Yale won out when he donated a cargo of gifts, books and various goods that were sold for about 562 pounds.

KEE, for a New Englander. It may be akin to the English dialect word yerk, a variant of jerk, but there is no proof of this.

Yankee (1) The source of this word has long been disputed and its origin is still uncertain, despite all the research devoted to it. Candidates, among many, have included a slave named Yankee offered for sale in 1725, a Dutch sea captain named Yanky, the Yankos Indians and the Dutch name Janke (“Johnny”), which the Dutch applied to the English. The most popular explanation, also unproved, is that Yankee comes from Jan Kees, a contemptuous Flemish and German nickname for the Dutch that the English first applied to the Dutch in the New World. In any case, Yankee seems to have been first applied to New Englanders by British soldiers serving under General James Wolfe in the French and Indian War prior to 1758. A letter written by Wolfe himself in that year uses the word as a contemptuous nickname for New Englanders.

Yale banger An obsolete term for a club like a cane or stick, a bludgeon once used by students at Yale University. “This challenge is accepted by the Sophmores and in the evening a ‘banger rush’ takes place.” (L. H. Bagg, Four Years at Yale, 1871) Yale blue A reddish blue that takes it name from the colors of Yale University. It is the royal blue of the Egyptian Ramses dynasty, also called Ramses. Yalensian

My posts are now so fortified that I can afford you two companies of Yankees, and the more as they are better for ranging and scouting than either work or vigilance . . . [they] are in general the dirtiest most contemptible cowardly dogs that you can conceive. There is no depending on them in action. They fall down dead in their own dirt and desert by battalions, officers and all. Such rascals as those are rather an encumberance than any real strength to an army.

A Yale student or graduate. Also Yalie.

Yale lock The Yale lock has no connection with Yale University. New England inventor Linus Yale (1821–68) invented numerous locks, including the trademarked key type with a revolving barrel that bears his name. Linus founded a company to manufacture locks at Stamford, Connecticut the same year that he died.

Wolf’s low opinion of the New Englanders and further contemptuous use of Yankee is seen in a 1775 chronicle, which also is notable as an early description of the practice of “mooning.” “They [British soldiers] abused the watch-men on duty, and the young children of Boston by the wayside, making mouths at them, call-

yank Yank, meaning to pull abruptly or vigorously, is of uncertain origin. A U.S. invention, probably originating in New England early in the 19th century and much used since then, it has nothing to do with the word YAN325

326 Yankee Talk ing them Yankeys, showing their posteriors, and clapping their hands thereon.” It wasn’t until the Battle of Lexington, the first battle of the Revolution in 1775, that New Englanders began applying the nickname Yankee to themselves, making it respectable. Soon after, the process of dignification began and the story about the Yankos Indians was invented. In this tale a mythical tribe of Massachusetts Indians are said to have been defeated by a band of valorous New Englanders. The defeated Yankos so admired the bravery of their victorious adversaries that they gave them their name, Yankos, which meant Invincibles, and was soon corrupted to “Yankees”! Yankee has been an admirable or contemptuous nickname for New Englanders ever since, depending by whom and in what context it is used, as the many entries herein clearly show. At any rate, Yankee described a New Englander by the middle 18th century and was used by the British to designate any American during the Revolution, the most notable example found in the derisive song “Yankee Doodle.” Nowadays the British still use the word for an American, Southerners use it for Northerners and Northerners use it for New Englanders, who, despite its early history, are proud of the designation. “What will we come to / With all this pride of ancestry, we Yankees? / I think we’re all mad . . .” (Robert Frost, “The Generations of Men,” 1914) (2) To cheat or outsmart. “He Yankeed them at every turn.” (3) The large job topsail on some racing yachts that originated in New England. (4) Yankee dialect. “I kin write longtailed, ef I please—/ But when I’m jokin’, no, I thankee; / Then, ’fore I know it, my idees / Run helter-skelter into Yankee.” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1867) See YANKEE DIALECT. Yankee beverage SWITCHEL, vinegar and water sweetened with molasses and drunk in hot weather. Yankee bullets Bullets made by housewives from household pewter during the Revolution. Yankee bump

See

THANK-YE-MA’AM.

Yankee cheese-box on a raft An apt Southern description of the U.S. armored warship the Monitor, which fought the famous naval battle against the Confederate Merrimac. Yankee clipper A name given to the famous clipper ships that were the aristocrats of the sea from 1850 to the end of the 19th century. They were by far the fastest ships of their day, and their leading builder was Donald McKay of Boston.

Yankee Coast Yankee comfort

An old term for the New England coast. A comforter made in New England.

Yankee dialect The English dialect used by New Englanders. The term Yankee dialect has been used since at least 1832; before this, at least as early as 1772, New England speech was simply called Yankee. Wrote James Russell Lowell in The Biglow Papers, 1866: “Of Yankee preterites I find risse and rize fer rose in Middleton and Dryden.” Yankeedom The domain of the Yankee. Also Downeast, Yankeeland. Yankee Doodle (1) Legend has it that during the French and Indian War, the shabbily dressed troops of Colonel Thomas Fitch of Norfolk, Connecticut inspired a British army surgeon with musical talents, Dr. Shuckburgh or Shackburg, to write the derisive song “Yankee Doodle.” According to local tradition, Elizabeth Fitch, on leaving the house to bid goodbye to her brother (Colonel Fitch), was dismayed by the ill-sorted costumes of the “cavalry”. Exclaiming, “You must have uniforms of some kind,” she ran into the chicken yard, and returning with a handful of feathers announced, “Soldiers should wear plumes,” and directed each soldier to put a feather in his cap. When Shuckburgh saw Fitch’s men arriving at Fort Crailor, Rensselaer, New York, he is reputed to have exclaimed, “Now stab my vitals, they’re macaronis!” sarcastically applying the slang of the day for fop, or dandy, and proceeded to write the song, which instantly caught popular fancy. (Federal Writer’s Project, Connecticut, 1938)

There is no firm proof of this theory about the origin of the song, which ironically came to be popular among patriot troops during the Revolutionary War. It is said to have hundreds of verses. Before the Civil War, the tune, identified with New England, was often hissed off the stage in the South. (2) An obsolete term for Yankee. Yankee-doodle dandeeism The plucky spirit of Yankees, New Englanders or Americans. Yankedoodledom A humorous old term for New England or America. Yankee drawl

See the Introduction.

Yankee female, the

See quote.

The little medical lady struck him as a perfect example of the “Yankee female”—the figure which, in the unregenerate imagination of the children of the cotton-states, was produced by the New England school-system, the Puritan code, the ungenial climate, the absence of chivalry. Spare, dry, hard, without a curve, an inflection or a grace, she

Yankee trick 327 seemed to ask no odds in the battle of life and to be prepared to give none. (Henry James, The Bostonians, 1886)

Yankeefied Make like Yankees, either New Englanders or Americans in general. “Japan becomes more Yankeefied every year.” Yankee grit Great persevering courage. “Their Yankee grit saw them through the battle.” Yankee Hastings Cambridge, Massachusetts farmer Jonathan Hastings of the early 18th century used “Yankee” in the sense of good or excellent so frequently that—according to one theory, at least—the word was widely adopted as a nickname for New Englanders. Students at Harvard are supposed to have given Hastings his nickname. Yankee ingenuity

See quote under

SCRATCHED ALONG.

Yankeeism A word, phrase, pronunciation, trait, whim or peculiarity characteristic of New Englanders. Yankee jacket

See

FIT WITH A YANKEE JACKET, TO.

Yankeeland New England, of which the inhabitants are Yankeelanders. Yankee leave French leave. “He took a Yankee leave, cleared out leaving all his debts unpaid.” Yankee nation

An old term for New England.

Yankee neat A nautical term meaning shipshape that came ashore. Yankee notions These were originally the mirrors, needles, beads, pocket knives and the like that Yankee sailing ships traded with for native goods in foreign ports. Yankee peddlers also carried them. Today Yankee notions sometimes refers to small items sold in gift stores. Yankee Notion State See quote. “The Yankee Notion State, as Connecticut has often been called, earned its title in the early part of the 19th century, when there was a great impetus given to the manufacture of almost all sorts of implements for the farm and the household.” (Hartford Courant, October 29, 1904) Yankee peddler “The whole race of Yankee Peddlers,” wrote an observer of American character in 1833, “are proverbial for dishonesty. They go forth annually in the households to lie, cog, cheat, swindle; in short to get possession of their neighbor’s property

in any manner it can be done with impunity.” In fact, the name “damn Yankee,” coined long before the Civil War, probably came from Yankee peddlers who worked the rural South. Yankee peddlers were known as far away as Europe for their trickery and sharpness, especially for their wooden nutmegs (it took an expert wood carver a full day to make just one in a recent experiment), when these kernels of an evergreen tree cultivated in the Spice Islands sold for less than a penny apiece. But whether carved wooden nutmegs ever existed (no one has yet turned up an authentic one), many country people did believe that Yankee peddlers sold them, along with carved wooden hams painted pink (“Basswood hams”), carved cigars, and wooden pumpkin seeds. Connecticut still is called the Nutmeg State for this reason, and the warning don’t take any wooden nutmegs probably influenced the coining of the still-current phrase don’t take any wooden nickels. An old rhyme went: “There is in Yankeeland / a class of men called tin-peddlers, / A shrewd, sarcastic band / Of busy meddlers.” And an old joke went: “Know how to revive a Yankee peddler when he drowns?” “Just turn out his pockets!” But though they were well-versed in the Yankee art of giving people “a steer in the wrong direction,” as P. T. Barnum put it, Yankee peddlers helped settle America, carrying the materials of civilization to sparsely inhabited regions. Wherever a man swung an ax in the wilderness, an old saying went, a Yankee peddler would show up in the clearing the next day. “They stood halfway between the merchant and the gipsy, with a faint touch added of the mountebank . . . To say the Yankee peddler was a consummate liar was considered . . . an assertion of the obvious.” (Odell Shepard, Pedlar’s Progress, The Life of Bronson Alcott, 1937) Yankee Pirate, the A nom de guerre of American sea hero John Paul Jones. Yankee rum Rum made in New England. Also called Yankee and stink-e-puss in days past. Yankee schoolmarm (schoolmaster) A schoolteacher in New England or from New England teaching in another state. The Congressional Globe of April 5, 1871 reports “A Yankee schoolmarm was stoned and murdered by her own pupils.” Yankee states, the (1) The New England states. (2) Also once applied to Ohio, where there were many settlers from New England. Yankee trick A deception or fraud often associated with Yankees, especially Yankee peddlers.

328 Yankee Talk Yankee twang See quote. “The familiar twang given to the Yankee speech of words like now and cow . . . was extended beyond the limits of permission.” (Harper’s Magazine, September 1880) Yankos

See

YANKEE.

yarned Pulled, hauled. “He yarned the trailer around all day.” Pronounced yahned. ye An old-fashioned form of “you” probably obsolete today. yokefellows Partners working closely together like oxen in a yoke. “She’s [New Hampshire] one of the two best states in the Union. / Vermont’s the other. And the two have been / Yokefellows in the sap yoke from of old . . .” (Robert Frost, “New Hampshire,” 1923) yon See quote. “The Yankee says ‘hither an yon’, for ‘to and fro.’” (James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 1866) yonder Over there. “My green hill yonder, where the sun goes down / Without a scratch . . .” (Edward Arlington Robinson, “Archibald’s Example,” The Three Taverns, 1920) York shilling Yorker.

An old coin worth 12 1/ 2 cents. Also a

you Sometimes added for emphasis, as in “That’s a fact, you!” you better believe This popular national phrase, meaning you can be sure, is first recorded in New England about a century and a half ago in the Yale Literary Magazine and was used by Oliver Wendell Holmes, among other Brahmins. See BITTER AS BONESET. you could carry me out with the tongs! An exclamation of great surprise. “Well, you could carry me out with the tongs!” you might as well talk to a post Said of someone dumb or determined not to answer. “ ‘Wal, I swan,’ Dart ejaculated . . . ‘You might as well talk to a post.’ ” (Rowland Robinson, “The Paring Bee,” 1900) young-uns Often pronounced yow-wuns in Maine. “ ‘Not at all,’ he said. ‘Lookin’ forward to having young ’uns around again.’” Except “that the sound of this, exotic to their Midwestern ears as a foreign language, was yow-wuns.” (Stephen King, Pet Sematary, 1983) your ox won’t plow An old expression meaning something doesn’t work, anything from a faulty argument to a defective machine. yow Recorded in Maine and New Hampshire for female. “That’s a yow cat.”

III Mountain Range: Words and Phrases from Appalachia to the Ozarks

1300s, when English mystical author Richard Tolle wrote that “men and wimmin ete and drank” and are pronouncing the word close to its accepted British pronunciation; their use of outen (“This backet is made outen bark”) may go back to the Anglo-Saxon uthan; and their use of hit for it, though considered illiterate today, derives from the Anglo-Saxon hit, the neuter equivalent of he, which was standard English until the 12th century. Nor is hisn a backwoods Americanism. Hisn has a long and respectable lineage, dating back to the early 15th century (“Him as prigs what isn’t his’n / When he’s cotched he goes to prison”) and was used by Samuel Richardson in hisn novel Clarissa. Analogous words are hern, ourn, yourn and theirn. Chaucer and others commonly used the n-stem or weak declension in words like housen for houses and treen for trees, the standard English nouns children, brethren and oxen still retaining this form. Even the much ridiculed youuns of mountain speech can be traced to the ye ones of Chaucer’s time, and the collective second person youtogether is sometimes still heard in British East Anglia dialect. “I ain’t never seen no menfolks of no kind do no washin’ nohow,” a mountain woman might say, and her forceful use of the double negative, though considered ignorant today, would have strong links with Elizabethan England, when the double negative was simply employed as a stronger, more effective negative. Shakespeare, in fact, wrote: “Thou hast spoken no word all this while, or understood none neither.” There are many more examples of what has been called American Anglo-Saxon, American Early English and American Elizabethan English speech. Such echoes are heard today throughout the southern mountains, including the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and West Virginia, the Great Smokies of Tennessee and North Carolina, the Cumberlands of Tennessee and Kentucky and the Ozarks of Arkansas and Missouri. It is also heard sporadically in the mountains of Pennsylvania, in Georgia, Alabama, southern Illinois, and on the Delmarva Peninsula and the islands of Chesapeake Bay. Hillfolk working in the cotton mills of the Piedmont took the dialect there, and one investigator found

M

ountain dialect, though often humorous, is far more than the caricature it has been made over the years by lazy, lanky, tobacco-chawin’ characters ranging from Lum and Abner and Ma and Pa Kettle to Li’l Abner and the Beverly Hillbillies, who live in places like Dogpatch, Hog Heaven, Hardscrabble, Possum Hollow, Puckey-Huddle, Barely-Do and Hang Dog Creek. Mountain talk, more than any other dialect in America or even Britain, is the closest surviving relative today to the Elizabethan language of Shakespeare. Though pronunciation and vocabulary in mountain areas vary, the Elizabethan English of the highlanders is virtually the same from place to place, and many of their quaint picturesque words and phrases go back beyond Shakespeare’s day to the time of Chaucer and even to the Anglo-Saxon period in England. Though their numbers are far less today than even half a century ago, mountain people, with their rich dialect, are hardly extinct, as some commentators have suggested, and native speakers provide abundant examples that allow mountain talk to survive. Mountain dwellers have been called “the purest Anglo-Saxons in the United States” because of their speech, though their ancestry is predominantly Celtic mixed with strong strains of English and German. Neither the mountain folk nor their ancestors speak or spoke true Elizabethan English, of course, since Queen Elizabeth had been dead nearly two centuries when the first mountain people moved in. But as linguist Mario Pei noted, “The speech of the Ozarks comes closer in many respects to Elizabethan English than does the present speech of London” and “is closer to that seventeenth-century speech than any present-day English dialect.” Many hillbilly (an Americanism dating back to 1904) words and phrases thought to be the ignorant speech of Dogpatch are direct survivals of earlier English speech. Tetchy, for example, is not an ignorant hick pronunciation of touchy, as many people believe, for the word (meaning irritable, testy or peevish) is not at all related to touch, but derives from the Middle English teche (a blemish). When hillfolks say et for ate, they are following a precedent that goes back to the 333

334

Mountain Range

it “well fixed on the Southwestern plains and in cities like Forth Worth and Dallas.” As recently as 40 years ago a writer could observe that the hill people “have changed little” in two centuries. Only over the last 75 years or so has “civilization” courted these people, yet they still haven’t surrendered to it. It is true that “many characteristic mountain words” are now unfamiliar in mountain areas, as linguist Raven I. McDavid Jr. noted, and perhaps in another generation or two, most mountain folk will be “speaking the general vulgate” spread by the mass media, the automobile and the airplane. But the isolation of mountain people and their relative poverty—which ensure that their speech will be less affected by education—should guarantee the survival of mountain talk for many years to come, if only in a modified form or in extremely isolated areas. Mountain talk (sometimes called South Midland) has been described as slower than Southern speech and is frequently stressed very heavily. As H. L. Mencken observed in The American Language, “The dialect preserves many older pronunciations that have fallen out of use elsewhere, and reinforces and exaggerates most of those that remain. The flat a appears even in balm and gargle, but in narrow and barrel a broad a is substituted, so that they become nahrr’ and bahr’l. In other situations the broad a is turned into a u as in fur and ruther, for far and rather. Brush is bresh, such is sich and until is ontil. The au sound is usually changed: saucy, as in the general vulgate, becomes sassy, and jaundice is janders, and aunt is often ain’t.” The mountain drawl generally comes before a pause in speaking and is usually reserved for the word or phrase before that pause. But obviously all highlanders do not speak alike and they vary noticeably in different areas. Josiah H. Combs, one of the earliest scholars to examine the dialect or dialects, was aware that there was much variation in the speech of mountain people. “The Elizabethan English of these highlanders varies but little,” he wrote. “In other respects their language varies greatly, most noticeably in the substitution of one vowel for another. This divergence in the use of the vowel does not confine itself necessarily to the different states. For example, the hillsman of the Cumberlands in Kentucky says whut and gut, while the pronunciation further west in the same state, but still in the hills, is what and got . . . But in eastern Tennessee one hears eent (end) while the usual pronunciation is eend.” The prudishness of mountain speech has been noted by several writers. “The truth is that sex is very rarely mentioned save in ribaldry,” writes Vance Randolph in his article “Verbal Modesty in the Ozarks,” and “is therefore excluded from all polite conversation between men and women. Moreover, this taboo is extended to include a great many words which have no real connec-

tion with sex and which are used quite freely in more enlightened sections of the United States . . . Perhaps a century or so of isolation is responsible for an abnormal development of this sort of thing, or it may be that mountain people simply have retained a Pecksniffian attitude once common to the whole country.” Everyday words like stone, bed, tail, stocking, piece, maiden, bag and even decent are avoided by mountain people whenever possible because they suggest “lustful ideas,” according to Randolph. Completely taboo are words such as bull, ram, stallion, boar, buck, bitch, virgin and even love. This taboo extends to harmless compounds like buckshot or bullfrog, cockeyed, cocksure and even proper names like Hitchcock or Cox. Ironically, terms like to give tittie that would be inappropriate in other areas are freely used (though heart is a taboo word). Some of the euphemisms employed for the taboo words are inventive. A cock, for example, can be a crower; a bull is a cow brute, a stallion is a stable horse; and a woodpecker is, somewhat confusingly, a woodchuck. To cut one’s foot means to step in cow dung, as does to cut one’s foot on a Chinese razor. A cock-andbull tale is called a rooster story! It has been noted that the highlander’s speech is rhetorical in the classic sense, in the art of beautiful speech and effective delivery. “Many of the striking figures that seem original to the outsider are traditional ones in the mountains, having been handed down orally from one generation to another,” James Robert Reese notes in an essay on the language of the mountaineer. “The mountaineer alters, adapts, recombines and used anew old expressions with a freshness and creativity similar to that of the Beowulf poet who called upon his traditional poetic phrasing and word-horde to tell a tale. It is perhaps this large stock of traditional figures adapted by each speaker in an original manner, that allows the mountaineer to make his everyday talk come alive.” Words often have different meanings down in the holler. A wedding celebration can be called a serenade, an infare or a shivaree. A cemetery is a burial ground, and a grampus is not a killer whale but a type of fish bait (hellgramite). Bait, however, means a large amount in the mountains (as in “We got a bait of ’em.”) Steps are called treads; a groundhog is a whistle pig; and a good writer is a good scribe. As for a fisty (feisty) woman, she had been defined by one mountaineer as “maybe not fast, but a little too frisky to be nice.” In West Virginia, a Ph.D. is sometimes called a teacher-doctor, not a “real” doctor. West Virginia, incidentally, is composed of 40 western mountain counties that seceded from Virginia at the outbreak of the Civil War, these counties voting not to abandon the Union and forming their own state government. After rejecting the suggested names New Virginia, Kanawha and Alleghany, the new state settled on West Virginia, an ironic choice, as Virginia

Introduction extends 95 miles farther west. West Virginia had considered seceding from Virginia several times, due to unequal taxation and representation, and the Civil War provided an excellent excuse. Its constitution was amended to abolish slavery and President Lincoln proclaimed West Virginia the 35th state in 1862, justifying his action as a war measure. Called the Panhandle State, it has an odd outline, leading to the saying that it’s “a good state for the shape it’s in.” A great number of verbs take irregular forms in mountain talk, especially among the uneducated. Drug is the past tense of drag, fit the past of fight, holp of help, writ of wrote, hurd of hear, brung or bring, growed of grow, het of heat, and seed of see. The verb rot is often replaced by the adjective rotten in mountain talk (as in “They ‘ull rotten afore they ripens.”) Two colorful verbs are to youth (“The moon ’ull youth today,” that is, a new moon will appear) and to big, to make pregnant (“He’s bigged Pernie”). The verb to smart means to hurt and can be used transitively as in “Hit hain’t a-goin’ to smart ye more ’an a minute.” Some verbs used elsewhere in reference to animals are applied to people in mountain talk, as, for example, ruttin’ for mating: “Ruttin’ time is over, Buck, fer varmints—but, by God, nor fer you-all.” Moonshine for illegally made whiskey wasn’t coined in the hills, as one would guess, the word probably originating in England and referring to a colorless brandy smuggled in from France late in the 18th century. But a lot of moonshining still goes on in the mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee, where the product is known variously as splo, stump liquor, swamp dew, angel teat, white mule, white lightning, Kentucky fire, squirrel whiskey or pure corn licker. By any name it can make a man downcy or give him the blind billiards. Interestingly, the first use of the verb stash for hiding something is a 1929 remark about moonshine in the Ozarks: “Billy, he done stashed the jug in th’ brash an’ now the danged ol’ fool can’t find hit!” Like moonshine, many mountain expressions have passed into common national use. Though it is hard to tell, these possibly include cold in the grave (dead), just a little piece (a short distance), behind the door when brains were passed out (dumb), can lick his weight in wildcats, can’t hold a candle to (can’t compare to), dog me if I’ll do it, I’ll be dogged, faster ’n greased lightning, sharper’n a tack, madder n’ a wet hen and plum tuckered out. Among the oddest pronoun usages among mountain speakers is where as a relative which or who. Though

335

not consistently used in this fashion, where is sometimes heard in sentences like “That old water where comes out of a fasset (faucet).” Another strange pronoun usage is the employment of the plural pronoun them with several singular nouns that are considered plural, such as “them molasses,” “them cheese” and “them lettuce.” Mountain speech sometimes still employs the old form lief (prefer), in as constructions like “I’ud as lief to shoot the sorry old critter as no.” Just as favored is the use of comparative suffixes, which can be attached to any part of speech. Beautifulest and workin’est are good examples, but the curiousest is “He was the most moaningestfullest hound I ever did see!” Mountaineers don’t mind being called hillbillies by other mountaineers, but they do object to flatland furriners using the term; they better smile when they say it! Anyway, one of the outlandish, or outlanders or foreigners, as strangers are called in the mountains, would have trouble making sense of much of the highlander’s speech and might indeed find it difficult getting someone to translate, as highlanders are slow to confidence (trust) an outsider, sometimes distrusting even natives who have gone abroad, that is, who have left the mountains for too long. One mountaineer told an interviewer that he didn’t speak “the bestest English in the country,” not having been “overfattened on book reading,” but that he didn’t consider his lack of education all important: “Learning and good words may improve a man’s knowings, but it hain’t nary made a body a better Christian person.” In closing it should be noted, before examining the thousands of mountain expressions following, that today the drawl of mountain folk with their close connection to Elizabethan times is characteristic of the pilots of modern airliners, who may affect it to convey a feeling of calmness and reassurance to passengers flying thousands of feet above the earth. In an Esquire article on test pilot Chuck Yeager, author Tom Wolfe says it is a drawl that originates “in the mountains of West Virginia, in Lincoln Country so far up in the hollows that, as the saying went, ‘they had to pipe in daylight.’ In the late 1940s and early 1950s, this up-hollow voice drifted down . . . down, down from the upper reaches of the flying fraternity to all phases of American aviation . . . pilots from Maine and Massachusetts and the Dakotas and everywhere else began to talk in that poker-hollow West Virginia drawl, or as close to it as they could bend their native accents.”

A a (1) A, pronounced uh, is sometimes heard, especially among old-fashioned speakers, before other parts of speech, as in “He’s a-come for the receipt” or “She ran atoward him.” See also the Introduction. (2) Often used as a contraction of have, as in “He’d never a come here if it weren’t for me.” (3) On. “They’ll be comin’ a Sunday.”

ackempucky Any mixture of food of unknown ingredients. Possibly from an Algonquian word of similar meaning. acknowledge the corn Much used in the 19th century as a synonym for the contemporary “copping a plea,” the phrase is said to have arisen when a man was arrested and charged with stealing four horses and the corn (grain) to feed them. “I acknowledge (admit to) the corn,” he declared. The expression might, however, have originally referred to corn liquor, in which case it probably first meant to admit to being drunk. Rarely used anymore, it is sometimes heard as acknowledge the coin and OWN THE CORN.

abanded Abandoned. “He’s in the abanded house down the road.” abide Tolerate, stand. “He couldn’t abide to eat a bite.” (Maristan Chapman, The Happy Mountain, 1928) able Wealthy. “He’s an able man.” (Bennett Wood Green, Word-Book of Virginia Folk-Speech, 1890)

a-come Come. “I’ve a-come for the book you borrowed.”

abody A man or a woman. “It like to scare abody to death the way he slipped up on us.” abouten

a-coming on rain.”

It’s beginning, as in “It’s a-coming on to

About. “He knew nothing abouten it.”

about to find pups Said by hill people of a woman soon to give birth. “She’s about to find pups.”

acorn-cracker An insulting, derogatory name for a mountaineer, suggesting one is so poor and uncouth he eats acorns.

abroad A trip or visit of about 50 miles or more. Also broad. “She went abroad for a day or two.”

acrost the waters Overseas, abroad. “He’s gone acrost the waters.” Acrost is a pronunciation of across.

absquatulate To depart hurriedly. The word, not much used anymore, is a mock Latin coining said to mean “to go off and squat somewhere else,” as in “Your horse has absquatulated!”

actual

Actually. “He didn’t actual do it.”

adjinning Adjoining. “The boy that fox-hunts with me and lives on adjinnin’ farms.” (Jesse Stuart, “He’s Not Our People,” 1942)

a-childing An archaic English word used in the Great Smokies and elsewhere meaning child-bearing. “She’s achildin’ her fourth.” Also childing.

admire Like, love. “I’d sure admire having that car for my own.” 336

Allegheny Mountains 337 afeared A hill country word meaning afraid that dates back to Middle English (1150–1500). “I was afeared to go.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941)

mons (in the Southern mountains), given in a singsong fashion, ah is added at the end of most clauses and sentences.”

afoot

aig A common pronunciation of egg. “Don’t put all your aigs in one basket.”

Walking, as in “He was afoot while she rode.”

afore An old-fashioned word in the southern Appalachians and elsewhere for before, as in “Let’s get it done afore he comes,” or “I’ll be there afore you.” afore you could scat a cat Very quickly. “He did it afore you could scat a cat.” See AFORE.

ailded

Ailed. “What ailded her mother?”

aim Intend. “ ‘I don’t aim to cut them trees.’ ” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941) ain’t got nary name

after Afterward. “They ride into town and after ride out again.” See ATTER.

See

NEGATIVES.

afterdinner The period right after the noon meal is eaten; afternoon isn’t often used. “Come over and visit this afterdinner.”

ain’t got sense enough to poke acorns down a peckerwood hole Said of someone pitifully stupid. A peckerwood is a woodpecker, which is often called a woodchuck because pecker is a taboo word to many hillfolk.

after-night Dusk, nightfall. “They met secretly that after-night.”

ain’t got the backbone of a fishworm spineless person.

afur Afar. “Somebody from a-fur has to come.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941)

ain’t never done nothin’ nohow

aggerpervoke An Ozarkian term meaning to irritate or aggravate; the word is a blending of aggravate and provoke. Also agger provoke. agg on To incite or urge someone; probably a corruption of egg on. “Don’t agg him on like that.” agin (1) A pronunciation of again, as in “Let’s do it agin.” (2) A pronunciation of against. “That’s all I got agin th’ school.” (Jesse Stuart, “Split Cherry Tree,” 1939) aginer Someone who is usually an antagonist, who is destructive, not constructive. “He’s just an aginer.” aglee Gleeful, as in “Christmas day they was all aglee.” agley Off the line, askew or awry, crooked, morally wrong, as in “He’s gone agley since he got in with those boys,” or “That shed is all agley.” agone Ago. “That happened about 10 years agone here in the Blue Ridge Mountains.” agy An old, possibly obsolete word meaning aged or ancient. ah According to Harold Wentworth’s American Dialect Dictionary (1944): “In primitive Baptist ser-

See

Said of a weak,

NEGATIVES.

air A common pronunciation of are that goes back to the 16th century or before. “ ‘I’ve had nine chillun, seven air livin’ and two air dead. I’ve lived in this same holler twenty year . . .’ ” (Michael Frome, Strangers in High Places, 1966) airified Someone who puts on airs, is conceited. “She was the most airified woman he ever kissed.” airish Cool, cold, windy or damp weather. “Hit’s right airish on them ridges.” air up To fill something up with air. “Did you air up your tires?” Also air: “Did you air your tires?” allas A frequent pronunciation of always. Also allus. “Now the Couchies was French, my daddy allas said.” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959) all decked up All dressed up, wearing one’s best clothes. “She’s all decked out in her Sunday best.” all drug out Very tired. “A woman pore and puny and all drug out from packin’ [carrying] tother baby.” (Lucy Furman, The Glass Window, 1934) Allegheny Mountains A U.S. mountain range extending from northern Pennsylvania to southwest Virginia that forms the western part of the Appalachian Mountains. Also the Alleghenies.

338 Mountain Range all get-out To an extreme degree or extent. “He’s mad as all get-out.” The expression is frequently heard in other regions as well. all is In any event, in any case. “All is, things are a lot better.” all of a twitter Atwitter, nervous. “She was all of a twitter when she saw him coming to the door.” all-over fidges (1) General nervousness, the shivers, apprehension. “It is likely, too, that [Ozark hillfolk] will term nervousness the all-over fidges [fidgets].” (Charles Morrow Wilson, Backwoods America, 1934). Also the all-overs. The expression is first recorded in the 1820 song “Oh, What a Row”: “ ‘I’m seized with an alloverness, I faint, I die.” (2) Underwear. “ ‘I saw your white all-overs the day you went washing in the creek.’ ” (Elizabeth Madox Roberts, The Time of Man, 1926) all-overst Used in the Great Smoky Mountains for the best (or the worst) of all, depending on the situation, as in “He’s the all-overst fellow I ever seen,” or “That’s the all-overst sight I ever seen.” Also all-overest. allow Can be used to mean intend, expect, suppose, guess, reckon, suspect, admit and presume. Also low. “ ‘I don’t allow to work my old woman.’ ” (Elizabeth Madox Roberts, The Time of Man, 1926). all the bigger we have.”

The biggest. “Here’s all the bigger apples

all the farther can run.”

The farthest. “That’s all the farther he

all the faster can go.”

The fastest. “That’s all the faster his car

amount to nothin’. He’s all vines and no taters.” Probably was suggested by sweet potatoes, which produce a lot of vines and, if grown incorrectly, can yield few sweet potatoes. almanick A common Ozark pronunciation of almanac, but heard in other areas as well. ambeer A term dating back to about 1755 that first meant tobacco juice and, later, spittle containing tobacco juice. The word may derive from the amber color of tobacco juice, plus its resemblance to beer’s color and foaminess. Also called ambacker, ambacker juice, amber and amber juice. “He spits bright sluices of ambeer on the grass.” (Jesse Stuart, “People Choose,” 1940) ambitious Spirited, to the point of being unruly. “That horse is mighty ambitious.” and Once commonly used to mean “if,” as in “And you do that we’re lost.” anent Opposite or next to, as in “The lake was anent to the cabins,” or “She sat anent him.” angel teat Moonshiners call particularly good mellow whiskey with a good bouquet angel teat or angel’s teat. The term is first recorded in 1946 but is probably much older. A synonym is good drinkin’ whiskey. “They smacked their lips over that angel teat.” another guess An old expression meaning “a different sort of.” “She’s another-guess woman, one of a kind.” anothern Another. “Yes sir, jest believe I’ll have me anothern.” (Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, 1965)

all the harder The hardest. “That’s all the harder he can throw since he hurt his arm.”

ansund

all the high The highest. “That’s all the high he can jump.” Also all the higher.

antic (1) Amusing, clownish. “He’s an antic fellow.” (2) Lively. “That’s one antic horse.” (3) Used in the Ozarks for wild and irresponsible.

all the smaller can make it.”

The smallest. “That’s all the smaller I

allus The way they say always in the Ozarks, dropping the w. See ALLAS. allus ago Long ago. “Allus ago I yearned to view the sea.” (Ann Cobb, Kinfolks, 1922) all vines an’ no taters Used to describe something or someone very showy but of no substance. “He’ll never

An old term meaning sound, whole, unhurt.

antigodlin Sloping, slanting. Also sogodlin, antisighidlin, and siddlin’. antisighidlin

See

ANTIGODLIN.

anymore Presently, nowadays. “You know, Jesse, anymore I don’t worry a great lot.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938) anyways

To any extent. “Is she anyways responsible?”

arthuritis 339 Appalachia This mountainous region in the southeastern U.S. takes its name from the Appalachian Indian tribe. It is interesting to note that Washington Irving once suggested (in the Knickerbocker Magazine, August 1839) that the phrase United States of Appalachia be substituted for the United States of America. “De Soto left no memorial or trace, expect for the name Appalachian itself (from the Appalache tribe of Muskhogeans on the Gulf Coast), misapplied by him to the fair mountains he traversed so long ago.” (Roderick Peattie, The Great Smokies and the Blue Ridge, 1943) Appalachian tea Names for (1) the yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria,) (2) The inkberry holly (Ilex glabra,) and (3) Viburnum cassinoides. All are found in the Appalachians and used to make medicinal teas. Appian Way of North Carolina A 129-mile plank road, the longest in the world, built of parallel rows of heavy timber covered with crosstie timbers. Though used by wagons, it was also called the farmer’s railroad. arbuckle This corruption of carbuncle means a boil or a swelling or a sore. Also called a risin’. are Sometimes used for is. “Now the way you begin making whiskey, you carry your old barrels to the place where they are plenty of water.” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959) are you of a mind to? Do you care to, want to? “Are you of a mind to go fishing?” argie

A pronunciation of argue. “Don’t argie with me.”

argufy Used in the Ozarks and southern Appalachians for argue. “He’s always argufying.” Arkansas Back in 1881 the Arkansas state legislature decreed that the state’s name “be pronounced in three syllables, with the final s silent, the a in each syllable with the Italian sound, and the accent on the first and last syllables.” It is still so pronounced (Arkansaw) by all natives, though other Americans sometimes erroneously pronounce it to rhyme with dances. In fact, the state’s name was originally spelled Arkansaw. Our 25th state, nicknamed The Wonder State, was admitted to the Union in 1925. Arkansas is the Sioux word for “and of the south wind people.” Arkansas asphalt A joking name for “corduroy roads” made of logs laid side by side that were once common in Arkansas.

Arkansas chicken Salt pork. “We were so poor all we could afford was Arkansas chicken.” Also seen as Arkansas T-bone. Arkansas fire extinguisher name for a chamberpot. Arkansas lizard

An old-fashioned joking

Any louse.

Arkansas stool A block of wood sawed off the end of a log; such “stools” were used as seats around the campfire by early settlers. Arkansas toothpick A bowie knife or other knife with a long blade. Most historians believe the common hunting knife was originally made for Jim Bowie by Arkansas blacksmith James Black and give him credit as being the knife’s inventor. After he killed one man with it in a Natchez duel, Colonel Bowie is said to have sent his knife to a Philadelphia blacksmith, who marketed copies of it under Bowie’s name. Its double-edged blade was 10 to 15 inches long and curved to a point. It was carried by some congressmen and for a time gave Arkansas the nickname the Bowie State or Toothpick State. Arkansas travels rhea.

A humorous term for the runs, diar-

Arkansas wedding cake bread.

A humorous term for corn

Arkansaw (1) A common spelling in the Ozarks for Arkansas. (2) Cheating or unsportsmanlike conduct in anything from hunting to human relationships. “He arkansawed him out of his savings.” (3) To go Dutch treat. “Let’s arkansaw (split) the check.” See ARKANSAS. Arkansawyer armstrong hand.

Someone from Arkansas, an Arkansan.

Any rudimentary, primitive tool used by

arse A common pronunciation of iris in the Ozarks. “My arse garden is in good shape this year.” arsle To back out, move backwards. “He arsled out of the deal we made.” arter

See

ATTER.

arthur A common pronunciation of author in West Virginia hill country. “He’s the arthur of the book.” arthuritis

A pronunciation of arthritis in the Ozarks.

340 Mountain Range artickle A pronunciation (ar-TICKLE) and spelling of article. “Git that artickle and bury it in here.” (Jesse Stuart, The Trees of Heaven, 1940) ary, nary Ary and nary, which are historically contractions of ever a and never a, respectively, are still often heard in the Ozarks, especially among older speakers. “I don’t have nary a dime to my name.” aryplane A pronunciation of airplane. “. . . they’s two fellers here jest fell out of a aryplane . . .” (Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, 1965) as (1) Often substituted for that, as in: “I don’t know as I ever confided him.” (2) Used instead of who: “John’s the one as egged him on.” (3) Used in place of than. “She’d druther dance as eat.” ascared Frightened, scared. “I never was ascared so bad.” (Joseph Sargent Hall, Smoky Mountain Speech, 1942) ashamed Among hillfolk the word is used to mean modest, shy or bashful, as in “She was so ashamed she sat in a corner all night,” or “The little un’s ashamed.” (James Watt Raine, “The Speech of the Land of the Saddle Bags,” 1924)

a-torture

attackted Often said for attacked in the Ozarks. “He attackted him with a knife.” atter A common pronunciation of after. “The same man, at different times, may say atter or arter or after.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) atween Between. “[It’s a] fair fight atween you.” (Jesse Stuart, “Last Roundup,” 1940) atwixt An old-fashioned word in the southern Appalachians and Ozarks for betwixt, between. “There’s a mighty different atwixt them.” auctioneer To auction. “[They’re] auctioneerin’ land off at the courthouse.” (Jesse Stuart, The Trees of Heaven, 1940) auger a round

See

AUGER-EYED.

auger-eyed An expression meaning sharp-eyed in the Ozarks and southern Appalachians. “He’s one augereyed son of a bitch.” Auger around means to look all around one suspiciously and slyly. aumost

ashcake

To be lovesick. “He’s a-torturin’ over her.”

A pronunciation of almost in the Ozarks.

Corn bread that is baked in hot ashes.

ashy Angry, pale with rage. “Barb’s powerful ashy today.” a-spudding around Ambling along. “He was just aspudding round by his-self.”

autermatic A pronunciation of automatic. “ ‘I was shot down with an autermatic [pistol]’.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941) autymobile A pronunciation of automobile. “Shore is a nice autymobile.” (Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, 1965)

ass-hole kinfolks Distant relatives. Also called butthole cousins and button-hole kinfolks.

awkerd

at Sometimes used instead of “on.” “Families used to be at the outs.” (Jesse Stuart, “When Hen Crows,” 1941)

axe A common Ozarkian pronunciation of ask that has a long history in England. “Let me axe you a question.” See also INTRODUCTION.

a-tall At all. “Pa ain’t got no right to kill him a-tall.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941)

ayards Cards is often pronounced ayards in the Appalachians. “Gotta me a deck o’ ayards.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913)

at all

See

BACKARD.

Of all, as in: “He’s the greatest man at all.” aye God

at oneself In good health, at one’s best. “She’s not been at herself a month now.”

See I-GOD!

B babytears A common name in the Kentucky mountains for the wildflower better known as the bluet. baby-trough A name in the Ozarks for both a cradle and a playpen. “She put the child in the babytrough.” back An old-fashioned term meaning to address an envelope, from the days when letters were folded and addressed on the back. “As soon as I back this letter, I’ll mail it.” back-actually Definitely, without a doubt. “He may affirm candid and back-actually that Tola Summerlin’s was the best hawg meat he ever et.” (Charles Morrow Wilson, Backwoods America, 1934) Also heard as black-actually. backard Hillfolk often pronounce backward with a silent w, just as they do forward (forard) and awkward (awkerd). back-back To move something backward, back it up. “Old Buck Stump made them back-back the train two miles and put them off.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938) back-door trots A euphemism for diarrhea. “They all had the back-door trots after they et them taters.” backer Tobacco, a contraction of terbacker. “He got himself some backer for the night.” backing

The address on a letter. See

BACK.

backhouse Outhouse. “‘Where’d you go?’ ‘Ah. Up in the backhouse.’ ” (Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, 1965) backing and forthing (1) To go back and forth. “He’s been backin’ and forthin’ to the river all day.” (2) Working without much purpose or energy, without accomplishing much. “They wasn’t worth the money, backing and forthing all day.” backlander Someone who lives in a remote place in the mountains. “. . . Shabby backlanders trafficking in the wares of the earth. . . .” (Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, 1965) back out do it.”

To dare, challenge. “He backed him out to

back-set A setback for someone recovering from an illness. “He got up too soon and he took a back-set.” backslide To be converted to a religion when things are going bad and rarely or never practice it again once times have improved. “Recently I heard one mountaineer ask another how his sick uncle was faring. The reply was astoundingly candid, ‘He’s a lot better than he was. In fact he’s about well enough to backslide!’ ” (Harry M. Caudill, Night Comes to the Cumberlands, 1962) backstick fire.

The large backlog used in making a fireplace

bacon up To make bacon out of a hog. “It’s time to bacon up them hogs.” 341

342 Mountain Range Bad Man, The A name highlanders have for the devil. See GOOD MAN, THE.

banded up Bandaged. “She was all banded up after the train wreck.”

bad place lands.

banjer A pronunciation of banjo. “She had a banjer on her knee.” (Jesse Stuart, “Last Roundup,” 1943)

A euphemism for hell heard in the high-

back sick Very ill. “ ‘He said he knowed the child was sick, their baby. But he didn’t known it was bad sick.’ ” (Roy Edwin Thomas, Come Go With Me, 1994)

banter

To dare, challenge. “He bantered him to a race.”

banty-legged Bandy-legged, bowlegged. “He ran fast for a banty-legged man.” Also banty.

bad to Very likely or prone to. “Zeke was the meanest of the lot . . . Zeke was awful bad to drink.” (Joseph Sargent Hall, Smoky Mountain Folks, 1960) Also bad for.

bapsouse Baptize. “‘I already been bapsoused.’ ” Elizabeth Madox Roberts, The Time of Man, 1926)

bag A highland word for the scrotum, which is the reason hillfolk rarely call a paper bag a bag, preferring sack or poke instead. See TABOO WORDS.

b’ar A common pronunciation of bear. One hoary story relates how an old-timer told a visitor of a certain swamp infested with b’ars. “You mean bears, don’t you?” asked the visitor. “No,” replied the old-timer. “A bear is something without any h’ar on it.”

bagonet A pronunciation of bayonet heard in the highlands. bahr’l A pronunciation of barrel commonly used by highlanders. “He’s got a bahr’l full of apples.” bait (1) A large amount, as in “We got a bait of’em.” (2) A meal, a satisfying amount of food. “I got me a bait of rabbits in my craw.” baking powders Baking powder. “Tomato, cabbage, molasses and baking powder are always used [in the southern Appalachians] as plural names [as in] ‘How many bakin’ powders you got?” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) bald (1) Any bare mountain top, without trees or vegetation. “Aboriginally the Appalachian forests were vast in extent, clothing the mountains, except for the ‘balds,’ from top to bottom.” (Roderick Peattie, Great Smokies) Sometimes called a slick. (2) Can also describe a peak sparsely covered with vegetation. “Mountain folk call this growth a ‘bald’—meaning that compared with the densely forested peaks, the knobs covered with Catauba rhododendron appear close-cropped.” (Roderick Peattie, The Great Smokies and the Blue Ridge, 1943) bald face A hillfolk word for raw corn whiskey so potent it wipes any expression off your face.

bare

See B’AR.

barefoot bread A humorous name for an inexpensive cornbread made at home without any shortening or eggs. Common in the Ozarks and southern Appalachians. “I like my barefoot bread and my barefooted coffee.” See BAREFOOTED. barefooted Black coffee without milk or sugar. “I drink my coffee barefooted.” See also WITH SOCKS ON. bare naked naked.”

bar-hog A gelded pig. “ ‘And him like a bar-hog.’ ” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941) bark To kill a squirrel with a rifle shot that hits the limb it is sitting on, the concussion killing the animal without wounding it. barns A pronunciation of barrens, meaning land that produces little or no crops. “Them barns never will amount to much.” barrel-dogger A maker of illegal liquor or moonshine, who stores his brew in barrels. barren days

ballat

See

Naked. “Them girls on the stage was bare

See

SIGNS.

SALAT.

ballet A common pronunciation of ballad. “He sung an old ballet to us.” bammy A pronunciation of balmy. “It’s bammy weather we been having.”

baseborn Used in the southern Appalachians for an illegitimate child. bass-ackwards Ass-backwards, all wrong; possibly a euphemism and heard in other regions as well. “You’ve got that bass-ackwards.”

bee-gum 343 Battle in the Clouds The famous Civil War battle of Lookout Mountain in Tennessee.

time of Chaucer, also include ghostes (ghosts), postes (posts) and nestes (nests).

battling block A flat-topped bench or board on which clothes are beaten and washed. “Alongside . . . is the ‘battlin’ block’ on which the family wash is hammered with a beetle (‘battlin’ stick’) if the woman has no washboard.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913)

beat Beaten. (1) “ ‘I heard he was beat to death.’ ” (Jesse Stuart, “Uncle Joe’s Boys,” 1938) (2) To pound, break up.

battling stick

See

bawlin’ hound during a hunt.

BATTLING BLOCK.

A dog that bays on the trail of game

bay window A humorous term in the Tennessee mountains for a bald head. “He’s had a bay window since he was 30.” bazooka The weapon, invented during World War II, was named for its resemblance to the trombone-like musical instrument called the bazooka that was invented in the 1930s by Arkansas comedian Bob Burns from two gas pipes and a whiskey funnel. beal To fester, be infected. “With the birth of her last baby, Clate’s wife got down with a bealed breast.” (Jean Thomas, Blue Ridge Mountain, 1942) bean stringing An Appalachian party or bee featuring the stringing of beans in their pods. The completed strings were then hung for drying. bear

See B’AR.

beardy Bearded. “The dirty beardy man over there.” (Jesse Stuart, “Rich Men,” 1939) bearm Excitement, emotion, agitation. “‘Such bearm I never see!’” (Maristan Chapman, The Happy Mountain, 1928) Bear State A name for Arkansas, after the black bears said to be common there in pioneer days. beary country

Country where bears are abundant. See

beatenest (1) Best. “. . . God rested when he made these here hills, he jest naturally had t’ quit, for he’d done his beatenest.” (Harold Bell Wright, The Shepherd of the Hills, 1907) (2) Remarkable, most unusual, most outrageous. “That’s the beatenest tale I ever heard.” beat out (1) Exhausted. “He’s plumb beat out.” (2) Astonished, dumbfounded. “He was plumb beat out to see her there.” beat the devil and carry a rail An old-fashioned expression meaning to beat someone decisively, the saying deriving from the rural custom of having the favorite runner in a race carry a rail as a handicap. beat the stir Beat the band. “Them fellers jest looked at him t’ beat th’ stir.” (Harold Bell Wright, Shepherd of the Hills, 1907) beautifulest bed

See

See

MOANINGESTFULLEST.

TABOO WORDS.

bedcord strong An Ozarkian term meaning very strong, like the cords or ropes used for springs in handmade beds once common in the region. bed it Lie in bed. “Have to get back to work, can’t bed it another day.” bedpost on a dress tail To hold a child’s shirttail or other garment down by placing over it a heavy bedpost that the child can’t lift. Mothers often did this in the Ozarks to prevent young ones from wandering off into trouble while they were busy in the kitchen or garden or elsewhere. Also called to bedpost.

CHUNK OF A BOY.

bed with Have sex with. “Damned if I’d bed with her, considerin’ her history.”

beast (1) See quote. “Critter and beast are usually restricted to horse and mule [in the Appalachians].” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) (2) Any farm animal.

beebee An old term used in the central Pennsylvania mountains for the youngest member of a family.

beastback

beef Hit hard. “There goes that boy Briswell’s boy hit. They say he sure beefed him.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938)

Horseback. “He rode beastback to town.”

beasties Often the plural for beast in the Ozarks and Appalachians. Similar plurals, which date back to the

bee-gum

A beehive made in a hollow gum tree.

344 Mountain Range beeler (1) A wooden maul used in the Ozarks for splitting rails. (2) A wooden wedge for rail splitting. beer A synonym in the southern Appalachians for the fermented mash that produces moonshine liquor. begouge To stab, pierce, gouge. “He stepped on a nail and begouged his foot.”

bespoke (1) To be engaged to be married. “She’s bespoke for.” (2) To have a date for a dance or other social event. bestest

Best. “He speaks the bestest English.”

between hay and grass Between one’s time of youth and one’s maturity; said of someone not quite a man or a woman.

behind the door when brains were passed out Heard in the Ozarks and elsewhere for someone very stupid. “He was behind the door when brains were passed out.”

betweenst Commonly used by hillfolk for between. “He came betweenst us.”

bell cow The cow that leads a herd of cows, because it usually has a bell around its neck.

betwixt Between. “ ‘Did you see him betwixt us and the light?’ ” (Jesse Stuart, “Uncle Joe’s Boys,” 1938)

belling A big party or gathering. “Are you invited to the belling?”

biddable Docile, pliable, obedient. “Thar’s a biddable mule if I ever seen one.”

belly like a rain barrel Used to describe a paunchy person, as in “He’s got a belly like a rain barrel.”

biddy-peck To henpeck, nag; a hen is sometimes called a biddy. “He’s been biddy-pecked all their lives together.”

belly rub To dance intimately, bodies close together. “People can’t dance like that nowadays. They just get up and belly-rub a little.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938)

big To impregnate, get with child. “Picture of a lily trampled on the earth. That means he bigged her.” (Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel, 1929)

belongers Local people, part of any group. “They ain’t belongers here—jest blowed in one day about cornplanting time in April.” (Lucy Furman, The Glass Window, 1934) benastied Fouled, covered with vomit, feces, dirt, etc., as in “It got so he benastied himself drinking every night,” or “Don’t benasty the child’s mind with such stories.” bench-kneed dog A dog with short stubby legs, crooked and set far apart. Bench-kneed is sometimes said of people, too. bendified An old word for bended. “He got down on his bendified knees.” benighted To be caught in the dark while traveling somewhere. “We figured on making town before we were benighted.” be proud Be glad. “Be proud you wasn’t like old man Parton up here got burned down in his bed that time.” (Cormac McCarthy, Child of God, 1973)

big-eyed time See quote. “They set down and eat and got through and was having a big-eyed time . . . All was a-drinking and everything was a-going good.” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959) biggity Conceited, swollen-headed. “He’s been actin’ mighty biggity lately.” big-headed man.”

Conceited, vain. “He’s one big-headed

big road A main highway. “I walk down the hollow to the big road.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941) big word book A colorful term for a dictionary still heard among older speakers. bile Boil; a pronunciation used by Shakespeare and common among hillfolk today. “She biled the water for his bath.” bilin’

Boiling. See

WILD PORK.

bereft Crazy, unbalanced mentally, very troubled. “He was plumb bereft for a time there.”

bingbuffer An imaginary woods creature said to be able to kill people by throwing stones at them.

berm well.

bird wire A device made of wire and weights used in the Ozarks to catch birds.

The shoulder of a road; used in other regions as

blockader 345 birdwork To hop, jump, or leap. “He birdworked down the path.”

blackguard talk Used in the Ozarks for obscene or smutty language; off-color stories.

biscuit-bread A redundancy for biscuit. “Ma baked us some biscuit-bread for supper.”

blacksheep To steal someone’s job. “I was away for a while and he blacksheeped me.”

biscuit weather Snowy weather, in reference to the white flour used in making biscuits.

blacksnake The snake’s name is often used as a curse on an enemy. “Why, you young blacksnake, I’ll kill every God damn cur that steps on this grass.” (MacKinley Kantor, The Voice of Bugle Ann, 1935)

bishop A historical term for a woman’s bustle that is rarely if ever heard anymore. bitch

See

TABOO WORDS.

bitin’ and gougin’ A vicious kind of fighting practiced by mountaineers in which ears, noses and cheeks were bitten off and eyes were gouged out of their sockets. A story is told of a mountaineer . . . attacked by a large and angry female bear . . . The monster hugged him in her immense forepaws and undertook to bite away his face. But the mountaineer was determined to die hard. He seized the end of the bear’s nose between his sturdy teeth and plunged his thumbs deep into bruin’s eyes. With a roar the bear flung him aside and fled, leaving the tip of her nose in his mouth. The victor proudly displayed her nose, explaining that “bars can’t stand bitin’ and gougin’.” Whether true or not, the tale illustrates the vital savagery which the early mountaineer perpetrated so long. (Harry M. Caudill, Night Comes to the Cumberlands, 1963)

biting dog A dog prone to biting people. “ ‘Don’t be afraid, boys,’ says Big Aaron. ‘He ain’t no bitin’ dog. He’s one of them barkin’ dogs that never bites.’ ” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941)

blamedest Damndest. “I seed the blamedest sight last night.” (Harold Bell Wright, Shepherd of the Hills, 1907) Blanket Mountain A mountain in the Great Smokies. “Blanket Mountain supposedly was named after [surveyor] Return J. Meigs who had hung a bright-hued blanket at the 4,609-foot mountain above Elkmont in order to have a plain target for his compass.” (Michael Frome, Strangers in High Places, 1966) blanny A pronunciation of blarney (flattery) heard in the Ozarks. “He gave her a lot of blanny.” blate

Bleat. “I heard the blate of a sheep.”

blatherskite Someone very talkative. “I’ve got better things to do than listen to that old blatherskite.” blemage An Ozarkian variation on blemish, “There’s not a blemage on her skin.” bless out out.”

To scold or chastise. “She sure blessed him

black as Coaly’s tail Coaly is a name once common in the Ozarks for the devil and black as Coaly’s tail means very black or dark.

blind billiards An advanced state of drunkenness. “By midnight he had the blind billiards.”

blackberry hell

blind-born eyes Eyes blind from birth. “His blindborn eyes never saw his mother.”

See

HELL.

blackberry storm A storm that comes in blackberry blossom time, usually in late May or early June.

blinked Said of sour milk or slightly sour milk. “Don’t drink that milk ’cause it’s blinked.”

black Christmas A Christmas or Christmas season without any snow. “It was a black Christmas last year. It takes a white Christmas for a good crop year.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938) (Snow adds nitrogen to the soil and is widely called “poor man’s manure” because it fertilizes the soil, producing better crops.)

blinky Sour or slightly sour. “Blinky as milk turned in a thunderstorm.” (Maristan Chapman, The Happy Mountain, 1928)

black-dark night

A very dark night. See

SHADOW-SHY.

blackguard To curse, talk obscenely. “They turn and one blackguards as loudly as he can.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938)

blockade (1) Moonshine, illegally made whiskey. “There is no shame, no sense of guilt [in the Appalachians] in making or selling this ‘blockade whiskey.’ ” (James Watt Raine, “Speech of the Land of Saddle Bags”) (2) To make moonshine. blockader Bootlegger. “And from that day to this, more and more whiskey has gone underground: It has

346 Mountain Range been made by moonlight in hidden places, put up in smaller containers, transported in the bootlegs and saddlepockets of ‘blockaders’ and sold outside the usual channels of trade.” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959) block and fall blood kin mine.”

An Ozark term for block and tackle.

A blood relative. “He’s no blood kin of

blow clear to glory To shoot someone, blow him apart. “‘If you shoot a Davis dog, I’ll blow you clear to glory.’” (MacKinley Kantor, The Voice of Bugle Ann, 1935) blowed Blew. “The wind kindly blowed lonesome.” (Jesse Stuart, “Rich Men,” 1939) blow fire out The old belief that a person with magical ability, or a certain charm, could heal a burn simply by blowing on it. blow horn A cow horn used by fox hunters to call their hounds. blue as a possum’s cod This color comparison refers to a possum’s blue genitals. See also CODS. blue ginseng Used in Appalachia as a name for the medicinal plant black snakeroot (Cimicifuga racemosa), because it resembles the herb ginseng. blue gum A derogatory term in the Ozarks and elsewhere for a black person with a bluish cast to the gums. blue John (1) Skim milk, because it often has a bluish tint. (2) Sour or slightly sour milk. Blue Ridge Mountains An Appalachian Mountain range extending from northern Georgia to southern Pennsylvania. Also called the Blue Ridge. bobwhite

A name hillfolk give to the common quail.

bob wire

A pronunciation of barbed wire.

bodacious Said to have been popularized in the comic strip about hillbillies, “Snuffy Smith,” bodacious can mean remarkable, prodigious, bold or audacious. It is possibly a blend of bold and audacious. body A person. Widely used in the mountains and elsewhere. body-naked

A synonym in the Ozarks for naked.

boggle Bungle, perform a task badly or poorly. “She boggled everything.” bogue To wander about aimlessly or uncertainty. “He jist bogued around all day.” bold hives An imaginary skin disease something like hives; some hillfolk believe the disease exists and is invariably fatal. bone-box the body.

An old English word still used by hillfolk for

bone idle Lazy to the bone, born that way and destined to end that way. “Hit’s idle as you—bone idle ‘n’ slack twisted.” (Maristan Chapman, The Happy Mountain, 1928) booger-man Another name hillfolk have for the devil. See BAD MAN, THE. boogers

Lice. “She looked his head over for boogers.”

book See quote. “A magazine is always called a book in this region [western North Carolina mountains].” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) book larnin’ Book learning, formal education. “The mountain clergy, as a rule, are hostile to ‘book larnin’.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) books “Books! Books!” used to be a call to school. Books still means school or schooltime, as in “Books ends at three o’clock.” boomer The name for a red squirrel or a gray squirrel in the North Carolina mountains. Also mountain boomer. bore An Elizabethan word still used to mean embarrass, ridicule, make a fool of. “I got real mad when he was boring me.” bored for the simples A humorous expression meaning one should be operated on in the head for stupidity. “He ought to be bored for the simples.” bore for the hollow horn See quote “A hole is bored in the horn of a cow (having a hollow horn) with a gimlet. This custom gave rise to the epithet applied to people who behaved foolishly (suggesting a hollow head): ‘He ought to be bored for the holler horn.’ ” (Dialect Notes, Vol. V, 1919) bore with a big auger To do things in a big way. “The company spared no expense on that picnic. They was boring with a big auger.”

briar-hopper 347 borned to Introduced to, taught about. “ ‘Daddy made whiskey all of his life, though I don’t know whether he was borned to it by my granddaddy.’ ” (Michael Frome, Strangers in High Places, 1966) bornin’ Birth. “His bornin’ killed her [his mother].” (Movie version of Harold Bell Wright’s The Shepherd of the Hills, 1907)

braggy A very boastful person, a braggart. “They call him Old Braggy.” brag on Brag about, praise excessively. “ ‘I can’t hep it if I do haf to brag on my own boy.’ ” (Jesse Stuart, The Trees of Heaven, 1940) brake

A term used in the Ozarks for a thicket of trees.

Said of an ille-

branch water Water direct from a stream, sometimes a synonym for pure water.

borrow Used for to lend. “She borrowed the book to him.”

brand-fired-new Absolutely new, never used. “I might get your old furniture since you’s gitten brand-fired-new furniture.” (Jesse Stuart, The Trees of Heaven, 1940) Also brand-fire-new.

born on the wrong side of the blanket gitimate child. See WOOD’S COLT.

borry

A pronunciation of borrow in the Ozarks.

botherment

A nuisance. “It was a great botherment.”

bottled in the barn A humorous term for bootleg moonshine; a play on the words bottled in bond for quality whiskey. boundary A stand of land with trees on it, or any tract of land. “We had a boundary of 10 acres.” bounden there.”

Bound, obliged. “It’s my bounden duty to be

bow-and-spike A name children give to the bow and arrow in the Ozarks. bowel off To have the runs, diarrhea. “She was bowellin’ off so bad she must’ve lost five pounds.” bowels A euphemism for feces used in the Ozarks and in other regions. bow up Improve. “He’ll have to bow up if he wants to hold his job.” bow up to Stand up to. “Lead snaps at Blue Tick and Blue Tick bows up to his side like a fish as if to say, ‘Come on, you hound dog.’” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941) box house See quote. “. . . a house with outside walls built of vertically set planks, with strips nailed on to cover the cracks between boards.” (Joseph Sargent Hall, Smoky Mountain Folks, 1960) The term, common in the Ozarks, also means any poorly built boxlike house.

brang Bring. “‘When you get back to the house, you have . . . my wife to brang the chopping ax . . .’” (R. E. Thomas, Come Go With Me, 1994) brash A pronunciation of brush common among hillfolk. Also bresh. brash songs

The opposite of

MODESTY SONGS.

brave heart Courage. “Shorely it does require brave heart to farm in these yere hills.” (Rose Wilder Lane, Hill-Billy, 1925) bread (1) Sometimes used to indicate a crop of growing corn, from which, of course, corn bread is made. “I got three acres of bread planted.” (2) Biscuits. “(We had) bread drenched in ’lasses (molasses).” (Joseph Sargent Hall, Smoky Mountain Folks, 1960) (3) To feed. “A man’s got to bread his family.” bread wagon Said of a thunderclap—“Listen to that bread wagon!”—because thunder brings rain, which makes the wheat grow better, which results in more and better bread. break To grow old, to gray or show other signs of aging. “He sure had broken a lot since I last saw him, he’s breaking fast, too.” break over Break down, give in. “He broke over and smoked a cigarette.” break wind

See

DON’T AMOUNT TO A POOT.

boy-child A male child, just as gal-child is used for a girl.

bresh

brag dog One’s favorite dog, the one he or she brags about. “This here’s my brag dog.”

briar-hopper An insulting derogatory name for a mountaineer. See HILLBILLY.

See

BRASH.

348 Mountain Range brickle Brittle, crisp, as in “I like a hard brickle pickle, no puny soggy ones.” The “brickle thread of life” is an old, common saying in the Ozarks. briggoty

Parts of America (1791), the word derives “from a custom that the women had of putting this flower down their bosoms . . . till it lost all its graceful perfume.” Also called the sweet shrub and Carolina allspice.

Haughty. “She’s a proud, briggoty woman.” buck

britches Commonly used as a pronunciation of breeches. British lady bird.

Another name for the red-winged black-

See

TABOO WORDS.

buckeye To poison fish with a mixture of the roots of the buckeye tree (Aesculus glabra) found in the Ozarks and elsewhere. buckshot

See

TABOO WORDS.

broad A trip or visit of about 50 miles or more, probably a shortening of abroad. “He just got back from his broad.” See ABROAD.

buckskin A term used in the past to describe a backwoodsman.

broguin’ about

budget A bundle, a package. “He picked up a budget for Mrs. Evan.”

See

BOGUE; COOTERIN’ AROUND.

broke up Stopped, ceased. “My mother died . . . My father then he broke up housekeeping, and we went to live with the neighbors and kinfolks.” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959) broomstick An old synonym for wife in the Tennessee mountains. Probably from the phrase jump over the broomstick, to get married. brother

See

FELLA.

brung Often used for brought. “He brung them over here.” brush ape An old, contemptuous, derogatory name for a mountaineer. “I want to git out of her before a bunch of these brush apes swarm down out of the woods . . .” (Thames Williamson, Wood’s Colt, 1933) See HILLBILLY. brush arbor A brushwood-covered shelter used for religious meetings and ceremonies on warm days. brush-arbor whiskey Still another name for moonshine or popskull, because it was often used by those who attended religious revivals. See BRUSH ARBOR. brush drag A seine made of willow branches used in the Ozarks and elsewhere. bubbly-jock The name for a turkey gobbler in the Pennsylvania mountains, after the sound it makes. bubby A woman’s breast. “She shore got big bubbies for her size.” bubby bush A name for the strawberry shrub (Calycanthus glaucus), perhaps so called because of the globular dark-red nipple-form blossom’s resemblance to a woman’s breast or BUBBY. However, according to Thomas Auburey in his Travels Through the Interior

buffalo A name used to describe a North Carolinian favoring the North during the Civil War; the name was also given to the poor whites of North Carolina. build a fire under Hillfolk may be responsible for this common national expression meaning to stir someone into action or movement. Mountain people, it is said, sometimes built fires under their mules to get the beasts moving when they were standing four legs spread and refusing to budge despite every other tactic. Mrs. Palmer Clark, formerly research librarian at the Van Noy Library in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, advised me that relatives of hers in the “chuggy huggy hills of Tennessee” were familiar with the practice. “Aunt Clellie,” Mrs. Clark wrote, “said when she was a young girl, loads of cedar were transported to Murfreesboro from Hall’s Hell Pike. She distinctly remembers that her brother-in-law literally and actually built fires under the mules who hauled the cedar to get them going [this about 1921 or 1922 in Tennessee].” Also set a fire under and light a fire under. bull A TABOO cow brute. bullfrog

See

WORD

in the Ozarks, where it is called a

TABOO WORDS.

bull gang A crew of laborers. “[My job] at the quarry . . . was helping the other three on the ‘bull gang’ use the hand drill.” (Jesse Stuart, Tales From the Plum Grove Hills, 1946) bull goose The head man, the boss or foreman of any outfit from a labor crew to a fire department. “When he’s gone I’m the bull goose up here.” bull rat A male muskrat. “. . . he had caught an old bull rat with orange fur, the size of a housecat.” (Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, 1965)

by-word 349 bull roarer A noisemaker made of a piece of wood attached to a thong; children whirl the toy in the air, making a roaring sound.

bush colt

Same as

WOOD’S COLT.

bush up Hide in the bushes or brush. “He bushed up when he heard they were coming.”

bull tongue See quote. “For the rough work of cultivating the hillsides a single steer hitched to the bulltongue (plow) was better adapted.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913)

buss This centuries-old word meaning to kiss is still used by some hillfolk, though it is seldom used elsewhere anymore.

bumbersol umbrella.

An old word used in the Ozarks for an

bust head A synonym for potent moonshine whiskey in the southern Appalachians. Also popskull.

bumblings Still another name for mountain whiskey, especially adulterated whiskey. “Such decoctions are known in the mountains as . . . bumblings (they make a bumbling noise in a feller’s head).” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913)

busy as a goose with nine rectums Very busy indeed; a one-rectumed goose, of course, seems to leave a dropping behind with each step.

bumfuzzle Confuse. “I didn’t know you was that sharp after the way you bumfuzzled the Superintendant’s office.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938) bummy The buttocks. An term dating back to Shakespeare’s day. Also bum. burial ground Commonly used instead of cemetery. Also burying ground. burn down in bed To kill someone by burning his house down at night while he is sleeping. “He’s a rogue and a outlaw hisself and you’re welcome to shoot him, burn him down in his bed, any damn thing . . .” (Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, 1965) burnin’ green wood for kindlin’ Performing a futile task. “Trying to change his mind is like burnin’ green wood for kindlin’.” burnt hurry hurry.”

Great haste. “He got over there in a burnt

burry A common pronunciation of berry, as in, “He loves stawburrys.” bursted Burst. “His appendix had bursted.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938)

but-and-ben A Scottish term used for a two-room cottage in the Appalachians. butle

See

butt A prominent mountain ridge, the end of a mountain ridge. “Butt is what Westerners call a butte.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) butterballs A name for the ducks scientifically known as Glaucionetta albeola, but not among women because balls (suggesting the slang word for testicles) is considered obscene or in poor taste. buttercup Often used in the Appalachians for a daffodil. Other synonyms are jonquil, March flower and Easter flower. bygones The past, days past. “I remember the bygones when we were lucky we had food on the table.” by-grabs! A common exclamation. “Well, in Baptist Church, by-grabs, you don’t have to do that.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938) by guess and by God To do something randomly, without much careful planning, is to do it by guess and by God. The planner hopes that God will see it through. “He did it by guess and by God and it worked for him.” by juckies!

burying ground

See

An old exclamation, its origin unknown.

BURIAL GROUND.

by times bury the tomahawk ual intercourse.

BATTLING BLOCK.

Early. “We got up by times to do our chores.”

A humorous euphemism for sex-

bush-buster An insulting derogatory name for a mountaineer. See HILLBILLY.

by-word Used in the Ozarks to mean one’s favorite expression, most often a mild curse. “Gol darn was his by-word.”

C cabbages

See

BAKING POWDERS.

c’am

camp meeting baby An illegitimate child; so named after the sometimes wild and immoral camp meeting revivals of the past. See WOOD’S COLT.

cackleberry An old humorous term for an egg in the Ozarks and elsewhere. cagey

See

A pronunciation of calm.

PRUNEY.

candle-light An old term used in the Ozarks for dusk. See LAMP-LIFTING TIME.

calf-slobbers A humorous term for the meringue on a pie, or for egg custard.

candy breaking An old-time social gathering where candy was made and couples were created by having the young people match broken sticks of candy.

call (1) To pronounce. “I don’t know how to call that name.” (2) To mention someone’s name: “I called his name to them.” (3) Mention. “The name no longer caught at her nerves when Artie Pinkerton called it in her gossip.” (Elizabeth Madox Roberts, The Time of Man, 1926)

candy snake A name in the Ozarks for the lizard Ophisaurus ventralis. Also called the glass snake and joint snake. cankered Spoiled, decayed, “high.” Said of fowl that has been hung too long after being killed. “That bird sure is cankered.”

callahooting Moving at a reckless breakneck speed. “He went callahooting down the road.”

capper A corn popper. “Sister Nell finished popping the capper of corn.” (Jesse Stuart, “Rich Men,” 1939)

called to straw To be pregnant, to be about to have a baby. “She was last called to straw three years ago.” Mattresses were once commonly filled with straw. call one’s name To call oneself by one’s name. “How do you call your name? (What’s your name?)”

captain (1) Sometimes used as a title for a take-charge woman or a domineering wife. (2) Someone who excels at something. “He’s a captain to tell a tale.”

call out of one’s name To call someone an abusive name. “He called me out of my name.”

care Sometimes means mind. “I don’t care to dance,” for example, can mean, “I wouldn’t mind dancing.”

calluses on one’s feet Said of any child born in less than nine months after its parents were married; because the child would have to walk fast to make a nine-month trip in less time. “He’s another one born with calluses on his feet.”

careen To lean, twist, bend the body to one side. “Ever’ time I careened I got a crick in my back.” car house anymore. 350

A synonym for a garage; not heard much

chew one’s tobacco twice 351 Carolina jessamine Another name for the plant more widely known as wild woodbine.

caucus To talk or chatter about small things. “They caucused over coffee all morning.”

carry

cave Any dug or natural cellar. “They went down in the cave.”

To escort. “He carried her to church on Sundays.”

a carrying The amount a person can carry at one time. “He took a carrying of wood up to the house.”

cease To decrease, let up. “That wind should cease before noon.”

carry one on a chip To spoil, pamper; origin unknown. “She’s their only child and they carried her on a chip all her life, but it did prove them right somewhat being her life was so short.”

chamber lye (1) A euphemism for urine. (2) A mixture of wine and cooking oil once commonly used as a digestive medicine for infants in the Ozarks.

carry oneself Go away, leave. “She done carried herself to Charleston.”

cha-muck-a-muck A highly seasoned relish very similar to chow-chow; said to be a Cherokee Indian word.

cash money A redundancy for cash, money other than checks, credit, etc. “We’ll make us a heap o’ cash money.” (Maristan Chapman, The Happy Mountain, 1928)

chance An accident. “It’ll jist be a chance if you ever see him again.”

catamount Ozarks.

An old term for the mountain lion in the

cat and clay (1) A clay and straw mixture used in building and repairing chimneys. (2) A rude chimney made of sticks and clay. catarrh An inflamed sore, usually on the hand; a carbuncle; an abscess. catchy weather Unsettled, unpredictable weather that changes frequently over a short period of time. Often pronounced ketchy weather.

chap Used in the Ozarks for a male child and even a little girl occasionally, but never for an adult. “This here chap is a-cryin’.” (Elizabeth Madox Roberts, The Time of Man, 1926) charm string A necklace of buttons once commonly made by young girls in the Ozarks. Friends would donate the buttons and the recipient would string them together. Any friend who donated a button was thought to be a friend forever. chaw Generally the pronunciation of chew in the Ozarks. checklines

cathead A large biscuit. “It was a novel experience to eat ‘cat heads’ or corn pone three times a day.” (Joseph Sargent Hall, Smoky Mountain Folks, 1960) cat-shaking A party game played after a new quilt has been completed. Neighbors, including young men and women of marriageable age, are invited and asked to hold the edges of the quilt. Then a cat is dropped in the center of the quilt, which is shaken vigorously. The cat, of course, tries to get off and the person closest to the point where he does escape is said to be the next person in the room to be married. cat squirrel

The gray squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis.

cheer

Reins on a horse or other animal.

A pronunciation of chair.

Cherokee The origin of the name of the Indian people who have lived in the southern mountains for centuries is a mystery, their name perhaps stolen from them like their land. “The word Cherokee itself has no meaning in the Indian language. It may have had its origin in the time of the de Soto expedition (1540) with the word Achelaque, modified in stages to spell Cherokee, until not even their name remained to them.” (Michael Frome, Strangers in High Places, 1966) See TRAIL OF TEARS. chewing ing.”

Chewing tobacco. “I’m plumb out of chew-

cat switch A thin switch, two to three feet long, once commonly used for switching unruly children on the backside.

chewing wax An old synonym for chewing gum, especially pine resin or pitch.

catty-strangling cornered.

chew one’s tobacco twice To think something over before acting. “I’ll have to chew my tobacco twice on that.”

A synonym in the Ozarks for cater-

352 Mountain Range chicken crow Dawn, first thing in the morning. “He got home long after chicken crow.”

chuggy, huggy hills Words used to describe the closetogether hills of Tennessee. See BUILD A FIRE UNDER.

chicken granny Any woman who raises chickens for sale. “That old chicken granny cheated him.”

chunk of a boy A little boy. “‘This is beary country, I tell you, terribly rough . . . I have hunted this place since I was a chunk of a boy big enough to tote a rifle-run . . .’” (Michael Frome, Strangers in High Places, 1966)

chickens today, feathers tomorrow A saying among hillfolk roughly equivalent to “here today, gone tomorrow,” or life is short. “He shook Piercy’s hand and said, ‘Chickens today, brother, feathers tomorrow,’ and Piercy Cabe nodded . . . Cabe was dead in less than a month’s time.” (Harry Middleton, On the Spine of Time, 1991) child-fetchin’ A term used in the southern Appalachians for helping to deliver a baby. “She was mighty good at child-fetchin’.” childing

chur

A common pronunciation of chair.

church (1) To put on trial before the church membership. “He was churched for breakin’ the Sabbath.” (2) To deprive someone of church membership. “They done churched her for what she said.”

See A-CHILDING.

chillern Children. “He married again . . . when he was seventy-seven, and he has two chillern by his last wife; the youngest one, a boy, born when he was eighty.” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959) chimbly

chunk of fire A red-hot coal or piece of wood once commonly carried from place to place to start a new fire.

A chimney, as pronounced in the Ozarks.

chimney shelf board.

The mantel of a chimney. Also fire-

church house A church. “There’s a meetin’ over at the church house.” ciphers Numbers, figures. “The [bankers] have everything down in ciphers . . .” (Jesse Stuart, The Trees of Heaven, 1940) citified A person who has left the mountains to live in the cities and who adopts city ways; usually said contemptuously. citireen Possibly a variation on citizen, this Ozark term describes any old-time resident of an area.

chippyhouse A brothel. “Your place is getting the reputation of a regular chippyhouse all over town.” (Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel, 1929)

City of Rocks

chock-cherry tree ana).

civvy cat rius).

A chokecherry tree (Prunus virgini-

choke rag An old-fashioned joking word for a necktie; not much heard anymore. chore

A nickname for Nashville, Tennessee.

The civet or spotted skunk (Spilogale puto-

clacker A metal token used instead of CASH MONEY in the Southern Appalachians; such tokens were here once commonly used in company stores. See FLICKER.

A pronunciation of your. “Is that chore hat?”

Christ bird In ancient legend the robin’s breast was stained red by Christ’s blood when the bird tried to comfort Him on the cross. For this reason southern mountain people call the robin the Christ bird.

clap one’s fists To gesture emphatically, as in striking one’s fist against one’s palm. “He not only preached against them [the Ku Klux Klan] in his four-hour sermons, but he went out on the road and clapped his fists and preached against them.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938)

chuffy

clark

Fat or plump. “She’s a chuffy lookin’ gal.”

chug An old term for a shallow depression in the road, a pothole. Said to derive from a combination of a wagon driver crying out Ug! when he hit one and the sound of the wooden wheel twisting in the hole. Also chug-hole. “That wagon came up out of that chug hole.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941)

A common Ozark pronunciation of clerk.

clattermints Belongings, possessions. “The whole room is filled up with clattermints from his mother.” clean as a hound’s tooth Very clean, immaculate. The allusion is to the bright white appearance of a hound’s teeth.

cold in the grave 353 clean ground Ground that has been weeded and is ready to plant. clean one’s plow To beat someone severely in a fight. Said to derive from the way farmers clean their plows by dragging them through gravel. “He better watch it or I’ll clean his plow!” clearin’; clarin’ A social gathering during which people come with their own tools to help clear the host’s land, cutting trees and brush, etc., the host providing food, drink and music for the party afterwards. “Are you comin’ to the clarin’?” clever (1) The word usually means generous, kind and friendly among hillfolk, not intelligent or sly, which it means in most other areas. “He has a good heart, a very clever man.” (2) Beneficial, advantageous. “Their rich uncle promised to do something clever for them.” (3) Hospitable. “She was just as good to people and treated ’em just as clever as anybody on the creek.” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959) clew To strike or smack. “She clewed him soon as he opened his mouth.”

clod buster Used in the Ozarks and elsewhere for a very heavy rain, one that breaks down plowed clods of earth. clomb Clomb for climbed dates back to the 14th century and is still heard in the mountains. “He clomb the tree to the top.” close to heaven’s gate Close to dying. “ ‘I’m so close to heaven’s gate I can feel the cold gate-knob in my hand. Truly.’ ” (Harry Middleton, On the Spine of Time, 1991) clumb Climbed. “He clumb up there from the valley.” Also clomb and clum. coaly

See

BLACK AS COALY’S TAIL.

coarse voice a fine voice.

A deep bass voice; a tenor’s voice is called

coast Used in the southern Appalachians to mean a region. “A lad who has never heard of the ocean says, ‘I live on yan coast.’ ” (James Watt Raine, “Land of Saddle Bags”)

clew bird A legendary large heron or crane that is supposed to do things like stick its beak in the sand and whirl around like a top while whistling through its rectum—or so tourists are told.

cock A TABOO WORD in the Ozarks, where a male chicken is called a crower or a rooster.

cliff Cave. “The water drips down from the roof of the cliff.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941)

cocked The cocking of a gun is often described by a euphemism such as “Th’ hammer’s back” or “She’s ready to go.” See TABOO WORDS.

clift

See

cock and bull tale

See

ROOSTER TALE.

ONCET.

cockeyed clim Climbed. “These hills these old legs has clim ten thousand times over.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938) climate To adapt to a different climate, acclimate. “We couldn’t climate ourselves to the north.” clinch one’s frames To attack someone, physically or verbally. “Don’t let ’em clinch your frames, son.” (Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel, 1929) Clingman Peak The highest peak in the Great Smoky Mountains, named not for someone who clung to it but for U.S. Senator Thomas Lanier Clingman, great booster of the western North Carolina mountains. clipe An old term from the Pennsylvania mountains for a hard blow from a staff or stick. “He gave him a good clipe.”

See

TABOO WORDS.

cock one’s pistol To surprise or startle someone greatly. “Well, that sure cocked my pistol.” cocksure

See

TABOO WORDS.

cods Testicles. Cod in the singular means penis. “ ‘Bet me,’ said the woman. ‘I’ll kick his god-damned cods off.’” (Cormac McCarthy, Child of God, 1973) codster An old term used in the Pennsylvania mountains for a horse. cold as a banker’s heart A widely used comparison, except in front of bankers from whom one wishes to obtain a loan. cold in the grave Dead. “Tom’s cold in the grave two years now.” Heard in other regions as well.

354 Mountain Range cold nose Said in the Appalachians of a hunting dog with a very sensitive nose, one that can even pick up a scent on an old or cold track. cold-trail To follow an old scent on a trail; said of hunting dogs. “I hold him out until Brier-patch Tom Eversole’s War Horse cold-trails the fox and gets a hot track.” (Jesse Stuart, Hie to the Hunters, 1950) See COLD NOSE. collar To kill a tree without felling it by removing a strip or collar of bark all around the trunk. Colonel Once widely used, as it was in the South, as a title of respect for a prominent man. come bad To catch a venereal disease. “Bill come bad by runnin’ around with them women.” come-by-chance child Another euphemism for an illegitimate child. See WOOD’S COLT. come grass grass.”

Come spring. “Things’ll be better come

come in a one To come close. “I’ve come in a one havin’ a lot of fights over you . . .” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938) come off A result, outcome or happening; often a regrettable circumstance. “That’s a hell of a come-off. He was supposed to pay back the money in three weeks, not three months.” come out the little end of the horn To be relatively unsuccessful in something; the horn here represents a cornucopia, a horn of plenty. “He was in business a year and came out the little end of the horn.” come over one’s head To hit someone over the head. “[He] got a dead apple-tree limb and started to come over my head with it.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938) come sick A term used in the Ozarks meaning to menstruate. “I would have to come sick today.”

confidence To place confidence in, trust. “He don’t confidence the government or anything they say.” connipity Spoiled, hard to place. “He’s too connipity to get along with people.” consarn (1) A euphemistic curse still heard in the southern Appalachians, among other places. “Consarn it! get out of there!” (2) A pronunciation of concern. contraious An Old English word meaning contrary; in the southern Appalachians still used today as it was in the day of Chaucer. contrary To oppose. “You contrary him and you’re in for big trouble.” conversation fluid Moonshine whiskey. “That conversation fluid got him goin’ and he didn’t shut up all night.” cooling board cookroom

See

PUT ON THE COOLING BOARD.

An old-fashioned term for a kitchen.

cook vessels Cooking utensils. “A tin peddler come with his pack of shiny cook vessels in a shiny black oilcloth poke on his back.” (J. Thomas, Blue Ridge Country, 1942) coon root A shortening of puccoon root, which is a name for the bloodroot plant (Sanguinaria canadensis) in the Appalachians. cooterin’ around Hanging around, doing nothing. “‘What are you doing here?’ ‘I’m just cooterin’ around.’ ” Also, according to Horace Kephart, in Our Southern Highlanders, similar terms include: BROGUIN’ ABOUT; LOAFERIN’ ABOUT; PRODJECTIN’ AROUND; SANTERN’ ABOUT; SHACKLIN’ AROUND’; SPUDDIN’ AROUND’; and TRAFFICKIN’ ABOUT. corn dodger cornfield bean climbing bean.

A small corn bread cake. An Ozark term meaning any type of

corn pone Used in the mountains, as it is in the South, as a synonym for corn bread.

common (1) Said of an unassuming, friendly downto-earth person. “He’s a good common feller.” (2) Usual. “They’re coming again Friday night, just as common.”

cornstalk gun A kind of slingshot Ozark children make for hunting small birds. Gravel is slung at the birds from the hollow end of the cornstalk.

common as an old shoe Down to earth, unpretentious; a high compliment to a person.

correspond One meaning of correspond is to copulate, to have sexual intercourse, from an obsolete English

cymbling head 355 word meaning the same, and the word is sometimes avoided in conversation because of this.

cowcumber A pronunciation of cucumber dating back to early English and still common among the hillfolk.

co-sheepie tains.

cracklins Pork or other meat out of which the fat has been fried. “The smell of hot cracklin’ and of young roast pork.” (Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel, 1929)

A call or cry made to sheep in the moun-

costive Sometimes means costly, expensive, as in, “That’s too costive for me.” cot-betty Used in the Pennsylvania mountains to describe a man who likes to do “woman’s work,” the term’s origin unknown. cottontop Someone, especially a child, with white or light blond hair. Cottonhead is a variation.

cranky An unusual word for cheerful or high-spirited heard in the central Pennsylvania mountains. “He’s a cranky man.” creek and holler folks Another synonym for people who live in the mountains. curiousest

cotton-white An albino gray fox is sometimes called a cotton-white in the Ozarks. couldn’t hit a bull in the ass Hillfolk say this of a man who is a very poor shot with a gun. couldn’t hit the ground with his ole hat Is dead drunk. “He drank so much he couldn’t hit the ground with his ole hat.” couldn’t wrest a tater off’n a baby A colorful expression describing someone very weak, usually with an illness. county pins Counterpanes; a quilt or coverlet for a bed, a blanket. “She could explain every step of making county pins.” county site The county seat. “I’d haffter walk nineteen miles out to the railroad, pay seventy cents the round trip to the county site.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913)

See

MOANINGESTFULLEST.

cuss fight A verbal fight with curse words as opposed to a physical fray. cut To gnaw or chew; said of a rat or squirrel. “The squirrels are cuttin’ on acorns.” cut a rusty (1) To show off, behave foolishly. “I cussed and I laughed . . . I tooted my fox horn. I cut some rusty.” (Jesse Stuart, Tales From the Plum Grove Hills, 1946) (2) To explode with anger. “She really cut a rusty when he told her he wouldn’t go to the dance.” cute To praise excessively, flatter. “He cuted her all right, trying to get his way.” cut mud Run fast. “He cut mud for the woods, all of them after him.” cut one’s foot A euphemism for to step in cow dung. A variation is to cut one’s foot on a Chinese razor.

coursed Followed, tracked. “He coursed that deer across the field.”

cutting A stabbing or knife fight. “He was arrested on a charge of cutting.”

courting man A ladies’ man, a rake, a womanizer. “He fancies himself a courting man.”

cut your own weeds

cousint

See

ORPHANT.

cove A valley enclosed by mountains. “He clum up from the cove.” cow brute A word still heard in the Ozarks and Great Smokies for a cow, but can also be used as a euphemism for a bull. Also called a cow critter.

cymbling squash.

See

KILL YOUR OWN SNAKES.

Another name for a gourd or a summer

cymbling head

A simpleton, a dunce. See

CYMBLING.

D dab-ass A common name in the Great Smoky Mountains for the spotted sandpiper (Aetitis macularia), in reference to the peculiar way the shorebird walks.

dark of the moon The last quarter of the waning moon; this is the period, according to folklore, when root crops such as potatoes should be planted. The superstition is also common in New England.

dabble Quickly wash or rinse. “I’ll be in as soon as I do some dabblin’.” (Jesse Stuart, Hie to the Hunters, 1950)

dark stranger

A nickname for the devil.

daddied Fathered a child illegitimately. “He daddied that child; you can tell jist to look at it.”

dauncy (1) A word, common in the Smokies, meaning “mincy about eating,” that is, fastidious, over-nice. (2) Weak, frail, unwell, dizzy. “He’s so dauncy can’t hardly walk. (3) Stupid or confused. Also dousie, dansy. Dauncy is said by some to be a contraction of damn sick.

dad-durned An expressive expletive. “Dad-durned my pictures if he hoes two rows of corn to my one.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941)

dautie An old Scottish word meaning a darling child, a favorite, that is used in the central Pennsylvania mountains.

daddy oneself Said of a child who resembles his or her father. “That baby sure daddies itself.”

dawg

dad-burned A common euphemism for damned. “ ‘I’ll be dad-burned!’ ” (Jesse Stuart, “Love of Brass,” 1941)

dadgumit!

See

HAWG.

day-bust A synonym for daybreak. “We were up before day-bust.”

A common euphemism for damnit!

dag A word for a gun or large pistol once common in the central Pennsylvania mountains.

day-down The time just after the sun sets, when the sky is colored red or pink. “It’s all worthwhile when you look up at day-down.”

dance in the pig trough A teasing remark made to someone, usually a woman, who is the last unmarried person in a family. “Looks like you’re gonna be dancin’ in a pig trough, Clarissa.”

daylight-dawn A poetic term for dusk or darkness. “They met at the bridge at daylight-dawn.” dead as four o’clock Quite dead, refers either to the “dead” end of the afternoon, or the quiet of four o’clock in the morning. “ ‘Finally [the bear] came a-chargin’ out. When he went past, I lay my knife to his throat, then stove it into his stomach. He went off, but couldn’t go far . . . He was two hundred eighty pounds and dead as

dangus A synonym in the central Pennsylvania mountains for a purse or other dangling object. dar Dare, an Old English pronunciation that rhymes with bar. “I dar ye!” 356

dew poisoning 357 four o’clock.’ ” (Michael Frome, Strangers in High Places, 1966)

deer eye The Cherokee Indian name for the common flower usually called the black-eyed Susan.

deadening The clearing of land by girdling trees, that is, cutting a full circle around them through the bark to kill them. An area where this is done and the trees remain standing dead, is called a deadening.

deer meat A synonym for venison in the Ozarks and elsewhere.

dead-level best Heard in the Appalachians for one’s best effort or utmost. “He did his dead-level best, but couldn’t win her.”

Defeat Ridge

dead-man’s pinch An expression used in the Appalachians to describe a bruise or black-and-blue mark one doesn’t know the cause of. deadman still A simple coffin-shaped still used by mountain men to make moonshine. death bells A hillfolk superstition holds that when a ringing occurs in one’s ears a relative or close friend somewhere has died. This premonition is called death bells. See DEATH BONES. death bones The sound of bones rattling. Thought in the Ozarks to be a foretelling of a sick person’s demise. “Her bones were rattling, I heard them death bones, and she was gone befoe morning.” See DEATH BELLS. death tick Another name for the deathwatch beetle. The beetle makes a ticking noise that is said to predict the imminent death of someone in the house in which it is heard. deceiver-woman A euphemism for a wife who has lovers behind her husband’s back. decent Hill country people still do not frequently use the word decent. H. L. Mencken explained this taboo, regarding the South, in The American Language (1919): “Fifty years ago the word decent was indecent . . . no Southern woman was supposed to have any notion of the difference between decent and indecent.” See TABOO WORDS. Decoration Day flower A name for the peony in the Ozarks and elsewhere. The plant is so named because it blooms at about the time of Decoration (Memorial) Day. deedie An old-fashioned name in Tennessee’s Smoky Mountains for a young chicken, or fowl. The origin of deedie is unknown. deef A pronunciation of deaf. “Grandpaw was so deef he couldn’t hear the chicken cacklin’.”

deers

Sometimes used as a plural instead of deer. See

MOUNT BOTE.

de-horn To castrate or alter. “I’ll de-horn him, he don’t stay away from my woman.” derby Not a hat, in the Ozarks, but the designation for a young fox-hound. derrick An old word heard in the central Pennsylvania mountains meaning to execute by hanging. Derrick derives from the name of British professional hangman Godfrey Derrick, who performed 3,000 or more executions at Tyburn Prison just outside London in the early 17th century. His name is more commonly used today in the form of the motorized crane called a derrick. deserted house An empty or abandoned house, sometimes used for a “haunted house.” despise to Hate to, detest. “I despise to leave these Great Smokies.” destroy To make an unmarried girl or woman pregnant. “He did destroy her, but they soon were married.” destructous Destructive. “‘Dynamite is powerful destructous.’” (J. Thomas, Blue Ridge Country, 1942) devil ye!”

To fool or deceive; to tease. “Ah know he’d devil

devil and Tom Walker! A common exclamation. “What the devil and Tom Walker’s got into you recently!” (Jesse Stuart, The Ploughshare, 1958) devil is whipping his wife Said when it rains while the sun is shining; the rain is supposed to represent the tears of the devil’s wife. devil’s music box A colorful name for the fiddle used by hillfolk who do not hold with fiddle playing or dancing to the fiddle. dew poisoning Rashes or infections on the body, especially the feet and legs, that are thought to be caused by dew on the grass.

358 Mountain Range diddle (1) Used by hillfolk and others for copulate. “He was diddling her.” (2) A southern Appalachian term for a baby chick or a duckling, or for calling such chicks or ducklings: “Here diddle, diddle, diddle . . .” Among hillfolk, the old English word doesn’t have the widespread meaning of “to cheat” that it does in other regions. didje A pronunciation of did you. “Didje go to town last night?” died off

Died. “The old man died off last winter.”

disfurnish To inconvenience or discommode. “The commoner of the backwoods [people in the Ozarks] . . . may say disfurnish for inconvenience.” (Charles Morrow Wilson, Backwoods America, 1934) disgust Hate, detest, strongly dislike. “I disgust bad liquor.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) disremember An old term meaning to forget, be unable to remember. “I disremember which of them was first.” Also disrecollect.

differ Difference. “Hit don’t make no differ.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913)

diving in shaller water Taking a big risk. “You’re divin’ in shaller water when you talk to me like that.”

dift To strike. “Someone must have difted him with an ax.”

divorcement her.”

diked up party.”

divvy Share, percentage. “You get a divvy when you sell our farms.” (Jesse Stuart, The Trees of Heaven, 1940)

Dressed up. “He was all diked up for the

dilapidate Fall apart, go to pieces. “That place dilapidated so much they condemned it.” dilatoried Wasted time. “He just dilatoried around and got nothin’ done.” See DILITARY. dilitary A pronunciation of dilatory, tending to delay or procrastinate, defer a decision. “She’s the most dilitary student I have.” Also dilliterry. See DILATORIED. dinner on the ground A picnic. “Saturday we had dinner on the ground over by the branch [stream].” Also heard as dinner on the grass.

A divorce. “He got a divorcement from

doddly Shaky, unsteady. “He was so doddly he couldn’t get his clothes on.” dodge times Used in the Ozarks to mean spare time. “She’s workin’ on her quilt in dodge times.” dog

See

HOUND.

doggery A saloon or bar. “He spends all his days and nights at the doggery.” dog me if I’ll do it! request or order.

An emphatic negative reply to a

dinners An old-fashioned expression for a woman’s breasts, heard chiefly in the Ozarks. Big dinners is sometimes used for very large breasts.

dog my hide! An old-fashioned exclamation. “Dog my hide if it ain’t old Dusty Boone!” (Jesse Stuart, “People Choose,” 1940)

dip Cream sweetened with sugar and used as a dip for pies and pastry.

dog’s bait (1) A big dinner. (2) A large amount or too much of anything, because of the belief that dogs eat a lot or too much when given the chance. See BAIT.

dirt land Farming land. “He wants to buy some dirt land.” (Movie version of Harold Bell Wright’s Shepherd of the Hills, 1907) disablest

Least able. “He’s the disablest of the bunch.”

dogwood winter In the mountains, a cold period in spring when the dogwood trees are in bloom. dogwood-winter bird A name for the scarlet tanager in the Kentucky mountains; the bird is so called because it is often seen migrating during a DOGWOOD WINTER.

discomfit Discomforted, bothered, inconvenienced. “I hope it has not discomfit you very bad.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913)

dole

disencourage Discourage. “You shouldn’t disencourage him like that.”

do-less Worthless, a do-nothing. “He’s the most doless one in the class.”

To deal out cards. “He doled me three aces.”

downgone 359 dollar Frequently used for the plural dollars. “I made one-hundred and seven dollar out’n my timber-cuttin’ job.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941)

behavior as lowdown as stealing the rags (clothing) someone in the old swimmin’ hole has left spread out on a bush.

doll baby A doll. “That little girl toted a doll-baby under her arm.”

doodle (1) A synonym for the penis. Also dood. (2) A small pile of hay; a haycock. “Put a doodle of hay in the express bed.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938)

done called it done dead

Mentioned it. “He done called it to her.”

Dead. “She’s done dead a year now.”

done done it Finished doing something, did it. “I done done it this morning.” doney-gal A female sweetheart in the southern Appalachians and elsewhere; this word may derive from the Spanish doña, woman or sweetheart. donk Liquor, alcohol. “Put some more donk in that drink.” don’t amount to a poot in a windstorm He or she amounts to next to nothing; poot is a hillfolk word for a fart. don’t care (give) a hate Don’t give a damn. “Lucius, don’t you give a hate about anythin’?” See HATE. don’t charge your mind with that it.

Don’t worry about

door potato A name in the Ozarks for the Madeira vine, because its buds resemble little potatoes and it is often grown over doorways or near the front door of a house. dope Used for Coca-Cola in the southern mountains and all over the South, where “Gimme a dope” is standard, especially among teenagers, for “Give me a Coke.” The term dates back to the late 19th century when the fabled soft drink was touted as a tonic and contained a minute amount of cocaine. Coca-Cola’s inventor, druggist John S. Pemberton, brewed the drink in his backyard and knew it was done when he smelled cooked cocaine. dote on To anticipate or look forward to something with pleasure. “I been dotin’ on seein’ her all winter.” double cousins A term common in the Ozarks for all the children of two sisters who are married to two brothers. “John here is my double cousin.” double negative

don’t crowd the mourners Don’t act in a hurry, don’t be premature. “Calm down and don’t crowd the mourners.”

KIND TO NOBODY.

don’t differ all.”

TONGUE.

See I AIN’T NEVER DONE NO DIRT OF NO

double shovel plow Doesn’t matter. “It don’t differ with me at

don’t give shucks for Don’t like, don’t care at all for. See quote under SHADOW-SHY. don’t guess Don’t think. “I don’t guess I could get along.” (Harold Bell Wright, Shepherd of the Hills, 1907) don’t know beans when the poke’s open Used to describe someone so dumb or ignorant he or she couldn’t identify beans in an open poke or bag. don’t know but what I will but what I will come.”

I think I will. “Don’t know

A plow with two shovels. See BULL

doughbeater A synonym for a woman or a wife in the southern Appalachians. do which? A southern Appalachian term used when one wants a question repeated; similar to what did you say? “Do you folks swim in that place?” “Do which?” dowie Sad, doleful. “When she was so dowie her hands would fair cry as she folded them.” down and did it A common expression in the southern Appalachians. “He down and did it even though she told him not to.”

don’t make a speck a sense Makes no sense at all. “His plan don’t make a speck a sense.”

downcy

don’t that take the rag off the bush! An expression of astonishment similar to don’t that take the cake! The words may have originally referred only to outrageous

downgone In poor health, presenting a poor appearance. “That’s a downgone Santa Claus.” (Maristan Chapman, The Happy Mountain, 1928)

Drunk. “All that beer made him downcy.”

360 Mountain Range down in the back Sickly, in poor health. “Pop he’s down in th’ back now, an’ ain’t right peart.” (Harold Bell Wright, Shepherd of the Hills, 1907) down in the mulligrubs To be depressed. “She’s been down in the mulligrubs since her brother died.”

drindling Shrinking, wasting away due to poor health. “I guess she’ll keep on drindlin’ till she dies.” drink easy Said of well-made smooth whiskey. “It sure does drink easy.” drint

draggy Slow, often late. “He’s a little draggy but a pretty good worker.” drammer Someone who takes a dram once in a while. A moderate drinker, not a drunk. Also dram-drinker. See DRAMMING, DRAM WHISKEY. dramming Drinking liquor. “The two of them were out dramming all night.” See DRAMMER. dram whiskey See quote. “‘Now, folks could get two kinds of whiskey. They could get what they called dram whiskey. Course it was bonded whiskey, government whiskey. And they could get the other kind [moonshine] here in Harlan County, Kentucky.’” (R. E. Thomas, Come Go With Me, 1994) drank Sometimes used instead of drink. “Give me a drank of water.” drap Drop. “Draps of sweat [rolled off him].” (Jesse Stuart, “Tanyard Hollow,” 1941) drap off Once common in the southern Appalachians for die. Also drop off. “Looks like he mought drap off, him bein’ weak and right narvish and sick with a headswimmin’.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) draps Drops, or any kind of liquid medicine. “Doctor gave her some draps for her ailment.” draw

A drawing. “He made a draw of the trees.”

draw a bite To make a meal. “It’s gettin’ time to draw a bite for the young uns.” drean Drain, ditch, ravine. “There were mountains of fine brush left in the little dreans.” (Jesse Stuart, “Whose Land Is This?” 1942) dreg

See

FLICKER.

dressed Heard in the central Pennsylvania mountains for castrated. “They dressed that yellow dog.” dressified Said in the Ozarks of someone dressed like a dude or dandy.

Fade. “The cloth drinted a bit.”

drippings Animal droppings. “I was lookin’ for sheep drippings over the pasture field to see if any of my sheep had stummick worms.” (Jesse Stuart, The Trees of Heaven, 1940) drive one’s ducks to a poor market To make a poor manager or to associate with the wrong people. Also to drive one’s goose to a poor market. “He’s drivin’ his goose to a poor market, Pa said.” (Jesse Stuart, Tales from the Plum Grove Hills, 1946) See also DROVE ONE’S DUCKS TO A PORE PUDDLE. droll-natured Strange, odd, unusual. “She was mighty droll-natured.” drop-in A term common among hillfolk for an unexpected, uninvited person. “Half the party was drop-ins we didn’t even know.” droprock A stalactite or stalagmite formed by the dripping of water. dropsy (1) A humorous term referring to a person so lazy or tired that he or she is always dropping down into a chair or onto a bed. (2) Used humorously to describe the condition of a butterfingered person who constantly drops things. “He’s got the dropsy.” drove one’s ducks to a pore puddle Made a poor marriage for one reason or another. See also DRIVE ONE’S DUCKS TO A POOR MARKET. drug Often the past tense of drag. “She drug him inside.” druggy Groggy from lack of sleep. “When I stay up too late I’m druggy in the morning.” drunk as a fiddler’s bitch in other regions as well.

Very drunk; the term is heard

dry clothes man A revenue man or law officer; origin unknown. “He thought I was a ‘dry clothes’ man snooping around to see if he was selling licker.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938)

dusty dark 361 dry grins An embarrassed smile. “She’s got the dry grins speakin’ to that new boy.” dry wilts Used in the Ozarks to describe someone very old, weak and wrinkled. “He’s got the dry-wilts—must be over a hundred by now.” duckback clothes ing, fishing, etc. duckin’s

Waterproof clothing used for hunt-

Overalls or other workclothes.

ducy A word, rhyming with lucy, that is a synonym for the penis. dulcimore dulcimer.

The musical instrument generally called the

dulge To dig or dig into; probably an Ozark corruption of delve. The word rhymes with bulge, though it is sometimes pronounced delge.

dull as a frow Very dull. Though this may be said of any cutting tool, from a knife to an ax, a frow is a tool used for making shingles. dummern See quote. “The word woman has suffered some strange sea-changes [in the southern Appalachians] . . . In Michell County, North Carolina, we hear the extraordinary forms ummern and dummern.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) dung out To clean out a barn or stable, mainly to clean it of animal dung. durgen An uncouth, unpolished, clumsy person. “Most of the people around here have some manners, but he’s a real durgen.” The origin of the term is unknown. dusty dark The period of time just after the sun goes down. “He called on her at dusty dark.”

E elm-bark tea A medicinal tea made from elm bark once commonly used in the mountains.

each and every Every one. “Phil’s Ann give it out to each and every that Walt and Layunie’d orter wed.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913)

emmet Easter flower Another name mountain people have for the jonquil or daffodil.

empty as a dead man’s eyes Containing nothing, as in “That old barn’s empty as a dead man’s eyes.”

eat scraps off a buzzard’s beak To be desperately hungry. “I could’ve et scraps off a buzzard’s beak.” eats good

An Ozark term for a large black ant.

end Backside, rear end. “I ought to have my end kicked.” (Jesse Stuart, The Trees of Heaven, 1940)

Is tasty. “This pie eats good, Flossie.” endurable (1) Long-lasting. (2) Dependable. “Their dreams were . . . fashioned with short endurable things.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938)

eat something with one toe in the fire An old, colorful, highlander expression meaning something tastes so good one could enjoy eating it even while in extreme pain. “Mmmmmm, this is so good I could eat it with one toe in the fire.”

enduring Used for during in the Ozarks. “It was hard enduring those days.”

edzact (1) To do something precisely, perfectly. “I’ll edzact it for you.” (2) To figure out something. “She might maybe edzact what it was uneased her.” (Maristan Chapman, The Happy Mountain, 1928)

Enemy, the A nickname for Satan sometimes used by highlanders. enjoy

To entertain. “I’ll try to enjoy you.”

et When hillfolks say et for ate, they are following a precedent that goes back to the 1300s (when English author Richard Rolle wrote that “men and wimmen et and drank”) and are pronouncing the word close to its accepted British pronunciation. “He may affirm . . . that Tola Summerlin’s was the best hawg meat he ever et.” (Charles Morrow Wilson, Backwoods America, 1934)

eggshell tea A home remedy used in the Ozarks as a tonic; made by boiling charred eggshells in water. egg sucker Said in the mountains of a low, mean, disgusting person. “Why you miserable egg-suckin’ snake!” eke Material that is added to a dress pattern. “She put an eke in her dress.”

eveglom

electric Electricity. “ ‘I’d druther have ’lectric than a new cookstove . . .,’ any mountain woman will tell you.” (J. Thomas, Blue Ridge Country, 1942)

evenin’ Used by hillfolk for the long period between noontime and sunset, not just for the short period before night. 362

An old term for evening twilight.

ezactly 363 everen Used by hillfolk for whenever or when. “Everen we went there, I visited them.” Also everwhen. ever fetchin’ one of them An emphatic way that highlanders say every one of them. “I’ll get ever fetchin’ one of them!” everhow A way to say however in the Ozarks. “Everhow they do it is all right with me, providin’ they jest do it quiet.” ever I seed An Ozarkian way of saying that I’ve ever seen. “There’s the travellinest hosses ever I seed.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913)

everwho Commonly used for whoever in the Ozarks. “They’s a law in Arkansas pertectin’ foxes, and if anyone should ever get caught it would be unfortunate for everwho owned the dawgs.” (Charles Morrow Wilson, Backwoods America, 1934) every dog for his dinner

Every man for himself.

every little whipstitch Often, every instant. “He goes over there every little whipstitch.”

everly An old southern Appalachian word for always. “I everly stop in there for a drink.”

everyone to their liking, as the old woman said when she kissed her cow An old saying of hill people that actually dates back to 16th-century England, when it appeared as, “Every man as he loveth, quoth the good man, when he kyst his coowe.”

ever-what Whatever. “Ever-what she had burned to the ground.”

exaltify me.”

everwhen

See

EVEREN.

everwhere Frequently used in the southern Appalachians for wherever. “Everwhere we go we see them planting.” everwhich Used mainly in the Ozarks and southern Appalachians for whichever. “Everwhich you choose you can have.” ever-which-a-ways In every direction. “His hair had a habit of sticking out ever-which-a-ways.” (Maristan Chapman, The Happy Mountain, 1928)

Exalt. “There’s no need to exaltify him to

excape A common pronunciation of escape in the Ozarks. “He excaped from jail.” extry Extra. “We got some extry sody [soda] if you want some.” ezactly

A pronunciation of exactly.

F farplace Fireplace. “We had a big farplace where my mother cooked . . .” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959)

fair up Clear up. “This rainy weather will fair up by tomorrow.” fallen weather Rain, snow, hail, fog, etc. “Ye know the first day ye come out here how the smoke was goin’ to the ground. That’s a good sign of fallen weather.” (Jesse Stuart, Hie to the Hunters, 1950)

fast as skim milk through a tow sack Very fast, the way thin skim milk would leak out after being poured into a coarse burlap sack.

fall grape A southern Appalachian term for a wild grape, such as the fox grape.

faster ’n greased lightning something very fast.

fallin’ away Losing weight, becoming sickly. “She’s been fallin’ away since her husband died.”

fastly An old-fashioned Ozark word meaning firmly. “Hold on fastly to your faith.”

fall out To disagree; a term used in other regions as well. “He fell out with his brother.”

fat pine A knot, splinter or branch of various pine trees that is used as kindling. Also called lightwood.

falltime

favorance Resemblance. “There’s a strong favorance between them.”

Autumn. “I saw her in the falltime.”

fambly A pronunciation of family. “Course she was proud of her fambly, and just like any woman in the hills she wouldn’t have nothing to do with men strangers.” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959)

feather crown A belief among highlanders that when someone dies the feathers inside his bed pillow sometimes form a circle or crown, indicating that the dead person is in heaven.

far and squar Fair and square. “Far and squar is the way we live around here.”

feather into (1) To shoot someone, physically do someone harm, or do something with great vigor. The commonly used Ozarkian term dates back to early England, when it strictly meant to shoot someone with the arrow from a longbow so forcefully that the feather on the end of the arrow entered the person’s body. (2) Attack. “He feathered into the whole bunch of them.”

farewell summer A colorful name in the southern Appalachians for the fall flower better known nationally as the aster. Also goodbye summer. farmer’s railroad

See

Speedy, said of someone or

APPIAN WAY OF NORTH CAROLINA.

feel of Feel. “They waited for Doc Minton to feel of Willard’s ticker.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938)

farm liquor Ordinary moonshine, unaged, without color and with great potency. Also called field whiskey. 364

fist 365 feist To flirt, move provocatively. “She feisted around all night at the party.” fella A pronunciation of fellow, a common form of address in the mountains, as in brother. “‘And how can you not like a man, even a city fella, who talks to trout when he fishes . . .’ ” (Harry Middleton, Spine of Time, 1991) fellowly

Understanding, companionable.

female person A redundancy for female. “He had great respect for every female person.” fence lifter A heavy rain. “It rained hard all night—a real fence lifter.” fernent A Scottish word sometimes heard in the southern Appalachians for near or nearly. “She was fernent the house last time I saw her.” ferricadouzer An old word used in the central Pennsylvania mountains for a sound beating. fertili An Ozark word for fertilizer. “He used plenty of fertili on that crop.” See FERTILIZE. fertilize Often used as a word for commercial fertilizer. “Their fertilize is the best.” fetched up Came up to, appeared in front of. “Finally he fetched up in front of the meatcase.” (Cormac McCarthy, Child of God, 1965)

figger An Ozark pronunciation of figure. “I figger he’ll be here today.” The same pronunciation is used today in England. fight a circle saw To be brave and daring, afraid of nothing. “Dave would fight a circle saw if it insulted him.” fightin’est The most aggressive, scrappiest. “Buck’s the fightin’est dog around.” fight one’s face To eat ravenously. “I feel like I could fight my face, too . . . Gives a body a henkerin’ for grub to walk up here.” (Jesse Stuart, Hie to the Hunters, 1950) filth A synonym for unwanted weeds and brush in the southern Appalachians. Land with weeds and brush is often called filth land. fine-haired Someone too educated, fine-mannered, aristocratic, fastidious, conceited. Fine hair was once supposed to be a physical characteristic of a gentleman. “That fine-haired son-of-a-bitch better watch himself.” fine voice

See

COARSE VOICE.

fireboard Another word for a mantelpiece above a fireplace. See CHIMNEY SHELF. fire coal An ember in a fire. “The fire coals were glowing very brightly.”

fetching stick A long stick with a forked end that Ozark storekeepers once commonly used to reach items on high shelves.

fire in the hole! Moonshiners in the southern Appalachians shout this warning in a high-pitched voice when federal agents are sighted in the vicinity. The words were originally a miner’s warning of impending danger.

feudin’ kinfolks Not relatives but close allies in a feud or cause. “We got a hundred behind us, countin’ feudin’ kinfolks.”

first-handed At first hand. “We want [the confession] first-handed here. You can give it second-handed to the Devil.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938)

few Some, a portion, especially at the table. “I’ll have a few more of them cabbage [another helping].” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913)

fishhooks in one’s pockets To be very cheap. The expression may have originated in the Ozarks, but Long Island, New York sea captain Samuel Mulford lined his pockets with fishhooks to foil pickpockets when he visited London before the American Revolution. (His ploy worked.)

fiddle dancing Dancing to music made by a fiddle, a popular diversion among hillfolk. Fiddler’s Green A paradise said to be seven miles from the coolest side of Hell, where there is fiddling and dancing and wine and all kinds of fun all of the time. field whiskey

Same as

FARM LIQUOR.

fishworm ginia.

A synonym for an earthworm in West Vir-

fist To hit or beat someone with the fists. “He went to jail for fisting his old woman till she didn’t look like herself.”

366 Mountain Range fisty (feisty) woman Defined by one highlander as “maybe not fast, but a little too feisty to be nice.” fit Fought. “I fit him last night. I will fight him anytime.” fittin Fitting, suitable, proper. “It’s a more fittin place to live.” (Jesse Stuart, “Tanyard Hollow,” 1941) fitty Appropriate, fit. “That outfit ain’t fitty to wear fer Hell.” fixin’

Intending. “I’m fixin’ to go there next week.”

fixy (1) Fancy, full of frills. “All these here fixy contrapshuns.” (J. Thomas, Blue Ridge Country, 1942) (2) Well-groomed, fastidious in appearance; said of a neatly dressed person, often a young woman.

flummoxed Upset or irked; a word used by Kentucky mountaineers that has been traced back to an old English dialect word. flux A synonym, used primarily in the southern Appalachians, for dysentery. Sometimes called the bloody flux. fly poison A lily-like plant (Amianthum muscaetoxicum) used to make insecticides. “The curious big fly poison lit up the sward with flecks of white.” (R. K. Peattie, Great Smokies, 1943) follow to the middle pits of hell Be completely loyal to. “They’d foller him to the middle pits of hell.” fool with me and there’ll be a new face in hell tomorrow A threat heard in the Ozarks.

Another name for the common iris flower.

foot-whacking Running very noisily. “There he went foot-whackin’ away from them federal men.”

flags A term sometimes used for bullrushes when women are present, because bull is considered an offesive word with sexual connotations.

for Because of. “He had smoked his cigar so short that we couldn’t see it for his mustache.” (Jesse Stuart, “Bury Your Dead,” 1913)

flat as a flitter Flat as a pancake, a flitter being the name for a pancake.

for a fact

flag

forard flatlander One who is not from the mountains, a furriner. “‘Get’s to you, eh, flatlander,’ he said.” (Harry Middleton, Spine of Time, 1991) flatwoods Level lands in the Ozarks that have been cleared of timber. flicker A name once common in the southern Appalachians for the scrip or coins paid by coal companies to their workers. Flicker only brought 90 cents to the dollar anywhere else but at the company store. It was also called CLACKER; DREG; and STICKERS. flippy whippet A term Ozark hillfolk reserve for silly, flighty people. “We don’t want her around here with her flippy whippet ways.” flitter

See

FLAT AS A FLITTER.

flog Used to describe the beating of a rooster’s wing. “One rooster flogged another rooster for getting too near his hens.” (Jesse Stuart, Hie to the Hunters, 1950) flowzy Unkempt, messy. “Her hair was all flowzy and her dress was torn.”

Certainly. “I know for a fact he did it.”

See BACKARD.

foreigner

See furriner.

for to A common redundancy. “We cut the stove wood and ricked it for to season a few days.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941) forty-gallon Baptists A historical term for mountaineers who believed one must be totally immersed in water to be properly baptized. Those who believed a symbolic sprinkling of water would do were called half-pint Baptists. for why Often heard in the southern Appalachians for why. “For why did she go with him?” fotch

Fetch. “Fotch me that flour.”

fotch-on Said of a store-bought product, one that is bought from somewhere else, not in the area. “Damn this fotch-on kraut that comes in tin cans.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) four rooms and a path A name used in coal towns throughout the mountains for the substandard houses that coal companies provided their workers. The “path” that led to the privy in the backyard.

furse 367 fox and dogs A children’s game in which one player is chased by the others. “When we played fox and dogs, Big Andy was usually the fox. He could outrun the rest of us over the big meadows on the Uplands, through the woods and down the hollow.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938) foxfire (1) An organic luminescence on decayed wood, usually caused by fungi. (2) Any of the fungi that cause the luminescence on decaying wood. foxhead Another Ozarkian name for potent moonshine, its origin unknown. fox-hound

See HOUND.

fringe bush Chionanthus virginicus, a small tree or shrub with fringed winged pods and clusters of white flowers. “The sourwood, the fringe bush, and the mountain laurel are understory trees.” (R. K. Peattie, The Great Smokies and the Blue Ridge, 1943) fritter-minded Erratic, flighty, frivolous. “First you know you’ll be fritter-minded as an outlander.” (Maristan Chapman, The Happy Mountain, 1928) frog sticker point.

A long-bladed pocket knife with a sharp

from can see to can’t see From dawn until dark. “We worked from can see to can’t see.”

foxpath A narrow footpath. “The little foxpath that wound up the steep bluff.” (Jesse Stuart, “Whose Land Is This?” 1942)

fruitjar-sucker An insulting, derogatory name for a mountaineer, referring to the Mason jars moonshine is sold in.

fraction In the southern Appalachians, a fraction is a disturbance or fight, a fracas. “I don’t know how the fraction began, but Os feathered into Dan and Phil, feeding them lead.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913)

fruit-orchard

fractious Bad tempered, unruly, rude in manner. “He’s always been a nervous fractious man.” fraid hole A cyclone cellar, any protected cave or hole in the ground where people can take refuge from a tornado and other violent windstorms. frame Skeleton. “They say the frames of them dead Rebels laid up there in the crevices till the meat dropped often their frames.” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959) franzied Crazy, delirious. “All those kids made her franzied.” frazzle-headed Used to describe a man whose hair is cut unevenly or is not combed. freckled as a turkey egg Heard among hillfolk in the Ozarks for a person with lots of freckles. frequent Common, abundant. “Deers was purty frequent in that country.” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959)

A redundancy for orchard.

full-handed Well-to-do. “He had aplenty—a fullhanded man.” fun (1) To joke. “Aaron laughed at me. He thought I was funnin’.” (Jesse Stuart, “The Hangin’ of W.B.,” 1938). (2) To hoax. “I thought he was just funnin’ me a little.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941) funeral Funeral oration. “The preacher preached a long funeral under the tree.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941) fur (1) A pronunciation of far. “It’s a darn fur piece to walk.” (2) A pronunciation of for. “Who are you buyin’ that fur?” furnish A bill or an account for supplies in a general store; from the verb furnish, to supply. “The storekeeper said he’d put it on my furnish.” furriner

A foreigner, an outlander, a stranger to the hills.

furse A pronunciation of fuss; rhymes with purse. “Your Pa will furse with me.” (Jesse Stuart, The Trees of Heaven, 1940)

G gaggle gaily

An Ozark pronunciation of gargle.

gaum (1) To smear. “He gaumed molasses all over her.” (2) Sticky, smeared. “The little un’s all gaumed up.” Also gom, gorn.

Spirited, lively. “That’s a gaily horse she rides.”

gaint A highlander pronunciation of gaunt. “Pa has begun to look gaint.” gal-child

See

gee haw To disagree. “All this here gee hawin’, boltin’, and kickin’ ’mongst the married folks.” (Harold Bell Wright, The Shepherd of the Hills, 1907)

BOY-CHILD.

geik A word for a homemade fiddle in the central Pennsylvania mountains.

gale A name given to an old, recently gelded bull in the central Pennsylvania mountains.

gellyon A blend of gelding and stallion used in the central Pennsylvania mountains for a castrated horse.

gallery Hillfolk prefer using this synonym for porch or veranda.

generally always Usually. “Richmond generally always comes in after his mail Tuesday afternoon.” (Mariston Wilson, Backwoods America, 1934)

galloopus A legendary eagle-like black bird of the hills which laid square eggs and whose dung created extremely fertile soil in certain areas.

generation A large family, a kind, a breed, a race. “There’s a powerful generation of them Wilsons.”

gallynipper Once used to describe only a huge mosquito, gallynipper is now applied to many large flying insects. gal-person

See

gentle To make tame. “He was skittish as a yearling colt and no hand could gentle him.” (Maristan Chapman, The Happy Mountain, 1928)

MAN-PERSON.

gander berry A very large huckleberry variety said to be favored by ganders. gap

get down and stay with us A southern Appalachian invitation to a stranger to spend the night that dates back to the days of horseback when strangers rode up to a house.

Gate. “He came in through the front gap.”

garbroth Worthless or poor in quality, like broth made from the gar, which is regarded as an inferior fish.

get offen

gather-all A gathering of people, as in the title of Jesse Stuart’s short story “Gather-all in the Hollow,” 1942.

get on to To accuse, chide, find fault with. “He got on to him about being late to work all the time.” 368

Get off. “Get offen my land.”

goober-grabber 369 get shut of Get rid of. “[They’d see him] slouched and solitary, the rifle hanging in his hand as if it were a thing he could not get shut of.” (Cormac McCarthy, Child of God, 1965) Also get shet (shed) of. getting less and leaster Getting smaller and smaller. “Our savings are getting less and leaster.” getting sweet See quote. “ ‘It sweats,’ Spring told him. ‘The fox does. They [the dogs] can smell him better after he’s been running awhile. That’s ‘getting sweet’.” (MacKinley Kantor, The Voice of Bugle Ann, 1935) ghostes

See

BEASTIES.

giant powder Powerful dynamite used by builders and demolition crews. Pronounced joint powder. giasticutus Another legendary animal of the mountains, this one a huge bird with a 50-foot wingspread that can fly off with cattle.

STONE (which can mean testicles) are avoided by women.

glede An old word in the central Pennsylvania mountains for a red-hot coal carried from one cabin to another to start fires. glib Said in the Ozarks of brisk active movements. “He’s ninety years old but pretty glib.” Does not mean quick of speech as it does elsewhere. Sometimes seen as glib as quail. glomb To poke. “He would glomb me in the eyes with his fingers.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941) glory Boast. “I‘m a hillbilly all right, and they needn’t to glory their old flat lands to me.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) go

See

GO TO.

gimlet-assed Used in the Ozarks to mean thin. “Look at that gimlet-assed son-of-a-bitch.”

goat meat A euphemism highlanders use for deer meat when it is hunted and killed out of legal hunting season. Also goat mutton.

gin If. “I’ll ax the woman gin she can git ye a bite.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913)

God-awfulest The worst. “That’s the God-awfulest music I ever heard.”

gin gang A gang of laborers. “Three fifty [dollars] for ten hours on the gin gang . . . The ‘bull gang’ it was called by many.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938)

God respects you if you work, but He loves you if you sing A charming old saying from the Great Smoky Mountains.

girl-child folk.

God’s acre A piece of land in the Ozarks from which crops are given to the church. In other places it is called God’s Little Acre, as in Erskine Caldwell’s famous 1933 novel of that name.

The name for a female baby among the hill-

give a lick and a promise To fix something so that it will work temporarily, until it can be fixed properly. “I gave the car a lick and a promise, crossing my fingers.”

goin’ drink till the world looks little Going to get drunk until all my problems seem like nothing at all.

give down Break down. “I gave down on marching the light miles and carrying the heavy pack.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938)

golden bells Another name for forsythia in the mountains.

give ’em Jesse

golly-whopper Anything big or extraordinary, a huge specimen of something. “That’s a golly-whopper of a bass he caught.”

Give him hell, give him the dickens.

given up Acknowledged as. “She’s given up to be the prettiest girl in these parts.” give-out (1) An announcement. “The give-out at church told about their marriage.” (2) Very tired, having no strength left. “I’m about to give out.” (3) Give up, gave up. “I reckon you give out expecting me to come.” give tittie To breastfeed a child. Not a taboo expression, even though words as seemingly innocuous as

gone abroad Left the mountains for a long time. “Leon’s gone abroad two years now.” gone back on his (her) raisin’ To do something one has been taught never to do by one’s parents or family. goober-grabber (1) A very stingy person. (2) A bold wanton, one who would grab for a man’s goobers (testicles). Goober is, of course, a synonym for peanut.

370 Mountain Range gooch To dig, gouge. “ ‘What’re you laughin’ at, son?’ said Mary, gooching him roughly in the ribs.” (Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel, 1929)

got up Got to be, reached the age of. “ ‘The horse we owned when I got up fourteen and fifteen was full of tricks.’ ” (R. E. Thomas, Come Go With Me, 1994)

good Sometimes used in the sense of complete or completely. “They stayed out playing till good dark.”

got up any size Became more than an infant. “Alex . . . has lived here in Harlan County ever since he got any size.” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959)

gooder Mostly a mountain term for a good one or a good thing. “That’s a real gooder!” (“That’s a good joke!”) good honk Correspondent Madolin Johnson Wells advises that her mother, who hailed from Arkansas, used this expression when startled or upset, as in “Good honk (pronounced good haohnk), Lon, what’ve you done?” In rare cases of extreme emphasis, Mrs. Wells writes, her mother would say, “‘Great honk!’ which conjured images of a strange bird or a mythical god.” good liver A man who made a good living out of his land, who was prosperous. goodlye A pronunciation of goodly in the Ozarks, just as quickly is pronounced quick-lye. Good Man, The A reverent name hillfolk use for God. See also BAD MAN, THE. good scribe A good writer. “I like his stories; he’s a good scribe.” google

A name for the throat, or for the Adam’s apple.

goomer

To bewitch; a goomer-doctor is a witch doctor.

go out to themselves Said in the southern Appalachians of newlyweds who go out to establish a new residence. “They’ve gone out to themselves, away from all the family.” goozle go to

See

GOOGLE.

Intend. “He didn’t go to kill him.”

go to hell and fry in your own lard The expletive is an old one once common in hill country. “The others knew from the drawl with which he spoke that he was enraged almost beyond control: ‘Well, you can go to hell and fry in your own lard.’ ” (MacKinley Kantor, The Voice of Bugle Ann, 1935) go to the brush Go to the bathroom out in the woods, though the term is also used now by those who have indoor plumbing.

government liquor MOONSHINE.

Legally made liquor as opposed to

gowrow A dangerous mythical monster once widely believed to live in the Ozark wilds. governmint A common pronunciation of government in hill country. grabble To dig up potatoes from a row with one’s hands, leaving the plants intact. grain A little, a bit. “You might o’ been a grain warmer about hit . . .” (Harold Bell Wright, The Shepherd of the Hills, 1907) grampus Not a killer whale but a type of fish bait (hellgrammite). grandma To cut down and steal timber from someone else’s property; perhaps so called because an anonymous highlander who stole timber explained that he got it from “grandma’s” place. Another theory has this unusual word deriving from an old story or joke about a man accused of stealing another’s timber and finally admitting that “Grandmaw might have taken a few sticks.” A grandmawer is someone who steals timber. Grand Old Man of the Campfire and Long Trail

See

MOUNT KEPHART.

grand-rascal An old term for a confidence man. “That grand-rascal got all their money.” grannie woman (1) A woman who delivers babies, a midwife. “Grandma was a grannie woman and a charm doctor.” (Jesse Stuart, “Last Roundup,” 1943) (2) A simple old man. grape-vineyard grasswiddy woman.

A redundancy for vineyard.

Grass widow, an old term for a divorced

grave house See quote. “Many [mountain cemeteries] have ‘grave houses’—rude log and clapboard shutters—

guvment 371 that mountaineers customarily erect over and around the graves of their relations.” (Federal Writers Project Guide to Kentucky, 1939) gravel To annoy or embarrass someone. “She gravels everybody with all her airs.” gravel flipper A term heard in the southern Appalachians for a slingshot. “He hunted squirrels with his gravel flipper.” grave rock A gravestone, headstone or wooden grave marker. “The grave rocks were so old they looked like stones in the field.” greasy bean A long-podded bean variety (Phaseolus vulgaris) that has been grown in the Ozarks since pre–Civil War times. greasy door family Said of a family that has recently slaughtered its hogs, thus leaving hog grease from their hands on the doorknobs and doors. great long

gritchel

An old term for a valise or traveling bag.

gritted bread Corn bread that is made mainly from corn grated on a gritter. groundhog To squirrel away or pocket money, especially in a poker game. It refers to hogging money away in a hole in the ground. groundhog case A last chance, a last resort, a do or die situation. “We got to win this one for the coach; it’s a groundhog case with us.” grouty

Sulky, surly. “He’s a grouty man.”

growed The past tense of grew, “They growed it in their garden.” grub hysen An old term for sassafras tea; hysan is Chinese for “green tea.” gully-jumper A derogatory name for a backwoodsman. See HILLBILLY; RIDGE RUNNER.

Very long, as in “He’s gone a great long time.”

Great Smokies The area takes its name from the Cherokee name for the mountains meaning “The Place of the Blue Smoke.” Also called the Great Smoky Mountains. gredge Grudge. “Hit’s jist somebody who has a gredge agin the blockader.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) See BLOCKADER. green Tease or ridicule. “Don’t you green Sis or you’ll deal with me.” green out Cheat, swindle. “No how Shine greened Tom outen a good shotgun.” (Elizabeth Madox Roberts, The Time of Man, 1926) green up Used in the mountains to describe trees and plants that have begun to put out new growth in the spring. “The dogwoods are all greened up.”

gully washer A heavy rain; often one that doesn’t fall for long but does much damage. gum (1) A name for a rabbit trap in the Ozarks. Chewing gum there is called wax. (2) A beehive made of a hollow log section. (3) A well curb made from a hollow log section. (4) Pine tar. (5) To chew something without teeth, with the gums. “Ain’t got teeth anymore. Haf to gum my terbacker.” (Jesse Stuart, “Whose Land Is This?” 1942) gut Frequently a pronunciation of got in the Kentucky Cumberlands and elsewhere. guvment A pronunciation of government. “The guvment agents broke up his still.”

H haint (1) A ghost. “ ‘And then we just rubbed the hell out of the horse chestnuts we carry to keep the haints at bay and put them in my baptismal cup and rattled them hard and coated the whole countryside in a cure that was half-Christian, half-savage. I tell you, boy, we put some powerful hoodoo up in them mountains.’ ” (Harry Middleton, On the Spine of Time, 1991) (2) Also means have not or has not. “He haint done it.”

handsome Handsomely. “The big fellers that make lots of money . . . ought to pay handsome for it.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) handwrite my own.”

happy as a dead pig in the sunshine A colorful saying meaning very happy, its origin lost in time.

half-baked yokum A fool. “She’s a half-baked yokum.” Yokum is probably the origin of the Yokum family name in the long-popular comic strip Lil Abner. half in two in two.”

happy-pappies A term hillfolk use for men on welfare or men employed in makework projects. h’ar

In halves, in two pieces. “They cut it half

See

hardness Bad feelings, bad blood between people, especially families. “The hardness twixt them goes back to their grandfather.” See RIGHT SMART OF HARDNESS.

FORTY-GALLON BAPTISTS.

half-runner bean A white firm pea bean very popular in the southern mountains.

hard oil Axle grease or any hard nonflowing oil used on farm equipment.

ham-meat A pleonasm for ham. “Here is cold hammeat.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938) hammer’s back

See

See B’AR.

hard fight with a big stick A difficult task or job to perform. “Don’t know if I should take it on—it’s a hard fight with a big stick.”

half-moon pie A pie shaped in a half-circle and usually filled with fried apples. half-pint Baptists

Handwriting. “I know his handwrite like

harelip To disfigure or destroy. “She’s hell-bent to do it even if it harelips all the hogs in Tennessee.”

COCKED.

hand-going In succession. “I’ve had a headache two days hand-goin’ now.”

harrycane A frequent pronunciation of hurricane in the Ozarks.

handily Honestly. “You can’t handily blame him for what he did.”

hast Has. “Time and hard work hast changed Ma . . .” (Jesse Stuart, The Trees of Heaven, 1940) 372

hell ain’t a mile away and the fences all down 373 hate A little bit, a small amount. “I don’t give a hate about it.” Sometimes seen as hait. hateful (1) A term used in the southern Appalachians for anything very obnoxious. “Them bugs—the little old hatefuls!” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) (2) A name for people who are mean, nasty and hateful. “Them Pea Ridge folk is all hatefuls.” Hatfield and McCoy feud A famous feud in the Kentucky mountains that began in 1878 with the theft of a hog by one of the families and eventually claimed 12 lives before it ended years later. The names have become synonymous nationally for any bitter family feud. haul one’s coat Take off one’s coat for a whipping. “He made Pa haul his coat.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941) have rabbit in one’s feet To be restless, to wander about. “That man’s had rabbit in his feet long as I remember.” have the big eye (1) To be greedy, desire material things. (2) To have insomia. “I had the big eye three nights running.” have you ever tried to separate fly shit from black pepper? Heard in Arkansas to describe any very difficult, painstaking, almost impossible task. haw-eater (1) A derogatory name for a backwoodsman, implying all highlanders eat the bitter berries of the hawthorne tree. (2) A nickname for a West Virginian, because West Virginians were said to like to eat the berrylike fruit of the black hawthorne tree. hawg A common pronunciation of hog, just as dog is pronounced dawg. hawkbill A hooked or sharp nose. “He’s noted for that hawkbill of his.” hay-shaker taineer. See

An insulting derogatory name for a mounHILLBILLY; RIDGE RUNNER.

head A name for the poisonous copperhead snake (Agkistrodon contortrix); a shortening of copperhead. heading A pillow, so named from its place at the head of the bed. “Corn cobs make a pretty sorry headin’.” head of the heap Used to describe the leader of any enterprise, from a group of boys to a business. “He’s the head of the heap there and won’t let you forget it.”

heap a folks An old English usage meaning a lot of people that is still used among highlanders. “There’s a heap a folks a-comin’.” Heap can also refer to a large amount of other things: “We-uns ate a heap of chicken.” heap right rather Much rather. “I’d a heap right rather git a soon (early) start.” heap sight Much. “I’d a heap sight rather stay home than go abroad.” See ABROAD. hear a fox bark in the night Considered a bad omen by some hill people. “I knowed he died when I heard a fox bark in the night.” heared Heard. “The sweetest prayers I ever heared pray was from the lips of my mother.” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959). heart

See

TABOO WORDS.

hear tell To hear or learn something said or spoken of. “You run ’im out ’n this country and we’ve never heard tell of ’im.” (Jesse Stuart, “Grandpa Birdwell,” 1941) hearts-a-bustin’-with-love The burning bush (Euonymus americana) which has seed pods that burst open to reveal many scarlet seeds. It also goes by the names hearts-a-bustin’, strawberry bush, swamp dogwood, arrowwood and spindle bush. heifer An Ozarkian term for a gossip or meddler, someone always chewing his or her cud. heir Used as a verb for to inherit. “He heired the house from his brother.” hell Mountaineers in North Carolina and elsewhere give the name hells to the tangles of laurel and rhododendron that cover mile after mile of steep mountainsides. The term is first recorded in 1883 but is probably considerably older. Synonyms are laurel licks, wooly heads, lettuce beds, yaller patches and blackberry hell. Sometimes a person’s name is attached to a particular hell, such as Herman’s hell, in remembrance of somebody lost in the mazes of wild vegetation. “A ‘hell’ or ‘slick’ or ‘wooly head’ or ‘yaller patch’ is a thicket of land of rhododendron, impassable except where the bears have bored out trails.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) hell ain’t a mile away and the fences all down A colorful way to describe a terribly hot day in the Ozarks.

374 Mountain Range hellatious Excellent, terrific. “I remember a dog he had one time named Suzie he said was a hellatious bird dog.” (Cormac McCarthy, Child of God, 1965) hell-fired A common intensive. “The Praths were hellfired mad at Ceif.” (Jesse Stuart, “Bury Your Dead,” 1942) hello, brother! An old-fashioned greeting once common in the Ozarks. hell’s banjoo (banjo) An old oath from the southern Appalachians. “Hell’s banjoo if I ain’t lost my folding knife.” (Maristan Chapman, The Happy Mountain, 1928)

high blood High blood pressure; low blood means low blood pressure. “The doc’s treatin’ me fer high blood.” high lonesome Said in the Ozarks of someone drinking heavily while alone. “He went on a high lonesome.” hillbilly This derogatory name for a hill person is considered insulting, at best, and has in the past provoked fights resulting in deaths. It is first recorded in 1904 and implies laziness, ignorance and stupidity. Highlanders don’t mind being called hillbillies by other mountain folk, but they do object to FLATLANDERs or FURRINERs using the term. See HAW-EATER; RIDGE RUNNER.

hell’s fuzzy! A common exclamation similar to the widespread hell’s bells!

hill-hawk An insulting term used in the central Pennsylvania mountains for a lazy shiftless mountain resident. See HILLBILLY.

helt Held. “We jist helt hands.” (Jesse Stuart, “When Foxes Flirt,” 1938)

hinder Used in the central Pennsylvania mountains for the fundament or backside.

hen fruit A humorous term for eggs in the Ozarks and southern Appalachians. “We were liven’ off hen fruit for a time there.”

hindsight before Backwards. “You put your sweater on hindside before.” Also hindside first.

hen-wood Legend has it that the mountain tree henwood (Bumelia lanuginosa), also called chittamwood, was the wood used to build Noah’s Ark. hep A pronunciation of help. “ ‘Can I hep ye, son?’ he said.” (Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, 1965) her

Herself. “She bought her a dress for the party.”

hern Hers. An old English poem goes: She that prigs (steals) what isn’t hern, / At the treadmill takes a turn.” See HIS’N and the INTRODUCTION. he’s (she’s) folks hesh het hiat

He’s okay, all right, a regular guy.

Hush. “Hesh up your cryin’, child.” Past tense of heat. “He het it up good.” Hoist. “Hiat that rope up there.”

hid away Put away. “Get them toys hid away, company’s comin’.” high as a Georgia pine Very drunk. “He’s high as a Georgia pine and keeps on growin’.” high as the hair on a cat’s back mon term in the Ozarks.

Very expensive; a com-

hippin A baby’s diaper. “The boy needs a clean hippin.” Said to derive from hip. hippoed Suffering from an imaginary ailment, the word deriving from hypochondria. “There goes that pore hippoed woman.” hip-shot Badly injured, disabled. “He was hip-shot in that fray with the Coles.” his (her) backbone’s rubbin’ his (her) belly very hungry, starving.

He or she is

his (her) head’s not done He or she is not very intelligent. “Tom’s head ain’t done.” his’n A contraction of “his own.” Though heard in the Southern mountains, it is not as generally thought to be a backwoods Americanism, but a word of long and respectable lineage. It dates back to the early 15 century and was used by Samuel Richardson in his novel Clarissa (1747). An old English adage goes “Him as prigs (steals) what isn’t his’n / When he’s cotched he goes to prison.” See HERN; HOUSEN. hisself Often used for himself by highlanders, as in “He got hisself some vittles.” hissy fit A hysterical fit thrown by a very disturbed and angry person. Hissy here may derive from hysterical. Also heard as throw a hissy and pitch a hissy.

honey pond and flitter tree 375 hit A frequent pronunciation of it by mountain folk, usually at the beginning of a sentence for emphasis, as in “hit’s too soon for that.” Though considered illiterate today, hit derives from the Anglo-Saxon hit, the neuter of he, which was standard English until at least the 12th century. hitch-up An old term in the Ozarks and elsewhere meaning to marry. “They got hitched-up last month.” hit’s It’s. Sometimes it is used to refer to a child, taking the place of he or she, as in “Hit’s a good child and haint nary bit of trouble to me.” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959)

holler (1) A hollow, a valley, usually narrow with a stream of water running through it. “He lives in an awful bad holler.” (Jesse Stuart, “Uncle Joe’s Boys,” 1938) (2) A word often used in place names, such as Possum Holler. hollered like whores at a camp meeting An old saying dating back to mid-19th-century America. holler up To wake someone up by shouting his name. “Holler me up by six so I can get to work.” holp The past tense of help. “She holp him do all his chores.”

hit some people with a sour apple and they got drunk as a biled (boiled) owl A folk saying from the Ozarks about people who can’t hold their moonshine.

holt Hold. “ ‘Now, Spring,’ he quavered, ‘you got to get holt of yourself.’ ” (MacKinley Kantor, The Voice of Bugle Ann, 1935)

hit the grit To start out, begin a journey, hit the road. “Well it’s about time to hit the grit.” The grit in the expression probably refers to a gravel road.

home boy Used in the Ozarks and South, for somebody from one’s hometown or area; the expression is now used in many U.S. urban areas as well.

hoe Sometimes used in the Ozarks to mean hose, stockings. “There’s a hole in your hoe.” (Katrina Johnson, Evening Street, 1947)

home-folks One’s immediate family. “All my homefolks were together for the first time in years.”

A euphemism for the penis, as is long tool.

hone To long for. “I hone for her every day.” The word derives from the Middle French hoigner, meaning to long for.

hog-and-panther To pester, henpeck, “She hog-andpanthered him till he had to take her . . .” (Charles Morrow Wilson, Backwoods America, 1934)

hone off In the Ozarks, to have sexual intercourse. “He honed her off.”

hoe handle

hog-killing time A most enjoyable time, a lively celebration; after the parties customarily held when hogs where slaughtered. hog-leg A long-barreled pistol. “I always pack my hog-leg.” hog meat Ozarks.

An old-fashioned term for pork in the

hog-ranger Another insulting derogatory name for a mountaineer. See HILLBILLY. hog-tight, bull-strong and horse-high Used to describe a well-built, strong structure, especially a fence. hog-wild Very excited. “Gardner’s mule had gone hogwild.” (Horace Bell Wright, Shepherd of the Hills, 1907)

honey Once commonly heard as a term of friendship among men in the southern Appalachians, much like partner or buddy. honey fuggle Used in the central Pennsylvania mountains for flatter or cajole. honey hole A huge hole dug in mountain coal towns to hold the excrement from the town’s privies. During the Great Depression one group of miners held a mock-burial in a honey hole of President Her-bert Hoover, on whom they blamed the bad times. A wooden slab prominently displayed his mockepitaph: HERE LIES HOOVER, DAMN HIS SOUL, BURIED IN A HONEY HOLE. LET HIM LAY HERE TILL THE END, POOR MAN’S ENEMY, RICH MAN’S FRIEND.

hold your tater (potato) Calm down, be patient. “Hold your tater for another half hour.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938)

honey pond and flitter tree An expression used in the Ozarks and southern Appalachians to indicate a life full

376 Mountain Range of good things. “They found the honey pond and flitter tree.”

hotter’n a two-dollar pistol Very hot, an allusion to cheap 19th-century pistols that got hot when fired.

honey wine

hot-toe-mitty An exclamation of surprise or wonderment. “It was an older man came to the door . . . ‘Hottoe-mitty,’ he said, slow and evenly. Then: ‘Well come on in if you’re able.’ They entered, the [wounded] man hobbling on his pole and the boy following.” (Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, 1965)

See

METHINGLUM.

hongry A pronunciation of hungry. Also heard as hawngry in the Ozarks. “I hate to kill anything when it’s hongry.” (Lealon Jones, Swappin’ Fever, 1939) hoodoo

Magic. See quote under

HAINT.

hoorah Hurry. “Hoorah there and get finished with your chores.” hoot A drink. “You give me two hoots of corn licker.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938)

hound See quote. “[It] was the custom [among hunters] never to refer to a fox-hound as a ‘dog.’ They were all ‘hounds.’ ” (MacKinley Kantor, The Voice of Bugle Ann, 1935)

hootenanny (1) A darn, as in “I don’t give a hootenanny!” (2) An informal performance by folksingers. Origin unknown.

hound dog A hound or dog. “It was like carryin’ a fullgrown hound-dog pup to carry the fox.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941) The expression is known nationally today, due in large part to Elvis Presley’s rendition of “You Ain’t Nothin’ But a Hound Dog.”

hoot-n-holler A short distance. “It’s just a hoot-nholler from here.”

hour by sun Before sunset or after sunrise. “It’s an hour by sun.”

hope how soon I’ll see you

house Sometimes used for the largest room in the house, the living room or the kitchen. “It’s too hot here, we better sit in the house.”

I hope I’ll see you soon.

horn Used by Ozarkians as a synonym for penis, but not in polite company. horn-bugle A pleonasm for bugle. “He can really play that horn-bugle.” horny

See

housen Chaucer used the n-stem, or weak declension, in words like housen, for house, and treen, for trees, long before the hillfolk; in fact the standard English nouns children and oxen still retain this form.

PRUNEY.

house plunder horseback The rider of a horse in the Ozarks is sometimes called a horseback. horsebit To be bitten by a horse. “He was horsebit by that mean stallion.” horse dose Medicine given in large quantity. “Doc gave him a horse dose of penicillin.” horse-quart An oversize quart of something. “I pulled a horse-quart of moonshine from my saddlebags.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941) horse-throwed Said of someone thrown by a horse. “Ike Morgan Pringle’s been a-horse-throwed down the cliff.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) hot as a red beet as a red beet.” hotten

Sexually excited. “She makes him hot

Heat up, warm. “Let me hotten your coffee.”

An old term for household furnishings.

how does your tobacker (tobacco) taste today? A greeting among hillfolk meaning “How are you, how are you feeling today?” howdy How do you do. “We spoke howdy and traded small talk.” (Charles Morrow Wilson, Backwoods America, 1934) The most common greeting in the Ozarks. howms Swampy places, mud flats. “You can’t bring a horse through those howms.” huckleberry pie The best, excellent. “Life has been all huckleberry pie this year.” huge-big man.”

A pleonasm for huge. “He was a huge-big

hug-me-tight A type of small wagon into which two people fit snugly. “I’ve seen this road filled with surreys,

hystericky 377 buggies, joltwagons and hug-me-tights.” (Jesse Stuart, “Whose Land Is This?” 1942) hull

hurt Harm. “He never done no hurt to one of God’s critters.” (Movie version of Harold Bell Wright’s The Shepherd of the Hills, 1907)

Whole. “I want the hull amount right now.” hurted

hull-gull A game played with small stones, round nuts or marbles in which one player conceals a number of such objects in his closed fist, his opponent trying to guess how many objects he is hiding.

Hurt. “He got hurted real bad.”

husband-high Said in the Ozarks of a young woman considered old enough to be married.

human rifle An old large-caliber rifle powerful enough to kill people rather than small game.

hush your mouthing Shut up. “ ‘All right, boys,’ says Bad-Eye, ‘hush your mouthing. I’ve got my pistol up.’ ” (Jesse Stuart, “Not Without Guns,” 1939)

hunting Looking for. “ ‘Mr. Gibson’s huntin’ you,’ the man said,” (Cormac McCarthy, Child of God, 1965)

hyar A pronunciation of hear, with a y added in place of the e.

hurd The past tense of hear. “We hurd it before you did.”

hystericky A way Ozark hill people say hysterical. “All the crowd was hystericky.”

I I ain’t a-hurting for you I don’t need you. “Leave me if you will; I ain’t a-hurting for you.” I ain’t much of a fool about I’m not fond of. “I ain’t much of a fool about them snaps (green beans).” I ain’t never done no dirt of no kind to nobody An example of a quintuple negative from a region where double negatives, triple negatives, etc., are commonplace. I’d druther A pronunciation of I’d rather. “I’d druther go with John than with Pa.” idjit A pronunciation of idiot. “Git that idjit out of here.” idlesome Lazy, slothful, unambitious. “Martha never used to be so idlesome.” I done it

Frequently used for “I did it” in the Ozarks.

I don’t care to do it Heard among hillfolk for “I have no objection to doing it,” or “I don’t mind doing it.” I don’t chaw my terbacker but once I don’t say something more than once, don’t repeat myself. I’d sooner sleep in the pasture and pick corn out of horsedroppings I’d rather do almost anything else than what you propose. I’d take it kindly I’d really appreciate it. “I’d take it kindly if you’d loan me some short-sweetening (sugar).” idy

Idea. “She’s got no idy how it’s done.” Also, idee.

iffen

If. “Iffen he comes, I leave.”

if I had my rathers If I had my choice. “If I had my rathers, I’d choose that one.” Based on I’d rather have. I generally surround it I usually go around it. “I generally surround that swamp when I go that way.” I-God! A common exclamation. “I-God what a fire!” Also y-God, Aye God. I gonnies! A euphemistic exclamation, a variation of My God! used in the Ozarks and southern Appalachians. “I gonnies he was a big man!” ill Ill-tempered, cross, nasty, vicious. “The older dog don’t generally raise no ruction; hit’s the younger one that’s ill.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) I’ll be dogged! prise.

An old-fashioned exclamation of sur-

I’ll declare A common exclamation. “I’ll declare I thought she had the prettiest teeth.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountain, 1941) I’ll eat the goose that fattens on your grave you by many years. I’ll tell you why I done it fer

I’ll outlive

I’ll tell you why I did it.

I loved the sweat of his body and the dust of his feet more than any other man The poetic words of an old mountain woman recalling the extent of her love for her husband, who had died many years before. 378

I wouldn’t have her (him) if her (his) head was strung with gold 379 I’m a curly-tailed wolf with a pink ass and this is my night to howl! A humorous oath heard among drinkers of potent moonshine. I’m tellin’ you right I’m telling you the truth. “ ‘Oh, Lord, I’m tellin’ you right, I’d like to live my life over.’ ” (R. E. Thomas, Come Go With Me, 1994) indeed an in-double-deed Often used for emphasis, as in “Indeed an in-double-deed I won’t do it!” infare A celebration or reception after a wedding. Also called a serenade, a shivaree, enfare and onfare. in good heart In good spirits, good health. “He’s been in good heart since she came back to him.” inkle Inkling, bit, hint. “I havent’t got an inkle what’s in his mind.” in reason upset.”

Logically. “I knowed in reason she’d be

in the gales In a good state of mind, good humor, very cheerful. “Pa’s in the gales; it’s a good time to ask him.”

in time At one time. “Somebody had tapped the maple trees in time.” irk Weary. “He came many an irk mile down from the mountains carrying the wounded boy in his arms.” isabel Still heard in the central Pennsylvania mountains in relatively recent times for a brownish-yellow, light dun or cream-colored horse. An old story, which may be just that, has it that the color isabel is named for the underwear of the Archduchess Isabella of Austria. It seems that Isabella vowed never to change her underwear until her husband the Archduke Albert captured the city of Ostend. This effort took three years, until 1604, and Isabella’s underwear must have looked isabel or isabelline by then. I swan!

See

SWAN.

it makes hell look like a lightnin’ bug any big fire.

A description of

I wouldn’t have her (him) if her (his) head was strung with gold A colorful way to describe the rejection of a suitor.

J jag A small pile. “I reckon I better be cuttin’ you-all a little jag of wood this morning.” (William R. Lighton, Happy Hollow Farm, 1915)

jibble up Cut up into little pieces. “She jibbled up the beans before she cooked them.” jig

jailhouse fish Fish that is caught out of season; if the game warden catches you catching such fish you can wind up in the jailhouse.

A small amount. “I sold him a jig of firewood.”

jill-flirt Someone who breaks wind often and noisily; origin unknown. See DON’T AMOUNT TO A POOT IN A WINDSTORM.

jake leg (1) The d.t.’s, delirium tremens, caused by bad liquor. (2) A paralysis or partial paralysis caused by bad liquor. “I never saw so many men walkin’ on canes with the jake leg.” (Jesse Stuart, The Trees of Heaven, 1940)

jillikens An old term for the far backwoods. “They live deep in the jillikens.” jim-kay A historical term meaning to stuff with food to a dangerous point. According to one story, a family kept a pet pig that they named James K. Polk, after the U.S. president, and fed James (or Jim) K. so much that he burst apart. Thus the President’s name became the basis for this odd word.

jakey Old-fashioned or countrified. “She wore all those jakey dresses.” jam-rock A side stone in a fireplace. “She struck [her pipe] on the jam-rock above the fireplace.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941)

jimmey Slip around. “The pipe jimmeys in Fromme’s mouth because several of her front teeth are out and it is hard for her to hold the pipestem.” (Jesse Stuart, The Trees of Heaven, 1940)

janders A frequent pronunciation of jaundice in the Ozarks. “He was yellow with janders.” jape (1) An old term for copulate. (2) To seduce or take advantage of.

jimmy jawed Said of someone with a prominent projecting lower jaw.

jar fly

jimplicute An imaginary monster shaped like a dragon once believed to haunt the roads and fields at night.

A common name for the cicada.

jedge A frequent pronunciation of judge; heard in other regions as well.

jined A common pronunciation of joined that dates back to 18th-century England, as witness this rhyming couplet in Alexander Pope’s Essay on Man (1732): In praise so just let every man be jined / And fill the general chorus of mankind.

jemison This old, probably obsolete, term for the penis possibly takes its name from the poisonous jimson-weed plant, once regarded as an aphrodisiac.

380

just got a bound to 381 jingleberries landers.

A synonym for testicles among high-

joy o’ the mountain trailing arbutus.

A more colorful name for the

jist A pronunciation of just, “He jist got here.” Also jest.

juba To leap wildly about. “He made them dance juba.”

jist a little piece A short distance. “The store’s jist a little piece down the road.”

judge Can mean a fool or a clown in the Ozarks as well as an officer of the law. Often pronounced jedge to rhyme with hedge.

job of work A redundancy for job or work. “I’d take any job of work to feed us.” joe To move slowly. “He joed along the path.” The word’s origin is unknown, but it might derive from the name of someone named Joe who was lazy.

juice A common term for electricity. “They’re so far back in the woods they got no juice.”

joe-darter Someone or something unsurpassed, the best. “That’s a joe-darter of a gun.” Origin unknown.

jump the broom with Marry. “He jumped the broom with her years ago.” The phrase derives from the ancient practice, once legal in many places, of broomstick marriages, when couples only had to jump over a broomstick held by two people to be declared man and wife.

jokey Given to practical jokes, fun loving. “He’s a jokey fellow.”

jumpy as a pregnant fox in a forest fire anxious, distraught.

jolt-wagon A rude, old-fashioned wagon without springs that jolts passengers as it moves along.

just a small, puny, little old thing A colorful way of describing someone or something very small. “He’s just a small, puny, little old thing.”

joree bird Another name in the mountains for the towhee or chewink. jower To argue. “They were jowerin’ about it all night.”

Very nervous,

just got a bound to Have to be, must. “We’ve just got a bound to be neighborly.” (J. Thomas, Blue Ridge Country, 1942)

K katynipper

Another name for the dragonfly.

notes this as a humorous term meaning “the maneuver performed when a driver, about to turn right, first swings to the left.”

keep close to the willows Be modest, conservative. Said to derive from the practice of boys who swam in the nude keeping close to the concealing willow trees lining the creek. keep your dobbers up courage.

Kentucky windage A method of correcting the sighting of a rifle by aiming the weapon to one side of the target instead of adjusting the sights. A practice of mountain men sharpshooters.

Be courageous, screw up your

Kentucky yell “A still louder laugh presently increased into a Kentucky yell.” (Solomon Smith, The Theatrical Apprenticeship of Solomon Smith, 1846)

keep your tail in the water Keep calm; said to derive from the practice of hill men calming excited horses by leading them into water up to their tails.

ketch The usual pronunciation of catch among highlanders.

keer A pronunciation of care. “I don’t keer what he does.”

ketched Pregnant. The word is not usually spoken in the presence of women.

Kentuck screamer Historical term for a Kentuckian. “‘I say you old Kentuck screamer, what kind o’ livin’ had you while you were up the stream?’ ” (Henry Wetson, Nights in a Block House, 1852) Kentucky fire

ketchy weather Weather that is unsettled, that is unpredictable. “The weather was very ketchy this year.”

Still another colorful name for potent

MOONSHINE.

kick the cat To become angry. “Widdie Washburn kicked the cat. She acted mad because we’d come.” (Jesse Stuart, “When Foxes Flirt,” 1938)

Kentucky rifle Famous in American history as the rifle of the pioneers, the long, extremely accurate Kentucky rifle is recorded by this name as early as 1838. The flintlock muzzle loader should, however, be called the Pennsylvania rifle, for it was first made in that state by Swiss gunmakers in the 1730s and was perfected there. “The British bayonet was no match for the Kentucky rifle,” wrote one early chronicler.

kilfliggin An old-fashioned term for lazy, its origin unknown. “He’s a kilfliggin man.” kill-devil Potent moonshine so poorly made that it could kill the devil himself. kill your own snakes Mind your own business. A variation is cut your own weeds.

Kentucky right turn William Safire’s “On Language” column in the New York Times (January 27, 1991) 382

koosy 383 kilt Killed. “I’ve kilt a many a squirrel in that tree.” (Jesse Stuart, Trees of Heaven, 1940) See SALAT.

knee-deep in summer

In the middle of summer.

knee-high to a jack rabbit kilted An old central Pennsylvania mountain term meaning “tucked up in bed.” kindly Kind of, sort of. “Going up the hollow was kindly like going up a big, green tunnel.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941) kinfolks Relatives, kinfolks. “For two hundred years the Robertson ‘kinfolks’ have inhabited the foothills of the Blue Ridge.” (Time, 9/28/42) See HOME-FOLKS. King’s Mountain Day October 7, the anniversary of the day in 1780 when 900 “mountain men” defeated a much larger British force at King’s Mountain, South Carolina. kitchen-settin’ weather Weather in early fall when it starts getting chilly and folks sit around the kitchen range or fireplace. kiver A common pronunciation of cover. “Kiver your baby up in this cold.” kivered cars An old term for a railroad train. “He took the kivered cars to the city.”

Very small.

knitting pain A stitch or cramp in the side. “I was bent over from a knitting pain.” knockers The testicles. Pig’s testicles, believed to be an aphrodisiac by some, are sold as pig’s knockers. knowance Knowledge. “She had knowance of his cheatin’ ways.” knowed Knew. “She said: ‘I knowed you’d do me thisaway.’ ” (Cormac McCarthy, Child of God, 1965) knowings Knowledge. “Not to my knowings.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941) know in reason Know with certainty. “She knew in reason he would be there.” koosy Outdated, tacky, unfashionable, especially as concerns women’s clothing. “That’s a koosy dress she’s wearin’.”

L edgewise. I suppose that [the term] denotes that it opens into lathlike strips.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913)

laid off Doesn’t mean “dismissed from a job” in mountain country, but means “planned to,” as in “I’ve been layin’ off to ketch me some fish,” or “He laid off to visit me but his car broke down.”

laurel slick lamp-lifting time An old, probably obsolete, Ozarkian term for dusk. Also called candle-light.

lavish (1) Often means a large number of something, as in “He had a lavish of melons.” (2) Plenty. “If anyone wanted a history of this country . . . he’d git a lavish of it by reading that mine-suit testimony.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913)

Land of the Sky A nickname, since at least the turn of the century, for the Great Smoky Mountains region in North Carolina.

lawed Litigated, went to court to establish rights, sued. “They lawed fer that piece of land.” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959)

Wrap. “He lapped up the baby in a blanket.”

larripin’ good good peas.”

HELL.

laurely Covered with laurel. “That side of the mountain is powerful steep and laurely.”

Land of Blood A nickname for Kentucky since the early 19th century, when it was famous for its Indian wars.

lap

See

Very good, delicious. “Them’s larripin’ Law, I reckon! Lord I reckon; a common southern Appalachian exclamation.

lashings and lavins Plenty, lots of. “They’ve got lashings and lavins of money.” Originally an Anglo-Irish term.

Law me! Lordy me! Another exclamation often heard in the southern Appalachians.

’lasses Molasses. “And they had been some other fellers that made ’lasses that thought they was good, too.” (R. E. Thomas, Come Go With Me, 1994)

Laws a mercy! Lord of mercy; still another common southern Appalachian exclamation.

lasty Long lasting, durable. “It’s lasty clothes she makes for the children.”

lay back To save, save up. “Ma will lay back a few pennies from every dozen of eggs she sells.” (Jesse Stuart, The Trees of Heaven, 1940)

lath-open bread See quote. “[A bread] made from biscuit dough, with soda and buttermilk, in the usual way, except that the shortening is worked in last . . . baked in flat cakes, parting readily into thin flakes when broken

laying the worm See quote. “‘Well, generally, they would make a feller some rails and lay them out where he wanted to build the fence. That’s called laying the worm.’ ” (R. E. Thomas, Come Go With Me, 1994) 384

little jag 385 layin’ off Putting off, postponing. “I been layin’ off payin’ those taxes.” laylock

lie tale A malicious story that is a complete lie told seriously and intended to defame someone. “That’s a lie tale she told, Luke, don’t listen to it.”

The way mountaineers say lilac in the Ozarks. light

lay off

See

Alight. “Light from your horse and visit awhile.”

LAID OFF.

layover to catch meddlers An evasive answer usually given to curious or prying children, “That’s a layover to catch meddlers.” A layover is a bear-trap consisting of a pit covered with branches, a deadfall.

light a rag To leave in a hurry. “He lit a rag for home.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) light a shuck To leave hastily. “As soon as he saw Big John coming, he lit a shuck for the big timber.”

lean toward Jesus A carpenter’s expression for something slanted, out of plumb.

light-bread Store-bought, commercial opposed to home-baked white bread.

least (1) Smallest. “They won’t be jumping on the least man on Whetstone.” (Jesse Stuart, “Not Without Guns,” 1939) (2) Youngest. “Her least girl is a big help to her.”

lightning bug

leastways At least. “Leastways we have a few dollars saved for food.” leather breeches See quote. “Beans dried in the pod, then boiled ‘hull and all’ are called leather breeches [this is not slang but the regular name].” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913)

bread

as

A firefly.

light out like a scalded dog To clear out quickly, often running away, like a dog someone throws scalding water on. “Billy lit out like a scalded dog.” like A pronunciation of lack in the Ozarks. “He liked ten cents to buy the candy.” like climbin’ a ground pole with two baskets of eggs To attempt or perform a very difficult, involved task.

leftment A fragment. “He put all the leftments of bread before his guest.” (Maristan Chapman, The Happy Mountain, 1928)

like for To like, the for redundant. “I’d like for you to go ahead.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938)

left out

likely Probably. “This is likely the last season we’ll have up here together.”

less

Left. “He left out fer home an hour ago.”

Smaller. “Don’t hit someone less than you.”

let go Say, give as an estimate. “The road’s back yonder, let go about a mile.” lettuce beds

See

HELL.

license Sometimes used as the plural. “Why I says to the man, ‘I want some license.’ ” (Jesse Stuart, “Uncle Joe’s Boys,” 1938) licker

Liquor. “That’s right good licker.”

lickety-whoop Fast, quickly, a synonym for the more common lickety-split. “He passed him lickety-whoop down the hill.” lids The covers or boards of a book. “You’ll find the answer between the lids of this book.” lief Mountain speech sometimes still employs the old form lief (prefer), in as constructions like “I ’ud as lief to shoot the sorry old critter as no.”

like poundin’ sand in a rat hole To perform a very easy task. “He couldn’t pound sand in a rat hole.” limb

To whip or beat. “He limbed the boy bad.”

line out To line up, organize. “My mind was in a muddle. If ever I could get lined out just right, I’d show them I wasn’t a fake.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938) lines Another word for reins. “Don’t pull on her lines too hard.” linguister Heard in the southern Appalachians for an interpreter. literary school An old-fashioned term for a public school where only academic subjects are taught, not a religious school or a music school, for example. “She went to the literary school eight years.” little jag

See

JAG.

386 Mountain Range lived over it Endured something, made the best of circumstances. “‘Daddy [was strict] . . . But I’ve lived over it. I had my ninety-fifth birthday last June.’” (R. E. Thomas, Come Go With Me, 1994) lived with the world To concern oneself only with material things, to live one’s life with no thought of spiritual matters. loaferin’ about

See

COOTERIN’ AROUND.

lonesome water Sweet water from close to one’s first home. “I knowed you’d come back to drink of lonesome water. Once you get a drink of lonesome water you always come home.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938) long ever ago A long time ago. “Long ever ago I promised him I would jump the broom (get married).” long handles Long johns, long underwear. “He wears them long handles winter and summer.” long potato Another name for a sweet potato, which is generally longer than a white potato. long shot with a limb in the way Bad odds, a chancy proposition. “He might win, but it’s a long shot with a limb in the way.” Molasses, honey or syrup. See

SHORT

SWEETENING.

long-tongue A gossip or tale bearer. “Don’t listen to that long-tongue about anything.” long tool

See

A common Appalachian exclamation.

Lord’s eye on it No doubt of it, without a doubt, certainly. “ ‘[That’s] true, brother. Lord’s eye on it.’ ” (Harry Middleton, On the Spine of Time, 1991) losel A good-for-nothing. “She’s been goin’ with that losel Jake Helms.” louse around To loiter, waste time, loaf. “He’s been lousin’ around all winter.”

lonesome Lonesomely. “The wind kindly blowed lonesome.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941)

long sweetening

Lord help my time!

loud Having a strong or bad smell. “I love that loud sweet smell.” (Jesse Stuart, The Trees of Heaven, 1940) love apple A term for the tomato that is common in other languages and was once popular in the Ozarks. The tomato was long held to be a powerful aphrodisiac. love-hole Heard in the Ozarks for a gully, ditch or depression along a road. Such a gully often caused a female passenger in a buggy or car to bump up against the male driver or jolted the two riders into one another’s arms. low Short. “She’s a low woman, he looks twice as tall.” Also see ALLOW. low and little with it Describes a short, thin person, as in “He’s low and little with it.” low blood lowlands or hills.

See

HIGH BLOOD.

The flatlands, as opposed to the mountains

low-rate To put down, criticize in a malicious manner. “He better stop low-ratin’ me or I’ll fist him good one day.”

HOE HANDLE.

looby Heard in the Ozarks for a clumsy, dull man or woman. lookahere Look over here. “ ‘Hey,’ they said. ‘Lookahere. It’s the Ridge Runner . . .’ ” (Meredith Sue Willis, In the Mountains of America, 1994) See RIDGE RUNNER. looking porely Having a sick appearance or being ill. “He’s been lookin’ porely a year now.”

low wine A low-proof moonshine. “Don’t give me none of that low wine.” lumpus pus.”

lusty Once common in the central Pennsylvania mountains for beautiful, pleasant, cheerful, with no indication of its usual meaning. lying out

loose as a goose To have diarrhea. “I was loose as a goose down in Mexico.”

In a heap. “She fainted and fell down lum-

See

SHUN OUT.

M mad as all get-out

Extremely mad. See

ALL GET-OUT.

making Distilling moonshine. “He’s been makin’ shine thirty years now.”

madder ’n a wet hen Very mad indeed; now widespread in use. “Maggie was madder ’n a wet hen when she saw her man with Doris.”

makin’ more noise than a mule in a tin bar Very noisy, suggested by an angry mule kicking the metal sides of a barn.

mad-doctor An old term for a psychiatrist that is seldom heard anymore.

male brute A euphemism for a bull. “A bull or boar is not to be mentioned as seen in mixed company, but male brute and hog are used as euphemisms.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913)

mah A pronunciation of my. “That’s mah brother over there.” maiden main big him.”

See

male-child A male baby in the Ozarks. “They bought that little man-child all the play-pretties (toys) in the world.”

TABOO WORDS.

Very big. “That main big old dog worried

main holt (hold) main holt.”

mallyhack To cut someone badly in a knife fight, wound him severely many times. “He mallyhacked Jed so bad he nearly killed him.”

Favorite pastime. “Fishing is his

Man Above, the A reverent name for God. “The Man Above watches over us.”

make A woman’s figure. “She has a purty make and you can see it all in that dress she’s wearin’.”

mannerable Good mannered, polite, a gentleman. “Even a mannerable man has his bad moments.”

make a branch A euphemism for urinate. “He went outside to make a branch.” Branch is a synonym for a stream or creek.

man-person A man, just as woman-person and galperson mean a woman.

make a fancy To win someone’s favor, make a good impression on someone. “She’s bent on makin’ a fancy with Bobby Joe at the big dance.”

manpower Move by muscle alone. “He manpowered that tree off the road.”

make yourself pleasant Make yourself at home. “Make yourself pleasant until I get done with these dishes.” Also make yourself pleased.

many a time A great number of times. “I’ve rid this train a many a time.” (Jesse Stuart, The Trees of Heaven, 1940)

387

388 Mountain Range maple-head Eponymous words and phrases often derive from the names of obscure people. This unusual old term from the Ozarks means “a very small head.” It is said to come from a pioneer family named Maples noted for their small heads. marrying close to home The practice of people marrying their third, second and even first cousins. marry up

Marry. “They’re gonna marry up soon.”

martin storm The name for a spring storm occurring at about the time the martins return from the south. marvels

An Ozark pronunciation of marbles.

mast The season crop of nuts and acorns that is found on the forest floor and provides food for many animals. “Bears in the Smokies dine for days on end on mast.” master The biggest, the best. “That’s the master horse in these hills.” master onset A great conflict or struggle. “There was a master onset between the two families that lasted years.” mater

Tomato; also heard as tormater. See LOVE APPLE.

maw The common term for mother, though mammy and mam are also much used. may Might. “That church-house may’ve been standin’ yet if the boys hadn’t fixed it one night.” (Jesse Stuart, “Whose Land Is This?” 1942) mean as garbroth

Poor or inferior. See

GARBROTH.

measly old smidgen A very small piece. “Hain’t et but a measly old smidgen of that pie.” meat Sometimes used as a verb meaning to feed or supply with food. “That bear’ll meat me a month.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913)

mend the fire it goes out. menfolks

Melungeon The name of a people said to be of mixed white, black and American Indian ancestry living in the mountains of east Tennessee and west North Carolina. memorize Remember. “I haint seen my sister in twenty years. I can’t hardly memorize her.” (James Watt Raine, “Speech of the Land of Saddle Bags,” 1924)

The males of a family. See

SPEAR-SIDE.

mess Food enough for a meal. “I’ve et many a good mess of coon there.” (Jesse Stuart, “Whose Land Is This?” 1942) methinglum An old name for honey wine, commonly said to “kiss like a woman and kick like a mule.” mickety tuck

A variation on lickety-split, very quickly.

midlin meat jowl.

A mountain dish also known as hog’s

might could for you.”

Might be able to. “I might could fix that

mighty mimic him.”

Very. “They’re mighty clever folks.” A likeness. “That photograph’s a fair mimic of

mincy Fastidiousness in one’s eating habits. “[He’s] mincy about eating.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) mind To like. A mountaineer might say “I didn’t mind it a bit,” meaning he was terrified at looking over a precipice. minner A minnow. “Little minners were playing.” (Jesse Stuart, “When Hen Crows,” 1941) miration ration.

Surprise or wonder. Also pronounced admi-

misdoubt him.”

To distrust or suspect. “I sure misdoubt

misery miseryn’

meetin’ Church services. “Are you going to Sunday meetin’?”

Add wood to the fire, built it up before

A pain. “She has a misery in her leg.” Suffering. “She is just a-layin’ there miseryn’.”

misling Some hillfolk still refer to cool, foggy or misty weather as misling, just as Englishmen did seven centuries ago. misput (1) Put out, annoyed. “I’m misput he said that about me.” (2) Misplaced. “He misput his book.” misremember put it.”

Forget. “He misremembered where he

mountaineer 389 misorderly Disorderly. “The men are put up in the Greenup crib for misorderly conduct.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938)

But a lot of moonshining still goes on in the mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee, where the product goes by many names recorded in these pages.

Missouri Usually pronounced Mizzoura, not Misssou-ry, by natives.

moonshine wars A name for the hostilities between moonshiners and Federal Prohibition agents during the Prohibition era, from 1920 to 1933. Hundreds of agents and moonshiners were killed in these “wars” and just one small group of agents is said to have destroyed a still every day for a year. See MOONSHINE.

mistook Mistaken. “I was mistook about him—he’s really a nice feller.” mistress Still used formally for one’s wife among some hillfolk, as in “This is my mistress.” Never used to mean “a kept woman.” mizzle

A drizzle, a very light rain shower.

Mizzoura

See

MISSOURI.

moaningestfullest Mountain folk love to use comparative and superlative suffixes, which can be attached to any part of speech, as in “He was the moaningestfullest hound I ever did see.” Beautifulest, curiousest and workingest are also good examples. modesty songs Songs without ribald or bawdy or brash lyrics, of which there are many in the mountains. molasseses

See

BAKING POWDERS.

mold warp See quote. “A mold warp is a slacktwisted, worthless man; a downgone wastrel.” (Maristan Chapman, The Happy Mountain, 1928) mollyjoggers The name for a small fish (Hypentelium nigricans) common in the James River and elsewhere. The origin is unknown. mommick See quote. “If a house be in disorder it is said to be all gormed or gaumed up, or things are just in a mommick.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) monkey

See

TWITCHET.

monkey-stove An old stove ordered from Montgomery Ward, a defunct catalog store which was once popularly called Monkey Wards. moonrise The rising of the moon. “I’ll be gone at moonrise.” Also moonup. moonshine Moonshine, for illegally made whiskey, wasn’t coined in the hills, as one would guess, but probably originated in England and referred to a colorless brandy smuggled from France in the late 18th century.

moosey

See

TWITCHET.

more Often used in comparatives such as more beautifuller, more hotter, more lonesomer, more meaner, more messier, etc. more pretty them girls.” mornglom dawn.

Prettier. “Lyn’s more pretty than all of

Morning twilight, an hour before full

mort A great number. “A mort of things have to be decided.” mother naked Completely naked, naked as the day she or he was born to her or his mother. mother wit Native intelligence, common sense as opposed to education or “book larnin’.” “The man had no mother wit about him.” mought A common pronunciation of might in the Southern Appalachians. See quote under DRAP OFF. mountain boomer (1) See quote. “Out of a tree overhead hopped a mountain ‘boomer’ [red squirrel].” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) (2) A large collared lizard. See BOOMER; MOUNTAINEER. mountain citizen

See

MOUNTAINEER.

mountain dew An old term for moonshine that has become the name of a nationally known soft drink (when capitalized). mountaineer See quote. “It provokes them to be called mountaineers, that being a ‘furrin word’ which they take as a term of reproach. They call themselves mountain people, or citizens; sometimes humorously mountain boomers.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913)

390 Mountain Range mountain grill A derogatory term for a poor white. “[The] world of the mountain grills, the poor whites.” (Thomas Wolfe, The Web and the Rock, 1938)

mouse bush A charming name hillfolk have for the pussywillow (Salix discolor), whose catkins resemble tiny gray mice to some.

mountain hoojy

mouse in the meal A variation on the common saying a fly in the ointment.

A derogatory term for a

HILLBILLY.

mountain ivy Another name for mountain laurel found in hills throughout the mountains. See HELL. mountain people

See

mout Might. “Say stranger, what mout your name be?” (A. M. Haswell, A Daughter of the Ozarks, 1920)

MOUNTAINEER.

mountain shaker A dynamite blast that is heard for miles in every direction.

much To flatter, compliment, praise. “If you don’t stop muchin’ her all day and night you’ll turn her head.” mucher

Mount Bote For an interesting story about how this mountain in the Great Smokies got its name, see the quote following. “In the 1850s a road was built from Cades Cove to the Spence Field on Thunderhead. Since there were no engineers to lay out the route, it was left to the decision of the builders, some of whom were Cherokee, as to which ridge the road should follow. As each Indian was asked his opinion, he reportedly pointed to the westernmost ridge and said ‘Bote’ to indicate how he voted. There being no V sound in the Cherokee language ‘Bote’ was as near as they could frame the word; thereafter it was Bote Mountain, while the other ridge, the loser, became Defeat Ridge.” (Michael Frome, Strangers in High Places, 1966) Mount Kephart A mountain in the Great Smokies named in his lifetime, a rare honor, for the enigmatic Horace Kephart, who came to live in the Great Smokies and wrote about them and the people that lived in them. Kephart also wrote extensively about camping. In his day he was called the “Grand Old Man of the Campfire and Long Trail.” mourning cloth Black calico, the cloth traditionally used to line coffins. “The family prepared a fresh coffin of poplar, lined it with mourning cloth.”

Farther. “Move it over-there a little mucher.”

much of a man A strong, large or stout man. “You know old Bull is a much of a man.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938) mulligrubs (1) Ill temper, surliness, colic. “I knowed in reason she’d have the mullygrubs over the doin’s.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) (2) The blues, sadness. muscle Often used as a verb, as in “I’ll muscle it up (lift it) for you.” music Can mean a musical instrument, as in, “Bring your music with you when you come,” referring to a guitar, etc. musicker An old term in the Ozarks for a musician. Also heard as musicaner. my man A synonym for husband. “My man is the salt of the earth.” See MY WOMAN. my woman A synonym for wife. “My woman will cook supper for us.” See MY MAN.

N nahrr’ A pronunciation of narrow. “That’s a nahrr’ road to travel on.”

near’t neckid

name To call, mention, tell. “They’ve allers named that thar place the Devil’s Garden.” nanny tea An old folk remedy for many ills that isn’t used much anymore, if at all. It is made by steeping sheep manure in hot water. nap o’ sleep

A redundancy for a nap.

narvish A common pronunciation of nervous in the southern Appalachians. See quote under DRAP OFF. nary None, never, neither, not any. “Nary a person came to her party.” See ARY. nary’n None, not a one. “ ‘How many people did you kill?’ ‘I ain’t killed nary’n.’ ” (Cormac McCarthy, Child of God, 1965) nary-nary Nothing to nothing, as in this Ozark answer giving the score of baseball game: “Nary-nary in the seventh, with we-uns to bat.”

Nearly. “She purty near’t set the house on fire.” A pronunciation of naked in the Ozarks.

needle To have sexual intercourse with. “[She said] I was the nicest boy ever needled her. Needled, for God’s sake.” (Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, 1965) needments Necessities. “We have all the needments of life right here.” negatives See quote. A double negative is so common [in mountain speech] that it may be crowded into a single word: “I did it the unthoughtless of anything I ever done in my life” . . . [As for] the triple negative: “I ain’t got nary none.” A mountaineer can also accomplish the quadruple: “That boy ain’t never done nothin’ nohow.” Even the quintuple: “I ain’t never seen no men-folks of no kind do no washin.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) neighbor with Associate with, bother with. “They don’t neighbor with Baptists.”

A great amount. “She grew a nation of flowers.”

nestes Nests. The highlander generally drops the t in the singular of such words as nest and post, but pronounces the t clearly in the plurals of these words, adding an unaccented syllable so that we have nestes and postes. See BEASTIES.

natural A severely retarded child. “Their first baby was said to be a natural.”

nigh Nearly, near. “He’s nigh one hundred and still works every day.”

near about Just about, almost, nearly. “He’s near about the best runner in this country.”

nighcut A short-cut. “If we take the nigh cuts, it’s about seven miles.” (Jesse Stuart, “How Ox Fit,” 1940)

nasty To dirty. “Don’t nasty my good towels with that mud.” nation

391

392 Mountain Range nobody’s never spied him nohow him anyway.

Nobody’s ever seen

norated around Told, gossiped. “It was norated around that he was in prison for life.”

nohow (1) In no way or manner. (2) Anyhow. “What air you doin’ here nohow?” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938)

North Caroliny A pronunciation of North Carolina. “My great-grandfather on my mother’s side . . . settled in the mountains of North Caroliny.” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959)

noodle Apparently deriving from an old Scottish word, to noodle means to catch fish with your hands. norate To spread news; possibly derives from “narrate.” “Go over and norate the district that Pap is dead.” (Jesse Stuart, “Bury Your Dead,” 1942)

not enough room to cuss a cat without gettin’ hair in your mouth Very crowded, like sardines in a can. nuther one.”

Neither, in the Ozarks. “I don’t like nuther

O oak winter Oak leaves are generally late to appear in spring; an oak winter is a frost that comes late in spring, after the oaks have small leaves.

Old Gentleman, the used by hillfolk.

Old Gyarbro A name for the devil in days past; the origin of the strange name is unknown.

odd come short An odd moment, an indefinite period. “One of these odd come shorts I’ll do it.” oddling

Old Jimson Another nickname for Satan. Possibly suggested by jimson-weed, a poisonous plant.

An eccentric. “He’s one of God’s oddlings.”

off-bear Offspring, one’s children. “They say he’s got more off-bear than anyone in the country.” offcasts casts.”

Another reverent name for God

old-maid gal A redundancy for “old maid.” “She’s Battle Blevin’s old-maid gal Dorey.” (Jesse Stuart, “Gather-all in the Hollow,” 1942)

Discards. “His kids wear everybody’s old offOld Master Another reverent name for God used by hillfolk. “Old Master is watching over us.”

often one’s box Crazy, silly, very much mistaken, out of one’s mind. “He must have been offen his box to do something like that.”

Old Ned

old none Nothing. “He’s got some money but I’ve got old none.”

okra Sometimes used by Ozark hillfolk to mean penis because of its shape resemblance.

Old Red Old Blackie A nickname for the devil. “Watch out or Old Blackie will get you.” Old Boy

A nickname for Satan.

Old Sam Still another of the many nicknames for the devil. Also Old Sampson.

Another nickname for the devil. Old Scratch Probably the most common nickname for the devil; used in New England and other areas as well.

Old Christmas An old-fashioned name for January 6, Twelfth Night or Epiphany, which old-timers celebrated as Christmas. Old Coaly BLACKIE.

Yet another nickname for the devil.

Still another nickname for Satan. See

old-timey Old-fashioned. “She still wears those oldtimey clothes.”

OLD

old Virginia A term sometimes used by older West Virginia speakers for the state of Virginia. “‘I was born in . . . old Virginia. And my father brought us to this state [West Virginia].’ ” (R. E. Thomas, Come Go With Me, 1994)

olden times Sometimes defined as any time more than two generations back, but usually used in a general way. 393

394 Mountain Range on a credit On credit. “He buys everything on a credit.” Also on the credit.

orter A pronunciation of ought to. “You orter come to the picnic on Sunday.”

oncet Once. Mountain people often add a t to many words, as in oncet, twicet, suddent and cleft.

Other One, the

one more time A rousing good time. “We had one more time last night.” onliest on me

ought to be bored for the simples Said, often fondly, of a stupid person whose mind might be improved by boring a hole in his head to let some of the stupidity drain out. “That fool ought to be bored for the simples.”

Only. “He’s the onliest man can do that.” On my land. “That fence he put up is right on me.”

onset A fight. “It was a master (great) onset between two dogs.” on the cull list Said of a young woman who hasn’t married before she is 21 or so, implying that she is undesirable, a cull. “Maryanne is on the cull list.” on the down-go Said in the southern Appalachians of someone or something (a business, etc.) in rapidly declining health. “If declining in health [a man is said to be] on the down-go.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) on the drop edge of yonder Barely hanging on to life, at the point of death, hanging over the cliff. “There I was, all those tubes and wires fixed to me, hanging on the drop edge of yonder.” ontil

Another nickname for Satan.

A pronunciation of until.

oojit-nawsty Apparently deriving from a Cherokee word, this old term means good or pleasing, though it isn’t widely used today. ooze A name for any medicine made of concentrated herbal tea or other substances. “I took some of that ooze she made and felt no better.” opossum has 19 lives See quote. “A saying common among the people of North Carolina, that if a cat has nine lives, the oppossum has nineteen.” (Beadle’s Monthly, July 1858) orchard grass

A pasture of tall grass or hay.

original Employed by hillfolk to mean any horse with defective sex organs; the term isn’t used in mixed company. “I don’t want no part of that original.” orphant An orphan, in the Ozarks, a t added to the pronunciation, as with suddent (sudden), wisht (wish) and cousint (cousin).

our contemporary ancestors A designation historians have used to describe the hill people, because the original highlanders came principally from the British Isles and retain many ways of speech common to their and our ancestors. ourn

Ours. “That’s ourn land you’re on.” See HOUSEN.

out (1) Off. “The squirrels have been killed out. The timber has been cut.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938) (2) Often used as a verb meaning to defraud. outdoingest

Most surprising, outrageous. See

THAT’S

THE OUTDOINGEST THING I EVER HURD.

outen Out of. The word may go back to the AngloSaxon utian. “They know how to drink outen a jug.” (Jesse Stuart, “Not Without Guns,” 1939) outlander A stranger or foreigner to the mountains. “Before you know you’ll be fritter-minded as an outlander.” (Maristan Chapman, The Happy Mountain, 1928). Also one of the outlandish. outlay A quantity purchased or needed. “She wanted an outlay of gingham for a new dress.” out of banks Flooding. See quote. “The river is out of banks.” (Jesse Stuart, “How Ox Fit,” 1940) out of heart Downhearted, discouraged. “He’s out of heart since she left him.” outsider See quote. “A bastard is [called] a ‘woodscolt’ or an ‘outsider.’ ” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) overbraeden Spread over, overshadow. “The moving light of morning . . . overbraedened the side of Cragg Hill.” (Maristan Chapman, The Happy Mountain, 1928) over-fattened on book reading Used by hillfolk to describe someone they consider formally overeducated.

Ozarks 395 overhauls A pronunciation of overalls still heard in the mountains. overlay To kill by suffocation, as in those tragic cases when an infant’s mother falls deeply asleep in bed atop her baby and suffocates the child. “Sick and weary, she fell asleep and overlayed her precious babe.” overpeer An overhanging rock. “An overpeer, from which one would make a sheer drop.” (Maristan Chapman, The Happy Mountain, 1928) own cousin cousin.” own the corn THE CORN.

First cousin. “He married his own

Said in the Ozarks for

ACKNOWLEDGE

ozark Cheat, defraud. “He ozarked her out of her land.” The origin of the term is not known. See OZARKS. Ozarks The Ozark Mountains in Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma, ranging up to 2,300 feet high, cover an

area of 50,000 square miles and are noted more for their beautiful scenery and mineral springs, which make them a resort area, than for their rich deposits of lead and zinc. Also known as the Ozark Plateau, the Ozarks are named for a local band of Quapaw Indians that resided in the Missouri and Arkansas region in the mountains. “The French were in the habit of shortening the long Indian names by using only their first syllables,” an article in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat explains. “There are frequent references in their records to hunting or trading expeditions ‘aux Kans,’ or ‘aux Os,’ or ‘aux Arch,’ meaning ‘up into’ the territory of the Kansas, Osage, or Arkansas tribes.” This aux Arch seems to be the more likely explanation for Ozarks, although the local Arkansas band may have been named from the French aux Arcs meaning “with bows,” which could also have been corrupted to Ozarks and later applied to the mountains where the Indians lived. Missouri was once called the “Ozark State.” The Ozarkian language is the dialect of Ozark mountain people and includes many old English and Scottish expressions.

P pack To carry. Carry is most common in the East and tote in the South, but pack is the most common term in the Ozarks, as in, “It’s too heavy for me to pack around,” or “He’s packing a pistol.” packing

See

pasture field A pasture. “It was gettin’ light enough to see over the pasture fields.” (Jesse Stuart, “Rich Men,” 1939) patch A garden or small piece of land. “That’s my tomater patch over there.”

ALL DRUG OUT.

paw-pawer A name once commonly given to outlaws or fugitives, from the popular belief that they subsisted in hiding by eating the wild fruit called the paw-paw.

packin’ the mail Doing something rapidly, vigorously. “What a race, they were really packin’ the mail!” painter A panther, mountain lion. “. . . they’s painters and they’s painters. Some of ’em is jest that, and then others is right uncommon. That old she-painter, she never left track once. She wadn’t no common kind of painter.” (Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, 1965)

peaked Sick. Pronounced PEAK-ed. “Our little one been pretty peaked recently.” pea-rifle A small-caliber rifle that uses bullets about the size of peas. peckerwood (1) a woodpecker, usually the red-headed woodpecker. (2) A poor white person.

paints her face like a barn Said in the Ozarks of a woman who uses a lot of rouge and lipstick, bringing to mind the color of a red barn.

peeling A spanking. “She gave him a good peeling for disobeying.”

pair o’ beads An old-fashioned Ozark term for a necklace rarely heard anymore. Chaucer used the same term in the Canterbury Tales.

peers A pronunciation of appears, in the sense of seems. “It peers he won’t be coming here tomorrow.”

pant Sometimes used in the singular to mean pants. “He put on his pant backards.”

pepper duster shaker.

pappy (1) A common name for father, as are pap, poppy, paw and pop. (2) To father, sire. “Funny how a man so ugly could pappy a gal purty as her.” (Jesse Stuart, The Trees of Heaven, 1940)

percoon

Heard in the mountains for a pepper

A pecan or the pecan tree. See also PUCCOON.

peter A euphemism for the penis. Vance Randolph wrote in Dialect Notes VI, 1928, that “Very few natives of the Ozarks will consider naming a boy Peter” because of this significance. “An evangelist from the North shouted something about the church being founded on

passel A group, many; a pronunciation of parcel. “We got a whole passel of them children in Sunday school.” 396

pone 397 the rock of St. Peter,” Randolph wrote, “and he was puzzled by the flushed cheeks of the young women and the ill-suppressed amusement of the ungodly. Mountain folk don’t even like to pronounce common names like Hitchcock or Cock.” piece (1) A distance. “We went a short piece.” (2) A short period of time. “She’s gone quite a piece now.” (3) A bit. “I had a little piece of greens for my dinner, a mess.” (4) A contemptuous term for a slovenly careless girl. See TABOO WORDS. pie supper A social fund-raising event where pies and pieces of pie are sold. pindling boy.”

pleasantest day that ever passed over my head The best day I ever experienced; an Elizabethan term that is still heard in the Ozarks. pleasure To please or indulge in pleasure. “I wouldn’t pleasure them enough to say it.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) pleasures Amuses. “It pleasures me to play with the children.”

Weak and thin or puny. “He’s a pindlin’

piney The Ozark name for the flower more widely known as the peony. The pronunciation is still a common one. Peonies are also called piney roses. piney roses

See

Plott hound A mountain dog bred for bear hunting, with “bear blood in him.” Bred for well over a century by the Plott family of western North Carolina. plum Very; completely. “He was scared plum to death.” Also plumb.

PINEY.

pink-eye gravy Gravy made from ham and water or milk, named after the red pieces of fat in it. Also called red-eye gravy. pint

Point. “Everybody has his good pints.”

pizen

Poison. “She tried to pizen her man.”

plant the corn before building the fence To get married after a child is conceived. “They planted their corn three months before they built their fences.” playing the red onion Chasing wanton women, the red onion meaning the female genitals. “Tommy’s been playin’ the red onion.” Toys and other playthings. See

plum peach A clingstone peach as opposed to a freestone variety. plum tuckered out Very tired. “I’m plum tuckered out after all that running.” Also plum beat out. pneumonia fever A redundancy for pneumonia. “She come down with pneumonia fever last week.” Also, pneumony.

pizened A word used for pregnant among mountain people. “She got pizened sure enough.”

playments

play whaley To make a stupid mistake, blunder badly. “I sure played whaley when I joined the army.” An oldfashioned term said to derive from a stupid (perhaps fictional) family named Whaley.

PLAY-

PRETTIES.

pod A belly or paunch. “He had some huge pod on him.” pointblank (1) Outright, downright, very. “He looked pointblank awful.” (2) A superlative or epithet. “We pointblank got to do it!” point-blank tale teller An outright liar. “Don’t believe anything he tells you—he’s a point-blank tale teller.” poke A bag or sack, often one of paper. “We roll our cigarettes in brown sugar poke paper.” (Jesse Stuart, The Trees of Heaven, 1940) See also BAG.

play-party See quote. “A play-party is a square dance without fiddles, or other instrumental music . . . the merrymakers must sing their own songs and make their own mirth.” (Charles Morrow Wilson, Backwoods America, 1934)

poke supper See quote. “A substitute for the church fair is the ‘poke supper,’ at which dainty pokes [bags] of cake and other homemade delicacies are auctioned off.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913)

play-pretties An old term for children’s toys. “That girl-child has all the play-pretties you can imagine.” See PLAYMENTS.

pone (1) A loaf of corn bread. “He could eat a whole pone of corn bread.” (2) A lump or swelling on the face or body.

398 Mountain Range ’pon my honor! Upon my honor; a common Appalachian exclamation or oath.

James died of poverty out there in the woods.” powerful

poor-hoggin’ Living in poverty. “They been poorhoggin’ along the last few years.” poot the rug A term of unknown origin, meaning to die. “They expect he’ll poot the rug soon.” See DON’T AMOUNT TO A POOT. pop-call A brief visit, on which the visitor just pops in and pops out. popskull whiskey Cheap, potent moonshine, so named because it seems to pop things inside your skull. “. . . he’d sit with the old man . . . drinking with him from a half gallon jar of popskull whiskey and passing a raw potato back and forth for a chaser . . .” (Cormac McCarthy, Child of God, 1965)

Very. “That’s powerful good whiskey.”

powerful ashy Very angry. “Ma’s powerful ashy at all of us for not comin’ to supper.” powerful cash money A great deal of money. “He had a power of cash money in his money belt.” power of

A lot of. “I got a power of things to do.”

prank To experiment or manipulate. “Stop prankin’ with that choppin’ ax.” prayer-bones A humorous term for the knees. “Get down on your prayer-bones and beg his forgiveness.”

porched Poached. “She ate two porched eggs for her breakfast.”

preaching funeral An old-fashioned term for a funeral held during good weather when the preacher could get to an area; often the person preached over had been dead and buried for nearly a year.

pore as a rail fence Extremely skinny. “She’s pore as a rail fence but very pretty.”

preachment A sermon in church. “The preacher gave a fine preachment.”

pork-meat A redundancy for pork. “We had us some pork-meat and greens.”

pretty self.”

portly As applied to a man, portly means handsome and dignified, not stout or heavy. This meaning goes back to the archaic sense of the word; stately or majestic, a man of substance.

pretty as a new laid egg A compliment for a pretty young woman, someone fresh and bright with beauty.

possum grapes A wild mountain grape (Vitis corifolia) said to be favored by possums. “In the relative cool of the timber stands, possum grapes and muscadine flourish with a cynical fecundity.” (Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, 1965) posy-flowers An old-fashioned synonym for a bouquet. “He brought her posy-flowers and candy.” potater tater.

A pronunciation of potato; also heard as per-

Can be used as a verb, as in “She prettied her-

pretty-by-night A white flower of the southern Appalachians that blooms at night. prides The male sexual organs. Also called private parts. prince An old-fashioned word that can be used to describe a good, noble woman, just as it was used to describe Queen Elizabeth centuries ago, even after she became queen. prodjectin’ around

See

COOTERIN’ AROUND.

pour-off A colorful name for a waterfall. “They swam and dove and stood under the pour-off.”

professor Heard among hillfolk not for a college teacher, but to describe one who professes his or her faith at a religious revival meeting.

pour the rain down the rain down.”

To rain very hard. “It’s pouring

prong Poke, dig, jab. “They laughed and pronged each other in the ribs.”

poverty Poverty among hillfolk doesn’t mean having little or no money, it means not having food or not having enough food, so that one starves to death. “Old

proud (1) Pleased, glad, as in “I’m sure proud to meet you.” (2) Said in the Kentucky mountains of a female dog that is excited sexually. See BE PROUD.

put on the cooling board 399 pruney Filled with sexual desire. Horny, cagey and rollicky are also so used by hillfolk. “I’m feelin’ pruney tonight.”

puny feeling

puccoon

pure-quill Powerful, undiluted, often said of whiskey. “That’s pure-quill moonshine.” See MOONSHINE.

See

PERCOON.

puddle jumper An insulting, derogatory name for a highlander. See HILLBILLY. puke An old name for a Missourian. Perhaps a corruption of the earlier name Pike for Missouri natives, a name given to them in California because so many Missourians who came there during the gold rush were from Pike County, Missouri. pukes An attack of vomiting or nausea. “The baby has the pukes.” pumpkin-roller A derogatory term for a country jack, a farmer. “Moonshinin’s a man’s game. Can’t just any pumpkin-roller stick it.” (Charles Morrow Wilson, Backwoods America, 1934) puncheon floor See quote. “ ‘Most of the old houses around Morganton [Arkansas] had floors made out of split [white oak] logs . . . They called that a puncheon floor.’ ” (R. E. Thomas, Come Go With Me, 1994) punish

Suffer. “I hate to see him punish like that.”

puny Sickly, in poor health. “[She] was feeling right puny-like.” (Charles Morrow Wilson, Backwoods America, 1934)

Sick. “I been puny feelin’ the last week.”

pure corn liquor

Another name for

MOONSHINE.

purty up Beautify, make pretty. “She purtied up for the dance.” pussy Very rustic, awkward. “She’s very pussy, comes from back in the woods.” put a fire Make a fire. “He . . . put a fire in the cook stove.” (Jesse Stuart, The Trees of Heaven, 1940) put apast Put beyond. “I wouldn’t put it apast him to do such a lowdown thing.” put a spider in someone’s coffee with any kind of poison.

To poison someone

put on a face like a mule eatin’ briars To frown painfully. “When she hollered at him, he put on a face like a mule eatin’ briars.” put on the cooling board To kill. A cooling board is a wide board or plank used in the southern Appalachians and elsewhere to lay out a dead person straight before rigor mortis sets in.

Q quaggle Used in the central Pennsylvania mountains for “to shake like jelly.”

quile To subside, or to quell. “Her pain quiled down by morning.”

quare Queer, in the sense of odd, strange. “She’s a quare old lady who lives far back in the woods.”

quill

quit time Quitting time. “About quit time we would watch the sun on the other side of the mountain, and when it got to look like about six inches from the top, we went out.” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959)

quarter A fourth of a mile. “He lives up the trail about a quarter.” (Harold Bell Wright, Shepherd of the Hills, 1907) quern A mortar for grinding corn once commonly used in the mountains. quicker’n a snake goin’ through a holler log describing any rapid movement. quicklye

See

To blow. “He really quilled that whistle.”

Words

GOODLYE.

400

quote

Tell, speak. “He quoted him the truth.”

quoto

A pronunciation of quota in the Ozarks.

R rabbit’s chance Little chance at all. “She had a rabbit’s chance of winning the game.”

raisin’ Jupiter Raising hell, making trouble. “They were raisin’ Jupiter down by the store.”

rabbit twister A derogatory name for a backwoodsman; after the way backwoodsmen twist rabbits out of hollow logs with a forked stick. See HILLBILLY.

ramp A wild onion or garlic (Allium tricoccum) often eaten raw or in salads. range The usual word for a stove among hillfolk. “She set the pot o’ greens on the range to cook.”

rack To move fast, especially when running. “There he goes rackin’ down the road.”

rat sly.

Rackensack A humorous derisive name for Arkansas that dates back to the 19th century.

raw rail-mauling See quote. “ ‘They called it rail-mauling here (in Arkansas). In some other places, they’d call it rail-splitting. It was all the same thing.’ ” (R. E. Thomas, Come Go With Me, 1994)

Naked. “It was so hot they slept raw.”

razorback A lean, half-wild hog that ranges free in the woods, subsisting on acorns and other foods. read after speare.”

rain crow The yellow-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus), whose cry is said to predict that rain is coming. “The rain-crows cry for rain.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938) rainin’ pitchforks and bull yearlings a very heavy rain.

A person who peddles moonshine illegally, on the

Read or read about. “He read after Shake-

reckon Guess, believe, suppose. “I reckon it don’t make no differ.” reckon how

Phrase describing

Wonder. “I reckon how tall he is.”

Said of someone born

red-combed woman A woman who is sexually excited; the term is said to be based on the bright red comb of a sexually active rooster.

raise sand To create a disturbance. “He sure raised sand when he got the bill.”

redding Cleaning. “I got me a sight of redding to do tomorrow.”

raising up Upbringing, childhood. “That was about all the kind of shoes they had back in my grandma’s raising up.” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959)

red-eyed Red-handed. “She caught him red-eyed stealin’ corn.”

raised with a tick in his navel and reared in the backwoods.

red-eye gravy 401

See

PINK-EYE GRAVY.

402 Mountain Range red-up To clean the house, put it in order. “I got to red-up before company comes.” redworm An earthworm. “When the redworms came to the top of the ground it was time to go fishing.” (Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938) residenter A resident, old resident. “Some of those snakes was old residenters.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938)

ridin’-critter An old-fashioned term for a horse or mule. “Man’s got to have a ridin’-critter to get around.” See STABLEHORSE. rifle-gun A rifle. “My grandmother got the rifle-gun and killed [the bear].” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959) right (1) Long, considerable. “Hit’ll take a right spell t’ do.” (2) All. “Our work is comin’ on as right at once.” (Jesse Stuart, The Trees of Heaven, 1940)

restless as the tip of a cow’s tail An old hillfolk saying describing a nervous person. “She’s as restless as the tip of a cow’s tail.”

right good Very good. “That’s right good pie Aunt Renee McShane made.”

resty Lazy. “I been feelin’ resty all day; must be the heat.”

right proud to go Very glad to go. “I’d be right proud to go with you to the picnic.”

retire A euphemism for “go to bed”; the latter words considered too suggestive of sex among many hillfolk.

right smart A lot, a considerable amount or distance. “Her place is a right smart piece down the road.”

revenues Federal government agents who enforce laws against the making of moonshine. “We knowed the revenues and learnt to spot ’em as far as we could see ’em.” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959)

right smart of hardness A great deal of ill-feeling. “There’s a right smart of hardness between them.”

rhubarb A word for the penis. The expression “The old man couldn’t get his rhubarb up” comes from an old folk song.

right uncommon

Very unusual. See quote under

PAINTER.

rile To vex, anger. “He was riled the way Ma talked to him.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941)

richere A pronunciation of right here. “Come richere.”

rimptions

Plenty. “We got rimptions of ham meat.”

riddle A centuries-old term for teach or explain still used by hill people. “Riddle me how to do it.”

ripshack saw.

A Kentucky mountain term for an old

ride and tie Among hillfolk, this is a seldom-used indelicate expression that means the sex act performed by a woman and two men. It is thought to derive from the old practice of two men riding one horse over a great distance: one man rode the horse for a while, tying the horse and walking on until the second man reached the horse, rode it past the second man, etc., until they reached their destination.

risin’ A boil. “I’ve got a risin’ in my year [ear], and hit’s about to kill me.” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959)

ride one bug-huntin’ To give one a beating in a fight. “A man that can ride Wash Gibbs a bug huntin’ is too blamed good a man t’ stay at home all th’ time.” (Harold Bell Wright, Shepherd of the Hills, 1907) ridge runner A contemptuous term for a highlander. “‘Damn ridge runner better back off.’ ‘I don’t call them hillbillies Ridge Runners, I call them Sheep Fuckers.’ ” (Meredith Sue Willis, In the Mountains of America, 1994). See HILLBILLY.

river’s so low we’ll have to start haulin’ water to it Used to describe a river in times of drought. rocenears A pronunciation of roasting ears, meaning corn on the cob. “Let’s have some of those rocenears tonight.” rode hard and put up wet Overworked, like an overworked horse. “He’s rode hard and put up wet.” rollicky

See

PRUNEY.

Rooshians A name given in the Great Smoky Mountains to the wild boar on the theory that they were first imported here from Russia.

ruttin’ 403 rooster A euphemism for a chicken-cock. Other such euphemisms include crower and he-chicken. To rooster means to cock a gun. See COCK.

ruddock Once a common name for the bird known as the cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), but now rarely used.

rooster fights An old-fashioned name mountain folk give to violets; the phrase’s origin is unknown.

ruint Ruined. “He’s a ruint man.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941)

rooster tale Both cock and bull are TABOO WORDS in the Ozarks, as is the word tail (a homophone for tale). Thus a rare triple euphemism has arisen in the Ozarks for a cock-and-bull tale. There it is called a rooster story.

rullion A coarse man or woman of questionable morals and bad reputation. “He’s keepin’ that rullion down at the hotel.”

rose moss Another name for the flower generally known as portulaca. rotten Often replaces rot in mountain talk, as in “They’ll rotten afore they ripens.”

run A synonym for a creek, stream or branch, as in Rocky Run. run a sandy To play a trick on someone, to bluff someone. “That’s the last time he’ll run a sandy on me.” ruther

rotten before he (she) was ripe Sometimes said of a spoiled child. “No wonder he wound up in jail. He was rotten long before he was ripe.” rough’n a cow’s tongue Said of someone or something very tough and abrasive.

A pronunciation of rather. “I’d ruther not go.”

ruttin’ Mating. “Ruttin’ time is over, Buck, for varmints—but by God, not fer you-all.”

S sack

sanger (1) A singer. “He was a bass sanger. (2) A gatherer of the ginseng root, often called sang.

A common term for a cow’s udder. Also see BAG.

sacked To be jilted by a sweetheart. Pronounced sackted. “She sacked him ’cause he drank too much.”

sangin’ Public singing done by local groups of singers. “There’s a sangin’ tonight at the school house.”

safe A cupboard for food storage. “All the dishes fell out of the safe.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941)

sankfield A folk etymology for the flower better known as cinquefoil. “The cattle guards are gone now and the sankfield and dewberry briar have covered up the crossties.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941)

salat A pronunciation of salad familiar to Shakespeare and still used by hillfolk. Words like ballad, killed, scared and held are pronounced ballat, kilt, skeert and helt, a t replacing the final d in them. salt duster

sanko To walk quietly and aimlessly. “He sankoed around in the woods all day.”

A salt shaker. santerin’ about

salt shake The preferred term for salt shaker. “Pass me that there salt shake so I can use it on my corn.”

santy pay

sampler Sample. “He grinned and explained that the [liquor bottle] was a sampler from the latest run.” (Charles Morrow Wilson, Backwoods America, 1934)

See

COOTERIN’ AROUND.

An Ozark pronunciation of centipede.

sartin Certain, especially as pronounced in the Ozarks. sasser A pronunciation of saucer. “The cat had a sasser of milk.”

sandrock Commonly used in the southern mountains for sandstone.

sassy sang (1) Ginseng, which is found in the mountains and used to be sold in large quantities to China, where it was first extensively used as a medicine. Also called sang root. “He brings in sang [to trade]. Ginseng roots.” (Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, 1965) (2) To hunt for ginseng. “I was just nine years old, and that was the first time I recollect going out sanging. . . . I’ve been a-sanging ever since. I guess I’ve dug and sold $10,000 worth, if not more.” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959)

satchel

A pronunciation of saucy heard in the Ozarks. See

TWITCHET.

saw gourds To snore loudly and consistently while sleeping. “I was exhausted and sawed gourds all night.” saw off a whopper

To spin a tall tale, tell a lie.

scadoodles A very large number of. “There’s scadoodles of fish in that river.” 404

sharper ’n a tack 405 scarce as preachers in paradise A cynical saying used by some hillfolk. “Deer are scarce as preachers in paradise this year.” scarce-hipped little girl.”

Very thin. “She’s just a scarce-hipped

scarce of Short of, lacking. “They are scarce of money.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938) scholar An old term still used in the Ozarks for any student, even a schoolchild. scoop town! Words said to be a corruption of a Cherokee term that means roughly Sure! or You’re damn right! scorpion A name given in the hills of North Carolina and Tennessee to the harmless little lizard scientifically known as Eumeces quinquelineatus. scriber An old-fashioned word for a writer, a scribe who writes letters for people, etc. Also scribe. scuttle hole

A common term for a hay chute.

sebem A pronunciation of seven. “He would be gone from sebem to nine days.” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959) second-handed handed.”

Secondhand. “He bought it second-

seeded The past tense of see. “I seeded it happen yesterday.”

pages, of the white man and set out to discover this secret for his own people. Over a period of 12 years, ridiculed by family and friends, he listened to the speech of those around him, finally completing a table of characters representing all 86 sounds in the Cherokee spoken language. His system, which he devised by taking letters of the alphabet from an English spelling book and making them into a series of symbols, was adopted by the Cherokee council in 1821, one story claiming that Sequoyah’s little daughter won over the council chiefs by reading aloud a message that they had secretly instructed her father to write down. Thousands of Indians would learn to read and write thanks to Sequoyah’s “catching a wild animal and taming it,” in his own words. The redwood tree (Sequoia sempervirens) was named for him not long after his death in 1847. Also see CHEROKEE; TRAIL OF TEARS. serenade A wedding celebration. Also called an infare, a shivaree. set To plant a crop of any kind. “He set his corn early this year.” set a bed-spell To stay until bedtime. “Come over and set a bed-spell.” set in to rain morning.”

set one’s budget down To firmly make up one’s mind. “Once I set my budget down I don’t waver.” set the fur on Tom.” set up to

sellin’ pumpkins Making illegal whiskey; an old term dating back to days when bottles of illegal whiskey were hidden in pumpkins sold at the side of the road. sequoia The largest and tallest living things on earth, the giant sequoias of California and Oregon are named for the exalted Indian leader Sequoyah, a mountain Cherokee who lived in the southern Appalachians. Sequoyah invented the Cherokee syllabary, which not only made a whole people literate practically overnight but formed the basis for many written Indian languages. Sequoyah (also Sequoya, or Sikwayi) was born about 1770, the son of a white trader named Nathaniel Gist and an Indian woman related to the great King Oconostota. Though he used the name George Guess, he had few contacts with whites, working as a silversmith and trader in Georgia’s Cherokee country until a hunting accident left him lame. With more time on his hands, Sequoyah turned his attention to the “talking leaves,” or written

Began to rain. “It set in to rain early this

To humiliate someone. “She sure set the fur

Courted. “He set up to her regular.”

several In the Ozarks, several means not two or three but a large amount. sew with a hot needle and burning thread expression meaning to move hastily.

An Ozark

shacklety Ramshackle, broken down. “They live in that shacklety house down the road apiece.” shacklin’ around

See

COOTERIN’ AROUND.

shadow-shy Afraid of shadows, especially at night. “‘I don’t give shucks for moonlight,’ exclaimed Cal Royster. ‘Give me a black-dark night, when the fox ain’t shadowshy.’”(MacKinley Kantor, The Voice of Bugle Ann, 1935) sharper ’n a tack ness dealings.

Very sharp, bright, especially in busi-

406 Mountain Range she-cow A word heard in the Blue Ridge Mountains for a cow.

shuckle Hurry, hasten. “They shuckled out of here soon as they seen the sheriff comin’.”

shed of

shummick To lounge about, skip to and fro uneasily. “He stood there shummicking from one foot to the other.”

Rid of. “I’m sure glad to be shed of him.”

sheep dumplings A humorous euphemism for sheep droppings or manure. shelling the woods Campaigning in a town or county before an election. “He’s been shellin’ the woods here three weeks now hopin’ to win.” shelly beans See quote. “[We would put dry beans in the shell or hull] in sacks, get us some big sticks, and . . . bust them hulls up . . . and sort the beans out of the hulls. We called them shelly beans.” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959) she’s ready to go

See

COCKED.

shet The way hill people pronounce shut. “Shet the door before the dog gets out.” shift of clothes A change of clothes. “He ain’t got but one shift of clothes.” shiner

A moonshiner, one who makes

MOONSHINE.

shivaree A ceremony after a wedding. Also called an infare, a serenade. shoemouth deep A depth up to the top of one’s shoe. “The snow was shoemouth deep.” shootin’ fixin’s An old Ozark term for guns and pistols. “They had their shootin’ fixin’s all ready for the Clantons.”

shun out An old term meaning to avoid military service. “ ‘The old home guards would come home, hunting for men that shunned out and were lying out [hiding].’ ” (R. E. Thomas, Come Go With Me, 1994) sich

A pronunciation of such.

siddlin’

See

ANTIGODLIN.

sight of A lot of. “We would dry a sight of beans by stringing them and threading them up on strings to dry.” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959) Also heard as a sight in the world of: “The storekeeper dropped the dime in the till and shut the drawer. He said: ‘It’s a sight in the world of snow, ain’t it?’ ” (Cormac McCarthy, Child of God, 1965) sight of satisfaction A satisfying feeling. “Well, hit’s a sight of satisfaction to see justice fall.” (Lucy Furman, The Glass Window, 1934) signs Planting signs (the best time to plant a crop), which could be anything from a phase of the moon to aches in various parts of the body. “My father used all the signs in his planting. He planted corn and beans when the sign’s in the arms; taters when the sign was in his feet; sowed his cabbage and things like that growed heads when the sign was in the head; planted all his vines when the sign was in the secrets . . . Thy’s three days of the year, called barren days, when he wouldn’t plant anything.” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959)

shore 1) Sheared. “We shore the sheep today.” (2) A pronunciation of sure. (3) Shared. “We shore all the money those days.”

since ever Often used instead of ever since. “Since ever we went there we liked it.”

shortsweetening coffee.”

Sugar. “I like shortsweetening in my

since Heck (Hector) was a pup A long time ago. “I ain’t seen that happen since Heck was a pup.”

should ought to A redundancy for should. “He should ought to be bored for th’ simples.” See BORED FOR THE SIMPLES.

since the hogs ate my brother up Heard in the highlands as a humorous way of saying a long time. “Haven’t seen you since the hogs ate my brother up.”

show (1) Chance.“There ain’t much show to get a man.” (Harold Bell Wright, The Shepherd of the Hills, 1907) (2) Often used for movies: “We went to the picture show.”

sink-taller A whiskey of high proof; so named after the belief that a piece of tallow will sink in liquor of high alcohol content.

showerstick Heard in Arkansas for an umbrella. “Open up that shower stick—it’s startin’ to rain.”

skeerce A pronunciation of scarce in the Ozarks. “Meat was skeerce in the winter months.”

sop 407 skeert

See

smart To hurt. “Hit haint’t a-goin’ to smart ye more ’n a minute.”

SALAT.

skeery-crow Scarecrow. “Strip off all their fine terbackoo clothes for to make skeery-crows out’n for the pea patch!” (Jesse Stuart, Basket Dinner, 1939) skelped

smidgen A very small piece; often used in other regions as well. “He give me a measly old smidgen of the pie.”

A common pronunciation of scalped. A Dutch oven, led here being a pronun-

smothering spell A sudden but not longlasting spell of weakness along with difficult breathing and rapid heartbeat.

skin a flea for its hide Exceedingly cheap. “He’s been known to skin a flea for its hide.”

snaps A common synonym for string beans in the mountains.

skin your eyes peeled.

Keep a sharp lookout, keep your eyes

Snawfus This imaginary creature is said to resemble a winged white deer with flowering branches for antlers.

skive To scrape. “Willard scooted and skived up the grass, cussed, hollered and prayed.” (Jesse Stuart, “Hangin’ of W.B.,” 1942)

snibbling Weather that is cloudy and rainy. “It’s a miserable snibblin’ day.”

skillet-an’-led ciation of lid.

slat A stick of chewing gum, a term used mainly in the southern Appalachians. “He offered me a slat of his Juicy Fruit.” slathers Lots of, a large quantity. “He’s got slathers of money hid all over.” slattery Very dirty, falling apart. “They live in a slattery old house down the road.” sleight slick

Skill, skilled. “Sally’s sleight at basketmaking.” See

HELL.

slick as a peeled onion Very smooth and slick, often implying dishonesty. “His scheme was slick as a peeled onion.”

snub To cry or sob. “She’s been snubbin’ ever since he left her.” sob

To soak or sop. “That field is sobbing wet.”

sobby Water-soaked firewood; possibly a mispronunciation of soggy. so cold the wolves ate sheep just for the wool Ozark saying. so contrary he floats upstream strong, stubborn person.

sog A name for a piece of firewood that doesn’t burn properly, just smoldering and turning to charcoal. some several season.”

slink

soon

slow as Christmas

Slow in coming about.

slowern’ sorghum Slower than thick molasses pours, which is quite slowly. “You’re slowern’ sorgum, Jake.”

A lot of. “There’s some several deer this

Early. “They got a soon start before sunrise.”

sooner The name for a child born less than nine months after his or her parents were married. soon start An early start. “Let’s get a soon start before everybody else.”

slut A light made from a saucer of grease with a rag as a wick; origin unknown.

sop

smack out of of tobacco.”

sorghum Ozarks.

Have none in supply. “We’re smack out

Said of a very head-

sody A pronunciation of soda in the Ozarks. “We had some sody pop to drink.”

slicker To beat or spank severely. “He slickered young Tom something awful.” An Ozarkian word meaning to abort a child.

An old

(1) Gravy. (2) Bread dipped in gravy. Commonly used to mean molasses in the

408 Mountain Range sorgum lapper An insulting, derogatory name for a backwoodsman. See HILLBILLY.

spew Strew, cover. “The ground, to use a mountaineer’s expression, was all spewed up with frost.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913)

sorriest critter on the crick (creek) The poorest specimen of manhood or womanhood around. “He’s the sorriest critter on the crick.” (Movie version of Harold Bell Wright’s The Shepherd of the Hills, 1907)

spike-nail A thick, long nail. “Willie was so mad at me he could bite a spike-nail in two.” (Jesse Stuart, “Betwixt Life and Death,” 1939)

sorrow

spindle-side

Sorry. “She was sorrow she didn’t marry him.”

sorry girl A colorful old term for a prostitute heard in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. sorty Kind of. “The hickery leaves were sorty turning.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941)

spittin’ spittin’ wood’s Harold splo

so stingy he’s afeared to set down If he sat down, this saying implies, he’d add wear to the seat of his pants. sour grape An unusual term for an enemy heard in the Tennessee mountains. “He’s been my sour grape for years.” souse Head cheese. “Oh, that souse . . . You took the head of a hog, and feet and ears—and cleaned ’um. And after ye got ’um ready, you cooked ’um till they was perfectly soft. Then you picked all the meat from the bones. Then you either mashed ’um or run ’um through . . . a colander . . . An that was souse. It was just like cheese.” (R. E. Thomas, Come Go With Me, 1994) sow A word used by hill people to mean a slatternly housekeeper.

sparrow-bird A redundancy for sparrow. “He hopped like a sparrow-bird.” (Jesse Stuart, “People Choose,” 1940) sparrowgrass A corruption of asparagus, still used by a few old-timers. speak howdy To greet. “We spoke howdy and traded small talk.” (Charles Morrow Wilson, Backwoods America, 1934) speaking See quote. “Men will travel miles to a speaking (in the southern Appalachians)—which may be a political gathering or one for discussing road building.” (J. Thomas, Blue Ridge Country, 1942) spear-side The males or menfolk of the family. See SPINDLE-SIDE.

SPEAR-SIDE.

snake A reprehensible character. “[He’s] the snake who never came back to see his own colt [illegitimate child].” (Movie version of Bell Wright’s The Shepherd of the Hills, 1907)

Another name for

MOONSHINE.

spouse Applied to a small child among hillfolk, not to a husband or wife. “That little spouse is out working in the field.” sprangle Spread out in twisting lines. “The little branches sprangle out from the creek.” spudding round Ambling about. “She was just spudding round by herself.” See COOTERIN’ AROUND. spunk-water A term for rainwater collected in the hollow stumps of trees. squack An old name for the gray squirrel. “I’m agonna have me some squack stew for dinner.” squack head

spark To court. “I used to go there and spark little blueeyed Winnie.” (Jesse Stuart, “Whose Land Is This?” 1942)

The females of the family. See

A fool, a stupid person. See

CYMBLING

HEAD; SQUACK.

squall like a painter (panther) ther, very loud.

To scream like a pan-

squander an opinion To gossip idly with someone. “He squandered an opinion with them the better part of a morning.” squire peace.

A title once commonly used for a justice of the

squirm like a worm in hot ashes To be very nervous. “When they questioned him about stealin’, he squirmed like a worm in hot ashes.” squirmy A colorful term used in the Ozarks for a sprightly young girl. squirrel-turner An insulting, derogatory name for a mountaineer. See HILLBILLY.

suddent 409 squirrel whiskey

Another name for

MOONSHINE.

stable horse A euphemism for a stallion, which is also called a ridin’ critter. stack cakes Pancakes. “I like stack cakes and fried pie and possum.”

stodge up To flavor or season with spices. “You got to stodge up that stew some.” stone Many mountain women never use the word stone in any sense because one of its old meanings, dating back to early English, is testicle. stout

stallion called a

A taboo word in the Ozarks, where it is often STABLE HORSE.

stand A beehive. “Look at the stands of bees my pappie’s got.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941) star flower flower.

Another name for the common aster

starn A pronunciation of stern. “A bumble-bee can’t suck the tassels without his starn-end rubbing the ground.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941) starve out Die. This expression, dating back to Elizabethan times, is still used in the Ozarks. stash Interestingly, the first use of the verb stash for hiding something is a 1929 remark about Ozark moonshine: “Billy, he done stashed the jug in the bush an’ now the danged old fool can’t find it.” stew In the Ozarks, a drink, not a meat and vegetable dish. It consists of hot water, ginger and corn liquor.

Strong. “He’s stout enough to move it himself.”

straddle Heard in the North Carolina mountains for the crotch. “He’s wet up to the straddle.” strange Overly nice. “She was acting strange to me and I know she wanted something.” strawberry friend Someone who visits from the city when strawberries are in season, to get free berries from their hillfolk “friends” or relatives. stretching the blanket Telling a tall tale, exaggerating, lying. “He’s known for stretching the blanket a bit.” strut

To swell, distend. “His foot was all strutted.”

stud (1) Tobacco used to roll your own cigarettes. “He poured out the stud from his sack.” (2) Sometimes used for the male of a game fish such as the bass. studied Thought, figured. “I studied it would be better for me to leave there then . . .” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959) stump

stickers stilling

See

To stub, as in “I stumped my toe on the chair.”

FLICKER.

The distilling or making of

MOONSHINE.

stink To smell either good or bad. “That stew stinks wonderful.” stir up hell with a long spoon To cause a lot of dangerous trouble. “Fool with his wife and you’re stirrin’ up hell with a long spoon.” stit Still. “They’s stit lots of smoke and dust and I couldn’t see too good but I got on up a little ways and directly I seen he’s holdin’ up somethin’.” (Cormack McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, 1965)

stumped her toe Said of any married woman who accidentally becomes pregnant. “Little Joe was a cause of her stumpin’ her toe.” stump liquor suade

Another name for

MOONSHINE.

Persuade. “I suaded him to come home.”

suck-egg mule!”

Mean or base. “Well I’ll be a suck-egg

suck the hind tit Get the worst of something, have the worst position. “The workers here been sucking the hind tit for years now.”

stob (1) Stake. “Well, Pa drove a good long stob in the ground whurr he thought they’d be some red worms.” (R. E. Thomas, Come Go With Me, 1994) (2) The jagged stump of a dead tree.

sudden-quick A redundancy for suddenly. “He jumped out of the bushes sudden-quick.” sugar-bread

An old word hillfolk use for cake.

stocking

suddent

ONCET.

See

TABOO WORDS.

See

410 Mountain Range sugar-liquor A contemptuous term for bourbon made without corn.

swamp dew swan

sugar orchard grove.

A form of swear, as in “I swan!”

swapped off bad off bad.”

Badly cheated. “He been swapped

sweepin’ broom to sweep floors.

An ordinary household broom used

sweet sullen To act sullen, be sullen. “But when she’s a-spittin’ like a wildcat or a-sullenin’ like a hoot-owl in the cabin, a man ain’t got no call to live with her.” (O. Henry, “Whiskey of Life,” 1903, set in the Cumberland Mountains) The sun. “I’ll be there soon as the sun-ball

Sunday-goin’-to-meetin’-best One’s best clothes, those fit to wear to church on Sunday.

surly Another name for the bull, whose name is considered too coarse and sexual for polite conversation. surround To make a detour, go around something. “I couldn’t git through the laurel; so I jist surrounded it.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) Suspect. “I suspicioned him from the start.”

swag (1) Sag. “The floor swagged in the center.” (2) A depression in the earth. swallowed a watermelon seed describe a pregnant woman.

Used by hillfolk to

See

GETTING SWEET.

sweet bubby The strawberry shrub, Calycanthus florindus. So called because of its blossoms’ supposed resemblance to female breasts. “Another shrub that belongs to us and eastern Asia and that tempts one to nibble is what the people here call Sweet bubbies. It appears in old-fashioned Northern gardens under the name of sweet-scented or flowering or strawberry shrub.” (M. W. Morley, The Carolina Mountains, 1913) See BUBBY BUSH. swiddle

sunt A pronunciation of sent. “I sunt ’em to the store.”

suspicion

MOONSHINE.

The usual term for a sugar maple tree

sull A verb that probably derives from sullen. “The old hound’s been whupped and he’s crawled under the floor and sulled up till he won’t come even when you whistle to him to come out.”

sun-ball rises.”

Still another name for

Stir, rinse. “She swiddled out her wash.”

swinge Singe. “He had a sensory instinct for rapid and swingeing repartee . . . specimens of the master’s [Shakespeare’s] swingeing wit.” (Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel, 1929) swivet (1) Hurry. “He’s in a great swivet to get to the fair.” (2) Anxious, fidgety. swoggle dle.

To stir. “She swoggled her coffee.” Also swid-

swoonded Swooned. “He swoonded dead away.” (J. Thomas, Blue Ridge Country, 1942)

T take up with anybody’s coon dog that will hunt with him (her) To be so lonesome one will be friendly with anyone at all, regardless of how undesirable.

taboo words Numerous everyday words are avoided by mountain folk whenever possible because they suggest “lustful ideas.” Many are treated separately in these pages. Others include, sometimes for no clear reason: bed, tail, stocking, piece, maiden, bag, buck, bitch, virgin, buckshot, bullfrog, cockeyed, cocksure, and even love, heart and decent.

talking Said of a man and a woman considering getting married. “Her mother said they’re talking.” talk meeting A social gathering held for conversation. “[They had] Sunday night talk meetings.” (Charles Morrow Wilson, Backwoods America, 1934)

tad A small child, a tot; also tat. “Since you was a little tad.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938) tahrs tail

A pronunciation of tires in the Ozarks.

talk moonlight To talk nonsense, foolishness. “‘You talk moonlight,’ Toyster chided his son.” (MacKinley Kantor, The Voice of Bugle Ann, 1935)

Buttocks, backside. “He’ll kick your tail.” See

TABOO WORDS.

take in

talk to

Begin. “School takes in at nine o’clock.”

To court. “He’s already talkin’ to a girl.”

talk to one’s plate

take in after Chew. “[They] took in after the food with zeal.” (Charles Morrow Wilson, Backwoods America, 1934)

tallywags

To say grace at dinner.

The male genitalia. Also terriwags.

take off for the tall timber An old expression meaning to hide oneself from the law in the deep woods.

tard A pronunciation of tired that rhymes with bard. “I’m so tard I could sleep standin’ up.”

take sick To fall sick. “I was right over there when he taken sick.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938)

tarryhoot Gallivant. “Her husband was tarryhootin’ around so much she left him.”

take the mountain Leave on a journey, hit the trail. “He took the mountain a year ago and we ain’t heard from him since.”

tat

Tattle, gossip. “I taught you never to tat no tales.”

tater A common pronunciation of potato in the mountains.

take to it like a mule to millet To like something very much, like a mule appreciating the taste of millet grass.

tater-grabber An insulting, derogatory name for a highlander. See HILLBILLY.

411

412 Mountain Range taw

One’s dance partner, usually applied to a woman.

teacher-doctor A West Virginia term for a Ph.D., not a medical doctor. “He’s a teacher-doctor, not a real doctor.” tear the bone out (1) To leave nothing undone, do something completely. (2) To throw a wild party. tear the stars out of heaven To go to extremes. “I’ll find him if I have to tear the stars out of heaven.” techy “Techy” isn’t an ignorant hick pronunciation of touchy, as many people believe, for the word (meaning irritable, testy or peevish) is not related to touch, but derives from the Middle English tecche, a bad habit which in turn comes from the Old French teche (a blemish). teem off Pour off. “Teem off the water from those taters before you mash ’em.” tell it on one’s own self Tell a story to others about one’s own foolishness. “I remember he used to tell it on his own sef [self] for years and years and laugh jest like anybody.” (Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, 1965) terbacker

See

that-a-way the trees.”

That way. “He went that-a-way up into

that dog won’t hunt Common in the Ozarks and elsewhere for anything, especially a plan or idea, that won’t work, that isn’t practical. “It looks good on paper, but that dog won’t hunt.” that’s how the cow ate the cabbage An expression hillfolk use to indicate that the speaker is laying it on the line, telling it like it is, getting down to brass tacks— with the connotation of telling someone what he or she needs to know but probably doesn’t want to hear. According to Little Rock attorney Alston Jennings, who submitted this term to Richard Allen’s February 2, 1991, “Our Town” column in the Arkansas Gazette, the expression has its roots in a story about an elephant that escaped from the zoo and wandered into a woman’s cabbage patch. The woman observed the elephant pulling up her cabbages with its trunk and eating them. She called the police to report that there was a cow in her cabbage patch pulling up cabbages with its tail. When the surprised police officer inquired as to what the cow was doing with the cabbages, the woman replied, “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you!” that’s the out doingest thing I ever hurd most surprising thing I ever heard.

That’s the

BACKER.

termaters Heard in the Ozarks for tomatoes, always in the plural. “A hillman always avoids the singular by some such expressions as ‘one o’ these termaters’.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913)

that’s your lookout of it.

That’s your business, you take care

that there That. “Fetch me that there wood and then fetch some water.”

terriblest Most terrible. “Hit was the terriblest fray ever I seed.” (It was the most terrible brawl I ever saw.)

theirselves selves.”

tetchous Very tender and sensitive, touchy. “She’s tetchous about everything these days.”

them The plural pronoun them is often employed with several singular nouns that are considered plural, such as “them molasses,” “them cheese” and “them lettuce.”

thang A pronunciation of thing. “ ‘But he’d take that stick, that thang he used, a write. Had a fork in it . . . Yeah, he’d find water.’ ” (R. E. Thomas, Come Go With Me, 1994) thanky tains.

Often used to mean thank you in the moun-

thar (1) A common pronunciation of there. (2) See quote. “ ‘Where’d you get her from?’ the man asked the child. ‘Thar was looking for thar,’ the child said, and I realized with amazement that she used thar for every pronoun . . .” (Patricia Cornwell, The Body Farm, 1994, set in the North Carolina mountains)

Themselves. “They caught the coon their-

there’s another verse to that song sented one side of the story.

You’ve only pre-

there’s squirrel in the tree somewhere Something’s hidden, there’s something more to a situation than meets the eye at first glance. there’s somethin’ dead up the branch Something’s strange, something’s rotten in Denmark. A branch is a stream of water. there’s two sides to every flapjack every question.

There’s two sides to

twitchet 413 tother A pronunciation of the other. “I don’t want one or tother.” touch hands Come together, help each other, cooperate on a project. “If we all touch hands, we can get this done.” tourister Often describes a tourist or someone on vacation in the mountains. tow sack

Commonly used to mean a burlap bal.

trace A southern Appalachian word for a creek, a branch or fork of a stream. traffickin’ about

See

COOTERIN’ AROUND.

Trail of Tears Some Cherokees managed to escape this terrible unlawful eviction by hiding in the mountains, but most were forced to leave their ancestral homes and many died in a death march that became known as the Trail of Tears. “Tears came to his own eyes when he spoke of that blot on southern civilization, The Trail of Tears, in which the Cherokees, a peaceful and homeloving Indian tribe, were torn [1838–39] from the land which a government had given them by sworn treaty to be sent far away on a march which, from cold, hunger, exposure, and heartbreak was marked by bleaching bones from Georgia to Oklahoma.” (Edna Ferber, Cimarron, 1930) See CHEROKEE; SEQUOIA. tread (1) A step. “Watch that broken tread on the staircase.” (2) To copulate; a word taboo when women are present. “He’s been treadin’ all the widders in town.”

Tuckahoe Any Virginian living east of the Blue Ridge Mountains. “Generations of his people have been Tuckahoes.” tuckered out Tired. “I get tuckered out tryin’ to keep up with him.” tunk

Thump. “Tunk that melon to see if it’s ripe.”

turkey-mouthed Hillfolk hunters use this term to describe a hunting dog with an inadequate voice. “Reckon it is a bit turkey-mouthed for one of ours.” (MacKinley Kantor, The Voice of Bugle Ann, 1935) turkeytailed home.” turkle

Hurried, ran. “He turkeytailed it for

A name sometimes given to the snapping turtle.

turn A load of wood, coal, etc. “I saw Williburn going to town with a turn of corn on his back.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941) turned off colder Became colder. “When he got home it was past midnight and had turned off colder yet.” (Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, 1965) turn off Turn out. “You certainly can turn off the work.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938) turn over the gravel Said of a man in good health, indicated by his ability to urinate so vigorously he can turn over gravel on the ground. turr An Ozark pronunciation of terror, just as error is pronounced urr.

tree To drive an animal up a tree, usually with hunting dogs. Such a dog is often called a tree hound. “BlackBoy [a dog] would tree.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938)

tutor To spoil or pamper. “She tutored that child till he turned out bad.”

triflin’

twinkles Heard in the North Carolina mountains and elsewhere for pine needles or spruce needles.

Lazy. “He’s slow and triflin’.”

trollup A Scotticism heard in the North Carolina mountains for a slovenly woman.

twicet

See

ONCET.

Undertaking a

twistification An old-fashioned term for a country dance. “Tom wanted to ask Alice to the church twistification.”

tuck A pronunciation of took. “They tuck their time getting her.”

twitchet The female pudendum, which is also called the monkey, moosey and satchel, among more common names.

tryin’ to cut a big hog with a little knife job without the proper tools.

U ujinctum Heard in the North Carolina mountains as a synonym for hell.

up-in-G An old term sometimes said of high-class people; the term’s origin is unknown.

ummern

uppity met.”

See

DUMMERN.

unbeknown Unbeknown, unknown. “Sabrina comes unbeknowns and she leaves unbeknowns.” (Jesse Stuart, The Trees of Heaven, 1940) unbounded

Conceited. “She’s the most uppity gal I ever

up to the shoe mouth Up to the opening at the top of a shoe. “The snow is up to the shoe mouth.” See SHOEMOUTH DEEP.

Broke. “You unbounded your word to me.” urn A pronunciation of yearn. “I urn to see her again.”

unliving An archaic compound word still used by highlanders for dead.

urrant The usual pronunciation of errand in the Ozarks.

unquile Uncoil. “[The snake] unquiled, it kep unquilin’.” (Jesse Stuart, “When Foxes Flirt,” 1938)

use Can be employed to mean inhabit. “Day afore to hunt we usually go up to find where the bears are a-using.” (Michael Frome, Strangers in High Places, 1966)

unthoughtless Very thoughtless, callous. “I did it the unthoughtless of anything I ever did in my life.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) up and done it Went and did something. “We told him not to, but Will up and done it.”

used to could Used to be able to. “Why I used to could sing some of ’em [folk songs].” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959)

up-and-gone-person Someone who changes jobs frequently, or moves his residence from here to there.

usen Heard in the highlands for “used.” “I wouldn’t buy those old usen clothes.”

upheaded (1) Holding one’s head high. “She’s some fine lookin’ upheaded gal.” (2) Intelligent. (3) Cunning, shrewd.

usings Products or goods one uses for oneself rather than sells. “That’s why we had only 65 bushels of potatoes to sell above our usins.” (Jesse Stuart, The Trees of Heaven, 1940)

uphold for To stand up for someone. (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938) up in See quote. “He must up in eighty [in his eighties],” (Jesse Stuart, The Trees of Heaven, 1940) 414

V–W Valley A name, always capitalized, for the great Shenandoah Valley between the Blue Ridge and the Allegheny Mountains. “We’re headed for the Valley.”

waiter The best man at a wedding, though the term once meant a bridesmaid as well. “John was waiter to his brother at his wedding.”

vasty An old synonym for “vast” not much heard anymore.

walk in the wind A synonym for “walk on air.” “It must be a dream I was dreaming! I walked in the wind for three days.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938)

vault To hide something securely. “He vaulted his money under the floorboards.”

wall To roll one’s eyes, showing the whites. “Ma walled her eyes back. She was comint to.” (Jesse Stuart, “Bury Your Dead,” 1942)

vigroush Used by Ozark hillfolk to mean vicious or dangerous. “He’s a vigroush man you’d best stay away from.” virgin

See

vittles

Food. “I need to et my vittles on time.”

wampus A mythical creature of the mountains. “She told him that the night mountains were walked by wampus cats with great burning eyes and which left no track even in snow, although you could hear them screaming plain enough of summer evenings.” (Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, 1965)

TABOO WORDS.

volunteer A euphemism for an illegitimate child among hillfolk. Possibly based on garden plants called volunteers that spring up in unexpected places. See WOOD’S COLT.

war A pronunciation of were. “We war all goin’ to the picture show.”

vomick Vomit. The final t in this word is often pronounced like a k.

warnut Walnut. “Most of the materials were colored brown, having been dyed with walnut hulls (also known as warnuts).” (Michael Frome, Strangers in High Places, 1966)

waddle To form into a wad. “He waddled his cud of tobacco behind his jaw.” (Jesse Stuart, “People Choose,” 1940)

warrant Guarantee. “ ‘I’ll warrant you,’ his father replied.” (MacKinley Kantor, The Voice of Bugle Ann, 1935)

wadn’t A pronunciation of wasn’t. “He wadn’t there tonight.”

wash-off A bath in a washtub in which the bather stands erect and washes himself with soap and a washcloth.

waistie An old-fashioned word for a waist or shirt in the Ozarks.

wassy 415

Heard in the Ozarks for a wasp.

416 Mountain Range waste A synonym for spend or use, not squander, in the southern Appalachians.

well, fry me brown! damned!

watchin’ his bees A euphemism in the southern mountains for a man expecting his wife to have a baby, waiting for the baby to be born. “John’s watchin’ his bees a week now.” Also waitin’ for his bees to swarm.

well, I’m fexatiously whipped out! I’m completely surprised, fexatiously here probably is a variation of vexatiously.

wawsh Wash. “I’ve got to do my weekly wawsh down by the creek.” wax The word for chewing gum in the Ozarks. Gum there means a rabbit trap. “Let me have a stick of that wax.” See GUM. weaked Wicked. “Pappie lived a wild weaked life.” (Jesse Stuart, The Trees of Heaven, 1940) we-all We. “[A corporation] lapsed into southern mountain talk. Thomas J. Watson, president of I.B.M., took full-page advertisements in the papers to proclaim: “I” represents only one person. “We” may mean only two or a few persons. Our slogan now is WE-ALL . . . President Roosevelt, our Commander-in-Chief, can be certain that WE-ALL are back of him.” (Time, January 12, 1943) we-alls Sometimes used by hill people for we, usually in the possessive case. More generally WE-ALL. wear out Give a beating to. “ ‘. . . I wished many a time I could just . . . get me a good switch and wear you out.’ ” (R. E. Thomas, Come Go With Me, 1994) wearying Worrying. “She is always wearying about something.”

A euphemism for Well, I’ll be

West-by-God-Virginia A humorous name for West Virginia, said to have been coined by an irate native when it was said he came from Virginia. Replied the man: “Not Virginia, but WEST, by God!, Virginia!” West Virginia West Virgina is composed of 40 western mountain counties that seceded from Virginia at the outbreak of the Civil War, these counties voting not to secede from the Union and forming their own state government. After rejecting the names New Virginia, Kanawha and Alleghany, the new state settled on West Virginia, an ironic choice, as Virginia extends 95 miles farther west than West Virginia does. West Virginia had considered seceding from Virginia several times, due to unequal taxation and representation, and the Civil War provided an excellent excuse. Its constitution was amended to abolish slavery and President Lincoln proclaimed West Virginia the 35th state in 1862, justifying his action as a war measure. Called the “Panhandle State,” it has an odd outline, leading to the saying that it’s “a good state for the shape it’s in.” West Virginny West Virginia. “He’s from West Virginny.” (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, South Moon Under, 1933) whack To tell a tall tale or white lie. “He was really whackin’ when he told you that one.” whar

Where, but often pronounced whur as well. See

WHUR.

weather soon.”

To storm. “Looks like it’s goin’ to weather what-all

weed-bender mountaineer.

What. “What-all was that blamed thing?”

An insulting, derogatory name for a

wheelhorse A tireless, dependable worker. “There’s more wheelhorses in the world than big wheels.”

weedmonkey A prostitute; a loose woman. “I messed around with every weedmonkey in this town.” (Jesse Stuart, Beyond Dark Hills, 1938)

whenever Sometimes used to mean when. “Whenever I was young, I listened to my parents.”

weight Weigh. “I don’t weight but 120 pounds.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941) well broom me out! the Ozarks. well fixed

An old-fashioned exclamation in

Wealthy. “He’s a well-fixed man.”

when the hoot owl hollers at noon Used to describe a distant place, so deep in the dark woods that the owls can’t tell day from night. where Often employed as a relative which or who. Though not consistently used in this fashion, where is sometimes heard in sentences like “That old water where comes out of a fasset (faucet).”

woodchuck 417 whichaway Which way. “‘We’d see whichaway they [the bees] was-a-goin’ back to their trees.’” (R. E. Thomas, Come Go With Me, 1994)

widow and orphan maker A name the mountaineers gave to the famed Pennsylvania rifles, which they used in the Battle of New Orleans.

whiffle-bird A bird of Ozark folklore that flies backward, never forward. whilst An old-fashioned word for while still used by hillfolk.

wild pork Bear meat. “ ‘The way to cook wild pork is: drap several hot rocks in a pot o’ bilin’ water with the meat for several hours. Then, throw the meat away and eat the rocks.” (Michael Frome, Strangers in High Places, 1966)

whippoorwill storm winds.

willipus-wallupus A huge imaginary monster of the mountains invoked to frighten strangers or children.

Any late spring storm with heavy

whistle pig A common old name for what is elsewhere called a groundhog or woodchuck. whitefish See quote. “Most hillfolk do not eat mushrooms, but those that do usually call them whitefish—perhaps because they roll them in cornmeal and fry them in deep grease, like fish.” (Vance Randolph, “A Word List from the Ozarks,” Dialect Notes, 1926) white lightning

Another name for

MOONSHINE.

white-livered widder Any woman who outlives several husbands and remains in good health herself. No one knows what fact, if any, is behind the superstition of the “white liver.” white mule who-all

Another name for

MOONSHINE.

Who. “Who-all was at the meeting?”

[does something to] who laid the chunk Does something better than anyone else; the origin of the expression is unknown. “She raises hogs to who laid the chunk.” whoop owl

A hoot owl or any loud owl.

whup A common pronunciation of whip. “He whupped that old horse to make it move.” whur A pronunciation of where. “‘And she finally— she burnt it, whur it was a-clawing up right under the cookstove, a-trying to claw a hole big enough to get in the house.” (R. E. Thomas, Come Go With Me, 1994) whut

winder lites broken.”

Windowpanes. “One of the winder lites is

windy A false, humorous story not intended for anyone to take seriously, a tall tale. wing

To court. “He’s been wingin’ her two years now.”

winter fever An old-fashioned term for pneumonia. “He came down with a nasty case of the winter fever.” Wistfully. “She sat there wishful-like.”

wishful-like wisht withey

See

ORPHANT.

Tough and wiry. “He’s a withey little feller.”

with socks on Coffee with milk and sugar added. “I’ll take my coffee with socks on.” See BAREFOOTED. with squirrel An Ozarkian synonym for pregnant or with child; perhaps a woman carrying an active child suggested someone with a squirrel in her belly, but the origin of the term is unknown. womenfolks

The females of a family. See SPINDLE-SIDE.

wonderful Hillfolk often use the objective to describe something terrible, as in “It was a wonderful storm destroyed the school.” won’t nothin’ make, won’t nothin’ keep Said of crops during bad weather. “They’s a good warm spell comin’ on. Won’t nothin’ make, won’t nothin’ keep.” (Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, 1965) won’t pass without pushin’ Is inferior, substandard. “That won’t pass without pushing’.”

A common pronunciation of what.

widder, widdy A frequent pronunciation of widow. “I saw the widder Perkins tother day.”

woodchuck Woodpecker, because of the pecker in its name, is a taboo word in the Ozarks, where a woodpecker is euphemistically called a woodchuck.

418 Mountain Range woodpecker

See

WOODCHUCK.

wood’s colt A kind euphemism for an illegitimate child among mountaineers. Wood’s Colt is the title of a book published in 1933 by Thames Williamson and written entirely in mountain dialect. See BORN ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE BLANKET; VOLUNTEER.

wouldn’t pass without pushin’ Said of anything inferior. “That shovel wouldn’t pass without pushin’.” wowser This imaginary panther of the mountains kills cattle and other livestock by biting off their heads with a single bite. wrastle

wool To worry. “That baby wooled that pore little kitten plumb to death.” wooly heads

See

The way Ozark hillfolk pronounce wrestle.

wrench A pronunciation of rinse. “Let me wrench out those clothes for you.”

HELL.

Wore. “He wored the same clothes every day.”

writ Wrote, written. “The sweetest words ever writ.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941)

workbrickle A good worker. “One workbrickle is worth three of you.”

write when you get work Common parting words to those leaving the mountains to look for employment.

wored

workingest worser

See

MOANINGESTFULLEST.

Worse. “He’s gotten worser every day.”

written wrop

Wrote. “He written his son a letter.” Wrap. “She wropped that package.”

X X The capital letter X was once widely used in the southern mountains and other parts of the South to mean a 10-dollar bill, as in “I haven’t got an X left.” XX, or double X, meant a 20-dollar bill. xter A common pronunciation of extra. “I did some xter work for you today.” Sometimes spelled exter.

419

xtry

See

EXTRY.

XX

See X.

Y yaller janders Yellow jaundice, as pronounced in the southern Appalachians.

yellow hammer A name for the golden-winged woodpecker (Colaptes auratus).

yaller patches

ye’ns You. “He held his hands to the fire and looked casually about. ‘Cold enough for ye’ns?’ he said.” (Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, 1965)

See

HELL.

yander Yonder. “‘I live over yander.’ She motioned vaguely beyond the creek.” (Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, 1965)

yestiddy A common pronunciation of yesterday. “It was raining hard, a real gully washer, yestiddy.”

yank Another name for the bird better known as the nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis), probably because its blue coat suggested the Yankee uniform of the Civil War.

Y-God!

ying-yang According to Welden Stone in his novel Devil Take a Whittler (1948), ying-yang is a synonym for the penis.

Yankee bump Heard in the Ozarks for a bump or depression in a road. See LOVE HOLE. yapped up yar

See

See I-GOD!

Messy. “The house is all yapped up.”

yins A shortening of you ins (you ones), which means you. “Well, I reckon I better get on. We’ll see yins.” (Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, 1965)

HYAR.

yarnin’ Complaining. “He’s always a-yarnin’ about money.”

yit Yet. “I’ve not got into that corn up yander yit.” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959)

ye Sometimes used for you. “‘Say now,’ he said, ‘you don’t have any, uh . . . tire pumps, do ye?’ ” (Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, 1965)

yo A female sheep. In the Ozarks the word (a corruption of ewe) is pronounced to rhyme with woe. yokum

year A pronunciation of ear. “We used a medicine called sweet oil for the yearache.” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959)

See

HALF-BAKED YOKUM.

yooper An affirmative interjection meaning “You bet!” or “Yes, sir!”, as in “Are we winning? Yooper!”

yeaw A pronunciation of yeah or yes. “Yeaw, he stayed around with us some and I’ve talked to him a lot.” (L. N. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, 1959)

yopped up

Messy. “This house is all yopped up.”

you-all The plural of you. You-all (often pronounced y’all) is widely considered the ne plus ultra of Southern

420

yown 421 dialect and is most common in the southern mountains. But this expression, used throughout the South, is much misunderstood. Mainly applied to two or more people, you-all can be used when the speaker is addressing one person, but only when the sentence implies plurality. Except for some speakers in the Ozarks and rural Texas, only a ham of a stage Southerner would use you-all so indiscriminately as to say “That’s a pretty dress you-all are wearing.” But any Southerner might well say “How you-all?”—the question intended to inquire of the health of you and your entire family or group. Further, the inflection of the phrase is all important. When the you in you-all is accented, as in “You-all must come,” this means that the group near the speaker is invited. The contraction of you-all, y’all, is always used in this plural sense. Recently the American Southernism y’all (or yawl) has been explained, though hardly to the satisfaction of everyone, as a “calque” (a filling in of an African structure with English material) from the West African second person plural unu, which is also used in the American black Gullah dialect. This theory is advanced in a study by Jay Edwards in Hancock and Decamp’s Pidgins and Creoles (1972): “In the white plantation English of Louisiana the form y’all (semantically unu) was probably learned by white children from black mammies and children in familiar domestic situations.” In any case, the closest thing that has been found in English to the collective second person plurals you-all and you-uns is the collective second person you-together that is sometimes heard in England’s East Anglia dialect today. you all’s terday.”

Your. “I saw you all’s wagon on the road yes-

you come Come again; words often said in parting company with people. your-all Your. “Those are your-all dogs.” (Charles Morrow Wilson, Backwoods America, 1934) your happy tootin’! An exclamation meaning “You’re right.” “Your happy tootin’!” (Jesse Stuart, “Not Without Guns,” 1939) yourn Yours. “Well, he’s yourn then. You can take him home with ye . . .” (Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, 1965). See HOUSEN. your un’s Your. “Let’s we-uns all go over to your un’s house.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) you-uns You, singular and plural. “You-uns come down with me.” (Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders, 1959) The much-ridiculed you-uns of mountain speech can actually be traced to the ye ones of Chaucer’s time, and the collective second person you-together is sometimes still heard in British East Anglia dialect. See YOU-ALL. youth “The new moon ull youth today”—that is, a new moon will appear or be born. yowe Ewe. “He was tall like a beanpole, with a yowe neck.” (Jesse Stuart, Men of the Mountains, 1941) Also yo. yown

you can’t keep a squirrel on the ground It’s futile to force someone to do something he’s not naturally suited to do.

Yours. “It’s yown, not mine.”

Z zany Commonly used as a synonym for a clown in the Ozarks. zat

zoon To fly or run fast with a humming or buzzing sound. The term seems to be confined to the South. “They zooned up into the hills.”

Is that. “Who zat up on the hill?”

zip An old term for molasses. “I’d like some zip on my vittles.” See ’LASSES.

422

IV happy trails: Western Words and sayings

“Western” has proved an invaluable source. Authors of these tales—including geniuses of the genre Zane Grey, Luke Short, Max Brand and Louis L’Amour—have been extraordinarily prolific and have often recorded Western speech with keen ears. The amazing Max Brand (one of the pen names of Frederick Faust), who created Dr. Kildare and Destry of Destry Rides Again, wrote some 30 million words over a 20-year career, the equivalent of about 530 books—he clearly could write Billy the Kid dead in a poem before Billy could draw! Some of these Westerns are better than others, but all at the very least have their redeeming features. For the reader’s information, and pleasure, below is a list of the books selected by the Western Writers of America as the 25 best Western novels ever written, all of which have proven invaluable:

O

f all American regional talk, the Western idiom is certainly the youngest and most lively, dating back (apart from some Spanish terms) only a little more than a century, by most expert estimates, and only 150 years or so, according to other historians. And thanks to dime novels, border tales and excellent Western novels and movies, not to mention “spaghetti Westerns” and television series, I would guess that it is the “foreign” regional vernacular best known by Americans from other regions (more so even than Southern speech)—that is, the idiom Americans are most familiar with aside from their own. After all, only in this century have the star athlete and entertainer come to equal the cowboy as the ideal hero in the popular imagination, where the brave lone ranger still ranks high. Western words have certainly become widely known throughout the United States and the world, some of them now mainly historical terms, no less interesting and all still “living,” at least in the sense that they are frequently used in Western story, song and film. They include fascinating expressions coined or inspired by explorers, mountain men, cowboys, cowgirls, ranchers, miners, loggers, lawmen, badmen, politicians, sheep herders, farmers, the oil rich and dirt poor and even dudes who came West, among many other groups. American Indian, Spanish, Mexican, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, Scandinavian and African-American language gifts are treated here, some more extensively than others, as are the contributions of religious groups like the Mormons. Regarding Spanish loans alone, Edna Ferber wrote in Giant (1952): “. . . you can’t talk to anyone . . . in Texas five minutes without using words borrowed from Spanish . . . How about Reata. Retana. Remuda. Corral. Ranch. Stampede. Mesa. Canyon. Rodeo. Sombrero. Pinto. Bronco. Thousands of words.” Western fiction like Ferber’s has been a great pleasure to read in preparing this collection. These works are not by any means all “Westerns”; many are stories set in the West, ranging from the works of classic American authors such as Mark Twain, Bret Harte, Stephen Crane, Willa Cather and John Steinbeck to those of modern-day masters like Walter Van Tilburg Clark, A. B. Guthrie Jr., Wallace Stegner, Cormac McCarthy, Thomas McGuane and Larry McMurtry. But the genre

The Virginian by Owen Wister The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark Shane by Jack Schaefer The Big Sky by A. B. Guthrie Jr. The Searchers by Alan LeMay Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey Paso por Aqui by Eugene M. Rhodes Bugles in the Afternoon by Ernest Haycox The Long Rifle by Stewart E. White Vengeance Valley by Luke Short The Hell Bent Kid by Charles O. Locke Cheyenne Autumn by Mari Sandoz Destry Rides Again by Max Brand Hondo by Louis L’Amour The Sea of Grass by Conrad Richter Ride the Man Down by Luke Short The Day the Cowboys Quit by Elmer Kelton Stay Away, Joe by Dan Cushman The Time It Never Rained by Elmer Kelton True Grit by Charles Portis Monte Walsh by Jack Schaefer Flint by Louis L’Amour From Where the Sun Now Stands by Will Henry Hombre by Elmore Leonard The Wonderful Country by Tom Lea To this distinguished list, I would certainly add, among others, Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Arch425

426 Happy Trails bishop, John Steinbeck’s The Red Pony and Of Mice and Men, Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian and All the Pretty Horses, Edna Ferber’s Giant and Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove. Mention should also be made of wonderful films like Stagecoach, The Covered Wagon, Red River, Cheyenne Autumn, The Searchers, Shane, The Ox-Bow Incident, Cimarron, The Alamo, Giant, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, A Man Called Horse, Monte Walsh and The Unforgiven. The Western is hardly the impoverished form some critics make it out to be, and many count Cormac McCarthy among the two or three best American novelists writing today. Though this is possibly the most varied and among the largest collections of Western expressions, I doubt that anyone could possibly put together a complete dictionary of Westernisms, even if one lived a lifetime in the West working everything from cows and sheep to dude ranches, read everyone from Black Bart, the PO-8 to Molly Ivins and watched every fine film and spaghetti Western as well. For Western speech is constantly changing, migration to the area continuing at the highest rate in the country even though the unfenced life of the West is finished. Even cowboy lingo continues to grow. Said cowboy poet, or “poet lariat,” Paul Zarzski at the 1993 Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada: “Cowboys have always used this wonderful fresh language, and they’ll make up a word when they need one. A guy’ll tell you something like, “There’s a high-class buck out there jumpin’ garden hoses.’ These people are surrounded by this language and powerful physical experiences [that inspire new language].” Many distinctive Western expressions are used throughout the West, including terms like canyon, corral, bull-snake, civil cat (for a skunk), mush (for cooked cereal), catch colt (for an illegitimate child), lug (for a fruit crate), jerky, sourdough and raising Cain. But there are numerous differences. The West can be divided into three main speech regions: the Southwest, the Northwest and the Central West. These, in turn, are further divided by experts who know their cans into many subregions, including the California Southwest, West Texas, Central Texas, Utah West, Colorado West, and Northern California. Each of these regions and subregions has its own peculiar words but shares the use of many expressions with other Western regions as well. In the Northwest, for example, including the states of Washington, northern Idaho and northern Oregon, what is generally called the ring-necked pheasant is called the Chinese pheasant, and the Scandinavian-derived word snoose is used for snuff or a snuff user. In the Southwest, because of its proximity to Mexico, Spanish words like taco, enchilada and frijole were widely used long before these dishes became popular in other areas of the West and the United States as a whole. Here were born to American talk the Spanish-derived terms to which Edna Ferber referred, quoted above.

Texas, a part of the Southwest, serves as a good example of a Western subregion and contains three subregions itself: West Texas, South Texas (sometimes called East Texas) and Central Texas. Central Texas is noted for the use of such words as smearcase for cottage cheese (the term brought there by the many German settlers in the area), the use of grass sack for burlap bag and the use of tool house for tool shed, among other differences. West Texas speech, featuring the Western drawl, is, like other Southwestern and Far Western speech, more strongly influenced by General American dialect. The West Texas drawl extends the slight uh glide of General American speech (where uh is added before l and r in a stressed syllable, as in shOO-Uhr, sure) to many more sounds. School, for example, is skool in the Middle West but pronounced SkOOuuhl in the Western drawl. This same us drawl is added after, among other letters, a, ow, and eh, examples being Auhlbert (Albert), fowahl (fowl), and Elauhlmer (Elmer). The Western drawl doesn’t suggest “relaxed laziness;” it suggests cogitation, or weighing one’s words, rather than mere indolence. Many ranching terms enrich this dialect, and one hears colorful remarks like “It’s such a fur piece you’ve got to ride a pregnant mare to get back” and “If you ain’t the lead horse the scenery never changes.” Technically, the dialect of South (or East) Texas is of both the twangy lilting South Midland variety of Northeast Texas and the Southern plantation variety heard in Southeast Texas. Of course these two dialects and that of West Texas mingle throughout the state, but the South Texas dialect is more influenced by Southern and Mountain speech and to a much smaller extent by General American. Nowhere in the United States is there a more effortless speech, one more relaxed in delivery. South Texian is distinctly nasalized with a slow tempo and is intoned almost monotonously. Its vowels are held long, and the first syllables of words are often accented, especially in short words. Speakers are apt to speak rather too loud, for aliens, throughout the great breadth of the Lone Star State. In recent times Spanglish, a lively combination of Spanish and English, has become so prominent a way of speech throughout Texas that it is also known as TexMex and Texican. From one end of the state to the other there are so many slight variations in ways of speaking that Texans can’t even agree on the pronunciation of Texas—the leading contenders are Texsiz and Tex-sis, with the Yankee Tex-shus a distant third. Dyed-in-thewool Texans hold stubbornly to their pronunciations, too. A visiting Britisher told one rancher: “The Hereford bull, who comes originally from my own part of the world, does not pronounce himself Hearford, as you seem to suppose, but Herreford.” “Is that right?” the rancher replied. “Wal, he pronounces himself Hearford on my ranch.”

Introduction Hospitable Texans do still say Y’all all come! Stetson tipped over his eyes, the typical Texan will say things like Kin ah carry you home? For “Can I give you a ride (or lift)?”; Ah need to visit with you, when he means he wants to chat with you on the phone; and Kin ah hep you for “Can I help you?” One woman who worked for Air France in Dallas and was taught to say France like a Frenchwoman habitually answered the phone, “Air Frawnce, kin ah hep you?” Texans particularly like to pronounce the en sound their own way. They don’t cotton to it being pronounced en, so when they talk about the awl bidness (oil business) they might mention the innerjy crunch or the free interprise system. By the same system ten becomes tin; Twenty is twinny; cent is cint; went is wint; friendship becomes frinship, tennis becomes tinnis; temperatures are timperatures; entertainment is innertainment; Wednesday is Winsday; and—to put an indin to this— Kennedy Airport is Kinnidy Airport. The rule in Texas is to say heidi (howdy) to anyone who says heidi to you. Thank you is pronounced thang cue. Other wards with pronunciation unique to the airs (ears) of most Markins (Americans) include hem for him, blond for blind, aint for aunt, main for mean, dayins for dance, rum for room, drouth for drought, suede for sweet, bob wahr for barbed wire, prod for proud and small for smile. The Lard only knows how many more such specimens there are from Hico (pronounced Hy-co) to Houston. The Southern yawl of you-all is almost as popular in Texian as in Southern speech. All, in fact, is also used after the interrogative pronoun what (“What-all did you do yesterday?”) and who (“Who-all is coming?”). Is all, a short form of that’s all, is commonly added to the end of sentences, as in “He just wants some meat, is all.” Sometimes unheard questions are replied to in Texian with Says which?, a practice similar to the AfricanAmerican English Say what? Sadly, a lot of Texans feel as embarrassed about their dialect as New Yorkers do about Brooklynese. An article by New York Times Houston bureau chief Robert Reinhold, to which I owe several of these examples of Texian, reports Fred Tarpley, a language and literature professor at East Texas State University, as saying, “Un-

427

fortunately, Texans have a great inferiority complex about their language [though] this is an honorable dialect that we speak for historical reasons; I feel we need to extend the Texas pride to speech.” As British travel writer Jan Morris has noted, “One feels the pull of metropolitan life in Texas, as one does all over the horizon.” While the rural areas are fighting a strong holding action, the big innernational cities in Texas are increasingly becoming merely international, losing a lot of their Texian flavor. Observers have reported that Houstonians in particular, a breed of archetypal doers, are beginning to sound like everybody else, in both pronunciation and vocabulary, even eliminating such historic Texas redundancies as cashmoney. Few people shout Yahoo! In the Big H anymore, but elsewhere in the land where seldom is heard a discouraging word, there are still nice euphemisms, like winter Texans for senior citizens wintering in the state, places with names like The Crazy Woman Hotel at Mineral Wells, statues like the one to the cow called Moola at Stephenville and local football teams with names like the Itasca Wampus Cats, the Mesquite Skeeters and the Hutto Hippos. Far from the great city’s rattle, the rural rearguard and others proud of their heritage are holding the Alamo, and it will be a long time before they surrender, if ever. One could go on at great lengths about expressions and quirks peculiar to other regions of the West, often only two whoops and a holler away from Texas. In the Rocky Mountain area, for example, we find battens used for clapboard shingling; a bar pit means a ditch alongside a road; and a newly weaned calf is a weaner. In Northern California, natives almost exclusively among Westerners use the old term chesterfield for a sofa, rustic siding for clapboard and coast as a synonym for beach (“Let’s go to the coast today”). Suffice it to say that much of what has been rounded up from Texas for examples here could sure as shootin’ be said about other Western regions and the West as a whole—from the use of the ubiquitous drawl to the changes taking place through modern-day migration. Allowing for some change, it seems certain that Western speech similar to that which we have known for over a century will be with us for a long time to come.

A a Perhaps only UGH! has been deemed by dime novels and Hollywood to be more representative of American Indian speech than the omission of a as an article. Willa Cather made an interesting observation on this American Indian habit (and there is no telling how widespread the habit really was) in Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927): “ ‘Have you a son?’ ‘One. Baby. Not very long born.’ Jacinto usually dropped the article in speaking Spanish, just as he did in speaking English, though the Bishop had noticed that when he did give a noun its article, he used the right one. The customary omission, therefore, seemed a matter of taste, not ignorance. In the Indian conception of language, such attachments were superfluous and unpleasing, perhaps.”

acequia The Spanish word for a wide irrigation ditch; used mainly in the Southwest and first recorded there in 1844. aces and eights

See

DEADMAN’S HAND.

acid test This expression dates back to Western frontier days, when peddlers determined the gold content of objects by scratching them and applying nitric acid. Since gold, which is chemically inactive, resists acids that corrode other metals, the (nitric) acid test distinguished it from copper, iron, or similar substances someone might be trying to palm off on the peddlers. People were so dishonest, or peddlers so paranoid, that the term quickly became part of the language, coming to mean a severe test of reliability, and is now used throughout the United States.

Abert’s towhee A Southwestern desert bird named for soldier-naturalist Lt. J. W. Abert (1820–87), who has several other Southwestern birds and animals, including Abert’s squirrel, named after him.

Acoma An Indian tribe of New Mexico and Arizona, the name meaning “people of the white rock” in their language, in reference to the pueblos in which they lived. Acoma is also the name of a central New Mexico pueblo that has been called “the oldest continuously inhabited city in the United States.” The name is pronounced either eh-ko-ma or ah-ko-ma.

abogado The Spanish word for lawyer; still used in the Southwest and recorded there as early as 1803. “Why did you send for the abogado Poindexter when my brother called?” (Bret Harte, On The Frontier, 1884)

acorn calf A runt or weak calf; sometimes used to describe a physically weak person. It was once believed that cows that ate too many acorns gave birth to such calves.

above his (her) bend Above his or her ability. “Shooting like that’s above his bend.” above snakes Tall; distant from the ground. “He’s a lean, rangy cowpoke, about six and a half feet above snakes.”

adder’s tongue A Western name for the wildflower better known as the dogtooth violet (Erytheronium americanum), probably because the plant’s first leaf, which points pushing up from the ground in early spring, suggested a snake tongue to some settlers.

abra A narrow mountain pass; from the Spanish abra meaning the same. 428

alamo 429 adios Introduced in the Southwest in about 1830, this Spanish word meaning goodbye (literally, “to God”) is now widely used throughout the country. In Texas it can also mean get going, vamoose: “You better adios before the law comes.” admirable bolete A colorful, edible mushroom (Boletus mirabilis) of Rocky Mountain forests and the Pacific Northwest. admiring A term used in Texas for casting an evil eye on someone. “Her admiring of his arm made him break it.” adobada sauce A sauce for meats. “He sat at the table and she [a Mexican woman] made a plate for him of roast mutton with adobada sauce . . .” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992) adobe (1) A house made of adobe, the Spanish for sundried clay or mud bricks; the term is first recorded in the Southwest in 1759. (2) Things of Mexican origin, as in the slang expression adobe dollar, a Mexican peso. (3) Military personnel. See also DOUGHBOY. adobe-maker A derogatory slang term in the Southwest for a person of Mexican descent. afoot Someone walking, someone without a horse. “A man afoot is no man at all,” instructs an old Western saying. agarita A Spanish word sometimes used in Texas for the barberry (Berberis trifoliata); excellent jellies and wines are made from the barberry’s red, acid berries. Also called the agrillo and the agrito. agave Any of several Southwestern plants with tough, spiny sword-shaped leaves. Named for Agave, daughter of the legendary Cadmus, who introduced the Greek alphabet, the large Agave genus includes the remarkable century plant (Agave americana), which blooms once and dies (though anytime after fifteen years, not after one hundred years, as was once believed). Introduced to Europe from America in the 16th century, this big agave is often used there for fences. It is regarded as a religious charm by pilgrims to Mecca, who hang a leaf of it over their doors to ward off evil spirits and indicate that they have made a pilgrimage. agricultural ant The Western harvester ant (Pogonomyrmex barbatus) and several related species, because they were once believed to plant, cultivate and harvest food; they do eat seeds, clearing the area around their nests and storing the seeds there.

agrillo

See

AGARITA.

agrito

See

AGARITA.

aguardiente This Spanish word for a strong alcoholic drink has long been used in the Southwest for any potent liquor. Aguardiente translates literally as “fiery or burning water”; the many minor variations on the word include argadent and aguadiente. A major variation is Taos lightning. ah

A pronunciation of I, as in, “Ah speak Ainglish.”

ahorseback On a horse. “ ‘Besides,’ she heard him say. ‘I looked around [for tracks] when I first came. Nobody has been out of here ahorseback since the rain.’ ” (Louis L’Amour, Hondo, 1953) aim Intend. “‘Aimin’ to make quite a stay in Osage?’” (Edna Ferber, Cimarron, 1930) ain’t on it An old term meaning to decline an offer. “I ain’t on it—I don’t like the idea one bit.” ain’t that a dinger Isn’t that something great. “Now, by God, ain’t that a dinger. In a way I was already a foreman. Life sure enough looked good.” (Max Evans, The Great Wedding, 1963) airin’ the lungs Cursing. “Ain’t much of a shame, a man airin’ his lungs once in a while.” air the paunch (belly) To vomit. “He drank a lot too much and aired his paunch.” It can also mean “to boast.” airtights Sealed, airtight cans of food. “The old cowboys ate a lot out of airtights.” See also KNOW ONE’S CANS. ajo The Spanish word for garlic but often incorrectly applied to the white desert lily (Hesperocallis undulata) in Western desert regions. à la Comanche To ride a horse by hanging onto one side, as the Comanches used to do to protect themselves in battle while they fired arrows from under the horse’s neck, as has been depicted in scores of Western movies. alameda A road or promenade lined with trees, especially poplar trees (also known as alamo trees) on each side; the word is an American borrowing in the Southwest of a Spanish word meaning the same. alamo (1) The name of several poplar trees, including the cottonwood; from the Spanish alamo meaning the

430 Happy Trails same. (2) A Franciscan mission in San Antonio, Texas besieged by 6,000 Mexican troops in 1836 during the Texan war for independence. The siege lasted 13 days and ended with all 187 of the men defending the Alamo being killed—but only after they had inflicted casualties of over 1,500 on the Mexican army. “Remember the Alamo!” became the Texan battle cry of the war. (3) The most recent use of the Alamo’s name in San Antonio’s Alamodome sports stadium constructed in 1992 at a cost of $130 million. albondigas A type of meatball or meatball soup of Spanish origin often served in the Southwest. albur A card game of Spanish origin played in the Southwest. alcalde A Spanish word for a local official such as a mayor or judge that was often used in the early Southwest and is recorded as early as 1803; it was also applied to early justices of the peace in the area and to any important or influential person. alegria A synonym for the amaranth (Amaranthus paniculatus), the bright-red leaf juice that Mexican women used as a cosmetic in the early Southwest. alforja Spanish for a leather or canvas saddlebag, the word once frequently used by cowboys in the Southwest and often corrupted into such pronunciations as alforkas and alfarkys. alfresco Now widely used in the United States, alfresco, meaning outdoors (as in “We dined alfresco”), was originally confined in use to the West. It is first recorded in 1853 as a borrowing of the Spanish al fresco meaning the same. algaroba The mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa); this Spanish name is often used in the Southwest for the mesquite but is actually a misnomer, for the conquistadores named the mesquite algaroba thinking it was related to their carob tree (algaroba), which it is not. alibi out of To make a spurious excuse, to shift the blame. “He alibied out of it, but no one believed a word he said.” alight (light) and look at your saddle An invitation to a rider to get off his horse and visit a while and come inside for a drink or a meal. “It’s a hot day. Light and look at your saddle, pardner.” alkali (1) A word used in the West to indicate a poor soil unsuited for farmland because of the soil’s high percentage of soluble salts. (2) The Western alkali plains

themselves. (3) A person, such as a prospector, who lived on the alkali plains. The word alkali itself is Arabic in origin. Arab chemists in medieval times extracted sodium carbonate from the marine saltwort plant, calling the substance al-galiy (ashes of salt wort). Later chemists applied the term alkali, a transliteration of the Arab word, to all salts with properties similar to sodium carbonate. “Sunrise found the white stage lurching eternally on across the alkali, a driver and bottle on the box, and a pale girl staring out at the plain, and knotting in her handkerchief some utterly dead flower.” (Owen Wister, The Virginian, 1902) See also ALKALIED. alkali dust Dust of the alkaline deserts of the Southwest. “. . . his coal-black eyebrows and mustache white with alkali dust . . .” (Conrad Richter, The Sea of Grass, 1936) alkalied (1) Poisoned by alkaline water. Cowboys believed that cattle so poisoned could be cured by feeding them a plug of tobacco wrapped in slices of bacon; cuts caused by alkali dust were said to be healed by applying canned tomatoes, which are acidic. It is now known, however, that toxic alcohol found in certain plains plants cause so-called “alkali poisoning.” (2) Someone seasoned in the ways of the West, an old hand, a veteran, especially a veteran of what was called “the big dry country,” the alkali plains. alkali grass A perennial salt grass of the Distichlis species growing in the alkaline soils of the West. all Often used in Western speech after “who” and “what,” as in “What all did you do yesterday?” all bally-which-way Twisted in every direction, highly confused. “ ‘I got to warn you about that country, boy . . . Just when you think you know it, somehow it’s twisted all bally-which-way.’ ” (Louis L’Amour, The Haunted Mesa, 1987) all his bullet holes is in the front of him He’s brave, not a coward. “ ‘He led us into an ambush. But I ain’t ashamed of him, nohow. All his bullet holes is in the front of him.’ ” (Louis L’Amour, Hondo, 1953) all horns and rattles Having a terrible temper, always ready to strike out like a rattlesnake or bull. alligator (1) A name used in the plains region of western Texas for the large tiger salamander. (2) A sled used in logging. alligator juniper A native Southwestern tree (Juniperus deppeana) with bark similar to an alligator’s skin.

angry tree 431 alligator weed An aquatic plant (Alternanthera philozeroidas) that clogs waterways in coastal Texas and other areas. all I know is what I read in the papers This saying has become a popular American expression since Oklahoman Will Rogers used it in his 1927 The Letters of a Self-Made Diplomat to His President. It has various shades of meaning but is commonly used to mean “I’m not an expert, I’m just an ordinary person and what I’ve told you is true to the best of my knowledge.” It implies one may be wrong because one’s sources are nothing exceptional. all leather An old Western term, not heard much anymore, for someone very genuine and reliable. “He’s sure been all leather all his days.”

American A term Westerners used for a horse bred in the East and brought West by emigrants, as opposed to the smaller and inferior horses found in the region. “He rode an American horse while I had to be content with a Spanish pony.” The term was also applied to Easternbred cows. amigo Friend, from the Spanish word meaning the same, often heard in the Southwest; por amigo, means “for friendship.” “Por amigo, I tell you how to get it. Dig here and you will find a burro load of gold money.” (J. Frank Dobie, Coronado’s Children, 1930) amole A Spanish word used for any of several Western wildflowers, especially the soap plant and soap weed, whose roots are used to make a soap substitute.

all man A man of superior strength, skill, endurance. “You’ve got to be all man to hold down a ranch that big.”

anaqua The sugarberry (Ehretia anacua), an evergreen tree with edible fruit. The Spanish word anaqua has yielded American pronunciations like knockaway that have also become Western names for the tree.

all oak and iron-bound In the best of condition, of high quality; perhaps like a well-made oak cask. “I’m feeling all oak and iron-bound.”

ándale A Mexican term used in the Southwest for hurry up, get going, get a move on it, pronto. “Come on, man, ándale, ándale!”

allocochick Though they spoke several different languages, northern California Indians in the 19th century all gave the name allocochick to their shell money, called wampum by Eastern tribes.

Angeleno Anyone residing in Los Angeles, California; this Spanish term dates back to the mid-19th century.

alpine A term attached to many plants found in the Rocky Mountain area, including the alpine fir, alpine hemlock and alpine columbine, Colorado’s state flower. all-spine A multi-branched, leafless, thorny plant (Koeberlinia spinosa) of the Southwest, also called allthorn and crucifixion thorn because Christ’s crown is said to have been made from it. all-thorn

See

ALL-SPINE.

all wool and no shoddy Something or someone genuine, trustworthy, pure; shoddy was a cheap material manufactured during the Civil War. amargosa A Spanish name common in Texas for the goat bush (Castala erecta); amargosa is Spanish meaning “bitter,” in reference here to the bush’s bitter-tasting bark, which is used for making certain medicines. ambulance A synonym for a prairie wagon; also called a dougherty wagon. “At Birkenshaw’s an ambulance met us, and off got a respectable person who shook hands . . .” (Owen Wister, Out West, 1893)

angels (angelenos) on horseback A dish of oysters wrapped with bacon, broiled and served on triangles of buttered toast that apparently originated in California early in the 20th century, though some say the name is a translation of the earlier French anges à cheval. angle in like.”

To enter. “He angled into the room real easy-

Anglo A term for an English-speaking white person, an Anglo-American, that originated among Spanish speakers in the Southwest in the early 19th century and is now common throughout the United States. Unlike GRINGO, it is not always a derogatory term. Anglo can also mean the English language. “He doesn’t speak Anglo.” angoras Fur chaps made from goat hides without the hair removed that were worn by early cowboys and often dyed green and pink, among other colors! Woolies, similarly, were chaps made from sheepskin without the wool removed. angry acacia

See

ANGRY TREE.

angry tree A Southwestern tree (Alcacea gregii) that, when disturbed, shakes violently, its leaves ruffling like

432 Happy Trails the hair on an angry cat, and emits a very unpleasant odor, its “bad temper” lasting an hour or so. It is also called the cat’s claw and angry acacia. animal Often used as a euphemism in the West, and other regions, for a bull and sometimes for a stallion. “When the high-toned ladies were present, we called a bull an animal.” animule A joking term for any animal; formed from the combination of animal and mule and in use since the early 19th century. ankle over To walk over. “How about you ankle over to my place this afternoon?” Annie Oakley The stage name of Phoebe Annie Oakley Mozee (1860–1926), star rifle shot with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Married at 16, Annie joined Buffalo Bill at 25 and amazed audiences for more than 40 years with her expert marksmanship and trick shooting. Annie once broke 942 glass balls thrown into the air with only 1,000 shots. Her most famous trick was to toss a playing card, usually a five of hearts, into the air and shoot holes through all its pips. The riddled card reminded circus performers of their punched meal tickets, which they began to call Annie Oakleys, and the name was soon transferred to free railroad and press passes, both of which were customarily punched with a hole in the center. Today all complimentary passes, punched or not, are called Annie Oakleys, and the expression is also used in yacht-racing for a ventilated spinnaker or headsail. answer the last call (roll call) Long used as a Western euphemism for “to die.” “I’m over ninety now, getting ready to answer the last call.” antelope The pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) of the Western plains. It is of a separate family that differs widely from the Old World antelope; nevertheless, it has been called the antelope ever since it was so named in the journals of the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804. antelope brush A Southwestern shrub (Purshia tridentata) that is an important browse plant for cattle and sheep. antelope chipmunk This Southwestern ground squirrel (Citellus leucurus) with a white-lined tail like an antelope’s is also called the antelope ground squirrel, the whitetail antelope squirrel, and the white-tail chipmunk. antelope horns A Southwestern milkweed plant. (Asclepias asperula), so named for the shape of its erect green pods.

antelope jackrabbit A white-sided jackrabbit (Lepus alleni) common to the Southwest. antigodlin; antigoglin Still used, despite being oldfashioned, in the West and South for something askew, at an angle, out of line. “Fix your slip, it’s all antigodlin.” anvil (1) A Texan term for rude fireworks made by pouring gunpowder into a hole in an anvil and exploding it by lighting a fuse. (2) A verb describing a galloping horse “making sparks” by striking its hind feet against its forefeet. anymore more.”

Nowadays, as in “We use a dishwasher any-

Apache (1) The Apache Indians were so named from a Zuni word meaning “enemy,” which was actually applied to many nomadic bands of Indians roaming the Southwestern United States. Among their greatest leaders were Cochise and Geronimo. The Apaches called themselves dene, an Athabascan word meaning “human being.” (2) An apache is a Parisian criminal or ruffian, and an apache dance is a violent dance originated by the Parisian apaches. The word in its gangster sense was coined by French newspaper reporter Emile Darsy, who is said to have read of bloodthirsty Apache Indians in the works of American author James Fenimore Cooper and thought that their name would aptly fit denizens of the underworld. (3) A word used mostly in the Northwest for what is often called a Mohawk haircut elsewhere. Apache plume A Southwestern shrub (Fallucia paradoxa), so named because of the supposed resemblance of its red feathery seed clusters to Apache Indian war bonnets. Apache State A nickname for the state of Arizona because of the great numbers of Apache Indians once residing in the territory. apache tears A poetic name for the round translucent glassy pebbles found in Western obsidian formations. This volcanic glass is highly valued by collectors. aparejo A packsaddle made of stuffed leather or canvas and used on mules and other animals, a borrowing of a Spanish word meaning the same. aparejo grass A grass of the Southwest (Sporobolus depauperatus) used to stuff APAREJOS. a-plenty Plenty. “I got a-plenty of friends who’ve taken all they could get and were honest in figurin’ they

armas 433 had it comin’ to them.” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973) Appaloosa A hardy breed of white horses with dark spots and white-rimmed eyes developed by the Nez Percé Indians and probably named after the Palouse River of western Idaho; the breed has been called the “Dalmatian of horses.” The designation appaloosa, first recorded in 1849, is also applied to the spotted appaloosa catfish. apple A derogatory name given to certain American Indians by other American Indians, who believe their values are too much like those of whites; that is, they are, like an apple, red on the outside and white on the inside. “ ‘Goddamit,’ one Indian yelled at another as the argument began. ‘You ain’t shit, you fucking apple.’ ” (Sherman Alexie, “Every Little Hurricane,” 1993)

ariviper A San Carlos Indian word used in the Southwest for a stream of water running a few feet under the desert sands. Arizona The 48th state, which entered the Union in 1912, takes its name from the Papago Indian Arizonac, “place of the few or little springs.” A nickname is Apache State. Arizona cloudburst storm.

A facetious term for a desert sand-

Arizona fever An expression commonly used in the late 19th century to describe a person’s great desire to migrate to Arizona. Arizona nightingale burro or mule.

A humorous term for a braying

apple bird A woodpecker (Asyndesmus lewisi) that often feeds on the fruit of Western apple orchards.

Arizona paint job wooden building.

A weather-beaten unpainted

appleknocker In the Pacific Northwest, a person unskilled in logging work, a neophyte, a farmer. The word has wide U.S. slang currency for an ignorant person, a hick.

Arizona ruby A garnet gem found in the Southwest and also called the Navajo ruby.

apron-faced horse A horse with a large white streak resembling a white apron on the forehead. Arapaho A name of uncertain origin for an Indian of a Western plains tribe of the Algonquian family. The name may derive from a Pawnee word for trader or from a Spanish word meaning “the ragged ones.” arbuckle So popular was Arbuckle’s coffee in the late 19th-century West that it became a generic name for coffee. The word also meant a tenderfoot, that is, a cowboy the boss got free for Arbuckle Coffee premium stamps. arched his back (1) Bucked, said of a horse. “The mustang arched his back and threw her.” (2) Said of a person about to become angry. are A pronunciation of hour. “Ah’m hongry an it’s a whole are till lunch.”

Arizona strawberries American cowboys and lumberjacks used this term as a humorous synonym for beans, also employing the variations Arkansas strawberries, Mexican strawberries and prairie strawberries. Dried beans were pink in color like strawberries. One wit noted that the only way these beans could be digested was for the consumer to break wild horses. Arizona tenor A person suffering from tuberculosis and the coughing that accompanies it; many people with the illness were drawn to the dry Arizona climate. Arkansas toothpick Arkansas travels for diarrhea.

See

BOWIE KNIFE.

A humorous term used in the West

Arkansas wedding cake term for corn bread.

A jocular Pacific Northwest

are you quits? Do you give up? “ ‘I said are you quits?’ ‘Quits?’ ‘Quits. Cause if you want some more of me you sure as hell goin’ to get it.’ ” (Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, or, The Evening Redness in the West, 1985)

armadillo A burrowing mammal of the family Dasypodidae with strong claws and a protective covering of bony plates. It has come to be associated with Texas, where it was first reported along the Rio Grande in 1854; its name means “little armored one” in Spanish.

argonaut A historical name for the men who went to prospect for gold in California during the gold rush of 1849, because many of them traveled there by ship.

armas Large leather flaps hanging from a saddle that serve as a kind of chaps to protect a rider’s legs in the brush.

434 Happy Trails arn A frequent Western pronunciation of iron. around the horn! A cry used by loggers in the Pacific Northwest meaning “Watch out—a log is swinging through the air to be loaded!” arrowbush Indians in the Southwest used to make arrows from the straight branches of Pluchea sericea, accounting for its common name arrowbush. arroyo A Spanish word used in the Southwest for a brook or creek, a small watercourse with steep sides that is often dry except during heavy rains. Used in the Southwest since the early 19th century, arroyo can also mean a channel, gully, dry wash, stream bed or valley. arroz con pollo A Mexican chicken and rice dish seasoned with garlic, saffron, paprika and other spices that was first introduced to the United States in the Southwest but is now known throughout the country. The Spanish name strictly translates as “rice with chicken.” artillery A term for personal firearms that arose in the West at the turn of the century and spread throughout the country. “He’s packing heavy artillery.” arty-facts A pronunciation of artifacts. “ ‘If you’re down in New Mexico, buy us some arty-facts,’ the old woman said.” (Larry McMurtry, Cadillac Jack, 1982) as long as grass grows and water runs A promise, meaning “forever,” often made to Indian tribes in the West regarding their rights to their lands and their freedom. “The invaders [settlers] pleaded for Statehood, and Statehood forever laid aside the promise to the red man that he should have freedom ‘as long as grass grows and water runs.’ ” (Colliers, November 30, 1907) aspen poplar A variety of poplar, also called the quaking poplar, common in the West on dry open ridges. as pretty a hand Said of a skilled worker. “He’s about as pretty a hand with rough stock ever come out of these parts.” (Thomas McGuane, Keep the Change, 1989) as pretty as a bald-faced heifer Descriptive of a very pretty, wholesome, angelic-looking woman. assessment work A Western mining term meaning the work that needed to be done annually on a claim in order to hold it. assin’ around Fooling around. “‘Get on the goddamned horse,’ said John Grady, ‘and quit assin’ around.” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992)

association saddle The official saddle required in all rodeo contests, one that “favors the horse,” cowboys say. as stylish as a spotted dog under a red-wagon An old expression meaning very stylish, up to the minute in fashion. atago A Spanish word for a train of pack animals often used in mountainous areas of the Southwest. atall At all. “ ‘Go ahead and jaw!’ Barton cut in . . . “Don’t mind me atall.” (William Hopson, The Last Shoot-out, 1958) attle A term for waste rock used in Western mines. “A huge pile of attle blocked the entrance to the old mine.” augerino A humorous old term for an imaginary evil creature whose greatest joy is to empty irrigation ditches by boring holes in them. augur Probably deriving from “argue,” augur can mean to talk or to argue, while auguring means talking, and an augur is a big-mouthed bore. Auguring contests were talking contests held in the early West in which two men commenced talking at a rapid rate, often babbling senseless sentences for hours, until one of them quit. avalanche A corruption of the French word ambulance (a wagon), avalanche was commonly used to mean a wagon in the old West. Avenging Angel The name given to the 1862 Colt revolver when part of its barrel was sawed off. Avenging Angels were used by Brigham Young’s Mormon followers, one of whom was said to have killed hundreds with his. awl A common Western pronunciation of oil. “I’m in the awl bidness.” ax handle A humorous measure of length among loggers of the Northwest; Paul Bunyan was said to be 24 ax handles high. ax-handle party An expression used for a brawl by loggers of the Pacific Northwest. ay, chihuahua! A mild expletive sometimes heard in the Southwest. This was a frequent oath of the Cisco Kid’s sidekick on The Cisco Kid radio program in the 1940s.

B baa-baa This Southwestern name for a sheep probably originated as a contemptuous cowboy expression and can still be derisive, but it has lost some of its sting today and is even used by sheep herders. Babe Ruth of rodeo Casey Tibbs (1928–90), rodeo’s all-around-champion nationally in 1951 and 1955 and saddle bronc champion six times. baby blue eyes The Western wildflower Nemophila menziesii, which has small blue flowers that suggest baby blue eyes to some. baby buggy The usual Western name for a baby carriage; sometimes used in other regions as well. baby in the bushes unwed mother.

the back forty A term used in the West for a large piece of cultivated land, or as a joking name for out-of-theway waste land. back in the saddle again (1) Back at work, back in one’s regular routine. (2) A humorous term for menstruation sometimes used by women in the West and South. back one’s play Loggers in the Northwest use this phrase to mean standing behind a person, backing up someone. “I’ll back his play this time, but this is his last chance.” back the breeze To talk too much; used by loggers in the Northwest. “Quit backing the breeze and get to work.”

A euphemism for a child born to an

baby morning glory An expression used in Texas for a dwarf variety of the morning glory flower. bachelor’s lantern A lantern made from a candle and an open tin can with holes punched in it. bachelor’s wife An old term for a tin plunger with a wooden handle used for washing clothes backbreaker A low tree stump, hard to cut because it is so close to the ground. back East A term used by Westerners referring to the eastern United States. Easterners, in turn, say out West in referring to the western United States. East in the expression means anywhere east of the Mississippi River or in the general direction of the East Coast.

bad Very ill. “He is awful bad, and I don’t know if he’ll ever get better.” Bad sick is also used. badger fight

See

PULLING THE BADGER.

Badlands A barren, severely eroded region in southwest South Dakota and northwest Nebraska. According to the Century Magazine (1882, XXIV), “The term Bad Lands does not apply to the quality of the soil. The Indian name was accurately rendered by the early French voyageurs as Mauvaises Terres pour traverser— bad lands to cross. The ground between the buttes is fertile, and the whole region is an excellent cattle-range, the rock formation affording the best possible winter protection.” Badlands National Park is in South Dakota. bad man, badman A Western historical term for an outlaw or professional gunfighter who had killed people; many were brutes, bullies and psychopaths, but sev435

436 Happy Trails eral who carried the title were men who had killed others in arguments or in self-defense. In The Great American Outlaw (1993), Frank Richard Prassel has this to say about the compound word badman, as opposed to bad man: “Indirectly [John] Wayne gave popular language the very word. His film The Angel and the Badman (1946) fixed the compound in vernacular English with a contradictory meaning. A badman is not necessarily bad; goodman has no meaning. Films issued before 1946 consistently divided the term; those made later routinely adopted the compound. For the original it was of no significance; whenever John Wayne played a badman, as he did with some frequency, something was clearly wrong with the law. His mere appearance in the role of a criminal made justification for illegality pointless; it could be assumed.” bad medicine Among the Indians, bad medicine meant a person’s bad luck, his spirits working against him. Cowboys used the term bad medicine to describe any very dangerous person, such as a feared gunfighter. See also MEDICINE. bad place in the road A small, out-of-the-way town or place of little consequence, a bend or spot in the road. bad sick

See

BAD.

bait A light meal; the expression probably doesn’t derive from “a bite” but from an old meaning of bait for a meal. “I’ll get me a bait before we leave.” bajada A Spanish term used in the Southwest for a steep trail or road or any steep, severe descent. “We made our way down the rocky bajada.” baker’s bread Commercially made store-bought bread as opposed to homemade bread; heard throughout the United States but most commonly in the West and North. baldface (1) A horse or cow (such as a Hereford) with a long white mark on its face; “Baldface” is thus frequently a nickname for a horse. (2) A logging term meaning to push a collection of loaded log cars with an engine.

baldheaded An expression used mainly in the West and North for a hurried action taken without caution or much thinking: “He really went at it baldheaded.” As Maximilian Schele de Vere put it in Americanisms (1871), the expression probably derives from “the eagerness with which men rush to do a thing without covering the head.” bald-headed prairie Barren prairieland with little or nothing growing on it. “ ‘Nothing but bugs and blood last season. Nothing but baldheaded prairie,’ the boss told Cecil.” (Edward Hoagland, Seven Rivers West, 1986) baldies Desert, barren country. “‘You’re right—it’s the money, not the killing,’ Wesley Hardin said. ‘They don’t care who gets killed, out here in the baldies.’ ” (Larry McMurtry, Streets of Laredo, 1993) baldy (1) A BALDFACE horse or cow. (2) Any mountain peak covered with snow; also called Old Baldy. balled up A euphemism for constipated. “I’m all balled up.” ball of snakes

See

WATERMILLION.

balloon bread A puffed-up bread that looks as heavy as a standard 1 1/2-pound loaf but is about a pound lighter. balm tree A common name in the Northwest for the balsam poplar. banana A name given in the Southwest to the sweet, fleshy fruit of the yucca. (Yucca aloifolia), which is shaped like the banana. banana slug The slug Ariolimax columvianus. William Least Heat Moon in Blue Highways (1982) wrote of an Oregon area: “I poked about the woods and turned up a piece of crawling yellow jelly nearly the length of my hand. It was a banana slug, so named because the mollusk looks like a wet, squirming banana.” banco A piece or large tract of land detached from its position when a river changes its course, often leaving it on the other side of the river.

bald-faced shirt A cowboy’s name for a man’s stiff dress shirt that may derive from the use of baldface for a cow with a long white marking down the center of its face. Boiled shirt is also used.

band (1) A Western term for a large flock of sheep (2,500 or so). (2) A large herd of cattle or horses. (3) To herd animals together.

baldhead The rounded top of a Southwestern plateau, mesa or mountain, which are often bare of vegetation. Also called a whaleback.

bandido A Mexican outlaw; the word is seldom applied to American bandits. Bandido is Spanish meaning “outlaw.”

battery 437 bandit (1) A robber or desperado; from the Spanish bandido (outlaw). (2) A raccoon, which is so called in Texas became of its mask-like face.

barleycorn sprints An expression used among loggers in the Northwest for dysentery suffered after a long bout of drinking.

bankrupt worm The little parasite roundworm of the genus Trichostrongylus is called the bankrupt worm because it often infects cattle herds, sometimes bankrupting those cattlemen whose stock it attacks.

barnyard pipe

bar A straight horizontal line used in cattle brands that resulted in the word becoming part of many ranch names, such as the famous Bar X. barbed wire When in the 1850s farmers began fencing in their land with barbed wire—twisted strands of wire fence with sharp barbs at regular intervals—ranchers tore the fences down so their herds could pass. This led to barbed wire fence wars in the West, notably one that broke out in Texas in 1884, and helped end the reign of the cowboy by the close of the century. barbed wire deal A term used in the Northwest among loggers meaning any situation that is very difficult or thorny to handle. barbed wire fence war

See

BARBED WIRE.

bar ditch A common pronunciation in Texas and Oklahoma for a barrow ditch. It is commonly thought to be called a bar ditch because it prevents (bars) herds of animals from getting on the roadway. But the bar in bar ditch is probably a shortening of barrow. Also called a bar pit. See also BARROW PIT. bardog A humorous term for a bartender. “ ‘Sure! Get a bardog to save ya! You’re too yella t’save yourself.’ ” (Richard Matheson, The Gun Fight, 1993) bardogging

Tending bar, being a

BARDOG.

barefoot (1) Cowboy talk for coffee served black, without milk or cream. (2) An old descriptive term for an unshod horse. “Them Indians moved mighty silent on their barefoot ponies.” barf To vomit; a term with wide currency, but chiefly used in the West and North. bark A historical expression once used to mean a scalp; to take the bark off someone was to scalp someone. barking squirrel barking wolf

Another name for the

A synonym for the

PRAIRIE DOG.

COYOTE.

A corncob pipe.

barometer bush The silverleaf Leucophyllum texanum, so called in Texas because after heavy rains this wildflower changes color overnight, turning hills and fields a soft lavender. bar pit

See

BAR DITCH.

barrio A Spanish word common in the Southwest, and many other areas of the country, for a Spanish-speaking, usually poor, section of a city. barrow

See

BAR DITCH.

barrow pit A ditch next to a graded road; so named because the soil taken from it is “borrowed” for landfill. Also called a bar pit and a barrow ditch. Basin State A nickname for the state of Utah. “The Judge has friends goin’ to arrive from New Yawk for a trip across the Basin.” (Owen Wister, The Virginian, 1902) See also GREAT BASIN. basket makers American Indians who were among the oldest inhabitants of the Southwest, living in the region from about A.D. 100 to 500, before the making of pottery there. bathin’ one’s countenance boy talk.

Washing one’s face, in cow-

a Bat Masterson A fabled gunfighter; after William Barclay “Bat” Masterson (1853–1921), a Western lawman who never lost a gun battle. Masterson is one of the few gunfighters who didn’t die a violent death. He became a sportswriter in New York City and is said to have “died at his desk gripping his pen with the tenacity with which he formerly clung to his six-shooter.” Masterson got the nickname “Bat” because when a sheriff in Kansas he often batted down lawbreakers with his cane instead of shooting them. battens The term preferred in California and the Pacific Northwest for wooden siding used to cover houses. battery A historical word for a revolver. In 1906 Mark Twain wrote in the magazine Horses Tale, “There’s no telling how much he does weigh when he’s out on the war-path and has his batteries belted on.”

438 Happy Trails Battle-born State A nickname for Nevada, the 36th state, because it was admitted to the Union in 1864 while the Civil War was still being fought.

though both Indians and settlers once ate the strongtasting plant. Also called cat’s breeches, waterleaf and pussyleaf, among other names.

batwings Very wide leather chaps that were popularized in early Western films but aren’t seen much anymore; they were widely used in the early West.

bear cat Something extraordinary. “That’s a bear cat of a mountain to climb!” bear claw

bawling The loud noises made by a cow in some kind of distress. Bay Bridge Another name for GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE over San Francisco Bay. “. . . in the unsmogged breezy clarity we could see the bridges—Dumbarton, San Mateo, even the Bay bridge . . .” (Wallace Stegner, All the Little Live Things, 1967) Bay City A nickname for San Francisco since the mid19th century. bayo A dun horse, often with a black line running down its back or with other black markings. Also called a bayo coyote. bayo coyote

See

BAYO.

Bayou Salade French trappers probably gave this name to South Park, Colorado because of the salt springs there. bay steer

See

BEAR PAW.

bear flag The white flag with a star and grizzly bear upon it that was adopted by Americans in California in 1846 when they defied Spanish authorities and proclaimed the California Republic. It has since become the California state flag. bear grass A Southwestern plant of the Nolina genus that also goes by the names basket grass, threadgrass and devil’s shoestring. The abundant red-plumed plant is sometimes fed to livestock in emergencies and is used for weaving, and its husks are burned in campfires by cowboys on the range. bear paw A popular Western pastry made with nuts and raisins that roughly suggests a bear’s paw in shape; also called a bear claw. It appears to have originated in California in about 1940. bear story Any exaggerated story or tall tale, the term having originated among Western hunters with tales of their exploits hunting bears.

A reddish-brown steer noted for its spirit.

be after someone with a sharp stick To be determined to have satisfaction or revenge. Bartlett called this phrase a Westernism in 1848. “He’s after those politicians with a very sharp stick.” bean Slang for penis. “‘A cold clime will perk a boy up and make him want to wriggle his bean.’ ” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985) beaner A derogatory term in the Southwest for a Mexican, someone of Mexican ancestry; a Mexican migrant worker. Other such names include bear and beano. bean master A humorous term used on the trail for a cook; patterned on the analogy of wagon master.

bear trap saddle A deep small saddle enclosed with a cantle, making it very difficult for even a tenderfoot to fall out. beast with a belly full of bedsprings A colorful cowboy term for a bucking horse. “It was my turn out of the chutes—on a beast with a belly full of bedsprings.” beat out Worn out, tired. “ ‘Now don’t you go getting yourself beat out,’ Luz said, smiling . . .” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952) the Beautiful Bodacious Babylon of the West A colorful old name for Dodge City, Kansas, once a wild and rowdy cowtown on the Santa Fe Trail.

bearberry honeysuckle The most common Western honeysuckle shrub (Lonicera involucrata), which yields paired black berries that bears are said to favor.

became shot Killed by being shot. “. . . a cowboy would ride up and warn you not to tresspass on his watering rights, and if you persisted . . . one day you became shot. That was the phrase they used: ‘Poor Waddington. Running his cattle north toward Skunk Hollow. He became shot.’” (James Michener, Centennial, 1974)

bear cabbage A Western wildflower (Hydrophyllum capitatum) that is neither eaten by bears nor a cabbage,

bedded Cowboy talk for a roped animal that has been thrown so hard that it lies still.

beans

Bullets. See also

NO BEANS IN THE WHEEL.

between a rock and a hard place 439 bedding ground A place where a herd of cows can sleep at night. “Our herd now amounted to some sixhundred head, and it was a pretty sight of an evening to see them streaming from various quarters toward the bedding ground.” (Reginald Aldridge, Life on a Ranch, 1884)

belled snake A rattlesnake, whose rattle warns of its presence the way a bell does on a collared cat.

bed down (1) To kill. “He bed him down with one shot.” (2) Teddy Roosevelt wrote in the Century Magazine (April 1888) that to bed down cattle “simply consists in hemming them into as small a space as possible, and then riding round them until they lie down and fall asleep.”

bellota An oak (Quercus arizonica) found in the Southwest; its acorns were used as food by the Indians.

bedfast hurt.”

Bedridden. “He’s been bedfast since he got

bell horse The lead horse or mule in a pack train of horses or mules, so named for the large bell customarily attached to its neck.

belly cheater; belly robber; belly burglar Belly cheater is an old American cowboy term for a cook that may date back to the 19th century but is first recorded as U.S. Navy slang in the form of belly robber, specifically referring to a commissary steward. The term has also been used for an Army mess sergeant. Another, later variant is belly burglar.

bed-ground (1) A place selected on a drive where sheep are bedded down for the night. (2) A place where a cowboy spreads his blankets.

belly up desert.”

bed-slat An emaciated animal, such as a cow with protruding ribs that resemble bed-slats.

benighted An old term for being overtaken by nightfall. “She was benighted before she could get home.”

bed wagon A wagon that carries bedrolls and supplies for cowboys on the job; food is carried in the chuck wagon.

a Ben Thompson Any legendary gunfighter. The real Ben Thompson (1842–84) was a professional gambler who was said by some to be the fastest shot in the West and several times shot the gun out of an opponent’s hand. He died in an ambush in which he was greatly outnumbered.

beef (1) An adult cow, bull or steer, especially one raised for its meat. (2) To kill a cow, bull or steer for meat. “I reckon we’ll beef the yearling tomorrow.” beefalo

See

CATTLO.

beef driver A synonym for a cowboy, first recorded in 1834. “The saloon was filled with beef drivers, gamblers and women.” beef drover 1855.

A synonym for a cowboy, first recorded in

Dead. “They found him belly up in the

bentonite A soft clay used as a fuller’s earth that is found chiefly near Fort Benton, Montana. best

Better. “You’d best go home.”

the best thing out The best story. “ ‘Jest heard the best thing out, boys . . . Jim was just tellin’ the richest yarn . . .” (Bret Harte, “How Santa Claus Came to Simpson’s Bar,” 1863)

beef-head An old nickname for a Texan, common in the late 19th century and referring of course to the many cattle in the state.

be the whole herd To be the most important person. “He was the whole herd, all right, no one else came close.”

beefsteak

between a rock and a hard place In days past if one was badly in need of money, almost bankrupt, he or she was said to be between a rock and a hard place. This expression was probably born in Arizona during a financial panic early in this century, but over the years, its meaning changed. It came to mean being in a very tight spot, on the horns of a dilemma in making a hard decision. The words do lend themselves to this last definition, for wherever one turns in making the decision, there is something as hard as or harder than rock to face.

See

GIMLET.

beefsteaked Descriptive of a horse with sores caused by a saddle that doesn’t fit right. beehive cactus Another name for the barrel cactus (Echinocactus Johnsonii octocentrus) of the Southwest deserts. beeves Cattle; the plural of beef, an adult cow, steer or bull raised for its meat.

440 Happy Trails between grass and hay The period between childhood or adolescence and becoming an adult. between two suns See quote. “And I went, too, between two suns, as my uncle used to say of any man who disappeared.” (Conrad Richter, The Sea of Grass, 1936) beyond sundown

See

SUNDOWN.

big-balled for a shoat With a lot of nerve for a young or small person. “ ‘If,’ said Marcus, ‘you figure on coming back here for your job, forget it. You can’t work for me again. You are big-balled for a shoat [a young pig].’” (Charles O. Locke, The Hell Bent Kid, 1957) Big Bellies A name given by white settlers to the Gros Ventre Indians of Montana; also called the Great Bellies. big bend Land adjoining a large bend in a river. As a proper name, the term is usually applied to a region in Oregon and Washington near the Columbia River and to a region in southwestern Texas on the Rio Grande. Big D

A common nickname for Dallas, Texas.

big dry country

See

ALKALIED.

Big Foot A huge, hairy, humanoid creature said to inhabit the Pacific Northwest forests, so named because of the size of its alleged footprints, said to be 16 to 17 inches long and 7 inches wide. This abominable snowman of the California mountains is also called Bigfoot and Sasquatch, the name Sasquatch recorded in 1925, some 35 years before the name Bigfoot. Big H A nickname for Houston, Texas. “ ‘Houston,’ Dub said. ‘I can tell you one thing, we don’t put it out to pasture near as quick down in Big H as they do out here in Vegas.’ ” (Larry McMurtry, The Desert Rose, 1983) bigheaded Conceited, too self-confident. “They [easily] led him into the ambush because he was bigheaded.” (Louis L’Amour, Hondo, 1953) He’s (she’s) got the bighead means “he (she) is conceited.” bighole To suddenly stop a train or a truck; the expression, a longer variant of which is bighole the air, refers to the air escaping from the air brake valve when a train’s brakes are sharply applied. “He saw the cows on the track and bigholed the train.” big jaw

See

LUMPY JAW.

Big Muddy

A nickname for the Missouri River.

big pasture A joking name sometimes used for any state prison. Big Sky; Big Sky State A nickname for Montana. “It was going fast, the Big Sky was. . . . All sorts of famous people—celebrities—were vacationing there.” (Rick Bass, “Days of Heaven,” 1991) big swimmin’ A river at flood stage. “He took ’em across the big swimmin’.” bilk

To cheat.

bilker A cheap cheater, one who “never misses a meal and never pays a cent.” bill-show An old term for any wild west show, probably deriving from the shows of Buffalo Bill Cody. billy-be-damned An old euphemistic curse. “He was so billy-be-damned thorough with it . . .” (Jack Schaefer, The Kean Land, 1953) Billy the Kid, a A fabled gunman, after Henry McCarty (1859–81), who took the name William H. Bonney and was dubbed “Billy the Kid” for his youth and small size after he killed his first man when barely 18. He was perhaps the fastest draw in the West, and his shots often hit their mark before his gun was seen to leave his holster. He was killed by sheriff Pat Garrett, who caught him off guard. bindle A bedroll, blanket roll; bindle here probably derives from bundle. bindlestiff a tramp or hobo, one who carried a BINDLE. “Before he knew it he was a bindlestiff himself.” (John Steinbeck, East of Eden, 1952) Also called a blanket stiff. bing cherry The popular dark red, nearly black firm fruit of the Bigarreau group. The tree was developed in 1875 by a Chinese farmer named Bing in Oregon, where over a quarter of the United States’ sweet cherry crop is grown. Other cherry varieties named after their developers include the Luelling, for the man who founded Oregon’s cherry industry in 1847. bird-egg pea The milkvetch, Astragalus ceramicus, also called painted pod, whose striking spotted pods somewhat resemble a bird’s eggs. Bird Woman A name given to the Shoshoni Indian woman Sacagawea (pronounced Sa-cuh-juh-we-uh),

Black Robe 441 famous guide for the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1805. biscuit shooter A derogatory term for a ranch cook; used jokingly by cowboys. bisnaga A plumb, spiny cactus whose juicy pulp and water have often quenched the thirst of travelers in the desert. bit Twelve and one-half cents; a Spanish coin of that value. See also BIT HOUSE. bitch

See

POSSUM BELLY.

bitch light See quote. “In her day, they had no wicking to make candles, so they melted bear grease or fish oil in a tin pan and lighted a twisted strip of rag in it, and it was always a devilish mess, even before the children slatted it over—a bitch light.” (Annie Dillard, The Living, 1992) bites See quote. “Most of the men carried home-made fifty-caliber cartridges empty of powder and filled with cyanide. ‘Bites,’ they called them. A man would no more be without them than without his extra keg of water. When Indians attacked and there was no escape or defense, a hunter could always bite the bullet.” (Lucia St. Clair Robson, Ride The Wind, 1982) bite the dust Everytime we hear of still another desperado biting the dust in Western films, we are hearing an almost literal translation of a line found in Homer’s Iliad, written thousands of years ago. American poet William Cullen Bryant translated the words in 1870: “. . . his fellow warriors, many a one, Fall round him to the earth and bite the dust.” Earlier, Alexander Pope had eloquently translated the phrase as “bite the bloody sand” and English poet William Cowper had it, literally, as “bite the ground.” The idea remains the same in any case: a man falling dead in combat, biting the dust in his last hostile, futile act. bit house A historical expression for a Western saloon that served all drinks, food, cigars and so forth for one price—one bit, or 12 1/2 cents. bitterbrush Purshia tridentata, also known as antelope brush and buckbrush; among the most widely distributed of Western shrubs. bizzing A term common in Utah and Colorado for the dangerous game children play hanging onto the back of a car and skiing on one’s shoes when the road is icy or otherwise slippery.

blab A board attached to a calf’s nose and mouth to prevent it from suckling anymore; also called a blab board and a blab-board weaner. Black Bart, the PO-8 The nom de plume of Charles E. Boles, the daring robber who held up stagecoaches in the 1870s and did it alone on foot (he had no use for horses) with an unloaded shotgun (he had no use for violence)! A consummate artist at his chosen work, Black Bart wasn’t a bad poet, either. He wrote many poems for his victims, the following sample certainly his rationalizations for his crimes: I’ve labored long and hard for bred For honor and for riches But on my corns too long you’ve tred You fine-haired Sons of Bitches.

Unfortunately, little is known of Black Bart. The man who signed his poems PO-8 appears to have disappeared after being released from jail in 1888. black blizzard A term for a severe dust storm; the expression originated with the dust storms of the Great Depression that ravaged the farms of Oklahoma and Kansas in the 1930s. Also called a black roller and black snow. blackbrush A small Southwestern desert shrub (Coleogyne ramosissima) with a blackish appearance when grouped together. The desert tar bush Flourensia cernula also goes by this name. black-eyed Susan but a revolver.

An old joking name for not a flower

black grama Any of several popular species of Southwestern grasses, including the dark purple grama grass Bouteloua eriopoda, the gallita grass Hilaria jamesii and the muhly grass Muhlenbergia porteri. black hawk A dark-colored, red-tailed hawk (Buteo calurus) native to the West. The name is also given to the Mexican black hawk, Swainson’s hawk and Harris’s hawk. blackland A dark soil that can be heavy and sticky, though the term is also used to mean a dark, loose soil. black persimmon The persimmon tree (Diospyros texana) of southwest Texas, so named because of its darkfleshed fruit. Its other names include the mustang persimmon, possum plum, chapote and Mexican persimmon. Black Robe A historical name given to Jesuit missionaries working among Indians in the West, the name orig-

442 Happy Trails inating with the Indians themselves and referring to the robes the Jesuits wore. They were also called Black Gowns.

bless the meat and damn the skin Part of an old grace said before a meal: “Bless the meat an’ damn the skin,/ Throw back your ’eads na’ all pitch in.”

black roller

blind as a one-eyed mule in a root cellar Completely blind, unable to see or understand. “You know the law. The law is blind as a one-eyed mule in a root cellar.” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973)

See

BLACK BLIZZARD.

black sage The sagebrush Artemisea arbuscula or Artemisea tridentata, so named because of its darkcolored stem; this plant is also called black sagebrush. black snow

See

BLACK BLIZZARD.

black water Weak black coffee; or, sometimes, any coffee, weak or not.

blind the trail To cover over one’s tracks, to make them appear to be heading another way. “We tried to blind the rail, but he never stayed more than an hour behind us.”

black wax Another word for gumbo (sticky, heavy soil); used in Texas and other Western states.

blind trail A trail, with markings, blazes or signs that are difficult to make out or follow.

bladebones Large shoulder bones of an animal. “The men turned out in the early morning darkness to dig their graves with bladebones of antelopes . . .” (Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, or, The Evening Redness in the West, 1985)

blinky milk Milk that has turned sour. “He sold us some blinky milk.”

blanco An Indian name for white men in the Southwest; from the Spanish blanco (white). “He seldom wound the watch . . . because he knew where the sun stood and when the moon rose, unlike the puzzling blancos, who were to be pitied because they seemed not to know and had to depend on this ticking thing.” (Fred Grove, Phantom Warrior, 1981) blanket Indian A derogatory term commonly used in the 19th century for an Indian thought to be docile and of a low cultural level because he or she wore a blanket instead of dressing like white people. To wear the blanket meant that an Indian was “half-civilized.” blanket stiff

See

BINDLESTIFF.

blatting The noise a sheep makes; sometimes applied to humans. “That’s just Shorty blattin’ cause he’s lost a hand.” (Jack Schaefer, Monte Walsh, 1958) blazer (1) An old Westernism meaning a superlative person. “T’other gal is likely enough, but the mother’s a blazer!” (Mrs. Kirkland, Western Clearings, 1845) (2) A bluff or a lie. blazing star Slang for a stampede. “The herd . . . burst like a bombshell into the most disastrous of all plains mishaps—‘a blazing star’. The solid herd streamed suddenly in all directions, scattered in knots and bunches, and two and threes, and vanished into the storm and darkness.” (Munsey’s Magazine, XXV, 1901)

blister bug A small grayish beetle (Lytta cinerea), found mostly in Texas, that causes blisters on the skin if touched. bloat A reaction in cows to drinking ALKALI water. “Every last cow except three that died of bloat. Alkalie water.” (Jack Schaefer, Monte Walsh, 1958) blobbermouth A term heard in Texas for a talkative person, a variation on blabbermouth. blocker A long loop used to rope cattle by the feet, named after its inventor, South Texas roper and cattleman John Blocker. blonde bound An expression used among loggers for someone who blames his being late to work on being delayed by a woman. blond Swede

A logger’s term for an old man.

blooddrops A tiny red wildflower, a wild poppy, that looks like drops of blood among the grass. blossom rock Quartz rock that has oxide stains, indicating that minerals such as gold or silver are nearby. blowed A term applied to a gusher in the oil fields but used generally in Oklahoma to mean “became immensely big or profitable.” As Sam Walton said of his Wal-Mart chain: “It was the retail equivalent of an oil gusher: as they say in Oklahoma, the whole thing just sort of blowed.” (Sam Walton, Made in America, 1992)

bodark; bodock 443 blow his stirrup An expression used in rodeo competitions for what happens when a bronco-buster loses his foothold on the stirrup, resulting in his disqualification in the event. blowing Talking. “‘Blowing like this before breakfast,’ he said, ‘is bad for the digestion.’ ” (Jack Schaefer, First Blood, 1953) blow out his lamp blew out his lamp.”

blowhard A braggart. The term can be traced back to the American West in about 1855. To blow your own horn, or to promote yourself, derives from a much older expression, to blow your own trumpet, which goes as far back as 1576. Such “hornblowing” may have its origins in medieval times, when heralds blew their trumpets to announce the arrival of royalty but commoners such as street vendors had to blow their own horns. bluebonnet The blue-flowered lupine Lupinus texenis, the official state flower of Texas. Due to extensive seeding, great masses of them bloom along the roadsides in the spring. Also once known as buffalo clover. blue devil A historical term that was applied to the fence-cutting cowboys during the Texas “fence war” in the 1880s, when farmers fenced in the open ranges.

blue meat calf.

NORTHER.

blue racer The quick, bluish green snake Coluber constrictor mormon found west of the Rockies. bluestem A name given to both prairie beardgrass (Andropagon) and bluestem wheatgrass (Agropyron smithii), among the most common of Western wheatgrasses.

To kill someone. “Billy the Kid

blow snake A name given in the West to the long, harmless snake Heterodon contortrix, known as the hognose snake in other parts.

blue lightning shooter.

norther. See also

A humorous name for a revolver or six-

An old term for the meat of an unweaned

blue-mouthed alligator A colorful curse. “You yallerskinned, rat-eyed, long-drawn-out blue-mouthed alligator!” (Max Brand, The Black Signal, 1925) Bluemouths An Indian tribe residing west of the Choctaws. Not much is known about them, but the Choctaws told travelers that there was a large city where these blue-mouthed or blue-lipped people lived and that if a person tried to kill one of these people he would become insane. blue norther A strong, icy north wind, so cold it could turn your nose or hands blue; mostly used in Texas cattle country. Also called a blue whistler and a blue Texas

blue whistler

See

BLUE NORTHER.

bluewood The native Texas shrub or tree Condalia hookeri, also called chaparral, purple haw basil and logwood; it has bluish black fruit, and its wood yields a blue dye. boardwalk A sidewalk made of boards, common in many early Western towns though seen only in historical replicas today. “The east side of Main boasted a boardwalk. The West side had only a dusty path.” (Lewis B. Patten, Pursuit, 1957) boar’s nest Any small camp for male workers only, usually cowboys, and consisting of a few small buildings. bob ruly American pioneers called a burned out area a bob ruly, which leads some to think that the term might have been named after a notorious firebug of old. But bob ruly, first recorded in 1848, though older, is just how the French words bois brûlé (burned woods) sounded to American ears. bobtailed flush or straight A bobtailed flush or straight in poker is a three-card flush or straight, one that is worthless because poker rules require five-card flushes or straights. The term apparently originated in the West in the mid-19th century, the word modeled on the short-cut tails of bobtailed horses. bob-wire A common pronunciation of barbed wire.” “Chaos demanded order, and the means of order were to be barbed wire—‘bob-wire’, most people used to call it.” (James Frank Dobie, A Vaquero of the Brush Country, 1929) bodark; bodock The Osage orange tree (Maclura pomifers). It is so called because the Indians used its wood for making bows, and the French thus called it the bois d’arc (bowwood) tree, which became corrupted in English to bodark and bodock. It is called the Osage orange because it grew in Osage Indian country and has large, rough-skinned, greenish fruits somewhat suggestive of an orange, but inedible. The spiny-branched tree

444 Happy Trails is often used for hedges and called the Osage thorn. It is first recorded in 1804 by the Lewis and Clark expedition as the Osage Apple.

boneyard An emaciated animal, especially a horse or cow, or an emaciated person. “That old boneyard’s good for nothin’.”

boggy-top pie A pie with a sweet, gooey topping. “Harpe said, ‘You better try a slice of this boggy-top pie, Charlie. It’s mighty good.’” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973)

bonnet string The chin strap on a cowboy hat. “He pulled his bonnet string tight.”

bog rider An old term for a cowboy responsible for freeing cows that get stuck in mud holes on the trail. bohind A humorous expression used by Texans for the buttocks; probably from BOHUNKUS and behind. bohunkus A humorous term for the buttocks. It may derive from bohunk, a derogatory term for any eastern European, which in turn comes from Bohelmian and hunk for Hungarian.

boof An old word meaning a scare or fright. “He got some boof when I come up behind him.” booger To become excited and act nervously. “Something boogered the herd.” boogers Things that excite or fighten horses or cattle; probably derives from boogerman for a ghost. “ ‘Do you reckon a man could drive a herd from there’ . . . ‘It’s in my mind. If you’d come along to keep the boogers off.’” (Louis L’Amour, Bendigo Shafter, 1979) books

boiled shirt; biled shirt (1) A miner’s name for a snob. “. . . if a man wanted a fight on his hands . . . all he had to do was appear in public in a white shirt . . . For those people [Western miners] hated aristocrats. They had a particular and malignant animosity toward what they called a ‘biled shirt.’ ” (Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872) (2) A cowboy’s name for a man’s stiff dress shirt. boil over Said of a horse when it starts to buck. “He boiled over and began bucking.” bois d’arc

See

BODARK.

bois de vache Buffalo chips, which were often used as fuel for fires in the early West. boll-weevil A term used among Western oil workers for either a novice or a worthless person, after, of course, the insect that ruins cotton plants. bologna bull An inferior quality animal fit only to make bologna when slaughtered. bolson Any low-lying area surrounded by mountains; named after the Bolson Desert in Mexico. bonanza Rich gold mines in the early West were called bonanzas, from the Spanish word for “smooth sea” (hence good luck or success). When miners discovered a rich mine or vein of ore, this was said to be a bonanza, and the word came to mean sudden good luck. The expression is first recorded in 1844. bone orchard A cemetery. “‘The town’s empty as a bone orchard.’” (William Dale Jennings, The Cowboys, 1971)

School, schooltime. “Has books begun yet?”

boomer An itinerant worker, one who comes to work in an area where there is plenty of work due to boom times. boondoggle One source says that early cowboys used the term boondoggle to mean making saddle trappings out of odds and ends of leather to wile away their idle hours, boondoggling soon coming to mean to do any work of no practical value, merely to keep or look busy. But there are several stories concerning the word’s origins. The old yarn about boondoggle being suggested by Daniel Boone idly whittling sticks to throw to his dog does convey the sense of the word but is just another spurious tale. booshway Deriving from the French bourgeois, for the leader of an expedition in the West or the head trader, booshway came to mean any big boss and then became a joking name for a pretentious person or a self-styled big shot. boot A receptacle for a horseman’s rifle. “Coy had slipped the Winchester back into its boot once he cleared town.” (Sam Brown, The Crime of Coy Bell, 1992) Boot Hill Now a joking name for any cemetery, the term was first applied to any small cemetery in the West where men who died in gunfights, who died with their boots on, were buried. The first such is said to have been in Deadwood, South Dakota; the Mount Moriah cemetery there is now a big tourist attraction. “On a knoll, peopled with stone and wooden monuments, stood Boot Hill, the final resting place of the loved and the unloved, the killer and the saint.” (James Wesley, Showdown in Mesa Bend, 1972)

box 445 boot pack A roomy rubber boot higher than a shoe, although the term once meant a high moccasin.

boss of the Plains hat.

boots and saddles! Most Americans are familiar with the old Western song “Give Me My Boots and My Saddle,” but this familiar cavalry call has nothing to do with boots and saddles, as one might suspect. It derives from the old French cavalry command Boute selle (Put saddle!), which the British corrupted to boot and saddle! and which American cavalrymen further corrupted to boots and saddles!

Boston A historical term once used by Indians of the Northwest for any white American, as opposed to the English, French and so forth. These Bostons were also called Bostonians by the Indians and were so named because so many settlers came from New England or had connections with that great hub of commerce.

border tale A Western story. “I am sorry to have to lie so outrageously in this yarn. My hero has killed more Indians on one war trail than I have killed in all my life. But I understand this is what is expected of border tales. If you think the revolver and Bowie knife are used too freely, you may cut out a fatal shot or stab wherever you think wise.” (William F. [Buffalo Bill] Cody in a letter to his editor, 1875, quoted in Loren D. Estleman, This Old Bill, 1984) born a-horseback An old expression for a cowboy or anyone who rode a great deal. “He was born a-horseback.” born in a hurricane Descriptive of someone who can handle the most extreme situations, do the hardest, most difficult work. “. . . this man, Otis claimed, would go out by himself for weeks at a time with his bedroll and lariat and would single-handedly rope, brand, vaccinate, and castrate hundreds of calves . . . ‘He was born in a damn hurricane, this feller was—’” (Thomas McGuane, Keep The Change, 1989) born with a burr up his butt Said of an extremely cranky person. “He’s irritable all the time—he was born with a burr up his butt.” borracho Drunk: a drunk person; from the borrowing of a Spanish word meaning the same. “He’s muy borracho.” borrasca See quote. “A borrasca was a mine that showed no ore, or one in which the good ore had petered out.” (Jack Cummings, The Rough Rider, 1988) borrego A Spanish word used in the Southwest for both a male sheep and a fleecy cloud. borrowed

A euphemism for stolen.

boss dice A dice game with special rules played at bars, mainly in California.

An old name for the big

STETSON

Boston dollar A humorous old term for a penny, reflecting the cowboy’s disdain for what he regarded as Eastern stinginess. bottom Descriptive of a horse with great stamina or staying power. “That horse has real bottom.” boudin A dish made from the intestines of buffalo, which was considered a great delicacy by hunters and trappers. It is from a French word meaning “sausage.” Bowie knife One writer defines the bowie (pronounced boo-ie) knife as “the principal instrument of nonsurgical phlebotomy in the American Southwest.” This lethal instrument was not invented by the legendary Colonel James Bowie (1799–1836), friend of Davy Crockett and hero at the Alamo. According to testimony by a daughter of Rezin Pleasant Bowie, the colonel’s older brother, it was her father who invented the knife in about 1827, though Jim Bowie did make it famous in a duel that year at Natchez, Mississippi in which six men were killed and 15 wounded. The common long-bladed hunting knife was originally made at Rezin Bowie’s direction by Arkansas blacksmith James Black, who ground a large file to razor sharpness and attached a guard between the blade and handle to protect the user’s hand. After Jim Bowie killed one man with it in the Natchez duel, he is said to have sent his knife to a Philadelphia blacksmith, who marketed copies of it under Bowie’s name. Its double-edged blade was 10 to 15 inches long and curved to a point. Also called an Arkansas toothpick and a California toothpick, it was even carried by some congressmen. bowleg country The West, country where cowboys ride herd. “Out in Bow Leg country Lin McLean had met a woman . . . and made her his lawful wife.” (Owen Wister, “A Journey in Search of Christmas,” 1897) bow your back To work hard. “Why, if I had your youth and my brains, I could walk on the backs of my cattle to Omaha. Go on out there, Joe, and bow your damn back (Thomas McGuane, Keep The Change, 1989) box

Can. See usage example at

TIN.

446 Happy Trails box canyon A narrow or blind canyon with steep sides that ends at a rock wall. bozo A word of Southwest origin with Spanish antecedents that means fellow or man but has come to have a derogatory connotation. It possibly derives from the Spanish mozo (young man). Wrote Alfred H. Holt in Phrases and Word Origins (1936): “With the word ’bo (for hobo) in mind, and a cold in the head, what more simple than to change mozo (pronounced with the Mexican s, not the Spanish th) into bozo?” bracero Any Mexican laborer in the Southwest; formerly a Mexican migrant picker legally admitted to the United States, the word derives from the Spanish bracero (someone with strong arms). braggin’ ranch A big Texas ranch. “ ‘Course it’s kind of wildish up there, not like here, and we only got a small place—couple hundred thousand acres—it ain’t what you’d call a braggin’ ranch . . .’ ” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952) brag on To brag about. “You ought to heard him brag on his dog.” Brahma A famous Western cattle breed first imported from India, its place of origin, by South Carolinian Dr. James Bolton Davis in 1849. brake

See

BREAK.

brand (1) Brand, though long commonly used in the West, is not a word of Western American origin. Related to the word burn, it is Old English meaning “torch.” The ancient Egyptians marked their cows with brands thousands of years ago. (2) Outfit; organization. “I work for this brand, ma’am.” (Jack Cummings, The Rough Rider, 1988) brand artist A rustler or rustler’s accomplice who could deftly alter the brands on stolen cattle, creating a different design from the existing one and often doing so with the most rudimentary tools over a campfire. brand blotter; brand blotcher; brand burner More names for someone who illegally alters a brand on cattle.

brassy See quote. “There are days in our Southwestern country that people call brassy but should be called steel. The sun beats down with a merciless white fire until the cloudless sky is scarcely blue but rather like the blade of a knife that for days has been ground to stone. And all day it cuts open the breathing body of the prairie and lays its bones dead and bare in the pitiless glare before you.” (Conrad Richter, The Sea of Grass, 1936) brave around A term used in the early West to describe a man swaggering about like an Indian brave. “There he was bravin’ around as usual—that man could strut sittin’ down.” breachy (1) Descriptive of a cow given to breaking out of enclosures, a cow that breaches barriers. (2) By extension, a person without sexual restraints, one who leaps the fence of propriety. bread-and-with-it An old perhaps obsolete expression for a meal featuring food other than just bread, though it would not be a grand meal. “You’re welcome to come on in and have bread-and-with-it.” breadroot

See

break; brake

INDIAN BREADROOT

Rough ground; a gulch.

break for the tall timber Depart hastily with no goodbyes; also pull (or put, strike) for the tall timber. “He broke for the tall timber, knowing the Rangers weren’t far behind.” break in two In the Southwest, when a horse tries to throw a rider by suddenly changing from running to bucking, or vice versa, he is said to break in two. Similar expressions are to boil over and to wrinkle his spine. break one’s pick To quit, to be fired; an expression used especially among Western miners. break trail To forge a path through obstructions. “There he was, head low, breaking trail through the deep snow.” Break-up; Breaking Up A late 19th century term in the Southwest for the Civil War.

branded-in-the-hide Someone true-blue and uncompromising in his or her beliefs, a dyed-in-the-wool believer. “He was a branded-in-the-hide conservative.”

breed Short for half-breed. “ ‘You’re a damn fool, Wright. But what can you expect from a breed?’ ‘That’s a lie!’ shouted Ernie. ‘My mother wasn’t no Indian!’ ” (Jack Schaefer, Shane, 1949)

brasero A charcoal-holding container used in Southern Texas homes for cooking and sometimes for heating.

breed a scab on one’s nose; breed a scab A warning to someone that he or she is raising or stirring up trouble,

bronze gas 447 is looking for a punch on the nose. “Keep talking like that you’re breeding a scab on your nose.”

names Mormon tea, Brigham tea, teamster’s tea, clapweed and canatillo.

breeding ranch; breeding range Terms used in the past for a ranch or range where ranchers bred horses from their stock.

bristlecone pine Pinus aristada, an upland tree common to the Western states, one specimen of which, Methuselah, growing at 10,000 feet in California’s White Mountains, is thought to be the world’s oldest living tree at over 4,700 years of age.

breedy Descriptive of a worthwhile horse, one worth using for breeding purposes. “I wouldn’t trade this breedy horse for three of yours.” Bremmer cattle A common pronunciation of Brahma cattle, a variety of large silver-gray cattle that originated in India. “Watch out for that Bremmer bull.” bresh

A common Western pronunciation of brush.

Brevoortia Ida-Maia The floral firecracker, as this plant is popularly called, shows how oddly things sometimes get their names. Ida May, the daughter of a 19thcentury California stagecoach driver, had noticed the bulbous plant many times in her travels and pointed it out to Alphonso Wood, a naturalist always interested in collecting botanical specimens. Wood named the single plant, a member of the lily family, Brevoortia Ida-Maia, Brevoortia in honor of his fellow American naturalist J. C. Brevoort and Ida-Maia in gratitude to the observant little girl who had brought the scarlet-flowered perennial to his attention.

brittlebush; brittlebrush A low-growing Southwestern shrub (Encelia farinosa) whose flowering stems turn dry and brittle when its seeds mature; also called golden hills because of its yellow flowers glowing golden on the desert. broadhorn An ark or flatboat used to transport freight on Western rivers; so named for the two long oars projecting like horns from its sides. brockle-face face.

Broken Arrows A name given to a hunting band of the Sioux Indians residing on the Platte River in Nebraska in the 19th century. broken-mouths Old sheep, which generally lose some of their teeth and appear broken-mouthed. bronc

Brewer’s blackbird A Western blackbird named after American ornithologist T. M. Brewer (1814–80). brides of the multitude A euphemism for prostitutes. “Here, along three city blocks [in Denver], the ‘brides of the multitude’ practiced the oldest profession.” (Matt Braun, The Brannocks, 1986) bridlewise (1) A well-trained horse, one that responds to reins and bridle. (2) Any obedient person. “She’ll soon enough make him bridlewise.” Brigham’s Destroying Angels See quote. “[Porter] Rockwell was said to be the leader of [Brigham Young’s] Destroying Angels. It was whispered that these were the men who eliminated those troublesome to the church . . .” (Louis L’Amour, Bendigo Shafter, 1979) Brigham Young cocktail Any potent whiskey; so called, according to an old joke, “because after one sip, you’re a confirmed polygamist.” Brigham Young weed A plant of the Ephedra genus found in Utah and throughout the West and named for Mormon leader Brigham Young. It also goes by the

A cow with a blotched, mottled or pied

See

BRONCO.

bronco (1) A name from the Spanish for rough and wild, given to a small half-wild horse of the West, probably descended from horses that escaped from early Spanish settlements. (2) Any wild, unbroken horse. Also called a bronc. (3) Sometimes used as an adjective meaning wild and unruly. “He gets real bronco when he’s had too much to drink.” bronco-buster A cowboy who breaks wild horses to the saddle; also called a bronc-buster, bronc-peeler, bronc-rider, bronc-twister, bronc-fighter, bronc-snapper, bronc-scratcher, and bronc-stomper. bronco busting Breaking horses for the saddle. “He had a lot of pain, I guess; his insides were all shot from staying at broncho [sic] busting too long.” (Walter Van Tilburg Clark, The Ox-Bow Incident, 1940) bronco grass The grass Bromus secalinus, also called devil’s darning needle because of its inch-long needle, which gets snarled in clothing. bronze gas A term used in Oklahoma, Colorado and other areas for the unleaded gasoline sold at gas pumps.

448 Happy Trails broomtail (1) A mare with a long, broom-like tail. (2) Any small, inferior wild horse. brush breaking Breaking brush by riding through it. “‘Brush breaking’ derives its name from the peculiar brittleness of the timber in the high dry altitude of the Southwest. One can ride full speed into a piñon tree and the chances are that the momentum will knock off even good-sized branches.” (Reader’s Digest, October 1941) brush hand A cowboy who works in the brush country of the Southwest. brush lodge: brush hut; brush house Lodgings made of brush that were used by some Western Indians, often as temporary quarters. brush popper A cowboy who works cattle in the brush country of the Southwest. “Walton knew that I was a brush popper and that I hankered for ranger service . . .” (James Frank Dobie, A Vaquero of the Brush Country, 1929) Also called a brush buster, brush thumper, brush whacker and brush hand. The term can also be an insult: “It will be the biggest mistake you ever made, you Texas brush-popper.” (Charles Portis, True Grit, 1968) brush rabbit The cottontail rabbit (Sylvilagus bachmani) found throughout the West. brush splitters A name once used for wild brush cattle, the old Texas longhorns. a bubble off plumb

See

buckaroo A cowboy, often one who breaks horses. It is probably a corruption of the Spanish vaquero, meaning the same. The first recorded quotation using the word, in a letter from Texas, shows the mispronunciation of vaquero by Americans: “These rancheros are surrounded by peons and bakharas or herdsmen.” The mispronunciation “bakhara” was further corrupted to buckhara, buckayro and finally buckaroo. Buckaroo has probably lasted because it is a good descriptive word, suggesting a cowboy on a bucking horse. It inspired well over 50 other American slang words ending in “-aroo” or “-eroo.” Stinkaroo, a bad play or movie, still has wide currency, as does the old switcheroo, the act of substituting one thing for another. Others not so familiar anymore are antsaroo, ants in his pants; jugaroo, a jail; and ziparoo, energy. buckarooing Working as a cowboy. “‘I’ve got a place fer you in my plans.’ ‘Buckarooin’, I hope.’ ” (Jack Cummings, The Rough Rider, 1988) buckbrush A word used for any shrubby plants or browse plants that animals feed on. See also BITTERBRUSH. bucket man Rustlers and other unlawful elements gave this name to any cowboy loyal to his employer; the expression refers to the buckets of sheep disinfectant loyal hands had to carry to pour into sheep dip vats. Bucket men were also called sheep dippers. buck fence A rail fence made of whole or split logs nailed to a sawbuck (a sawhorse).

HALF A BUBBLE OFF.

buck (1) A derogatory term for an Indian man that dates back to the early 19th century. Buck warrior and buck aborigine were synonymous, though they are rarely, if ever, used anymore. (2) When said of horses, to leap up, arching the back and landing with head low and forelegs rigid. (3) Buck for a dollar may have its origins in animal skins that were classified as “bucks” and “does.” The bucks, larger and more valuable (some 500,000 of them were traded every year in 18th-century America), could have become a part of early American business terminology (ca. 1800) and later become slang for a dollar. But buck’s origin could just as well be poker. A marker called a buck was placed next to a poker player in the game’s heyday, in the West during the late 19th century, to remind him that it was his turn to deal next. When silver dollar were used as the markers, they could have taken the name buck for their own. buck a game To bet on a gambling game; to lose money gambling. “If you’re going to buck a game, be sure you know it first.”

bucking on a dime When a horse does all its bucking more or less in one spot, it is said to be bucking on a dime. bucking season The season when sheep breed, generally in late December or January, so that lambs are born in the gentler weather of spring. bucking straight away A horse that makes long straight-ahead jumps with no twisting is said to be bucking straight away. bucking the tiger See quote. “All betting was against the house, known in Western parlance as ‘bucking the tiger.’ ” (Matt Braun, The Brannocks, 1986) See BUCK THE TIGER. buck-kneed Knock-kneed; the word is applied to both horses and people. buck nun An old cowboy term for a single, celibate man or recluse who lives by himself without a woman, often in winter camps.

buffalo soldier buckle bunnies

A cowboy term for rodeo groupies.

buck out To give up entirely, to stop resisting and die—all the bucking gone out of you like a horse that has finally been broken. buckskin

See

DUN.

buckskins Clothes or shoes made from the strong soft yellowish or grayish leather prepared from the skin of a buck or deer. “He had discarded his buckskins and was wearing a full-dress uniform.” (G. Clifton Wisler, My Brother, the Wind, 1979) buck the tiger A historical term meaning to play against the bank in faro. Faro was called the tiger because professional gamblers carried their faro outfits in boxes with a Royal Bengal tiger painted on them, and tigers were also painted on the chips. buffalo Most people believe that buffalo is a misnomer, a name applied with zoological inexactitude to the American bison. Cortés described the creature as “a rare Mexican bull, with crooked shoulders, a hump on its back like a camel and with hair like a lion,” but later explorers thought it was the Asian or African water buffalo and called it after the Spanish bufalo, already used in Europe as the name for those animals. Actually the water buffalo and the American buffalo both belong to the bison family, so the real mistake of early explorers was in calling the native American animal simply buffalo and not qualifying it with a name such as prairie buffalo. Buffalo is first recorded by de Soto’s expedition in 1541 as a name for the bison. Buffalo Bill Colonel William Frederick Cody (1846–1917), the peerless horseman and sharpshooter who became the original Buffalo Bill, earned his nickname as a market hunter for buffalo (bison) hides and as a contractor supplying buffalo meat to workers building the Union Pacific Railroad in 1867. To his glory then, and shame now, he killed 4,280 buffalo in one year, mostly for their hides and tongues. It is hard to separate truth from fiction in Cody’s life, his fame owing much to the dime novels that made him a celebrity in the late 19th century. Buffalo Bill was a herder, a pony express rider, a scout and cavalryman for the U.S. Army during the Civil War and an Indian fighter who is said to have killed the Cheyenne chief Yellowhand single-handedly. He was a member of the Nebraska state legislature in 1878. His Wild West Show, which he organized in 1883, toured the United States and Europe, bringing him great personal fame, yet financial problems caused this legendary American hero to die in poverty and relative obscurity. Today his name conjures up visions of

449

“sportsmen” picking off buffalo from the platforms of moving trains, abundant buffalo meat rotting on the plains, and the destruction of the great herds. Thanks to early conservationists, some 20,000 American bison survive today, protected on government ranges. buffalo boat A boat made by stretching buffalo hides over a frame of poles or an empty wagon body; often used by Westering caravans to cross swamps and rivers. buffalo chips Dried buffalo dung. “There was a space wagon-tongue lashed there and a sheet of canvas . . . ‘What’s that for?’ ‘Buffalo chips,’ a bystander said. ‘The womenfolks walk behind the wagon and pick up buffalo chips and toss them onto that canvas. They’re the only fuel you are likely to find.’ ” (Louis L’Amour, Comstock Lode, 1981) Also called buffalo wood. buffalo cider See quote. “Buffalo cider is the ludicrous name given to the liquid in the stomach of a buffalo, which the thirsty hunter drinks when he has killed his game at a great distance from water.” (Maximilian Schele De Vere, Americanisms, 1871) buffalo clover See quote. “Yet the hills could hardly be so lush with buffalo-clover—as we used to call the bluebonnet—and red bunch grass, so soft and lovely, as they are in the eyes of memory.” (Frank Dobie, Coronado’s Children, 1930) See also BLUE BONNET. buffalo eaters A name given by other Indian tribes to the Northern and Middle Commanches, who subsisted mainly on buffalo meat. buffalo fever An obsolete term for the excitement men felt at the prospect of going on a buffalo hunt. buffalo gnat A small black fly with a humped body like a buffalo; they were a scourge of buffalo in the summer. buffalo grass A short low-growing grass (Buchloe dactyloides) common on the dry plains near the Rocky Mountains. “And it was good grass: buffalo grass and some bluestem.” (Thomas McGuane, Nothing but Blue Skies, 1992) buffalo horns An old name for Western mountain ranges whose summits appear serrated, like the teeth of a saw. buffalo soldier An Indian name for black U.S. soldiers stationed in the West. One explanation of the name: “The officers say the negroes make good soldiers and fight like fiends . . . The Indians call them ‘buffalo sol-

450 Happy Trails diers,’ because their wooly heads are so much like the matted cushion that is between the horns of the buffalo.” (F. M. A. Roe, Army Letters, 1872)

bulldog (1) A short haircut like a crewcut, the hair standing up an inch or so tall. (2) A hooded stirrup often worn by cowboys in the past.

buffalo stamp See quote. “The rock lies . . . but a few inches below the surface, which is largely dotted with ‘buffalo stamps.’ These are said to have been caused by buffaloes crowding together, stamping and licking the ground, led there by a saline element in the soil.” (Anonymous, Western Wilds, 1878)

bulldogging “One of the men . . . reached well over the animal’s back to get a slack of the loose hide next to the belly, lifted strongly, and tripped. This was called ‘bulldogging’.” So did an early writer describe the way cowboys wrestled steers to the ground in the West. They often, however, leaped from their horses and twisted the cow’s neck, flipping it over. Neither method suggests the way bulldogs fought bulls when such cruel contests were held in England—for the bulldog seized the bull’s nose in its mouth. Esse F. O’Brien’s The First Bulldogger (1961) therefore suggests that a black cowboy named Bill Pickett would sink his teeth into a bull’s nose while wrestling it to the ground, his method being responsible for the name of the more conventional method!

buffalo wallow A natural depression in the earth that fills with water and mud; here buffalo wallow in the spring of the year, rubbing themselves on the ground to rid themselves of shedding hair. buffalo wolf A gray wolf (Canis lupus nubilus), so named because it preyed upon the buffalo. bug-eater (1) Any worthless person; the derogatory term is also used in humorous expressions like son of a bug-eater. (2) A humorous, derisive nickname for a Nebraskan. The name derives either from the impoverished appearance of Nebraskans in various parts of the state in times past or from the state being overrun in part by locusts; there were even suggestions made at one time to make food of the locusts, one farmer writing a book with the theme “If you can’t beat ’em, eat ’em.” According to Notes and Queries, June 15, 1883: “Several Nebraskan entomologists and journalists actually got up a dinner at which locusts were served in various styles.”

bull-drunk Belligerently drunk. “ ‘He was bull drunk . . . pulled his Colt.’ ” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985)

bug juice An old slang term for the bad liquor so common on the frontier.

bullpen Any level area surrounded by tall mountain peaks in the Rocky Mountains.

build a smoke Roll a cigarette. “Hondo shoved his hat back and began to build a smoke.” (Louis L’Amour, Hondo, 1953)

bull-snake See quote. “ ‘The big yellow and brown ones won’t hurt you; they’re bull-snakes and help to keep the gophers down.’ ” (Willa Cather, My Ántonia, 1918)

bullberry

bull fuck A term used for a creamy gravy, especially among loggers. Also called bull gravy. bull of the woods The boss or foreman, a tough guy, the term used especially in logging camps.

The buffalo berry (Lepargyraea argentea).

bullboat A historical expression for a light boat made of a willow frame and covered with the hide of a bull elk or other animal skins; it was used by Indians and traders in the early West. See also UP SHIT CREEK WITHOUT A BULLBOAT. bull bucker A term used by loggers for the man bossing the gang that fells and bucks (cuts into logs) the fallen trees. bull-built

Bull Durham Long the most popular brand of tobacco rolled into cigarettes or smoked in pipes by cowboys.

Descriptive of a husky barrel-chested man.

bullcorn An expression of mild disgust meaning “nonsense.” “That’s a lot of bullcorn.”

bulltongue cactus A Nevada cactus (Opuntia linguiformis) with pads shaped something like a bull’s tongue. bull train A term used in the early West for the reliable wagon trains pulled by oxen. A bull train driver was called a bullwhacker, so named for the “whack” of his whip. bull wagon boss See quote. “The wagon-master, in the language of the plains, was called the ‘bull-wagon boss’ . . . and the whole train was denominated a ‘bull-outfit.’ ” (Buffalo Bill Cody, Story of the Wild West, 1888) bullwhacker

See

BULL TRAIN.

bushwah; booshwa 451 bum; bummer Sheepherders give this name to a lamb that has lost its mother, or whose mother has deserted it, and which has to be raised by humans or by another ewe tricked into believing the lamb is her own. Also called a bummie and a leppie. “Bummies were the motherless lambs, orphaned for one reason or another.” (Giles A. Lutz, The Feud, 1982) See also BUTTERMILK. bum-rub A humorous term recorded in Utah for sitting on folded laundry and rubbing back and forth to save the wear and tear of ironing. bunch To herd together cattle or other range animals. “We bunched some 4,000 head out on the prairie.” bunch grass See quote. “ ‘Bunch grass’ (Sporobolus airboides) grows on the bleak mountain sides of Nevada and neighboring territories, and offers excellent feed for stock, even in the dead of winter, wherever the snow is blown aside and exposes it; notwithstanding its unpromising home, bunch-grass is a better and more nutritious diet for cattle and horses than almost any other hay or grass that is known—so stock-men say.” (Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872) bunch quitter A horse that breaks from the herd and goes its own way. bunkhouse A building separate from the main ranch house where hands have sleeping and living quarters. bunko Any swindler or cheat, from the Spanish banca (a game of chance at cards). The term originated in the West, Herbert Asbury advising in Sucker’s Progress (1938): “Eight-Dice Cloth was introduced into San Francisco by a crooked gambler who made various changes in the method of play and christened it Banco. After a few years this was corrupted into Bunco, sometimes spelled Bunko, and in time Bunco came to be a general term applied to all swindling and confidence games.” Buntline Special The heroes in Western writer Ned Buntline’s stories used special long-barreled Colt revolvers that were soon called Buntline Specials after the prolific author. Buntlinism Ned Buntline, the pen name of Edward Z. C. Judson (1823–86), was an adventurer, trapper and soldier in the Far West whose life pales those of the heroes of the over 400 dime novels he wrote. This founder of the Know-Nothing party, rioter and accused murderer gave William Cody the name Buffalo Bill and featured him in a series of dime novels. His rowdy, jingoistic political doctrine inspired the term Buntlinism.

Bunyan camp A logging camp in the Northwest that doesn’t provide bedding for workers, who must live primitively like the legendary Paul Bunyan. burn (1) To brand cattle and other livestock; also used to describe the rustler’s practice of altering cattle brands. (2) An area where the vegetation has been burned, either intentionally, for cultivation, or accidentally. the burning drink A Sioux Indian name for whiskey. “. . . many were poisoned by the white man’s whiskey (what Bone Hand always called ‘the burning drink’).” (Jean Rikhoff, The Sweetwater, 1976) burnt cattle Cattle whose brands have been changed by rustlers. “He spotted close to fifty burnt cattle in the herd.” burn the breeze To ride a horse fast. “He was really burning the breeze on that old paint.” Also burn the wind. burn the earth To ride at full speed. “I was half a mile in the lead, burning the earth like a canned dog.” (Andy Adams, The Log of a Cowboy, 1903) Also burn the prairie. burn the wind

See

BURN THE BREEZE.

burrito A tortilla wrapped around meat, beans, cheese or other fillings. Burrito is Spanish for “little burro,” and the word was originally confined to the Southwest but is used nationwide now with the spreading popularity of the food. burro A donkey, from the Spanish meaning the same; used mostly in the Southwest. burro deer

See

MULE DEER.

burro grass The popular name for the perennial tough range grass Scleropogon brevifolius of the Southwest, apparently because it is commonly thought to be fit only for burros to eat. bush rabbit

See

BRUSH RABBIT.

bushtail; brushtail A name commonly used by Western loggers for a horse. bushwacker An old term for an outlaw who bushwacked (ambushed) somebody. bushwah; booshwa Buffalo chips; also has general usage in the United States as a euphemism for bullshit, nonsense.

452 Happy Trails

busthead Any cheap, strong inferior whiskey. “That busthead gave me some hangover.”

button Any kid, child or inexperienced teenager trying to become a cowboy. “They had worked together when Charlie was a big button and Page a cowboy in his twenties.” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973)

a Butch Cassidy A fabled gunfighter, after Butch Cassidy, an alias of George LeRoy Parker (1866–1909?), who once worked as a cattle butcher and later led a gang called the Wild Bunch, one of whose members was the Sundance Kid (Harry Longabaugh). Legend holds that he was killed in a gunfight with Bolivian troops, but his sister claimed that he visited her long after his alleged death.

buzzard (1) A New World vulture of the family Cathartidae, especially the turkey vulture. “The pile of bodies was about three feet high. A dozen buzzards were flapping and fighting on it, tearing at the fresh meat.” (John Cunningham, The Rainbow Runner, 1992). (2) A cantankerous or contemptible person, usually in the form old buzzard. “The old buzzard swore he’d stay alive just to annoy them.”

butte A French word, adopted by early explorers in the West, meaning an isolated hill or mountain rising abruptly above the surrounding land.

buzzard bait A worthless man or animal, good only as food for the buzzards.

buster

See

BRONCO-BUSTER.

butter-churn horse See quote. “‘Butter-churn horse? I know a little about horses, but that’s new to me.’ ‘If you put a can of milk on his back, he’d churn it into butter.’” (Wayne Barton, Return to Phantom Hill, 1983) buttermilk A name given to a motherless calf, apparently because orphaned calves are fed the skim milk remaining after butter is churned. See also BUM.

by doggies A mild exclamation. “ ‘You got any varnish?’ ‘Sure have, by doggies, a whole gallon of it.’ ” (Max Evans, The Great Wedding, 1963) by Godfrey! A euphemism for “by God!” “ ‘No, by Godfrey! we’re paying. Me and Shane.’ ” (Jack Schaefer, Shane, 1949)

C caballero Deriving from the Spanish meaning “a man on horseback,” caballero came to signify a gentleman as well. It also meant, in the words of a Texas cowboy early in this century, “a hardened but gay cowboy who can jump on his horse any minute and tell the world to go to hell.”

cactus boomers A name once common for wild brush cattle, the old Texas longhorns. cactus candy Candy made in the Southwest from cactus pulp and sugar. cactus mouse; cactus rat Common names for the Southwestern whitefooted mouse (Peromyscus eremicus).

caboodle An old expression for a lot, an amount. “I’ll take the whole caboodle of them.” Also heard as the whole kit and caboodle in many areas of the country.

cain’t caboose

See

cake See quote. “‘Cake, Yankee, is feed . . . ‘Concentrated cowfeed . . .’ ” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952)

cabrito This Spanish word for a kid or young suckling goat has come to refer more specifically to the Texas specialty of barbecued suckling goat, which is said to be the most delicious of barbecued meats.

calaboose Any jail, but usually a small one in a small town; it derives from the Spanish calaboza (dungeon).

cabrón Meaning “a cuckold” in Spanish, cabrón has long been a strong curse in the Southwest among Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, though some use it humorously.

Calamity Jane Those who tried to outshoot Calamity Jane (Martha Jane Canary Burke, 1852–1903) brought calamity upon themselves. The legendary Western markswoman’s nom de guerre came to mean a woman who predicts or suffers calamity as well as the queen of spades (associated with death) in poker.

cack A poor-fitting saddle that irritates a horse; the word, used mostly in Texas and Montana, may derive from the prickly cactus. cackleberry for eggs.

A common pronunciation of can’t.

POSSUM BELLY.

calcified fact A hard, sure fact. “‘I just saw a lot of injustice in the court system and I saw people my own age in positions of authority that I had grown up with and know for a calcified fact didn’t have one damn lick of sense.’ ” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992)

A Western logger’s humorous designation

cacomestle Bassaris astuta, a close relative of the raccoon, takes its common name cocomestle, from a Nahuatl word meaning the same. cactus apple; cactus berry yucca.

calf fries A Southwestern dish of fried calf testicles. (See also PRAIRIE OYSTER.)

Names for the fruit of the calf-kneed 453

Knock-kneed, like an awkward calf.

454 Happy Trails calf-slobbers The meringue of meringue pies, because it resembles the white, stiff salivation of a sucking calf; used in the Southwest.

California prayer book A joking term for playing cards, popular in gold rush days.

caliche A calcium carbonate soil formation in arid parts of the Southwest.

California socks Socks made out of flour sacks slipped into and tied to the legs. Cowboys pulled their boots over these “socks,” which were warmer than conventional hose.

calico fever An old humorous term for an infatuation with a woman or women in general; someone “woman crazy” is said to have “a bad case of calico fever.”

California toothpick

calico pony; calico mustang horse.

Any spotted or piebald

calico salmon The dog salmon (Oncorhynchus keta), so named in the West because of its mottled color in summer. California (1) Lexicographers aren’t positive about the origin of the word California, but the 31st state, which entered the Union in 1850, may be named after a woman named Calafia in an old Spanish romance, this Calafia ruling over an island called California. On the other hand, other etymologists insist that California is a Catalan word meaning “hot oven”—a story that’s not good for the tourist trade. (2) The word california, uncapitalized, is a term used by cowboys for throwing a calf by holding its neck and tripping it. California banknote (1) An animal hide, such hides often used as a medium of exchange during the 1849 gold rush. (2) Silver used as a medium of exchange. California blanket used as blankets.

Hobo language for newspapers

California breakfast A derogatory expression that, according to a January 1962 Western Folklore article, means “a cigarette and an orange.” California collar A joking term given to the hangman’s noose when vigilante justice ruled in early California. California fever The desire to go to California, the term first recorded not when gold was discovered but after explorer J. C. Frémont journeyed there in 1844.

See

BOWIE KNIFE.

Californio An old name California residents called themselves. “They don’t consider themselves Spanish, not do they think of themselves as Mexicans . . . They call themselves Californios . . .” (Louis L’Amour, The Lonesome Gods, 1983) calling the brands A cowboy adept at deciphering or reading the often complicated brands on cattle was said to be good at calling the brands. calm as a horse trough

Very calm, smooth waters.

camas Camassia esculenta, also called the quamash flower, the sweet bulbs of which Northwestern Indians used for food; from a Nootka Indian word meaning “sweet.” camas eater This was a nickname given to the first settlers of Oregon, who depended on the camas bulb for food. camino real A term from Spanish meaning “royal road” and once used in the Southwest for a main public highway built by the state. It also referred to several specific roads leading from Mexico into California and New Mexico. camisa A shirt, blouse or chemise; a borrowing of the Spanish word meaning the same. “She wore a cotton camisa and a long skirt.” camp bird ROBBER.

The Rocky Mountain jay. See also

CAMP

camp on one’s trail To trail, follow someone persistently. “The sheriff camped on his trail until he caught him.”

California lion The tawny mountain lion (Felix concolor), also called the catamount, COUGAR and mountain cat.

campoodie An old Spanish term used in the Southwest for an Indian village, a rude collection of huts. Wrote Mark Twain in an 1869 piece: “It is worse than an Indian campoodie.”

California pants Strongly made riding pants, often reinforced with buckskin, prized among cowboys in the early West.

camp robber A nickname given to the Canada jay (Perisoreus canadensis) and various other birds that filch food and small ornaments from campsites.

card 455 camp swamper A historical term for a worker who did all the odd jobs in camp—from providing food to caring for the horses and cooking—while the trappers went after beaver pelts.

canyon Used mostly in the West for a very deep valley or gorge with steep sides, sometimes with water flowing through the plain; the word derives from the Spanish cáñon (a large tube or funnel).

campyard A camp roughly similar to the motels of today, where a cowboy’s horse could be put up and there was a cabin for him to stay in as well.

canyoned Enclosed in a canyon. “We were canyoned and had to travel two miles to reach a crossing.”

can

See

TIN.

canada Spanish for a small, narrow canyon. “. . . the faint bawling of a calf for its mother in some dim, starlit canada.” (Conrad Richter, The Sea of Grass, 1936) canal

Any large irrigation ditch in the Southwest.

canatillo

See

MORMON TEA.

candelabrum cactus Another name for the majestic Cholla cactus (Opuntia arborescens), which resembles a candelabra. cane cholla The prickly (Opuntia species) of the Southwestern desert; also called the cane cactus and walking-stick cholla because its straight stems are sometimes used for making canes. cane grass

A name given to tall grasses in general.

can I carry you home? May I give you a ride or a lift? “Kin ah carry you home?” canned dog A dog with empty tin cans tied to his tail; to can a dog and set him loose was once thought great fun to some. canned milk Condensed milk in a can. “When canned milk had come out, some cowpuncher galoot had written in praise of it: ‘No tits to pull. No hay to pitch. Just punch a hole In the son of a bitch.’” (A. B. Guthrie Jr., Arfive, 1970)

can openers

Cowboy slang for spurs.

cantina A Spanish term for a bar or saloon in Texas and other Southwestern states, where cantinas with colorful names like “The Spring of Golden Dreams” were once common.

capador See quote. “ ‘He’s the capador. He castrates the males and that makes them steers. And [as an additional duty] he nicks a piece off the end of the left ear of male and female and sticks it in his pocket, and he marks the right ear with a hole and a slit, for identification. At the end of the day he adds up, and the number of pieces of ear in his pocket shows the number of calves we’ve branded . . . [As for] the testicles of the castrated calves, the tumbadores roast them on the coals, they burst open and they eat them as you’d eat a roast oyster . . . very tasty . . . the vaqueros think they make you potent and strong as a bull.’ ” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952) See also TUMBADORE. capon egg A joking expression used to tease a tenderfoot, no such thing as a capon egg existing, of course. “Before you clean out the stall, go down to the coop and collect all the capon eggs.” caporal The boss, manager or foreman of a ranch, one who directs the workers but doesn’t pay them; a borrowing of the Spanish word for the name. capper A shill or lure in gambling establishments or at medicine shows and auctions. “There were always two or three cappers he used to boost the price at his auctions.” caracara A Southwestern vulture-like hawk (Polyborus cheriway auduboni); the name derives from an Indian word for the predatory bird. carajo A term describing any base person, often applied to rough mule skinners and ox drivers in the past, perhaps because they often used the word as an exclamation. Carajo means “penis” in Spanish. carajo pole Southwestern term for the long stem of a maguey plant used as a goad for animals or even men. caramba! A Spanish exclamation of admiration or annoyance. “Caramba! Look at that girl!” carcel

can’t pour piss out of a boot Can’t do the simplest things. “When it comes to ranchin’, he can’t pour piss out of a boot.”

A prison or jail; a borrowing from the Spanish.

card A pronunciation of coward. “Texas chili ain’t for cards.”

456 Happy Trails carnival Any horse that bucks in a spectacular manner is said to carnival.

impresario, too, he displayed troupes of Indians in the East and Europe long before Buffalo Bill or Barnum.

Carson county See quote. “Originally, Nevada was a part of Utah and was called Carson county . . .” (Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872)

cat’s claw

See

cattle baron CATTLE KING;

carve To separate or cut out cattle from a herd. “We’re gonna do some carving today.” casa House; the Spanish word has been used in the Southwest since the early 19th century. casa grande

A large house.

case; caser An old term for a dollar bill. “He handed him a five-case note [five-dollar bill].” cash down To pay or settle up. “Cash down now or get off the train.”

cashmoney

A synonym, first recorded in 1898, for a usually the word has a derogatory conno-

tation. Cattle Kate An old term for a woman cattle rustler; after “Cattle Kate Maxwell” (Ella Watson), who was hanged for rustling in 1889, though she may have been innocent. It is said that she traded sexual favors to rustlers for payment in cattle. cattle king A rich cattle man with extensive holdings; the term is first recorded in 1874 and not named after the vast King ranch in Texas. See also REAL MCCOY; CATTLE QUEEN. cattle moss

cash in Short for “to cash in one’s chips or checks,” to die. “He cashed in up in Colorado.”

ANGRY TREE.

Spanish moss.

cattle paper Notes and mortgages for which ranchers put up their herds as collateral.

A Texan redundancy for “cash.”

cast-iron dog An humorous term once used in the Southwest for the hairless dog known as a pelon to Mexicans.

cattle queen A rich cattle woman. On August 23, 1876, the Bedrock Democrat of Baker, Oregon noted: “Mrs. Nash, of Corpus Christie . . . is fairly entitled to the name of ‘the Cattle Queen of Texas.’ ” See also CATTLE KING.

catawampus cat An ill-tempered, scolding woman, a shrew; an expression heard in Texas.

cattle range A sparsely settled prairie region in the West where cattle graze.

catch-rope

cattle singer See quote. “. . . Shanghai Wiley, up from Texas, was the most famous cattle singer in the whole Southwest . . . Possessed of a remarkably high sweet tenor voice . . . he had been known to quiet a whole herd of restless cattle on the verge of a mad stampede. It was an art he had learned when a cowboy on the range. Many cowboys had it, but none possessed the magic soothing quality of Shanghai’s voice. It was reputed to have in it the sorcery of the superhuman. It was told of him that in a milling herd, their nostrils distended, their flanks heaving, he had been seen to leap from the back of one maddened steer to another, traveling that moving mass that was like a shifting sea, singing to them in his magic tenor, stopping them just as they were about to plunge into the Rio Grande.” (Edna Ferber, Cimarron, 1930)

A lariat or lasso.

catch colt A Western euphemism for an illegitimate child, called an old-field colt and a woods colt in other regions. Originally the term meant a colt that wasn’t the result of its owner intentionally breeding its parents. cat-eyed An old, descriptive term for a paranoid gunfighter always aware of everything around him, his eyes constantly shifting around. cat in the meal Something hidden or sinister; the expression comes from a story in the once-popular Webster’s “blue-backed speller.” “With all those politicians backing him, I’m sure there’s a cat in the meal.” catlinite A Western clay-stone of pale grayish red to dark red color, catlinite honors American painter and writer George Catlin (1796–1872). Early used by American Indians for making pipes, it is commonly called pipe-rock. Catlin, a self-taught artist, is remembered for his primitive but authentic paintings of Indian life. An

cattle spinach A common name for the valuable browse plant saltbrush (Atriplex polycarpa) of the Southwest. cattle thief A term first recorded in 1862, some 20 years before RUSTLER was given this meaning.

chapping 457 cattle town trade.

A Western town dependent on the cattle

cattle war A war in cattle country usually caused by private individuals buying and fencing what had been free grazing ranges. cattlo See quote. “ ‘It’s a word made up out of cattle and buffalo and that’s what the critters are, they’re bred up out of cattle and buffalo, bred years back to see if we couldn’t fetch something the heat and ticks couldn’t get to.’ ” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952) Also catalo, but the term beefalo is more common today. cat wagon Cat was slang for a prostitute as far back as 1401, when a poem of the day warned men to “beware of cats’ tails.” Though this term associating the cat and commercial sex is less common, the connotation hangs on the word cathouse, a bordello. Cat wagons were cathouses on wheels, covered wagons pulled by horses that transported harlots while the West was being won. cavy; caavy (1) A stray horse or steer. (2) A pony or saddle horse used on a roundup. (3) A bunch of horses; the borrowing of a Spanish word meaning the same. cayuse An Indian pony; a poor stunted horse. Characters in Westerns sometimes use the word cayuse to describe a horse of little value, but cayuse, strictly, is a name for Indian ponies, a breed that Western pioneers knew as kiyuse and that was rarely properly trained by white men. The cayuse takes its name from the Cayuse Indians of Washington and Oregon, who bred the small horse. In 1847, blaming whites for a smallpox epidemic, the tribe attacked and killed 14 missionaries near the present city of Walla Walla, Washington. Subdued and put on a reservation in 1855, their ranks decimated by disease, they died as a people, with no full-blooded Cayuse Indian surviving today. cayusein’; cayusin’ A term used by Texans for the bucking of a horse. “That horse was really cayusein!” celebrity wagon A sturdy wagon or coach once used on heavy roads and in rugged mountainous country. Centennial State A nickname for Colorado because the state was admitted to the Union in 1876. century plant This name for the agave (Agave americana) is a misnomer, referring to the legend that the plant blooms once every hundred years and dies shortly after it does. Actually, the plant rarely flowers in cultivation but in the wild flowers any time after 10 to 15 years, sometimes sooner, and doesn’t die immediately

afterward. The alcoholic drink pulque is made from the Agave atrorrens species, and tequila and mescal are made from Agave tequila. chachalaca The popular name of a turkey-like bird common in Texas. Ortalis vetula macalli is called the chachalaca in imitation of the loud harsh cackling cry it makes and was first given the name by American Indians, the bird’s name being chachalacametl in Nahuatl. chain lightning Lightning bolts that appear to move very quickly in wavy and zigzag lines. The term is an Americanism coined about 1825 and is used in the Northeast as well as the West. chalking the hat An interesting phrase used in the early West, especially on railroad trains, referring to the common practice of conductors making white chalk marks on the “stovepipes” or other hats of passengers who were traveling free of charge for one reason or another. chalupa A Southwestern dish of Texas-Mexican (“Tex-Mex”) cookery consisting of a fried tortilla spread with bean paste or ground cooked meat that is topped with shredded cheese, lettuce, chopped tomato and hot sauce. Chalupa means “small canoe” in Spanish but does not describe the shape of the dish, which is round and flat. chemise The evergreen bush Adenostoma fasciculatum common in California, where dense thickets of it are called chamisal. Its name is from the Spanish chamiso (burnt kindling wood) because the wood is used for kindling. The name is also used for the wingscale bush, the buckbush, the squawbush and the toyon. chaparral Any dense growth of shrubs or small trees, a tangle, a thicket. The Spanish word is used mainly in the Southwest but has national use due to its use in Western stories and movies. “. . . the chaparral flats, a heaven for snakes and horned toads, roadrunners and stinging lizards . . .” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985) chaparral bird; chaparral cock ROADRUNNER in the Southwest.

Another name for the

chapote A wild fruit also known as the black persimmon (Diospyros texana) that grows on a small tree or shrub; the word derives ultimately from a Nahuatl Indian name for the fruit, which has been used as everything from a food to a hair dye. chapping A game in which two cowboys slap one another with their leather chaps, each taking a turn, to

458 Happy Trails see who gives up first. Also an old punishment of a cowboy imposed by a kangaroo court, the offender whipped with a pair of chaps. chaps Joined leather leggings, often widely flared, worn by cowboys over pants as protection against chaparral or brush, burrs, rope burns and so forth while on horseback. The word ultimately derives from CHAPARRAL. Charlie Dunns Custom-made cowboy boots worn by many celebrities, including Gene Autry, Slim Pickens, Arnord Palmer and Harry Belafonte, costing up to $3,000 and fashioned of leather and exotic skins like ostrich. The boots were made in Austin by Charlie Dunn, whose father, grandfather and great-grandfather before him were Texas bootmakers. Mr. Dunn, who died in 1993, age 95, is also remembered by the popular country Western song “Charlie Dunn,” first recorded in the 1970s. Charlie Taylor A butter substitute that cooks on the frontier in the old West made from sorghum and bacon grease; probably named after a chuckwagon cook of the day. chase a cloud ing horse.

To be thrown high in the air by a buck-

chaw Often used in place of chew as both a verb and noun, as in “He chawed on it” and “I gave him a chaw of tobacco.” chayote The edible green or white pear-shaped fruit of the chayote vine (Sechium edule) common in the Southwest; also called the vegetable pear and the mirleton. The word derives from the Nahuatl word for the fruit. cheaters A humorous term for eyeglasses; used in other regions as well. Also a term for a horse’s blinders. check in To die. “Before I check in, I reckon a few of them will bite the dust.” cheechako A tenderfoot, the term mostly heard in the Pacific Northwest and deriving from a Chinook word meaning “just arrived.” cheerwater Liquor, dating back to the late 19th century and apparently modeled on firewater. Cherokee outlet A 57-mile wide strip of land in what is now Oklahoma granted to the Cherokees by the United States in 1828 as a western outlet from their lands to the buffalo hunting grounds.

chesterfield Originally an English term for a large overstuffed kind of couch (named after an Earl of Chesterfield, who designed it), this word is now used (almost exclusively in northern California) as a generic term for any kind of couch. chewing iron and spitting nails Very angry. “Angry? Judge, you was chewing iron and spitting nails!” (Lucia St. Clair Robson, Ride the Wind, 1982) chew it fine To consider or explain something fully or thoroughly; derives from the expression chew it over (to think about it). “You’ve got to chew it finer than that before making a decision.” Cheyenne No one is certain about it, but the name of this North American Indian tribe of the Algonquian linguistic family, now found in Montana and Oklahoma, may derive from the French feminine for dog (chienne). French traders in Minnesota may have named them so because the tribe, like many Indian tribes, ate dog meat. Another possibility is that Cheyenne comes from a Sioux Indian word meaning “people of alien speech.” For still another theory, however remote, see the following quote: “The plains warriors didn’t torture. ‘They takes scalps,’ the old man had told him, ‘and they cuts off a dead enemy’s left arm, maybe only the left hand. Just that. Gets their name from that. Cheyenne means “CutArm People” . . .’ ” (Theodore V. Olsen, Arrow in the Sun, 1969) Cheyenne saddle A famous flat saddle, often highly ornamented, popular in the late 19th century and named after Cheyenne, Wyoming where it originated. chia seed An oily seed from a species of salvia used in making a nourishing beverage; from a Nahuatl Indian word meaning the same. Chicano An American of Mexican descent. One explanation claims this word is a contraction of the Spanish for “I am not a boy.” Another suggests it comes from the ending of the word Mexicano, which the Aztecs pronounced “Meshicano,” this eventually shortened to shicano and then chicano. chicken feed Chickens were fed grain too poor for any other use by American pioneers, and these pieces of poor-quality grain had to be small so the chickens could swallow them. This grain obviously suggested the contemptuous term chicken feed for small change (pennies, nickels and dimes) to riverboat gamblers fleecing small-town suckers. The first mention of the expression is in Colonel (Davy) Crockett’s Exploits (1836): “I stood looking on, seeing him pick up

Chinese home run 459 chicken feed from the green horns.” By extension, chicken feed has come to mean any small or insignificant amount of money, and even (rarely today) misleading information deliberately supplied or leaked by a government to spies employed by another government. chicken-fried steak A steak, often a cheap cut, breaded and fried; the dish is especially popular in the West and South. chicken pulling A game of Mexican origin played by Southwestern cowboys that consisted of burying a live chicken in soft ground up to its neck, the players riding by at a gallop and attempting to pick the chicken out of the ground, usually breaking its neck in the process. The game, also called pulling the chicken, fortunately isn’t played much anymore, if it is at all. chicken ranch Unlike most sexual euphemisms, this synonym for a brothel takes its name from a real place. The original Chicken Ranch was a bordello in LaGrange, Texas, so named because poor farmer clients often paid for their visits with chickens. It is celebrated in the play The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. The Chicken Ranch closed in 1974, inspiring, as Molly Ivins observed, a lot of bumper stickers that read: “BRING BACK THE CHICKEN RANCH—KEEP ON PLUCKING!” chicken snake Another name for the rat snake (Callopeltis guttatus) because it preys upon chickens and their eggs. Chic Sales Outhouses in the West and other areas of the country have been called Chic Sales, Chic Sale or Chick Sales since the 1920s after American vaudevillian Chick Sale, who had a comedy routine about building an outhouse and wrote a book about his “specialty.” Chihuahua (1) A very small dog native to Mexico, especially the state of Chihuahua. (2) A slang term used on the frontier for a little town with a large number of saloons and dancehalls catering to soldiers. (3) A Mexican spur with large rowels often beautifully decorated in silver. See also AY, CHIHUAHUA! Chihuahua town This derogatory term is used in the Southwest for the section of town where people of Mexican ancestry live. chilacayote A gourd used as a dessert fruit. Folklore has it that it is so named because it will bring on chills when eaten by a person who is overheated, but the name actually comes from a Nahuatl name for the gourd.

chilchote A common designation in Texas for the green or sweet pepper; the word has its roots in the Nahuatl language. child Mountain men and others often called themselves “child” in the early West. “This child’s getting old, and feels like wanting a woman’s face about his lodge for the balance of his days . . .” (George Frederick Ruxton, Life in the Far West, 1848) child of the earth A popular Southwestern name for the wind scorpion (Eremobates species). chile Any of various species of Capsicum, including the red or cayenne pepper; from a Nahuatl word meaning the same. Also spelled chili. chili Short chili con carne, a thick meat and bean stew spiced with chilies. chili-belly A derogatory name for a Mexican. “ ‘There ain’t many of them chili-bellies that will bother you once they’re afoot.’ ” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985) Also chili-eater and chili-chomper. Chinaman’s chance The Chinese immigrants who built so many miles of American railroads often tried to make their fortune by working old claims and streams abandoned by white prospectors during the California gold rush of 1849. They had an extremely poor chance of finding any gold in such abandoned claims, and thus a Chinaman’s chance came to mean “no chance at all.” The poor lot of Chinese in a segregated society probably reinforced the phrase, for the Chinese had as poor a chance on the railroads and other places as they did in the gold fields. China pheasant A name heard in the Northwest for a ring-necked pheasant. Also Chinese pheasant. Chinese home run Because Chinese immigrants were forced to work for little pay in a segregated society, their name came to mean “cheap” in American slang and formed the basis of a number of expressions. Chinese home run is the only one of these that still has much currency. It describes a cheap home run, one that just makes it over the fence. No one is sure who coined the phrase. It either arose in some ball park on the West Coast at the turn of the century and was brought East by the cartoonist “Tad” Dorgan (who is also responsible for the words “yesman” and “hot dog”), or it originated in a baseball park with a fence a relatively short distance from home, possibly the old 239-foot right-field fence in Philadelphia’s Shibe Park or the short right-field fence in New York’s old Polo Grounds.

460 Happy Trails Chink A derogatory term for a Chinese person that possibly originated in the early West and probably derives from the Chinese exclamation ching-ching! Chinee was another such term. chin-music example at

Talk, especially elegant talk. See usage WALTZ THROUGH HANDSOME.

Chinook; Chinook wind Chinook, an important pidgin language, enabled 18th- and 19th-century American farmers and traders, French trappers and even visiting Russian seal hunters to converse with Indians in the Pacific Northwest. Chinook jargon was used for more than 100 years. Named for the Chinook Indians, who had large settlements along the Columbia River, this lingua franca combined various Chinook dialects, other Indian languages, English, French and probably Russian. Chinook wind, so called by early settlers because it blew from the direction of the Chinook Indian camps, designates a dry wind blowing from the west or north over the Rocky Mountains—warm in winter and cool in summer—while a wet Chinook is a warm, moist wind blowing from sea to land in Washington and Oregon. Chinook salmon

See

KING SALMON.

chin-wag A person who talks too much, whose chin is always wagging. chin whiskers Beard, a term that was apparently coined in California in gold-rush days. chipper Prostitutes and loose women were called chippers in the early West; the expression survives today in the form of chippie. Chiricahua An Apache Indian tribe originally residing in the mountains of Southwestern Arizona and often encountered today in fiction; named from an Apache word meaning “great mountain.” Chisholm Trail In the spring of 1866, Jesse Chisholm (c. 1806–68), a half-white, half-Cherokee Indian trader and government agent, drove his wagon loaded with buffalo hides through the Oklahoma Territory to Wichita, Kansas. The wheels cut deep into the prairie, providing rut marks for a route that was to become the most important and most famous of all Western cattle trails, extending from San Antonio, Texas to Abilene and other Kansas railheads. The trail was used for more than 20 years after the Civil War, 450,000 Texas longhorns having been driven up it in 1872 alone. Remnants of the trail, celebrated in folklore and cowboy ballads like “The Old Chisholm Trail,” still remain along the Santa Fe railroad line.

cho cho A Basque word meaning a small child or a boy that is sometimes used by non-Basque speakers in parts of the West. chock full of brag and fight An old expression for a wild, unruly person. “Chock full of brag and fight/ He wound up on the floor,/ A sorry sight.” choke ’em A colorful popular name in Texas for dodder, a sprawling, yellow thread-like plant of the genus Cuscata, because it literally chokes or smothers its host plants to death. choke rag Cowboys invented this humorous disdainful word for a necktie. cholo This Spanish word is used in the Southwest as a derogatory term for a Mexican of Spanish and American Indian heritage. choosing match The selection of work horses by cowboys on a ranch, the choices made in order of seniority from the ranch stock. chopping horse A horse used for separating cattle from the herd. Also called a cutting horse and a carving horse. chop suey Though the words derive from the Chinese tsa-sui, meaning odds and ends, this dish isn’t Chinese in origin; one source says it was invented by a dishwasher in a San Francisco Chinese restaurant at the turn of the century. chousing Handling, taking care of. “I been chousing other people’s cows, peeling other people’s broncs, sweating my goddamned skin off for peanuts ever since I got big enough to hit out for myself.” (Jack Schaefer, Monte Walsh, 1958) chub A nickname applied to Texans a century ago, perhaps because Texans were noted for being big, fat or stocky men. In any case, the term is now used nationwide as a nickname for a chubby or stocky person. chuck (1) Food or provisions in general; a meal. “‘Chuck, come and get it!’ the cook cried.” The term is an Americanism first used in about 1840 and probably derives from the cut of meat called chuck. (2) In the Pacific Northwest and Canada, water or a body of water. This chuck probably derives from a Chinook word meaning “water” that sounds like chuck and is first recorded in about 1855. chuck-a-luck An American dice game played with three dice. Players bet that a certain number will come

City of the Plains 461 up on one die, that the three dice will total a certain number or that the total will be an odd or even or high or low number. The game probably goes back to about 1840 in the West. chuckaway A call to dinner. “The chuckwagon cook often cried: ‘Chuckaway, John! If you don’t come and git it, I’ll throw it out!’ ” chuck hole A hole in a field or a road, the term an Americanism first used in about 1830 when roads were far worse than they are now and probably deriving from chuck in the sense of “to toss up (a wagon or body) with a quick motion,” plus hole. “The closest to excitement came that time I thought a road agent was stopping us and got ready for action to find out it was a cowboy whose horse had stepped into a chuck hole and broke its leg . . .” (Richard Matheson, Journal of the Gun Years, 1991) chuck line rider An unemployed cowboy who rode from ranch to ranch, wherever he could get a free meal; cowboys who made this a profession were held in contempt by some but welcomed by many for the news they carried and the good stories they exchanged for a meal. Also called a chuckliner. chuck wagon (1) The first chuck wagon was made from a surplus Civil War army wagon in 1867 by Charles Goodnight. By the 1880s the term was common for a wagon carrying provisions and equipment for cooking, the Studebaker Company manufacturing them by then for $75 to $100. (2) Chuck wagon is also recent Western slang, deriving from the chuck wagon of trail days and referring to the informal buffet-style meals served at some restaurants. chuckwalla A lizard (Sauromalus ater) of the Southwest. The big lizard is not called the chuckwalla because the Indians use it for food (chuck), which they do, but after the Chuckwalla Mountains. chuco A derogatory term for a Mexican. Short for pachuco. chunk Any small stocky slow horse used for draft purposes. “You’re not riding that chunk in the race, are you?” chunked An old term used in the Southwest describing a very impudent person. “That boy’s as chunked as you can get.” chunking distance Fairly close distance, as far from someone or something as one can chunk or throw a stone. “. . . he could not stand all night in chunking dis-

tance of Lorena and not go see her.” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985) chunk of lead A bullet. ”‘I’ll pass a chunk of lead through him.’ ” (Max Brand, Three on the Trail, 1928) Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-Saints

See

MOR-

MON.

churn-dash calf A calf that hasn’t received its full share of mother’s milk and is fed from a pail or churn. churn-twister A contemptuous cowboy term for a farmer, one of whose chores is churning butter. Cíbola Coronado and other early Spanish explorers searched in vain for a fabled land of great wealth in the Southwest called Cíbola, or the Seven Cities of Cíbola, which later proved to be an area in western New Mexico inhabited by the Zuni Indians. The name, which derives from a native term for buffalo, was once suggested as a state name for the territory that became Colorado. cimarron (1) The Latin cyma, the spring shoots of a plant, is the ultimate source for the Spanish word cimarrón, meaning wild, unruly, a solitary creature. The word is also used in these senses by some Western speakers. In American English, however, cimarron is mainly used for the big horn or mountain sheep (Oris vanadensis). In this sense, it is first recorded in about 1840. (2) See quote. “He had dwelt . . . in that sinister strip, thirtyfour miles wide and almost two hundred miles long, called No-Man’s Land as early as 1854, and, later, known as Cimarron, a Spanish word meaning wild or unruly.” (Edna Ferber, Cimarron, 1930) cinch A strong belly band used on stock saddles with a ring on each end to which a strap running from the saddle is secured. Cinch, from the Spanish cincha (saddle girth) came to mean a firm hold or tight grip and then became an American term for something sure and easy, as in “It’s a cinch.” City of Corruption An old name for San Francisco, California in the late 19th century, when vigilantes patrolled the streets. City of Fair Colors A nickname for Short Creek, Arizona, famous at the turn of the century for a failed experiment in communal living. City of the Angels fornia.

A nickname for Los Angeles, Cali-

City of the Plains orado.

An old nickname for Denver, Col-

462 Happy Trails City of the Saints Salt Lake City, Utah, home of the Mormon church, or Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints.

clomb Climbed. “I clomb down and walked Blacky south across the meadow . . .” (Charles O. Locke, The Hell Bent Kid, 1957)

City Where the West Begins Worth, Texas.

close herd

A nickname for Fort

closet civet cat A synonym for the skunk in most parts of the West; also called the civvy cat. Civet here derives from an Arabic word. civvy cat

See

CIVET CAT.

clabber Curdled milk, milk that has soured and thickened. The word ultimately derives from the Irish clabar meaning the same. Also clabber milk. claim A piece of land staked out by a miner or homesteader in the early West. claim jumper One who illegally takes possession of another’s land claim. “Occasionally, a claim jumper was hailed into court; but the practice of locating another man’s ground became distinctly hazardous, it did not occur with the frequency that many writers of Western fiction would have us believe.” (Philip Johnston, Lost and Living Cities of the California Gold Rush, 1948) Clarkia Any of several western U.S. plants of the evening primrose family, the genus named after U.S. soldier and explorer William Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition, 1804–06. claw-hammer coat An old-fashioned coat with tails split in two like a claw-hammer. “Skinny old boy in a beaver high hat an’ a claw-hammer coat, he was.” (Frank Roderus, Hell Creek Cabin, 1979) clean-up (1) A Western mining term meaning the removal of gold or any valuable mineral from gravel and rock. (2) A great financial success, this expression probably deriving from the mining term. clear full Full to the top. “‘Jody, tonight see you fill the woodbox clear full. Last night you crossed the sticks and it wasn’t only about half full.’” (John Steinbeck, “The Red Pony,” 1938) cliff dwellers Prehistoric people of the Southwest who were ancestors of the Pueblo Indians and were named cliff dwellers because they built their homes in caves or on the ledges of cliffs. The name is now humorously applied to residents of tall apartment houses in large cities.

See

RIDE CLOSE HERD ON.

The seat in a privy or

JAKES.

cloud mesa See quote. “One thing which struck him at once was that every mesa was duplicated by a cloud mesa, like a reflection, which lay motionless above it or moved slowly up from behind it. These cloud formations seemed to be always there, however hot and blue the sky. Sometimes they were flat terraces, ledges of vapour; sometimes they were dome-shaped, or fantastic, like the tops of silvery pagodas, rising one above another, as if an oriental city lay directly behind the rock. The great tables of granite set down in an empty plain were inconceivable without their attendant clouds, which were a part of them, as the smoke is part of the censer, or the foam of the wave.” (Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop, 1929) See also MESA. Coal Oil Johnny; Coal Oil Tommy A name for any character, especially a prospector, who was rich one day, broke the next day and rich again the third day. coarse-gold A Western mining term for large grains or flakes of gold, including nuggets, as opposed to gold dust. During the gold rush of 1849, a California town was named Coarsegold because such gold was found there in abundance. coarse-grained This logging term describes an irrascible person who is difficult to get along with. coast (1) Used in northern California to mean a beach where one swims. “He went swimming at the coast.” (2) When capitalized, short for the old Barbary Coast, the Pacific Coast and the West Coast. coaster A nickname for the long-horned cattle of the coast country in Texas. Also called Texas Coasters. See SEA LION. the coast of Nebraska The name early explorer John C. Frémont gave to the Platte River. coast on the spurs A rodeo term meaning not to use spurs on a bronc or to use the spurs lightly. coat-pocket whiskey A cheap pint of whiskey that fits in a coat pocket. “After too much heat and coat-pocket whiskey, Dirty Joe passed out on the worn grass of the carnival midway.” (Sherman Alexie, “Amusements,” 1993)

Colt 463 cock-a-doodle-doo An old term for the foreman of a ranch, who was considered the cock of the walk, at the top of the pecking order. cock of the plains The sage grouse; the name has been used since the early 19th century. cocktail An old cowboy term for the undesirable last watch of the night on the trail, the watch that ended at daylight; the expression derives from cock’s tail, the last part of the bird. code duello Dueling code. “He stepped out shooting. No gentleman editor’s code duello now. No damned dime novel foolishness about who could make a fastest draw.” (Jack Cummings, The Surrogate Gun, 1990) Coeur d’Alene It is said that the Skitswish Indians of northern Idaho took the name Coeur d’Alene (French for “awl-heart”) after some unknown chief of the tribe used the words to describe the size of a white trader’s heart, which he compared to the small point of an awl. coffin

and something jerked in his stomach muscles.” (Richard Matheson, The Gun Fight, 1993) cold in the pants A colorful term Western mountain men used for gonorrhea. “But you ain’t had two women this spree. A body’d think you was still feared of catchin’ a cold in your pants.” (A. B. Guthrie Jr., The Big Sky, 1947) cold timberline The elevation in the mountains at which the growth of trees is prohibited or severely restricted by low temperatures. The dry timberline is some distance below this. colear The act of throwing a bull or other animal by holding its tail and twisting it forcefully. Vaqueros brought this popular Mexican sport, colea de toros, to the Southwest. color A term used by miners for gold, or a trace or flecks of gold, since the 1849 California gold rush. “‘Then I taken to huntin’ for the Lost Adams gold. Found color here an’ there, made a livin’.” (Louis L’Amour, The Haunted Mesa, 1987)

An old cowboy term for a large trunk.

coffin varnish A joking word for liquor of the poorest quality, rotgut. cohab A derogatory expression dating back to the 19th century that was used mainly in Utah for a polygamous Mormon or anyone who lived in illegal cohabitation. coil Old cowboy slang for a rope, ropes often being wound in coils. cold as hell on the stoker’s day off Quite cold. “His breath came as puffs of white frost . . . Cold as hell on the stoker’s day off, Zeb Broadus thought.” (R. C. House, Warhawk, 1993) cold-blooded Said of an animal, especially a horse, that isn’t a thoroughbred, that is the result of inferior breeding. Such a horse is called a cold blood, and a thoroughbred is called a hot blood or a pure. cold brand A light brand in which only an animal’s hair is marked, the process often done through a wet blanket.

Colorado The 38th state, admitted to the Union in 1876, takes its name from the Spanish Colorado, “red land” or “red earth.” See also CÍBOLA. Colorado Kool-Aid A joking name for Coors beer, which is made in Colorado. Colorado potato beetle A yellow, black-striped beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata) very harmful to potatoes that was originally confined to Colorado and vicinity before potatoes began to be extensively cultivated in the United States. Colorado rook A euphemism for the crow, especially when it is featured on restaurant menus, as it has been in the past. Colorado spruce The common blue spruce (Pica pungens), which is also called the Colorado blue spruce and, sometimes, the Colorado blue. Colorado turkey A humorous name for both the great blue heron and the wood ibis.

cold deck A rigged deck of cards slipped into a poker game, the term first recorded in California in gold rush days.

colors Sometimes used as a synonym for small pieces of gold panned from a stream. “. . . he had come up with a show of color right off. The first pan netted him four of five colors and then the nugget.” (Louis L’Amour, Bendigo Shafter, 1979)

cold-footed Cowardly; from to get cold feet. “Benton heard the words cold-footed again, obviously spoken,

Colt When Samuel Colt (1814–62) ran away to sea from his home in Hartford, Connecticut at 16, he spent

464 Happy Trails his lonely nights on deck whittling a wooden model of the Colt revolver that was to make him famous. Young Colt had several metal models made of his gun upon arriving home and patented his invention. He built his armory into the largest in the world, his use of interchangeable parts and the production line making him one of the richest men in America. As for the Colt, the first pistol that could be effectively employed by a man on horseback, it played a more important part in the conquest of the West than any other weapon, the famed “sixshooter” becoming so popular that its name became a generic term for revolver. Colt for a young horse comes from the Old English colt meaning the same. coma The bumelia, an evergreen tree common to Texas that grows up to 30 feet high and bears sweet black berries. comadre A godmother, a close woman friend, the female counterpart of compadre. Comanche moon The full moon of every month, perhaps because it was thought to aid the Comanches in their night raids. The Comanches, however, called the full moon the Mexican moon. Comanche pill A humorous expression used in Texas for any laxative. comanchero An old term for a man of Mexican-Indian origin; comancheros were often traders between the Indians and the Mexicans or whites. Comanche yell A blood-curdling yell used by Comanche Indians in battle; said by some to be the basis for the rebel yell. comb

To rake a horse with one’s spurs.

combings The last cattle driven in on the roundup, possibly because cowboys combed the brush for them. come-along (1) A rope halter used by cowboys that tightens when a horse balks and loosens when he obeys a command. (2) A tool used to create a tension to hold something in place and then tighten it (as a fence wire) or close it (as a railcar door). come down in a pile To keel over, crumple down and die. “I’m getting old, won’t be too long before I come down in a pile.” come over the trail with To know someone a long while. “I ain’t callin’ a man a liar, especially a man who come over the trail with me.” (Louis L’Amour, The Tall Stranger, 1957)

come up at A term used in trading meaning to amount to or come to. “That comes up at two dollars each.” coming off Going to be. “ ‘Feels like it could be coming off hail,’ Coy said.” (Sam Brown, The Crime of Coy Bell, 1992) commune A term for an outhouse used in Mexico and the Southwest. compadre A Spanish term for a godfather or very close friend which has long been used in the West for one’s partner or close friend and which has wide use throughout the country from its frequent use in cowboy novels and movies. Comadre is the female version. compañero Spanish for a close companion or buddy. “I can’t remember why I picked you for a compañero.” (Larry McMurtry, Buffalo Girls, 1990) compass cactus Western settlers gave this name to the barrel cactus (Echinocactus) because it almost always leans southwest and they could tell directions by it. compliment An invitation, as in “I got a compliment to the dance.” compressed hay A euphemism for dried cow dung. These cow chips were often used for fuel. Comstock lode A Nevada sheepherder and prospector named Henry Tompkins Paige Comstock first laid claim to the Comstoke lode that bears his name. In 1859, Old Pancake, as he was known, had taken possession of a cabin belonging to other prospectors who had discovered the lode but had died tragically before filing their claim. Comstock filed his claim, but he later sold all his rights for a pittance. The Virginia City mine became the world’s richest known silver deposit, producing $20 million to $30 million annually at its peak and making great fortunes for many a “silver king.” Virginia City mushroomed to 40,000 inhabitants, and anyone associated with the mines, hopeful prospector or millionaire, was called a comstocker. Conestoga wagon; stogy The heavy, covered, broadwheeled style of wagon that carried numerous American pioneers westward. These wagons crossed many a waving “sea of grass” like “prairie schooners” and were named for the Conestoga Valley in Pennsylvania, where they were first made in about 1750. But as H. L. Mencken points out, Conestoga Valley derives in turn from the name of a long-extinct band of Iroquois Indians. The wagons, pulled by their six-horse teams, also supplied the West with manufactured goods and brought back raw materials, some carrying up to eight

cottonwood blossom 465 tons of freight. Stogy, a cheap cigar today, was coined by the Conestoga teamsters—either after the Conestoga Valley tobacco that they rolled into thin, unbound cigars for their long trips or after the wagons themselves. con permiso Spanish for “with your permission.” “He stood at the end of the table and set his tray down. ‘Con permiso,’ he said.” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992) consarn

conversation fluid Used in the West and other regions for whiskey, especially potent moonshine that loosens the inhibitions and vocal cords. The little Rocky Mountain hare Ochotana princeps.

cookee Western slang for a ranch or camp cook. Also cookie. cool as a blue norther Cool and collected. “But it was Rusk, cool as a blue norther, who stopped him: ‘Roy bub! you horse’s ass, put up that gun.’ ” (James A. Michener, Texas, 1985) coon Sometimes used as a term referring to oneself. “They hunted me, but believe me, nobody’s goin’ to trail this here coon across no desert. Nobody!” (Louis L’Amour, The Haunted Mesa, 1987) cooncan A rummy-like card game played in the Southwest and South. It takes its name from a mispronunciation of the Mexican Spanish words con quién (with whom). cooney

See

POSSUM BELLY.

Coors A beer made in Colorado and mainly popular throughout the West until relatively recent times. “He loved to guzzle yellow cans of Coors with his beautiful daughter and talk football, school work, America, money, romance, the revolving life of the Great American West.” (Thomas McGuane, Nothing but Blue Skies, 1992) coosie A ranch or trail cook, the word deriving from the Spanish cocinero (cook). cooster origin.

coral snake A common name for both the poisonous Micruroides euryxanthus and the king snake (Lampropeltis pyromelana), both found in the Southwest. cordillera A mountain range; often used in the plural, cordilleras: “We passed through the cordilleras into the wilderness.”

Damn, darn. “Consarn you, I’m not going!”

considerable Considerably; a usage common in the West that actually dates back to the 14th century. “I could improve your education considerable, if you really liked to talk.” (Larry McMurtry, Buffalo Girls, 1990)

cony

copper lily An orange- or copper-colored wildflower (Atamasco texana) common to Texas.

A suitcase, an old cowboy term of unknown

corked Tired; an expression used mainly in northern California. “I was really corked this morning.” corn dog A hot dog coated with cornmeal batter, deep fried and usually stuck lengthwise on a stick; very popular in the Southwest but now available in all regions. corn freight When freight was shipped by mule in the old West, it was called corn freight because it had to be shipped with corn used to feed the mules; this method was more expensive than bull-team freight (ox-drawn freight), but mules were faster. cornstalk shoot A traditional game once played by the Cherokees in Oklahoma in which bowmen shot arrows into bundles of cornstalks from a distance. The bowman whose arrow pierced the most stalks in a bundle won the contest. corral Corral has for well over a century had many more meanings in the West than simply an enclosure for animals. In a letter to the New York Tribune in 1867, a rancher in the Montana Territory put it this way: “If a man is embarrassed in any way, he is ‘corraled.’ Indians ‘corral’ men on the plains; storms ‘corral’ tourists. The criminal is ‘corraled’ in prison, the gambler ‘corrals’ the dust of the miner.” cosh Kill; mutilate. “ ‘Bloody Bill Anderson once said that Flynn would cosh a Sister of Mercy for the gold in her molars.’ ” (Loren D. Estleman, Sudden Country, 1991) Costa’s hummingbird The Southwestern hummingbird species Calypte costae named after orthinologist Louis Marie Pantaléon Costa (1806–64). cottonwood A Western poplar tree (Populus Balsamifera) with sweet-smelling buds that is also called the Aspen poplar, the alamo and the cotton tree, among other names. cottonwood blossom In the old West, an outlaw hanged from the limb of any tree was called a cottonwood blossom after the cottonwood tree so common in

466 Happy Trails the West and often used as a gallows tree. This use of the cottonwood led to the old saying to have the cottonwood on one, to have the advantage over someone.

cover one’s back with one’s belly To sleep without blankets outside. “There I slept, covering my back with my belly, shivering all night.”

cottonwood ice cream Among the most unusual American desserts of pioneer days was cottonwood ice cream, a sweet pulpy white mass scraped in the spring from the inner bark of the cottonwood tree.

cover one’s dog A cowboy who gathered all the cattle in the region assigned to him was said to have covered his dog.

cougar A Western name, from the French couguar, for the mountain lion (Felix concolor), which has also been known as the California lion, puma, panther, painter and even red tiger, among many names. cougar juice; cougar milk

Any strong cheap whiskey.

coulee A deep ravine or gulch with sloping sides, formed by running water, that is often dry in summer; can also be a small valley or a small stream. The word derives from the French couler (to flow). Grand Coulee Dam is at the end of the deep dry canyon called Grand Coulee that is cut by the Columbia River in the state of Washington. “Skimming over patches of cactus, soaring over a badger hole, plunging into the coulee and up the other side, he ran as if bears were after him.” (Wallace Stegner, “Goin’ To Town” in The Collected Stories of Wallace Stegner, 1990) Coulter pine The big-coned southern California pine Pinus coulteri named after English physician Thomas Coulter, who discovered it in about 1830. count coup A custom of the Apaches and other American Indians of touching a dead enemy with a COUP STICK. “ ‘Take the stick!’ he commanded. ‘Count coup!’ Johnny hesitated. Hondo was suddenly glad that Angie was not present. ‘Johnny,’ he said distinctly, ‘you must do as Vittoro says. Take the stick he offers you and tap the Indian with it.’ ” (Louis L’Amour, Hondo, 1953) count over To count the number of cows in a herd when selling it to someone. “We counted over the herd to the new owner.” county attorney A humorous name, reflecting the cowboy’s feelings about lawyers and law enforcement officials, for any dish containing cheap or unmentionable ingredients, including sweetbreads, guts and kidneys. Such dishes were also known as district attorney and son-of-a-bitch stew. county hotel

The county jail.

coup stick A decorated stick, usually made of willow, with which plains Indians sought to touch their enemies in battle as a sign of courage. See also COUNT COUP.

the cowards never started and the weak died on the way A popular saying about those who made their way West on the Oregon Trail beginning in 1843. cow boss

The owner or foreman of a ranch.

cowboy (1) A term first applied to members of Tory bands in New York state who rustled cows, but by the mid-19th century, it came to mean a man who herds and tends cattle on a ranch in the West, most of his work done on horseback. Because of Hollywood Westerns, cowboy has also taken on the meaning of any reckless person, such as a speeding automobile driver. (2) See quote. “The word cowboy, once guarded with a vigilant jealousy, had come to apply as much to the handlers of sheep as to handlers of cattle. The average ranchhand was likely to be some of both. The hard knuckles of economics had driven most West Texas cowmen to discard their prejudice and turn to sheep. They found to their consternation that the two species mixed well, a proposition once considered akin to heresy. Now they raised cattle for respectability and sheep for a living.” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973) cowboy A verb meaning to work as a cowboy. “What do you do for a living?” “I cowboy.” a cowboy all the way down to his liver A full-fledged 100% cowboy. “He was a cowboy all the way down to his liver. He broke and trained horses for anyone who would hire him . . . He rode West to punch cows and ride rough strings from Mexico to Canada . . .” (Max Evans, Rounders Three, 1990) cowboy bible The books of paper cowboys carried for rolling their own cigarettes. cowboy boots Cowboys never called them this, at least not until the term was invented in the East in about 1912. Cowboys just called them boots or cowhides until then. In about 1860, however, cowboys did begin to wear boots with higher heels and pointed toes that better fit the stirrups. Edna Ferber describes a fancy pair in Cimarron (1930): “The gay tops were of shiny leather, and alternating around them was the figure of a dancing girl with flaring skirts, and a poker hand of cards which she learned was a royal flush, all handsomely embossed on the patent leather cuffs of the boots.” See also JUSTINS.

cow town 467 cowboy cadillac

Any old truck.

cowboy change Different-sized gun cartridges used by cowboys as small change in days past. cowboy cocktail Straight whiskey. “No need to mix a cowboy cocktail; you drink it right from the bottle.” cowboy coffee

A dog specially trained to help handle cattle.

cowgirls When it was first recorded in 1884, cowgirl meant a female rancher or a rancher’s daughter; it later came to mean a cowpuncher as well. cowhand 1886.

A synonym for cowboy first recorded in

Any very strong coffee.

cowboy hat Cowboys simply called their hats hats, and there were many kinds of them, all of them with wide brims to keep the weather off their faces. Cowboy hat was coined in the East about 1900. cowboy legs ing a horse.

cowdog

Prominent bowlegs from a lifetime of rid-

cowhide Beat with a whip. “ ‘I’ll horsewhip him, that’s what I’ll do! I’ll cowhide him!’ ” (Benjamin Capps, Tales of the Southwest, 1990) cowhides cow horse cow hunt

cowboy of the Pecos A real cowboy from the hard country west of the Pecos River in Texas. cowboy pen The stalk of a plant, such as broomweed, used by cowboys to doodle in the soil. Cowboy President A nickname given to President Theodore Roosevelt, who was a North Dakota ranchman from 1884–86 and all of his life remained interested in cowboy life. cowboy saddle Western saddle, developed this cantle from the dores.

The original name of the common first recorded in the 1870s. Vaqueros saddle with a high pommel and war saddle of the Spanish conquista-

cowboys and Indians No one knows exactly when children started playing cowboys and Indians in the 19th century (or possibly earlier), but the first recorded use of this name for the game has been traced to 1887.

See

See

cow brute A full-grown range cow or steer difficult to manage because it hasn’t been handled since it was a calf; the word is used in other regions as a euphemism for a bull.

cowlick (1) Places along branches or streams where drinking cattle eat or lick out great holes; the term is unrelated to the cowlick meaning an unruly tuft of hair. (2) A salt lick (block) purchased for cattle to lick. cowman (1) A person who owns cattle, a rancher. (2) A cowboy. cowpoke; cowpuncher Cowpokes and cowpunchers were originally cowboys who poked cattle onto railroad cars with long poles. The terms, first recorded in 1880, were soon applied to all cowboys. cow pony This cowboy horse used to work cattle weighs 700–900 pounds and is 12–14 hands high. The name is first recorded in 1874. Also called cow horse. cow prod

cow country (1) Country where cattle roam freely in open territory, range country where cattle aren’t fenced in. (2) A region of cattle ranches.

A cowboy. See also

COW POKE.

A cowboy’s working clothes.

cow saddle The heavy saddle cowboys use when at work roping cattle. cow sense Both a cowboy and a good cutting horse can have cow sense, the practical knowledge of how to handle cattle; the term, like horse sense, has also come to mean common sense in general. cow skinner

cow chips Dried cow dung used as fuel by settlers in the early West; the term is first recorded in 1865.

COW PONY.

A roundup of cattle on the range.

cow rigging cowboy shirt Real cowboys didn’t wear fancy brightcolored cowboy shirts until relatively recent times. The term isn’t recorded until about 1930 when such shirts were popularized by cowboy movie star Tom Mix.

COWBOY BOOTS.

A severe winter storm.

cow town A town that owes its existence to the cattle industry, the term dating back to the mid-19th century. “‘Yes, that is how it is in cow towns.’” he observed. ‘All this H——— raising is common because these towns are made so cowboys can blow off speed at the end of cat-

468 Happy Trails tle drives.’” (Richard Matheson, Journal of the Gun Years, 1991) coyote (1) Its name deriving from the Nahuatl coyotl, meaning the same, the coyote (Canis latrans) is a buffygray, wolflike canid distinguished from the wolf by its smaller size, slender build, large ears and narrow muzzle. (2) A contemptible person, a liar or a cheat. (3) An Indian or one of some Indian ancestry. (4) A shallow mining tunnel, like a coyote hole. (5) In recent usage, a person who smuggles Mexicans across the border. Other names for the coyote include the prairie wolf, medicine wolf and brush wolf. In the West the word is usually pronounced ki-yote. “Hated and even feared, Old Man Ortiz was a power among his people though most privately condemned him as a coyote, a flesh-peddling profiteer . . .” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973) coyote around

To sneak around, move surreptitiously.

coyote days

The early days in the unsettled West.

coyote dun

See

coyote gold

Gold dust found in coyote holes.

crazy as a peach-orchard boar used in the West and South.

Wild and crazy; a term

crazy as a shithouse rat Very crazy. “ ‘These sumbucks are crazy as a shithouse rat,’ he said.” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992) cream pea A small field pea that is cream-colored with a small, light-brown eye. creasing (1) A method of capturing a wild horse by shooting it in the crest of the neck above the cervical vertebrae and stunning it. The practice is recorded in Texas as early as 1820. (2) Barely wounding someone. “He just creased him.”

DUN.

coyote house A small dugout with several boards placed over it for a roof; built and inhabited by settlers in the early days of the West. coyotero Arizona.

laughter, a high, far-crying, liquid tremolo that sets your spine atingle.” The loon has nothing to do with the word loony (crazy), which is a shortening of lunatic, but the bird does give us the expression crazy as a loon, which could have originated in the West and is first recorded there.

creosote bush A yellow-flowering shrub (Larrea tridentata) of the Southwest with resinous foliage thought by some to smell like creosote. crevice To examine rock crevices hoping to find gold in them. “I’ve creviced and dug for gold and found none.”

An Indian of one of various Apache bands in

Coyote State

crib A nickname for South Dakota.

coyotey Used to describe anything mangy, as in “He had two coyotey old horses.” coyoting Sneaking about. “Someone coyotin’ around out there, for sure, he thought. Probably not so much waiting to give me an Indian haircut as to make free with my possibles [small personal property].” (R. C. House, Warhawk, 1993) crawfish Crawl, apologize abjectly. “ ‘You’re unreasonable . . . I can’t crawfish for something I may have said unintentionally.’ ” (Zane Grey, The Maverick Queen, 1950)

A cheap house of prostitution.

crick A pronunciation of creek; a running stream. “Let’s go down to the crick.” critters Though Westerners have long favored this corruption of “creatures” to mean horses or cattle, critters has been used in this sense by Americans since at least 1782, when the term is first recorded. “ ‘I’ll take your critters as far as Abilene, but I’ll be damned if I’ll take ’em to Colorado.’ ” (James Michener, Centennial, 1974) crooked Cheated. “ ‘My men are well paid, my word is good, and no one can say that ever I crooked him.’ ” (A. B. Guthrie Jr., Arfive, 1970)

crawl To stealthily advance on one’s quarry, such as a herd of buffalo; a plains Indian technique that was imitated by white hunters.

crossbred squatter An insulting term meaning a squatter with Indian blood. “ ‘Why, you crossbred squatter,’ Wilson said, quick and sharp, ‘are you telling me I’m wrong?’ ” (Jack Schaefer, Shane, 1949)

crazy as a loon The common loon (Gavia immer) is noted for what one ornithologist calls its “mirthless

cross-buck saddle sawbuck.

A pack saddle resembling a small

cutting horses 469 crow The name, bestowed by themselves, of a tribe of Siouan Indians; they were known to dance a crow dance wearing a crow-belt, which was a long bustle or tail made of crow feathers.

cut from the herd. A cutting horse had to spin and turn as quickly as the cow, always edging the reluctant animal away from the herd without frightening it.” (Richard Matheson, The Gun Fight, 1993)

crowbait

cut a sign To come upon evidence of the presence of Indians or game. “Wherever he cut their sign, he steered us the other way.”

An old nag or other decrepit animal.

crowd To bother, pester, push or force into something. “ ‘Do I have to crowd you into slapping leather?’ ” (Jack Schaefer, Shane, 1949) crucifixion thorn A thorny shrub (Castela genus) native to the Southwest whose spring branches are said to resemble Christ’s crown of thorns. crust Forwardness, nerve, impudence; the expression is used nationally now. “He’s sure got a lot of crust.” culinary water A term heard mainly in Utah for treated water meant for direct human use as opposed to use for irrigation. cultus A Chinook word meaning worthless. “He can’t do nothing right, he’s just cultus.” cuna A country dance, Spanish in origin, with a swaying motion similar to that of a cradle. Often called the cradle dance, the cuna takes its name from the Spanish word meaning cradle. curl up To kill someone. “You’ll never outdraw him. He’ll curl you up.” Curly Bill spin

See

ROAD AGENT’S SPIN.

curly wolf An old cowboy term for a wild, tough guy, a badman or desperado, someone to beware of. cuss Curse. “ ‘If you’re planning to cuss, I’ll ask you to do it outside,’ the clerk said . . .” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985) Custer Battle; Custer Tragedy Names for the battle of Little Big Horn in Montana on June 26, 1876, when a large force of Sioux wiped out U.S. forces serving under General George Armstrong Custer (1839–76). cut (1) A group of cattle separated from the main herd for some purpose, such as branding or shipping. (2) As a verb, to separate animals from the herd. “Cutting was a ticklish and difficult job, the most exacting duty any horse could be called upon to perform. It demanded of the mount an apex of physical and mental control plus a calm dispatch that would not panic the animal being

cutback (1) Cowboy talk for cattle rejected for some reason. (2) An inferior worthless person. cut finer than a frog hair Cut very fine. “ ‘She’s cut finer than a frog hair,’ Deakins said [of the coin]. ‘Quarter of a silver dollar, exact.’ ” (A. B. Guthrie Jr., The Big Sky, 1947) cut for sign To inspect ground for tracks and droppings (signs). cut it wild aloose and see where it lights Free something from control and see what happens. “Me, I’d as soon cut the whole thing wild aloose and see where it lights. But they get the regulations and they’ll bear down on you.” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973) cut-nose woman An Indian woman of certain tribes whose nose was cut off because of her adultery. “He reckoned he . . . would . . . never have to cut Teal Eye’s nose off . . . the way a Piegan did when he found his woman had lain in secret with another man. It was a sight, the squaws you saw with no end to their noses. Cut-nose women, they were called.” (A. B. Guthrie Jr., The Big Sky, 1947) cut out To separate a cow or horse from the rest of the herd; the term is first recorded in 1874 but was probably used earlier. cut the alkali in the water A humorous expression for adding liquor to one’s drinking water, which is often alkaline in the West. cut the trail of To come upon, to meet up with. “We intended to cut their trail when they came out of the mountains.” cutting horses See quote. “ ‘They’re what we call cutting horses. They’re used to cut out certain animals from the herd . . . You don’t have to touch the reins half the time. Just sway your body and your horse will turn your weight this way or that.” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952)

D dad drat it! An old-fashioned euphemism for damn it! that possibly derives from God rot it!

blossoms like Easter lilies. By its dark blue-green leaves, large and coarse-toothed, Father Latour recognized a species of the noxious datura. The size and luxuriance of these nightshades astonished him. They looked like great artificial plants, made of shining silk.” (Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop, 1927)

Dakota The largest tribe of Siouan Indians, their name deriving from an American Indian word meaning “allies.” dally man; dally roper A name for a cowboy who twists his rope a turn around his saddle horn on roping an animal; the expression derives from the Spanish dale vuelta (give a twist), which is also heard as dally welta.

daunsy Moody, downcast in spirit. “He’s mighty daunsy the last few days.”

darning needle The dragonfly; used in the West as well as other regions.

Davy Crockett David (Davy) Crockett, as the song goes, was “king of the wild frontier” from his earliest years. Born in 1786 in Limestone, Tennessee, Davy was hired out to a passing cattle driver by his Irish immigrant father when only 12; he wandered the frontier until he turned 15, finally returning home. He became a colonel in the Tennessee militia under Andrew Jackson during the Creek War and, after serving as a justice of the peace and state legislator, acted on a humorous suggestion that he run for Congress. He was noted in Washington for his backwoods dress and shrewd native humor, though many of the comments often attributed to him are largely apocryphal. His motto was “Be sure you are right, then go ahead.” When defeated for reelection in 1835—mainly because he opposed Jacksonian banking and Indian policies—he moved to Texas, where he joined the Texas War for Independence from Mexico. On March 6, 1836, Colonel Crockett was killed with the defenders of the Alamo. The folk hero’s famous autobiography, A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee 1834), was probably dictated but is written in his robust style, complete with many examples of the tall tale.

datura See quote. “. . . a rank plant grew conspicuously out of the [desert] sand; a plant with big white

a day late, a dollar short An old saying describing someone or something that just misses being successful.

dance hall hostess Western dance halls, like Dodge City’s Variety, were often combined saloons, gambling houses, and brothels. By the 1870s, dance hall hostess became a euphemism for prostitutes like the Variety’s Squirrel-Tooth Colie, Big Nose Kate, and Hambone Jane. dancing devil A Southwestern expression for a funnelshaped whirlwind of sand up to 50 feet high. dangdest Darnedest. “ ‘Why, it never made no difference to him—he’d bet on any thing—the dangdest feller.’” (Mark Twain, “The Nortorious Jumping Frog of Calveras County,” 1865) danged Damned. “ ‘I’ve got to take that danged hog off the public streets.’ ” (Benjamin Capps, Tales of the Southwest, 1990)

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Derringer day’s busted The sun has risen. “ ‘Wake up, Wayne, old boy, day’s busted . . .’ ” (Zane Grey, Western Union, 1939) deadfall A cheap saloon or crooked gambling house on the frontier. dead forever Dead a long time. See usage example at DON’T KNOW SHIT FROM APPLEBUTTER. dead Indian A synonym once used, often with humorous intent, for a good Indian. See also THE ONLY GOOD INDIAN IS A DEAD INDIAN. deadman’s hand James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok, only 39, had come to Deadwood, Dakota Territory in 1876 to make a stake for the bride he had just taken, but lawless elements, fearing his appointment as town marshall, hired gunman Jack McCall to assassinate him, giving McCall $300 and all the cheap whiskey he needed for courage. Wild Bill was playing cards in the No. 10 saloon (his back to the open door for only the second time in his days of gunfighting) when McCall sneaked in and shot him in the back of the head, the bullet passing through his brain and striking the cardplayer across the table from him in the arm. Hickok’s last hand, which he held tight in a death grip, was aces and eights, which has ever since been called the deadman’s hand. McCall, freed by a packed miner’s court, was later convicted by a federal court, his plea of “double jeopardy” disregarded on the ground that the miner’s court had no jurisdiction. He was later hanged for his crime. dead men don’t talk A saying common in the Wild West, perhaps from the Spanish saying los muertos no hablan with the same meaning. deadwood (1) To have the drop on someone in a gun fight; to have the advantage or upper hand over someone. The term was used long before the death of Wild Bill Hickok in Deadwood, South Dakota (see DEADMAN’S HAND). It may derive from the game of 10 pins in which a downed pin (deadwood) falls in front of the standing pins so that a ball bowled by the next bowler might strike it and knock all the other pins down with it. (2) See quote. “Wild Bill [Hickok] and Captain Massey are arguing mildly over the foreman’s habit of sneaking looks at his opponent’s [poker] discards, referred to as ‘deadwoods’.” (Loren D. Estleman, Aces & Eights, 1981) Deadwood Dick Deadwood Dick became proverbial through many late 19th-century dime novels, especially those written by Edward L. Wheeler, and long stood for a fearless Indian scout and outlaw fighter. The prototype for Wheeler’s westerns was Richard W. Clarke

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(1845–1930), who had been nicknamed Deadwood Dick long before his fictional exploits. Clarke, an Englishman attracted to the Black Hills by the gold diggings, won fame as both an Indian fighter and an express guard for gold shipped from the mines in and around Deadwood, South Dakota. Many of the Deadwood Dick myths have been debunked, but he was certainly a real character. Clarke was buried in a mountain grave near Deadwood. deaf with hate See quote. “People who hear about this will not perhaps believe that I was deaf with hate. I have heard of this happening to people, that some senses can leave you. It shocked me for a little to realize that I had yelled and not heard the sound of my own voice.” (Charles O. Locke, The Hell Bent Kid, 1957) death camas The poisonous plant Ziadenus venenosus, whose root can be deadly; also called crow poison, poison camas and white camas, among other names. death feast A feast held by various Western Indian tribes after the death of a great chief. decoy brand A small brand hidden in an inconspicuous place on an animal’s body in order to trick rustlers, in the hope that they would not find it and change it. Denver mud The name for a patent medicine poultice used as a remedy for a cough or an infection. It is named for Denver, Colorado, but no one seems to know why; in fact, informants advise that the term isn’t used much in Colorado. Denver omelet An omelet made with chopped ham, onions and green pepper; in the East this is almost always called a Western omelet. It is said to have been invented on the trail to disguise the flavor of eggs going bad. Denver sandwich SANDWICH.

Another name for the

WESTERN

dern Damn. “ ‘Dern, he’s behaving like a deacon,’ Soupy said.” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985) Derringer A short pistol often associated with gamblers in the West. Derringers are, of course, the small but deadly, large-bored guns so often concealed in the sleeves of gamblers and the bosoms of dance-hall girls in Westerns and that in real life have been the choice of a large variety of villains, including assassin John Wilkes Booth. The pistol, often carried in pairs, is named for Philadelphia gunsmith Henry Deringer, who invented it in 1835. Posterity cheated Deringer a bit, though, for the stubby gun came to be spelled with a double r. Deringer,

472 Happy Trails who started his career selling squirrel rifles to Delaware river boatmen in exchange for lumber, had a prosperous business before his invention, but the little box-lock pistols made his one of America’s largest armories. He alone is said to have fashioned 10,000 of them in his long lifetime—he lived to be 82; however, many imitations were made of his gun. One of these was a European make signed Derringer, the spelling that somehow became accepted. The original model has a 11/2-inch barrel and .4 bore, but today any small pistol of a large caliber is called a derringer.

devil’s bouquet A plant (Nyctaginia capitata) native to Texas, so named because of its musty, disagreeable odor. Also called skunk flower.

Deseret A place-name used in the Utah Territory by the Mormons in 1850. The word is a coined one from the Book of Mormon and means “honeybee,” a symbol of hard work and cooperation. What is now Utah was called the State of Deseret, and Salt Lake City was called Deseret.

devil’s horse mantis.

Deseret alphabet An alphabet of 41 characters invented for the Mormons by either Brigham Young or George D. Watt, an English convert to Mormonism, in 1857.

dewlap The skin hanging from the neck of a cow cut in various ways as an identifying mark. “They cut dewlaps in all of the cows.”

desert canary The humorous name for a burro or small donkey because of its loud unmusical bray. desert candles The tall graceful Yucca Whipplei of the Southwestern deserts. desert pavement An area of tightly packed stones that form a mosaic pavement on the Southwestern desert floor so firm that it leaves no footprints when walked or ridden upon. desert rat (1) Neotoma desertorum, a rat found in desert areas in many Western states and often called the desert brush rat. It is one of many animals and plants named for the deserts where they are found, including the desert ant, desert gray fox, desert oak and desert willow. (2) A person, often a prospector, who has lived in the desert for many years. desert varnish The polished surface of rocks caused by wind and water working on it for centuries; this surface, ranging in color from yellow to brown, is also called desert gloss and desert glaze. desperado An outlaw, the borrowing of a Spanish word meaning the same. Destroying Angel A historical term for a member of an alleged secret militant Mormon organization. Also called the Destroying Band and Mormon Destroying Angels. The group was said, in Mark Twain’s words, “to conduct permanent disappearances of obnoxious citizens.”

devil’s darning needle devil’s hat band

See

BRONCO GRASS.

An old name for barbed wire.

devil’s head A common name for both the pincushion cactus (Mammillaria wrighii) and the barrel cactus (Echinocactus texensis). A name used in Texas for the praying

devil’s tongue The Western prickly pear (Opuntia humifusa), which has many small bristles that are very painful when they penetrate the skin.

dice-house A term used by many cowboys for the bunkhouse. dicho A saying or proverb; borrowed from Spanish. “‘The lands of the sun expand the soul’ is a dicho of our Latin neighbors.” dicker Deriving from decem (10), decuria was the Latin word for the bundle of 10 animal hides that Caesar’s legions made a unit of trade in Britain and elsewhere, this word eventually corrupted to dicker. On the frontier in America, the haggling and petty bargaining over dickers of pelts became the meaning of the word itself. die game Die bravely. “. . . all executed men who do not ‘die game’ are promptly called cowards by unreflecting people . . .” (Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872) die-out

See

DIE-UP.

die-up The death of great numbers of cattle due to a drought or a blizzard. “We lost thousands in the die-up of 1872–73.” Also called a die-out. die with throat trouble To be hanged. “Someone bad as that’s gonna die of throat trouble.” differential grasshopper; differential locust Melanoplus differentialis, a large destructive grasshopper of the Western states. Digger Indian A small Paiute tribe near St. George, Utah was first called the Diggers because they practiced

doghouse stirrups 473 agriculture instead of hunting for food; the name was said to be an English translation of their Indian name. Later, Diggers was applied to all agricultural tribes and eventually the name became a derogatory one for an Indian.

Dixie wine Wine made by Mormon settlers in southern Utah; also called Dixie punch.

dimes An old term for money. “He’s got the dimes; he’s a real wealthy man.”

dobe (1) A mud brick used in making Mexican silver dollar.

Dine

dobe wall To execute someone by firing squad, as was done in Mexico against adobe walls. “They dobe walled him as soon as they caught him.”

See

NAVAJO.

dinero Spanish for money. “‘I could send for a friend of mine who has a map and get plenty of dinero.’ ” (J. Frank Dobie, Coronado’s Children, 1930) dink A term for an animal or person found wanting, from a small or deformed calf to a horse that doesn’t perform well to a person who leaves much to be desired. “I’m sorry I voted for that dink.” dipping A term in the West and the South for using snuff by putting it into the mouth. dirt grubber A farmer. “A brunch of dirt grubbers hired him an’ brung him down from Oregon or some such place.” (Frank Roderus, Hell Creek Cabin, 1979) Dirty Thirties The 1930s, when terrible dust storms afflicted the Western plains.

Dixie A name given by Mormon settlers to the southern part of Utah, so named after the U.S. South or Dixie.

ADOBES.

(2) A

does a bear shit in the woods? Absolutely, certainly. “‘Can you ride or not?’ said Rawlins. ‘Does a bear shit in the woods? Hell yes I can ride . . .’ ” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992) doesn’t know A from bullfrog Has knowledge of very few things, is ignorant. “He doesn’t know A from bullfrog about horses.” doesn’t know beeswax from bullfoot stupid.

Is ignorant or

dofunnies An old term for a cowboy’s knives, trinkets and so forth.

discovery dance A Plains Indians dance celebrating the discovery of game or an enemy tribe.

dogbit Bit by a dog. “. . . I got dogbit by a bulldog took a chunk out of my leg the size of a Sunday roast . . .” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992)

disremember Forget. “ ‘Rickety can be rode, they say . . . but I disremember anybody that’s done it . . .” (Max Brand, Alcatraz, 1923)

dog dance A historical term for a wild Sioux dance in which the heart and liver were cut from a dog and eaten raw by warriors.

district attorney Any dish contained cheap or unmentionable ingredients, such as sweetbreads, guts and kidneys, and named because of the cowboy’s feelings about legal authorities. Also called county attorney and sonof-a-bitch stew.

dogfight A term used by cowboys for a fistfight; many cowboys, preferring to fight with weapons, thought dogfights were beneath them, reasoning that if they were intended to fight like dogs they would have been born with longer teeth and claws.

ditch riders Someone employed to check and maintain an irrigation system, cleaning the waters of debris and allotting the water.

dogging Short for BULLDOGGING “When I started dogging I was looking for a passion . . . rapidly became a crackerjack bulldogger . . . and soon fixed upon four seconds as a pure limit, a goal to aim for. To chase and throw a steer within four seconds would equal perfection . . .” (Larry McMurty, Cadillac Jack, 1982)

dive Another term for the bunkhouse used by cowboys. divide (1) A mountain range or ride. (2) A section of high ground separating two watersheds.

doghouse

divinity A soft white candy made with egg whites and usually containing nuts, so named because its taste is “heavenly” to many.

doghouse stirrups Wooden stirrups used in the early days of the West; they were said facetiously to have enough wood in them to build a doghouse with.

Another cowboy term for the bunkhouse.

474 Happy Trails dogie The American cowboy has been shouting “git along, little dogie” for more than a century, but etymologists differ about the origin of the word dogie for a motherless calf. Some think it derives from “doughguts,” referring to the bloated bellies of such calves; others think that dogie is a clipped form of the Spanish adobe (mud); possibly it referred to cows so small that they were playfully called “doggies,” and the pronunciation changed. Since some American cowboys were black, there is also the possibility that the Bambara dogo (small, short) is the source, or the Afro-Creole dogi, meaning the same. A dogie can be a calf, a yearling, a motherless calf, a poor worthless calf, a steer, or even a lamb or horse. See also DOUGH GUT. dog my cats! damn it!

by hunger, resorted to cannibalism before expeditions from the Sacramento Valley rescued them in April. The Donner party’s gruesome yet heroic adventures have figured in much native literature. California’s Donner State Historic Monument commemorates the event; the Donner Pass is traversed by U.S. Highway 40 today. don’t chew on something that’s eatin’ you Don’t dwell on problems. “My daddy used to tell me not to chew on somethin’ that was eatin’ you.” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992) don’t count on a rain ’til it’s floatin’ chip up around your belly button A West Texas saying, chips here being cow chips from the pasture.

A common euphemistic exclamation for

dog my skin! An old exclamation. “Dog my skin, ef thar was one in eight.” (Bret Harte, “Spelling Bee,” 1889) dog soldiers (1) Members of a Cheyenne warrior society, the word often applied loosely to any Cheyenne or Indian warrior. The origin of the name is unknown. (2) Outlawed members of certain Western Indian tribes who banded together.

don’t fence me in Give me freedom, elbow room, a song and expression often associated with the West. Originally it was a line of a poem written by Bob Fletcher, a Westerner. Cole Porter bought the rights to the poem, revised the lyrics and wrote the music for the song, which wasn’t used until a decade later, in the film Hollywood Canteen (1944). The next year it was featured in the Roy Rogers’ movie Don’t Fence Me In. “Meanwhile, in a sad irony,” Frank Richard Prassel notes in The Great American Outlaw (1993), “Porter had been left crippled by a riding accident.”

dollop glass A whiskey shot glass. “Ladino bent over a small wet spot on the carpeting and retrieved the dollop glass, but shook his head as Specs reached for the bottle again.” (William Hopson, The Last Shoot-Out, 1958)

don’t give a hoot and a holler Don’t care at all. “‘Thing is, I didn’t give a hoot and a holler what happened after I kicked off.’ ” (Richard S. Wheeler, Stop, 1989)

domino An old euphemism for “to give birth.” “She’s fixin’ to domino in about three months.” The reference here is to the end of a long game of dominoes.

don’t give a hoot in hell Don’t care at all. “I don’t give a hoot in hell how you put it down. That’s your problem.” (Jack Schaefer, Monte Walsh, 1958)

Donation Land Act A congressional act of 1850 giving a married couple 640 acres of homestead land if they met certain conditions; it was the first such act of its kind and is said to have inspired many marriages.

don’t go a cent on An old term used when one declines an offer. “I don’t go a cent on that.”

done went

Went. “He done went there.”

Donner Pass; Donner Lake The scene of one of the most gruesome tragedies in Western history is named for the two Donner families who were part of a Californiabound wagon train of emigrants that set out across the plains from Illinois in 1846. The Donner party, beset by great hardships, paused to recoup their strength at what is now Donner Lake in eastern California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, only to be trapped by early snows that October. All passes were blocked deep with snow, and every attempt to get out failed. Forty of the 87 members of the party, which included 39 children, starved to death during the winter, and the survivors, driven mad

don’t know shit from apple butter To know nothing, be stupid or ignorant. “ ‘You don’t know shit from apple butter,’ said Rawlins. ‘Booger kid’s been dead forever.’ ” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992) don’t signify Doesn’t make sense, seems unlikely, is unimportant. “ ‘[The river] is dry now. Like powder.’ He shrugged. ‘Don’t signify.’ ” (Jeanne Williams, Home Mountain, 1990) don’t you worry around Don’t worry. “ ‘I’m all right,” Mrs. Thompson said. “Now don’t you worry around.’ ” (Katherine Anne Porter, Noon Wine, 1937) doodads Trinkets, gadgets, devices, jewelry, etc. “‘Texas girls are mighty dressy. Wait till you see them,

drifter 475 they go to Chicago and New York for their doodads.’ ” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952)

injured animal that can’t stand after a long drought or a hard winter.

dope (1) A preparation of pitch that was applied to skis much like wax is today to make them slide faster. (2) To apply a substance to something with the intention of improving or fixing it. “Let me dope that sore on your leg.”

down one’s Sunday throat Logger’s talk for swallowing something the wrong way. “It went down his Sunday throat, and he near choked to death.”

dot and carry one A Western method of travel in which a rider would ride a distance, tie up his horse to rest and proceed on foot. Then his companion would reach the rested horse on foot and ride him past the walker, tie the horse up again and walk. When the first rider reached the tied rested horse, he would then ride it past the second rider and tie it up . . . and so on until they reached their destination. double-damned lie A total lie. “ ‘That’s a doubledamned lie. I never wrote her a scratch.’ ” (Mari Sandoz, Son of the Gamblin’ Man, 1960) double-distilled liar An emphatic term for a pure, unadulterated liar. “ ‘Why you double-distilled liar,’ said Monte Walsh.” (Jack Schaefer, Monte Walsh, 1958) double jack A long-handled heavy sledgehammer that is swung with both hands. doughboy This word for a U.S. Army infantryman may have originated in the West from the term adobe, which Spaniards in the Southwest called military personnel, though this is only one of several possible explanations for the term. Dougherty wagon An ambulance or passenger wagon used in the Southwest in the early days of migration; named for its inventor, his first name unknown. dough god A type of bread cooked over an open fire. “Mrs. Nelberger came to the door with a pan in her hand and asked, quite humbly, if she could put this here dough god to bake on top of our stove . . . so [she] put her dough god in the oven, since mother was not baking.” (David Lamson, “Haywire,” 1943) Also called a dough gob and a dough goddy. dough gut An old cowboy term for a calf that has lost its mother and is fed with the cattle, the sudden change in diet causing its stomach to swell; one story has it that the term DOGIE for a calf derives from dough gut. douse

Put out, extinguish. “Douse that cigarette.”

downer (1) An animal, such as a cow, that is off its feet, especially in a loaded cattle car. (2) A sick or

down the river Another name for the poker game of seven-card stud. down to a gnat’s eyebrow Something very small, fine or insignificant; descriptive of something done very precisely. “He dropped that tree right where he wanted it, down to a gnat’s eyebrow.” downwinder A term applied to people in the Southwest “who claim they were harmed by wind-carried radioactive fallout resulting from open-air testing of atomic bombs in the 1950s and early 1960s,” according to a New York Times article of 12/29/93. drag The tail end of a herd of cattle; the cowboy in charge of these cows is called the drag-driver, having the worst place to ride because of the dust kicked up by the cattle. drag it

See

LIGHT A RAG.

drank Drink. “I went outside with a couple o’ fellers to take a drank.” (James Still, “Lost Brother,” 1937) Heard in Texas but used more in the South than the West. drat A euphemism for damn. “Drat him!” (Clarence B. Kelland, Valley of the Sun, 1940) draw (1) To draw a pistol from a holster on one’s belt, an expression that originated in the West in the mid19th century. (2) A dry streambed or gully. draw one’s steel Draw a gun. “ ‘Sit quiet,’ said the dealer, scornfully to the man near me. ‘Can’t you see he don’t want to push trouble?’ He had handed Trampas the choice to back down or draw his steel.” (Owen Whister, The Virginian, 1902) dressed up like a sore thumb Dressed very gaudily, overdressed for a place or occasion, out of place. “She came into the bar dressed up like a sore thumb.” drift (1) A herd that strays from its range. (2) Cattle that persistently move slowly in response to a storm. (3) To drive cattle slowly. drifter Originally a cowboy riding or drifting through the West looking for work.

476 Happy Trails drinking hole Any bar. “Describing the place as a lounge sure was euphemistic . . . The place was a bonafide honky-tonk. It didn’t possess a single feature that would elevate it to any higher caliber of drinking hole than that.” (Sandra Brown, Texas Lucky!, 1990)

Bower’s,’ a song much heard among the Texas drovers . . . but the quality of his singing was not as good, because his voice was not oiled with drygulch whiskey as the Texans’ always were . . .” (Douglas C. Jones, Roman, 1986)

driver A cowboy who moves cattle that are on foot from one place to another.

drylander An old term for a farmer who farms without irrigation because of a poor supply of water.

drizzles Involuntary urination, wetting of the pants. “‘You boys will get the drizzles if you don’t relax,’ he said.” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985)

ducking A hard cotton fabric used to make clothing, sacks, etc.; also called duck.

drop band A flock of pregnant ewes that are going to drop, that is, give birth to lambs, in a short time. drop of a hat No one has offered a convincing explanation for this very common American expression, and both Webster’s and the Oxford English Dictionary ignore it entirely. It has been suggested that it is Irish in origin and that since the words are most often heard in the form of “he’s ready to fight at the drop of a hat” the phrase parallels challenges like “roll up your sleeves,” “take off your coat” and other expressions used at the start of a fistfight. Another possible explanation lies in the duels with guns, knives, whips or fists so common in the 19th century. The referee who judged these duels usually dropped a handkerchief or hat as a signal for the fight to begin. The expression appears to have been used in the United States first in the West and was first recorded in 1887. drouth Drought. “. . . the once powerful frame of a man in whom some inward drouth had dried up the last few water holes of life and power.” (Conrad Richter, The Sea of Grass, 1937) drouthed out Ruined by drought. “All the drouthedout land in West Texas ain’t worth one tear in that girl’s eye.” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973) drug

Dragged. “They drug him out.”

drunk as a biled (boiled) owl “. . . the Comanches . . . all got drunk as a covey of biled owls.” (J. Frank Dobie, Coronado’s Children, 1930) dry camp available.

A place for camping where there is no water

dry-gulch To ambush someone, killing or harming him. “They dry-gulched Bill Morrow just outside of town.” drygulch whiskey A cheap, potent, locally brewed whiskey. “He mouthed the words to the tune of ‘Joe

dude An often contemptuous term for an Easterner or city slicker, especially one who vacations on what is called a dude ranch; the term dates back to the late 19th century. dude ranch At first a term for tourist ranches in the West but now used to describe such places everywhere, from the Catskills to the Texas Panhandle. dugout A pioneer dwelling built into the ground. “Their dug-out was a wretched place to live in . . . A hole is dug in the side of a hill, a few forked posts are put in the corners, poles are laid in the forks, brush and straw as thick as will keep out rain, and with a door in front and a chimney cut in the bank, the house is ready for occupation.” (Percy G. Ebbutt, Emigrant Life in Kansas, 1886) dulce A Southwestern term for a sweet or candy, a borrowing of the Spanish word meaning the same. dump Another term used by cowboys for the bunkhouse. dumpling mover but brief rain.

A term used in Texas for a very heavy

dun A dun-colored horse, usually a dull grayish brown with a black tail. “He pointed at this big dun horse . . . I say dun; in the north they generally call them buckskin, but on the ranges in the Southwest they call them dun, or coyote dun.” (Benjamin Capps, Tales of the Southwest, 1990) dust Short for gold dust. “We panned out some dust from the old mine.” dust along; dust out To depart quickly. “He dusted out of there quicker than a wink.” dust bowl Severe dust storms beginning in 1934 destroyed crops and dried the soil in the southern High Plains of the United States, largely because this land in Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas

dust pneumonia 477 had been poorly farmed for years. The Great Depression, drought, and the dust forced large numbers of people to migrate from the area, which was first called the dust bowl in a story written by Associated Press reporter Robert Geiger in April 1935. The dust storms lasted almost a decade, and dust from them blew as far as 300 miles out into the Atlantic, where it coated ships. dust devil See quote. “The strong wind blew out of the northwest, sweeping the hotter air of the desert toward the mountain. Heated unevenly by the baking sunlight on the white earth of the bottom of the long-gone lake, the wind in places lost its smooth southeast flow and began to eddy and swirl. The swirls grew and pirouetted like invisible dancers and then, as their strength grew,

birthed giant dust devils that dizzily spun white dust around and upward in vortices of counter clockwisewhirling turbulent pools of air four to five hundred feet deep. The ghostly columns, like giant dancing worms, wiggled and zig-zagged along to the southwest with the wind.” (F. M. Parker, Skinner, 1981) duster (1) A dust storm. (2) A dry hole, that is, an oil well that comes up dry, yielding no oil. dust pneumonia A pneumonia caused by breathing dust-laden air; it took a heavy toll of human life and livestock in eastern Colorado and western Kansas in the 1930s. See also DUST BOWL.

E determine signs of the future, trying to find out what’s coming.

ear down To hold a horse still by biting its ear. “I yelled at Wrangler [his partner], ‘Ear him down; the son of a bitch is settin’ my ears afire!’ Wrangler came sailing in looking like a bowlegged hog crossed with a shortshanked bear. He finally got the [horse’s] ear in his mouth and held on till I got a hackamore on the bay’s head.” (Max Evans, The Rounders, 1960)

eat dog for another Various American Indian tribes ate dog meat and at least one was called the Dogeaters by their enemies. When white men sat at Indian councils where dog meat was served, those who didn’t relish the dish could, without offending their host, put a silver dollar on the dish and pass it along, the next man taking the dollar and eating the dog. From this practice arose the American political expression to eat dog for another.

ear-notched Tame, domesticated, broken, part of the herd. ‘Sleeper was ‘ear-notched, but mostly maverick,’ men said of him.” (Max Brand, One Man Posse, 1934)

eat grass

ear sewer A colorful term heard in northern California for the dragonfly; also called the snake doctor.

See

EAT GRAVEL.

eat gravel To be thrown by a bucking horse or a steer; also eat grass.

ears like a fox A keen sense of hearing. “‘Ah, lad,’ he said. ‘Hush now. The man will hear ye. He’s ears like a fox.’” (Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, or, The Evening Redness in the West, 1985)

eat lead Get shot. “The wrangler drew his six-shooter and pointed it at the barkeep’s face. ‘This is all I need to get a drink around here,’ he said. ‘Now pour or eat lead.’ ” (Larry D. Names, Boomtown, 1981)

earthquake weather A term used in California for the hot, humid weather without wind long believed to precede an earthquake.

E Clampus Vitus A humorous fraternity formed during California gold rush days mainly for the purpose of drinking; the name was probably formed on the analogy of E Pluribus Unum combined with the suggested convulsions of St. Vitus’s dance.

ear to the ground Ramon Adams wrote in Western Words (1944 edition) that old plainsmen often placed a silk neckerchief on the ground, put an ear to it and thus could hear the sounds of men and horses miles away. Even if plainsmen and American Indians didn’t hear distant footfalls by putting their ears to the ground, so many writers of Westerns have attributed this skill to them that the practice has become well known. The phrase is first recorded in 1900 in the Congressional Record, meaning “to use caution, to go slowly and listen frequently.” Since then someone with an ear to the ground has become someone trying to

educated in his books Had school or book learning. “[He’s] tall, strong and better educated in his books than me.” (Louis, L’Amour, The Lonesome Gods, 1983) eeef

A pronunciation of if. See usage example at KEEL.

Egypt of the West The interior area of the United States between the Alleghenies and the Rocky Moun478

eyeballing tains; the term was coined by President Lincoln in an 1862 message to Congress. eight square rifle A rifle with an octogonal barrel, used in the West toward the turn of the century; often called for short an eight square. eitherhanded as a spider Ambidexterous. “He had the pistols stuck in his belt at the back and he drew them one in each hand and he is eitherhanded as a spider, he can write with both hands at a time . . .” (Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, or The Evening Redness in the West, 1985) elbow room Plenty of room to move about in the open country, something a cowboy required miles of. El Dorado The legendary treasure city of South America, whose name was applied by prospectors to the American West in the 19th century. elephant tree A small Southwestern tree (Bursera microphylla) with gray bark and a stout tapering trunk that looks like an elephant’s trunk. embarcadero A port or landing place, especially one serving an inland Western city, a borrowing of the Spanish word meaning the same. emigrant In the U.S., emigrant has meant at various times: (1) Someone moving farther West from the more settled East. (2) An American settler in Texas. (3) One who settles in Oregon. (4) A Mormon settler in the West. (5) A settler in California. (6) A settler in Kansas before the Civil War. Emigration Road A nickname for the Oregon Trail, which brought so many settlers West and was called by a traveler in 1862 “the best and longest natural highway in the world.” emmer

See

EMORY.

emory (1) The Emory oak of the Southwest, named after American engineer W. H. Emory (d. 1889). (2) A pronunciation of the wheat called emmer (Triticum turgidum dicoccon) grown as a forage crop in the West.

479

endowment The course of instruction about Mormon rules and dispensations given to people wanting to join the church. equalizer A pistol, possibly from the common Western saying that a “Colt makes all men equal.” Yet another story traces the derivation to the Smith & Wesson pistol. Inventors Daniel B. Wesson and Horace Smith founded the Smith & Wesson Arms Company at Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1854. Their Smith & Wesson pistols replaced the Colt to a large extent and have been famous ever since. The term equalizer for a gun may come indirectly from their names. It is said that the term derives from a remark made by Chicago gangster Tim Smith, who died in a gangland killing on June 26, 1928. “Smith and Wesson made all men equal,” this nonrelated Smith is supposed to have said. estancia A Spanish word used in the Southwest for a large cattle ranch. estufa An underground meeting room in Pueblo Indian villages in which a sacred fire always burns. et Ate. “‘I have et okra,’ Jasper replied, ‘but I have never yet et no gourd.’” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985) ethyl A Western term for premium grade gasoline (high test in the East), even though ethyl is no longer used as a gas additive; from tetraethyl lead. euchre To cheat, deceive; from the name of the card game euchre once much in vogue in the West. Eureka State A nickname for California alluding to the motto “Eureka” on the state shield. Evergreen State A nickname for the state of Washington from its abundance of evergreen trees. ever whichway; every whichway turned ever whichway.”

In all directions. “He

everywheres Everywhere. Mark Twain used the pronunciation in his famous story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” (1865). exalted

A humorous term for hanged.

enchilada A Spanish word first used in the Southwest and now widely known throughout the United States for a tortilla rolled and stuffed with meat or cheese and served with a chili-spiced sauce.

extry

encina The Spanish word for the coast live oak (Quercus agrefola) of California. An encinal is a grove of such oaks.

eyeballing Cutting off the upper eyelids of cattle to prevent them from escaping into the brush, which would cut their unprotected eyes.

A pronunciation of extra.

eyeballer Someone who is very nosy, who meddles in other’s affairs.

F (1929): “To ‘fan’ a gun the person gripped it in his left hand and with rapid passes of his right hand knocked back and released the hammer. The gun used in ‘fanning’ had, of course, no trigger. A man might ‘fan’ for pastime, but seldom for his life.” (2) To flourish a knife. (3) To move out smartly. (4) To whip, spank, punish. “Those little fellows needed fanning.”

fadedy Heard in East Texas for faded. “He had on those fadedy jeans.” fag along To move fast, depart quickly. “There he went fagging along.” fairground To rope and tie a steer; probably from the rodeo competitions held at fairgrounds. “I fairgrounded that cow before you could wink.”

fandango (1) A Spanish-American dance in triple time; the music for such a dance. (2) A ball or dance popular in the Southwest.

fairy primrose The small, sweetscented yellow and magenta flower Primula angustifolia common in high Colorado country.

Fanny Heath raspberry Raspberries have not been cultivated for nearly as long as apples, peaches and pears. Called a brambleberry and considered a nuisance in England, it was not until about 1830 that the delicate, delicious fruit began to be developed in America. The Fanny Heath variety is a tribute to a determined pioneer woman who emigrated to North Dakota in 1881. This young bride had been told that she could never grow anything on the barren alkaline soil surrounding her house, but 40 years later her homestead was an Eden of flowers, fruits and vegetables. After her death in 1931, the black raspberry she developed was named in her honor.

fallen hide A term used for the hide of a dead cow. Wrote Frank Dobie in A Vaquero of the Brush Country (1929): “. . . the custom of the country was that any man could take a ‘fallen hide’. . . when he found it, no matter what brand the animal wore.” fallen timber Places where large numbers of trees have fallen in high winds or hurricanes, making passage difficult on foot or horse. Fall Indians A group of Indians formerly living in Oregon, also called the Gros Ventres of the Prairie, who, according to one writer, “were the most relentlessly hostile tribe ever encountered by the whites in any part of the West, if not in any part of America. The trapper always understood that to meet with one of these Indians meant an instant and deadly fight.”

fantods A state of nervous irritability; nervous movements. “When I walked I got the fantods and saw Julia, my baby sister, the day she was arrow-shot. She was very clear to me and stayed a long time.” (Charles O. Locke, The Hell-Bent Kid, 1957)

A Western term for a mirage.

far A pronunciation of fair. “[He’s] a far-minded man.” (Bret Harte, “Tennessee’s Partner,” 1870)

fan (1) J. Frank Dobie explained the Western gunfighter’s term to fan in A Vaquero of the Brush Country

farewell-to-spring A showy flower (Clarkia amoeua) of the evening primrose family native to the West.

false pond

480

fightin’est 481 farm to the walls of the barn Plant a crop extensively, using all available land. “I burned the feed bunks and farmed right up to the walls of the barn.” (Thomas McGuane, Nothing but Blue Skies, 1992) a far piece A long distance. “‘It is a far piece, ma’am,’ Bick agreed . . . ‘But when you get there you never want to live anywhere else.’” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952) farting against the wind Undertaking an exercise in futility. “Powder Pike laid a rough hand on Flagg’s shoulder. ‘You’re fartin’ against the wind, Charlie. We’ve got used to government money like a kid gets used to candy.’ ” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973) fart-knocker horse.

fiddlefooted Descriptive of a wanderer or rolling stone or of a skittish horse. “ ‘But he’s fiddle-footed. Remember. He said so himself. He’ll be moving on one of these days and you’ll be all upset if you get to liking him too much.’ ” (Jack Schaefer, Shane, 1949) field Indian An old term used in California for Indian agricultural laborers. fiesta A Spanish word meaning a festivity or celebration, now widely known throughout the United States but first used in the Southwest. fiesta flower A deep purple or violet Southwestern flower (Pholistoma auritum) said to be worn by señoritas on their dresses at fiestas in early times.

A cowboy term for a hard fall from a

50-50 A term used in California for a “creamsickle” made of half frozen, flavored water and half ice cream.

Far West The area of the Western United States west of the Great Plains—the Rocky Mountain and Pacific states region.

54-40 or fight James Polk won election to the American presidency in 1844 with this slogan, which referred to the ousting of the British from the whole of the Columbia River country up to latitude 54° 40’ north. After his election Polk discarded the slogan and settled the Oregon question without going to war. The sarcastic Whig slogan “Who is James K. Polk?” inspired the myth that Polk was a political nonentity and weak president. In truth, he was one of the hardest-working of all presidents, attained almost all his stated aims and added more territory to the United States than any president except Jefferson.

faunch Rant and rave. “ ‘I guess you know that damn teacher of yours hung a haymaker on Kraker . . . What maybe you don’t know is that Kraker’s faunchin’ to swear to a charge.’ ‘Why not let him faunch?’ ” (A. B. Guthrie Jr., Arfive, 1970) feather duster An old Western term for an Indian, after the feathers many Indians wore in ceremonial dress. feathers in his britches Said of someone restless. “ ‘You sure got feathers in your britches these days, Robert Henry,’ his grandfather told him . . .” (Mari Sandoz, Son of the Gamblin’ Man, 1960) feller

A common pronunciation of fellow.

fence lifter

Any heavy rain that washes away soil.

fence rider A cowboy who rides along fences making repairs where needed. fence war A feud among cattlemen over the fencing in of what had been open cattle ranges by some ranch owners; also called fence cutting war. fetched out Popped out, appeared. “. . . I’d no thought of drawing that gun. It just fetched out when the need came.” (Louis L’Amour, Bendigo Shafter, 1979) fever tick The cattle tick (Margarapus annulatus) that causes Texas cattle fever.

57 varieties of a fool A complete fool; probably from the popular Heinz 57 varieties of canned food. “. . . and he would concede that she was not a particularly pretty girl according to the standards people seemed to go by any more. But he figured any man who judged a woman by a tape measure was fiftyseven varieties of a fool.” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973) fight fire with fire An Americanism, possibly deriving from the use of backfires to help extinguish great prairie and forest fires in the early West. Settlers would set fire to a circle or strip of land in the path of a blaze but at a good distance from it, then extinguish it and leave a barren patch so that the advancing fire would have nothing to feed on and so would burn itself out. Fighting fire with fire could be a dangerous practice for the backfire might get out of control itself, so the expression came to mean any desperate measure involving great risk. fightin’est

See usage example at

RUNNIN’EST.

482 Happy Trails fight shy of Avoid. “That’s the place to fight shy of. You’re gettin’ into cliff-dweller country . . .” (Louis L’Amour, The Haunted Mesa, 1987) file one’s teeth for (someone) To prepare or plan revenge on someone. “He knows you did it, and he’ filing his teeth for you.” fill a blanket

To roll a cigarette, an old expression.

fine-haired sons of bitches A derogatory term for gentlemanly, “civilized” types in the early West. “ ‘I despise all you fine-haired sons of bitches,’ Blue Duck said.” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985) finish one’s circle 90 full years.”

To die. “He finished his circle after

fire dance A Plains Indian dance employing a bundle of flaming reeds that varied from tribe to tribe. One observer of the dance wrote: “Each man started slapping the man ahead of him with the burning torches and the man would pretend to writhe in discomfort and leap high.” firehole A term used for the holes in the ground that contain hot water in Yellowstone National Park. fire one’s shuck To criticize one sharply, to light into a person. “He’s sure gonna fire your shuck.” firewater Though much used in the West, this expression didn’t originate there. A traveler in North America in 1817 reported that “[the Indian chiefs] called the whiskey fire water.” An accurate description of whiskey’s taste going down, especially the whiskey Indians were traded, firewater is probably a translation of the Algonquin Indian scoutiouabou meaning the same. fish A yellow oilskin rain slicker that cowboys carried rolled and tied on their saddles. It was named for the picture of its trademark, a fish. fishing falls A name used especially for falls of the Snake River in Idaho, after the great quantities of salmon taken there. fist and skull An early Western expression referring to a fight in which no weapons are used, a fair fight. “He told us about a fist and skull fight that he won.” fits like a hog in a saddle An old simile meaning something that doesn’t fit at all.

Five Civilized Tribes A collective name given to the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole Indian tribes because of their adoption of European culture; in spite of this, they were deported to the Indian Territory from 1830 to 1850. Also called Five Civilized Nations. five-shooter Far less famous than the legendary sixshooter, the five-shooter was a revolver that fired five times before it had to be reloaded. The name is first recorded in 1848. fixtures An old term for clothing. In Tall Tales of the Southwest (1930), edited by Franklin Meine, a narrator says, “The idea of pulling off my boots before the girl was death. And as to doffing my other fixtures, I would sooner have my leg taken off.” flasharity

Fancy riding clothes, a dude outfit.

flat An early Western expression meaning to reject a suitor or lover. “She flatted him.” flathead A name for members of a tribe of Salishan Indians of Montana and members of the Chinook Indian tribe; the name derives from their supposed practice of flattening their children’s heads at birth. The word was extended to mean a simpleton or a fool among Western settlers. fleece (1) An early term for the pure fat obtained from a bear. (2) Fatty buffalo meat. flickertail A ground squirrel (Citellus richardsoni) of the Western prairie; so named because they disappear into their holes with a final flick of the tail. Flickertail State An old nickname for North Dakota, because of its many flickertail squirrels. floating town A wild temporary town built along the advancing railroad in Colorado and other states. flock A lot, a great deal. “ ‘He’s gone and had a flock of bad luck.’ ” (Max Brand, Speedy, 1931) flour gold

Gold powder, fine particles of gold.

flying In referring to cattle brands, flying means a letter is wavy or flowing in appearance, as in the Flying H brand. flying light An expression used of the pony express in the early West. “Both horse and rider went ‘flying light’. . . fer even the postage on his literary freight was

fort 483 worth five dollars a letter.” (Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872) fofarraw (1) Tawdry baubles and trinkets; gaudy dress. “He traded his furs for all that fofarraw.” (2) An uproar of fuss. “The new law set off a fofarraw of protest.” (3) An old perhaps obsolete term for vain, conceited. “She was too fofarraw for me.” The word probably derives from the Spanish fanfarrón (braggart). It is also spelled foofarar. fofarraw house A brothel. “A purty little whore at St. Louis, at a fofarraw house called a place of entertainment, she give it to me, a regular case.” (A. B. Guthrie, The Big Sky, 1947) fog (1) To hurry, go quickly, rush. “He come fogging into town last night.” (2) To repeatedly fire a gun. “The deputies had them trapped and kept fogging them for nearly an hour.” fogging Obscuring or hiding something. “ ‘Quit foggin, Doc,’ came a voice from the crowd. ‘Show us what you got behind that curtain.’ ” (Jack Schaefer, Monte Walsh, 1958) folden pants fold up him.”

A baby’s diapers.

footermans A cowboy term descriptive of how one travels when traveling on foot. “No real cowboy wants to go footermans anywhere.” Foot Indians A name formerly given to Indians who inhabited the plains and did not use horses. footrags month.”

Socks. “He hadn’t changed his footrags for a

footslaves Indians, usually captured from another tribe, who followed the warriors on horseback, carrying their possessions. “When the wind was in the north you could hear them, the horses and the breath of the horses and the horses’ hooves that were shod in rawhide and the rattle of lances and the constant drag of the travois poles in the sand like the passing of some enormous serpent and the young boys naked on wild horses as jaunty as circus riders and hazing wild horses before them and the dogs trotting with their tongues aloll and footslaves following half naked and sorely burdened and above all the low chant of their traveling song which the riders sang as they rode, nation and ghost of a nation passing in a soft chorale across the mineral waste to darkness bearing lost to all history and all remembrance like a grail the sum of their secular and transitory and violent lives.” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992)

To buck. “The horse folded up and threw foot trail A trail made and used by persons on foot rather than by animals or wagons.

fool hay A name used for various weedy grasses (such as witch grass) in the Far West because they deceive farmers into thinking they will make good hay when they do not. fool hen Certain quail and grouse that are easy to kill because of their lethargy or tameness. fool hoeman

An old contemptuous term for a farmer.

fore-and-after; fore and aft schooner Other names for the big Army wagons called prairie schooners, “because the two ends of the wagon inclined upward, like the bow and stern” of a schooner sailing ship. fore pay Payment in advance. Bartlett (1850) notes, “‘There are two bad paymasters, no pay and fore pay.’ This proverbial expression is frequently heard in the West.”

fool’s gold A term coined in the West around 1875 for iron or copper pyrites, which are sometimes mistaken for gold; used figuratively to mean anything that deceives a person. “ ‘That’s fool’s gold. See how green those flakes look in the light? Real gold don’t do that.’ ” (Anke Kristke, “Dust” in Women of the West, 1990)

foretop The driver’s seat of a stage or other vehicle pulled by horses. “It was worth a lifetime of city toiling and moiling, to perch in the foretop with the driver and see the six mustangs scamper.” (Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad, 1869)

fool’s water Another colorful term for strong hard liquor, this one contributed to the language by the Crow Indians and, according to one early writer, “a term at once attesting to their nice moral discernment and good sense.”

fork Cowboy talk meaning to mount and ride one’s horse. Andy Adams writes in The Log of a Cowboy (1903): “So fork that swimming horse of yours and wet your big toe in the North Platte.”

footburner An old humorous term for a plow that a farmer walked behind.

fort (1) In the early West, every military post in Indian country was called a fort, even if there were no fortifi-

484 Happy Trails cations and it only consisted of a few wooden buildings and a parade grounds. (2) To secure oneself. “ ‘He forted up behind his horse,’ Dog Face said.” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985) for Texas! A popular cry of Texas Rangers in battle. “As they ran they screamed whatever occurred to them. ‘For Texas’ was the most popular. Followed by ‘Remember the Alamo,’ which had become an all-purpose phrase.” (Lucia St. Clair Robson, Ride the Wind, 1982) for to To, the “for” being redundant. “I’d like for to see you.” Fort Whoop-Up A humorous name for a dive selling rotgut whiskey to Indians.

fourflusher A flush in poker is five cards all of the same suit, the hand taking its name either from a flush, or flight of birds, or more likely, from the Latin flux (a copious flow). A four-card flush is worthless, but in open-handed poker, if four cards of the same suit are face up on the table a player is in an excellent position to bluff, nobody knowing whether he has a fifth card of the same suit as his concealed “hole” card. Gamblers in the American West at the turn of the century bluffed so often with such fourcard or bobtail flushes that the term fourflusher spread from the gambling tables into politer society, where it came to signify anyone who bluffs or pretends, especially someone who pretends to be more than he is while living on money borrowed from others. four-legged word Any long, polysyllabic word, often scholarly, frequently pretentious.

40 miles of bad road A very ugly or unattractive person or place. “She looked like 40 miles of bad road, and he looked like he went on 10 miles longer.”

the fourth Thursday heard in Texas.

49er (1) A person who went to California in 1849 during the gold rush. (2) Someone in favor of the use of the 49th parallel of latitude as a compromise boundary line in the Oregon boundary dispute with Great Britain.

fractured like a watermelon in a cowlot Broken to almost unrecognizable pieces. “It didn’t matter that his own Spanish . . . was fractured like a watermelon in a cowlot.” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973)

40 rod lightning Whiskey in the early West could literally kill a man and was thus given colorful names, none more vivid than 40 rod lightning—which likened it to a rifle or shot that could kill a man at 40 yards.

Fredonia In 1827 a group of adventurers tried to set up a Texan republic called Fredonia; the name Fredonia had been invented in about 1800 by Dr. Samuel Latham Mitchell as a term for the United States, “a land where things are freely done,” and borrowed by the unsuccessful adventurers.

42 A game of dominoes that is popular in Texas and probably originated there; named for the total sum of the “counters” in the game. Fort Yuma See quote. “Fort Yuma [in Southwest Arizona] is probably the hottest place on earth . . . There is a tradition . . . that a very, very wicked soldier died there, once, and of course, went straight to the hottest corner of perdition,—and the next day he telegraphed back for his blankets.” (Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872) four cows and calves In the anonymous Brusky Joe’s Reminiscences (c. 1870) the author notes that he “used to hear the early settlers tell how a cow and calf was legal tender for ten dollars. Even if a man paid in gold— say forty dollars for a horse—he might say he gave ‘four cows and calves’ for it. So the banks were logically just cowpens.” four-five-six A game played with three dice similar to the card game “21.”

A euphemism for menstruation

free-for-all In the West a free-for-all means a free fight, not a horse race in which all comers may compete. As Stewart White put it in The Blazed Trail (1902), “In a free-for-all knock-down and drag-out, kicking, gouging, and biting are all legitimate.” free grass

Free pasture rights on public land.

free range Open public range, free for grazing, that belongs to the government; also called free grass. freeze An old term meaning to long for or ardently desire. “I freeze to go back home, I’m half froze for buffalo meat and mountain doings.” freezeout A poker game requiring each player to drop out when he loses a predetermined amount of money, until one player is left with all the winnings. The game appears to have first been played in the West, in about 1855.

fussbudget 485 Fremontia The black greasewood of the desert, named after explorer John C. Frémont (1813–90). fresh Said of a cow that has had a calf. “ ‘She’s fresh enough.’ ‘Do you mean she’s new?’ ‘No. No . . . Fresh means she’s had a baby.’ ” (A. B. Guthrie Jr., Arfive, 1970) fretting Worrying. “ ‘Sure, Cal, sure,’ said Hat. ‘Quit fretting yourself.’ ” (Jack Schaefer, Monte Walsh, 1958) frijoles A Spanish word for beans of the Phaseolus genus, especially kidney beans, used in the Southwest and sometimes pronounced “freehollies.” frijoles refritos Refried beans, that is, beans cooked and mashed and then fried, often with onions and other seasonings; a borrowing of the Mexican-Spanish meaning the same. Frisco A nickname for San Francisco dating back to the 1850s. from Fort Kearney, west, he was feared a great, great deal more than the Almighty A Western saying about the notorious desperado “Captain” J. A. Slade. Wrote Mark Twain of these words in Roughing It (1872): “For compactness, simplicity and vigor of expression, I will back that sentence against anything in literature.” frontage road A road running parallel to a highway that gives access to businesses.

by Rabelais and familiar to the Greek dramatist Antiphanes, who is said to have used it in praising the work of Plato: “As the cold of certain cities is so intense that it freezes the very words we utter, which remain congealed till the heat of summer thaws them, so the mind of youth is so thoughtless that the wisdom of Plato lies there frozen, as it were, till it is thawed by the refined judgment of mature age.” fruit tramp

A migrant fruit picker.

frying pan The term usually used for a skillet in Texas and other Western states. fryin’ size Said of a young person or a runt. “He’s just about fryin’ size, and he’s struttin’ around givin’ orders.” fry thin Punish severely. “ ‘Darn his fat soul! I’ll fry him thin for this!’ cried the iron hand of justice.” (Max Brand, The Trail to San Triste, 1924) fucking the dog Loafing, shirking work on the job, malingering; heard in Texas, other Western states and other regions as well. full as a tick Stuffed with food. “ ‘You all want more of this?’ said John Grady. ‘I’m full as a tick.’ ” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992) full blood full ear

A term for a person of pure Indian descent.

A calf that hasn’t been branded or earmarked.

frontier Although the word in the sense of “a new or sparsely settled region” is usually associated with the American West, frontier is first recorded in the East, in 1671.

full of bounce Energetic, resilient. “And me edging past twenty and full of bounce and knowing I was good.” (Jack Schaefer, First Blood, 1952)

Frontier Day A celebration initiated in Cheyenne, Wyoming in 1897 to keep alive the customs of the early West.

funning Kidding. “You all are just funnin’. I knowed you was all along.” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992)

front porch belly.

A humorous term for a large belly, a pot-

fur A common pronunciation of far. “It’s a fur piece down the road.”

frozen words An old story from the Texas Panhandle tells of a winter so cold that spoken words froze in the air, fell entangled on the ground and had to be fried up in a skillet before the letters would reform and any sense could be made of them. The idea is an ancient one, used

fuss A fight. “Better get yourself well . . . We’ll need all hands for this fuss.” (Louis L’Amour, The Tall Stranger, 1957) fussbudget

A finicky person.

G gachupin A Mexican-Spanish word for a Spaniard, used in the Southwest; it is said to derive originally from a Nahuatl word meaning approximately “a man wearing spurs,” as the first Spanish horsemen did.

from Montana to northern Mexico; named for naturalist William Gambel (1821–49). game of the arrow American artist George Catling recorded this favorite (though little known) amusement of the Plains Indians: “The young men . . . assemble on the prairie (and) . . . step forward in turn, shooting their arrows into the air, endeavoring to see who can get the greatest number flying in the air at one time, thrown from the same bow.”

Gadsden Purchase The purchase in 1853 from Mexico of land now part of New Mexico and Arizona; named after negotiator James Gadsden, then U.S. minister to Mexico. gal Affectionate nickname for a cow. “That old gal is ready to give birth right soon.”

ganted Thin, gaunt, drawn. “ ‘You look real ganted I was saying to Bick.’ ” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952)

galleta Grasses of the genus Hilaria used for hay in the Southwest, a borrowing of the Spanish word for the same.

garbanzo A Spanish word for the chick-pea used in the Southwest.

galliwampus A mythical monster of Texas, once described by O. Henry as “a mammal with fins on its back and eighteen toes on its feet.”

Garden of the Gods An area near Colorado Springs, Colorado noted for over a century for its great natural beauty.

galon See quote. “ ‘The Mexicans call a big horse [used for hauling] a galon . . . The [American] teamsters would yell to their big horses, ‘G’long! G’long!’ Get along, get along, see? So the Mexicans thought a heavy horse was a galon.’ ” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952) galoot

gaschupin

An upper-class person of Spanish descent.

gasser Used in Texas and Oklahoma for an oil well that yields gas as well as oil.

A big, stupid man.

gat More commonly associated with gangsters, gat was a term used by gunfighters in the West; it is apparently a humorous exaggeration of the Gatling gun of the Civil War. “But the minute he saw me lower my gat, he raised his and started pumping lead at me . . .” (Max Brand, The Black Signal, 1925)

“Hare-lipped Sal, she was a beaut, She wore a number nine. She kicked the hat off a Texas galoot To the tune of Auld Lang Syne.” (Old Western song, quoted in Jack Schaefer’s Monte Walsh, 1958)

Gambel oak A small white oak (Quercus gambelli) with colorful autumn leaves found at high elevations

Gateway to the West An old nickname for Pittsburgh, Pa.; also called Gate City of the West. 486

get yourself on a hair trigger 487 gaum A mess, a sticky mess. “You’re making a gaum out of that candy.” gazook A gawky, strange or stupid person. “That old gazook is always bothering us.” geed up Lame or out of commission; possibly from the horse command gee (stop). Gem State; Gem of the Mountains Nicknames for Idaho. Gene Autry Popular Western singer and film star of the 1940s and 1950s after whom Gene Autry, Oklahoma is named, perhaps the only Western city named after a movie star, unless one counts Tarzan, Texas. General Grant Tree One of the largest redwoods in California, named after American general and president Ulysses S. Grant; the General Grant National Park was created around it, this later becoming the Kings Canyon National Park. Genius of the Divide See quote. “For the first time, perhaps, since the land emerged from the waters of geologic ages, a human face was set toward it with love and yearning . . . Then the Genius of the Divide, the great, free spirit which breathes across it, must have bent lower than it ever bent to a human will before. The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman.” (Willa Cather, O Pioneers!, 1913) gentile As used by the Mormons, gentile means anyone who is not a Mormon. gentle as a milkpen calf Very gentle, harmless. “Hell, that old pony just stopped and stood there. ‘See there, boys,’ Jim Ed yelled. ‘Just like I said—gentle as a milkpen calf.’ ” (Max Evans, The Rounders, 1960) gentling

and whose actions became Western legend. The cry Geronimo! is part of that legend and was adopted as the battle cry of American paratroopers leaping from their planes in World War II. The 82d Airborne at Fort Bragg, North Carolina first used it, taking it either from the oral legend about Geronimo or from the popular movie featuring the Indian warrior that was being shown near the paratrooper training center at the time. get Originally Western slang meaning to kill or to hunt down and kill a person. Philip Paxton in A Stray Yankee in Texas (1853) wrote: “A Texan does not kill his game, he saves or gets it, or makes it come.” The term is now widely used to mean to kill a person. get a halo gratis killed.

A cowboy expression meaning to be

get a hunch, bet a bunch A saying said to derive from the game of faro. “A daring player or a confident high roller would bet both win and lose at the same turn. The practice gave rise to the saying ‘get a hunch, bet a bunch.’ ” (Matt Braun, The Brannocks, 1986) get off the dime Get busy, get going, hurry up. This California phrase, first recorded in the 1920s, is also heard as get off the nickel. “Quit your loafing, men, get off the dime.” get oneself harnessed To get hitched, get married. “He got himself harnessed last year.” get one’s spurs tangled To be confused, disoriented. “He took so many blows in the head he got his spurs tangled.” get shut of Get out of, finished with. “Well, he plans to go quick as he can get shut of school.” (Thomas McGuane, Keep The Change, 1989)

Taming an unbroken horse.

Geronimo! Chiricahua Apache leader Geronimo is said to have made a daring leap on horseback to escape U.S. cavalry pursuers at Medicine Bluffs, Oklahoma. As he leaped to freedom down a steep cliff into a river below, he supposedly cried out his name in defiance of the troopers. There is no mention of this incident in the great warrior and prophet’s autobiography, which he dictated to a white writer before his death while under military confinement at Fort Sill, Oklahoma in 1909. But by that time, Geronimo was an old man, well over 70, and had converted to the Dutch Reformed Church; little remained of the brave leader who in protecting his people’s land against white settlers had terrorized the American Southwest and northern Mexico with cunning, brutal raids

get someone cold To have a clear advantage over someone. “Put up your hands. I got you cold.” get the deadwood on To get the advantage of. “He got the deadwood on him in that deal.” get there with both feet To carry out something successfully; the old expression is first recorded in 1887. get up and dust To move out or move about quickly, an expression dating back to the 1880s. “Get up and dust, we got a lot of work to do.” get yourself on a hair trigger Be ready to act instantly. “Get yourself on a hair trigger—and heaven help you!”

488 Happy Trails (Max Brand, Mountain Guns, 1930) ghost dance An Indian ceremonial religious dance. “The Ghost dance was a ceremonial religious dance connected with the Messiah doctrine which originated among the Paviotso in Nevada in 1888 and spread rapidly among other tribes until it numbered among its adherents nearly all the Indians of the interior basin from the Missouri River to beyond the Rockies.” (Grant Foreman, The Last Trek of the Indians, 1946) ghost town A term first applied to, and still usually associated with, a Western town abandoned by its inhabitants, usually because a mine nearby has petered out or the railroad passed it by; the term appears to have been first recorded in about 1870–75. giant bird’s nest Another name for the pinedrops tree (Pteropora andromeda) because of its mass of matted fibrous roots. giant cactus

Another name for the

SAGUARO.

Gila A name, from the Gila River in Arizona, attached to a number of animals, including the Gila bat, Gila chipmunk, Gila monster, Gila trout and Gila woodpecker. Gila monster The bright-colored Southwestern desert lizard Heloderma suspectum, which is venomous and changes color to conform to its environment. gimlet To ride a horse heavily and make its back sore; also called to beefsteak. girling An old-fashioned term for courting or chasing women. “They spent their time drinking, gambling, fighting and girling.” git along, little dogie git-up end

See

goat A folk name for the pronghorn (Antilocapra americana), an antelope ruminant of the plains that is an endangered species in some areas. go-back A historical term dictionaries often fail to note for someone who returned East after failing to make a go of it in the West. See also GO WEST YOUNG MAN. go back on one’s hash (1) To criticize the food one is served. (2) To weaken in the face of hardships. the gobble See quote. “[Yancey] opened his mouth, and there issued from it a sound so dreadful, so unearthly as to freeze the blood . . . It was a sound between the gobble of an angry turkey cock and the howl of a coyote. Throughout the Southwest it was known that this terrible sound, famed as the gobble, was Cherokee in origin and a death cry among the Territory Indians. It was known, too, that when an Indian gobbled it meant sudden destruction to any or all in his path.” (Edna Ferber, Cimarron, 1930) goddam An Indian expression for a white man, because the white explorers and settlers used “Goddamn” so frequently in their speech. A few centuries before, the French called the English the same for the same reason. So it goes. go-devil An old term for a railroad handcar used at great speeds on steep grades in northern Idaho. go-easter Eastern-style bags or baggage cowboys often bought in days past when they traveled to the East.

DOGIE.

A horse’s rear end.

give Jesse To scold or physically beat someone. “He gave him Jesse.” give the gate gate.”

glory hole A large, open surface mining pit; so named either because of a previous nautical usage or because such a hole, usually funnel-shaped, resembles in shape a morning glory flower.

gofer matches Paper or book matches; because they are unreliable, you strike one and “gofer” another. going West A historical term meaning the action of going West to make one’s fortune. See also GO WEST, YOUNG MAN.

To divorce; divorced. “She gave him the

give tongue To speak. “The big man was saying, ‘How about it there, you that hasn’t give tongue . . .’ ” (A. B. Guthrie Jr., Arfive, 1970)

gold belt A kind of money belt used by Western miners to carry gold dust and nuggets. “His gold belt lies fat and long upon the bar. He is setting them up in honor of the goddess of fortune.” (Max Brand, The Making of a Gunman, 1929)

gizzard Guts, spirit, courage. “He had no gizzard, no sand in his craw.”

goldbrick Con men working Western mining properties toward the end of the 19th century sometimes sold

goodbyes 489 gullible investors lead or iron bricks coated with gold paint, representing them as the real thing. One Patrick Burke of St. Louis is recorded as having paid $3,700 for such a “gold” brick in 1887. This all-too-common confidence scheme gave the name goldbrick to any swindle or fakery. Later, soldiers picked up the expression and used the phrase to goldbrick in its present meaning of avoiding work or shirking duty. The phrase is first recorded in 1914 in this sense, applied to army lieutenants appointed from civilian life. gold digger Long before gold digger meant a mercenary woman, a use first recorded in 1915, it signified a miner in California gold fields such as Jackass Gulf, Puke Ravine, Greenhorn Canyon and Rattlesnake Bar. In fact, the term gold digger, for a miner, is recorded in 1830 during America’s first gold rush, which took place in northern Georgia. golden banner A common Western flower (Thermopsis devaricapa) with bright yellow bloom. Golden Bible The Book of Mormon, which is said to have been translated by Joseph Smith from an original that was engraved on golden plates; the term is first recorded in 1830, before the Mormons came to Utah and built the temple there. Golden Gate The strait at the entrance to San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean; also a name for the Golden Gate Bridge spanning the strait.

Inca empire, and stripped the Peruvian metropolis of gold and silver. One cavalryman got as his share of the booty a splendid golden image of the sun “on a plate of burnished gold spread over the walls in a recess of the great temple” and which was so beautifully crafted that he did not have it melted down into coins, as was the usual practice. But the horseman came to symbolize the vice of gambling. That same night, before the sun had set on another day, he lost the fabulous golden image of the sun at cards or dice, and his comrades coined the saying “Juega el Sol antes que amanezca” (He gambles [or plays] away the sun before sunrise), which crossed the ocean from America on Pizarro’s gold-laden galleons and became proverbial in Spain. gold fields Yellow-flowered California plants of the Baeria genus that bloom so profusely that they make vast fields of gold; more prosaically called scrambled eggs. gold mania

See

GOLD FEVER.

gold rush The rush of migrants to California in the late 1840s when gold was discovered there. See GOLD FEVER. gold story A tall tale or fish story, because of the exaggerated stories of huge gold nuggets and the like found in the California gold fields. gondola A long wagon, deep in the middle, used for hauling in the early West.

Golden Gate Bridge A 4,200-foot bridge that connects northern California with the San Francisco peninsula. The bridge is not golden but named after the Golden Gate Strait connecting the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay. The Golden Gate Strait, discovered by Sir Francis Drake in 1579, was so called long before it gained new popularity during the 1849 gold rush.

gone coon An old expression indicating someone lost, ruined or distressed. “I’m a gone coon if he finds me.”

golden hills

gone to Texas

Golden Land

See

BRITTLEBUSH.

See

GOLD FEVER.

gold fever A term, first recorded in 1847, for the excitement produced by the gold rush to the Golden Land (California) when gold was discovered there. Also called the gold mania. The lust for gold was of course one of the main reasons for the exploration of the New World, long before the California gold rush. This is reflected in what may be the first American proverb— “gamble the sun before sunrise”—though it isn’t recorded in Bartlett’s or any other book of quotations. The expression surely is old enough, dating back to 1533, when Pizarro conquered Cuzco, the capital of the

gone beaver Someone hopelessly lost, finished, done for, a term commonly used by trappers in the Far West. “Well now, I figured I was gone beaver, knowin’ no better.” (A. B. Guthrie Jr., The Big Sky, 1947)

Hiding out from the law. See also G.T.T.

gone up the flume Died. “ ‘You see, one of the boys has gone up the flume.’ ” (Mark Twain, “Buck Fanshaw’s Funeral,” 1872) good and far A long distance away. “You’d claim Indians object to killing a white man when they run into him good and far from human help?” (Owen Wister, “A Western Tale,” in Harper’s Magazine, January 1894) goodbyes Droppings, excrement. “Grub came first, meat and potatoes and gravy and bread pudding with raisins in it like goodbyes from rabbits.” (A. B. Guthrie Jr., Arfive, 1970)

490 Happy Trails good Indian A term once commonly used in the West for a friendly Indian; variation included an honest Indian and a dead Indian. See also the ONLY GOOD INDIAN IS A DEAD INDIAN.

go quick plant An old folk name for rhubarb, probably because of its laxative effect.

good leather Good qualities, character. “As they pressed down the earth over his grave, and threw the last sprig of green down upon it, one of the pall-bearers remarked: ‘There was good leather in that man.’ ” (Sam Davis, “Mark Haverly,” 1886)

gores See quote. “Well I know, and you know, that all along a line that’s being surveyed, there’s little dabs of land that they call ‘gores,’ that fall to the surveyor free gratis for nothing. All you’ve got to do is to survey in such a way that the ‘gores’ will fall on good fat land, then you turn ’em over to me . . .” (Mark Twain, “The Professor’s Yarn,” 1883)

good man An old Southwestern term for an arbitrator in a dispute; a translation of the Spanish hombre bueno meaning the same.

gore the other man’s ox An old proverb meaning make the other man pay, work, and so forth, but don’t make me accountable for anything.

good medicine

goshed A euphemism for “damned.” “ ‘I’ll be goshed,’ he thought, ‘if I caught on to half that when I was streakin’ around in short pants.’ ” (Owen Wister, Lin McLean, 1898)

See

MEDICINE.

goodnighting Students of the old West may be aware that bulls on long cattle drives often suffered from chaffing of the testicles, which frequently swelled so large that the animal sickened and died. The remedy |was to cut off the testicle bag, push the testicles up into the body and sew the cut—a process that enabled the bulls to travel well and did not impair their breeding. This remedy was called goodnighting, after cattleman Charles Goodnight, who invented it, and is surely among the most unusual of words named after people.

go south (1) To lose or be defeated. “We’re winning five to nothing, we’ve got them going south.” (2) To disappear; from the notion of outlaws escaping lawmen by disappearing south into Mexico. See GO WEST. gospel sharp A sleazy sanctimonious preacher, perhaps modeled on card sharp. Also gospel shooter. gospel shooter

goods trader early West.

go on a high lonesome

To go on a drunken spree.

go on the fight To become belligerent, feisty; often said of animals. “She might go on the fight if you bother her now.” goose drowner

See

GOSPEL SHARP.

A term for a trader among Indians in the

A very heavy rain.

goose hair bed A mattress or pillow filled with goose down or goose feathers. the goose hangs high Said when everything is going very well for someone. See usage example at HAVE GOT THE WORLD BY THE TAIL OF A DOWNHILL PULL. go over the grade To turn over, capsize. “The stage went over the grade, but nobody was seriously hurt.” gopher (1) The prairie dog (Cynonys ludovivianus). (2) Ground squirrels and burrowing rodents of the Citellus, Geomys and Thomonys genera. (3) A small-scale miner in California working small mines called gopher holes.

got aged out Grown too old to work in a hard job. “He wasn’t a young man anymore, he had got aged out at breaking horses.” got behind Was out-maneuvered. “Well, old Idaho Joe got behind, as the saying goes. He got to riding over here when Cimarron was already over yonder. He hit the ground rolling and scrambled for the fence.” (Benjamin Capps, Tales of the Southwest, 1990) gotch-earred An animal such as a horse or donkey with clipped, drooping ears; from the Spanish gacho (turned downward). gotch-eyed Descriptive of a person with eyes looking in different directions. got his kettle on Angry, boiling over, planning retribution. “ ‘Say, I know Bick’s got his keetle on for me, I ain’t aiming to meet up with him—yet.’ ” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952) go to hell across lots To go straight to hell or the devil. “Isaac in his sermons grew solemner, and swears in his mind that the Gentiles [non-Mormons] were going to

grapevine 491 hell across lots.” (Wallace Stegner, Mormon Country, 1942) go under winter.”

before Soule had written the piece. Journalist William S. Verity said that the great editor had coined the expression a full year before Soule.

To die. “Old Gabby had gone under that grab-it-and-growl A humorous term for a diner or any small greasy spoon with poor, indigestible food.

go up the flue To die, the spirit departing like smoke going up a chimney flue. go up the flume come to grief.

An old expression meaning to fail, to

governor A historical term for an Indian chief heading a tribe or pueblo. go west To die. An unknown poet may have coined the phrase to go west, “to die,” in the trenches of World War I. The expression was common then, possibly suggested by the setting of the sun in the west. But the phrase is much older. In the United States, Indian legend had it that a dying man had gone to meet the setting sun, and later, when explorers and prospectors didn’t return from dangerous country west of the Mississippi, they were said to have gone west. In 16th century England, the phrase was used of criminals going to be hung at Tyburn, which is west of London, and an early 14th-century English poem with the refrain “his world is but a vanity” had the lines: “Women and many a willful man,/ As wind and water are gone west.” The idea behind the expression is even older. The Egyptians spoke of the west as the home of departed spirits, and among the Greeks the association of death with the west was proverbial, as in Ulysses: My purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the paths Of all the western stars, until I die.

Even our word Occident, for “the west,” is associated with death. It comes from the Latin occidens, “the place where the sun died at the end of each day,” which is from the verb occidere, “to die.” See GO SOUTH. go west, young man In America, go west came to stand for new life and hope instead of death with the expansion of the frontier. There is some controversy about who said go west, young man first, however. Horace Greeley used the expression in an 1855 editorial in his New York Tribune: “Go west, young man, and grow with the country.” Later, as the phrase grew in popularity, Greeley said that his inspiration was John Babsone Lane Soule, who wrote “Go West, young man” in an 1851 article in the Terre Haute Express. Greeley even reprinted Soule’s article from the Indiana newspaper to give credit where it was due, but several writers insisted that Greeley had given them identical advice

gracias Spanish for “thank you,” frequently used in the Southwest. grade up with To be equal to. “When a man married a queen he ought to grade up with her.” (O. Henry, Heart of the West, 1904) grama grass Any low grass of the genus Bouteloua growing on the Western plains. Grand Canyon State

A nickname for Arizona.

Granddaddy The nickname of the oldest and biggest saguaro cactus in the United States, located in the desert of the Saguaro National Monument East in Arizona. About 300 years old and 40 feet high, with 52 arms. Grande Short for the Rio Grande. “Hope keeps the illegals coming across the Grande every night.” grandmother story An Indian expression, see quote. “The absentee Shawnee cherished a prophetic tradition generally known as the ‘grandmother story’ as told by a Shawnee woman, having reference to certain present and eternal judgments that would be visited upon the unfortunate head of any Indian who laid aside the blanket to adopt the white man’s dress.” (Grant Foreman, The Last Trek of the Indians, 1946) Grand Tetons French voyageurs early named these mountains in northwestern Wyoming the Grand Tetons, the “big breasts,” because of their resemblance to a woman’s breasts. For the same reason, the rounded hillocks or mounds west of the Mississippi River are called mamelle, from the French, mamelle (woman’s breast). “In Jackson Hole [Wyoming] there is a Catholic church named Our Lady of the Grand Tetons by somebody who didn’t know what tetons are.” (Wallace Stegner, All the Little Live Things, 1967) grant ring A term once used in the West for groups that secured large land grants through fraud. grapevine Some 15 years after Samuel Morse transmitted his famous “what hath God wrought” message, a long telegraph line was strung from Virginia City to Placerville, California, so crudely strung, it’s said, that people jokingly compared the line with a sagging

492 Happy Trails grapevine. I can find no record of this, but in any case, grapevines were associated with telegraph lines somewhere along the line, for by the time of the Civil War a report by grapevine telegraph was common slang for a rumor. The idea behind the expression is probably not rumors sent over real telegraph lines but the telegraphic speed with which rumormongers can transmit canards with their own rude mouth-to-mouth telegraph system. grass-bellied Full, like a cow that has grazed a long time. “ ‘I’m grass-bellied with spot cash,’ [Lin said].” (Owen Wister, “A Journey in Search of Christmas,” 1897) grass bloom The shiny coat an animal gets because it has fed well on grass for a period of time. grass dance A Sioux Indian dance by warriors featuring tufts of grass symbolic of scalps. grassers feed.

Cattle that have been fed on grass rather than

Grasshopper Battle A historical term for a battle fought in 1873 between the Shawnee and Delaware Indians, supposedly started by an argument among children over the ownership of a pet grasshopper. grasshopper fruitcake A humorous name Western settlers gave to an Indian cake made from berries and crushed grasshoppers; also called grasshopper pie. grasshopper Indians A name for the Ute Indians, because they used grasshoppers for food. grasshopper mouse A Western name for a mouse (Onychomys leucogaster) that feeds on grasshoppers.

referred to ever after as the ‘Grasshopper Year’), like nothing she had ever before seen . . . millions upon millions of the hideous, chirring insects [across the Kansas prairie] . . .” (Rebecca Brandewyne, Heartland, 1990) grass sack A term used in central Texas and elsewhere for a burlap sack. graveyard dead Dead without a doubt. “ ‘You aim to shoot me,’ said the black. ‘You don’t get your black ass away from this fire I’ll kill you graveyard dead.’ ” (Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, or, The Evening Redness in the West, 1985) gravy-licker Someone who takes something for nothing, especially a government dole, instead of working for it; like a cat that hangs around the kitchen licking up gravy instead of hunting for food. “His dark eyes smoldered . . . ‘I didn’t think you’d ever class me as a gravylicker.’ ” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973) graze Grazing land. “ ‘I’m giving you two days to get them (sheep) off of my graze.’ ” (Jack Cummings, The Rough Rider, 1988) grazing fee A fee paid for the right to graze cattle on another’s land, especially on Indian lands. greaser A derogatory offensive name for Mexicans and Mexican-Americans first recorded in 1836 in what is now Texas. Greaserdom is a derogatory historical name for New Mexico. An unlikely explanation says that greaser derives from men hired by Mexican freighters to run alongside their wagons and grease the wooden axles. “ ‘Say, greaser,’ said the boy [aiming his gun], ‘you got a tassel on the side of your hat that you don’t need. So I’m gunna take it off for you.’ ” (Max Brand, The Black Signal, 1925)

Grasshoppers’ Library See quote. “Who presides over the genial branches of the Grasshoppers’ Library in the sunshine of the Pecos, beside the elms and oaks on Waller Creek, down the mesquite flats of the Nueces River, up the canyons of the Rio Grande, under the blue haze of the Guadalupes, deep in the soft Wichitas, over the hills of the San Saba, and in many another happily remembered place where I pursued ‘scholarly enquiries’, I cannot name. I wish I could, for in the widespreading Grasshoppers’ Library I have learned the most valuable things I know.” (Frank Dobie, Coronado’s Children, 1930)

greaserdom

See

greasy The pronunciation of greasy as greazy, with a z instead of an s sound for the next to last letter, is a characteristic of Southern speech but is also occasionally heard in Texas and the Midwest. The usual pronunciation in the West, however, is with the s sound.

Grasshopper Year See quote. “They had come in droves that August of 1874 (which would, as a result, be

greasy-sack outfit A small, second-rate ranch outfit; so named because such outfits had no chuck wagons and

GREASER.

greasewood The spiny resinous Western shrub Sarcobatus vermiculatus, often used for firewood in the Southwest. “At noon he alighted and collected enough greasewood to boil the Bishop’s coffee.” (Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop, 1927)

gringo 493 carried their food on the trail in cotton bags called greasy-sacks. “Reckon how she’ll take to a greasy-sack outfit like this.” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973) Great American Desert The idea of a Great American Desert in the West discouraged many people from settling in the region, which they thought was uninhabitable. The term Great American Desert was used in newspapers and geographies as early as 1834. Before this, the area, which is actually part of the fertile Great Plains, was called the Great Desert, this term recorded 50 years earlier. “. . . the tales had been rampant about the Great American Desert and the hardships encountered by parties of gold-seekers racing to the California fields.” (Frank Roderus, J. A. Whitford & the Great California Gold Hunt, 1990)

sentimental about all his friends who have been called to the Great Roundup or who rode the long trail . . .” (Larry McMurtry, Buffalo Girls, 1990) Great Salt Lake A large, shallow, salty lake in northwest Utah, west of which is the Great Salt Lake Desert. great sand and sagebrush! An old exclamation. “‘Great sand and sagebrush! do you mean it?’ ” (Mark Twain, “A Horse’s Tale,” 1906) great seizer A colorful old term meaning the sheriff; perhaps a play on Great Caesar. great smoke See quote. “He’s the main trump, the big card, the great smoke in their whole nation.” (Max Brand, Mountain Guns, 1930)

Great Basin A 12,275-square-mile region in the West including most of Nevada and parts of Utah, California, Oregon and Idaho; so called because it has no drainage to the ocean.

Great Spirit The chief deity in the religion of many North American Indian tribes. “Standing Bull . . . held up the pipe to the Great Spirit and chanted a sacred song . . .” (Max Brand, Fugitive’s Fire, 1928)

Great Divide A name for the continental divide of North America; the Rocky Mountains.

Great White Father Now a humorous term for the U.S. president; said to have been used seriously for the same by American Indians in the 19th century.

Great Father An Indian name for the president of the United States. “This war . . . was brought upon us by the children of the Great Father . . .” (Spotted Tail of the Brule Sioux, quoted in Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, 1970) great hand for Like, favor. “ ‘I’m a great hand for goatskins,’ he said. ‘They make good settin’ and they make good pallets.’ ” (J. Frank Dobie, Coronado’s Children, 1930) Great Knives A name various American Indians gave U.S. soldiers, in reference to their bayonettes. great medicine An American Indian term for anything especially effective. The explorers Lewis and Clark noted that “whatever is mysterious or unintelligible (to the Indians) is called great medicine.” See also MEDICINE. Great Medicine Trail gon Trail.

A name Indians gave to the Ore-

Great Plains The semiarid region east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. Great Register of the Desert

See

INDEPENDENCE ROCK.

Great Roundup Death; also the Last Roundup and ride the long trail. “When Blue gets drunk he becomes

greenbroke Said of a horse recently and barely broken. “Just halfway decent greenbroke horses.” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992) greener A greenhorn, tenderfoot, someone new to the West. See usage example at PULLING THE BADGER. Greenhorn Canyon

A California gold field.

green river (1) A famous hunting knife first made at Green River, Wyoming. (2) To kill someone by knifing him. gringa The feminine of GRINGO. “ ‘Now I work as a dancehall girl. You see how much better it is that you are a gringa?’ ” (Jack Cummings, The Rough Rider, 1988) gringo Many scholars trace this disparaging term for an American to the Spanish gringo (gibberish), which is a corruption of the Spanish word Griego (a Greek). Gringo, by this theory, would be related to the old saying “It’s all Greek to me,” indicating that the Yankees were strange and unfamiliar in their ways to the Mexicans who so named them. But another etymologist boldly claims “green coat” as the base for gringo, and yet another theory says that the first two words of the Robert Burns lyric “Green grow the rashes O,” a song sung by American soldiers in the Mexican War, is the

494 Happy Trails origin of the contemptuous word—somehow one can’t imagine battle-hardened veterans riding along singing: “Green grow the rashes O / The happiest hours that ere I spent / Were spent among the lasses O!” If the “gibberish” theory is to be challenged, the most likely contender is Major Samuel Ringgold, a brilliant strategist dreaded by the Mexicans during the Mexican War until he was killed at the Battle of Palo Alto in 1846. Ringgold’s name, pronounced with a trilled r and without the last two letters, as it normally would be by a Mexican, might yet prove the correct source for the word. “ ‘We have trouble with gringo names, just like gringo faces, they all look alike; their language sounds like Chinese.’” (Carlos Fuentes, The Old Gringo, 1985) grit Courage, bravery, sand. “ ‘They say he has grit.’ said I. ‘I wanted a man with grit.’ ” (Charles Portis, True Grit, 1968) grizzly bear Ursus horriblis, a large ferocious bear found in the Rocky Mountain area. grizzly lager A humorous name for any potent homebrewed beer. grocery sack A brown paper grocery bag. “Scraping wellcleaned ribs into a big brown grocery sack, Charlie saw Tom peer intently out the window.” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973) ground cuckoo

See

ROADRUNNER.

grub-line rider An unemployed cowboy who looks for free meals on the grub line from ranch to ranch. grubstake Supplies given to a prospector by a backer in return for a share in any gold or silver he might find. “Grubstake me, and I’ll make you a rich man.” grulla mare A dark-colored horse. “Into this bright scene came old man Overstreet on a bony little grulla mare . . .” (Thomas McGuane, Keep the Change, 1989) G.T.T. (1) A historical term common in the 19th century standing for “Gone to Texas,” apparently derived from G.T.T. signs that emigrants hung on the doors of their homes and businesses when they went West. (2) Initials entered by lawmen in their record books when a wanted man couldn’t be located. (3) A designation for any disreputable man. “Now finally the settlers over there began to organize for mutual protection . . . against the more overbearing ranch hands who were often Texas badmen, mostly GTT’s meaning ‘Gone to Texas,’ men who had fled there from the law or other

vengeance.” (Mari Sandoz, Son of the Gambling Man, 1960) guayave A bread made by Pueblo Indians from a species of agave; its shape gave rise to the word being used by Southwest settlers for a roll of money. guess off

To estimate the weight of a herd of cattle.

the guide See quote. “ ‘The ev-ening star,’ he said in English, slowly and somewhat sententiously, then relapsed into Spanish. ‘You see the little star beside Padre? Indians call him the guide.’ ” (Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop, 1927) gulch A ravine, canyon or gully where gold is mined or prospected. gumbo Sticky heavy soil. “The car shot into a morass of prairie gumbo—which is mud mixed with tar, flypaper, fish glue, and well-chewed chocolate covered caramels. When cattle get into gumbo, the farmers send for the stump dynamite and try blasting.” (Sinclair Lewis, Free Air, 1919) gunbroke Said of a horse that isn’t disturbed when a gun is fired. gun fanner This term for a Western gunfighter is first recorded in 1903 and refers to the way gunfighters fired their weapons by removing or tying back the trigger of their revolvers and thumbing or fanning the hammer. gun fight; gun battle Expressions originally used in the West for a fight with guns, the participants called gun fighters, gun fanners and, infrequently, gun handlers. gunnysack The usual word in the West for what is called a burlap bag in the North and a crocus sack in the South—a large sack made from loosely woven coarse material such as burlap. Gunny here ultimately derives from the Sanskrit word goni (jute or hemp fiber). “In my hometown of Missoula, Montana, older brothers all over town trained their younger brothers to jump from garage roofs using gunnysacks for parachutes.” (Norman Maclean, Young Men and Fire, 1992) gunsel

A cowboy word for a braggart.

gun-toter This isn’t a truly Western term for a gunfighter, having been first recorded in a Western movie in 1925. gusher A profusely flowing oil well, a very successful profitable one, the term apparently first used in the West.

gypwater 495 gussied up

All dressed up.

gut hook Spurs; also called gut lancers and gut wrenchers. gut-shrunk Very hungry. “I was gut-shrunk and couldn’t wait to get to the chuck wagon.” gut twister A wild bucking horse, usually in a rodeo, that twists up a rider’s guts. “But you couldn’t keep up with that horse; he was a gut twister . . .” (Benjamin Capps, Tales of the Southwest, 1990) guying Ridiculing, making fun of; originally a British expression referring to effigies of Guy Fawkes hung and burned on Guy Fawkes Day. “[She’d] talked her damnedest to keep Charlie from eating . . . She never stopped guying him about his weight.” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973)

gwinter An imaginary animal, employed to trick a tenderfoot. “They kidded the greenhorn about a vicious gwinter that had a short leg in front and one behind, so it could better circle a mountain, catch a man and tear him to bits.” gyp

See

GYPWATER.

gypped Made ill by drinking large quantities of water containing gypsum or other alkaline salts. gypwater Water highly saturated with gypsum and other alkaline salts, which causes a severe upset stomach when drunk in large quantities; also called gypsum water and gyp. “Rawlins leaned from the saddle and wet his hand in the river and tasted it. ‘It’s gypwater,’ he said.” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992)

H habañero pepper The hottest of hot peppers by scientific measurement. They originated in Mexico and are now widely grown in the Southwest, especially in New Mexico, the largest chili-growing state in the United States.

“frightening.” Most likely the term is a streamlining of the old expression to make one’s hair stand on end. hairy money Hairy money—money with hair on it? Yes. Hairy money was a term for beaver pelts in the American fur trade out West. The skins were worth a lot of money and even used as a medium of exchange.

hacienda A Spanish word for a ranch or the principal residence on a ranch.

half a bubble off; half a bubble off plumb Someone who is mildly eccentric, in reference to the bubble in a carpenter’s level. Also a bubble off plumb.

hackamore Any of several halters used for breaking horses, from the Spanish jáquima (headstall).

half-breed An offensive term for the offspring of an American Indian and a white person; first recorded in 1760, though later much used in the West, and now used as offensive slang for the offspring of parents of different racial origin. See also HALF-STRIPE.

hair brand A temporary brand on cattle, where the hair not the hide is burned. hair in the butter An expression used in Texas to describe a very delicate or sensitive situation. The words refer to the difficulty of removing a single hair from a piece of butter. “The Great Iranian Arms Caper is not only hair in the butter, I’d say someone’s thrown a skunk in the churchhouse as well.” (Molly Ivins, Molly Ivins Can’t Say That, Can She?, 1991)

half-stripe A derogatory term for a person of mixed American Indian and white ancestry. See also HALFBREED. half woman and half rainwater An old saying descriptive of someone, usually a man, who is soft, effete, unlike the macho men of the West; rainwater is a soft, not a hard, water. “ ‘You’re a tough one, Hogan, a real tough one,’ my father said. ‘Half woman and half rainwater. Tell them you lied and you can walk away from here.’ ” (Wayne D. Overholser, Cast a Long Shadow, 1956)

hair lifter A humorous term for an Indian who scalped his enemies but also applied to whites who “lifted” scalps as well. hair raiser Same as hair lifter above. “I’ve raised the hair of more than one Apache.” (George Ruxton, Life in the Far West, 1848) hair-raising This Americanism probably came into the language too late, about 1910, for it to be associated with Indians or Indian hunters taking scalps. There is no evidence that horrible accounts of Indians or whites “lifting or raising hair” inspired the synonym for

halo

Chinook jargon meaning no, none, not any.

handcarter Settlers, especially Mormons, who were too poor to buy horses, mules or oxen and therefore pushed or pulled their families and material possessions 496

have the bulge on 497 in handcarts when emigrating to the Far West in the mid-19th century. hand-fighting Fighting without weapons. “ ‘Why I reckon we’re both gun-handy . . . I’d have preferred hand-fightin’ you, but that would scarcely give you an even break.’ ” (Louis L’Amour, The Tall Stranger, 1957) hand out Apparently this expression meaning a free meal or anything free, given charitably, originated in the West, at least the first quotations attesting it are recorded there. handsome Nice, good. “ ‘That’s handsome of you,’ Burch said.” (Luke Short, Ramrod, 1971) hang and rattle To ride an unbroken horse. “But I damn sure seen him hang and rattle a time or two.” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992) Hangtown fry A famous omelet made of eggs, fried oysters, bacon and onions that was invented during the gold rush in Placerville, California, which was nicknamed Hangtown because a good number of men were hanged there—or so the story goes. ha’nts Haunts, ghosts. “ ‘I found some [gold] all right an’ there’s aplenty where it came from if’n you aren’t skeered of ha’nts and the like.’ ” (Louis L’Amour, The Haunted Mesa, 1987) happy as a frog Very happy and content. “ ‘Shoot, my baby sister’s happy as a frog,’ Josie said.” (Larry McMurtry, Cadillac Jack, 1982) happy as a jackass eatin’ sawbriars tent.

Very happy, con-

happy hunting ground Indian heaven, according to writers of Westerns anyway, though the term was first recorded in a Washington Irving story (1837). “Yet even so I gave seven of the Red Skins one way tickets to their Happy Hunting Ground.” (Richard Matheson, Journal of the Gun Years, 1991) happy trails This farewell has been popular for many years, thanks in part to the song “Happy Trails” sung by many Western country singers, including Roy Rogers. “Happy trails, Hans,” the hero (Bruce Willis) says to the villain in the movie Diehard 2 (1991) as he dispatches him. hard-boiled A boiled or boiled shirt was, on the American frontier, a shirt boiled in water, in contrast to one newly washed in cold water. Later the term came to

mean a stiff or hard-starched white shirt. By 1886 we find Mark Twain using the term hard boiled, probably suggested by a hard-boiled shirt, for “a rigid narrow person,” and by 1898 hard-boiled was being used to mean hard-headed and heartless. hard-boiled hat A stiff derby hat. “That fellow in front of the drug store over there with the hard-boiled hat on.” (Andy Adams, The Log of a Cowboy, 1903) harder’n climb’n a peeled saplin’ heels upward An old expression from frontier days describing something very difficult. hard money currency.

An old term meaning metal coins, not

hard-proved hand A cowboy proven under the most difficult circumstances. “Do you think [he’d] . . . have anything but an all-around hard-proved hand up here . . .?” (Jack Schaefer, “Stubby Pringle’s Christmas,” 1990) hard rocker A historical term for a miner who worked hard rock formations underground. harness bull An old term for a policeman or sheriff. “The harness bull collared him and threw him in the hoosegow.” Harry of the West A nickname of American statesman and politician Henry Clay (1777–1852); also Gallant Harry of the West. Harvey A famous chain of Western restaurants originated by Fred Harvey (b. 1835) in the 1870s. has more wrinkles on his horns Said of someone who has become older and wiser with experience, like wild cattle whose horns wrinkle with age. “He’s smarter now, has more wrinkles on his horns.” have a bear by the tail This is another of those colorful expressions that arose in America during the first half of the 19th century. To have a bear by the tail is to be in a bad situation—you’re in trouble whether you hold on or let go! have a burr under one’s saddle bad mood.

Said of someone in a

have the bulge on To have the advantage especially because one is packing a gun. “ ‘Well, you’ve ruther got the bulge on me.’ ” (Mark Twain, “Buck Fanshaw’s Funeral,” 1872)

498 Happy Trails have the colly wobbles To be blue or depressed. “She’s got the colly wobbles since he rode away.”

he couldn’t say “hell” with his hands tied Said of a person who can’t talk without excessive hand gestures.

have the cottonwood on one SOM.

COTTONWOOD BLOS-

he’d fight till hell freezes over and then skate with y’ on the ice A very pugnacious, tenacious person.

have the world by the tail on a downhill pull To have everything going exceedingly well for you. “In Texas, nothing gave a man status like the ownership of cattle. Now there was status enough for everybody. The goose was hanging high, and they had the world by the tail on a downhill pull.” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973)

hedgehog cactus Any of some 200 cactus species of the genus Echinocactus native to the Southwest but most often the Southwestern barrel cactus (Echinocactus Texensis)

See

hawse A common pronunciation of horse. “Put that hawse in the stable.” hazer A ranch hand who drives in or hazes horses that are to be broken, keeping them away from fences and other obstacles. “Rope them together [boys] and haze them out of here.” (William Faulkner, The Unvanquished, 1938) headache! A warning to “watch it!” used by loggers, oil men and others in the West because a heavy object is overhead or coming down: Be careful or you’ll get a headache, get hit in the head by it. Similar to “heads up!” headright A right given by a government to a piece of public land; so called because the right was granted to the head of the family settling upon the land. “Under former laws of Texas, a headright was the inheritable right given to immigrating heads of families to grants of free land.” (Burton Roscoe, Belle Starr, 1941) heap Very, a lot; said to be a feature of Indian speech in early times. “An Indian is always a ‘heap’ hungry or thirsty—loves a ‘heap’—is a ‘heap’ brave—in fact, ‘heap’ is tantamount to very much.” (Blackwood’s Magazine, LXIII, 1848) heap hogs Hogs on a garbage heap. “ ‘White men are mostly wasters, as well as bein’ greedy . . . I know an old Indian onct who said white men were heap hogs.’ ” (Zane Grey, Western Union, 1939) heap-walk-man A colorful Indian term describing a U.S. infantryman. heathen Chinee An old derogatory term for a Chinese person, especially one considered devious; the term apparently derives from the Bret Harte poem “Plain Language from Truthful Jones” (1870): “For ways that are dark / And tricks that are vain / The heathen Chinee is peculiar.”

he’d steal the butter off a blind man’s bread, and put him on the wrong road home Said of a no-good person, someone with no scruples at all; quoted in Frank O’Rourke’s Last Ride (1958). heel (1) To arm oneself. “He was well heeled, wearing two pistols.” (2) To rope an animal by the hind feet. (3) To be provided with money. “With all those expenses, I’m not so well-heeled now.” heeler In the early days of Texas, dogs were trained to catch and herd cattle. Often of the bulldog breed, they were called heelers because they typically caught the heel of the cow in their jaws. heel fly Several warble fly species that lay their eggs on the heels and legs of cattle, troubling them and making them hard to manage. heem KEEL.

A pronunciation of him. See usage example at

heidi

Howdy, a pronunciation often heard in Texas.

heifer In addition to its common meaning, heifer once meant a young female buffalo in the West. hellacious Severe, dreadful, terrible. “He gave him a hellacious beating.” to hell and gone All over the place, everywhere. “ ‘And one of the best advertisements I can have is for good rodeo hands like you to be seen pulling my trailers to hell and gone.’ ” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973) Hell and Texas Civil War General Phil Sheridan said that if he owned Hell and Texas, he’d “rent out Texas and live in Hell.” hell-bent Determined in a reckless driven way. “He was hell-bent for war with Mexico.” hell-bent for breakfast Very fast. “I was going licketysplit, hell-bent for breakfast, trying to head off a gotch-

high-headed 499 earred brown stallion and his bunch . . .” (J. Frank Dobie, Coronado’s Children, 1931) hell-bent for leather With great speed, especially on a horse, the term suggested by hard use of a leather whip while riding a horse. hell fire and damnation!

A common expletive.

hell with the fires out A colorful expression for the Southwestern desert. “That’s desert! . . . It’s been called ‘hell with the fires out’ . . . but you can live with the desert if you learn it.” (Louis L’Amour, The Lonesome Gods, 1983) help To serve or put food on a plate. “Shall I help your plate?”

hell-for-leather To travel, especially to ride, at a very fast pace. “ ‘I saw that kid Greene . . . come by here hellfor-leather half an hour ago,’ Mapes said.” (Walter Van Tilburg Clark, The Ox-Box Incident, 1940)

hell wind

hell for stout Rugged, reliable. “. . . Tom’s old trailer . . . might not look like much, but it was hell for stout.” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973)

hen wrangler ranch.

hell heard him holler He screamed extremely loud. “‘Show me someone as can stand up to a pitchfork,’ Pike said . . . ‘They tell me hell heard him holler.’ ” (A. B. Guthrie Jr., Arfive, 1970) helling around Living a reckless, often violent, dissipated life. “A man was liable to go sporting and helling around till he waked up.” (Owen Wister, Lin McLean, 1898) hell-on-wheels (1) Union Pacific Railroad construction gangs in the 1860s lived in boxcars that were pulled along as the line progressed. Traveling and living with these hard-drinking, often violent men were gamblers, prostitutes and other unsavory characters. The wild congregation assembled in the boxcars suggested the population of hell to settlers, and the transient town was called hell-on-wheels, a colorful term soon applied to any violent, vicious person or lawless place. (2) A name given to a vicious, difficult horse. “I called him Hell-onWheels.”

A tornado.

hen skin A comforter stuffed with chicken feathers. “All there was was a thin hen skin on the bed.” A person who does menial chores on a

hep A common pronunciation of help. “Kin ah hep you?” hereford A breed of cattle and a word with its own distinctive pronunciation, in Texas, where it is heard as Hearford and Herford. See also Introduction. he wears a two-inch belt and Big Jim suspenders in Texas of someone who is very cautious.

Said

hiaqua Shell money used by North Pacific Coast Indians; the term derives from a Chinook word. hidalgo A Spanish word for a Spanish nobleman or big landowner in the West. hide and tallow factory A place where cattle were slaughtered for hides and tallow during hard times in Texas.

hello the house A common greeting upon approaching a house in the early West. “ ‘Hello the house,’ Hartzell called. He listened and watched for some sign of another human being.” (F. M. Parker, The Predators, 1990) Also hello in the house.

hide-hunters Rustlers who killed steers for their hides or skins. “. . . Anthem rode out of a thick of scrub oak and mesquite and down into a washed out arroyo where two raggedly dressed hide-hunters were busily skinning a fresh-killed steer whose hide wore the Slash A brand . . .” (James Reno, Texas Born, 1986) Also a professional hunter, like Buffalo Bill Cody, who hunted animals for their hides.

hell-raisingest Most unruly, troublesome. “He’s the hell-raisingest man I know.”

highbinder (1) A mean, vicious horse. (2) A mean person, usually a man.

hells’ half acre (1) A 19th-century term for a low saloon, a dive. (2) A small or distant place. “He lived way out there in hell’s half acre.” (3) Any disreputable or crime-ridden place.

high grade A thief who steals ore from gold mines; so named because such thieves only stole high grade ore.

hell-to-split pass.”

Very fast. “He cut hell-to-split across the

high-headed Excessively proud. “ ‘Yes, you’re too damn proud . . . It’s the number of gents that have broke their hearts for you . . . Is that what made you so damn highheaded?’ ” (Max Brand, Trouble Trail, 1926)

500 Happy Trails high land Land, especially farmland, in the hills. “‘Most of the land is rough and hilly . . . Down there they have a little certainty, but up with us there is a big chance. We must have faith in the high land, Emil.’ ” (Willa Cather, O Pioneers!, 1913) high-line rider A desperado who always rode in high country to keep an eye out for lawmen who might be after him. See also HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER. high lonesome An all-out drunken spree. “Old Dad and Jim Day got on a high lonesome and started to paint the town red.” (J. M. Franks, Seventy Years in Texas, 1924) high-muck-a-muck Hiu muck amuck meant “plenty to eat” in the language of the Chinook tribes in the far West north of the Columbia River. Fur traders there probably began to use it without regard to its original meaning but in the sense of “a big man, a chief,” pronouncing the hui in the phrase as “high.” Perhaps the reasoning was that an important person was thought to have plenty to eat or the best things to eat. high noon Many people associate this term for a high point, a peak or pinnacle or a crisis or confrontation, with the classic Western movie High Noon, though it is in fact first recorded in 14th-century England. high-nosed Conceited, stuck up. “He’s gotten highnosed since they found oil on his ranch.” high plains drifter A person, often an outlaw, who rode the high plains from place to place in the early West in order to be aware of possible enemies around him. See also HIGHLINE RIDER. high road to hell A hard or dangerous road, such as one across a desert. “ ‘This looks like the high road to hell to me,’ said a man from the ranks.” (Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, or, The Evening Redness in the West, 1985) High Sierra The main range of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. hightail it Mustangs, rabbits and other animals raise their tails high and flee quickly when they sense danger. Trappers in the American West noticed this, over a century ago, probably while hunting wild horses, and invented the expression to hightail it, to leave in a hurry, to make a fast getaway. Another theory is that the expression was suggested by cattle bothered by heel flies. “ ‘He’s had such a tight rein, I expect she’s hightailed it.’ ” (Bill Crider, A Time for Hanging, 1989) See also HEEL FLY.

hit out Start out, commence. “They hit out for Omaha.” hit the grit Hit the trail, left. “. . . they packed up their stuff and hit the grit after the stallion . . . a big, longlegged, red son of a wide-stepping chunk of a hurricane.” (Max Brand, Rogue Mustang, 1932) hit the leather Jump in the saddle and ride, fast. “Mount up! Hit the leather! We’re goin’ on!” (Louis L’Amour, Kilkenny, 1954) hit the trail Mexico.”

To set out, depart. “He hit the trail for

hoary marmot A large marmot (Marmota caligata) of the Northwest with grayish (hoary) hair on its chest and shoulders and noted for the sudden shrill whistling sound it makes. hogan A Navajo dwelling, usually earth-covered and built with the entrance facing east. “The Navajo hogans, among the sand and willows. None of the pueblos would at that time admit glass windows into their dwellings. The reflection of the sun on the glazing was to them ugly and unnatural—even dangerous.” (Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop, 1927) hogleg A large, long handgun or six-shooter; originally the famous Colt Single-Action Army pistol, also called the “Peacemaker.” hog-nosed skunk A Southwestern skunk (Conepatus mesoleucus) with a long snout with which it roots like a hog. hog plum fruit.

A name given to the wild plum tree and its

hog ranch (1) An old Western term for a brothel; also called a chicken ranch. (2) A rude structure on the edge of an army base that also sold whiskey. hog wallow Besides its usual meaning, a hog wallow in the West means a depression with poor drainage in a plain or prairie; the name stems from the popular belief that razorback hogs caused the depressions many years ago. Thus there are terms like hog wallow prairie, hog wallow mesquite and so forth. hold on till the last whistle Stick with something until the end; probably derives from the final whistle blown in rodeo competitions indicating that the cowboy has lasted the alloted time.

horn off 501 hold up (1) To rob at the point of a gun; it possibly originated in the West with the robberies of trains and stages. (2) To take advantage of someone in any way. hole Often used in Western place names, such as Jackson Hole, Wyoming, usually in the meaning of a deep valley, a place surrounded by mountains. hole up A hiding place; to hide. “It seemed sense that the Lohman boy would go north for a hole-up.” (Charles O. Locke, The Hell Bent Kid, 1957) holler To give up, to cry “I quit” in a fight. “I once heard a Western man say he had ‘hollered on drinking’, meaning that he had quit the practice.” (John Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms, 1858) Also holler calf rope. hollow horn A hollowness of the horns in cattle, said to cause their general poor health. holy doggie! An old exclamation. “ ‘Lookit—Holy Doggie, look at him!’ ” (Edna Ferber, Cimarron, 1930) hombre A man, the word a borrowing of the Spanish word meaning the same. home range (1) The area where one lives. (2) A place where cattle are usually kept. home state One’s native state. “I come from your home state of Idaho.” Homestead State An old nickname for Oklahoma because so much of the state was settled by homesteaders under the Homestead Act. honda An eye (a metal ring or a slip knot) at one end of a lariat through which the other end is passed to form a lasso; probably from the Spanish word hondón (an eyelet, the eye of a needle). honest Indian

See

Hoodoo Bar An 1850 mining site on the Yuba River in California; the name hoodoo here is said to be an Indian pronunciation of How do you do?, but it could derive from the hoodoo stick divining rods miners used in trying to find gold. hoofed locusts A colorful expression for sheep. “The sheep—‘hoofed locusts’—actually were a menace to the raising of other livestock. Nibbling the bush grass to its roots and, with their sharp hoofs, chopping these roots into sterility, they converted into a semi-desert any locality they frequented.” (Philip Rollins, Gone Haywire, 1939) hoopy An old, beat-up or broken-down car or truck; the term is heard mostly today in Texas. “I got in my old hoopy and headed out for the lake.” hoosegow Hoosegow is a Western word of the 1860s that derives from Spanish juzgado (a court or tribunal), which to Mexicans means “a jail” and was borrowed in this sense by American cowboys. Our slang word jug for a jail probably also comes from juzgado and was recorded a half century or so earlier. “ ‘You can make nice or not,’ he said in a jolly way . . . ‘but it’s down to the hoosegow we go.’ ” (Thomas McGuane, Nothing but Blue Skies, 1992) hoot-owl trail The night trail, the trail of crime and wrongdoing. “They had ridden the ‘hoot-owl trail” and tasted the fruits of evil and now justice had caught up with them and demanded payment.” (Charles Portis, True Grit, 1968) Hopi A member of a Pueblo Indian people of northern Arizona; from a native word meaning “the powerful ones.” hoppergrass Grasshopper; a word sometimes used in the West and South and formed by metathesis, the transposition of letters in this case.

GOOD INDIAN.

honky-tonk A name for a cheap, noisy dance hall, burlesque house or nightclub; the expression is first recorded in the West and may be a rhyming compound based on honk, though its origin is uncertain. See also DRINKING HOLE.

hoppers Grasshoppers. “I hear that up on the Niobrara River the hoppers are so thick they’re damming the whole 300-foot-deep canyon, dropping pebbles in, to flood the county and grow their own green stuff.” (Mari Sandoz, Son of the Gamblin’ Man, 1960) horned toad

hoodlum wagon An extra wagon used on roundups to carry bedding and other supplies. hoodoo A pillar of rock of fantastic shape caused by erosion; many can be seen in the Yellowstone Park region where there are sites called Hoodoo Mountain, Hoodoo Basin and Hoodoo Rocks.

See

HORNY TOAD.

horn, hide and hair Everything. “ ‘There’s nothing I don’t know about a ranch—horn, hide and hair.’ ” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952) horn off Drive away, ward off, as buffalo bulls might do to other bulls in a herd.

502 Happy Trails hornswoggle An old-fashioned word meaning to cheat or swindle but also used in expletives, like “Well, I’ll be hornswoggled!”

hostile Indians Though much used in the West for Indians unfriendly to settlers, this term is first recorded in the East as far back as 1796.

horny toad The horned toad, a lizard of the genus Phrynosoma with hornlike projections on its head. “He could not imagine this country [the Southwest] without . . . the roadrunner . . . the prickly pear and the live oaks, the jackrabbit and the horned toad. They were all an integral part of it, biding their time to take it back if man ever relaxed his hold.” (Elmer Kelton, The Day It Never Rained, 1973) Also horned lizard.

hostiles Applied by whites to unfriendly, warring Indians. “This killer also knew that the desert and surrounding mountains were swarming with hostiles. They didn’t like the reservation at San Carlos . . .” (Lewis B. Patten, Ride a Tall Horse, 1980) hot as billy hell Hot as hell, very hot. “It was hot as billy hell out there, but we had work to do.”

horse apple Another name for the Osage orange. See also BODARK.

BLOODED.

horse heaven A place in Washington state once noted for the droves of CAYUSE ponies roaming there.

a hot of a day A very hot day. “ ‘My! It’s a hot of a day!’ ” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952)

Horse Indian A name given to Plains Indians, who expertly rode and used horses.

hot of summer The heat of summer. “‘It all but stops except for a few weeks maybe in the hot of summer . . .’ ” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952)

horse opera Any cheap Western movie, dating back to the first motion pictures featuring a lot of horses and gunplay. See also SPAGHETTI WESTERN.

hot blood

hotroll

A thoroughbred horse. See also

COLD-

A cowboy’s bedding and belongings.

horse pistol A large pistol. “If I had a big horse pistol like yours I would not be scared of any booger-man.” (Charles Portis, True Grit, 1968)

houlihan Rope used by a cowboy. “Smithwick made a loop and pitched his houlihan. The rope seemed to drop out of the sky over the head of Plumb Rude.” (Thomas McGuane, Keep the Change, 1989)

horse pucky Horseshit, manure. “Don’t give me any of that horse pucky.”

hour by sun An hour before sunset or after sunrise. “It’s two hours by sun, and we got to be done by noon.”

horse restaurant A colorful term recorded in 1856 California for a livery stable.

houstonize On April 13, 1832, Sam Houston, the soldier and political leader who became president of the Republic of Texas, fought and gave a beating to Congressman William Stanberry. As a result, houstonize became a synonym, now only an historical curiosity, for “to beat someone up, especially a Congressman.” Sam Houston’s name is better honored, of course, by the city of Houston, Texas.

horse sense Horse sense for good plain common sense comes from the American West, about 1850, inspired by the cowboys’ trusty intelligent little cow ponies, trained even to do a good deal of cattle-herding work without directions from their riders (as noted in The Nation, as far back as August 18, 1870). horse wrangler A cowboy; also wrangler; from the Spanish caballerango, a hired hand who looked after horses. hoss (1) A common pronunciation of horse. (2) An affectionate nickname for a friend. “Git ready, old hoss, but hold fire till I give the sign.” (A. B. Guthrie Jr., The Big Sky, 1947) hoss op’ry

See

HORSE OPERA.

hosteen A term of respect for an old man, used in the Southwest; from the Navaho hastqui’n meaning the same.

how This ejaculation, which is now used chiefly as a facetious greeting in imitation of American Indians’ speech, was first used by Western Indians and had a number of meanings. Some etymologists believe it is an Indian corruption of “how do you do”; others say the Indians took it from the old Army expression “how,” a toast meaning “here’s to your health”; and still others say it is simply the Sioux hao or the Omaha hau. It is first recorded in 1817 as meaning “come on” or “let us begin.” howdy Generally regarded as an expression born in the American West, howdy, a contraction of “how do

hymns 503 you do?,” began life as a Southern or Eastern expression and was taken West by Civil War veterans. It is first recorded in 1840. howdy do Hello. “ ‘Howdy do, sir. I’m Miz Thompson . . .’ ” (Katherine Anne Porter, Noon Wine, 1937) the how-so of it How it works. “ ‘[The river’s] in flood? How so?’ ‘Snow in the mountains . . . Snow melt and rain. That’s the how-so of it.’ ” (A. B. Guthrie Jr., Arfive, 1970) hoya A Spanish word used in the Southwest for a mountain valley or park. huero A person with fair complexion and light or red hair; from the Spanish quero meaning the same. hull Saddle. “He swung the saddle down . . . The first vehicle along was a Model A Ford truck . . . and the driver leaned across and rolled down the window part way and boomed at him in a whiskey voice: ‘Throw that hull up in the bed, cowboy, and get in here.’ ” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992) hum

Heck, hell, as in “What the hum do you mean?”

humpt it! Move fast, run fast. “ ‘Go on!’ shouted Summers. ‘Humpt it, you goddam fools . . . Goddam it, run . . .’ ” (A. B. Guthrie Jr., The Big Sky, 1947)

hungrier than a woodpecker with a headache hungry indeed.

Very

hunkers The knees, haunches or calves. “Get down on your hunkers [kneel down].” hunt the top rail An old term for to flee quickly, as if jumping over the top rail of a fence on a horse. “The three of them went for their guns, and it was time to hunt the top rail.” hurdy-gurdy houses According to Mark Twain in Roughing It (1872), these were disreputable Western dance halls with bars, dancing and prostitutes. hurricane deck

A humorous term for a horse’s saddle.

hyas kloosh A Chinook term used in the old Northwest meaning very good, fine. hydrophobia skunk A Southwestern name for the spotted skunk (Spilogale putorius) because of the belief that its bite causes hydrophobia in humans. hymns The songs cowboys sing to calm cattle; these songs were often bawdy lyrics set to religious tunes.

I ice cream social A social gathering with ice cream as the principal refreshment, usually but not always held to raise money for a local church or school; the term is used in the North and North Midland as well.

if ignorance ever goes to $40 a barrel, I want the drillin’ rights on that man’s head Used in Texas to describe someone extremely ignorant; attributed to former Texas agriculture commissioner Jim Hightower.

Idaho Idaho may be the only state name that is a complete fraud—at any rate, its name may mean nothing at all. Many sources derive the word Idaho from a Shoshonean Indian word meaning “gem of the mountain,” but the Idaho State Historical Society claims that there never was any such Indian word and that Idaho and its translation was the phony creation of a mining lobbyist who suggested it to Congress as the name for the territory we now know as Colorado. Congress rejected the name, but it caught on among gold prospectors along the Columbia River, and when it was proposed in 1863 as the name for what we know today as Idaho, Congress approved it and the Idaho Territory was born. The origin of the word may actually be Shoshonean, however, though it does not mean “gem of the mountain” or “Behold! The sun is coming down the mountain,” as another writer suggested. Idaho residents, in fact, ought to forget about the real Shoshone word that Idaho may have derived from, for that word would be Idahi, a Kiowa curse for the Comanches that translates roughly as “eaters of feces,” “performers of unnatural acts” or “sources of foul odors.”

if I had my druthers An old Western expression, also heard in the South, meaning “if I had my choice”; the “druthers” in the phrase is a corruption of “rathers.”

Idaho brainstorm A tornado, a whirling sandstorm, a dust twister; also called a dancing devil. if his IQ slips any lower, we’ll have to water him twice a day Said of someone exceedingly stupid. Columnist and Texan Molly Ivins says it in her Molly Ivins Can’t Say That, Can She? (1992) and either invented it or is passing it along. She was referring, of course, to a politician.

if you ain’t the lead horse, the scenery never changes See quote. “My old man used to say, ‘If you ain’t the lead horse, the scenery never changes.’ Now it looks like I might lose the place. I need to get out front with that lead horse. I feel like I’ve been living in a graveyard.” (Thomas McGuane, Keep the Change, 1989) if you don’t like the weather wait five minutes ing heard in Montana and North Dakota.

A say-

I god Apparently a euphemistic pronunciation of “By God.” “ ‘I god, Woodrow,’ Augustus said. ‘As long as you’ve worked around horses it looks like you’d better know them to turn your back on a Kiowa mare.’ ” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985) ill Cross, vicious, ill-tempered. “That dog of his is ill— it’s bit two people.” I’ll be there with bells on Early 18th-century Conestoga wagons usually arrived at their Western destinations with bronze bells ringing, giving rise to this Americanism. These same Conestogas are responsible for traffic moving on the right side of the road in the United States rather than on the left as in Britain. According to one authority, the Conestogas were “best guided from the left and so afforded a clear view ahead 504

Indian-broke 505 only when driven from the right side of the road. Drivers of other vehicles found it not only wise not to argue but convenient to follow in the ruts made by the heavy wagons and habit soon became law.” I’ll shoot through the barrel and drown you! A common gunfighter’s threat in the early West to adversaries who ducked behind water barrels that had been placed along the streets for use in case of fire. Ima Hogg Perhaps this is the best known of humorous American names, for Ima Hogg’s father was the governor of Texas and she was a prominent socialite. It is not necessarily the best humorous real American name, for we have hundreds of gems like the following to choose from: Lance Amorous, Fannie Bottom and Dill L. Pickle (who was a pickle salesman). There was even someone named La Void. I may not be a cowboy, but I can take one’s place till he gets here See quote. “When I was a young man the word ‘cowboy’ was only used as a great point of honor. One of the favorite sayings from top hands was, ‘I may not be a cowboy, but I can take one’s place till he gets here.’ ” (Max Evans, in the “Author’s Notes” to Rounders Three, 1990) I’m here to tell you I assure you, I can testify. “My, oh my, folks, but that boy c’n bite, I’m here to tell you.” (Frank Roderus, Hell Creek Cabin, 1979) I’m shootin’ you straight I might would party.”

I’m telling you the truth.

I may. “I might would come to the

immigrant A term used in the 19th century to mean one who has migrated from the East to the West. immigrant cattle Cattle brought to a range or ranch from a great distance away. impsonite A black variety of the mineral asphalite named after the Impson Valley in Oklahoma where it is found.

the mid-19th century where the proprietors took a certain percentage of each hand for the house. This money, according to a gambling book of the time, was put in the “hole,” which was “a slot cut in the middle of the poker table, leading to a locked drawer underneath, and all checks deposited therein are the property of the keeper of the place.” When one had put more money into the poker table hole than was in his pocket, he was in a hole. in a tight a tight.”

In a difficult position. “That old badger’s in

in cahoots with In partnership, often shady partnership, with, from the French cahorte (gang). incense cedar An important white cedar (Libocedrus decurrens) of the Pacific coast, growing on mountains from Oregon south; also called the post cedar, because it is used for fence posts. Independence Rock A natural granite landmark rising 128 feet high near the Sweetwater River in Wyoming. Over 100,000 pioneers chiseled their names on this “Great Register of the Desert” while making their way west along the Oregon Trail beginning in 1843. Indian At least one writer has speculated that Indian may have been suggested to Columbus as a name for the Taino people he encountered because they were so friendly, peaceful and gentle, una gente in Dios (a people of God). But there is no proof of this, most etymologists believing these people were mistakenly named by Columbus because he thought he had reached the Indies of Asia, the first but not the worst mistake immigrants made regarding the native Americans. See also NATIVE AMERICAN. Indian agent A U.S. official who represents the government in dealing with an Indian tribe or tribes. Indian bread Pioneers called the strip of fatty meat extending from the shoulder along the backbone of the buffalo Indian bread because the Indians favored it. As one writer put it: “When scalded in hot grease to seal it, then smoked, it became a ‘tit-bit’ the buffalo hunter used as bread. When eaten with lean or dried meat it made an excellent sandwich.” “This heah’s the depouille . . . or Injun bread . . . Mighty good.” (Frank Yerby, Western, 1982)

in This sound is frequently used instead of en, especially by Texans, as in the words innernational, (international), innerjy (energy), interprise (enterprise), intry (entry), tin (ten), twinny (twenty), cint (cent), wint (went), tinnis (tennis), timperature (temperature), Winsdy (Wednesday), innertainment (entertainment) and ind (end).

Indian breadroot A plant (Psoralea esculenta) also called breadroot that was a staple in the diet of Indians of the West.

in a hole In debt or some other kind of trouble. The expression can be traced to Western gambling houses of

Indian-broke Descriptive of a horse broken by Indians, trained to be mounted from the right side, where

506 Happy Trails Indians usually mounted from (whites customarily mounting their horses from the left side). Indian country A term used by Western pioneers to describe any place where hostile Indians were likely to be encountered. Indian fungus A common fungus (Echinodontium tinctorium) found on Western conifers and thought to have been used as a dye by Pacific Northwest Indians. Indian giver Tradition holds that American Indians took back their gifts when they didn’t get equally valuable ones in return. Some Indians were no doubt Indian givers; others, however, got insulted if they received more than they gave. Instances of Indians Indian-giving are hard to come by, and even the Handbook of American Indians (1901) published by the Smithsonian Institution, defines the practice as an “alleged custom.” Perhaps the expression is explained by the fact that Indian was once widely used as a synonym for bogus or false. Many of the nearly 500 terms prefixed with Indian unfairly impugn the Indian’s honesty or intelligence—even honest Injun was originally meant sarcastically, and Indian summer means a false summer. The term may also have first applied to white men who revoked treaties with Indians. See also NATIVE AMERICAN. Indian paintbrush Castilleja linariaefolia, a plant of the figwort family that is the state flower of Wyoming; also a name given to other plants of the genus. Indian post office Indians in the American West often piled sticks and stones in a mound to indicate that they had been at a certain point and would return there in a certain number of days, depending on the number of rocks and sticks piled there. Cowboys called such a mound an Indian post office because messages could be left there. Indian saddle A rudimentary type of saddle used by Plains Indians. Indians don’t count An offensive boast of gunmen in the early Southwest, who supposedly kept a count of all but Indians and Mexicans that they killed. Also Mexicans don’t count.

Indian warrior A western U.S. plant (Pedicularis densiflora) of the lousewort family with densely clustered brilliant red flowers that suggested “redskins” to some. Indian whiskey Cheap rotgut often sold to Indians by cynical traders as good liquor. E. C. Abbott and Helene Huntington Smith in We Pointed Them North (1939) tell a story about early Western traders making it from the following recipe: “Take one barrel of Missouri River water, and two gallons of alcohol. Then you add two gallons of strychnine to make them crazy—because strychnine is the greatest stimulant in the world—three bars of tobacco to make them sick—because an Indian wouldn’t figure it was whiskey unless it made him sick— five bars of soap to give it a bead, and half-pound of red pepper, and then you put in some sage brush and boil it until it’s brown. Strain this into a barrel and you’ve got your Indian whiskey.” Also called Indian liquor. I never shot a man who didn’t need it A saying repeated in a number of Westerns but actually said first by outlaw Clay Allison, who is also remembered for pulling a dentist’s tooth at gunpoint after the dentist pulled the wrong tooth in his mouth. Injun A common early Western pronunciation of Indian. inkslinger A writer or editor. “ ‘You scared him off with that editorial . . . He may be gone fer the moment, inkslinger, but he’ll be back.’ ” (Larry D. Names, Boomtown, 1981) innernational tional.

A common pronunciation of interna-

in Texas the cattle come first, then the men, then the horses and last the women An old Texas saying quoted by Edna Ferber in Giant (1952). in the boot The growing stage when wheat is developing inflorescence. “A bad frost fell when the northern Texas wheat was in the boot.” irrigation An old Western expression meaning the refreshment of a dry body or mouth with liquor. “I was in great need of irrigation and stepped up to the bar.” iron in your barrel

Indian territory A former U.S. territory of about 31,000 square miles now in eastern Oklahoma. Indian-up to sneak or creep up on someone as quietly as an Indian. “He Indian-upped on them, and they didn’t have a chance.”

Sexual energy; an erection.

is all Often used at the end of a sentence at a short form of “that’s all.” “I came here for some sugar, is all.” istle; ixtle A fiber from plants of the Agave or Yucca genus used in making carpets and other items. The word

I’ve seen cows get well that was hurt worse than that derives from the Nahuatl ichtli meaning the same. I-talian A pronunciation of Italian. “ ‘Since when did you become an I-talian?’ Bobby Lee asked . . .” (Larry McMurtry, Texasville, 1987) It’s gettin’ a bit Western near blizzard conditions.

507

skepticism, ‘but it sounds to me!’ ” (O. Henry, “The Passing of Black Eagle” in The Best Short Stories of O. Henry, 1945) it’s such a fur piece you’ve got to ride a pregnant mare to get back A very long distance to travel.

The wind is blowing up to

it sounds to me! An expression of disbelief. “ ‘I know,’ replied Bud, using the cowpuncher’s expressive phrase of

I’ve seen cows get well that was hurt worse than that An old cowboy retort when one is served a rare steak.

J jacal See quote. “. . . beneath it stood a jacal such as the Mexicans erect—a one-room house of upright poles daubed with clay and roofed with grass or tule reeds.” (O. Henry, “The Passing of Black Eagle” in The Best Short Stories of O. Henry, 1945)

go to meeting . . .” (Wallace Stegner, Recapitulation, 1979) jackrabbit An abbreviation of jackass rabbit, the large hare of North America so named because of its long jackass-like ears and legs. Jackass-rabbit is first recorded in 1847 by a traveler in the West: “[We] started a number of hares (called Jackass rabbits) and had no little amusement in witnessing some animated runs.” Within 15 years the same hares were being called jackrabbits. They were also called mule rabbits.

jackalope A mythic creature that is half jackrabbit and half antelope. Pictures on postcards show a jackrabbit with antlers. “He was gone before daybreak, following a Haliburton drilling equipment truck with a sign on its rear that said it braked for jackalope.” (Thomas McGuane, Keep The Change, 1989)

Jackson Hole, Wyoming jackaroo

A cowboy or

Jackass Gulf

See

HOLE.

BUCKAROO.

jag A partial load; a small amount. “He had a jag of hay to take in.”

A California gold field.

jackass mail A stagecoach pulled by mules over rough terrain; also jackass express.

jakes An outdoor privy, an outhouse; the word of British origin. “He went down the walkboard toward the jakes . . . Then he opened the rough board door of the jakes and stepped in. The judge was seated upon the closet . . .” (Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, or, The Evening Redness in the West, 1985)

jackass rabbit See quote. “. . . we saw the first specimen of an animal known familiarly over two thousand miles of mountain and desert . . . as the jackass rabbit. He is well named. He is just like any other rabbit, except that he is from one third to twice as large, has longer legs in proportion to his size, and has the most preposterous ears that were ever mounted on any creature but a jackass.” (Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872) Also called jackrabbit.

jalapeño A hot green or orange-red pepper (Capsicum annuum) used in Mexican cooking and well-known in the Southwest. jamoka

jacket To cover an orphan lamb with the skin of a dead lamb so that the dead one’s mother will nurse the orphan.

Coffee; a combination of java and mocha.

janders A pronunciation of jaundice heard in northern California. jaw Talk, often excessively. “ ‘Go ahead and jaw.’ ” Barton cut in savagely . . . ‘Don’t mind me atall.’ ” (William Hopson, The Last Shoot-out, 1958)

Jack Mormons Mormons who are not active church members. “Jack Mormons, the Mulders did not tithe or 508

jingle bob 509 A humorous old name for itinerant den-

L’Amour, Jubal Sackett, 1985) (2) An old term for a wagon without springs.

jawing Talking. “‘What’re you boys jawin’ about?’ Fyle asked merrily.” (Frank Roderus, Hell Creek Cabin, 1979)

jessamine A name in the Southwest for a shrub of the family Apocynaceae with fragrant white flowers.

jaw cracker tists.

jay A common expression in the early West for a man, a person. “What men say about my nature is not merely an outside thing. For the fact that I let ’em keep on sayin’ it is a proof I don’t value my nature enough to shield it from their slander and give them their punishment. And that’s a poor sort of a jay.” (Owen Wister, The Virginian, 1902) Jayhawker State A nickname for Kansas, after the antislavery guerrillas called Jayhawkers in the state before and during the Civil War. Jefferson (1) A proposed name for the territory that became Colorado, which was part of what was sometimes called the Jefferson Territory before the Civil War in honor of Thomas Jefferson. (2) A name proposed for the territory that became Montana, which was also part of what was called the Jefferson Territory before the Civil War. Jeffrey pine a conifer growing in the high mountains of the West with long needles and large cones. Pinus jeffrey is named for Scottish botanist John Jeffrey, who collected plants in the Pacific Northwest in the mid-19th century. jerk one baldheaded To treat someone roughly. “If I get my hands on him, I’ll jerk him baldheaded.” Also snatch one baldheaded. jerkwater town Steam engines often made stops in small Western stations for no other reason but to obtain water, the fireman jerking a cord attached to a long spigot extending from the water tower to fill the engine’s water tender. Similar practices, universal in the early days of railroading, gave rise to the Americanism jerkwater town, first recorded in 1896, for any small, outof-the-way place where no train stopped except to “jerk water.” jerky (1) Dried and smoked strips of dried beef, first recorded in 1850. Much used by travelers in the West, jerky is simply the Anglicization of the Mexican-Spanish charqui (dried meat), which was often used instead of jerky. Charqui, in turn, comes from the Incan echarqui for dried meat. Today jerky is sold commercially throughout the United States. “Fumbling with my pack I got out another piece of the precious jerky . . .” (Louis

a Jesse James A robber or bank robber, after Jesse Woodson James, who became a kind of American Robin Hood in his own brief lifetime. A member of the Confederate Quantrill gang in his youth, he and his brother Frank later led the most notorious band of robbers in the country’s history. The gang’s daring bank and train robberies caused many deaths, but James was regarded as a hero by a public that hated foreclosing banks and greedy railroads. In 1882, changing his name to Thomas Howard, Jesse went into hiding at St. Joseph, Missouri. There, six months later, Robert Ford, “the dirty little coward that shot Mr. Howard,” killed him for a reward. Jesse James was only 35 when he died. He is still a folk hero, commemorated in a popular ballad, folktales, movies, novels and at least one play. Besides being slang for a robber, a Jesse James is a truckman’s name for a police magistrate and has been applied by baseball players to umpires. jicama The large, turnip-shaped root of the tropical American legume Pachyrhizus erosus eaten as a side dish and in salads. The plant ultimately takes its name from the Nahuatl Xicamatl. Jicarilla An Apache tribe with members now mostly in New Mexico; the tribe possibly takes its name from the Spanish jicara (chocolate cup) after the shape of a hill where they once lived in present-day southeast Colorado or northern New Mexico. Or it may have been named from the Spanish jicarillos (little baskets) because of the basket-weaving skills of tribe members. jigger A contemptuous term for a person, guy. “ ‘That townheaded jigger with the fancy drinking ideas don’t have to ride very far to get trouble if that’s what he’s looking for.’ ” (Wayne D. Overholser, Buckaroo’s Code, 1947) Jim Hill mustard A popular name in the Northwest for wild mustard; named after railroad builder Jim Hill. jimpsecute A colorful old term meaning to call courting on one’s true love; the courted one often called her courter a juicy-spicy. jingle bob (1) An ear mark made on cattle by cutting the ear on the upper side so as to break the back of the ear and make it hang down. (2) Spurs that jingle as a cowboy walks.

510 Happy Trails jingler

A wrangler, a herder, a cowboy.

jingle your spurs!

A steer that leads others into the slaugh-

Hurry up, get a move on it.

jittery as a bird in a butter churn Very nervous. “ ‘You always look so calm, Noah, I’m jittery as a bird in a butter churn.’ ” (Lucia St. Clair Robson, Ride the Wind, 1982) john Slang for a Chinese male during the California gold rush. John B. A cowboy hat or STETSON, named after its first manufacturer, John B. Stetson. John Henry One’s signature: often called a John Hancock in other sections of the country. John Law

Judas steer terhouse.

judge A title that was often bestowed gratuitously on any lawyer in the early West. Judge Colt The Colt revolver as a symbol of law enforcement. “Judge Colt was the law, and the Winchester rifle was order.” judge of the plains The title of 19th-century California officials who settled cattle disputes. jughead A stupid horse; a stupid person. “ ‘We have no broncs here. I buy my horses already broken.’ ‘What about that horse that threw you?’ ‘He is not a bronc. He is just a jughead.’ ” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973)

A name used for any law officer.

Johnny Navajo This collective name for the Navajo Indians was used by white settlers in the 19th century. John Wesley Hardin, a A fabled gunfighter. After John Wesley Hardin (1853–95), killer of some 40 men, the first when he was only 12. Hardin, famous for his quick cross draw (crossing his arms to opposite sides and pulling his guns from his vest pockets) died when he was shot in the back of the head while playing cards. See also WILD BILL HICKOK. jojoba A Southwestern shrub (Simmondsia chinensis) with edible seeds containing a valuable oil; from a Spanish word for the shrub. jornada Southwesterners used this Spanish word, meaning literally “a day’s journey,” to mean a day’s travel across a desert without stopping for water. Joshua tree Yucca brevifolia, a desert, treelike plant that grows only in the Mojave Desert and is named after the biblical Joshua’s spear pointed at the city of Ai. “. . .these were plants of a strange kind, two or even three times the height of a man, yet with strange limbs, twisted oddly. They were like no trees I had seen before, having instead of leaves, sharply pointed blades. ‘They are called Joshua trees,’ my father explained.” (Louis L’Amour, The Lonesome Gods, 1983) Also called tree yucca. Judas eye See quote. “‘What is a Judas eye?’ ‘Glass, boy. With a wicked shine in it as like as if he could still see with it.’” (Loren D. Estleman, Sudden Country, 1991)

juice To milk. “Mr. Ross blew out a thoughtful plume of smoke, then asked ‘You savvy how to juice a cow? . . . Pail one, I mean?’ ” (A. B. Guthrie Jr., Arfive, 1970) the juice ain’t worth the squeeze Said of something that requires too much effort to be worth it; heard mainly in the South and West. juicy-spicy

See

JIMPSECUTE.

jumping bean The seed of certain Mexican plants of the genus Sapium and Sebastiana that jump or move about because of the movements of a moth larva inside the seed. Also Mexican jumping bean. jumping cactus The cholla cactus of the Southwest, so named because when the loose stems on the ground are touched the entire stem may move. jump up dust Leave quickly. “They saw the posse coming and jumped up dust into the hills.” Juneteenth June 19, in honor of the emancipation date of blacks in Texas, where it is celebrated annually by many African-Americans. Justins Cowboys began to wear fancy boots by the end of the 19th century, some handtooled leather ones costing them two months pay, about $50. The most famous of these were made by Fort Worth boot-maker Joseph Justin and called Justins in his honor. The term is still in use today. juzgado

See

HOOSEGOW.

K kachina doll A Hopi Indian doll. Carved from cottonwood root in the shape of a kachina, an ancestral spirit, it is used as a household decoration or given as a gift to a child.

Katy-bar-the-door Watch out, take precautions, big trouble is coming. “When these clouds hit that front, it’s liable to be Katy-bar-the-door.” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973)

kangaroo court Although this expression may have originated in Australia, it was first recorded in the United States during the California gold rush. Perhaps Australian 49ers did bring it with them to the gold fields. According to this story, the source for the term are kangaroos in Australia’s back country, who when out of spear range sat staring dumbly at men for long periods of time before leaping off for the horizon; their staring was thought to be similar to the dumb stares of jurors sitting on a mock jury, and their leaping away suggested the quick decisions of such an extralegal court. But there are no quotations supporting the use of kangaroo court in Australia at any time. The expression could have been coined in America, in fact, based on the several uses of the word kangaroo in England for anything unusual or eccentric. Another guess is that Americans familiar with the kangaroo’s jumping habits, or Australians here with gold fever, invented kangaroo court as a humorous term for courts that tried “claimjumpers,” miners who seized the mining claims of others. Mustang court means the same.

keel The way Mexicans always pronounce kill in Westerns. “‘Eeef one speaks to warn heem, I keel the other one, you see?’” (Louis L’Amour, The Tall Stranger, 1957) keep it under your war bonnet Keep it a secret, keep it under your hat. “ ‘Listen,’ I whispered to Junior to keep it a secret . . . ‘Keep it under your war bonnet.’ ” (Sherman Alexie, “A Drug Called Tradition,” 1993) keep your eyes peeled; keep your eyes skinned To keep your eyes wide open, to keep a sharp lookout. The earliest known form of the frontier expression, recorded in 1833, was to keep your eyes skinned (presumably meaning with the lids drawn back). Originally Western slang, the expression is now commonly heard throughout the United States. keep your word good Always be honest. “I’ve kept my word good all my life.” Kelly’s Excellent bits and spurs long made by the El Paso firm P. M. Kelly and Sons.

kangaroo rat A long-tailed rodent (genus Dipodomys) of the Western desert with long hind legs adapted for jumping.

kept his private graveyard Said of a killer with many notches on his gun. “The deference that was paid to a desperado of wide reputation, and who ‘kept his private graveyard,’ as the phrase went, was marked, and cheerfully accorded.” (Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872)

the Katy The Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad line. “[It had] just arrived via the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad, familiarly known throughout the [Oklahoma] territory, by a natural process of elision, as the Katy.” (Edna Ferber, Cimarron, 1930)

kershaw An old name for a pumpkin; probably corrupted from cashaw, The Algonquian name for the 511

512 Happy Trails pumpkin but possibly so named because a Texan by the name of Kerr grew them.

Kiowa A Plains Indian people of the Southwest, the name meaning “the principal ones” in their language.

ketch dog A dog trained to hold down cattle by the nose until cowboys could tie them.

kiss the ground

kicked into a funeral procession kicking horse.

To be killed by a wild,

kit fox A small gray fox (Vulpes velox and Vulpes macrotis) of the Western plains and deserts. ki-yi

kicker

Short for

To be thrown by a horse.

The bark or yelp of a coyote.

SHITKICKER.

knockaway kicking the jackrabbits off the trail loping very fast.

See

ANAQUA.

Said of a horse gal-

kick like a bay steer To vigorously protect or resist or exert oneself. “He kicked like a bay steer when they tried to take him in.” See also BAY STEER. kill-fighter A deadly gunfighter. “He had the look of a kill-fighter, not a man who was happy to rough it up.” (Walter Van Tilburg Clark, The Ox-Bow Incident, 1940) kilt Killed. “ ‘Mommer, Popper, come out hyah. That man that kilt Mr. Hatch has come ter see yer!’ ” (Katherine Anne Porter, Noon Wine, 1937) kindly noisy Kind of noisy. “ ‘It’s fixin to get kindly noisy in here,’ he said.” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992) King Ranch The biggest of cattle ranches. Started in 1851 by Irish immigrant Richard King who by the end of the 19th century owned over 1 million acres on the Texas Gulf Coast. Today it is over 1.25 million acres, half the area of Delaware. See also XIT. king salmon A large salmon of the northern Pacific Ocean; also called Chinook salmon. king’s ex A term for “time out” in tag and other children’s games; it possibly derives from “king’s excuse.”

know how to die standing up unafraid, especially in a fight.

To be courageous and

know one’s cans Cowboys on the range in the 19th century were usually starved for reading matter and often read the labels on the cook’s tin cans, learning them by heart. A tenderfoot could always be distinguished because he didn’t know his cans. The expression isn’t recorded in the Dictionary of Americanisms but is given in Ray Allen Billington’s America’s Frontier Culture (1977). “The back and the side doors of the dwelling . . . littered with the empty tin cans that mark any new American settlement, and especially one whose drought is relieved by the thirst-quenching coolness of tinned tomatoes and peaches. Perhaps the canned tomato, as much as anything else, made possible the settling of the vast West and Southwest.” (Edna Ferber, Cimarron, 1930) krummkake Mainly an Upper Midwest term for a large, light thin cookie made from an egg-based batter and cooked in an iron similar to a waffle-iron. Formed into a cone while pliable, it is allowed to harden and then is filled with whipped cream. Scandinavian settlers introduced the dessert and the Norwegian word for it. Also krumcake.

L ladies of the line Most people have heard of the selfexplanatory ladies of the night, for prostitutes, but why ladies of the line? The expression comes to us from the American West, where prostitutes did business in tents and jerry-built shacks stretched out in lines at the outskirts of towns, mining camps or railroad yards.

Land of Gold

ladrone A word used in the Southwest for a thief; from the Spanish ladrón meaning the same.

Land of Red Apples

An old nickname for California. MAÑANA.

Land of mañana.

See

Land of Promise 19th century.

A nickname for the West in the mid-

An old nickname for Oregon.

Land of the Golden Hills A name given by Chinese to California at the time of the gold rush of 1849. “The carriage bumped its way down Dupont Gai, or Dupont Street, the main thoroughfare of the Chinese section of Gum San Ta Fow—Big City in the Land of the Golden Hills . . .” (Fred Mustard Stewart, The Glitter and the Gold, 1989)

laid out Played hookey. “ ‘What are you doin’ out of school today?’ ‘I laid out.’ ” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992) Lamanite The name given to American Indians in the Book of Mormon, which represents them as descendants of the Jewish prophet Laman, who led them to America from Jerusalem in 600 B.C.

Land of the Honeybee

A nickname for Utah.

land in a shallow grave A cowboy expression meaning to be killed and buried without formal ceremony, as cowboys were often far out on the plains away from towns and churches.

Land of the Redwoods

A nickname for California.

land-office business Before the Civil War, the U.S. government established “land offices” for the allotment of government-owned land in western territories just opened to settlers. These offices registered applicants, and the rush of citizens lining up mornings long before the office opened made the expression doing a landoffice business (a tremendous amount of business) part of the language by at least 1853. Adding to the queues were prospectors filing mining claims, which were also handled by land offices. After several decades, the phrase was applied figuratively to a great business in something other than land.

Land of Setting Suns

Land of the Webfeet Another nickname for Oregon. A webfoot is someone from Oregon.

Land of Silver

A nickname for California.

A nickname for Nevada.

lands A common exclamation. “Why, lands, yes, we aim to be there first thing in the morning.” lapboard A device once used to kill wolves, coyotes and other carnivores. “A dozen auger-holes, bored almost through, were filled with lard, in which were a few grains of strychnine, and then the surface of the board was similarly smeared . . . Any carniverous animal 513

514 Happy Trails that comes to a lapboard stays there—licking the lard from the board.” (Charles F. Lummis, A Tramp Across the Continent, 1892) la raza When used with a plural verb, la raza refers to a Mexican-Americans collectively. With a singular verb, it means Mexican-American culture. It is a borrowing from Spanish. lariat Deriving from the Spanish la reata (the rope), this Western term for a long-noosed rope used to catch cattle and horses is first recorded in 1831. larrup To whip, thrash or beat. “He larruped him good for stealing the horse.” larrupin’ Delicious. Larrupin’ truck means “good food.” “ ‘. . . Jett says it’s larrupin’ and that what he has got in the barbecue sauce makes it taste different . . .’ ” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952) lasso A long rope with a running noose at the end used for roping cattle, horses and the like; from the Spanish lazo for the same. Last Roundup

See

law of the prairie Some people, by words and actions, insist that we still live by the law of the jungle, that is, like animals not governed by the rules of civilization. The term probably dates back to the late 19th century. Law of the prairie, a similar U.S. term, is first recorded in 1823. Lawson’s cyprus The name for an ornamental Western tree also called the Port Orford cedar. Named after the Edinburgh, Scotland, nursery-man who in 1854 began cultivating the tree from seeds collected in the United States. law wrangler

A lawyer.

laying fence-worm An old term for laying down the rails of a new fence. lay out

To cut or absent oneself from a class in school.

layout An outfit, a group or party of people. “They was a pretty sorry layout if you ask me.” lay the dust To take a drink; refers to clearing the dust of the trail from one’s throat with a drink.

GREAT ROUND-UP.

latigo (1) A leather strap securing and tightening the end of a cinch to the saddletree of a Western saddle; a borrowing of a Spanish word for the same. (2) The rawhide thong attached to a pistol holster and tied around the leg to keep the holster steady. Pronounced lad-ih-goh. laverick An old, slightly contemptuous term for a man, usually a stranger. law (1) Often used to mean sue. “She’s going to law him.” (2) Lord. “ ‘Law,’ she said. ‘Look at that face.’ ” (Benjamin Capps, Tales of the Southwest, 1990) law-and-order A nickname for a lawman or someone who is a stickler for the letter of the law. “Take it easy, law-and-order,’ Gil told me. ‘This ain’t our picnic.’ ” (Walter Van Tilburg Clark, The Ox-Bow Incident, 1940) lawdog A sheriff or deputy. “Some lawdog tracked him down in Wyoming.” lawing Working as a law enforcement officer of any kind. “Lawing and medicine practiced jointly kept his life continually absorbing. Medicine led to crime or crime led to medicine.” (Richard S. Wheeler, Incident at Fort Keogh, 1990)

lazy Used for a brand lying on the side, as in the “Lazy W brand.” lead-pipe cinch A cinch, borrowed from the Spanish cincha, is a saddle-girth used on horses or a girth used on pack mules. Because a well-fastened cinch holds the saddle securely to the horse so that a saddle won’t slip off, about a century ago the word cinch became a natural synonym for something sure and easy, a surefire certainty, something held in a grasp so firm that it cannot get away. Cinches, however, are usually made out of leather, canvas or braided horsehair, not lead pipe. So the expression a lead-pipe cinch is something of a mystery. One guess is that the phrase is from the underworld. Criminals using lead-pipe blackjacks, according to this theory, found it a cinch to dispatch their victims and a cinch to dispose of the blackjack should police near the scene of the crime stop them and frisk them for weapons. league A measure of land of about three miles, the term often used in Southwestern areas when they were a part of Mexico. leaky mouth A humorous expression for someone who talks too much, a big mouth who can’t repress his or her mouth. lean, mean hombre See quote. “. . . a tall, gangling westerner had slouched in . . . He was what western

light a shuck 515 writers call ‘a lean mean hombre,’ but he moved with an easy grace . . .” (James A. Michener, Centennial, 1974) leather it Put away or holster one’s gun. “Hondo had started to turn away when Lowe went for his gun. ‘Not in the back!’ Buffalo shouted. ‘Leather it!’ ” (Louis L’Amour, Hondo, 1953) leather pounder A cowboy; from pounding up and down in his leather saddle. leather slapper

let’s see your color Let’s see the color of your money, how much money you’ve got. “I’ll make it a hundred and a quarter and won’t ask you where you got it,’ said the judge. ‘Let’s see your color,’ ” (Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, or, The Evening Redness in the West, 1985) letter carrier An old term for a postman said to be commonly used in northern California; it is still occasionally heard in metropolitan New York and other areas as well.

A gunfighter.

leave the reservation To go off the limits of a RESERVATION to depart from any usual practice or idea. “Truman’s sweeping demand for civil-rights legislation stampeded the Southerners right off the reservation . . .” (Saturday Evening Post, July 2, 1949) leavin’ Cheyenne Going away; from the Western song “Goodbye, Old Paint, I’m leavin’ Cheyenne,” often played as the last song at cowboy dances. left settin’ on air way up in the sky Thrown from a horse; the last line from an old Western song about a cowboy trying to break a horse and failing: When my stirrips I lose and also my hat, And I starts pullin’ leather as blind as a bat, And he makes one more jump, he is headed up high Leaves me settin’ on air way up in the sky.

Levis The word Levis has become more popular in the eastern United States recently as a synonym for jeans, denims or dungarees—probably due to the brightcolored styles that Levi Strauss and Company are manufacturing today. The trademarked name has been around since the gold rush days, though, when a pioneer San Francisco overall manufacturer began making denim pants. Levi Strauss reinforced his heavy blue denims with copper rivets at strain points such as the corners of pockets, this innovation making his product especially valuable to miners, who often loaded their pockets with ore samples. Within a few years, the pants were widely known throughout the West, where the name Levis has always been more common than any other for tight-fitting, heavy blue denims. lick Cowboy slang for syrup. “Get the lick from the chuck box.”

leg A professional gambler; from blackleg, meaning a swindler.

lickety-brindle Very fast, lickety-split. “He got there lickety brindle.”

leg knife A heavy knife Western hunters often carried in their boots.

life’s a twisting stream Possibly an old Western saying; used in Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove (1985).

lemita A Western sumac whose acid fruits are used in making mock lemonade.

lift the hair

lepero An old term for any low character or villain; a borrowing of the Spanish lepero meaning the same.

light Get down, alight, from a wagon; get out of a car. “He called, ‘you-all light and come in this house.’ ” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973)

leppy; leppie A term used in Nevada for a motherless lamb. Also called bum, bummer and bummie. less

To scalp.

light a rag See quote. “ ‘Light a rag, then . . . Get out. Vamoose. Drag it. Hit the grit. Get out of here.’ ” (Luke Short, Hardcase, 1941)

A common pronunciation of let us. “Less get going.”

let her rip Letting things go at full speed was called lether-rip-itiveness in mid-19th century America. The Americanism derives from another American expression, let her rip, which apparently first referred to railroad locomotives. Americans were always obsessed with speed. Wrote one early train traveler out West: “Git up more steam—this ain’t a funeral! Let her rip!”

light a shuck Leave or depart quickly. The expression is said to have originated from the practice of men lighting a corn shuck as a crude torch just before leaving a campfire so that they could briefly see in the darkness and accustom their eyes to it. Since such corn shuck torches burnt quickly, a man had to light one and leave at once or its light would burn out. Thus he “lit a shuck and left.”

516 Happy Trails light out Depart suddenly, leave in a hurry. “I’m going to light on out of here.” like a house on fire Although log cabins weren’t the homes of the earliest American settlers—Swedes settling in Delaware introduced them in 1638—they became a common sight on the Western frontier in the 18th and 19th centuries. As practical as they were, these rude wooden structures were tinderboxes once they caught fire. So fast did they burn to the ground that pioneers began to compare the speed of a fast horse to a log cabin burning to the ground, saying he could go like a house on fire. By 1809 Washington Irving, under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker, had given the expression wide currency in his History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, the first great book of comic literature by an American. The phrase soon came to mean “very quickly or energetically.” like a kerosened cat Very fast. “He was out of there like a kerosened cat.” (Thomas McGuane, Nothing but blue Skies, 1992) like a steer, I can try This cowboy expression, meaning roughly “I’ll do my best, even if it’s futile,” is said to derive from the habit of steers never losing their sexual drive, despite their castration, and often trying to mount each other. like the devil beating tan bark Said of someone or something that is fast and furious.

world Little Joe would be called Joseph Twine II, but in Henrietta he’s called Little Joe, to distinguish him from his father, Big Joe.” (Larry McMurtry, Cadillac Jack, 1982) little bitty Very small. “Hank Marlowe was a little bitty dried up fellow with a thin leathery face . . .” (Frank O’Rourke, Diamond Hitch, 1956) little cow-and-calf deal A small ranch. “ ‘I’ve got a little cow-and-calf deal in Whiteface, Texas,’ J. B. told this reporter.” (Countryside Magazine, Summer 1993) little old Little; “old” is often superfluously attached to “little,” as it is in the South. “We saw this little old boat coming round the bend.” Little Sure Shot A nickname given to ANNIE OAKLEY by the Sioux chief Sitting Bull, who starred with her in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. “Sitting Bull is in love with Annie Oakley, he calls her his little sure shot. She had her picture made with him, he is very proud of it and shows it to anyone who will look.” (Larry McMurtry, Buffalo Girls, 1990) live dictionary An old cowboy term for a school marm or for a very talkative woman. live oak A name for various evergreen oak species of the Pacific Coast, Texas and other states.

limber pine A valuable pine, Pinus flexilis, of the Pacific Coast.

live on what a hungry coyote would leave Live very frugally. “He did not need much. He could, as the saying goes, live on what a hungry coyote would leave.” (J. Frank Dobie, Coronado’s Children, 1930)

line Once used as a synonym for the frontier in the West, the dividing line between settled and unsettled territory. “We had crossed the line and were in Indian territory.”

livestock king A wealthy rancher. “He was the livestock king of Wyoming.”

line rider A rider who patrols the boundaries of a ranch or herd.

llano A Spanish term used in Texas and New Mexico for arid, treeless prairies like the vast Llano Estacado (Staked Plain), a high dry plateau of 40,000 square miles in Western Texas and New Mexico.

lingo Language. “ ‘You oughta be doing your turn on the stage with the lingo that you’ve got.’ ” (Max Brand, The Nighthawk Trail, 1932)

Llano Estacado

Lion of the West (1) An old nickname for American statesman Henry Clay (1777–1852). (2) A frontier bully or ruffian. lippin’

Talking back to. “Stop lippin’ me.”

little Often attached to first names where the son has the same first name as the father. “In some parts of the

See

LLANO.

lluvia de oro A name, from the Spanish meaning “shower of gold,” for the palo verde (Parkinsonia Torreyana), a tree with a lemon-yellow bloom. Lo Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never is, but always to be blessed. The soul, uneasy, and confined from home, Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

the Lone Ranger 517 Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutored mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind; His soul proud sciences never taught to stray, For as the solar walk, or milky way; yet simple nature to his hope has giv’n, Behind the cloud-topped hill, an humbler heav’n.

Alexander Pope’s well-known words Lo, the poor Indian in the above lines from his Essay on Man (1733–34) inspired the term Lo for an American Indian. The word isn’t recorded in this sense until 1871 but must be considerably older. “Is it longer a matter of astonishment,” someone wrote in 1873, referring to Indians in the West, “that the Lo’s are passing so rapidly from the face of the earth?” loafer The large gray mountain or timber wolf; a corruption of the Spanish word lobo for the wolf. Also lofer. lobo Spanish for wolf. “Now wolves had come to them, great pale lobos with yellow eyes that trotted neat of foot or squatted in the shimmery heat to watch them . . .” (Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, or The Evening Redness in the West, 1985) loco A Spanish word meaning crazy that became common in the West and finally all the United States, the language needing as many words for “crazy” as it can get. locoed Said of someone who acts crazy, as if he or she had eaten locoweed. locoweed Various plants of the genera Astragalus and Oxytropis of the southwestern United States are called locoweed (from the Spanish loco, “insane,” and weed) because when eaten by horses, cattle and sheep they cause irregular “crazy” behavior in the animals, including weakness, impaired vision, paralysis and finally death. locust A migratory grasshopper (Melanoplus spretus) of the Rocky Mountains. lodgepole pine A Western tree, Pinus murrayan, so named because it was used by Indians for poles to make lodges; also called the white pine in Colorado and Montana and the tamarack pine in California. lofer The large gray mountain or timber wolf; also called loafer. “ ‘You never did have the sense God gave a lofer wolf, to run when you’re outmanned and outgunned.’ ” (Loren D. Estlemen, Bloody Season, 1987) loganberry California Judge James Harvey Logan (1841–1921), who had been a Missouri schoolteacher before working his way West as the driver of an ox

team, developed the loganberry in his experimental home orchard at Santa Cruz. Logan, formerly Santa Cruz district attorney, was serving on the superior court bench in 1880 when he raised the new berry from seed, breeding several generations of plants to do so. Though a respected amateur horticulturist, he never adequately explained how the berry was developed. One account claims that the loganberry originated “from self-grown seeds of the Aughinbaugh (a wild blackberry), the other parent supposed to be a raspberry of the Red Antwerp type.” Several experts believe that it is a variety of the Western dewberry, or a hybrid of that species, cross with the red raspberry. The dispute may never be resolved, but experiments in England have produced a plant similar to the loganberry by crossing certain blackberries and red raspberries. In any case, there is no doubt that the purplish-red loganberry is shaped like a blackberry, colored like a raspberry and combines the flavors of both—and that it was first grown by Judge Logan and named for him. Its scientific name is Rubus loganbuccus, and the trailing blackberry-like plant is grown commercially in large quantities, especially in California, Oregon, Washington and other places having fairly mild winters. logrolling “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yourn” was the idea behind this term, which was invented by American pioneers on the Western frontier. Settlers clearing land and building their log cabins could always count on neighbors for help in rolling down logs, with the tacit understanding they’d do the same for their neighbors whenever asked. The good neighborly expression, with its associations of rum, food and fiddling, became tainted when politicians in many fields adopted it. Legislators are still well-known for logrolling with representatives from other states; that is, one congressman will support the pet project of another if he assists in passing a bill furthering the interests of the first. Literary logrollers form mutual admiration societies, favorably reviewing each other’s books in order to promote sales and reputations. Commenting on one instance of such a practice, A. E. Housman said there had been nothing like it since the passage in Milton where Sin gave birth to Death. loma The borrowing of a Spanish word meaning “small hill”; used in place names such as Yucca Loma. the Lone Ranger The fictional masked rider of the plains who with his “faithful Indian companion Tonto” and his “great horse Silver” was a champion of justice to a generation of devoted followers on radio, in the movies and on television. This enduring symbol of the imaginary West was born in 1933 on Detroit radio station WXYZ. He shot pure silver bullets, never shot to

518 Happy Trails kill and at the end of each program always shouted a hearty “Hi-ho, Silver!” Lone Star A favorite beer of Texans, once advertised as “The National Beer of Texas.” Lone Star State A nickname for Texas, from the state flag with its one star. long bit

See

SHORT BIT.

long country Vast, open country a long way from any settlement. “‘This is long country to be afoot in.’” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985) long knife An Indian name for a frontiersman or settler, from the BOWIE KNIVES they often carried. long longer’n A long time longer than. “She’s goin’ to be around a long longer’n me. I’d like to see you make up your differences.” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992) long rider An outlaw who spent most of his time riding in order to evade capture. long socks A euphemistic Western term for stockings, which was considered an “indelicate” term in the mid19th century.

looks like he dove off a three-story building into a waffle iron Said of someone who has been injured and marked up many times, as in many rodeo events over the years. “A cowboy from Wolf, Wyoming, probably put it best. ‘That hairy old son of a bitch looks like he dove off a three-story building into a waffle iron,’ he said.” (Larry McMurtry, Cadillac Jack, 1982) looky there Look over there. “‘Look there,’ Pea said. ‘I reckon that’s the new cook.’” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985) looloo Apparently this was once a facetious poker term in the West. One author tells this story: “ ‘A looloo?’ he repeated. ‘What is a looloo, anyway?’ ‘Three clubs and two diamonds,’ cooly replied the miner . . . He jerked his thumb toward a pasteboard sign which ornamented the wall of the saloon. It read: A Looloo Beats Four Aces.” (John F. Lillard, Poker Stories, 1896) loose the herd To turn cattle loose to run where they can after branding them. Los Angeles A shortening of the California city’s original name: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles de Porcinúncula (The town of Our Lady Queen of the Angels of Porcinúncula). It is more often called L.A. Call it “L.A.” and it loses 54 letters. los muertos no hablan

long syphilis See quote. “ ‘. . . if a man lives long enough, he sees a lot of sons of bitches go down. Merc Marsh squeezed his heart dead squeezing for profits. Nick Brudd, I hear, has softening of the brain, which is short for paresis, which is short for long syphilis. There’s more. So I count the good against the bad and come out maybe even.’ ” (A. B. Guthrie Jr., Arfive, 1970) Long Tom A name for the long rifle or large-caliber rifle of the buffalo hunter. lookathere Look over there. “‘Well, lookathere,’ said Monte Walsh. ‘One new shack and a frill on the store.’ ” (Jack Schaefer, Monte Walsh, 1958) lookey; looky

Look here. Also look-ahere.

looking-glass prairie An old designation for a beautiful, often somewhat circular prairie. look like 12 miles of corduroy road To look tired, disheveled, a mess, like a primitive corduroy road made of logs. “ ‘You look like twelve miles of corduroy road. You ever sleep any more?’ ” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973)

See

DEAD MEN DON’T TALK.

lousy with This widespread term meaning “to have plenty of” possibly originated in the West. low-neck clothes occasions.

A cowboy’s best clothes for special

lubber Any clumsy, stupid person, the expression an old one dating to the 15th century and used in other regions as well. “Great big lubbers sitting around whittling!” (Katherine Anne Porter, Noon Wine, 1937) lucky dab thing.

A lucky throw of a lasso that catches some-

lug A crate or box used for shipping fruit, a fruit crate; the term is primarily used in the West. luminaries Pueblo peoples in New Mexico build bonfires called luminaries outside their houses during the Christmas season, a custom deriving from the Mexican Christmas custom of setting votive candles called luminarias (Spanish for lamp or lantern) in sand inside small paper bags, often colorfully designed, through which light shines. The custom has spread in recent times

lunkhead 519 throughout the Southwest, where neighborhoods are filled with luminarias lining driveways, sidewalks and rooftops. Luminarias are also called farolitos. lumpy jaw A sometimes fatal, infectious disease among cattle that can be transmitted to humans and is found throughout the West; also called big jaw and wooden tongue. lunger Someone suffering from lung fever. “‘I count that raw talk for a friend of that stage-robbing tinhorning whore’s-son of a lunger, Doc Holliday.’ ” (Loren D. Estleman, Bloody Season, 1988)

lung fever A wasting disease for which there was no cure in the early West. “Into the winter his summer cough worsened, he had very little appetite, drank a lot of water, and finally had periods of irrationality during which he ran a high fever and his face shone red beneath an unseasonal sweat . . . [He dropped from 200 down to 75 pounds] . . . Henry was dying of lung fever.” (Richard Clarke, The Homesteaders, 1986) lunkhead A widespread term, first recorded in the California goldfields, for a stupid, thick-headed person.

M ma’am

Mahonia The evergreen shrub with small, blue, edible berries also known as the Oregon grape; from its genus designation Mahonia, named after American botanist Bertrand McMahon.

A respectful form of address to a woman.

McCarthy; McCarty A hair rope used by cowboys in the West that took its name from a mispronunciation of the Spanish mecate meaning the same; also called a McCarthy.

mail rider A rider carrying the U.S. mail during the early days of the West; a mail party was travelers journeying in a mail coach, that is, a stagecoach carrying mail.

machete A large heavy knife often used for cutting brush and as a weapon; from the borrowing of a Spanish word.

make an outfit a hand Be a good worker, perform well as a cowboy. “I’ve never had much and never will. But like most of the breed, I’ve always had a good time and I’ve always tried to make an outfit a hand as long as I was drawin’ wages.” (Sam Brown, The Crime of Coy Bell, 1992)

maclura Another name for the Osage orange or BODARK ; from its scientific designation Maclura pomifera, honoring American geologist William Maclure.

make out like

mad as hops Very angry. “. . . Mr. Hatch safe in jail somewhere, mad as hops, maybe, but out of harm’s way . . .” (Katherine Anne Porter, Noon Wine, 1937)

To pretend. “Make out like you’re rich.”

make the riffle To cross a riffle or rapid, to surmount any obstacle. “He couldn’t quite make the riffle.”

made a nine in his tail Said of a man or animal that departs quickly; possibly derives from cows lifting their tails in the shape of a figure nine when running in fright.

make tracks To leave quickly, travel. “Let’s make tracks out of here!”

Madre de Dios! A Spanish exclamation meaning “Mother of God!” heard in the Southwest. “The first woman backed away, one hand at her mouth, as they pushed forward. ‘Madre de dios!’ she said.” (Jack Schaefer, Monte Wash, 1958)

make yourself to home Make yourself at home. “‘Make yourself to home, Ladino. I’m going next door to Doc Tim’s . . .’” (William Hopson, The Last Shootout, 1958) makin’ horse-hair bridles An old expression meaning to serve time in prison, where convicts often passed the time by making intricate bridles.

madrina Spanish for the leading mare among horses. “‘. . . they respected her. She was the leading mare—the madrina . . .’ ” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952)

makin’s The tobacco and paper needed for making roll-your-own cigarettes. “He took out his makin’s and rolled a smoke.”

maguey A rope made from fiber of the maguey plant (Agave cantala). 520

marshal 521 malpais Bad country, badlands, a rugged tract of often volcanic land; from the Spanish mal (bad) and pais (country). mamelle A rounded hill; from the French mamelle for a woman’s breast. See also TETON RANGE. mañana The Spanish word for tomorrow or sometime in the future. The land or kingdom of mañana was a term used to mean a place where time was often disregarded, a land of postponement, and was often applied to Mexico. man at the pot! A cowboy camp cry that often goes up when a man rises to fill his coffee cup; such a man, upon hearing the cry, is obliged to fill up all the other cups in camp. “The nearest approach was an occasional cry of ‘Man at the pot!’ If in any cow camp a man rose to fill his coffee cup and that cry was given, it was his duty to go around with the pot and replenish all the cups held out to him.” (Philip A. Rollins, Gone Haywire, 1939) man for breakfast Lawlessness often went unpunished in the West, and people reading their morning newspapers had their man for breakfast, or murder, every day. The expression persisted from the late 19th century well into the 20th century. Another story eliminates the newspaper and claims the expression arose because there were so many killings at night in frontier towns that citizens would see bodies laid out in the street every morning before breakfast. mangana A throw used in roping wild horses where the animal is roped by the forefeet and spilled; also called forefooting. A borrowing of a Spanish word meaning the same. Manifest Destiny The 19th-century belief or doctrine that it was the divine destiny of the United States to expand its territory over the whole of North America. An 1845 editorial by John L. O’Sullivan supporting the U.S. annexation of Texas was the first to use the term: “[It is] our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.”

United States duty free except for the value added in Mexico. The idea was born in about 1964. Maquiladora derives from the Spanish maquila (the portion received by a miller for milling someone’s grain). marijuana Apparently smoking the herb is a practice that goes back to the early West, as the testimony of a cowboy in J. Frank Dobie’s Coronado’s Children (1930) indicates: “ ‘Have I eaten some raiz diabólica [peyote] to be seeing things?’ Otis asked himself aloud . . . ‘No, I ain’t, and I haven’t been smoking marijuana weed either.’ ” Cannabis sativa takes its popular name marijuana from the Spanish prenomens Maria and Juana, translating as Maryjane, and no one knows why. George Washington is said to have grown it at Mount Vernon—for the rope produced from the hemp. One hundred years ago, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, “extracts of Cannabis were as commonly used for medicinal purposes in the U.S. as aspirin today.” markin A common pronunciation heard in the West for American. Mark Twain Samuel Langhorn Clemens first used this name as a pseudonym in the Virginia City, Nevada Territorial Enterprise on February 2, 1863. He probably look it from the penname of a previous writer, who, in turn, got it from “mark twain!”, a slurred mispronunciation of “mark on the twine, six fathoms!,” called out when Mississippi riverboat leadsmen sounded the river with weighted twine. Or having been a riverboat pilot himself, Clemens may have coined the penname independently. But on February 24, 1866, the Eastern Slope newspaper in Washoe, Nevada, printed this possible origin: “When he came in there and took them on tick, he used to sing out to the barkeep, who carried a lump of chalk in his weskit pocket and kept the score, ‘mark twain,’ whereupon the barkeeper would score two drinks to Sam’s account—and so it was, d’ye see, that he came to be called ‘Mark Twain.’ ”

maple bar A pastry in the shape of a bar with a maplesugar frosting that is popular in the Northwest.

Marlboro man A rugged cowboy character in Marlboro cigarette advertisement that has become something of a symbol of the West. Both Wyoming and Texas claim him as their own, Texans saying the ads are filmed on a Texas ranch, according to James A. Michener in Texas (1985).

maquiladora city Cities in Mexico on the U.S. border that have maquiladora programs set up by the Mexican government. Under these programs, parts are shipped by, say, an America manufacturer in El Paso to a company in the nearby Mexican city of Juarez that assembles the parts, the finished products exported back to the

marshal The law enforcement marshals of the early West take their name ultimately from the Germanic word marahskalk (horse servant or groom). The word passed into English as marshal and was applied to high royal court officers and finally to law enforcement officers in England.

522 Happy Trails mash

To iron. “I’m fixin to mash those clothes today.”

matilija poppy A giant Southwestern poppy (Romneya coulteri) that takes its name from Matilija Canyon, California where it grows. maul oak The California evergreen oak Quercus chrysolepsis. maverick An unbranded cow; a nonconformist. Texas lawyer Samuel Augustus Maverick (1803–70) reluctantly became a rancher in 1845 when he acquired a herd of cattle in payment for a debt. Maverick, a hero who was imprisoned twice in the war for independence from Mexico, eventually moved his cattle to the Conquistar Ranch on the Matagorda Peninsula, 150 miles from San Antonio. But he was too involved in other activities to prove much of a rancher. When in 1855 he sold out to A. Toutant de Beauregard, their contract included all the unbranded cattle on the ranch. Since careless hired hands had failed to brand any of Maverick’s calves, Beauregard’s cowboys claimed every unbranded animal they came upon as a Maverick. So apparently did some of Maverick’s neighbors. Though Sam Maverick never owned another cow, his name soon meant any unbranded stock and later any person who holds himself apart from the herd, a nonconformist. Maverick is also used in West Texas for a motherless cow. may can

May be able to. “She may can go.”

may you always ride a good horse words from a cowboy. may you never get your spurs tangled good luck wish. meadow line.

Mearn’s coyote A small, bright-colored coyote (Canis mearnsi) of southern Arizona named for American naturalist Dr. Edgar A. Mearns (1856–1916). meat in the pot An endearing term for a trusty rifle, “old meat in the pot.” medicine See quote. “The word ‘medicine’ itself is a good example of the American Indian’s dualism of theology and medicine . . . He employed the term not only for a drug or herb but also for some supernatural agency which may be invoked to cure disease or even insure the success of an undertaking.” (Maurice B. Gordon, Aesculapius Comes to the Colonies, 1949) medicine arrow A specially made arrow Indians believed had magical powers. medicine bag A bag, often elaborately made, in which Indians carried charms, fetishes and remedies of many kinds. “The Chief then directed his wife to hand him his medison bag which he opened and showed us fourteen fingers . . . of his enemies he had taken in war.” (Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1805)

Common parting

medicine man (1) A person Indians believed to possess supernatural or magical powers, a shaman. (2) A seller of patent medicines who ran a medicine show.

An old Western

medicine show A traveling show selling fake medicines that were frequently said to be magical Indian cures.

An upland tract of grassland near the timber-

mean as a tom turkey Very mean and irritable. “ ‘I’m mean as a tom turkey when I’m disappointed.’ ” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985) mean as billy hell

mean enough to take the fillings out of his (her) grandmother’s teeth Another expression for someone beneath contempt.

Very mean and nasty.

mean enough to kill his (her) grandmother A very mean, lowdown person without any principles. mean enough to steal the pennies off his (her) grandmother’s eyes In days past, the eyelids of dead people were weighted with coins; someone mean enough to steal these coins off his own dead grandmother’s eyes was as lowdown as they came.

medicine wolf the West.

The small COYOTE revered by Indians in

medico An old-fashioned title for a doctor. “I’m going next door to Doc Tim’s . . . You’ll like our medico.” (William Hopson, The Last Shootout, 1958) meeching Cheap, petty. “Mr. Thompson . . . sometimes thought Mr. Helton was a pretty meeching type of fellow . . .” (Katherine Anne Porter, Noon Wine, 1937) me-ma A word heard in Texas for grandmother. “Your me-ma is watching you today.” merry-go-round in high water A cowboy term for the milling of cattle in water, which is very difficult to control.

Minié rifle 523 mesa A common Southwestern land formation having steep walls and a relatively flat top but less extensive than a plateau. mescal (1) An intoxicating drink made from the fermented juices of certain agave species. (2) An agave yielding such juices. mescal button A dried, buttonlike top of a mescal of the genus Lophophora long used as a hallucinogen by certain Southwestern Indians during religious ceremonies. Mescalero A group of Apache Indians who once inhabited northern Mexico and the southwestern United States and now are situated in New Mexico. meskin

Mexican persimmon

See

BLACK PERSIMMON.

Mexican promotion An offensive term meaning an impressive new title but no increase in pay. Mexicans don’t count

See

INDIANS DON’T COUNT.

Mexican standoff A stalemate, a confrontation that neither side can win. Originally an American cowboy expression describing a gun battle with no clear winner, the words date back to the mid-19th century. It is often used to describe a pitching duel in baseball today. Mexican strawberries Beans. “ ‘I don’t know where you keep finding these Mexican strawberries,’ he said, referring to the beans.” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985) See ARIZONA STRAWBERRIES.

A derogatory term for a Mexican. might can

Mesmeriser Creek, Texas Over a century ago, a settler on the banks of this intermittent Texas waterway southeast of Dallas attempted to domesticate American bison by hypnosis, his colorful ways inspiring the colorful place-name Mesmeriser Creek. mesquite (1) A spiny shrublike tree of the Southwest (Prosopis juliflora or glandulosa) that often forms dense thickets. (2) The wood of such a tree, used for barbecuing at least since the Indians used it in cooking buffalo meat. Messiah craze An outgrowth of the ghost dance excitement that led to the GHOST DANCE War of 1890–91, the Indians involved believing that a messiah was coming. mestizo A man of mixed Spanish or European and American Indian ancestry; from a Spanish word meaning “or mixed race.” Mestiza is the feminine form. metis Any person of mixed ancestry, especially someone of white and Indian ancestry; a borrowing of the French word meaning the same. Mex A short and derogatory term for a Mexican; first recorded in 1853. Mexican breakfast A derogatory expression meaning a cigarette and a glass of water. See also CALIFORNIA BREAKFAST. Mexican hog Another name for the wild Texas peccary (Pecari angulatus). Mexican peak A sombrero. “‘[He wore] a Mexican peak, Lew.’ ” (Max Brand, The Black Signal, 1925)

May be able to. “I might can go.”

might could Might. “ ‘I might could get by without the one, but I can’t without both.’ ” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985) might would May. “He might would catch cold dressed like that.” a Mike Fink In days past, a Mike Fink was used to mean a rough-and-ready hero given to exaggeration about his exploits. Mike Fink was a real American frontier hero (c. 1770–1822), a riverboatman and Indian fighter whose tall tales contributed greatly to the American folklore of exaggeration, a fact attested by the 12 or more different accounts of his death. According to one tale, he “once set his wife on fire in a pyre of leaves because she winked at another man.” a mile wide, a foot deep, too thick to drink and too thin to plow An old description of the muddy, shallow Platte River in Nebraska. mill To stop a cattle stampede by directing the lead animals in a wide arc; from the resemblance of the cattle’s circular motion to the circular movement of millstones. milling The action of a cattle herd running around in a circle, which often results in their injury. miners’ court A court set up by miners, especially during the 1849 California gold rush, to dispense justice in areas far from settled regions. Minié rifle An amusing historical term once used in the West, especially California, for a cheap potent whiskey with a kick like a Minié rifle. In the April 23,

524 Happy Trails 1857, edition of the Los Angeles Star, it was described as “Knock ’em stiff and flaming red-eye—such as kills ’em at the counter, forty rods or any distance.” Mr. John An old name for Indians in general. “The evidence told us Mr. John was in the area.” mistook identity Mistaken identity. “‘Your honor, this is pretty clearly a case of mistook identity . . .’ ‘Yes it is,’ he said. ‘Bad mistook.’” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992) Miz

Usually used for Mrs., though Miz-ziz is also used.

monkey skull

A curse. See usage example at

more luck than a short-tailed cat in a roomful of rockers Very lucky. “ ‘You son of a bitch,’ Jake Guthrie said . . . ‘You got more luck than a short-tailed cat in a roomful of rockers.’ ” (Cathy Cash Spellman, Paint the Wind, 1989) Mormon The name of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is centered in Salt Lake City, Utah. Mormon derives from the name of the fourth-century prophet said to be the author of writings found by Joseph Smith and published in 1830 as the Book of Mormon. Mormon Church is a common but unofficial name for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints.

SCUM OF

THE RUN.

Mormon City

Monkey Ward cowboy An old term for someone who dresses up like a cowboy, or dresses up the way he thinks a cowboy dresses, sporting expensive boots, colorful shirts and so forth, as new and clean as those in the Montgomery Ward catalog.

Mormon tea The small bush Ephedra trifurca, so named because it was used by the Mormons in Utah to make a medicinal tea. Also called canatillo.

Montana Montana, previously the Montana Territory, takes its name from the Spanish word for “mountainous.” The Treasure State was admitted to the Union in 1889 as our 41st state. Montana feathers Montana peak

Straw used in stuffing mattresses.

A cowboy hat with a conical top.

Montany An old pronunciation of Montana. “ ‘I guess that’s why you’re ready to head off to Montany.’ ” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985) monte A card game of Mexican origin that first became popular in the Southwest. Today, three-card monte is an always crooked “game of chance” practiced by card swindlers on street corners throughout the United States. Moola A notable statue in Stephenville, Texas honoring a local cow who produced a record yield of milk annually. mordido Graft, a bribe. “The most useful word on the border. Means little bite. And sometimes not so little. It’s the oil that makes Mexico run. Payola. Graft.” (James A. Michener, Texas, 1985) more guts than you could hang on a fence Said by cowboys of someone with lots of courage. “He wasn’t a big man, but he had more guts than you could hang on a fence.”

An old name for Salt Lake City, Utah.

morral A Spanish word used in Texas for a horse’s feed bag. mosey According to Webster’s and most authorities, the Spanish vamos (let’s go) became vamoose in American English, which begot the slang word mosey, “to stroll or saunter about leisurely.” But it is possible, one theory holds, that the word instead takes its name “from the slouching manner of wandering Jewish peddlers in the West, many of whom were called Mose, or Moses.” Neither explanation seems ideal, but nothing better has been offered. mosshorn

See

OLD MOSSHORN.

motel Most sources credit West Coast motor lodge owner Oscar T. Tomerlin with coining the word motel in 1930, Tomerlin welding it together from motor hotel, which he had previously called his place. But in her book Palaces of the Public, A History of American Hotels (1983), Doris E. King says that the word originated in 1925 with a San Luis Obispo, California establishment that offered a garage with its roadside cottages and called itself a Motel Inn. mother lode A term used in the West since at least the 1880s for a principal vein of ore in a mine; also, capitalized, the Mother Lode of the Sierra Nevada, a great California quartz vein running from Mariposa to Amador. mott; motte A grove or clump of trees in prairie land; a term used mostly in the Southwest that derives from the Spanish mata meaning the same.

my ownself 525 mountain antelope Mountain goat.

Another name for the Rocky

mountain lion The North American panther or cougar, the name originating in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

mule deer A small, long-earred, 3 1/2-foot-high deer (Odocoileus hemionus) of western North America. Also called burro deer. mule-ears Cowboy boots featuring straps on the top to pull them on with.

mountain man A man, much celebrated in song and story, with great skills in living in the mountains, usually a guide, trapper or trader in the Far West before the region was settled.

mule skinner whacker.

mountain oysters Sheep’s, hog’s or bull’s testicles eaten as food. See also PRAIRIE OYSTER.

mush (1) Cooked oat or wheat breakfast cereal served with milk and sugar. (2) French trappers in the Northwest used to urge on the dogs pulling their sleds across the snow with “marchons!” (let’s go!, hurry up!). This was corrupted to mush on! in English and by 1862 had become mush! “Dog French,” one writer called it.

mountain time The standard time in the Rocky Mountain area, mean local time on the 105th meridian. mouthy Very talkative, short on substance. “He’s more mouthy than a politician.” mover A historical term for a settler moving west in the great migration of the 19th century. Lodgings for them were common along the way, bearing such names as “House for Movers,” “Movers Accommodations” and so forth. mozo An assistant, especially a man who assists on a pack train; the word is a borrowing of a Spanish word meaning the same. much

Very. “She’s not much old.”

muchacho A Spanish word for a boy or a male servant. Muchacha is the feminine form. mucker See quote. “Within a week he found work [in the mines] as a mucker, shoveling ore into ore carts . . .” (Jack Cummings, The Rough Rider, 1988) mud hen

The American coot (Fulica Americana).

mud lark

See

muley

A mule driver. Also called a mule

A cow without horns.

mustang (1) A small wild horse of the Southwest plains descended from horses introduced to the New World by the Spanish; the word derives from the Spanish word mustengo (stray beast). (2) A tough, hardy cow pony of this breed. (3) Any wild person unused to “civilization.” mustang cattle

Wild lively cattle.

Mustang Colt The nickname of Republican presidential Freesoil candidate John C. Frémont (1813–90), whose campaign song went: “Do your best with the Old Gray Hack . . . The Mustang Colt will clear the track.” mustang court

A

KANGAROO COURT.

mustanger One who captures wild horses or mustangs to break to the saddle or harness. mustang grapes Strong light-colored grapes (Vitis candicans) of the Southwest; similar to the muscadine, with vines growing rampant.

SLOW BEAR.

muffle jaw The rocky Mountain freshwater fish Cottus semiscaber. mug To hold a cow by putting an arm around its head and placing one hand on its nose and the other around its neck.

mutt Slang for a sorry horse. “Mouse-colored mutt, he was. An’ mean.” (Jack Schaefer, Monte Walsh, 1958) my ownself Myself. “It’s on canvass and I made it my ownself.” (Louis L’Amour, The Haunted Mesa, 1987)

N nachurally A pronunciation of naturally. Also nacherally. “I’m a nachurally peace-lovin’ man.” (Max Brand, The Fastest Draw, 1925) nail the coonskin to the wall ish it; an old Texas saying. nairy; nary nairy a one the party.”

Complete something, fin-

first applied not to Amerindians but to white AngloSaxon Protestants in about 1837 when the Native American Association was formed as an anti-Catholic and antiforeign movement. Thus, though the term Native American does avoid offensive stereotypes associated with the word “Indian” throughout American history, it has a certain negative connotation of its own.

None, never, neither. Not one, nobody. “Nairy a one came to

narrow at the equator Very hungry, belt tightened to the last notch. “I got to get me some grub, I’m getting’ narrow at the equator.” nation A word once used in the West to describe an area or territory where Indians lived, the Indian Territory. “We went down to the nation to trade.”

Navajo A name the Spanish gave c. 1630 to what is now the largest Indian tribe in the United States. The origin of Navajo is uncertain; some say it is from a Spanish word for a clasp knife, while others contend it is from the Spanish tewa Navajo (great planted fields) where they first encountered these Indians. The Navajo Tribal Council is considering a proposal to change the Southwestern tribe’s name back to Diné (pronounced din-EH), which means “the people” and was originally used by the Navajo. Navajo ruby

national bird of Texas A humorous expression for a building crane, first used during the building boom in the 1980s. Native American In the last decade Native American has been much used as a synonym for Indian, American Indian or Amerindian. It is preferred by some though far from all “aboriginal people of the Western Hemisphere.” Indian itself is of course a misnomer used since Columbus, believing he had found India on his first voyage, applied the name to the people he found living in the Americas. A Native American, however, can be anyone born in America, and the first people known to have settled in America weren’t Native Americans, being Asians who crossed the Bering Strait sometime during the late glacial epoch. The term Native American was

See

ARIZONA RUBY.

the nearer the bone the sweeter the meat See quote. “‘Whether I am thin or not is none of your business.’ ‘Sure ain’t. But like I always say, the nearer the bone the sweeter the meat.’” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952) Nebraska Nebraska, previously the Territory of Nebraska, takes its name from the Omaha Indian nibthaska (river in the flatness) for the Platte River. The Cornhusker State was admitted to the Union in 1867 as our 37th state. neck oil

Liquor of any kind.

necktie party An old humorous term for a hanging; also necktie social and necktie frolic. 526

no bigger than a corn nubbin 527 nehkid

A common pronunciation of naked.

neither hide nor hair In hide and hair, meaning “completely, wholly, every part,” goes back to Chaucerian times, but its opposite, neither hide nor hair, is a 19thcentury Americanism, probably arising on the frontier. A hungry predator devouring his prey “hide and hair” has been suggested as the source of the first metaphor, but that is hard to swallow for man or beast. Anyway, the reverse phrase means “nothing whatsoever,” and its earliest record is in an 1858 book by Timothy Titcomb, the pseudonym of the American writer Josiah G. Holland, who founded Schribners’ Magazine: “I haven’t seen hide nor hair of the piece ever since.” nester A squatter, homesteader or farmer who settled in cattle country; the name may derive from the patches of brush such settlers stacked around their first vegetable patches to protect them, these resembling bird nests to cattlemen. Nevada The Spanish for “snowed upon” or “snowy” is the basis for Nevada. The Silver State, which had first been part of the Washoe Territory, was admitted to the Union in 1864 as our 36th state. nevermind

Attention. “Don’t pay him no nevermind.”

never stand when you can sit mon throughout the West. never-sweat worker.

A cowboy saying com-

An old derogatory name for a Mexican

New Mexico Spanish explorers from Mexico named this area Nuevo Mexico (New Mexico) in 1562 because it was close to Mexico. The Land of Enchantment became our 47th state in 1912, previously having been called the New Mexico Territory. Nez Percé French traders named this Indian tribe they encountered in western Idaho the Nez Percé (pierced nose), though there is no evidence that they practiced nose piercing. Why they were so named remains a mystery. nick A superior or good hybrid produced in the crossbreeding of cattle. “This nick is better than any we’ve had in 10 years.” nickel-plated Anything good, excellent; the best. “That was some nickel-plated woman.” nigger (1) An offensive derogatory term applied by some to Indians as well as blacks in the early West and up until recent times. “ ‘The Delawares kept callin’ halts

and droppin’ to the ground to give a listen. There was no place to run and no place to hide. I don’t know what they wanted to hear. We knew the bloody niggers was out there and speakin’ for myself that was already an abundance of information . . .’ ” (Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, or, The Evening Redness in the West, 1985) (2) The derogatory objectionable word was applied to themselves by white mountain men in the early West. “ ‘This nigger’s throat plumb shuts up at snake meat,’ [Hornsbeck said].” (A. B. Guthrie Jr., The Big Sky, 1947) nigh horse A term heard in northern California for the horse on the left side of a team. nighthawk A cowboy who herds the camp’s saddle horses at night, preventing them from straying far away. night-herding Herding cattle at night. “When on night-herd the men usually keep singing all the time as they ride around, that the cattle may know what is going on and not be suddenly started by the sound or sight of a passing horseman.” (Reginald Aldridge, Life on a Ranch, 1884) night horse A horse that is especially sure-footed in the dark and is used at night, usually the clearest-sighted and most intelligent horse in a cowboy’s string. night mare

A humorous name for the

NIGHT HORSE.

nimble Will An old name for the slender American grass Muhlengergia schreberi, which grows wild in northern Texas and other parts of the West. nip and tuck Nip and tuck pretty much means “neck and neck,” but the latter phrase suggests, say, two runners racing at the same speed with neither one ahead of the other while nip and tuck describes a close race where the lead alternates. The earliest recorded form of the expression is found in James K. Pauling’s Westward Ho! (1832): “There we were at rip and tuck, up one tree and down another.” Maybe the rip originally came from “let ’er rip” and later became nip because of the expression “to nip someone out” (to barely beat him), and the tuck was simply an old slang word for “vim and vigor.” Other guesses at the phrase’s origins are even wilder. no beans in the wheel No bullets in a gun’s cylinder. “He drew on me when I had no beans in the wheel.” no bigger than a corn nubbin Little, a child. “Why, you are no bigger than a corn nubbin! What are you doing with that pistol?” (Charles Portis, True Grit, 1968)

528 Happy Trails no game, plenty of beef—what the hell, let’s eat! An old cowboy saying, referring to the abundance of beef cattle on the range. “ ‘You can’t eat any of that without permission . . .’ Cory shrugged. ‘There’s an old cowboy saying’: “No game, plenty of beef—what the hell, let’s eat.”—Write me up in your surveillance report if it’ll make you feel better.’ ” (Sam Brown, The Crime of Coy Bell, 1992)

norther (1) A furious cold winter gale from the north, often bringing heavy rains, formed by an outbreak of polar air behind a cold front; chiefly used in Texas and Oklahoma. (2) Any wind or storm from the north.

no how Anyhow. In one of Solomon Franklin Smith’s books set in the Southwest in the 1850s, he tells of a woman who was offered condolences on the death of her husband. “Warn’t of much account, no how!” she replied.

no savvy

noise tool Old cowboy slang, no longer heard much, for the Colt revolver.

nose bag

No-Man’s-Land

See

CIMARRON.

none of one’s funeral Of no concern to you, an expression that was probably used in the West long before its first appearance in print in the Oregon Weekly Times in 1854: “A boy said to an outsider who was making a great ado during some impressive mortuary ceremonies, ‘What are you crying about? It’s none of your funeral.’” none-so-pretties A folk name for the flowers more commonly called pansies. nonpariel A name for the painted bunting (Passerina ciris), a common bird of the Southwest. noon A term used in the Southwest meaning to eat lunch, the noon meal. “We nooned with the U.S. mule train near Phoenix.” no one knows the luck of a lousy calf An old saying meaning no one knows the fate of an unpromising person, he or she may succeed beyond all expectations. nopal A Nahuatl name used for both a cactus of the genus Nopalea and a prickly pear of the Southwest. Norskie This mildly derogatory term for a Norwegian-American is mainly heard in the Northwest. North Dakota; South Dakota These states are named for the Dakota tribes in the area, Dakota meaning roughly, “allies,” from da (to think of as) and koda (friend). North Dakota entered the Union as the 39th state in 1889; South Dakota became the 40th state that same year.

no sabe Don’t know, don’t understand; the Spanish phrase has been common in the West since the mid-19th century and is often pronounced no savvy. See

NO SABE.

no say-so of No business of. “‘It’s no say-so of his when I drink.’” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985) A California term for a horse’s feed bag.

no-see-um A broken-English name Indians supposedly gave to the minute buffalo gnats. nose like a blue tick An excellent sense of smell, like a blue tick hunting dog. “She’s got a nose like a blue tick—smelled that fire before the flames.” nose paint Whiskey, because drinking a lot of it can turn the nose red. notch To score or achieve. “He’s notched a few aces in his time.” It was originally a Western term deriving from the cowboy tradition of filing a notch in the handle of a gun for each man killed but is now used nationally. notcher A gunfighter who notched each kill on the handle of his gun, though such gunmen are probably more fictional than real. nothing to him (her) Worthless, unsubstantial. “There ain’t nothin’ to him. Never was.” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992) not worth a red piss Worthless. “ ‘They’re not worth a red piss and neither are you,’ Dan said.” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985) noway In no way, anyway. “I don’t remember noway.” ’nuf sed An old term short for “enough (has been) said.” Can also mean “fine, agreed,” depending on the context. nutcrackers Teeth. “He knocked out three of his nutcrackers when he fell.”

O oker

o-be-joyful A humorous historical term for hard liquor; used mainly in the West and South. o-be-rich-an’-happy liquor. obfusticated

Oklahoma Oklahoma takes its name from a Choctaw word meaning “red people,” for the Indians who lived in the region. The Sooner State (so called after those “sooners” who jumped the gun “sooner” and grabbed choice land there before they legally should have) was admitted to the Union in 1907 as our 46th state. “‘Oklahoma,’ he explained to Cim. ‘That’s Choctaw. Oklapeople. Humma-red. Red people. That’s what they called it when the Indians came here to live.’” (Edna Ferber, Cimarron, 1930)

Another historical term for hard

Bewildered, used in Utah.

obliged Thankful. “ ‘It ain’t that I ain’t obliged,’ he said.” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985) Also heard as much obliged, meaning “I’m grateful,” or “thank you.”

Oklahoma rain

ocotillo The cactus Fouquiera splendens of the Southwest. “[He] led the way through low sandhills to a small adobe surrounded by a living barricade of what seemed to be tall spines of cactus. ‘Ocotillo,’ he explained, ‘makes the best fence ever.’ ” (Louis L’Amour, The Lonesome Gods, 1983)

Old Baldy

BALDY.

old biddy A gossipy old woman, a busybody; this term is common in the East as well as the West. old cackler A derogatory name for an old man or woman. “If that old cackler who didn’t have the facts straight could heat me up when I knew he was wrong, then a lot of these men must be fixed so that nothing could turn them off unless it could save their faces.” (Walter Van Tilburg Clark, The Ox-Bow Incident, 1940)

off his feed Looking poorly, feeling badly. “He’s been off his feed for months now.” Off of. “Keep your hands off’n it.”

old man The owner or boss of a cowboy outfit. “We’ll have to ask the old man if it’s all right.”

off one’s cabeza Slightly crazy, off one’s head, the Spanish word for head being cabeza. oily

See

A humorous name for a dust storm.

Old Betsy A pet name for a favorite gun, long used in the West, among other regions.

off-breed A horse with glaring defects, an inferior horse not up to standards. “The boy had never owned a horse, even in this territory where mustangs and offbreeds were a dollar or two a head.” (Lauran Paine, Bannon’s Law, 1982)

off’n

An old-fashioned pronunciation of okra.

old man cactus The nickname of the Southwestern cactus Cephalocerus senilis, which has long drooping hairs or “whiskers.”

Mean, tough. “He’s a right oily hombre.” 529

530 Happy Trails old mosshorn An old person, often one set in his ways, like an old cow with moss on his horns. “ ‘He’s one of those old mosshorns who thinks he made it up by himself and he doesn’t need anybody.’ ” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973) old poison slinger

See

on the block Cattle sold slaughtered and dressed. See also ON THE HOOF. on the dodge On the run from the law. “Frank [James] was still on the dodge.” (J. Frank Dobie, Coronado’s Children, 1930)

SHARPS.

on the drift old thing The customary drink. “ ‘How’re ye, Billy, old fel. Glad to see you. What’ll you take—the old thing?’ ” (Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872) old-timey days Old-time days, the past. “‘Just like in the old-timey days, that’s you, Bick.’ ” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952) olla A large unglazed earthenware crock, the term heard mainly in South Texas; borrowed from the Spanish. “Now he [the waterman] went from house to house filling the ollas that hung in the shade of a porch.” (Louis L’Amour, The Lonesome Gods, 1983) one-gallused Poor, with only one functioning suspender to hold up one’s trousers. “It seemed so simple in the beginning to run off a bunch of one-gallused farmers and squatters.” (Louis L’Amour, Showdown at Yellow Butte, 1953) one-horse outfit

Drifting, looking for work.

on the grass Out in the country. “Cole Weston controlled the thinking of those who lived on the grass; Barry Madden [controlled] those who lived in town.” (Wayne D. Overholser, The Lone Deputy, 1957) on the hoof (1) Cattle sold alive. See also ON THE BLOCK. (2) Said of cattle moving under their own power. on the lift Said of cows too weak from hunger to get on their feet, about to die, on the point of departure. on the peck

Very angry; also on the prod.

on the prod (1) Very angry. “Stay away from him today, he’s on the prod.” Also on the peck. (2) Said of an enraged animal. “That bull is on the prod.” on the ragged edge On the verge of. “They were on the ragged edge of starvation.”

Any small ranch or other enterprise.

one-trough town A small town in the early West. “Last time I seen him was down at a little one-trough town in the handle.” (Jack Schaefer, Monte Walsh, 1958) on foot A term used for cattle on the hoof; one memoir of 1846 tells of beef that could be “purchased in Missouri on foot, at from one dollar to one dollar and fifty per hundred pounds.” the only good Indian is a dead Indian General Philip Henry Sheridan credited by Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations with this prejudicial remark so often quoted in old Western movies. But Sheridan said, “The only good Indians I ever saw were dead,” which is a condensation of the words of the originator of the slander, Montana Congressman James Cavanaugh, who earlier said: “I have never in my life seen a good Indian . . . except when I have seen a dead Indian.” This kind of ruins the old story about Sheridan making the remark at Fort Cobb, Indian Territory in 1869 after the Comanche Chief Toch-a-way (Turtle Dove) was presented to him. Chief Toch-a-way reportedly said: “Me Toch-a-way, me good Indian.” Sheridan reportedly replied: “The only good Indians I ever saw were dead”—this from the man whose duty was to oversee the so-called Indian Territory.

on the shoot Ready to fight. “On the shoot. On the shoulder. On the fight, you understand? He didn’t give a continental for anybody.” (Mark Twain, “Buck Fanshaw’s Funeral,” 1872) open-faced cattle Hereford cattle.

The famous breed of white-faced

op’ry house The rail fence where cowboys sit watching horses being broken. Oregon Oregon may come from the Spanish oregones, meaning “big-eared men” and referring to Indians who lived there. Other possibilities are the Algonquian Wauregan (beautiful water) for the Colorado River and an unclear Indian name possibly meaning “place of the beaver” that was misspelled on an early French map. The Beaver State was admitted to the Union in 1850 as our 33rd state. Oregon bedstead The Oregon Spectator of May 8, 1851, explained this term: “[It] consisted of two crosssticks run in between the logs of the houses; underneath the end of each was placed an upright stick by way of legs to the bed; length-wise on top then boards were laid, and on top of this a good straw bed.”

overland stage 531 Oregon grape An evergreen shrub (Mahonia aquifolium) of the West Coast with small, blue, edible berries. Oregon jargon jargon.

An early name for Chinook trading

Oregon Trail A 2,000-mile-long route from Missouri to Oregon much used during the 1840–60 westward migrations and called “the longest unpaved highway in the world.” Over half a million pioneers used it. ornery Mean, nasty, obstinate, ill-tempered. “Then my dad says to me: ‘Willy, men is ornery, good for nothin’ critters, ain’t they?” (Max Brand, The Making of a Gunman, 1929) oro The Spanish word for gold, used in the West for gold or money in general. “I plugged down $500 puro oro on the jack for an ace.” (J. Frank Dobie, A Vaquero of the Brush Country, 1929) oryide: orie-eyed Drunk; derives from “hoary-eyed.” “[They] roared around the waterfronts orie-eyed with Napa-Valley red.” (Time, March 9, 1942) Osage The name of these Sioux Indians derives from their tribal name Wazhazhe, meaning “war people.” Osage orange ought

See

BODARK.

Our Lord’s candle See quote “The flowers of Yucca Whipplei, one of the most beautiful of all Yuccas, are of a lovely golden hue, glowing in the bright sunlight like lighted candles before the altar, and known as ‘Our Lord’s candle’ . . . After they have blossomed the tall, white stalks remain standing for some time, so that the hills look like they have been planted with numbers of white wands.” (Margaret Armstrong and John Thornbec, Field Book of Western Wild Flowers, 1915) out among the willows An old term for an outlaw dodging the law. “He’s out among the willows, haven’t seen him for a year.” outfit A group of cowboys and their horses and equipment working a ranch. “He was foreman of the G-bar outfit.” outlaw (1) A badman or desperado. This word did not originate in the wild and wooly West, though it had much use there. It derives ultimately from an Old Norse word meaning “outlawed or banished.” The Old Norse word became utlaga in Old English and was applied to criminals in general, utlaga eventually becoming outlaw. (2) A vicious, intractable horse that can’t be broken because of initial brutal handling or a vicious temperament. (3) Any rogue animal. out of pocket Used in the Southwest for “absent, unavailable.” “I’ll be out of a pocket awhile, but I’ll call you as soon as I can.”

Often used instead of should. “Ought I come?”

ought to be bored for the hollow horn Said of a seemingly feeble-minded person, after the hollow-horn disease in cattle, which made cattle ill and feeble and was supposedly cured by drilling a hole in the horns. ounce A term once used in California for an ounce of gold dust. “I have two ounces I’ll bet on him.”

out of snuff done that.”

Very upset. “He’s out of snuff since you

overlander A name for the pioneers who began going west on the Oregon Trail in 1843. overland stage A historical term for a stage operated on a route to the Far West.

P pachucos A Spanish word for impudence or nerve heard in the Southwest; also pachukes.

the Mexicans called it; chaparral was the name the Anglos gave.” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973) (3) Sometimes used as a derogatory term for a Mexican or Hispanic in the Southwest.

pack To carry, to carry a gun, as in the popular old song “Pistol-Packin’ Mama.”

palaver Talk, inconsequential chatter. “‘Let’s teach ’em a lesson, boss . . . To blazes with this palaver.’” (Louis L’Amour, The Tall Stranger, 1957)

pack lead Carry a gun, the expression often heard in Western movies. padre A Spanish word for a priest or monk used in the Southwest.

palo duro The name of a common Texas bush, a borrowing from the Spanish, in which it means “hard wood.” It gives its name to the Palo Duro Canyon.

pail To milk a cow. “It took him an hour to pail that cow.” Also juice.

palomino Palomino comes from the Spanish paloma (dove), the word first used to describe horses of a dovelike color. Palomino is the color of a horse, not a breed, and today describes a horse with a golden coat, white mane and tail and often white markings on the face and legs.

paint A pied, calico or spotted pony or horse; also called a calico horse. See also PINTO. painted cat

An old name cowboys had for a prostitute.

painter Panther, mountain lion. “Painter meat, now, that’s some. Painter meat, that’s top now.” (A. B. Guthrie Jr., The Big Sky, 1947) paint horse (pony)

See

paint one’s tonsils nose (red).

To drink liquor; also to paint one’s

palooka An inferior prizefighter or dumb lout. Mencken in The American Language says this word may be related to the synonymous palouser, which may be derived from the name of the Palouse Indians of the Northwest. Others suggest that it may come from the Spanish peluca, (a severe reproof).

PAINT.

pan Apparently the parent of this verb is the expression it didn’t pan out. American prospectors during the California gold rush were expert at using metal mining pans to separate gold from the sand and gravel they scooped from a stream bed. When gold wasn’t found after the pan was shaken, miners would say that it hadn’t panned out. Similarly, when any effort, for example, a stage play, didn’t pan out, it didn’t succeed. After enough literary critics had said plays or books didn’t

paisano (1) A Spanish word used in the Southwest meaning a fellow countryman. (2) The ROADRUNNER bird, often domesticated by Mexicans to rid homes of mice. “He watched a roadrunner as it darted from under a clump of prickly pear and trotted along a dusty cowtrail, its long black, white-tipped tail stretched out, its spindle legs carrying it at an incredible speed. Paisano, 532

Peacemaker 533 pan out, to criticize a production severely came to be known as panning it. Another suggestion is that to pan derives from the head, or “pan,” of a tamping bar, which receives the blows of a sledgehammer, but the first recorded use of the word in this sense contains several allusions to mining processes, including panning.

paseo A pleasure walk or ride; the borrowing of a Spanish word meaning the same.

panther piss Cheap liquor. “ ‘Why don’t you have one more big old swaller of that panther piss and see if you don’t want to forget the whole thing?’ ” (Sam Brown, The Crime of Coy Bell, 1992)

passel Used mainly in the South and West for a group, many; a corruption of “parcel.” “ ‘If [your daughters] take after you, you’re in for a passel of old maids.’ ” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985)

pan out

pastor A Spanish word for a sheepherder. “There was a flock of sheep up there and pastor, along with a welltrained sheep dog.”

pants rats

See

PAN.

A humorous term for body lice.

papoose An Algonquian word for a child or baby that was being used by colonists as early as 1633, long before the West was settled, although the word was used extensively in the West. “We had ridden into an Indian burial ground without knowing it. The [dead] papoose had been tied to a tree but the fastening had come loose and the body swung to and fro. It was a grisly sight with its face shriveled up and staring at us, looking very strange with all its beads and ornaments attached to it.” (Richard Matheson, Journal of the Gun Years, 1991)

passed in his checks Died. “‘You see, one of the boy’s passed in his checks and we want to give him a good sendoff.’” (Mark Twain, “Buck Fenshaw’s Funeral,” 1872)

pater An old term meaning to amble along. “He patered down the trail.” Pathfinder of the West A nickname for John C. Frémont (1813–90), U.S. general explorer and first Republican presidential candidate. patio An open inner court or garden; the word, borrowed from the Spanish, was first used in California and the Southwest before becoming popular throughout the United States.

pard In the California gold rush during the 1850s prospectors shortened pardner, an American pronunciation of partner, to pard. “ ‘And you can say, pard, that he never shook his mother.’ ” (Mark Twain, “Buck Fanshaw’s Funeral,” 1872)

patrón Boss. This word comes from the Spanish (meaning the same) and also from the French (meaning the master of a boat) through the early voyageurs and fur traders.

pardner A common pronunciation of partner throughout the West.

Paul Bunyan A legendary giant lumberjack, an American folk hero of the Northwest.

park A valley enclosed by mountains or high hills, especially in the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming and Colorado.

paw Kick. “The mare pawed him three or four times before Clara could reach him . . .” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985)

parking A term used in the West and Upper Midwest for the grass strip between street and sidewalk.

pawin’ ’round for turmoil Looking for trouble; probably after an angry animal pawing at the ground.

parlor gun A contemptuous expression for any small gun, such as a DERRINGER. partial to Favor, like. “‘You like chicken and dumplins Mr. Cole?’ ‘Yessir I do. I been partial to ’em all my life.’” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992)

paydirt One authority traces this expression to the Chinese pei (to give) used by Chinese miners in California, pay dirt thus meaning “dirt that gives gold.” However, it more likely derives from the fact that it is dirt containing enough gold dust to pay for working it. The expression is first recorded in 1856.

partida Spanish used in the Southwest for a party or a group of people or animals. “They rounded up a partida of bandits.”

peaceful place Heaven. “ ‘He’s gone, don’t worry about him. He’s gone to the peaceful place.’ ” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985)

parts Places, a region. “ ‘I traded in them parts, you know.’ ” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985)

Peacemaker The nickname of one of the most famous weapons in American history, the Colt Revolver Model

534 Happy Trails 1873, the name being adopted because it helped lawmen keep the peace in the American West. As an extra benefit, its .44 ammunition could be used in the 1873 Winchester rifle. “Cradled in his right hand in an unpleasantly purposeful fashion was a Peacemaker Colt.” (Alistair MacLean, Breakhart Pass, 1974) Also called a HOGLEG.

pelter

peach and cane land land or soil.

pendejo See quote. “ ‘Anybody can be a pendejo,’ said John Grady. ‘That just means an asshole [in Spanish].’ ” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1972)

A term used in Texas for good

peacherino An old expression for someone or something excellent, especially a young woman. pear Sometimes used in the Southwest as short for the prickly pear. peart; peert; pert right peart.” peckerwood

Cheerful, lively, bright. “He looked

Pend d’Oreilles The name of the Indian tribe for which Pend d’Oreilles River in Idaho and Washington is named; their name is a shortening of the French pendent d’oreille (ear pendant or ear ring) after the earrings they wore.

penitentes Members of a religious order, chiefly Spanish-American in New Mexico, known for their practice of self-flagellation; short for Los Hermanos Penitentes, the penitent brothers. peon (1) A Spanish word that is used as a derogatory term for a Mexican or Hispanic in the Southwest. (2) An unimportant person.

Woodpecker.

Pecos (1) An Indian tribe once occupying the town of Pecos near Santa Fe, New Mexico. (2) Western slang meaning to shoot someone and then roll his body into the river (at first the Pecos River in Texas.) “You better keep your mouth buttoned over in the territory. There is also good shots over there. I would advise you to get into Socorro below the Panhandle across the Grande, but down there you might get yourself Pecosed.” (Charles O. Locke, The Hell Bent Kid, 1957) Pecos Bill A legendary folk hero of the Southwest, whose range-riding cowboy exploits rival the exploits of Paul Bunyan in the Northwest lumber camps. peculiar domestic institution A name given by nonMormons to Mormon polygamy. Pedernales The river’s name is pronounced Per-dnaliss by Texans. peeler

An inferior horse, a nag.

A cowboy; a BRONCO-BUSTER; a teamster, driver.

peel out of To take off. “‘Peel out of that shirt . . . I said peel out of that shirt or I’ll rip it off you. Now!’” (Lauran Paine, Custer Meadow, 1988) peepstone (1) The magic glasses Joseph Smith is said to have used to read the golden plates containing the Book of Mormon. (2) Any stone with magical properties. pelado First referring to any poor ignorant Mexican, this Southwestern word is now a contemptuous term for a Latin American or Hispanic.

pepper-bellied son of a bitch An offensive term for a Mexican or Mexican-American. “‘And when I get through there won’t be a piece of hide left on you bigger than a postage stamp. Do you understand me, you pepper-bellied son of a bitch?’ ” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973) pepperbox A revolver with five or six barrels revolving on a central axis that was a favorite of California 49ers. perro enfermo See quote. “Frank was now what the Mexicans called a perro enfermo, a sick dog, something in his center not quite as it was supposed to be.” (Thomas McGuane, Nothing but Blue Skies, 1992) peso Used humorously for the American dollar or money in general. “I hope to make a heap of pesos.” peter out It seems unlikely that disappointed American miners during the 1849 gold rush derived the expression to peter out, meaning to taper off or come to an end, from the French peter (to break wind). This would indeed have been an expression of their disappointment when a mine failed to yield more gold, but there were ample American words available to express the same sentiment. Another guess is that the peter here refers to the apostle Peter, who first rushed to Christ’s defense in the Garden of Gethsemane, sword in hand, and then before the cock crowed thrice denied that he even knew Him. Most likely the expression springs from the fact that veins of ore in mines frequently petered out, or turned to stone. The gunpowder mixture of saltpeter, sulphur and charcoal, commonly called peter by miners,

pinch 535 was used as an explosive in mining operations, and when a vein of gold was exhausted, it was said to have been petered out. pettish Bothered, annoyed by. “Although Roscoe said little, he felt very pettish about the citizens of Fort Smith.” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985) peyote

(1)

MESCAL.

(2)

MESCAL BUTTON.

Picketwire See quote. “At the end of the first full day in Colorado they came to the Picketwire, the western river with the most delicate name. It was properly El Río de Las Animas Perdido en Purgatorie. In Coronado’s time three difficult and greedy Spanish soldiers had revolted and struck out on their own to find the cities of gold. Sometime later the main body of explorers came upon them, naked and riddled with arrows, and one of the priests explained solemnly, ‘God struck them down, using Indians as his agents, and for their disobedience their souls remain in purgatory.’ The River of the Souls Lost in Purgatory! French trappers had shortened it to Purgatoire, and practical men from Indiana and Tennessee, adapting the sound to their own tongue, called it Picketwire.” (James Michener, Centennial, 1974) picklement Predicament, (in a) pickle. “ ‘Reckon you’re in a sort of picklement, Matt,’ he said . . .” (Ray Hogan, The Rawhiders, 1985) picnic pot

A can. See also

TIN.

piggin’ string The short, thin rope cowboy calf ropers use to tie a calf’s feet. You see it between their teeth when they ride out of the chute in rodeos. piece

A short distance. “It’s down the road a piece.”

pig sticker

A jacknife or long-bladed pocketknife.

Piker A settler who migrated to California from Missouri’s Pike Country during the 1849 gold rush. Like the Okies of the 20th century, the pikers’ nickname, justly or not, became a synonym for poor, lazy good-for-nothings because they created such an unfavorable impression. Their name appears to have combined with the older English word piker, meaning a tramp or vagrant, to give us piker in its present sense of cheapskate, which was first recorded in 1901. The English word derives from turnpike, because many tramps traveled by foot along turnpikes, toll roads that took their name from the rotating barriers made of pikes, or sharpened rods, at their entrances.

Pikes Peak A mountain peak in Colorado. Pikes Peak was discovered in 1806 by Zebulon Montgomery Pike, who had been chosen to map the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase, but his badly equipped party failed to reach its summit. The explorer and army officer seems to be irrevocably associated with rocks. During the War of 1812, he was killed while leading a charge against the British garrison at York (Toronto), Canada. The retreating British set fire to their powder magazine, which exploded and loosed a piece of rock that fell on his head. It was at the top of Pikes Peak in the Rockies, 14,100 feet high, that Katherine Lee Bates conceived the words for the song “America the Beautiful.” Pikes Peak or bust Long a Colorado landmark, Pikes Peak became a guidepost for traders in the early 19th century, and by the time of the California gold rush of 1849, Indians in the area had begun to tell of gold deposits on the mountain. Thousands of people headed West to answer the call “Pikes Peak or bust.” However, gold wasn’t found high in the hills until 1860, a year after the height of the Colorado gold rush. The fortunes made from the pockets of gold deposits found in the soft quartz and sandy fillings of what was called paydirt established Colorado as the successor to California in gold mining, but crime, violence, hardship and death proved to be the common lot of the prospector, and most headed back home bitterly disappointed—having experienced elation going up and grim desolation coming down the mountain. In fact, many of the ’49ers returned home with the words “Busted, By Gosh!” scrawled on their wagons. See also PIKER. piki A paper-thin bread made by the Southwestern Hopi Indians. piled Said when a BRONCO throws his rider. “Veteran buckaroos whoop with delight when a bronco-buster gets ‘piled.’ ” (National Geographic, December 1943) pilgrim (1) A tenderfoot, someone new to the West; this term is first recorded in 1841 but is probably older. “ ‘Say, what’s your name, pilgrim?’” (Jory Sherman, The Medicine Horn, 1991) (2) Cattle newly imported to an area. (3) An old term for a cow or bull brought West from the East. pilon Something extra, a free gift, a lagniappe; chiefly used in Texas, the term derives from the Mexican Spanish pilón (mortar). pin

A stake driven into the ground for tying a horse to.

pinch The smallest medium of exchange among California 49ers: all the gold (dust) a person could pick up between the thumb and first finger.

536 Happy Trails pinny

A common pronunciation of penny.

pinole A Mexican trail mix of parched corn, peanuts and brown sugar. “Four pinches of pinole keeps you moving for a whole day.” (James A. Michener, Texas, 1985)

plainscraft The art of living in open country on the plains. “And though their plainscraft might not be of a very high order, it was an old maxim among the Cheyenne that all white men shoot straight with a rifle.” (Max Brand, Fugitive’s Fire, 1928) platoo

piñon The Southwestern pine tree Pinus edulis, also called the nut tree for its edible nutlike seeds, which are also called pinole nuts. “They followed him into a room where a piñon fire blazed in the corner.” (Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop, 1927) piñon nuts pint

See

PIÑON.

A common pronunciation of point.

pinto A spotted horse or pony; from the Spanish for spotted or painted, first recorded in 1860. A cowboy who rode such a horse often named him “Paint.” pipeline The first pipeline to convey oil were conceived in about 1862 and with them came the obvious word describing them, which has over the years become slang for a rich source of anything valuable. One of the best-known oil pipeline of the millions of miles of them in America is The Big Inch, which is actually a 24-inch pipe that conveys oil 1,341 miles from eastern Texas to New Jersey. Another is the Alaska Pipeline. piss-pot

A commode, chamber pot.

pistolero Spanish for a gunman. “ ‘That old pistolero’s been cleaning his gun on this towel.’ ” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985) pistol-whip Originally a Western expression meaning to beat someone with the barrel, not the butt, of a gun—it took too long to get a grip on the barrel in a fight. pita The fiber of agave plants used for making rope, mats and similar items. pitch To buck; a horse that pitches is called a pitcher. “I worked many a year on the range where you rode pitching horses—they bucked on the northern ranges, but they pitched where I worked . . .” (Benjamin Capps, Tales of the Southwest, 1990) pitcher

See

PITCH.

placer mine A mine from which particles of gold, or other minerals, are obtained by washing the sand, gravel and the like.

play

A common pronunciation of plateau. A party or social gathering without dancing.

playa The sandy, salty or mud-caked floor of a desert basin, usually filled with water after heavy rains. play cat’s cradle with one’s neck An old expression meaning to hang. “They’ll end up playing cat’s cradle with his neck.” play hell sowed in oats React violently, like fields of oats burning in hell. “ ‘What made you set out for Mexico?’ said Rawlins . . . ‘Cause you knowed they’d play hell sowed in oats findin’ your ass down there.’ ” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992) playing Texas See quote. “They’re just vain,’ Uncle Brawley said . . . ‘Vain as peacocks and always making out like they’re modest. Acting all the time, most of them. Playing Texas.’ ” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952) play the sober Indian During drinking bouts, various Indians often chose one person to remain sober and look after their weapons, horses and goods; this practice led to the now obsolete expression to play the sober Indian, applied to one of a party of soldiers or settlers appointed to do the same. plaza A word widely used throughout the United States for a public square or open space; first used in the Southwest, it is an American borrowing of a Spanish word meaning the same. pled

Pleaded. “She pled with him.”

plews Beaver skins. “A man took chances, hunting small; Indians might happen on him any day. If he kept his scalp, though, he got plews.” (A. B. Guthrie Jr., The Big Sky, 1947) pliersman A contemptuous name rustlers gave to cowboys loyal to their employers; the loyal hands used pliers to fix wire fences on the ranch. plow-chaser farmer.

A contemptuous cowboy term for a

possibles 537 plug

An old broken-down horse.

plumb Completely. Often used as a modifier in expressions like plumb full and plumb loco. “When he got into the war he went bad, plumb bad.’ (Louis L’Amour, Showdown at Yellow Butte, 1953) plunder room central Texas.

pocket-miner See quote. “Old Slug was a pocketminer. [He] always insisted that these pockets of gold existed mainly in Nevada country. There the hills were dotted with pine and hemlock, and the underbrush is thickened with creeping vines. Beneath this covering of verdure are quartz ledges, gravel deposits, and pockets of gold.” (Sam Davis, “The Pocket-Miner,” 1886) pogonip An icy winter fog that forms in Western mountain valleys, especially in Nevada, the heavy fog often blocking the sun for days and appearing like a fine snow; the Shoshonean word pogonip has been translated as “white death,” the fog thought to cause pneumonia. See

pond monkey Lumberjack talk for a worker who guides logs down a river, leaping from one log to another breaking up logjams.

A storage room, an old term used in

pocketbook Wallet. “ ‘You throw your pocketbook up in the air, I’ll put a hole in it,’ he said.” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992)

point man

vaqueros, who in turn took the word poncho from the South American Araucan Indians, the inventors of the garment.

RIDE POINT.

poke (1) A wallet or purse, a supply of money. “. . . I had me a little poke and got into a game of, uh, chance an’ put a bit more into my poke.” (Frank Roderus, Hell Creek Cabin, 1979) (2) An act of sexual intercourse. “‘I’m a woman, and I’m right here. You could have the pokes, if that’s all it is.’ ” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985)

pony; pony express The pony is related to the young chicken, though only in language. Both words have their roots in the Latin word pullus (a young animal), which yielded the French poulet (a young fowl), this becoming the English pullet and the French poulenet (a young horse), which in turn became the Scottish powney and then the English pony. The pony express, more often called simply the pony at the time, was the common designation for the Central Overland Pony Express Company, which lasted only from April 3, 1860, to October 24, 1861, but is still operating in Western novels and films. It had 190 stations along its route between Missouri and California, riders, including Buffalo Bill Cody, changing swift Indian ponies at each station and riding on with the mail—often through bad weather and Indian ambushes. The record for its 2,000-mile run was seven days, seventeen hours, but it couldn’t beat the telegraph that connected East and West in 1861, and the pony express went out of business that year. pook A word originally used by the Mojave Indians for a kind of wampum or money. poor doe

poorly In poor health. “ ‘Truth is, I’m mighty poorly. Don’t see how I’ll get through the winter.’ ” (Fred Grove, Search for the Breed, 1986) pop

pokomoo An originally Indian name for the poisonous black widow spider that is now heard of mainly in parts of California. In the past, California Indians sometimes dipped their arrowheads in the poison of this spider.

An old name for tough, lean venison.

Commonly used for a carbonated soft drink.

porch More commonly used in the West than any synonym, such as piazza, though veranda is common in the Texas Panhandle. portal A Spanish word used in the Southwest for a porch.

polecat The ornery polecat is not an invention of the American West. This close relative of the skunk was sonamed five centuries ago; the pole in its name is a corruption of the French poule (chicken), making it a cat that likes chicken and likes to raid chicken coops to get them. In Western speech, a despicable person is often called a polecat. “Stand up on your legs, you polecat, and say you’re a liar!” (Owen Wiser, The Virginian, 1902)

Port Orford cedar A large Western evergreen tree (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana) named for Port Orford, Oregon, where it was first found.

poncho A blanketlike coat with a slit in the middle for the head that cowboys borrowed from the Mexican

possibles An old expression that means small personal property, guns, ammunitions, tobacco and the like. “The

Portlander Maine.

A native of Portland, Oregon or Portland,

538 Happy Trails hermit appeared darkly in the door. ‘Just stay with me,’ he said . . . ‘Bring ye bed, bring ye possibles.’ ” (Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, or, The Evening Redness in the West, 1985)

pozo A well or spring; borrowed from Spanish and used mainly in the Southwest.

possum belly A cowhide slung underneath a chuck wagon to carry cooking utensils or wood or cowchips for fuel. Also called a bitch, a cooney and a caboose.

prairie chicken Two birds of the Western prairies: (1) Tympanuchus cupido (the greater prairie chicken); (2) Tympanuchus pallidicinctus (the lesser prairie chicken).

possum plum

prairie dog Any of several burrowing rodents with a barklike cry, especially Cynomys ludovicianus, of the Western prairies. Prairie dog was one of the some 1,528 names given to animals, plants and places observed on the Lewis and Clark Expedition into the Louisiana Territory in 1803—this said to be a record in vocabularymaking. Captain Meriwether Lewis had first called the animal a barking squirrel, but this probably more accurate description was changed to prairie dog by his friend William Clark.

See

BLACK PERSIMMON.

potlatch A ceremonial festival of American Indians of the Pacific Coast at which gifts are bestowed on the guests in a show of wealth that the guests later try to outdo. potrero The borrowing of a Spanish word for pasture or meadow; sometimes also found in place names. pourdown A term heard in California for a very heavy rain, a downpour. powder-burnin’ contest

A long gunfight.

Powder River! Let ’er buck! A slogan of encouragement used since about 1893, when it was said to have originated as a joke by a cowboy who drove horses across the almost dry Powder River near Caspar, Wyoming. It later became a battle cry among Wyoming volunteers and then all troops in the Argonne during World War I. There is controversy about the phrase, some contending that it first applied to the Platte River, not the Powder River. As a character notes in James A. Michener’s Centennial (1974): “The full challenge was ‘Powder River, let ’er buck. A mile wide and an inch deep. Too thin to plow, too thick to drink. Runs uphill all the way from Texas.’ Today, wherever rodeos are held, the cowboy who draws the toughest bronco shouts as he leaves the chute, ‘Powder River! Let ’er buck!’ So do drunks entering strange bars . . . Wyoming is divided across the middle on this one. Those in the north are sure that the phrase belongs to the Powder; those in the south claim it for their Platte, and each side is ready to fight. My own guess is that the words go far back in history and were probably applied to the Platte years before the Powder was discovered. But I am not brave enough to say so in print.” “ ‘Powder River let ’er buck!’ Blue used to say—I never did know what he meant by it but it sounded good at the time.” (Larry McMurtry, Buffalo Girls, 1990) power An old term meaning a large number of. “He got a power of hogs.” powerful sight of A great deal of. “‘Takes a powerful sight of work, ranching.’ ” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952)

prairie beef

prairie eel

A buffalo; buffalo meat.

A joking name for any snake.

prairie lawyer An old humorous term for a grey wolf, regarded as a clever, impudent nuisance. prairie oysters; mountain oysters In a country where the prudish have called the bull “a cow’s father,” “a cow creature,” “a male cow,” “a Jonathan,” and “a gentleman cow,” it is no wonder that there are so many euphemisms for bull’s testicles. In French and Spanish restaurants, bull’s balls are sometimes called just that on the menus, but in America, when they are offered, they’re invariably labeled either “prairie oysters,” “MOUNTAIN OYSTERS,” “Rocky Mountain oysters” or “Spanish kidneys.” Believed to be an elevating aphrodisiac dish despite their low origins, they are probably no more than a psychological aphrodisiac. But French neurologist Charles Brown-Dequard, who founded the much disputed “science” of organotherapy in 1889, thought differently. He claimed that both he and his patients had greatly enhanced their sexual prowess by eating bull’s testicles. The 70-year-old scientist went so far as to transplant bull’s testicles under the abdominal walls of patients, but it has since been established that testicles cannot store sex hormones such as testosterone and that when transplanted they wither and die. prairie schooner A type of covered wagon, similar to but smaller than the Conestoga wagon, used by settlers on the way West. Also called FORE-AND-AFTER. prairie shark

An old term for a non-descript breed of hog.

prairie smoke See quote. “Ellen . . . began pulling up the russet pink flowers of prairie smoke . . .” (Thomas McGuane, Keep The Change, 1989)

pulque 539 prairie state (1) A state in the West’s prairie region. (2) Often used, capitalized, as the nickname for Illinois and for North Dakota. prairie tenor

A humorous name for a coyote.

prairie wolf See quote. “Actually, a coyote was not the same as a wolf, but the Texas sheepman customarily called him that anyway. It was a natural shortening of the old term ‘prairie wolf.’ This part of the country hadn’t seen a real wolf in fifty years.” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973) predicamint

A common pronunciation of predicament.

press the bricks Northwestern lumberjack slang for to spend time out of the woods loafing in town. “I was pressing the bricks for six months before I got the job.” pretty A pretty ornament or toy or clothes. “He leaned way down to kiss his mother’s cheek. ‘Bye, Mom. I’ll bring you a pretty.’ ” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973) prickly pear (1) A cactus of the genus Opuntia with showy, usually yellow, flowers and edible fruit. (2) The fruit of the prickly pear cactus. Pride of the West A nickname for Cincinnati, Ohio, coined at a time when the city was considered to be far west. prime The best of its kind. “He chewed on it and swallowed . . . ‘That’s prime pie,’ he said.” (Jack Schaefer, Shane, 1949) privy-pit An old term for any undesirable place. “‘I’m supposed to drop everything and go to that privy-pit because you owe somebody a good turn?’” (Loren D. Estleman, Stamping Ground, 1980) prod

A common pronunciation of proud.

progressive A name given by whites to Indians who adopted white ways and did not resist change. “‘[My father] avoids whites, mixed bloods, and even fullblooded progressives.” (Don Worcester, Man on Two Ponies, 1992) prong

A branch or fork of a river or canyon.

pronghorn

See

GOAT.

pronto Spanish for quickly. “ ‘Tell me when we are to start on the road.’ ‘Pronto,’ said Tommy.” (Max Brand, The Making of a Gunman, 1929)

pronunciamientos A proclamation, manifesto, edict; the borrowing of a Spanish word meaning the same. prospector Someone who explores an area for gold, silver and other valuables or oil; the term is first recorded in the West in 1846. pueblo (1) A communal multiple-dwelling structure used by certain agricultural Indians in the Southwest. (2) Capitalized, a member of a group of Indian peoples living in pueblo villages in the Southwest since prehistoric times. (3) A village, community; borrowed from a Spanish word meaning the same. Puke Ravine

A California gold field.

pull To draw a gun from a holster or belt. “‘Pull, you yellow dog, and be prepared for Hell!’ the Cisco Kid cried.” pull freight for the tules According to J. Frank Dobie in Coronado’s Children (1930), this means “to take the wilds or tall timber.” pulling the badger A common joke played mainly on ignorant Easterners. According to Ramon Adams in The Old-Time Cowhand (1961), “[Cowhands would gather round the greenhorn] and begin talkin’ excitedly ’bout the comin’ badger fight . . . Declarin’ they’d have to have some disinterested party, they’d begin lookin’ ’round and suddenly discover the greener . . . [Then] some cowhand would give the new referee some advice as to how to pull the badger . . . When they got to the place of the fight, there was the dog . . . Nearby was the tub the badger was supposed to be under, and there was a rope runnin’ out some distance from beneath the tub . . . When he [the tenderfoot referee] was ordered to ‘pull’ he gave the rope a hard yank just as one cowhand tipped up the tub from the rear . . . There was no badger on the end of the rope at all . . . but . . . one of them vessels usually found under the bed at night [a ‘piss-pot’ or commode].” Also called the badger fight and the badger season. pull in your horns

Stop, desist from doing something.

pull leather To hold the saddle with both hands in order to stay aboard a bucking horse. pull out of a jackpot To help someone out of big trouble. “Many a time he had pulled Tom Flagg out of a jackpot so easily that Tom never realized he had even been in trouble.” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973) pulque A milky fermented drink made from the juice of certain species of agave.

540 Happy Trails pulqueria A place in Mexico and the Southwest where pulque is sold; in the past these bars had colorful signs with names like “The Little Hell” and “The Devil.”

purty Pretty. “ ‘He’s standing in front of the barber shop all purtied up.’ ” (Wayne D. Overholser, Buckaroo’s Code, 1947)

punch boy.

pussyfoot Teddy Roosevelt appears to have either coined or popularized pussyfoot in about 1905. Meaning crafty, cunning or moving in a cautious or timid manner, it refers to the way cats can walk stealthily by drawing in their claws and walking on the pads of their feet. It’s possible, if unlikely, that the redoubtable William Eugene “Pussyfoot” Johnson, a crusading American do-gooder, has something to do with the expression. Johnson was nicknamed “Pussyfoot” because “of his catlike policies in pursuing lawbreakers” when he served as chief special officer in the Indian Territory, from 1908 to 1911. Later his nickname, in the form of pussyfooters, was applied to all advocates of Prohibition. While crusading in England, fresh from his triumph of securing the passing of Prohibition here, Johnson was blinded by a stone thrown by a crusading drunk.

To drive cattle, prod them, to work as a cow-

puncher pune

A cowboy, short for cowpuncher.

To act sick or be ill; this verb derives from puny.

pungle An old term for to pay money; from the Spanish pongalo meaning the same. punkin’ roller An old derogatory name for a farmer. “‘Them punkin’ rollers,’ Dan Suggs said contemptuously.” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985) pup

An old word for a

pure

See

PRAIRIE DOG.

COLD-BLOODED.

pureblood A word invented by whites for an Indian of “unmixed descent.” pure dee luck Pure unadulterated luck. “My second was a heart shot and pure dee luck. I’d tried for the heart, of course, but with him running like that it was a chancey thing.” (Louis L’Amour, Bendigo Shafter, 1979)

put a big pot in a little one To outdo oneself entertaining. “She put a big pot in a little one when they came over.” put in bed with a pick and shovel put up

puro A term once used in the Southwest for a cigar, the borrowing of a Spanish word meaning the same. purp DOG.

A humorous form of pup, referring to the PRAIRIE

purple fool An arrogant, conceited, full-fledged fool. “‘Then you’re a fool, Captain . . . you’re a purple fool.’” (Luke Short, Ambush, 1948)

Puyallup ington.

To bury someone.

Put away. “Put up that gun.” A Salish tribe of Indians residing in Wash-

puzzly-gutted

Potbellied.

Q quaker

A popular name for the quaking aspen tree.

Queen City of the Hills Texas.

Quandary Peak A 14,265-foot-high mountain in the Park Range of the Rocky Mountains in central Colorado.

An old nickname for Houston,

Queen City of the Mountains A nickname for Helena, Montana; also called Queen City of Montana.

a Quantrill Any fabled gunfighter or guerrilla; after William Clark Quantrill (1837–65), who formed a proConfederate guerrilla band during the Civil War, more to serve his penchant for cruel bushwhacking, bloodletting and looting than out of any sympathy for the Confederacy. In 1863 he led 448 men into Lawrence, Kansas where they slaughtered 142 Jayhawkers, or pro-Union, citizens. Quantrill died two years later after being shot in the back while trying to escape from a detachment of Union soldiers.

Queen City of the Plains orado.

A nickname for Denver, Col-

Queen City of the Rio Grande querque, New Mexico.

A nickname for Albu-

queen of the prairie Filipendula rubra, a tall plant with pink flowers growing in meadows and prairies. Queen of the West An old name for Cincinnati, Ohio; also called Queen City of the West; from a time when Cincinnati was considered far west.

Quapaw A member of a Southwestern tribe of Sioux Indians; from their native name Uqakhpa (downstream people). quarter-breed A derogatory, offensive term for an American Indian with one white grandparent.

quick draw A contest in which the winner is the quickest person to draw a gun from a holster, fire it and hit a target. The term is now used throughout the United States.

quarter horse This breed of strong saddle horses was developed in the West for herding livestock; they were so named because they competed in quarter-mile races.

quicker than hell could scorch a feather Very quickly, instantly. “I’ll be in his hair quicker than hell could scorch a feather.” (Davy Crockett’s Almanac, 1840)

quarter section The Americanism quarter section of land was popularized by the Homestead Act of 1862, which said that any settler in the West could have 160 acres of public land free if he could raise a crop on at least 40 acres of it for five years. The 160 acres equaled a quarter of a square mile and was commonly called a quarter section or quarter. The former term, however, had been used as early as 1804, and the latter as early as 1640.

quién sabe Spanish for “who knows?” Often pronounced kin savvy. “Some say it would have been a whole lot easier on everybody if she had divorced him a mite earlier. Quien sabe, as the cowhands say.” (Max McCoy, The Sixth Rider, 1991) quinnat salmon coast. 541

A large salmon of the upper Pacific

542 Happy Trails quirley

An old cowboy term for a cigarette.

quirt (1) To hit with a quirt, a flexible leather riding whip with a lash of three or four thongs. (2) To hit with any whip or rope. “But Glanton called the dog to him and when it did not come he . . . leaned down and quirted it viciously with his hobble robe and drove it out

before him.” (Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, or, The Evening Redness in the West, 1985) quit off

To stop. “I quit off smoking.”

quit the flats To leave a place, to leave the country. “He quit the flats after he shot Curly.”

R rabbit bush See quote. “The sandy soil of the plain . . . was splotched with masses of blooming rabbit brush, —that olive-coloured plant that grows in high waves like a tossing sea, at this season covered with a thatch of bloom, yellow as gorse, or orange like marigolds.” (Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop, 1927) rabbit roundup run with them.

raise billy hell Make a big fuss orcommotion. “She raised all billy hell about the ruined curtains.” raise Cain To indulge in noisy disorder, raise hell; often heard in the West but national in usage. raised on sour milk cranky disposition.

Said of someone with a nasty,

A hunt for jackrabbits in an area overraise hair An old expression from frontier times meaning to scalp, a practice of both whites and Indians.

rackabone An old-fashioned word meaning a very skinny person, a rack of bones.

raise the fog To celebrate boisterously, noisily. “We really raised the fog last night.”

rag city A name prospectors gave to the tent cities that sprang up in the West during the gold rush years.

raising Breeding, manners. “Don’t you forget your raisin’.”

rag house A historical Western term for an early Western shanty or house fashioned in large part from rags; also a rag shanty.

ramada An open shelter with a thatched, dome-shaped roof; from the borrowing of a Spanish word meaning “an arbor.”

rag-tag-and-bobtail Poor, disheveled. “‘The Army has never made a practice of letting every rag-tag-andbobtail frontier loafer dictate its policies.’ ” (Luke Short, Ambush, 1948)

rambling Leaving, moving on. “‘No, I’ll be rambling,’ said Joe.” (Max Brand, Shotgun Law, 1931) ramrod trail.

rain belt theory An old theory that the arid regions of the West would receive adequate rainfall as soon as extensive agriculture was begun there.

ranch (1) A place maintained for raising livestock under range conditions. (2) In the western U.S., a large farm used to raise one kind of crop or animal, such as a fish ranch or an avocado ranch. (3) A dude ranch. (4) A ranch house. From the Spanish rancho, which originally meant a soldier’s messhall.

rainbow cactus The colorful Southwestern red-andwhite-spined cactus Echinocerus rigidissimus. raining pitchforks and bull yearlings Texas for raining very heavily.

A boss, the cowboy in charge of a herd on the

A term used in ranch brand 543

See

ROAD BRAND.

544 Happy Trails ranch egg rancher

A Western term for a fresh egg. Someone who owns and operates a

ranchero cowboy.

RANCH.

A Spanish word used in the Southwest for a

ranchette This recent term, dating only to the 1950s, means a small ranch of a few acres. ranch hand ranch house

A cowboy on a

RANCH.

The place where a ranch owner lives.

rancho Mexican-Spanish for a ranch. “The rancho was like a little town, with all its stables, corrals, and stake fences.” (Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop, 1927)

thousand westward travelers would remark about them in their diaries: ‘Yesterday from a grate distance we seen the Rattlesnake Butes they was like everybody said tall like castels in Yurope and you could see them all day and wundered who will be bit by the snakes like them folks from Missuri?’ ” (James A. Michener, Centennial, 1974) See WATERMILLION. rattlesnake killer

A nickname for the

ROADRUNNER.

raw-heels A name old hands gave to new arrivals during the California gold rush of 1849 because these tenderfeet weren’t used to wearing boots, which chafed their heels. See also TENDERFOOT. rawhide (1) Tease. “He really rawhided him.” (2) To gather cattle alone on the range. (3) Another name for a cowboy.

rangeland Grazing land for cattle. “Sometimes the rangeland’s lonesome an’ sometimes it’s kind o’ green.” (S. Omar Barker, “Draggin’ in the Tree” in Buckaroo Ballads, 1928)

rawhide artist A cowboy especially skilled in using a branding iron. Rawhide State

A nickname for Texas.

ranger

rawhide Texan

A very tough, rough Texan.

Short for a

range rider

TEXAS RANGER.

Cowboy, first recorded in 1890.

range wars Armed encounters common in the 19thcentury West over conflicting claims to the ownership or use of cattle ranges. ranikaboo A term for a caper or prank heard in the Southwest. ranny A top cowhand, short for ranahan meaning the same. “Roy was a mighty tough ranny who’d been ramrodden’ a big spread down thataway . . .” (Louis L’Amour, Showdown at Yellow Butte, 1958) ransation An old term for spiritual excitement at a revival meeting. Rapaho A shortening of “Arapaho Indian,” a tribe of American Indians of the Colorado plains now residing in Colorado and Wyoming. rattler Short for a rattlesnake; a term that originated in the West, where the snake is abundant. rattler-mean As mean and dangerous as a rattlesnake. “ ‘You watch that Dornie . . . he’s rattler-mean.’ ” (Louis L’Amour, Showdown at Yellow Butte, 1953) Rattlesnake Buttes A landmark in Colorado infested with myriad poisonous snakes. “Rattlesnake Buttes! A

raw land raw one

Uncleared or uncultivated land. An untamed or green pony.

reach Go for the revolver holstered at one’s side. “Each man ‘reached’. Musset drew a fraction quicker and Grumble was a dead man. This was in 1857.” (J. Frank Dobie, Coronado’s Children, 1930) the real McCoy Livestock trader Joe McCoy bought most of Abilene, Kansas for $4,250 in 1867 after a railroad spur was put into the town and became the first cattle king, running long horns from Texas to the railhead and shipping them East. He has been suggested as the McCoy of the expression the real McCoy, meaning the real thing, though this derivation is far from certain and there are other more likely candidates. rebel yell; Texas yell A leading expert believes that the rebel yell, or yalo, originally used in combat in the Civil War and intended to strike terror into the hearts of the enemy, came from the Creek Indians, loosely combining “the turkey gobbler’s cry with a series of yelps.” The high-pitched, blood-chilling yell was borrowed by Texans and adopted for their Texas yell, but others say the Texans got their yell from the Comanche Indians. In any case, everyone agrees that the “Yah-hoo” or “Yaaaaaheee” of fiction writers sounds nothing like the rebel yell. Several experts believe it is a corruption of the Old English foxhunting cry “tally ho!”

ride close herd on 545 rebozo The Spanish word for a woman’s long woven scarf or shawl worn over the head and shoulders. “Her straight back outlined itself strongly under her clean bright blue cotton rebozo.” (Katherine Anne Porter, “Maria Concepción,” 1922) reckon Think, suppose, guess, believe. “I reckon he’s gone to Houston.” red assed Cowboy talk for being in a bad mood. “He’s real red-assed today.” red brothers; red brethren; red men; red children Names given to American Indians by Western settlers. See also REDSKIN. red devil

See

REDSKIN.

red dog (1) A historical name for unreliable, frequently worthless Western banks that often failed. (2) A mixed alcoholic drink made with tomato juice. “ ‘If you’re the bartender, make me a red dog,’ Karla said.” (Larry McMurtry, Texasville, 1987) redeye

Cheap, potent whiskey.

Red River country northeast Texas.

The area around the Red River in

redskin A term invented by white men, who are not really white, for all Indians, who are not really red, in about 1699, long before whites went West. Red man is first recorded in 1725 and the derogatory red devil in 1834, all before the West was “won.” redwood The giant tree species Sequoia sempervirens of California and Oregon; one specimen growing in California’s Redwood National Park is the tallest tree in the world at 373 feet. reefin’

Raking a horse’s sides with one’s spurs.

refried beans

See

FRIJOLES REFRITOS.

relocation center A place to which Japanese-American citizens on the West Coast were unjustly removed by the U.S. government during World War II because they were thought at the time to be security risks. remblings

Remington A popular Western revolver introduced in the West in about 1870 by the Remington Arms Company. remuda A group of corralled saddle horses from which cowboys choose their mounts for the day; from the Spanish remudar (to change). “The remuda became restless, and Newt drove over to help . . .” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985) rendezvous (1) To bring cattle together in one place. “We rendezvoused the cattle near Newton.” (2) An annual summer get-together held in the 19th century by mountain men to sell furs, buy supplies and generally have a good time. rep A representative of a ranch at events such as a round-up or rodeo. reservation A tract of land set aside for the use of an Indian tribe; the word was first used in this sense in the East. reserve Reservation, used especially among Indians in Canada and the Northwest. “It was a common enough theme in novels and movies. Indian leaves the traditional world of the reserve, goes to the city, and is destroyed. Indian leaves the traditional world of the reserve, is exposed to white culture, and becomes trapped between two worlds. Indian leaves the traditional world of the reserve, gets an education, and is shunned by his tribe.” (Thomas King, Green Grass, Running Water, 1993) return address brand.

Cowboy slang for a cow’s or horse’s

riata; reata A lariat or rope; from the Spanish reata meaning the same. ribbons Reins. “Take the ribbons on a main-line [stagecoach] run and remember every mile what’s in the coach is more important than you . . .” (Jack Schaefer, First Blood, 1953) ricos Used in the Southwest for rich or wealthy, the borrowing of a Spanish word meaning the same. ride a line To ride a prescribed boundary, preventing cattle from straying over it.

An old-fashioned word for remnants.

remember the Alamo! The rallying cry of the troops under Sam Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto. The ALAMO itself, in San Antonio, Texas, took its name from the Spanish alamo (cottonwood tree), the fortress situated in a grove of alamo trees.

ridden hard and put away has lived a hard life.

A person who looks like he

ride close herd on To close herd literally means to keep cattle close together, compact; thus to ride close herd on something is to pay close attention to it, not to let it get

546 Happy Trails far out of your sight or out of hand. “He rode close herd on that plan from the start.”

riffle (1) A rapid in a stream caused by a shoal or reef. (2) A shoal or reef.

ride herd (1) To guard cattle in the open or on the trail. “He rode herd on 3,000 cattle.” (2) To court a woman. (3) To keep close watch on anything.

right

ride him, cowboy! A cheer commonly given to cowboys riding a bucking horse, especially in rodeos. “ ‘Ten thousand damnations!’ roared Pendleton. ‘Get his head up. Stick your spurs into him! Ride him like a man!’ ‘Ride him, cowboy!’ screeched the child in the street.” (Max Brand, Rogue Mustang, 1932)

right around About. “Papa had right around two hundred and fifty dollars in his purse . . .” (Charles Portis, True Grit, 1968) right good time A very good time. “ ‘Why, sure,’ says Stubby. ‘I had me a right good time.’ ” (Jack Schaefer, “Stubby Pringle’s Christmas,” 1990) rightly

ride mail A historical term meaning to carry the mail from one place to another. ride over that trail again make it clearer.

To explain something again,

ride point To ride at the head of a herd, directing the cattle and setting the pace; these riders were called point men. ride shotgun

See

SIT SHOTGUN.

ride the chuck line Said of a cowboy riding from camp to camp when out of work, getting a meal (chuck) or a few meals at each and then riding on. ride the fence To patrol the fence surrounding a cattle ranch, keeping it in good repair. ride the long trail

See

GREAT ROUNDUP.

Very. “It’s right interesting.”

Really. See usage example at

SPREAD.

right on the goose According to Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms (1858), this is an expression of unknown origin used to describe those favoring slavery in Kansas in the 1850s. right on your drag See quote. “ ‘The two men at [the rear end of the herd], they’re the drag . . . You know we’ve got a saying here in Texas if you owe money or somebody is after you hot on your trail we say, ‘He’s right on your drag.’ ” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952) right smart (1) A great deal, large number, many, much. “Mohair’s one of the finest filies [fibers] in the world, and it’s outsellin’ wool by a right smart here lately.” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973) (2) Very well. “‘We used to have an old accordion, and Mr. Thompson could play it right smart . . .’” (Katherine Anne Porter, Noon Wine, 1937)

ride the owlhoot trail To be an outlaw, to ride at night as an outlaw. Also ride the hoot-owl trail.

riled up Angry. From roil (to stir up, disturb, irritate). “He was all riled up.”

ride the skin off To ride fast. “You better start riding the skin off that horse of yours before them Indians get here.”

rincón (1) A Spanish word used in the Southwest for an out-of-the-way place or for a bend in the river. (2) A piece of land, especially a small round valley. “He crossed the rincon, heading for the mouth of the canyon that led to the sacred mountain . . .” (Richard S. Wheeler, Beneath the Blue Mountain, 1979)

ride to the last roundup To die. “I’ll be ninety-five soon, I’m getting ready to ride to the last roundup.” ride trail

To drive cattle; also called to ride on trail.

ridge-runner A wild horse that stations itself on a high ridge to watch for danger and warn the herd. ridiculous Ridiculously, outrageously. “Those girls behaved ridiculous.” riding out of town with nothing but a head bad hangover from the night before.

ring-tailed snorter An expression dating back to the 1800s for a very energetic, impressive person; perhaps patterned on the fierce wildcat called the ringtailed painter. Also a ring-tailed roarer. ringtum ditty A Western dish of cheese cooked with bacon, onions, tomatoes, corn and other ingredients. Its origin is unknown.

Having a ripgut

A colorful synonym for very coarse grass.

roll one’s tail 547 ripsniptious An early term for smart, lively, attractive, grand. “That’s a ripsniptious horse he has there.” Also sniptious. rip-snorting Wild and violent. “ ‘We’re gon’ out, by God, to a brand-new, two-fisted, rip-snorting country, full of Injuns and rattle-snakes and two-gun toters and gyp water and des-per-ah-dos! Whoop-ee!” (Edna Ferber, Cimarron, 1930) rise An old term for “get along,” as in “How do you rise?”,that is, “How do you get along; how are you doing?”

building fences and also called the Rocky Mountain red cedar and the Colorado red cedar. Rocky Mountain goat A long-haired, short-horned, white antelopelike animal (Oreamnos montanus) of Western mountainous regions, especially the Rocky Mountains. Rocky Mountain locust A migratory locust (Melanoplus spretus) that causes great danger to crops. Also called Rocky Mountain grasshopper. Rocky Mountain oysters

riz

See prairie oyster.

Rose. “The whole bunch of them riz up after him.”

road agent 1863.

A highwayman, the term first recorded in

road agent’s spin A technique that involves spinning a revolver backward instead of forward; also called the Curly Bill spin. road brand See quote. “The slight brand put on the stock at the time (that is, when the herd is started to market over the trail) is called a road brand, in contradistinction to the ranch brand, which is usually put on the animal when young.” (Joseph G. McCoy, Historic Sketches of the Cattle Trade of the West and Southwest, 1874)

Rocky Mountains North America’s chief mountain system, ranging from Central New Mexico to northern Alaska with its highest peak being Mount McKinley (Alaska) at 20,300 feet. Also called the Rockies. Rocky Mountain spotted fever An infectious disease transmitted by ticks that was first reported in the Rocky Mountain area. Rocky Mountain states The Western states in the Rocky Mountain region, which have traditionally been Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. rod

Short for

RAMROD.

roadrunner The long-legged bird (Geococcyx Californianus), popular in cartoons and so common in the deserts of the Southwest, was once widely eaten and used as a remedy for boils and snakebite. It is also called the paisano, the chaparral bird or cock, the snake killer, the ground cuckoo, the prairie runner, the prairie cock, the runner, the lizard killer, and the rattlesnake killer.

rodeo A rodeo, from the Spanish rodear (to surround), was originally a roundup of cattle held once a year on Western ranches. Cowboys often challenged each other at these round-ups to see who could throw a cow fastest, break a horse, etc., and rodeo came to mean a public contest or tournament of cowboy skills, the word first recorded in this sense in 1889.

roaring camp A wild mining camp where there were few restraints regarding drinking, gambling, prostitution or any behavior.

rodeoing Participating as a contestant in rodeo events. “‘Why hell, Jack, I don’t even thank you like rodeoin’!’ he exclaimed, some thirty miles later.” (Larry McMurtry, Cadillac Jack, 1982)

roasting ear Corn grown for human consumption as opposed to corn grown for feeding stock. Rockies Short for the early 1800s.

ROCKY MOUNTAINS

since the

rocky ford An excellent net-veined muskmelon originally grown only around Rocky Ford, Colorado.

roll Used in the West and other regions for a bankroll. “‘I gotta find a low hound that picked my pocket of a thousand-dollar roll!’” (Max Brand, Three on the Trail, 1928)

A humorous term for a burro.

rolled out flatter than a blue corn tortilla To be cheated badly. “ ‘Did Monte get took that time? Ye-as, I should up and say he did. Rolled out flatter’n a blue corn tortilla.’ ” (Jack Schaefer, Monte Walsh, 1958)

Rocky Mountain cedar A Western juniper (Juniperus scopulorum) yielding a soft reddish wood used for

roll one’s tail To travel rapidly, to leave on the run. “They rolled their tails for Yuma.”

Rocky Mountain canary

548 Happy Trails rope roper

A lasso. “He whirled his rope in the air.” A cowboy who is expert with a lasso.

roping rope

A rope or lariat used in roping animals.

rough as a cob Very rough and tough. “He looked rough as a cob, like a coarse corn cob, and no one messed with him.” roughneck A worker in the oilfields. “Despite his awkwardness, he had been a popular hand, often taking shifts for older roughnecks if they turned up too drunk to work.” (Larry McMurtry, Texasville, 1987) roughrider A term for a Western cowboy often used to describe Theodore Roosevelt, whose Rough Rider cavalry unit, many of whom were cowboys, fought in the Spanish-American War. See also THAT DAMNED COWBOY. round ass A cowboy who has lost his nerve and won’t ride bucking horses. roundup (1) The driving together of cattle, horses or other animals for inspecting, branding and shipping to market, as practiced in the West. (2) A party. roust out Turn out for work quickly. “ ‘Go roust out Sam and Farney, Jim.’ ” (Luke Short, The Guns of Hanging Lake, 1968) rub out To rub someone out, “to kill someone,” isn’t gangster talk from the Prohibition era, as is so often assumed. The term dates back to the early 19th-century American Far West and has its origins in Plains Indian sign language, which expresses “to kill” with a rubbing motion. The term is first recorded in George Ruxton’s Life in the Far West (1848), and it is he who gives the sign language source. ruinatious An old-fashioned word meaning ruinous, disastrous. “The war was ruinatious to our business.” run (1) A stampede of cattle. “We hadn’t a run on the whole trip.” (2) To chase and shoot buffalo while on horseback. “The Kiowa were good at running buffalo.” (3) Used to describe the action of settlers rushing to claim land in areas opened for settlement. “He and his family made a run for their homesteads.” (4) Often said for ran. “They run after them all week and never caught ’em.” run a blazer To bluff or deceive, especially in a card game. “He had run a blazer on Hadley and won the pot.”

run into the ground To overdo something, the phrase first used by cowboys in the late 19th century. “You’ve already told us twice, don’t run it into the ground.” runnin’est See quote. “ ‘She was the trailin’est dog I ever had, and the smartest. And there was Old Rip; he was the runnin’est dog I ever had . . . Now here’s Old Rip, the fightin’est dog I ever had . . .” (Benjamin Capps, Tales of the Southwest, 1990) running cattle run off

Gathering cattle on a ranch.

To stampede or drive off cattle.

runt Run. “ ‘Better men than you have runt from him,’ Boog said.” (Larry McMurtry, Cadillac Jack, 1982) run wild as outhouse rats See quote. “. . . their parents were occupied with many different wonders, and they proceeded to invent their own amusements and to run as wild as outhouse rats, as the Kansas wheat farmers used to say.” (Max Evans, Orange County Cowboys, 1987) rusher A historical term for a settler rushing to an area recently opened to settlers. rustic siding Heard in northern California for clapboard used on the exterior of houses. rustle (1) To steal livestock, especially cattle. (2) To hustle, be active. (3) To hunt or find, as in “He rustled up some grub.” rustler A cattle thief. This usage is first recorded in the West in 1882. At first the word meant an energetic person, one who rustled up stray cattle for his boss. The word appears to have evolved from “hustler,” as this quote from Owen Wister’s The Virginian (1902) indicates: “It (‘rustler’) was not in any dictionary, and current translations of it were inconsistent. A man at Hossie Falls said that he had passed through Cheyenne, and heard the term applied in a complimentary way to people who were alive and pushing. Another man had always supposed it meant some kind of horse. But the most alarming version of all was that a rustler was a cattle thief. Now the truth is that all these meanings were right. The word ran a sort of progress in the cattle country, gathering many meanings as it went.” Of course, the common meaning of the word came to be “a cattle or horse thief.” As a matter of fact, Texas state legislator Bubba London was convicted of cattle rustling as recently as 1983. rustle up some grub To prepare food for a meal. “I’m gonna rustle us up some grub.”

S sabbey A common pronunciation of sabe. “The Mex looked at him, too quick and narrow for not understanding, but then all he did was shake his head and say, ‘No sabbey,’ again.” (Walter Van Tilburg Clark, The Ox-Bow Incident, 1940)

on the great grass plains or the sage-brush desert.” (Willa Cather, Death Comes For The Archbishop, 1927) In Roughing It (1872), Mark Twain wrote, “. . . if the reader can imagine a gnarled and venerable live oak tree reduced to a little scrub two feet high, with its rough bark, its foliage, its twisted boughs, all complete, he can picture the ‘sage-brush’ exactly.”

sabe (1) Know-how, understanding. (2) To understand. A borrowing of the Spanish saber (to know). Also savvy. sack

Sagebrush State

Bag.

Sage Hen State

sacred fire A ceremonial fire kept burning by American Indians, especially New Mexico’s Pueblo tribes.

saint A contemptuous name rustlers gave a cowboy loyal to his employer.

Very sad. sala See quote. “He strode angrily across the sala, the large main room of the house . . .” (F. M. Parker, The Shadow Man, 1988) From the Spanish for “large room.”

sadiron A word used mainly in the western and northern United States for a flatiron pointed at both ends with a detachable handle; from sad in the obsolete sense of “solid, heavy” and iron. sage

Another nickname for Nevada.

saguaro Carnegiea gigantea, a large branching cactus of the Southwest, the genus named after millionairephilanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919). One specimen found near Madrona, New Mexico in 1950 had candelabra-like branches rising to 53 feet.

saddle tramp buckaroo A cowboy who rides from place to place, always working temporarily. “You’ll be a saddle tramp buckaroo—if I put out the word that I fired you.” (Jack Cummings, The Rough Rider, 1988) sad enough to bring tears to a glass eye

A nickname for Nevada.

salt a mine To secretly stock a gold, silver or diamond mine with ore or precious stones to make it appear valuable. The expression is said to derive from the practice of dishonest miners scattering a handful of salt, which is the color of gold dust, through mines they wished to sell to unwary investors.

Short for sagebrush.

sagebrush Artemisia tridentata and several similar Artemisia species that grow wild on the Western plains and deserts and are a symbol of the West. “. . . the air had quite lost that lightness, that dry, aromatic odour. The moisture of plowed land, the heaviness of labour and growth and grain-bearing, utterly destroyed it; one could breathe that only on the bright edges of the world,

salty Descriptive of an animal that acts up, is a handful of trouble. “‘How about that big red steer today. He sure was salty.’” (Frank O’Rourke, Diamond Hitch, 1956) 549

550 Happy Trails same old six and seven Same as usual. “He asked, ‘Any news in town?’ ‘Same old six and seven.’ ” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973)

Santa Fe Trail An important trade route between Independence, Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico from About 1821 to 1880.

sand (1) The only reference I’ve found to one meaning of this expression is in Pulitzer Prize winner A. B. Guthrie’s Arfive (1970), part of his four-novel series about the West: “There came to mind a time long ago when he had been riding with some young, randy harum-scarums . . . [who] had flushed a lone Indian girl from a chokecherry patch [intending to rape her] . . . Their old, their young cries sounded again. ‘Catch her! Catch her, Jake, before she sands!’ Watching, he saw the girl run, saw her, before Jake ran her down, snatch up a handful of soil, hoist her skirt and jam the dirt into herself. Dismounted, Jake slapped the girl to the ground and got back on his horse, but before they rode on he asked as if nobody in his senses could answer, ‘What do they want to do that for? Goddam!’ They went away grumbling but agreed on one point: as a book might put it, sex and sand were not compatible.” (2) Grit, courage. “He was still full of sand after losing ten times.”

santo A carved figure of a saint; from the Spanish santo (saint).

sand eel

A humorous term for a snake; also desert eel.

sand painting This Navaho and Pueblo Indian ceremonial practice consists of creating symbolic designs on a flat surface with varicolored and sand and other materials. sandstorm A phenomenon of the Southwestern desert. “A man caught in a sandstorm cannot see his hand . . . The yarn goes that a cowboy awoke one morning to find his horse standing on top of a mesquite tree instead of under it where he had staked him.” (J. Frank Dobie, Coronado’s Children, 1930) sand whirl

A sand spout.

sandy Any crooked scheme. “‘They’re runnin’ a pretty cagey sandy on Bruce McFee, and it’s sewed up tight.’” (Luke Short, Hardcase, 1941) San Jose scale A fruit tree disease of Asian origin first introduced into the United States in the San Jose, California area. Santa Anna Strong, hot, dusty winds that descend from inland desert regions to the Pacific Coast in the area of Los Angeles. Named for Mexico General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna (1795–1876) who commanded Mexican forces at the Alamo and who, legend has it, later introduced chewing gum to the United States when he brought chicle here from Central America.

sashay To glide, move or proceed easily or nonchalantly. “She sashayed across the room.” save A historical term meaning to kill. “The boys were anxious to lose no chance in saving an Indian.” (J. S. Campion, On the Frontier, 1877) savvy (1) To know or understand. (2) Practical understanding, common sense. (3) Shrewdly informed, canny. Also sabe. sawbuck American slang for a $10 bill that originated on the Western frontier. The sawbuck was originally a sawhorse with legs that formed an X at each end, X being the Roman numeral for ten. sawchips Sawdust. “He walked away through the sawchips spread over the ground to keep the dust down.” (Sherman Alexie, “Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play the Star-Spangled Banner at Woodstock,” 1993) sawed-off Short, less than average height or stature; the term is now widely used throughout the United States in terms such as sawed-off runt. sawed-off shotgun A shot gun with its barrels sawed off short; the gun was first used by express messengers in the West. say it pretty Say it nicely. “ ‘Mister,’ he said, quiet, deadly. ‘Out here in this godforsakin [sic] hole we don’t talk to a lady like that. You’ll say you’re sorry and you’ll say it pretty.’ ” (Jack Schaefer, Monte Walsh, 1958) says which Often used in place of “what” in answer to an unheard question. “Says which?” scabland An elevated area of rough, rocky, barren volcanic topography, with thin soil, if any, and very little vegetation. “We explored the scablands of eastern Washington.” scalawag Undersized, lean, undeveloped cattle that were of little use were called scalawags by American ranchers and farmers in the West toward the middle of the 19th century. The term then came to be applied to disreputable people, rogues, scoundrels, rascals,

seldom 551 those who refused to work, and it had a special use in the South after the Civil War to describe anyone willing to accept Reconstruction. As for scalawag itself, the word remains something of a mystery. It may derive from the Gaelic sgalag (a lowly servant or rustic) but more likely comes from Scalloway, one of the Shetland Islands that is known for its dwarf ponies and cattle, which could have been considered worthless. Other suggestions are the Scottish scurryvaig (a vagabond), the Latin scurra vagas (a wandering buffoon) and the English dialect scall (skin-disease). No one seems to know why the word, with so many possible derivations, is first recorded in America. scalp To remove the scalp of the head, along with the accompanying hair, from the heads of enemies as a sign of victory, a practice of some Indians and whites during the colonial and frontier periods of U.S. history. Scandahoovian A humorous, mildly derogatory name for a Scandanavian. “ ‘That’s a kind of Scandahoovian song,’ said Mr. Hatch.” (Katherine Anne Porter, Noon Wine, 1937) scattered from here to breakfast Scattered over a great distance. “The kids are all grown . . . Scattered from here to breakfast and all doing all right.” (Jack Schaefer, The Kean Land, 1953) schoolmarm A humorous logging term for the inverted crotch formed by two tree trunks growing together. scrambled eggs

See

GOLD FIELDS.

screaming fantods Extreme nervousness. “The girl was halfway between a sweat and the screaming fantods . . .” (Charles O. Locke, The Hell Bent Kid, 1957) scum of the run An early curse not much heard today. “His eyes were like two sword blades flashing in the sun: ‘Greasers! Scum of the run! Monkey skulls!’ ” (Edna Ferber, Cimarron, 1930) sea lion Old cowhands called Texas longhorns raised near the Gulf Coast sea lions, joking that their range was the Gulf of Mexico and that they could swim like ducks. They were also called coasters. sech

Such. “I’ve hearn tell of sech.”

seed (1) Testicle. “Charlie split the scrotum. The horse flinched as the seed popped out. Charlie used an emasculator to pinch off and crimp the cord to minimize the

bleeding.” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973) (2) Often used instead of saw. “She seed the accident.” seegar

A common pronunciation of cigar.

seen Saw. “If you don’t care I’d like to tell it from the beginning. From the first time ever I seen the horse.” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992) seeps See quote. “There are seeps [in the desert] where in a week or more a few quarts of water may collect. I would go to one of these places, drink a little . . .” (Louis L’Amour, The Lonely Gods, 1983) seepweed A shrub (Suaeda intermedia) of Western alkali regions thought to be an indication of water in an area. see the elephant (1) To see the world, the town, to gain experience in general; the expression suggests someone seeing an elephant at the circus for the first time. (2) An imaginary portent, a warning of bad things to come said to have been experienced by some settlers going West. “Levi went into the darkness to check his four remaining oxen, and out of the shadows rose the elephant. It was gigantic, thirty or forty feet tall, with wild, curving tusks and beady eyes that glowed. It seemed to Levi to represent all the terror they had experienced and all that might lie ahead on the way to Oregon . . . Levi knew he was destined to turn back. He returned to camp, wakened Elly and said ‘I saw the elephant’ . . . On this trail, when a man saw the elephant, clear and overwhelming, rising out of the darkness with those beady, flaming eyes, he must heed its warning . . .” (James Michener, Centennial, 1974) see the elephant and hear the owl hoot Have a good time deep into the night. “ ‘Hullo, Hal,’ he greeted. ‘See the elephant and hear the owl hoot up in Denver?’ ” (Conrad Richter, The Sea of Grass, 1937) sego A name borrowed from the Shoshonean Indians for the showy perennial plant Calochortus muttali; the sego lily is the state flower of Utah. segundo Spanish for second. “During the two years . . . Gault had worked for Axe, he had become a segundo, assistant and righthand man to Lew, who ramrodded the spread . . .” (Jack Cummings, The Rough Rider, 1988) seldom Different, unusual. “ ‘There’s something mighty seldom about Piggy,’ declared Bud . . . ‘I never yet see anything on the hoof that he exactly grades up

552 Happy Trails with.’ ” (O. Henry, “The Passing of Black Eagle” in The Best Short Stories of O. Henry, 1945) send up Green River An expression used in the Southwest meaning to kill or to die. See also UP TO GREENRIVER.

tury, and the name has a touching story behind it. Since its white blossoms appeared almost as soon as the ground thawed in spring, American pioneer families that had kept a body through winter to bury in workable ground used these first flowers to cover the grave. set

Señor

To sit; sat. “We set around and talked.”

A Spanish title of respect equivalent to Mr.

Señora Señorita

A Spanish title of respect equivalent to Mrs. A Spanish title of respect similar to Miss.

sequoia The largest and tallest living things on earth, the giant sequoias of California and Oregon are named for the exalted Indian leader Sequoyah, who invented the Cherokee syllabary, which not only made a whole people literate practically overnight but formed the basis for many Indian languages. Sequoyah (also Sequoya or Sikwayi) was born about 1770, the son of a white trader named Nathaniel Gist and an Indian woman related to the great Cherokee King Oconostota. Though he used the name George Guess, he had few contacts with whites, working as a silversmith and trader in Georgia’s Cherokee country until a hunting accident left him lame. With more time on his hands, Sequoyah turned his attention to the “talking leaves,” or written pages, of the white man and set out to discover this secret for his own people. Over a period of 12 years, ridiculed by family and friends, he listened to the speech of those around him, finally completing a table of characters representing all 86 sounds in the Cherokee spoken language. His system, which he devised by taking letters of the alphabet from an English spelling book and making them into a series of symbols, was adopted by the Cherokee council in 1821, one story claiming that Sequoyah’s little daughter won over the council chiefs by reading aloud a message that they had secretly instructed her father to write down. Thousands of Indians would learn to read and write thanks to Sequoyah’s “catching a wild animal and taming it,” in his own words. The redwood tree (Sequoia sempervirens) was named for him not long after his death in 1847. Sequoyah A name proposed in 1905 for a U.S. state to be created from the Indian Territory in the Oklahoma Territory; it was to be named in honor of the Indian leader Sequoyah. See also preceding entry. serape An American borrowing of the Spanish word serape for a shawl or blanket first worn by SpanishAmericans and Indians in the Southwest. serviceberry Another name for the juneberry (amelanchie species). “The blueberry of the northern plains” was dubbed the serviceberry as far back as the 18th cen-

Seven Cities Ancient towns in New Mexico that inspired the Spaniards to explore the Southwest because of their reputed wealth; now thought to be pueblos of Zuni, they are also known as the Seven Cities of Cibola. seven-sided son of a bitch The Western U.S. variant of the expression seven-sided animal, both meaning a oneeyed man or woman, “each having a right side and a left side, a fore side and a back side, an inside and an outside, and a blind side.” The expression originated in the late 17th century and lasted until the early 20th. Seventy A name, capitalized, for an elder of the Mormon church ordained as a missionary. severe An old expression meaning vicious, wild, powerful, headstrong, applied to both men and animals. “He managed that severe colt.” shack Another cowboy term for the bunkhouse. One theory has this word for a small, dilapidated dwelling deriving from the Aztec xacalli (a wooden hut), which came into English via the West from the Spanish jacal, pronounced shacle. Another theory derives shack from ramshackle. shanghai The old expression to ship a man to Shanghai is the original version of this term. Sailors first used the words to describe how San Francisco press gangs got them drunk, drugged them or blackjacked them and forced them in service aboard a ship in need of a crew. Shanghai, a long way from America, was a leading Chinese shipping port, and many a shanghaied sailor did wind up there. Shanghai became so common in the 19th century that it was applied to anyone seized or forced to work unwillingly. shank of the day

Late afternoon.

Sharps The Sharps rifle “could be fired today and kill tomorrow,” said quipsters, in reference to the story that one model could hit a target at five miles. This wasn’t true, but the rifle—40 different models were made by the Sharps Company between 1840 and 1880—did have remarkable range, power and accuracy. Hunters called it the “Old Poison Slinger,” and it was used extensively in slaughtering the buffalo of America. “Christian Sharps obliged the buffalo hunters by producing a heavy rifle

shootist 553 with an octagonal barrel that could stand great pressure. The gun’s rear sight was calibrated to one thousand yards. The rifle could drop a full-grown buffalo at six hundred yards, and a good marksman could kill 250 animals a day with it.” (Lucia St. Clair Robson, Ride the Wind, 1982) shaving Dealing a card dishonestly off the bottom of the deck. “ ‘Miner caught him shaving the ace of clubs and carved him up with a pocket-knife.’ ” (Loren D. Estleman, Murdock’s Law, 1982) sheep dipper A contemptuous name rustlers gave to a cowboy loyal to his employer. Also called saint. See also BUCKET MAN. sheep-eaters A name for a band of Shoshoni Indians who once lived in west-central Idaho. sheepherder’s delight.

An old term for potent whiskey.

sheep off To graze a region out with sheep. “ ‘But what if you throwed your sheep round my range and sheeped off the grass so my cattle would hev to move or starve?’ ” (Zane Grey, To the Last Man, 1922) shenanigans Though now it is always used in the plural, this Americanism for “mischief” or “trickery” was first recorded as shenanigan in 1855 in California. There have been several suggestions as to its ancestors, including the Spanish chanada (trick) and the argot German schinaglen meaning the same. More likely it comes from the Irish sionnachuighim (“I play the fox” or “I play tricks”). sherry-vallies An old, perhaps obsolete term for thick cloth riding leggings worn by old-time cowboys. she-stuff A cowboy term for the females of cattle, sheep, horses and other species.

shinnery Any dense growth of small or dwarf trees, especially shin oaks. Shiprock See quote. “And north of the canyon de Chelly (in New Mexico) was the Shiprock, a slender crag rising to a dizzy height, all alone out on a flat desert. Seen at a distance of fifty miles or so, that crag presents the figure of a one-masted fishing boat under full sail, and the white man named it accordingly. But the Indian has another name; he believes the rock was once a ship of the air. Ages ago . . . that crag had moved through the air, bearing upon its summit the parents of the Navaho race from the place in the far north where all peoples were made—and wherever it sank to earth was to be their land.” (Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop, 1927) shitkicker A Texan culture, according to Molly Ivins in Molly Ivins Can’t Say That, Can She? (1991): “Shitkicker is pickup trucks with guns slung across the racks on the back and chicken-fried steaks and machismo and ‘D-I-V-O-R-C-E’ on the radio and cheap, pink nylon slips, and gettin’ drunk on Saturday night and goin’ to church on Sunday morning, and drivin’ down the highway throwin’ beer cans out the window, and Rastusan’-Liza jokes and high school football, and family reunions where the in-laws of your second cousins show up . . .” And much more and, with a few minor changes, a culture in many places. Shitkicker has also been used in the West to mean a cowboy and as a synonym for boots. shivaree A noisy wedding reception or celebration usually held late at night at the home of the bride and groom complete with a mock serenade with pots, pans and other noisemakers and good-natured pranks on the newlyweds; from the French charivari, meaning the same, though the French word, appropriately, comes from a Medieval Latin word meaning “headache.”

shet Shut. “ ‘Shet yer trap,’ said the man, ‘and keep it shet’r I’ll shet it fer ye.’ ” (Katherine Anne Porter, Noon Wine, 1937)

shock

A pile of hay, haycock.

shoot

A euphemism for shit.

shindig A big dance or party that lasted long into the night; perhaps from “shin scraper,” in reference to the many dancers accidentally kicking each other.

shoot a mile Common exclamation. “Well, shoot a mile, ma’am, we sure will be there!”

shine (1) To radiate sexual appeal. “ ‘That’s Dolly Ellender. Sure does shine, don’t she?’ ” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973) (2) To excel. “They can’t ride for nothin’. Can’t shine with Comanches, or even Crows.” (A. B. Guthrie Jr., The Big Sky, 1947)

shootin’ iron A handgun. This term dates back to 18th century America and did not originate in the West, despite its constant use in Hollywood Westerns. “ ‘If I was you, son, I’d put that shooting iron away while I was still able to do it.’ ” (Larry D. Names, Boomtown, 1981)

Shining Mountains A name the first explorers gave to the Rocky Mountains.

shootist A marksman, one known for his skill in shooting a gun.

554 Happy Trails shoot-out A gunfight, used in the West since the “Lead Age” of the gunfighter in the late 19th century.

cigarette wrapped in corn shuck. (3) An early slang name for a Mexican.

shoot plumb Shoot straight. “Shoot plumb, too. Noise don’t kill Injuns.” (A. B. Guthrie Jr., The Big Sky, 1947)

shucks! sh-yit

shoot today kill tomorrow rifle A colorful Indian name for the Sharps large-caliber buffalo rifle, which had a range of one mile. shore A common pronunciation of sure. “ ‘You shore do, Jack,’ Goat said, pulling at a tuft of hair . . .” (Larry McMurtry, Cadillac Jack, 1982) short bit In the old West, the short bit was a dime, being 2 1/2 cents short of a bit (12 1/2¢). According to the Dictionary of Americanisms, “In the West, when small coins, except the dime and the quarter (2 bits), were scarce, a dime was accepted in payment for anything priced at one bit. A long bit was the equivalent of 15¢, being the price paid when a dime was returned as change from a quarter tendered for a purchase priced at one bit.” shorten his (her) stake rope Keep him or her under better control, the comparison being to a horse tied to a stake in the ground. shorthorn Someone new to the West, a tenderfoot, The comparison being to a young steer. shot Slang used in the West and South not for whiskey but for a lunch-counter glass of Coca-Cola. shoulder draw The draw of a revolver from out of a shoulder holster. shoulder strap

A historical term for a U.S. soldier.

shove in the steel

To rake a horse with one’s spurs.

show a feather A variation on to show a white feather, to be cowardly (based on the belief that white fighting cocks were supposed to be cowardly). “ ‘In this country you must never show a feather. Give up to them once and you’re beaten.’ ” (Lee McElroy, Eyes of the Hawk, 1981) Show Me State A nickname for Missouri since the early 20th century. Show out To show off or brag. “He’s been showing out all night.” shuck (1) Take off. “Sitting down I shucked my small pack from my shoulders and carefully removed my guns . . .” (Louis L’Amour, Jubal Sackett, 1985) (2) A

A mild exclamation of disgust or regret. A common pronunciation of shit in Texas.

sibley A historical term for a bell-shaped tent used by the U.S. Army in the West; named after General Henry Hastings Sibley (1811–94) and probably based on Sioux tepees. sick

Often used instead of ill.

side Ride alongside. “ ‘Which way you ridin’?’ the sheriff asked. ‘South.’ ‘Good. I’ll side you.’ ” (Luke Short, The Man on the Blue, 1936) sidewinder (1) A rattlesnake. (2) a dangerous, treacherous man, from the sidewinder rattlesnake, so called for its lateral locomotion. sierra Hill or mountain ranges, such as the Sierra Nevada, rising in peaks that resemble the teeth of a saw; an American borrowing of a Spanish word meaning the same. siesta The afternoon nap as taken in Spain and Latin America. sign Tracks, broken sticks and the like indicating the presence of men (usually Indians) or game. “We didn’t see any fresh sign of the Sioux.” See also CUT A SIGN. sign rider

A

LINE RIDER.

Silicon Valley Silicon semiconductors and microelectric chips are the backbone of the modern electronics industry. Their manufacture is the primary industry on the plain between San Francisco and San Jose, California, which is called Silicon Valley. silk popper A historical term for a stagecoach driver, who popped his whip. silver baron

A rich silver mine owner.

silver bloc The congressional group of senators from the silver-producing states of Idaho, Utah, Montana, Nevada, Colorado and Arizona. silver king A rich, prominent person in the silver mining industry. Silver Knight of the West William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska, who fought for the silver standard and was

skid row 555 famous for his Cross of Gold speech at the 1897 Democratic National Convention. silverland This was an old nickname for Nevada and sometimes Colorado because of the silver found there. “. . . all the peoples of the earth had representative adventurers in the Silverland . . .” (Mark Twain, Roughing it, 1872) Silver State A nickname for Nevada, after the silver mines there. silver thaw

A rain that freezes on hitting the ground.

sit for a spell Sit for a while. “ ‘Let me take them horses . . . then we can sit for a spell in the shade.’ ” (Lauran Paine, Bannon’s Law, 1982) sit in the shade of the wagon Relax, take it easy. “After a hard day a man’s entitled to sit in the shade of the wagon.” sit shotgun This expression, now general slang for riding as the passenger in a car, originated in the early West, where stagecoach drivers often had a guard with a shotgun sitting beside them. Often ride shotgun.

since Adam was a cowboy A long time. “I haven’t seen him since Adam was a cowboy.”

Siwash Chinook jargon for an Indian of the northern Pacific Coast; considered an offensive term by many.

since I was frog-high Since childhood. “ ‘Been huntin’ my own meat since I was frog-high,’ he told me.” (Louis L’Amour, The Lonesome Gods, 1983)

6666, The A famous cattle ranch once owned by S. Burke Burnett, a Texan who won it in a poker game with a hand of four sixes.

singer

See

CATTLE SINGER.

sing Indian Indians under torture or in great peril often courageously defied death by singing or chanting; this inspired the now historical expression to sing Indian, to act courageously in the face of death. “Sing Indian when Death has the draw on you.” singin’ with one’s tail up Being happy, carefree. “He’s a rare one, always singin’ with his tail up.” Single Star State An old, obsolete nickname for Texas, referring to the single star on its flag. sinker A humorous term for a doughnut or a biscuit, often a heavy one. sint A common pronunciation of sent. “He sint for the catalog.”

six-gun See SIXSHOOTER. “ ‘Even a kid like you could be a killer with a six-gun.’ ” (Max Brand, Riders of the Silences, 1919) six-shooter A popular name for the Colt revolver, patented by Samuel Colt in 1835 and also known as the Colt in the West. The revolver held six cartridges. 16-shooting liquor An old term for cheap, potent liquor; based on the 16-shooter rifle, which fired 16 shots without reloading. 69er A participant in the Montana gold rush of 1869. skedaddle Run away hurriedly; first recorded in about 1860, it may have been suggested by a similar Scotch dialect word. “You skedaddle back to your Pa.”

a sin to Davy Crockett A historical expression meaning something exceptional or extraordinary, referring of course to Davy Crockett (1786–1836), legendary frontiersman and hero at the Alamo. “The way we used ’em up (killed them) was a sin to Davy Crockett.”

skeered A common pronunciation of scared. “You got nerve, boy? You easy skeered?” (Louis L’Amour, The Haunted Mesa, 1987)

Sioux This Indian tribal group takes its name ultimately from the Chippewa Nadowessi (little smoke, enemy).

skeeters Mosquitoes. “Texas even has the biggest skeeters.”

sire

A euphemism for a bull.

sisters An old term for Mormon wives under polygamy.

skeert Scared. “ ‘I bet them boys . . . are good and skeert . . .” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985)

skid row The expression, common in all regions now, originated in the early Northwest, where roads were made of debarked small logs called skids. Skid row then came to mean a town with these skid roads and finally a disreputable part of town.

556 Happy Trails skirt scat A mountain man’s term for women’s talk. “I can stand to men’s talk but not to skirt scat.” (A. B. Guthrie Jr., The Big Sky, 1947) skite An old contemptuous term for a cross, disagreeable man unliked by all. skunk in the churchhouse A very delicate situation. See usage example at HAIR IN THE BUTTER. skunk wagon

A colorful cowboy term for a car.

skunt A word used for skinned. “He skunt his leg on the tree.” sky pilot A preacher. “Maybe he’s one a them walking sky pilots.” (Mari Sandoz, Son of the Gamblin’ Man, 1960) slab A term used in Oklahoma and elsewhere for a concrete or cement road or highway.

slope out To leave quickly. “ ‘All the more reason to slope out of here,’ I told him. ‘You heard what he said. You’ve got one hour.’ ” (Wayne D. Overholser, Gunlock, 1956) sloppin’ good gravy

slow bear According to an issue of Overland Monthly in 1869, “a hog clandestinely killed outside of camp and smuggled in under cover of darkness was called a ‘slow bear’ . . . ‘Mud lark’ signified the same thing.” slow brand See quote. “The law further required that every brand should be recorded in the county of its origin. A man who had blotted out a brand and put another in its place was naturally chary of putting his new brand on record. He simply ran it, trusting to get the cattle out of the county at the first opportunity. Such an unrecorded brand was called a ‘slow brand.’ ” (Frank J. Dobie, A Vaquero of the Brush Country, 1929) slow country

slapping leather Drawing a pistol in a gun fight. “ ‘I’m waiting, Wilson. Do I have to crowd you into slapping leather?’ ” (Jack Schaefer, Shane, 1949) slash

Flat clayey land that retains water after rain.

slattin’ his sails

Good food, a good meal.

Cowboy talk for a steep rocky trail.

slow elk Any stolen animal slaughtered and eaten was called slow elk in the early days of the West. slug An old word from Gold Rush days for a lump of gold or for any of several large, odd-shaped gold coins.

Said of a horse that starts to buck.

sleepers A euphemism for the dead. “ ‘You need to rest your mind,’ he said. ‘Don’t worry about the sleepers.’ ” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985) slick (1) An unbranded cow or other animal. (2) A wild horse; also called slick ears. slicker (1) A Texas name for a dumpling in chicken and dumplings. (2) A tool used for weeding. (3) A long oilskin waterproof coat; a slicker roll is a cowboy roll wrapped in a slicker. (4) A dude, as in city slicker. slime in the ice machine A recent popular expression or catch phrase in the Houston, Texas area for anything dirty, icky, gooey, nasty, distasteful. Apparently the expression originated with Houston news broadcaster Marvin Zindler, who uses the words to denounce health violations in local restaurants: “Sliiiiime in the ice machines!” According to the New York Times (3/9/94), a Texas governor used the same expression publicly when “served a dessert slathered with gooey peach syrup,” lending it more prestige. The president may be next. Slope Country An old name for the broken country in eastern Wyoming and Montana.

slumgullion This slang word for a thick stew was applied by Western miners to the thick red-colored mud of their sluice boxes. It was also applied in the West to a kind of bread pudding and to a cup of tea. Slungullion (with an n) is heard in Texas for a stew. small life Lice. “With his thumb he had been routing small life from the folds of his hairless skin . . .” (Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West, 1985) smearcase A German-derived term used in central Texas and elsewhere for cottage cheese. smechin

An old term for a little bit, a smidgen.

smell A glandular substance from a beaver that trappers used to bait beaver traps. “Bear showed me how to bait traps . . . Bear used a liquid he called ‘smell.’ It was named correctly, for it was the worst smelling stuff I’d ever come across.” (G. Clifton Wisler, My Brother, the Wind, 1979) smile A drink of liquor. “We had a few smiles together.” smiler

A drinker.

soda fountain 557 smile when you say that! SMILE!

See WHEN YOU CALL ME THAT,

Smith and Wesson A popular sevenshot pistol manufactured by Smith and Wesson and first used in the West in about 1860. See also SIX-SHOOTER. smoke Shoot. “‘You don’t smoke me and I don’t smoke you.” (Mark Twain, “Buck Fanshaw’s Funeral,” 1872) smoked Angry. “‘. . . he ain’t never been smoked yet. You know, Cactus, we ain’t had a row since he’s been with us.’” (O. Henry, “The Passing of Black Eagle” in The Best Short Stories of O. Henry, 1945) smooth as goose grease Anything or anyone very slippery or slimy. “He was a con man, as slick as goose grease.” smooth mouth

A cowboy term for an old horse.

snake blood Downright meanness. “His veins is filled with snake blood.” snake dance An American Indian ceremonial dance in which snakes or representations of snakes are handled or imitated by the dancers; the Hopi Indians use it as a dance in which they pray for rain. snake doctor

See

EAR SEWER.

snake-head whiskey Cheap rotgut liquor; once said to be brewed with snake heads added to the mixture for potency. snake killer

The

ROADRUNNER.

the snakes Delirium tremens, alcoholism. “ ‘He died of the snakes four months ago.’ ” (A. B. Guthrie Jr., Arfive, 1970) snap shooting Shooting quickly, apparently without aiming. “. . . only two or three of those nearest to the boy saw his hand flash up, with a gun in it . . . and saw the crow, high above them, stagger . . . toward the ground. This was no miracle. It was simply a case of snap shooting that made their eyes start in their hearts.” (Max Brand, Mountain Guns, 1930)

sniptious

See

RIPSNIPTIOUS.

snoose Snuff, finely powdered tobacco; from the Norwegian snuse for the same. “They’re all like Jarrell— drunken, wife-beating, snoose-chewing geeks with big belt buckles and catfish mustaches.” (Thomas McGuane, Nothing but Blue Skies, 1992) snowshoe dance A dance American Indians, especially the Ojibways, did wearing snowshoes when the first snow came. snuffed out Killed, like candles were extinguished by expert marksman in the West. “To be snuffed out by a kid like Tommy Mayo!” (Max Brand, The Making of a Gunman, 1929) snuffing the candle It hasn’t been depicted in a Western film, but snuffing the candle was a genuine entertainment on the American frontier. The term is recorded as early as 1838 and referred to a frontier amusement in which incredibly accurate riflemen snuffed candles with bullets as a test of marksmanship. Some (using either rifles or pistols) were said to be so good that they could shoot through the flames without putting the candle out. soapball The flower head of a Yucca species. “ ‘Soapballs,’ said Squirrel-eyes, who had been raised in Texas. And so they were. There was a soap-root growing profusely in all this region, with which Mexicans washed their clothes. From the top of its stalk grew a round fuzzy ball about four inches in diameter, which would ignite at the touch of a burning match.” (John R. Cook, The Border and the Buffalo, 1938) soapstone son-of-a-bitch I’ve found this derogatory expression only in Richard Ford’s novel Wildlife (1990), set in Montana around 1960, but believe it is a Western regionalism. Soapstone has a greasy slippery feel to it and is thus an appropriate name for an unctuous character, just as “Soapy Sam” was a century ago. The pertinent quote from Ford is “ ‘You can’t choose who your old man is,’ he said to me . . . ‘Mine was a son-of-abitch. A soapstone son-of-a-bitch.’ ” sob To soak, become soaked. “That field is watersobbed.” sobby

Soaked.

snatch (or jerk) baldheaded An old expression meaning to manhandle. “Just let me get hold of him, I’ll snatch him baldheaded!”

sock feet Stockinged feet. “If it hadn’t been for Specs I’d have come up in sock feet and killed you.” (William Hopson, The Last Shoot-out, 1958)

sneakin’ by Getting by. “We ain’t got much money, but we’re sneakin’ by.”

soda fountain An old name for a mineral water spring containing soda.

558 Happy Trails sodbuster

An old word for a farmer.

soddy A prairie sodhouse. “The [collapsed] soddy had been dug into a hillside . . . The other three sides were made of large sod bricks laid in double rows. Grass and flowers grew thickly on the partially caved-in-roof . . . The canvas door still hung askew from the broken cottonwood pole that served as a lintel. With charcoal someone had written on the stained, grey canvas:

(Lucia St. Clair Robson, Ride the Wind, 1982) A house built of sod. See

SODDY.

so drunk he couldn’t hit the ground with his hat in three throws Very drunk. springing heifer calf. sody

A cow about to give birth to her first

A common pronunciation of soda.

soft as a young calf’s ears

Very soft, velvety.

so hot we’re spittin’ cotton So hot all one’s spit has dried up. “ ‘We’re so hot we’re spittin’ cotton.’ ” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952) sombrero Spanish for a large straw or felt hat with a broad brim and tall crown but long used in the West to mean any similar hat. Derived from the Spanish Sombra (shade). “. . . Gil took off his sombrero, pushed his sweaty hair back . . . and returned the sombrero.” (Walter Van Tilburg Clark, The Ox-Bow Incident, 1940) some better A little better. “‘My oh my,’ murmured Monte. ‘I feel some better.’” (Jack Schaefer, Monte Walsh, 1958) somewheres

son of a bug-eater son-of-a-gun

See

BUG-EATER.

Another name for

SON-OF-A-BITCH-STEW.

son of a so-and-which A so-and-so, a son of a bitch. “He’s a son of a so-and-which.”

250 miles to post office. 100 miles to wood. 20 miles to water. 6 inches to hell.”

sodhouse

the old saying: “A son of a bitch might not have any brains and no heart, but if he ain’t got guts he ain’t a son of a bitch.” Sometimes the stew is called simply son-ofa-bitch. See also DISTRICT ATTORNEY.

Somewhere. “He’s out there somewheres.”

son-of-a-bitch-in-a-sack An old dish made of doughcovered dry fruit sewed in a sack and steamed; perhaps so named because of the cook’s impatient cries of “sonof-a-bitch” as he made it.

sonora A term used in California for a winter rain coming from the South, alluding to the state of Sonora in northwestern Mexico. sons Short for sons-of-bitches. “‘Hell, them ornery sons ain’t nothing but professional gunslingers.’” (Wayne D. Overholser, Buckaroo’s Code, 1947) sooner (1) Someone who entered what is now Oklahoma before it was officially opened to settlement on April 22, 1889. (2) Someone who entered any Western public land for settlement before the official settlement date in order to gain a choice location. (3) A native or inhabitant of Oklahoma, the Sooner State. Sooner State

A nickname for Oklahoma.

so poor his shadow has holes in it ragged and poor. sopranner

A pronunciation of soprano.

so ugly that when he was a little boy his momma had to tie a pork chop around his neck so the dog would play with him A saying heard in Texas. sour belly; sour bosum An old term for bacon in east Texas; called sow belly elsewhere. See also SOW BOSUM. sourdough bread Now known in commercial forms throughout the United States, sourdough bread, made from sour or fermented dough, was first a mainstay of miners in the early West, who were called sourdoughs because they carried some of the fermented dough with them from place to place to start new batches of bread. South Dakota

son-of-a-bitch stew You use everything but “the hair, horns and holler,” according to one recipe for son of a bitch stew, commonly made on chuck wagons in the old West. All the innards of a steer, including heart, brains and kidneys, had to be included in the stew, but the most indispensable ingredient was guts (tripe). This inspired

Someone very

See

NORTH DAKOTA.

southwest spurs See quote. “Ladino eased in dulled, four-prong ‘southwest spurs’ and loped Pete, the chestnut, toward where Buster had topped the spot for equine investigation.” (William Hopson, The Last Shoot-Out, 1958)

squaw ax 559 sow bosum Salt pork. “‘Sow bosum,’ even of the saltiest variety, was a rare luxury’.” (J. Frank Dobie, Coronado’s Children, 1930) See also SOUR BELLY. spaghetti western A cheap Western movie, first made in Italy in the 1960s, usually featuring bloody violence rather than plot or character. See also HORSE OPERA.

split the log According to Everett Dick in The Dixie Frontier (1948), a peculiar way of “banking” gold and silver on the frontier was “to bore holes in large blocks of wood, fill the holes with coins, and drive tightly fitting pegs in them. Then the pegs were sawed off short. This left no way to remove the money except by splitting the log.”

Spanish-American A word used since at least 1811 for a U.S. citizen of Spanish descent.

spook To frighten or become frightened, especially said of cattle and horses. “That shot spooked the herd.”

Spanish bayonet One of several Yucca species, especially Yucca aloifolia, whose leaves resemble bayonets. “Everything was dry, prickly, sharp; Spanish bayonet, juniper, greasewood, cactus; the lizard, the rattlesnake— and man made cruel by a cruel life.” (Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop, 1927)

spooky Said of a horse easily frightened. “My horse was real spooky and bolted off.”

Spanish dagger Any of several Yucca species, especially Yucca gloriosa.

spread A ranch. “‘I don’t rightly know,’ Cotton said finally, ‘why a man would stay on a spread where he don’t like the owner and hates the ramrod.’ ” (Wayne D. Overholser, Buckaroo’s Code, 1947)

Spanish kidneys Spanish trail early times.

See

PRAIRIE OYSTER.

A road or way used in the West since

spice and tang Flavor, joi de vivre. “The two of them hammered away at each other . . . thinking up arguments and throwing them at each other . . . I was near full grown before I understood that was how they liked it, how they kept some spice and tang in a hard life.” (Jack Schaefer, The Kean Land, 1953) spike

sporting woman A prostitute, loose woman. “ ‘I don’t suppose there’s a sporting woman in this town, is there?’ ” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985)

spring holster A holster worn under a loose coat and situated near the armpit, enabling a gunman to fire faster and more accurately. “ ‘. . . spring holsters are hard to keep in order, working easily, and . . . it’s not every comfortable . . . to have a pair of big guns rubbing between your arms and ribs every step you take.’ ” (Max Brand, The Galloping Broncos, 1929) so dry the bushes follow the dogs around weather, a drought.

A name hunters used for a buffalo.

spindletop 1901.

The first big Texas oil gusher, drilled in

spring poor Said of cattle that are lean in spring after a hard winter. spud

spint

Very dry

A white potato.

A common pronunciation of spent.

spit of The spitting image of. “He’s the spit of his father.” spizorinkum Born on the American frontier, spizorinkum was originally used during the 1850s as the term for “good,” hard money, as opposed to greenbacks or paper currency but soon came to have many diverse meanings, including “tireless energy.” It was possibly used so much just because people liked the sound of the word! In any case, spizorinkum is what one etymologist calls “an impossible combination” of the Latin specie (kind) and rectum (right)—that is, “the right kind.” splindid

A common pronunciation of splendid.

spuds Money. “He’s got enough spuds saved up to buy a car.” square up Make right. “‘Come over to see if I couldn’t square up whatever’s wrong between us.’” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973) squat

A bit of land; a claim.

squaw An Algonquian word meaning “woman” that is recorded in the East as early as 1634, long before the West was settled by whites, but is used in many Western terms (including those that follow). squaw ax squaws.

A small ax like those used by Indian

560 Happy Trails squaw dance An Indian dance in which the women chose partners. squaw hitch trappers.

A hitch or knot used in the Old West by

squaw man (1) A white man with an Indian wife. (2) An Indian who does “woman’s work.” (3) A derogatory name for an Indian who adopts white ways. squaw talk

Gossip, irrelevant talk, chatter.

squaw winter An early cold spell in autumn just before Indian summer. squaw wood Gathered firewood that doesn’t have to be chopped or sawed. squeech owl

standing pat Not changing one’s position, refusing to shift. “. . . gambling terms of the West and the Southwest had slowly been incorporated into the language of daily use. In keeping cases on him . . . standing pat . . . bluffing . . . bucking the tiger. Terms filched from the gaming table; poker and faro and keno.” (Edna Ferber, Cimarron, 1930) stand like a post Stand quietly without moving, do nothing. “ ‘Just stand there like a post,’ Buf said.” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985) starved rat Another name for the Rocky Mountain little chief hare (Ochotoma princeps); also known as the rock rabbit. stationhouse A place where stage-coaches stopped to change horses in the early West.

An occasional name of the screech owl.

stag dance A dance that apparently originated on the frontier in forts or mining camps, where there were few women, in which only men participated. The terms stag dinner, stag smoker and stag film probably all derive from this term. stake (1) To mark off a land or mining claim with stakes. (2) To furnish money or supplies for a mining venture or any undertaking. stake horse A horse tied to a stake in the ground, a common practice in Western mining camps.

stay in the tree! Stay in the saddle!; a cry of encouragement to bronc busters, and by extension, to anyone. stay until the last dog is hung An old expression meaning to stay until the very last. Steamer Day The day before mail steamers sailed to the states from early San Francisco; occurring bimonthly, Steamer Day was an important date on the calendar when businessmen and all citizens readied things for the mail.

stampede Cowboys borrowed the Spanish word for a sudden frenzied flight of a herd of animals. It derives from the Spanish estampida (stamp, rush, uproar) and is first recorded in 1843, though it was probably used 20 years earlier. A stampede is also an annual celebration combining a rodeo, contests and exhibitions.

Stetson After poor health forced John Batterson Stetson (1830–1906) to travel west at the time of the Civil War, it occurred to him that no one was manufacturing hats suited to the practical needs of the Western cowboy, and on his return to Philadelphia in 1865, he went into the hat business, specializing in Western-style headgear. The wide-brimmed, 10-gallon felt hats he manufactured immediately became popular with cowboys and have been called Stetsons, or John B.’s, ever since.

stamper A synonym for a broncbuster, a cowboy who breaks horses.

a stiff rope and a short drop A hanging. “He’s headed for a stiff rope and a short drop.”

stamping ground

stinger See quote. “‘The black patch [down below] is brush. The little thing moving along [cutting it] is the stinger, it’s a kind of tank with great knives and arms and head like a steel monster. It’s called a tree dozer, too.’ ” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952)

The home range

stand dayherd To watch cattle during the day while they graze and drink. standing dead A name given by firefighters in the West to trees left standing in a forest fire. “‘Do you know what they call the trees that’re left up when the fire goes by?’ ‘No,’ I said. ‘The standing dead,’ my mother said. ‘Don’t they have an interesting terminology for things?’ ” (Richard Ford, Wildlife, 1990)

stingy (cheap) enough to skin a flea fer its hide and taller (tallow) See quote. “He ranched on the Frio, and, as the saying goes, was ‘stingy enough to skin a flea for its hide and taller.’ ” (J. Frank Dobie, Coronado’s Children, 1930)

such a much 561 stob A stake, sharp stick; used mainly in the South and West. “. . . Po was trying to pull a stob of some kind out of his body . . . but the stob wouldn’t come out.” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985)

strike A sudden stroke of luck or success; the term is first recorded during the California gold rush in reference to a find of gold and was often called a lucky strike or a big strike.

stock ranch market.

A ranch on which cattle are raised for the

strike it rich This common expression originated in the California gold fields. See also STRIKE.

stock saddle A heavy saddle of 30 to 40 pounds with a strong tree and horn used for roping stock.

string (1) A cowboy’s rope. (2) A man’s personal horses. (3) A line of fence.

stogy; stogie A heavy boot made in the East; named after the Conestoga wagon manufactured in Conestoga, Pa., just as stogy cigars were.

stripper An oil well in Texas and other states that produces only 10 barrels of oil a day or less. All such wells together, however, make up one-fifth of the nation’s oil output.

stomp dance

An Indian war dance.

stoneboat A sled or wheelless vehicle for dragging stones in from a field. straddle bug Three boards nailed together in a tripod form and used to mark occupied claims by prospectors in the early West. straight arrow A decent, upstanding person; after an archtypical upright Indian brave. Also straight shooter. straight grain clear through Descriptive of an honest, upright, straightforward person. “He’s a special brand we sometimes get out here in the grass country. I’ve come across a few. A bad one’s poison. A good one’s straight grain clear through.” (Jack Schaefer, Shane, 1949) straight shooter arrow.

A decent, honest person. Also straight

straight through hell and out the other side Through the most difficult situation. “ ‘Hat Herrickson . . . Best damn trail boss I ever knew. He could take a herd straight through hell and come out the other side . . . [he’d] walk up to a grizzly and spit in its eye if that come along in the line of work.’ ” (Jack Schaefer, Monte Walsh, 1958)

strong arm Physical violence; used in the early West since about 1850; the term is first recorded as a verb meaning “to use physical force” some 50 years later. strung up

Hanged. See usage example at

SWING.

stubborn as a government mule Very stubborn. “At any rate, he claimed that someone had tried to poison him, became as stubborn as a government mule and refused to go a step farther.” (J. Frank Dobie, Coronado’s Children, 1930) studhorse study

An old name for stud poker.

A common pronunciation of steady.

stump sucker See quote. “Some horses are called stump-suckers because they have a penchant for chewing wood. Once they get the taste they’ll gnaw on stumps, fence posts, boards, and the corners of feed sheds. This neurotic habit is more apt to manifest itself in highly strung, overbred animals than in your common plug. Cowboys universally distrust the stump-sucking horse as being a beast with a mental disorder that renders them unfit for the long-term, trust-laden relationships they like to maintain with their mounts.” (Larry McMurtry, Cadillac Jack, 1982)

strengthy Strong. “He is a strengthy man though he don’t look it.”

stupid water A Comanche name for whiskey, because it made people act stupidly. “. . . the men of God [on the reservation] stripped the warriors of their very reason for living, war. They no longer had any away to attain status within their tribe. Whiskey, the ‘stupid water’ that the People had always scorned, became their solace.” (Lucia St. Clair Robson, Ride the Wind, 1982)

stretching the blanket Stretching the truth, lying. “ ‘I think you are stretching the blanket.’ ” (Charles Portis, True Grit, 1968)

such a much Such an important thing or big deal. “Didn’t seem like such a much at the time.” (Frank Roderus, Hell Creek Cabin, 1979)

strapped on his horse, toes down Dead; in reference to riders killed in range wars who were sent home strapped on their horses.

562 Happy Trails sugan; sugin; soogan; sougan A Scotch-Irish word for a coarse blanket or comforter made of patches of material; used by sheepherders, lumberjacks and others in the West. suicide gun Cowboys early in this century called the Colt .32 (and similar guns) a suicide gun because it lacked the power to stop an assailant dead in his tracks and thus often led to the death of the man who fired it. It was no match for the .44-caliber gun most gunfighters carried.

surly A word used in Texas for a bull; perhaps from a bull’s mean, surly expression. surround An Indian hunting method in which animals were surrounded and driven off a cliff into a deep ravine from which they couldn’t escape. suspicion Sometimes used instead of the verb “suspect” in Southern and Western speech. “I suspicioned they were going to do that.”

suit one’s tooth Appeal to one’s taste. “ ‘They eat catfish down there. It got where it kinda suited my tooth.’” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985)

Swainson’s hawk A Western hawk with a reddish breast-band and white under-plumage; named after English naturalist William Swainson.

sull To sulk; the word is a backformation from sullen. “There he is sullin’ over something or other.”

swallow-and-get-out trough An old name for a fastfood place like the restaurants in railroad stations.

sull up Get sullen or moody, uncommunicative. “‘Don’t sull up on me. Let’s get it aired.’ ” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992)

swallow the puppy Swallow one’s pride. “They asked us was we ready to respect the Government in Washington City . . . We said yes . . . we swallowed the puppy . . .” (Charles Portis, True Grit, 1968)

sumbitch Son of a bitch. “‘That sumbitch must be harder than hell to steer.’ ” (Thomas McGuane, Keep the Change, 1989) sum buck Son of a buck, a euphemism for son of a bitch. “‘Sum buck,’ he said. ‘Sum buck.’” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992) summer name An alias or pseudonym adopted by a man trying to hide his past. the sun don’t shine on the same dog’s ass all day Every dog has his day, or moment; the expression is used in Loren D. Estleman’s Western novel Bloody Season (1987) and may be a Western regionalism. sundown A term used to indicate the Far West. Also beyond sundown. “They were seeking a new home beyond sundown.” sunfishing The action of a horse bucking by dropping and raising its shoulders. Sunshine State

swamper (1) A menial worker, such as a cook’s helper, a janitor, a cleaner. (2) A low-level worker on a ranch. swan Swear. “ ‘I’ll swan!’ Myrtle said . . . ‘What could have done it, Buck?’ ” (Benjamin Capps, Tales of the Southwest, 1990) Also heard as swanny. sweet rolls A roll or pastry made of sweet dough, often with nuts, fruits and icing. “June brought him some sweet rolls and coffee and a carton of orange juice.” (Thomas McGuane, Nothing but Blue Skies, 1992) sweet tea Sweetened iced tea. “‘You boys want some sweet tea or something?’ ” (Philip Lee Williams, All the Western Stars, 1988) swing Hang. “As they were about to be strung up, Red Curly begged to be shot instead of hanged. He was refused . . . and so, with handcuffs on, he and Russian Bill had to swing.” (J. Frank Dobie, Coronado’s Children, 1930)

A nickname for New Mexico.

sure as shootin’ An expression meaning “for certain” that is first recorded in the West in the mid-19th century. sure as the world For certain. “‘We’re fixin’ to get the horses snakebit sure as the world,’ said Rawlins.” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992)

swing a wide loop To have a freewheeling lifestyle, do what one wants to do; to be unconfined, cover a large area. swing rider herd.

A rider who guards the main body of the

T Tabasco The condiment sauce’s name, which is a trademark, was apparently first applied to a potent liquor once popular in the Southwest. The liquor, in turn, took its name from the state of Tabasco in Mexico.

and throw him. Either of these practices could have prompted the saying take the bull by the horns, “screw up your courage and cope with a dangerous or unpleasant situation decisively, head on.”

tabernacle A Mormon place of worship, especially the Grand Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah.

take the hair To scalp. “The common expression now in use is that they proceeded to ‘take the hair of their victims.’ ” (De Witt C. Peters, The Life and Adventures of Kit Carson, 1858)

tail (1) To throw a bull by grabbing its tail and tripping it. (2) To catch a disabled deer by the tail and hold it while killing it with a knife, a practice of hunters in the early West.

take the rag off the bush If that doesn’t beat everything. The expression, used in the South as well as the West, may have originated with Western hunters who fired at rags that were targets tied on bushes. “ ‘I made a lot of mistakes in my day but this does take the rag off the bush.’ ” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952) Often heard as if that don’t take the rag off the bush!

tailings The remains or debris left from the washing of gold ore. tail rider A cowboy who rode in the rear of a cattle herd to handle stragglers.

take the town See quote. “. . . it was a common feat for him and his friends to ‘take the town.’ He and a couple of his friends might often be seen on one horse, galloping through the streets, shouting and yelling, firing revolvers, etc. On many occasions he would ride his horse into stores, break up bars . . .” (Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872)

take the bull by the horns Since the earliest quotation yet found for this expression is from 1873, it seems unlikely that it has its roots in bull-running, a brutal English sport popular from the day of King John until it was outlawed in the mid-19th century. (Bull-running consisted of a mob with clubs and dogs chasing a bull loosed in the streets and eventually beating it to death, a favorite trick for the braver bull chasers being to grab the poor beast by the horns and wrestle it to the ground.) More likely the expression originated in Spain or America. In bullfights Spanish banderilleros plant darts in the neck of the bull and tire him more by waving cloaks in his face and seizing him by the horns, trying to hold his head down. Rawboned early ranchers in the American Southwest also wrestled bulls, or steers, in a popular sport called bulldogging that is still seen in rodeos—the object being to grab the animal’s horns

take the long trail for To leave or depart for. “He took the long trail for Mexico.” take to the tall timber To depart suddenly and unceremoniously, a variation on the 19th century to break for the high timber, which meant to escape into the high woods at the edge of civilization in order to make pursuit by the law difficult. take up books To begin the school day. “Am I late? Has books been taken up?” 563

564 Happy Trails talking Texas See quote. “. . . these two were talking Texas . . . their conversation sounded like the dialogue in a third-rate parody of Texans. This was due partly to habit and partly to affectation born of a mixture of superiority and inferiority, as a certain type of Englishman becomes excessively Oxford or a Southern politician intensifies his drawl. Each was playing a role, deliberately. It was part of the Texas ritual. We’re as sonof-a-bitch stew but look how homely we are, just as plain-folksy as Grandpappy back in 1836. We know about champagne and caviar but we talk hog and hominy.” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952) Talking Water River See quote. “The Comanche called the Colorado Talking Water River for good reason. The racing, leaping rapids tumbling over its rock-strewn bed drowned out conversation.” (Lucia St. Clair Robson, Ride the Wind, 1982) talk the bark off a tree To talk forcefully, vehemently, excessively. “He kept going on about it, talking the bark off a tree.” tall country country.”

The mountains. “We made for the tall

tamale A dish made of minced seasoned meat packed in cornmeal dough, wrapped in corn husks and steamed; from the Nahuatl Indian tamalli for the same. tame Indian An offensive term once used for a friendly Indian who had adopted the ways of the white man, at a time when offensive things like this were done: “‘You get a puppy and hire a tame Indian. Then cut a willow switch and four or five times a day you have the Indian beat the puppy with the switch, and all the rest of his life he’ll signal when an Indian comes close.’ ” (Louis L’Amour, Hondo, 1953) tanglefoot rye; tanglefoot whiskey Cheap, potent whiskey that causes one to stumble. “It was unlike the white whiskey; not so bad, but still pretty bad—low grade, frontier tanglefoot rye, dear at a dollar a bottle.” (Oliver LaFarge, Laughing Boy, 1929) “He could . . . hold more tanglefoot whiskey without spilling it than any man in seventeen counties.” (Mark Twain, “Buck Fanshaw’s Funeral,” 1872) Also called simply tanglefoot. tank (1) See quote. “There are places in the desert called tanks, where water collects in natural rock basins. Sometimes it’s a large amount of water, sometimes only a little.” (Louis L’Amour, The Lonesome Gods, 1983) (2) Not a metal container that holds water but a facility up to an acre or more in size that holds water for cattle; called a farm pond in other regions. See also TUB.

Taos Indian A New Mexican pueblo Indian tribe of the upper Rio Grande region; the name derives from the native name of their chief pueblo. Taos Lightning A potent liquor made from corn or wheat in New Mexico. “According to local legend, a sudden jolt of Ol’ Towse had been known to stop the drinker’s watch and snap his suspenders.” (Matt Braun, The Brannocks, 1986) tarantula juice Cheap, potent liquor. “. . . the Comanches brought in a jug of fire water—regular old tarantula juice . . .” (J. Frank Dobie, Coronado’s Children, 1930) tarpoleon

A pronunciation of tarpaulin.

tarvia A term used in central Texas for a paved or “tarviated” road, from the name of an old U.S. company called Tarvia that paved roads. tata A title of respect once used in the Southwest for any important man; from the Spanish tata meaning the same. “The mescaleros called the president the Tata Grande.” Taxas taxel

A pronunciation of Texas often heard in Texas. A name for the badger (Taxidea taxus).

teacherage A historical term for a cottage built near the schoolhouse for a school’s teacher; patterned on vicarage and parsonage. tears of the sun An old Apache Indian term for gold, which the Apaches held sacred and not to be touched. techy as a cook Very touchy about the smallest things, like a chuckwagon cook. “ ‘My, you’re techy, Bick,’ he said. ‘You’re techy as a cook.’ ” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952) teeter-totter

Another word for seesaw.

Tejano Spanish for a Texan, the word often used in the old Southwest. “ ‘Yessiree, knowed ol’ Sam Houston, Bigfoot Wallace, an’ all them early Tejanos.’ ” (Marquis James, Cherokee Strip, 1945) temblo

Spanish for an earthquake.

temple

A Mormon place of worship.

tender job.”

Inexperienced. “He’s new and tender at the

Texas r 565 tenderfoot As early as the 17th century the British applied this word to horses that needed breaking-in before they could handle heavy loads. Next they used tenderfoot as a derogatory term for a vagrant. It wasn’t until the California gold rush of 1849 that Americans applied the word to footsore people unused to the hardships of pioneer life as they traveled in search of gold. Soon tenderfoot was a Western term for any greenhorn, not only one with sore feet. “In my tenderfoot ignorance,” Owen Wister wrote in The Virginian (1902), “I was looking indoors for the washing arrangements.” Westerners also used tenderfeet as a synonym for imported cattle. See also RAW-HEELS. 10-gallon hat Although the name is usually thought to be an indication of its liquid holding capacity, the Americanism 10-gallon hat has its origin in the Spanish word for braid, galón—the wide-brimmed hats worn by cowboys were originally decorated with a number of braids at the base of the crown. Vaqueros, in fact, called the hat the sombrero galón. tepee A plains Indian lodge made of skins and poles in a cone shape; from the Siouan ti (to dwell) and pi (used for). tepee on wheels Indians gave this name to the covered wagons of settlers on the Oregon Trail. Teton Range A mountain range in northwestern Wyoming that takes its name from the French teton (breast) because the mountains somewhat resemble women’s breasts. texas The roof of a covered wagon fixed to avoid water damage. “The old wagons blended into the gloominess. There was a waterproofed texas someone had made by raising a pole underneath the cloth, high in the center so water would run downward instead of accumulating in the center of the top, causing a hazardous sag . . . Everything seasoned rangemen could do to mitigate dampness had been done . . .” (Lauran Paine, The Open Range Men, 1990) Texas The state of Texas takes its name from a Caddo Indian word meaning “friends or allies” (written texas, texios, tejas, teyas) applied to the Caddos by the Spanish in eastern Texas, who regarded them as friends and allies against the Apaches. Westerners, especially Texans, vary in their pronunciation of Texas. The leading contenders among Texans are Tex-siz and Tex-sis, with the Yankee Tex-suhs a distant third. Texas was admitted to the Union in 1845 as our 28th state. Texas bluebonnet

See

BLUEBONNET.

Texas blueweed thus ciliaris.

The Southwestern sunflower Helian-

Texas brag See quote. “‘He’ll tell you everything was originally made in Texas. Texas brag. Worse than the Russians.’ ” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952) Texas butter An old term for a gravy made of flour and animal fat. Texas coaster

See

COASTER.

Texas fandango A variation on the FANDANGO. “Jack Omohundro danced a Texas fandango with her.” (Larry McMurtry, Buffalo Girls, 1990) Texas fever (1) A fever of cattle transmitted by a cattle tick (Margerapees annulatus) much feared in the early West; also called Texas murrain, Spanish fever and fever. (2) The extreme desire to emigrate to Texas, an expression common in the late 19th century. Texas Independence Day March 2, the anniversary of the independence of Texas from Mexico in 1836 and the birthday of Texan hero Sam Houston as well. Texasism Any expression peculiar to Texas; the term has been used since the mid-19th century. Texas leaguer A cheap hit that falls between the infield and the outfield in baseball is called a Texas leaguer because back in 1886 three players who had been traded up to the majors from a Texas league team enabled Toledo to beat Syracuse by repeatedly getting such hits. After the game, the disgusted Syracuse pitcher described the hits as just “little old dinky Texas leaguers” and the name stuck. Texas longhorn A once-common breed of Southwestern beef cattle developed from cattle introduced from Spain and noted for their fecundity and resistance to disease. Also called coaster. Texas pony

A cow pony.

Texas r “But there was another heritage that marked Texans far from home, their Texas way of speaking; the way they used a soft r, the way they flavored their speech with Spanish words or Spanish curses, the way they had of rarely raising their voices, and this latter characteristic had filled many an unmarked cow-camp grave, because in a land of violent, vociferous men, that softspoken Texas drawl just didn’t seem to register deadliness.” (Lauran Paine, Frontier Steel, 1981)

566 Happy Trails Texas Ranger (1) A member of the Texas state police force. (2) In days past, a member of the mounted state police. (3) A member of a group of Texas settlers organized to maintain order. Texas sage A scarlet-flowered hairy plant (Salvia coccinea) of the mint family native to the Southwest. Texas-size ache.”

Texas tea Another name for MARIJUANA. (2) A humorous name for oil. Texas turkey armadillo.

A humorous name for the common

Texas twist An intricate twist in the horns of Texas longhorn cattle, whose “rocking chair” horns can often measure over 77 inches. “And what made this bull additionally attractive were the cows and steers sired by him, their horns showing the Texas twist, some to such an exaggerated degree that they were museum pieces.” (James A. Michener, Texas, 1985) Texas wedge A humorous golfing term not for a wedge club but for a putter “when it can be used for a short approach shot over very flat rather bare ground, as might be found in Texas,” according to Stuart Berg Flexner in Listening to America (1982). Texian; Texican

Old term for a Texan.

Tex-Mex This word, dating back to about 1945, means of or pertaining to aspects of culture developed in Texas but based on or strongly influenced by Mexican elements, such as Tex-Mex cooking.

thank

thataway That way. “‘Take half of the men and make a big circle thataway.’ He indicated with a sweep of his hand a circle that would start toward the south, swing west, then come in from the north.” (Sam Brown, The Crime of the Coy Bell, 1992)

Large, big. “I’ve got a Texas-size head-

Texas-star boots High-heeled leather boots with stars at the top for decoration.

thang cue

that Sometimes used redundantly in phrases such as “Because that I couldn’t go.”

that damned cowboy Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt, who had been a North Dakota rancher from 1884 to 1886 and formed a cowboy “Rough Riders” unit during the Spanish-American War, became president of the United States in 1901 when William McKinley was assassinated. Political boss Senator Mark Hanna’s comment was “Now look, that damned cowboy is president.” that don’t mean pig pee That means nothing at all; an expression heard by the writer in an Austin, Texas bar. that’s all she wrote There’s no more, that’s all there is. Possibly referring to a “Dear John letter,” this phrase became popular in the West during or just after World War II and is now used nationally. that’s where the West begins An expression from Arthur Chapman’s poem “Out Where the West Begins,” the refrain of which goes: “Out where the handclasp’s a little stronger, / Out where the smile dwells a little longer, / That’s where the West begins.” that there them

That. “That there horse is mine.”

The; those. “He took one of them horses.”

them there

Those. “Where are them there horses?”

there ain’t no horse that can’t be rode,/ there ain’t no man that can’t be throwed An old Western saying.

A common pronunciation of thank you.

A pronunciation of think. See usage example at

TOLT.

thankee An old-fashioned form of thank you. “‘Thankee. Sure feels better by this fire, I’ll tell you.’ ” (Frank Roderus, Hell Creek Cabin, 1979) thank you much Thanks a lot. “Joe got the money out of his shirt and reached it to him. ‘Thank you much,’ said the old man.” (Thomas McGuane, Keep the Change, 1989)

there’s a one-eyed man in the game Watch out for a cheat. The expression had its origins in poker, from an old superstition that it was unlucky to play cards with a one-eyed gambler. there’s more difference within the breeds than between them See quote. “But hell, they were cows. Breed was a small matter . . . Charlie always remembered what oldtime cattle buyer E. W. Nicodemus had told him: ‘There’s more difference within the breeds than ever there was between them.’ ” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973)

times, ver’ quiet, ver’ soft, like summer night, but when she made she blaze 567 there’s nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos A warning against excessive moderation; attributed to Texas politician Jim Hightower. these yere

These. “These yere horses are mine.”

the three B’s A proverb once taught in Western schoolrooms: “Be kind, be thoughtful and be yourself.” thisaway

This way. “We come 10 miles thisaway.”

this child Used by a speaker to mean himself or herself. “This child’s not going to be there no matter how many people come.” thish-yer This here. “ ‘Well, this-yer Smiley had a yaller one-eyed cow that didn’t have no tail, only just a short stump like a bannanner . . .” (Mark Twain, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” 1865) this’n This one. “ ‘You ever eat a jackrabbit?’ said Rawlings . . . ‘You better rustle some more wood if you aim to eat this’n.’ ” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992) thoughty you.”

Thoughtful. “That was mighty thoughty of

’thout (1) A contraction of without commonly heard in the West. “He wouldn’t go ’thout his dog.” (2) Unless. “I wouldn’t go ’thout he came and got me.” thowed Common pronunciation of throwed. “ ‘You ain’t ridin’ with us,’ said Rawlings. ‘You’ll get us thowed in the jailhouse.’ ” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992) 3-7-77 The numerals 3-7-77, accompanied by a skull and crossbones, were first used by Montana vigilantes to warn a man to leave the county; the measurement three feet wide, seven feet long and 77 inches deep is roughly that of a grave. throwed (1) Often used instead of throw in a past tense usage and instead of threw. “When did you throwed it away?” “I throwed it away yesterday.” (2) Shocked, disturbed, knocked off balance like a roped steer or horse. “ ‘Well say, Bick, I sure was throwed when I heard the news.’ ” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952) throws a big loop A man who throws a big loop is a cattle thief or rustler, the “big loop” referring of course to his lasso roping in more than it should.

thumb

See

THUMBER.

thumb-buster An outdated, inefficient gun. “‘What did you bring to shoot?’ said Rawlins. ‘Just Grandad’s old thumb-buster.’” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992) thumber A shooter, opting for speed rather than accuracy, who thumbs or fans his gun by pulling back and releasing the hammer with his thumb instead of pulling the trigger. thundermug A bedpan. “May laughed and picked the dreadful thing up . . . ‘What’s wrong, Prof? Never saw a thundermug in your life?’ ” (A. B. Guthrie Jr., Arfive, 1970) Thu’sday

A pronunciation of Thursday.

tidies Protective coverings for the backs of chairs. “There were fresh doilies on the marble-top tables and clean tidies on the chair backs.” (Conrad Richter, The Sea Of Grass, 1937) tienda A Spanish word used in the Southwest for a store or shop. tie one to that! Beat that one if you can!, an expression mainly used after someone has told a wild tale or recited an improbable fact. tiger shits Cowboy slang for very rough country like the South Dakota badlands. “We rode through the tiger shits yesterday.” tigers of the desert

A nickname for the Apaches.

tighter than the bark on a tree An old expression applied to a very cheap person. “If you wasn’t tighter than the bark on a tree, your wife wouldn’t have to do her own washing.” (American Magazine, November 1913) till rattlers get tame Forever. “ ‘You could try till rattlers got tame, but it’d take ten like you to make one like Hal.” (Max Brand, Riders of the Silences, 1919) timber beast A colorful term for a logger or lumberjack that was once common in Oregon and Washington. times, ver’ quiet, ver’ soft, like summer night, but when she made she blaze A poetic term said to be “the Indian equivalent for firefly” by Mark Twain in his short story “A Horse’s Tale” (1906).

568 Happy Trails time to whistle up the dogs and piss on the fire Time to leave. “ ‘Well, son,’ he said, ‘it’s time to whistle up the dogs and piss on the fire. Have a good summer . . .’ ” (Thomas McGuane, Keep the Change, 1989)

tol’able well Tolerably. “We’re doin’ tol’able well. How’s things out your way?”

tin (1) Synonymous with can since the early days of the West, when the country was already littered with them, as this quote from Owen Wister’s The Virginian (1902) shows: “These picnic pots and cans were the first of her trophies that Civilization dropped upon Wyoming’s virgin soil. The cowboy is now gone to worlds invisible: the wind has blown away the white ashes of his campfires; but the empty sardine box lies rusting on the face of the Western earth.” (2) A pronunciation of ten.

tolt A pronunciation of told. “ ‘I tolt you,’ he said. ‘It’s all you thank about.’ ” (Larry McMurtry, Cadillac Jack, 1982)

tolerable

Tolerably; rather. “It’s tolerable wet today.”

tongue oil In a continuing quest for synonyms for whiskey and other strong drink, I’ve come upon tongue oil several times. It’s a Western expression dating back perhaps to the mid-19th century and obviously refers to the way spirits loosen one’s tongue. tonsil varnish

tinhorn gambler In chuck-a-luck, an ancient dice game very popular during the California gold rush, gamblers bet against the house that all three dice used would read the same when rolled or that the sum of all three dice would equal a certain number or that one of the three dice would turn up a specified number. It is a monotonous game and was looked down upon by players of faro, a more complicated and costly pastime. Faro operators coined the name tinhorn gamblers for chuck-aluck players, giving us the expression for any cheap gambler. Pulitzer Prize winner George Williston explained how in his book Here They Found Gold (1931): “Chuck-a-luck operators shake their dice in a ‘small churn-like affair of metal’—hence the expression ‘tinhorn gambler,’ for the game is rather looked down upon as one for ‘chubbers’ (fools) and chuck-a-luck gamblers are never admitted within the aristocratic circles of faro dealers.” The expression is commonly used throughout the United States today. tinnis

An old cowboy name for cheap whiskey.

Tonto (1) Tonto, the name of the fabled Lone Ranger’s sidekick, was a name indiscriminately given by the Spanish to several Indian tribes, including the Tonto Apaches. Tonto is the Spanish word meaning “fool” but reflects the ignorance and foolishness of the namers rather than the named. (2) An old term for Indians who have broken with traditions and are looked down upon by their tribes. “. . . Glanton and his men were host to a motley collection of citizens and soldiers and reduced Indians or tontos as their brothers outside the gates.” (Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, or, The Evening Redness in the West, 1985) too brittle to bend Not adaptable to change; unable to bend with the wind. “I’m too old . . . and too brittle to bend.” (Elmer Kelton, The Time It Never Rained, 1973) too lazy to work and too nervous to steal totally useless no-account person.

Said of any

A pronunciation of tennis. toolhouse

A tool shed.

Tio Taco A recent slang expression for a MexicanAmerican who is accused of being servile to whites by other Mexican-Americans. It literally translates as “Uncle Taco.” See also Uncle Tomahawk.

too much mustard Used to describe someone very disagreeable and contentious. “He’s got too much mustard.”

tiswin An intoxicating drink brewed and drunk by Apache Indians.

too thick to drink and too thin to plow unpalatable water.

ti yi yee, ti yi yi yay A cowboy cry, as in this old folk song stanza quoted by Kerry Newcomb in Morning Star (1983):

toothpick Another name for the BOWIE KNIFE, also called an Arkansas toothpick and a California toothpick.

So come on you dogies It’s late in the day Sing ti yi yee Ti yi yi yay.

tobacker

A pronunciation of tobacco.

top screw tore

Muddy,

An assistant ranch foreman.

Torn. “It was all tore up.”

toro The Spanish word for bull; commonly used in the Southwest.

turnaround 569 tortilla Spanish for a thin, round unleavened bread made from corn or wheat flour and baked on a flat iron plate or the like. tote

tree yucca true grit person.

See

JOSHUA TREE.

Unflinching courage or determination in a

To carry. “He toted the sack up the hill.”

trade rat Another name for the packrat or wood rat of the genus Neatoma that collect in or near their nests a great variety of small objects. trail (1) A road made by the repeated passage of animals or people. (2) A cattle trail. (3) A specific trail, such as the Santa Fe Trail. trail broken trailin’est

T.T.T. Initials often seen on temperance wagons in the early West meaning the owner is a “tea-to-taller.” tub

A metal container that holds water. See also TANK.

tuckered out Very tired; an expression heard in other regions as well. “ ‘Is he dead?’ Newt asked . . . ‘No, just tuckered out,’ Cal said.” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985)

Cows used to walking on the trail. See usage example at

RUNNIN’EST.

Trail of Tears See quote. “Tears came to his own eyes when he spoke of that blot on southern civilization, The Trail of Tears, in which the Cherokees, a peaceful and home-loving Indian tribe, were torn (1838–39) from the land which a government had given them by sworn treaty to be sent far away on a marsh which, from cold, hunger, exposure, and heartbreak, was marked by bleaching bones from Georgia to Oklahoma.” (Edna Ferber, Cimarron, 1930) trail waddy

A cowboy. See also

trap a squaw get married.

WADDY.

An old humorous expression meaning to

trapper One who trapped animals, especially beaver, in the early West. “Your hunter is a man of temperament. He is an artist. He lives under a tension. But your trapper is a strategist.” (Max Brand, The Fastest Draw, 1925) traveler’s friend

Another name for the COMPASS CACTUS.

travois An Indian conveyance for goods and belongings pulled by a horse or dog. “Sam Joseph returned with two neatly trimmed travois poles. Dolan took the ax from him and cut several smaller trees to use for crosspieces. He got blankets from behind his saddle. Now, with Frank’s rope, with the poles and blankets, with leather strips cut from the rear cinch of his own double-rigged saddle, he made a travois. After saddling Dunklee’s horse, he lashed it in place.” (Lewis B. Patten, Posse From Poison Creek, 1969) Treasure State

A nickname for Montana.

tree dozer

STINGER.

See

tule land A term used in Northern California for marshy, swampy land, from the Nahuatl tollin (bulrush), which grows in such low swampy areas. A Western region overgrown with these bulrushes is also called a tule and tule swamp. tumbadore The Spanish name for cowboys or vacqueros who throw or tumble calves to be branded. “ ‘The men who are throwing the calves—they’re called tumbadores . . . It looks like a feat of strength but they’re not really lifting those calves. You squeeze the calf’s ear, it jumps, you pull him sideways and he falls flat on his right side with his left side up, ready for branding.’ ” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952) tumbleweed Any of several plants, including the Amaranthus genus and Russian thistle (Salsola kali), whose branching upper parts come loose from the roots and are driven by the wind across the prairie. The plant, like sagebrush, has become a symbol of the West, as in song lyrics such as “tumbling along with the tumbling tumble weed.” One old belief has it that God put tumbleweed here to show cowboys which way the wind is blowing. More amusing perhaps is the “tumbleweed stampede” in Larry McMurtry’s novel Texasville (1987), where he describes a field of marathon runners attacked by the “killer weeds” after an extraordinary wind breaks “thousands and thousands of them . . . loose from the thin soil . . .” and they cover “the whole plain solidly, as the herds of buffalo had once been said to cover it.” turd-floater A very heavy rain. “Unfortunately a rare downpour had occurred . . . It had been a real turdfloater . . .” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985) turnaround A pioneer who, out of fear or hardship, turned back home after heading west. “McKeag said, ‘I never figured you for a turnaround.’ ” (James Michener, Centennial, 1974)

570 Happy Trails turn loose them.” turrible

To fire a gun. “He turned loose his gun on

two whoops and a holler A short distance, not far, “within spitting range.” The phrase probably dates back to the late 19th century.

A pronunciation of terrible.

two-gun toter

See usage example at

RIP-SNORTING.

tyee Chinook jargon used in the early Northwest for chief, boss, king.

U ugh! There is no record of an American Indian ever uttering the sound ugh! when he or she meant “yes” or “hello.” The term can be traced to dime romances about the American West popular at the turn of the century, its use perpetuated by early American motion pictures. As a sound of contempt and disgust, ugh is first recorded in 1837 but is probably much older. See also A.

up Green River When American mountain men killed a man a century ago, they sent him up Green River, this referring not directly to Wyoming’s Green River but to the common Green River knives used in many a fight. They were called that because they were made at the Green River works and stamped with that designation. See also UP TO GREEN RIVER.

ugly stick

up Shit Creek without a bullboat An early Western expression for a futile situation, conveying the same idea as the better-known up shit creek without a paddle. A bullboat was a lightweight boat used by fur traders.

See

WORKED OVER WITH THE UGLY STICK.

Uncle Tomahawk Recent slang for an American Indian who is accused of being servile to whites by other Indians; patterned on the older familiar term “Uncle Tom.” See also TIO TACO.

up to Green River Anything effective was once said to be up to Green River in the West because excellent knives used by hunters and trappers were made at the Green River works in the Western Territory. See also UP GREEN RIVER.

uncombed Unkempt, dirty, disheveled. “‘He’s a big, uncombed man, a brute.’” (Louis L’Amour, Comstock Lode, 1981) under a flag Said of someone living under an assumed name or alias.

used to Formerly. “Used to, we’d stay out in the field till sundown.”

until the last dog is hung Until the end, usually heard in reference to someone staying at a party until the very last. “We were there until the last dog was hung.” The expression is first recorded in Stewart Edward White’s Western novel The Blazed Trail (1902), and the hanged “dogs” in it probably referred to hanged men.

used to could Used to be able to. “I used to could get around better’n I do now.” Utah Utah takes its name from the fierce proud Indian tribe called the Utes that resided there and whose name meant “hill dwellers.” In 1850 the area encompassing present-day Utah constituted the Utah Territory, the colorful Mormon name for it, Deseret, or “honeybee,” being rejected by Congress. Utah became our 45th State in 1896.

unwind To buck; said of a horse. “The horse unwound and threw her.” up To act suddenly, impulsively. “She up and run off with him.”

Utahan

up and down as a cow’s tail Honest and forthright. “He’s as up and down as a cow’s tail.” 571

A native of Utah; also Utahian, Utahn.

V vaca The Spanish word for cow, sometimes used by cowboys in the early Southwest.

vaya con Dios Go with God, a Spanish term commonly heard in the Southwest.

vag To arrest for vagrancy. “They vagged him last night and threw him in the hoosegow.”

vecino A Spanish word that is used in the Southwest as a derogatory term for a Mexican or Hispanic.

vámonos

vega An old word for a large plain, valley or meadow; from a Spanish word meaning the same.

Let’s go; borrowed from the Spanish.

vamoose Leave quickly. “He vamoosed out of there.” From the Spanish vamos (let’s go).

veranda

vaquero A direct borrowing of the Spanish word for a ranch hand or cowboy that Westerners were using as early as 1800. Buckaroo, meaning the same, is an English corruption of vaquero also used in the West, though in Texas the buckaroo is a roaming bachelor cowboy, and in California a buckaroo is a cowboy born or raised on a ranch and living there with his family.

See

PORCH.

verbena See quote. “. . . that low-growing purple verbena which mats over the hills of New Mexico. It was like a great violet velvet mantle thrown down in the sun . . . the violet that is full of rose colour and is yet not lavender; the blue that becomes almost pink and then retreats again into sea-dark purple . . .” (Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop, 1927)

variable hare See quote. “A rabbit as large as a spaniel flushed from a clump of grass . . . The variable hare . . . The jack rabbit of the high plains.” (A. B. Guthrie Jr., Arfive, 1970)

verdin A small yellow-headed bird (Auriparus flaviceps) of the Southwestern desert. very dinky, the Something, usually something inanimate, that is the height of perfection. “Boy, that new saw is the very dinky.” Also the very dinkum.

varmint Though used in the West, varmint is not an Americanism, as one would think from scores of Westerns. The word for an animal pest or a despicable person is a corruption of vermin and of British origin. Vermin comes from the Latin vermis (worm).

vinegaroon A large nonpoisonous whip scorpion of the Southwest that emits a fluid with a vinegary odor when disturbed.

varmint stew A stew made from animals usually not used for food. “ ‘This is my varmint stew,’ Captain Maude said. ‘[Made from] whatever the dogs catch . . . or the dogs themselves, if they don’t manage to catch nothing.’ ” (Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, 1985)

visit with you Speak to or with on the phone. “Ah need to visit with you.” vittles 572

An old term for food.

voyageur 573 vomito A Southwestern term, from a Spanish word meaning the same, for a virulent form of yellow fever often accompanied by black vomit. vouchers See quote. “Indian fighters with ‘vouchers,’ as they called the scalps dangling from their belts,

paraded the streets [of San Antonio c. 1876].” (J. Frank Dobie, Coronado’s Children, 1930) voyageur An expert boatsman, woodsman and guide, often French Canadian, who transported people or goods in the early Northwest.

W waddy Any honest cowhand, though waddy originally meant a cattle rustler; the word’s origin is unknown. “‘This is how it was with the old waddies, ain’t it?’ ” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992)

come out to see us from Houston or Dallas.’” (James A. Michener, Texas, 1985)

wagon boss

walking treaty A treaty in which the land granted was measured by the time it took to walk across it; Indians often sold land this way.

The person in charge of a

walking-stick cholla

WAGON TRAIN.

wagon mound A hill that resembles the top of a covered wagon; used as a place name in the past.

See

CANE CHOLLA.

waltz through handsome Take especially good care of. “‘. . . we want to give him a good send-off, and so the thing I’m on now is to roust somebody to jerk a little chin-music fer us and waltz him through handsome.’” (Mark Twain, “Buck Fanshaw’s Funeral,” 1872)

wagon train A historical term for wagons traveling together in transporting settlers and goods West. wait on (1) Wait for, await. “What are you waiting on?” (2) Said of a doctor who attends his patients. “The doc’s waitin’ on him.”

wa’n’t

wal A very common pronunciation of well. “Wal, I got to get going now.”

A pronunciation of wasn’t. “He wa’n’t there.”

want no truck with To want nothing to do with. “ ‘No wild animal wants no truck with a man.’ ” (Louis L’Amour, Hondo, 1953)

Walker Colt See quote. “[Captain Sam Walker] sketched a picture of the battle of Pedernales, with himself on a black horse and El Diablo Hays on a white one. He sent the drawing to Samuel Colt, who had a die made of it. The scene became part of the cylinder on each nine-inch long, four-and-a-half-pound six-shooter, the Walker Colt.” (Lucia St. Clair Robson, Ride the Wind, 1982)

war A pronunciation of was. “It war too damp in East Texas.” warn’t Wasn’t. “ ‘I remember the big flume warn’t finished when he first come to the camp.’ ” (Mark Twain, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” 1865)

walkin’-around longhorns A name given to prize Texas longhorns (whose “rocking chair” horns can measure more than 77 inches from tip to tip) kept as “pets” by rich Texans. “‘We call them ‘walkin’- around Longhorns,’ the man said. ‘We buy them to adorn our ranches so women can “Oh!” and “Ah!” when they

warsh

A pronunciation of wash.

Washoe The former name of the territory that became Nevada; from the name of the Washoe Indians of the region. “Washoe is a pet nickname for Nevada.” (Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872) 574

Wham 575 Washoeites A name for the miners who rushed to Nevada silver mines when the Comstock lode was discovered in 1859. See also WASHOE. watch your hair A humorous farewell in the early west, referring of course to scalping by Indians. “ ‘See you around, John Selman. Watch your hair.’ ” (Gene Shelton, Last Gun, 1991) watermillion Sometimes heard as a pronunciation of watermelon. “When men reached this area [Rattlesnake Buttes in Colorado] . . . they would sometimes in autumn stumble upon such a ball of writhing snakes [twisted together]—‘they was as big as a watermillion’— and they would be horrified . . .” (James A. Michener, Centennial, 1974) water-shy Said of a person who doesn’t wash much and looks and smells it. water witcher stick.

One who divines water with a forked

wawa A historical term for talk, speech; from Chinook jargon.

well-heeled

See

HEEL.

well, I’m a hollow-horn A common exclamation. “‘Well, I’m a hollow horn! I sure didn’t go fer to hurt your feelings.’” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952) went

Often used instead of gone. “She’s went home.”

West Generally used in the United States today to mean the region west of the Mississippi River. The term Westerner for someone who lives in the region west of the Mississippi is first recorded in 1835. Westering West.

A term used by pioneers meaning to travel

Western A term used since about 1929 for a movie or novel about the West, especially one featuring cowboys and Indians. westerner

See

WEST.

Westernism A word or expression peculiar to the West; first recorded in 1837. Western omelet

See

DENVER OMELET.

wax Chewing gum, especially in East Texas. “You got any wax?”

Western saddle

See

COWBOY SADDLE.

weaner A word used in the Rocky Mountains for a newly weaned animal such as a calf or pig; the term possibly originated in Australia.

Western sandwich A sandwich made of an omelet with onions, green peppers and chopped ham between slices of bread or toast; also called a Denver sandwich.

wear Endurance. “‘If there’s enough wear in you, you’ll be the man for me.’ ” (Max Brand, War Party, 1934)

wetback A Mexican immigrant or worker who illegally crosses the Rio Grande into the United States, sometimes swimming to get across; the term is a relatively recent one, first recorded in 1948.

wearing calluses on his elbows Spending time in a saloon, according to Western Words (1961 edition) by Ramon F. Adams. Similarly, an elbow bender, another term from the Old West, means a “drinking man,” because he bends his elbow to convey his glass to his lips. wear the blanket

See

wet bars and dry trails I’ve heard it said that many a cowboy’s life was wet bars and dry trails. This may be a Western folk saying, or it may have been coined by Conrad Richter in his The Sea of Grass (1936), the only place I can find it recorded.

BLANKET INDIAN.

wet Chinook webfoot A humorous name for anyone from Oregon, because of the state’s long winter rains, perfect for webfooted ducks. well-greased Well thought out, planned. “ ‘A wellgreased idea,’ says the sheriff, admiring, ‘to slip off down here and buy a little sheepranch where the hand of men is seldom heard. It was the slickest hideout I ever see.’ ” (O. Henry, “The Hiding of Black Bill” in The Best Short Stories of O. Henry, 1945)

See

CHINOOK.

wet stock Rustled horses that were smuggled across the Rio Grande in one direction or another. Wet pony is a similar expression. whaleback

See

BALDHEAD.

Wham The fictional “explosive” town in which is set the classic Western Destry Rides Again. “ ‘Lil’ ol’ town, you don’t amount to much,’ said Harry Destry. ‘You

576 Happy Trails never done nothin’ an’ you ain’t gunna come to no good. Doggone me if you ain’t pretty much like me!’ ” (Max Brand, Destry Rides Again, 1930) wham bam, thank you, ma’am An act of quick sexual intercourse; the expression is first recorded in the Southwest. whang leather Long narrow strips of leather used to make saddle strings and for other purposes. “I can still see his bedroom . . . with a fancy horsehair bridle and ropes on the wall, and a brown buckskin partly cut away in strips for whang leather.” (Conrad Richter, The Sea of Grass, 1937) whar A pronunciation of where. “Whar are you going?” what fo (1) What sort of (a), what kind of (a). “What for a day it’s going to be?” (2) Hell. “Twenty-odd of us stood off more’n two hundred . . . We gave ’em what-for, we did.” (Louis L’Amour, The Lonesome Gods, 1983) what I mean I mean.” whatness

I mean. “Get out of here. In a hurry, what

Equal size. “They’re of a whatness.”

what’s your hand read? Who employs you, where do you belong, where do you stand; after a hand in cards. “What’s your hand read, Lando? You a company man?” (Louis L’Amour, Showdown at Yellow Butte, 1953) wheat ranch grown.

A large Western ranch on which wheat is

wheel barrel A folk-etymology of wheel barrow heard in northern California, Texas and other places in the West. wheeler dealer In gaming houses of the 18th-century American West, a big wheeler and dealer was a heavy better at cards and the roulette wheels. Through this tradition and the association of a big wheel as the man (or wheel) who makes the vehicle (things) run, the expression came to mean a big-time operator by the early 1940s, usually with an unsavory connotation, the wheeler dealer being the type who runs over anything in his path with no regard for rules of the road. whelp

A welt. “He raised whelps on him.”

when good Texans die, they go to Colorado An old Colorado saying quoted in James Michener’s Texas (1985).

when you call me that, smile! A famous Western and now national expression often heard as Smile when you call me that (or say that). It has its origins in one of the most famous scenes in American literature, in Owen Wister’s The Virginian (1902), whose eponymous hero became the basis for American heroes like John Wayne. When called a “son-of-a———” by the saddlebum Trampas, “the Virginian’s pistol came out, and his hand lay on the table, holding it unaimed. And with a voice as gentle as ever, the voice that sounded almost like a caress, but drawling a little more than usual, so that there was almost a space between each word, he issued his orders to the man Trampas: “‘When you call me that smile!’ And he looked at Trampas across the table. “Yes the voice was gentle. But in my ears it seemed as if somewhere the bell of death was ringing.” Trampas, of course, backs down, failing to draw his steel.

where at’s Where is. “‘Where at’s Buck?’ ” (Edna Ferber, Giant, 1952) whip

An old name for a stagecoach driver.

Whip of God See quote. “With the men and the horses and the steers mingling and the ground near shaking with the rush, and the dust rising, a strange thing happened. This was that a red scut of blood like a hell-red rainbow came up from the center, shooting to the sky, then bending over and fanning away south. Some horn had slashed a big artery in a cow or horse. Times later I told a Mex about it, and he rolled his eyes and said it was the Whip of God. Said he had seen similar. It is possible he had.” (Charles O. Locke, The Hell Bent Kid, 1957) white-bellied weasel A weak, contemptible sneak. “That white-bellied weasel? Tell him when I’m ready for him I’ll come an’ get him. First I want him done brown by the sun. I don’t like that pasty hide in front o’me.” (Louis L’Amour, Kilkenny, 1954) white buffalo (1) An Indian name adopted by settlers for the Rocky Mountain goat. (2) The rare white buffalo, which many Indian tribes treated as sacred. white hats and black hats Early Western silent movies dressed the hero in a white hat and the villain in a black hat to make it easier for the audience to follow the plot. Observed Louis L’Amour in an interview: “They joke about the black hats and the white hats, but there were very few grays in the West . . . There were a few men who shifted from one side of the law to the other, but by and large that was not true, they were just what they

wild Indian 577 seemed to be.” (Appendix to the Bantam Book edition of Comstock Lode, 1982) white person (man) Used to describe someone better off, with more advantages, even better in general. A term insulting to other races, it is still used today, though much less frequently, and has some currency in other regions as well. The expression was common in the early West. “ ‘Drink some coffee, Joe,’ she said. ‘Get a cup. You’ll feel like a white person in a minute.’ ” (Richard Ford, Wildlife, 1990) white wind See quote. “. . . by a white wind No Ears meant a particular kind of blizzard, one that brought with it billions of particles of dry snow. The wind might blow for three days, swirling the snow so densely that it became impossible to see. The white wind confused everything. The best scouts refused to move in a white wind.” (Larry McMurtry, Buffalo Girls, 1990) who-all

Who. “Who-all is going?”

whoa up Stop, wait, hold. “Hey, Charles Jay, whoa up a minute.” whoop-la An old expression for a noisy outburst or exclamation of delight that appears to have originated in the West. It may be of Indian origin as is suggested in its first recorded use by a writer, no friend of Indians or reality, in the Silver City (Idaho) Avalanche, March 4, 1874: “Whoop-la! There will be three hundred wild, wicked-eyed, scalp-yanking, entrail-eating, long-haired, blanketed Indians camped upon the Continental ground at Philadelphia.” whoop ti do A cowboy cry, as in this old cowboy song quoted by Edna Ferber in Cimarron (1930): Hi rickety whoop ti do, How I love to sing to you. Oh, I could sing an’ dance with glee, If I was as young as I used to be.

who put Tabasco sauce in his oatmeal? one who suddenly becomes animated.

Said of some-

whut A pronunciation of what. “‘Whut Senator’s wife?’ Boog said.” (Larry McMurtry, Cadillac Jack, 1982) Wichita The Wichita Indians, and thus Wichita, Kansas, which is named for the tribe, may take their name from the tribe’s word wichita (waist-deep). One old story, which I can’t verify, says that these Indians pushed their squaws out into rivers to see how deep they were. If a place was safe for crossing, the squaws would

cry out “wichita” to the relatively timid braves on shore, who proceeded to ford the river. If they sank, presumably, the river wasn’t safe to cross. wickiup Indians in Colorado and California sometimes lived in crudely constructed huts called wickiups, improvised structures made of brush, saplings or both. White settlers often used the word in referring humorously to their own homes. widder A pronunciation of widow. “Since she lost her husband, she was called the Widder Brown.” a wide place in the road A very small settlement that doesn’t qualify even as a small town. “Blackwater . . . was little more than a wide place in the road waiting for the railroad to come to make it a town.” (Frank O’Rourke, Blackwater, 1950) wild and wooly West First came wild West, recorded in 1851 and so called because the American West was relatively lawless compared to the “civilized” East. Some 30 years passed before the more alliterative wild and wooly West was invented by some unknown poet, the wooly in the phrase perhaps referring to uncurried wild horses or the sheepskin chaps some cowboys wore or perhaps to the bragging of cowboys in a popular song: I’m a wooly wolf and full of fleas, I never been curried below the knees— And this is my night to howl!

The first use of the expression, in an 1885 book called Texas Cow Boy, has wild and wooly referring to a herd of steers. Wild Bill Hickok, a Any fabled gunfighter; after James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok (1837–76) army scout, gambler and town marshal of Abilene, Kansas. Though a handsome dandy, with long blond hair hanging over his shoulders, Hickok was first called “Duck Bill” after his long nose and protruding lip. He met his violent end at the hands of a paranoid rival who shot him in the back of the head while he was playing poker. See also DEADMAN’S HAND. wildcat Any wildcat venture, such as a wildcat oil well, is generally a speculative one. The word wildcat here comes from the term wildcat bank, which originally referred to a bank that went bankrupt in the 1830s and had on its banknotes a prominent picture of a panther or wildcat. wild Indian This derogatory expression was first applied to roaming Indians, as opposed to those settled in pueblos or villages and then given to Indians in general. The expression is first recorded in 1840 Texas.

578 Happy Trails wild West

See

WILD AND WOOLY WEST.

wild west show A circus of cowboys and Indians performing various feats ranging from riding to shooting, the words first applied to William F. (Buffalo Bill) Cody’s Wild West Show, which opened at Omaha, Nebraska May 17, 1883. wild, wooly and full o’ fleas bonafide cowboy.

An old expression for a

Winchester The cowboy’s rifle, its full name the Winchester repeating rifle, developed and manufactured by Oliver Winchester’s Winchester Arms Company in 1871.

from the “whoa! haw!” of ox team drivers as they crossed the plains heading West. wolf

See

wolfer

PRAIRIE WOLF.

A hunter of wolves in the early West.

wolfish An old trapper’s term meaning hungry. “I was wolfish after that long ride.” won’t stay shot Said of someone hard to kill, with great endurance or resiliency. “Bob is hard to kill. He won’t stay shot.” (Charles Portis, True Grit, 1968) wooden tongue

windy

See

windy-making The telling of tall tales, which were called windies. “Sometime, he decided he would like to meet a man whose tale involved [not a bear, but a] wolverine, say . . . Or think how much fun a man could have building one about a horde of enraged ground squirrels. Veach decided that if he ever wanted to go in for windy-making it would be something along those lines.” (Frank Roderus, Hell Creek Cabin, 1979) win one’s spurs The allusion here is not to cowboys of the American West but to those days four centuries before when knighthood was in flower and young men dubbed knights by their lords were presented with a pair of gilded spurs. Since then the expression to win one’s spurs has been extended from the idea of a knight performing a valorous act and winning honor to anyone performing any deed and gaining honor among his peers—from a doctor delivering his first baby to an author publishing his first book. winter Texans Retired people, often from the North, who spend their winters in South Texas because of its mild climate. wipe

See

LUMPY JAW.

WINDY-MAKING.

A cowboy’s neckerchief.

wiser’n a tree full of owls Very wise. “Quimper could hardly be stopped, indulging in such Texas phrases as ‘Wiser’n a tree full of owls’.” (James A. Michener, Texas, 1985) without Unless. “I wouldn’t come along without I had the money.” withouten Without. “‘He does nothin’ withouten a plan.’” (James A. Michener, Texas, 1985) wo-haw An Indian expression for cattle that was adopted by cattlemen. The Indians derived the term

wood house A word used in Central Texas for a woodshed where wood is stored. wood pussy cat.

An old term used in California for a pole-

woolies (1) See quote. “The broad plain south of the Clear Fork of the Brazos River was once dotted with buffalo. The great woolies were mostly gone now, slaughtered by hide hunters in the preceding decade.” (G. Clifton Wisler, The Return of Caulfield Blake, 1987) (2) Another name for a sheep. “ ‘Won’t take much to spook them woolies,’ Tom Hunt said.” (Jack Cummings, The Rough Rider, 1988) (3) Chaps made from sheepskin without the fleece (wool) removed. See also BAA-BAA; ANGORAS. woolsey

A cheap woolen hat.

woppering Said in the Northwest for something whopping, huge. “A woppering bear came out of the woods.” worked over with the ugly stick Beat up badly; often said of an ugly person. “‘You are a fine one to talk about looks. You look like somebody has worked you over with the ugly stick.’” (Charles Portis, True Grit, 1968) workup players.

A game of baseball played with only a few

worrit A pronunciation of worried. “ ‘I’m worrit about you, Jack,’ he said, out of a clear blue eastern Oregon sky.” (Larry McMurtry, Cadillac Jack, 1982) wouldn’t know him (her) from Adam’s off-ox An old Western variation of the centuries-old expression wouldn’t know him (her) from Adam (that is, wouldn’t know or recognize him or her at all). An off-ox is the ox in a team on the right side of the driver.

Wyoming 579 wrangle To round up a herd of horses or cattle, to attend the REMUDA. wrangler

wrote

Written. “It was all wrote up in the paper.”

wunst

A pronunciation of once.

A herder, cowboy; first recorded in 1888.

Wrangler jeans boy.

The jeans brand of choice for a cow-

wranglings Arguments, fights, turmoil—physical or psychological. “. . . he was ready to start his trek through the wilderness . . . There he would settle into another, last year of life, sinking deeper and deeper into the woods, until the voices of the wind and the rivers cleansed from his mind the sound of human speech, human wranglings.” (Max Brand, Mountain Guns, 1930) wrathy Mad, full of wrath. “I made it certain I will not stand for this. That only makes him wrathy and he throws me around some more.” (Richard Matheson, Journal of the Gun Years, 1991) wrinkled his spine Started to buck. “The horse wrinkled his spine and threw her.” wrinkle-horn An old steer. “ ‘Let’s get that wrinklehorn out first,’ Benton said . . . They struggled out . . . toward the older steer with its wrinkled, scaly horns.” (Richard Matheson, The Gun Fight, 1993)

Wyatt Earp, a A fabled gunfighter; after Wyatt Barry Stapp Earp (1848–1929), most famous for his part in the 1879 gunfight at the O. K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. Considered quick on the draw (from a leatherlined waxed coat pocket), Earp was never bested and died quietly in his sleep, one of the two legendary Western gunfighters who definitely didn’t meet a violent end (Bat Masterson was the other one). Wyoming Wyoming takes its name from an Algonquin Indian name meaning “big flats” that was first given to a valley in Pennsylvania. Because of the popularity of Scottish poet Thomas Campbell’s poem “Gertrude of Wyoming” (1809), the name was taken by several Eastern and Southern towns, and finally, in 1868, Ohio representative James M. Ashley of the Committee on Territories gave it to the area we now know as the state of Wyoming. An Eastern Indian name for a Western area may have been inappropriate, but “big flats” seemed right for this plains territory. It became our 44th state in 1890.

X xat A Haida Indian word for the carved totem pole of many North American Indian tribes.

XIT A 3-million-acre Texas ranch in the Panhandle. It was started by 10 Chicago investors in the 1870s (thus the initials XIT, “Ten in Texas”), but went out of business in 1901. See also KING RANCH.

xerga A saddlecloth placed over a sheepskin on a pack animal’s back; from the Spanish jerga meaning the same.

580

Y ya-hoo! cake A cake made of cherries, chocolate, pecans, sugar and other ingredients that is said to have been invented by a cook on the Chisholm Trail, proving so good that the cowboys who were served it shouted “ya-hoo!” in unison on tasting it. The Original Texas Ya-Hoo Cake Company, which now bakes it commercially, claims that “both the story and recipe were discovered written on a piece of boot sole leather stuffed underneath the floorboards of an old cook wagon.” yakima

yellow janders

yellow streak (stripe) down the back Descriptive of a cowardly person. “He has a yellow streak an inch wide down his back.” Yerba Buena An old name for San Francisco; so named from the Spanish for “good grass” because the area had excellent pasturage for animals.

y’all all come! An enthusiastic invitation often heard in Texas. “Y’all all come now.” At an angle, slantways.

yippie-ki-yi-yay A cry of cowboys, perhaps in part suggested by the cry of a coyote. Yip for a short highpitched human cry is first recorded in the West: “They chase ’em, with wild whoops and yips over the undulatin’ reservation.” (Herbert Quick, Yellowstone Nights, 1911) Yip for a dog’s bark is recorded as early as 1400. See also KI-YI.

year Sometimes heard for ear, as in “a mule-yeared rabbit.” yedra An old Southwestern word for poison ivy; from the Spanish word meaning the same. yeller

JANDERS.

Yellowstone National Park The Yellowstone here is an anglicization of the French roche jaune (yellow rock), which was probably a translation of the Minnataree Indian name Mitsiadazi meaning the same.

An Indian pony.

yaw-ways

See

A pronunciation of yellow.

yonder Over there. “Is that cafe yonder open?” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992)

Yellow dog A coward, from the old belief that a yellow dog is cowardly. “ ‘You’re a yellow dawg, Weaver,’ Martin said, not moving a muscle.” (Norford Scott, Big Lonesome, 1967)

Yosemite Yosemite Valley and Yosemite National Park are said to take their name from a distortion of the Miwok Indian uzumaiti (grizzly bear), a word the Indians never used for the area.

Yellow Dog Republican “From the Civil War on a term applied in Texas to loyal Democrats, so named, the legend goes, because they would vote for a yellow dog before they would vote for any Republican,” according to the New York Times (June 8, 1993).

you-all Though mainly associated with the South, you-all is also used in the West for the plural you, as in “You-all be sure to come.”

581

582 Happy Trails you-all’s

Your. “Can I borrow you-all’s car?”

you bet! Of course, for sure, that’s right. “Slang was the language of Nevada . . . Such phrases as ‘You bet!’ . . . and a hundred others, became so common as to fall from the lips of a speaker unconsciously.” (Mark Twain, “Buck Fanshaw’s Funeral,” 1872) you can bet your bottom dollar Originated out West about 1857, these words, meaning to bet one’s last dollar or money, referred originally to the last silver dollar in a stack or hoard of coins and came eventually to mean the last of one’s resources. you can drive a nail on that You can be certain of it. “‘Jeff’s a friend of mine and you can drive a nail on that.’ ” (Jack Schaefer, The Kean Land, 1953) you can play with my dog, you can play with my wife, but you’d better leave my gun alone A humorous Texas saying, possibly of recent vintage. you caught me speedin’ A common saying of Texas politicians caught in a lie.

used by Texas legislators in explaining why they have to vote for bills sponsored by certain lobbyists or special interest groups. youngberry A cultivated variety of the Southwestern blackberry (Rubus ursinus) named after hybridizer B. M. Young, who developed it in about 1900. your all’s A Texan variation of you all’s. “I’ll get your all’s bread,” says a waitress in Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses (1992). It is also found in the same author’s Blood Meridian, or, The Evening Redness in the West (1985): “ ‘Where’s your all’s horses?’ said Glanton.” you’re lookin’ for a marble hat A warning to someone that he or she is courting death, the “marble hat” being a tombstone. yucca Any plant of the genus Yucca native to the Southwest. Yucca, the state flower of New Mexico, has pointed sword-shaped leaves and bears clusters of white waxy flowers on tall stalks. See also AGAVE; JOSHUA TREE. yucca country

you dance with them what brung you

A classic line

The Southwest.

Z zanja Spanish for a ditch or trench sometimes heard in the Southwest. “I led my horse to the zanja for water . . .” (Louis L’Amour, The Lonesome Gods, 1983)

zink Heard in Texas for sink. “I cain’t fix the kitchen zink.”

583

V new yawk taWk: new york city expressions

N

Whitman, the two greatest American authors and both native New Yorkers, typify the speech of New York. Or, for that matter, Edgar Allan Poe. Poe, after all, spent much of his adult life in New York, and some of the dialect must have rubbed off. Could it be possible that Poe and not Orter Anonamous really wrote what has been called “Da Brooklyn National Antem,” dese woids about boids foreshadowing his raven:

o dialect or subdialect these days winds more gently through my ears than New York talk (often called New Yorkese and Brooklynese in these pages), the clipped 78-rpm patois to which I was to the manner born and raised and to which I reacted (the first few times I hoid my verse played back on a tape recorder) by cringing slightly if not by shuddering and clapping hands over ears. Far sweeter American sounds have I heard (Southern talk, for example), but I’ve become comfortable (cumtabull) with my cacophanous birthright, so often slurred as “Slurvian” (so named because New Yorkers are said to commonly slur their pronunciations), and not because I delude myself into thinking I am not really speaking it, except when or because I wanna. Why, I’ve hoid the kindest, the most gifted, the most brilliant, the most beautiful of people speak in New Yorkese. Of course, New Yorkers don’t by any means all speak alike; there are in fact often great variations in the metropolitan area between those of different educational and cultural backgrounds. As the Federal Writers’ Project’s New York Panorama (1938) eloquently put it, “A product of scores of nationalities, thousands of occupations and millions of people in necessary and constant contract, of whom some never leave the city while others come and go in a day, the New York language reflects every facet of a multifarious environment.” No survey of this “ever-bubbling linguistic amalgam” can claim to be complete or definitive, not about a dialect that has been touched by practically every other dialect in the country, or on Earth for that matter. Not about a dialect in which the same speaker might ask “Where are you going?” in one instant and “Whe’y’ goin’?” in the next, depending on the situation. Damon Runyon’s characters, for example, are often cited as typical New York speakers, but as critic Heywood Broun pointed out long ago: “Runyon has chosen a single segment out of New York. He has followed Broadway—not even all of Broadway. Every one of his stories can be located as having its principal routes somewhere between Times Square and Columbus Circle.” It would make just as much sense to say that the characters in the works of Herman Melville and Walt

Da spring is sprung, Da grass is riz, I wunneh weah da boidies is? Da boid is on da wing?—dat’s absoid! From what I hoid da wing is on da boid!

To be even less serious, New Yorkese, or its exaggerated sibling Brooklynese, has been defined as what you have a bad case of if you recite the sentence There were thirty purple birds sitting on a curb, burping and chirping and eating dirty worms, brother, as “Dere were toity poiple boids sittin onna coib, boipin an choipin an eatin doity woims, brudda.” “Whadsa madda wid dat?” Well, maybe nuttin’, brudda, but a better explanation of New Yorkese is surely called for. The dialect’s most noticeable “peculiarity,” as H. L. Mencken kindly put it (as kindly as he put anything), is the reversal of the er sound and oi diphthong sound. Thus, the er sound (which can also be spelled ear, ir or ur) changes in words like nerve, pearl, girl and murder to noive, poil, goil and moider. Conversely, the oi sound (which can be spelled oy as well) changes in words like boil and oyster so that we are left with berl and erster. There are many more examples, including coil (curl), foist (first), adjern (adjoin), thoid (third), loin (learn), toin (turn), terlet (toilet), nerz (noise), hersted (hoisted) and Greenpernt (Greenpoint). However, this switching of sounds does not occur when the er sound is last in a word but isn’t a suffix. In such cases, the er would be pronounced uh in New York talk: as in were, which is pronounced wuh, or as in her, which becomes a grunted huh. The pronunciation of the voiced and unvoiced forms of th as t and d (try wit and dat for with and that) isn’t as common in New York speech as it used to be, thanks to several generations of dedicated schoolmarms 587

588

New Yawk Tawk

stressing fundamentals on fundaments, or banging their rulers on desks and blackboards. The first writer to comment on the pronunciations, back in 1896, noted that it “does not take place in all words, nor in the speech of all persons, even of the lower classes; but the tendency exists beyond all doubt.” This could still be said. And so we have muddas, faddas, bruddas and uddas as well as the dems, deses and doses that experts trace to the Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam or to later immigrants. But there are subtle differences in the use of all these forms, depending on both the speaker’s audience and what he or she is talking about. In the case of dis and dese, for example, Professor William Labov, who taught at a local university, listened intently and found that some New Yorkers say dis for this and dese for these when talking about an emotion-charged event, such as a bad accident or a close call. However, when talking to teachers or reading aloud—that is, when watching themselves—New Yorkers tend to say dis and dese much less frequently. Other important parts of the New York or Brooklyn dialect (Brooklynese may strictly be a subdialect of New Yorkese, but it’s hard to see why it shouldn’t be termed just an exaggeration of it) are the aw sound in words like tawk (talk), fawk (fork), wawk (walk) and Noo Yawk; the dropped r’s that transform paper into papah, bar into bah, beer into beeah and super into soupa; the omission of the letter d within contractions, making didn’t into dint; and the k and g clicking sounds that can best be explained by the example of Lunk Guylin (Long Island), home now, it sometimes seems, to half of old Brooklyn. By no means is that all of it. Oncet and twicet (once and twice) are bona fide Brooklynese, even though they were first recorded in Philadelphia and Baltimore by Noah Webster and are also heard in the Ozarks. And New Yorkers, like others, frequently add an r in words such as idea (idear) and sofa (sofer). Middle-class New Yorkers pronounce all their rs more than the poor or the rich do, however, out of concern for speaking “properly,” and being grammatically “correct.” Contractions, too, are plentiful in Brooklynese, telescoped words and phrases unconsciously tailored to meet the needs of the hurried, harried city dweller. Just a few samples that come to mind are shudda (should have), dijuh (did you), ongana (I’m going to), alluh (all the), smatter (what’s the matter), wuntcha (wouldn’t you), juhhimee (do you hear me) and of course the word for almost always blended into the following word, as in finstins (for instance). Then there are the many verbal shortcuts such as Lex for Lexington Avenue, the Met for the Metropolitan Opera House, and the Garden for Madison-Square Garden. Typical New York grammatical “errors,” or differences, include the use of should for the infinitive to (I

want you should see it instead of I want you to see it); using leave instead of let (Leave me alone); overuse of like (Like, I like her); and the use of being for because (Being that I’m sick, I can’t leave, instead of I can’t leave because I’m sick). Among a host of similar expressions, that is often substituted for who (She’s the one that went instead of She’s the one who went), and if is omitted in dependent clauses (She asked him would he go instead of She asked him if he would go). Speakers of the dialect are not nearly so rude as they are portrayed. Instead of a simple thank you, New Yorkers will often say, “I really appreciate it.” One of the most common terms heard in New York City is the apologetic personally, as in “Personally, I don’t believe it,” instead of the franker “I don’t believe it.” While this addition serves to show a certain humility, or worldliness—often one and the same thing—other typical interjections are completely superfluous, such as the already in “Let’s go, already”; here in “This here book is mine”; and there in “That there coat is hers.” A feature of New York speech that now seems to be fading inspired a hundred years ago the popular designation Joe Echoes. People known as Joe Echoes (or Johnny Echoes, Eddie Echoes, etc.) in late 19th-century and early 20th-century New York weren’t so called because they echoed other people’s words. Those bearing this common nickname, usually the offspring of poor, recent immigrants, echoed themselves in sentences such as “I betcha ya can’t do it, I betcha,” or “I tell ya it’s mine, I tell ya!” Today such repetition is still common with words like says (meaning said), as in an example I heard recently: “I says to him, I says, I’m goin’ to be there, I says, no matter what you says, I says.” Youse—the so-called generous plural—is in a class by itself as a New Yorkism, though the expression is definitely heard in several parts of the country, including other Eastern cities and the Midwest. New York editor and author Barbara Burn, a New England transplant with a fine ear for regional speech, theorizes that youse is usually employed when a speaker is referring to the second person plural, helping the speaker differentiate between one person in the group he is speaking to and the group as a whole. It is the New York counterpart of the Southern you-all (a biblical precedent that can be found in Job 17:10), the “mountain tawk” you-uns, and the localized mongst-ye heard in Norfolk and on Albermarle Sound. New Yorkers would not qualify as gentlemen under Palm Beach sportsman Charles Munn’s definition of the “refined” species: “Someone whose family has pronounced tomato [as] toe-mah-toe for three generations.” Many New York families have instead been pronouncing it tamater, and calling pretty girls the same, for that long and longer. I have known only one native middleclass or poor New Yorker who pronounced the word

Introduction toe-mah-toe and she, dear lady, suffered from delusions of grandeur worse than most do. New Yorkers, too, have their special names for things. That long sandwich crammed with edibles on Italian or French bread and called a poor boy in the South and a grinder in New England (it has about a dozen names throughout the country) is a hero in most of the metropolitan New York speech area. A stoop (from the Dutch for step) is the front porch and steps of a New York house, while a sliding pond (possibly from the Dutch baan, track) is a metal slide in a New York playground but nowhere else. “I shudda stood [stayed] in bed widda doctor!” is early Brooklynese rarely heard anymore in this life, though stood is still often heard for stayed. (“I should of stood at the Statler”). Native New York kids still have a catch (whereas other American youngsters play catch), their parents often omit the preposition to and go over Harry’s house or go down the store, where (as they did in the schoolyard when the teacher kept them “in line,” or orderly “on line”) they stand on line, not in line, as other Americans do, to pay for their groceries (though once they are on line they ideally stay in line). The New Yorker will usually ask for change for a dollar, not of a dollar, and he will get a haircut, never have a haircut. He will rarely today use on for with as in “Do you want zucchini or salad on your spaghetti?” (at least I don’t hear the usage much anymore). While New Yorkers do say they go to work, they sometimes go to business, too, and they often play piano (without the the) as well as play the piano. They always go to the beach, never go to the shore, as neighboring Jerseyans in the same metropolitan area put it. They don’t go to the supermarket but to Waldbaum’s, Gristede’s, D’Agostino’s, King Kullen’s, etc. Their frequent synonym for You’re welcome is a modest No problem. New Yorkers call New York City the City or New York, never New York City. If they come from any of the other four boroughs (Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, or Staten Island) and are going into Manhattan, they say, “I’m going to the City.” But when asked where they hail from, the answer is always “I come from the City,” or “I come from New York,” and this includes anyone who hails from any of the five boroughs, not just Manhattan. Practically no one says, “I’m going to Manhattan,” either. As for the borough of the Bronx (Fred Allen used to call it South Yonkers), it is always called just that— the Bronx—not Bronx. “Let’s go to Queens” (or Brooklyn, or Staten Island, or the City) is fine, but never “Let’s go to Bronx.” And when people in the Bronx go downtown they’re going to Manhattan; Queens and Brooklyn commuters go uptown to Manhattan. Outlanders often call New York the Big Apple, but this foreign term is rarely used seriously by New Yorkers. A common nickname for New York City since the 1960s

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(though recorded by Walter Winchell in 1927), the Big Apple was first used in New Orleans. In about 1910, jazz musicians there used it as a loose translation of the Spanish manzana principal (the “main apple orchard”), the main city block downtown, the place where all the action is. The Big Apple was also the name of a popular dance in the 1930s. New York City has also been called the Big Burg, the Big Onion, the Big Smear (these last two by tramps), the Big Stem, and the Big Town. It isn’t generally known that New York is ultimately named for a duke of York who held sway over York in England. It gets complicated. The name York itself comes from the Celtic Eburacon (the place of the yew trees, which are certainly not what New York is famous for). This became the Latin Eburacus, but to the AngloSaxons who ruled England after the Romans, Eburacus sounded like Eoforwic (their “boar town”), and to the Vikings, who invaded when the Romans left, Eoforwic sounded like Iorvik. Over the years Iorvik was shortened to Iork, which was finally transliterated into York. Then in 1664 James, duke of York and Albany, was granted the patent to all lands in America between the Delaware River and Connecticut by his older brother, King Charles II. The duke gave away the Jersey portion but held on to what was then the Dutch colony of New Netherland. York became the patron of Colonel Richard Nicholls who that same year set sail for the New World, captured New Amsterdam from the Dutch and named both the city of New Amsterdam (New York City) and the colony of New Netherlands (New York State) after the duke. New York State’s capital, Albany, is also named for the same duke of York and Albany. No one has been able to prove beyond a doubt the origin of New Yorkese. The dialect is native to Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island and Nassau and Westchester Counties, and extends across the river into New Jersey’s Hudson, Bergen and Essex counties, among others, finding some of its most accomplished practitioners in Joisy City and Hoboken. It is the language of tens of millions, and you will in fact come upon it anywhere within a 100-mile radius with Manhattan as the center. The circle would include Suffolk County on eastern Long Island; southeastern Connecticut; Rockland County (to the west of Westchester); and northeastern New Jersey. Echoes of Brooklynese can even be heard in Chicago, Miami, the Gulf Coast area (where politicians commonly refer to “mah woythy opponent”), San Francisco, which New Yorkers were prominent in settling, and the Jewish district of west Los Angeles, which for half a century has been well known for its perpetuation of New York City dialect and idiom. Recognized immediately all over the world, traces of Brooklynese are heard in parts of Britain and Australia. Stretching the point a bit, one could say that New Yorkese is also spoken (without any derogatory associa-

590 New Yawk Tawk tions, by the way) in South Carolina, New Orleans and other Southern areas where the peculiar er to oi sound reversal in words like thirty (toidy) is heard almost as commonly as in New York—although most scholars would say the opposite: that toidy boids, etc., flew north from Dixie. People have persisted in calling the accent Brooklynese (often to the dismay of speech experts) because the borough has always been the butt of jokes and because the accent was once at its exaggerated best in northern Brooklyn, especially in Williamsboig and Greenpernt. Denounced as “vulgar” by H .L. Mencken in his seminal The American Language, New York talk may have its roots in German or Yiddish. Certainly the characteristic melodic rhythm of the dialect, which rises and falls in the midst of a sentence and is so sung by almost all of us speakers (whether we know Yiddish or not), seems to be Yiddish influenced. Yiddish has contributed hundreds of expressions to those who schmooze (stand around and gab) New Yorkese, but research doesn’t bear out the theory that Brooklynese is simply an offshoot of Yiddish, as many people believe. Though Yiddish strongly influenced the dialect, New York talk has had influences too numerous to mention since the Dutch and Native American gave it words and ways of speaking, especially regarding vocabulary. Nevertheless, Yiddish terms do abound. Leo Rosten’s The Joys of Yiddish (1968) alone collects more than a thousand such terms. This does not include expressions such as All right already!, Who needs it? and Get lost!, which owe their presence in New York to Yiddish or Jewish influence. Webster’s Third contains some 500 Yiddish words common in American English, especially in the New York area, and almost any expression can take on Yiddish coloring by what Rosten calls “unusual word order” (Smart, he’s not), “blithe dismissal via repetition” (Fat shmat, so long as she’s happy), “contempt via affirmation” (My son-in-law he wants to be), and other linguistic devices that convey “exquisite shadings of meaning” and have been adopted, often subconsciously, by almost all New Yorkers. One of the better-known Yiddish New Yorkese expressions, mazel tov, is often believed to mean “good luck to you.” However, Rosten says it has come to mean “Congratulations” or “Thank God!” rather than its literal meaning of “Good luck.” Advising us that this “distinction is as important as it is subtle,” he offers an example: “Say mazel tov! to an Israeli ship captain when he first takes command: this congratulates him on his promotion; don’t say mazel tov! when the ship reaches port; this suggests you’re surprised he got you there.” Though Rosten and most others say mazel tov literally means “good luck” (from mazel, “luck” and tov, “good”), mazel is actually the Hebrew for “star,” so the expression literally means “May a good star shine upon your days.”

The common greeting What’s new? has been traced back to 1880s New York and is thought to be a translation of the Was ist los? of German-Jewish immigrants, as is the general belief regarding the similar expression What’s with you? Interestingly, one respected authority offers the surprising theory that kike, a vulgar, highly offensive term of hostility and contempt, often used by anti-Semites, offends not only persons of Jewish descent and religion but the Italians and Irish as well. The Random House Dictionary of the English Language suggests that it is “apparently modeled on hike, Italian, itself modeled on mike, Irishman, short for Michael.” In other words, the deliberately disparaging term painfully illustrates the transfer of prejudice from one newly arrived immigrant group to the next. This view runs counter to the prevailing theory, however. Mencken and others, including Webster’s Third, believe that the word “derived from the ki or ky endings of the surnames of many Slavic Jews.” Neither theory seems susceptible to absolute proof. The New Yorker’s habit of “talking with his hands,” a kind of frenetic ballet accompaniment to the music of his voice, is often associated with Yiddish, but it is a habit common to many language groups in the city, especially to Italian speakers. One wonders if Native Americans could have communicated with New Yorkers unknown to them through ideographic signs, as late 19th-century experiments showed they were capable of doing with deaf-mutes. In any case, New Yorkers use a good number of the “700,000 distinctive movements of the hands, fingers, arms and face by which information can be transferred without speech”—perhaps more of them than any other Americans. Watch a New Yorker talking in a silent film and you might think he or she is speaking some form of Ameslan (American Sign Language). H. L. Mencken considered Brooklynese a class dialect rather than a regional or geographical one. Originally it was “Bourgese,” the Sage of Baltimore noted, a New York City speech pattern associated with “lower class” colloquial speech. The word Brooklynese itself doesn’t seem to have been coined until the late 1920s, though the subdialect that grew in Brooklyn was observed and joked about 50 years earlier. Called “The English of the Lower Classes” by E. H. Babbitt, the Columbia professor who first gave it scholarly attention in 1896, Brooklynese may well be rooted in Gaelic. The theory here is that the dialect first appeared after a late 19th-century tsunami of immigration from Ireland flooded New York with future cops, firemen, cabbies, longshoremen, socialites, politicians and poets. Francis Griffith, a retired Hofstra University professor who has studied the Brooklyn dialect for nearly half a century, argues that the trademark Brooklyn diphthong oi as in moider (murder), which exists in

Introduction 591 no British dialect, is found in many Gaelic words, such as barbaroi (barbarian) and taoiseach (leader). Griffith, who used to have a sign over his blackboard admonishing “There’s no joy in Jersey” when he taught public school in Brooklyn, doesn’t accept the traditional Dutch derivation for dese and dem. He points out that neither Gaelic nor Brooklynese has a th sound; th becomes a hard t or d in both languages, giving us rough Brooklynese like da dame wid tin legs. It should be noted, however, that in addition to the Irish, none of New York’s polyglot immigrants (into the 1930s New York City subways had No Smoking signs printed in English, German, Italian, Yiddish, Chinese and Russian) pronounced th or dh sounds in their native languages and also substituted the nearest equivalents, t and d, for them. A number of classic New York expressions may come directly from Gaelic, but it is hard to imagine mellifluous Gaelic or an Irish brogue (the word derived perhaps from the heavy brogan shoes that Irish peasants wore) becoming rapid-fire gutteral Brooklynese, even in the midst of the most manic civilization in history. The Gaelic theory is just that, a theory—and one without sufficient proof. Facts can always be stretched to cover any theory. For instance, in his essay “A Form of Thanks,” Cleanth Brooks shows how the King James Version of the Song of Songs would have been pronounced in 1860 Sussex, England: 1. De song of songs, dat is Solomon’s. 2. Let him kiss me wud de kisses of his mouth; for yer love is better dan wine. Brooks is writing about the roots of the folk language of Mississippi and how it sprang from a great lineage; yet these isolated words certainly could be used to make a case for a Brooklynese-Sussex connection as well. Of the many theories about the origins of Brooklynese the most startling is the guess that long before Shoiman boined Atlanter, New York entrepreneurs, who for more than a century had a strong trading relationship with the South, picked up the famous Brooklyn accent from the Southern planters of Mobile, New Orleans and, to some degree, Charleston. These merchants, in turn, passed on the corrupted patrician Southernese sounds to the New York lower classes. The ironic suggestion that we bums who moider the language derived our speech habits from Southern aristocrats has been put forth as hypothesis, “not even a theory, really,” by Dr. Marshall D. Berger, a speech professor at New York City College and a native New Yorker himself. Berger’s best example of Brooklynese as corrupted Southern talk is the expression The worm has turned. Southern planters made that come out The whum has tuhned, which eventually arrived in New York as The

whuim has tuined and finally became Da woim has toined. We shouldn’t oughta have went South maybe. While Brooklynese may derive from Southern speech, it is never called a charming dialect like its possible parent; even if it sometimes seems quite as lackadaisical, Brooklynese is clearly not a dialect of the upwardly mobile—not even in New York, as Professor William Labov shows in his book The Social Stratification of English in New York City (1966). One can hear the differences in speech among personnel in uptown and downtown stores and even within the same store, distinctions that correspond to price and service. The upper-class, prep-schooled “honks” of Tom Wolfe speak a different language from that of the “wonks” of the “lower classes”; I’ve often heard the gentrified rawther uptown. Education, economic status, ethnic ties and age groups have always made a uniform New Yorkese impossible—to which most speech teachers would add, “Thank God!” But by no means can we moan, “Dose were da days” or “Bon verge (bon voyage), Brooklynese.” The thesis that Brooklynese is dead is a lot of baloney (Brooklynese that probably derives from the Irish blarney, not the German bologna). True, one finds nowadays few speakers around of the “a nerzy nerse annerz an erster,” (a noisy noise annoys an oyster) or “Doity Goity from Bizoity” variety, though the species is not extinct. True, Brooklyn itself is now more than half nonwhite and filled with the musical sounds of Spanish and the liquid tones of various kinds of Black English. But a less exaggerated Brooklyn accent has spread out from Greenpernt more than 100 miles in every direction; the strains of it won’t soon disappear from the land. Writer Russell Baker, for example, has penned a linguistic guide for Yurpeans (Europeans) visiting the United States in which he calls the language spoken here “American” but which strongly resembles Brooklynese, as this sample shows: Q. Ahdaya gettu Rootwun? [How do you get Route 1?] A. Dake a leffada nexlite, gwate bloxun daycoride tillya kumdooa big facdree, unyul see toorodes. Dake a rodetuuda lef unya cantmisit. [Take a left at the next light, go eight blocks and take a right till you come to a big factory, and you’ll see two roads. Take the road to the left and you can’t miss it.]

If you hear someone hail a cab in New York, you might well hear him shout “KEE-ab,” according to sociolinguist Labov, who has been studying changing Northeastern accents over the past four decades. Professor Labov had predicted the beginnings of a historic realignment in the pronunciation of American English, one that may be as far-reaching as that which occurred between Chaucer’s and Shakespeare’s time. At present this change is most prominent among New York’s white

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lower-middle class. Just as few New Yorkers say Toidytoid today (incidentally, my own investigation reveals that many old-time New Yorkers insist this pronunciation was more often Tedy-teyd, Thirty-third Street and Third Avenue being, Teyd-teyd n Teyd), other features of their dialect may wither away. Especially noticeable, says Labov, is the short a picking up a long e before it. Labov has found that a good number of New Yorkers (he doesn’t give a percentage) have adopted this new speech habit, using it in some words (e.g., cab and bad) but not in others (e.g., cat, back, pack, bang, bat). Scores of people rich and poor from all over the world have brought words and pronunciations to New York over the last four centuries, many of which have entered the national vocabulary. There is even a theory that the word gizmo, for a thingamajig, derives from the Arabic shu ismo (the same), which may have come to New York with Moroccans or been brought back by American soldiers who served in Morocco during World War II. New York has been a world city longer than any other American metropolis and is more so today than at any time in its history. The Magnificent Mongrel has a population of 7.3 million, of whom 2.1 million were born in another country. Walt Whitman’s million-footed Manhattan has become 100-million-footed Manhattan. There are more Greeks here than in any place but Greece, more Russians than in any place but Russia, more Chinese than in any place but China and Taiwan. New York City has more Ethiopians (about 3,000) than several states have black people. Similar statistics could be cited for pages. At P.S. 89 in Elmhurst, Queens, 38 different languages are spoken by students, half of whom do not come from English-speaking homes (there are more than 113,000 such children in the New York City school system). People migrate to the city from every part of America and the world, most of them affectionately regarding it as a home rather than “a nice place to visit,” as the old saw goes. Travel about New York City and you will find little neighborhoods of people newly arrived from England, France, Germany, Greece, Iran, Israel, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Yugoslavia, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Columbia, Guatemala, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad, India, Japan, Korea and the Philippines, among other countries—this in addition to older enclaves like Chinatown and Little Italy. The new immigrants are of all kinds and classes. And all of them are slowly changing the nature of New York talk with new words and accents, just as the words and rhythms of Black English and Spanglish are doing. New York City is truly “the nest of languages, the bequeather of poems,” as Walt Whitman observed in “A Broadway Pageant.” Every year hundreds of new words and expressions are coined in New York, which has long

been the communication capital of America. Most of these are obsolete within a few years, but many last. An old one, surprisingly, is outta sight. Often regarded as college slang of the 1960s, outta sight (for something remarkable or wonderful) has been part of the language since the 1840s, in the form of the Bowery expression out of sight. Stephen Crane used it in its present form in his first novel Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1896): “I’m stuck on yer shape. It’s outa sight.” Class dialects in New York are generally similar to those in other parts of the country. As noted, middleclass people tend to pronounce their words more carefully, while the rich are supremely sure that whatever they say is right and the poor are too busy trying to eat to give a good damn. Black English probably has its capital in New York, if this class dialect can be said to have a capital; many new black expressions originate here, at any rate. The class dialect Spanglish, in its Puerto Rican form, has also contributed local words and expressions to New Yorkese. No one seems to have established whether New York’s Puerto Rican women favor the white New York dialect and Puerto Rican men lean to the black vernacular—which Professor Labov says is the case in Philadelphia. In any event, individuals of all classes and ethnic and social groups in the city frequently switch from New York talk to “network English,” depending on the occasion. And in New York, as elsewhere, when members of these classes and groups have specialized occupations they often use words and expressions from the jargons or lingos of the workplace. Thus a New York City police officer calls his protector his rabbi, recognizing “his influence with the higherups” at headquarters, while a New York mugger talks of doing time (not of serving a jail sentence). New York stockbrokers, lawyers, legislators, garment workers, longshoremen, waiters, retail clerks, hotel workers, bartenders, truckers—these and hundreds more professionals have their own special expressions that often enter the mainstream of New York talk, as have the police term rabbi and the lawyer’s term takeover. Not long ago, a Bronx candidate for head of the Boston public school system was asked by his examiners if he couldn’t “get rid of that New York accent”; he didn’t get the job, though to what extent his accent played a role in his rejection isn’t known. People across the United States often regard New Yorkese as negatively as the Dutch did the click-clack dialect of the South African Khoi-Khoin tribe to which they gave the derogatory name Hottentot from their hateran en tatern (to stutter and stammer). One Texan congressman had the noive to say New York City “isn’t an English-speaking place,” to which a Bronx borough president replied, “Texans speak a language no one understands!” But Americans generally do like Texan speech better if one can judge by a poll conducted by the Linguaphone Insti-

Introduction 593 tute to ascertain where the best English in America is spoken, from the standpoint of diction. New York City came in dead last, with no votes. New York just don’t never get no breaks (this triple negative, common in the area, is, however, not restricted to New York). Protest groups have arisen, like the Society Against Disparaging Remarks About Brooklyn, which had 40,000 members in the 1950s and replied to 3,000 slurs about Brooklyn speech in the media. But native New Yorkers do often shed whatever New York accents they possess while climbing the social ladder, either by emulating the local upper class or by hiring voice coaches to teach them General American. “There is nothing more tarnishing, more cheapening in life than a New York accent,” advises one speech consultant. “It’s so very vulgar. It robs even the most beautiful, intelligent person of any dignity.” She is one of a good number of metropolitan area teachers who charge up to $100 an hour to make anyone speak as they think everybody should. Television and radio do their bit in homogenizing here, too—as they do everywhere, only more so. The theory is that New Yorkese turns off more people than any other accent, thus encouraging local media stars who want to become national media stars to lose their New York accents with the help of exercises done in front of mirrors. (Lesson One: To stop replacing th sounds with d sounds, as in my udduh bruddah, push the tip of the tongue against the cutting edge of the upper teeth and practice saying rapidly: the, these, them, those, that.) But there are many who like the philological flavor of the polyglot city, who don’t think of the New York accent as slurvian, sleazy, monotone, nasal and staccato (a charge that some Britishers level against all Americans). Happily there are those who, given the choice, stick to their subtler shades of da, dis, dem, dose and dat. They may not believe New Yorkese is beautiful, but the real choice is whether one is willing to deny one’s deepest origins by spurning one’s native talk. With this belief many outstanding New Yorkese speakers would agree, including: Jimmy Breslin, author, Pulitzer Prize winner and sometime politician and broadcaster, who hails from Queens and who has been quoted as saying: “You are what you are.” Bella Abzug, the late congresswoman, who contended: “Nah, politically, my accent has never been a problem, and I’ve been all over the country. They loved

me in Peoria, and they loved me in Nashville. I think people should be what they are.” Rocky Graziano, former fighter and television personality, who observes: “Da only reason dey use me on TV is cawsa my accent. I’m outta bizness widout it.” Leo Durocher, the “practically Peerless Leader,” who when he managed the Brooklyn Dodgers, threatened Brooklyn’s archrivals the New York Giants with: “It’s gonna be Poil Hahbuh fuh de Gints.” Joan Rivers, New York comedian, who explains why she talks so fast: “We [New Yorkers] tawk fast becaws we don’t know how long we’re gonna live . . . I can do my whole act waiting for the subway doors to close.” Geraldine A. Ferraro, whose New York accent may have helped her lose her bid for vice president in 1984. Do aliens detest the dialect so much? Should Ms. Ferraro go to accent-eradication school? Anyway, Ms. Ferraro, a trial lawyer, hails from Queens, the borough of homes, represented Archie Bunker’s Ninth Congressional District in Elmhurst (Ellimheyst, locally), and should be saluted for her bravery—this stalwart New Yorker didn’t try to change a word. Honorable mention should go to Henry Winkler (“The Fonz”), Bugs Bunny, Betty Boop, the Dead End Kids (especially Leo Gorcey), the young Tony Curtis and the late Nelson Rockefeller (who mixed a lot of youses wid his broad honk ahs). But the champion of all New Yorkese speakers has to be John Occhiogrosso, formerly of Brooklyn, whose superb pronunciation of the Kings (County) English won him an expense-paid trip back to Brooklyn in a “Best New York Accent in Houston” contest some years ago. (A half-dozen contestants were eliminated because they didn’t know or remember that you play stoop ball with a Spaldeen, not a Spalding, in New York.) Occhiogrosso’s test of skill included the proper New York pronunciation of a room-service order from a certain floor of a certain New York hotel, which went: “Oim owan da toidy-toid flohwah od da Noo Yowak Stadla. Can oi hab a cuppa kowafee an a glazza watta?” Though he had in the past even faced job discrimination on account of his accent, the winner said, in translation: “If people don’t like me for what I am, the hell with them. That’s the New York way.”

A a Of or to, in telling time. “‘What’s the time?’ he asked the doorman. ‘Five a twelve.’ ” (Jimmy Breslin, Table Money, 1986)

sey City kitchen stove around 1869 and later manufactured in New York City. Adams’ was the first commercial gum to be made with chicle and this milky liquid from the sapodilla tree was supplied to the inventor by General Antonio López de Santa Anna, Mexican conqueror of the Alamo, who was exiled in Staten Island at the time. Adams first tried to make a cheap rubber substitute from the chicle, as Santa Anna had urged him to do; he failed but then came up with the great gum idea. Later his company merged with eight others into the American Chicle Company.

absoid A pronunciation of absurd sometimes heard in New York. ace boon coon Black English for one’s best friend, first recorded in 1962. The word coon when said by a white person is a racial slur for a black person. It possibly has nothing to do with the animal called a raccoon or a coon. Coon here may come from the last syllable of the Portuguese barracões, which is pronounced like coon and meant buildings especially constructed to hold slaves for sale. The word coon is (obviously) also used by blacks, as is the word nigger, but is of course considered highly offensive when uttered by whites. “I knew K.B. about a year before we became ace boon coons.” (Claude Brown, Manchild in the Promised Land, 1965) Boon coon alone dates back to 1958 and was originally a Harlem term too.

adjern

A New York pronunciation of adjoin.

ahn Sometimes heard in New York as a pronunciation of on. ailanthus

See

TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN, A.

ain’t A common contraction in New York speech, as it is elsewhere. Ain’t, first recorded in 1706, began life in England as a contraction of am not (an’t). Once widely used among all classes and quite proper, it became socially unacceptable in the early 19th century when people began to use it improperly as a contraction for is not and are not, as well as am not. But “proper” or not, ain’t is still widely used wherever English is spoken.

ackamarackus Pseudo-Latin slang for nonsense, bullshit. “Now of course this is strictly the old ackamarackus, as The Lemon Drop Kid cannot even spell arthritis, let alone have it . . .” (Damon Runyon, “The Lemon Drop Kid,” 1931) The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang (1994) cites the first recorded use of the term in a Runyon Collier’s story in 1933, two years later, and cites Eugene O’Neill’s use of it in a letter. Ackamaracka is among other variants of the word.

ain’t he (she) a caution Isn’t he or she remarkable, unusual or funny; an old term still heard infrequently. Probably a variation of the more common Ain’t he a corker, once frequently heard among Irish Americans.

Adams’ New York Gum No. 1—Snapping and Stretching The world’s first modern chewing gum (previously there were gums made of spruce sap, paraffin and other substances), concocted by Thomas Adams Sr. on his Jer-

ain’t no big thing Describes something that isn’t of much importance. Big thing, for something extraordinary, is first recorded in 1846. 594

annerz 595 airy way Once a common term in Brooklyn and Queens for an areaway of apartment houses. In the airy way garbage cans, rarely called trash cans, were kept for the garbagemen (sanitation workers today) to pick up, usually to the side of a building against a fence. Garbagemen in the 1930s, when the term probably originated, lifted not only garbage but cans of coal ashes so heavy that they required two men to dump them into the garbage truck (sanitation van today). Sometimes called the air-ree. a.k. (1) A crotchety old man; an old fogy. Variety probably invented the story that these initials stood for antedeluvian knight. It is actually an abbreviation of the Yiddish alter kocker, which loosely means “old fart,” ultimately from the German alter (old) and kock (defecate). The initials are first recorded in 1942. (2) An abbreviation of ass kisser; a sycophant, an apple polisher. The term a.k. in this sense is first recorded in 1939 and has been common (far more common than the abbreviation meaning alter kocker) in New York City, especially among school kids, for almost 60 years. (3) To ass kiss. “He a.k.’s every teacher in the school.” a la famiglia A mob toast; Italian for “to the family.” See also FAMILY. Albany beef Sturgeon. The fish was once so plentiful in New York’s Hudson River that it was humorously called Albany beef. The term is first recorded in 1791 and was in use through the 19th century; sturgeon caviar was so cheap in those days that it was part of the free lunch served in bars.

all right already Stop it, that’s enough!; stop talking! “The only appropriate reply that came to mind was Brooklynese; all right already. It took an act of will for him to limit himself to merely, ‘Yes.’ ” (Henry Roth, From Bondage, 1996) Enough already is a variation. Both are common expressions influenced by Yiddish. All the News That’s Fit to Print

See

NEW YORK TIMES.

alluh A common contraction of all the among New York speakers: “Alluh king’s horses and alluh king’s men . . .” almighty dollar New Yorker Washington Irving coined the phrase the almighty dollar in a sketch first published in 1836: “The almighty dollar, that great object of universal devotion throughout the land . . .” But Ben Jonson had used “almighty gold” in a similar sense more than 200 years before him: “that for which all virtue now is sold, / And almost every vice—almighty gold.” Alphabet City A nickname, for the past 15–20 years, for the part of Manhattan’s East Village located between Avenue A and Avenue D. already A very common superfluous interjection, as in “Do it already,” “Where is she already?” etc. alrighnik A Yinglish (Yiddish & English) term for a recently successful person who boasts about his or her success; someone nouveau riche and crudely ostentatious. alter kocker Yiddish for “an old fart”; a crotchety old man who can’t do anything properly. Also called an a.k.

Alexander A cocktail made with cream, crème de cacao and other potent ingredients. It is said to have been invented by and hence named after New York wit Alexander Woollcott in the 1920s, although some say it was named after Alexander the Great, perhaps because you have to be a hero to drink more than one. “The lethal mixture tasted like ice cream,” Helen Hayes once said, recalling her experience with Alexanders at a party. “I drank one down and took another and drank it down, and I was blind.” Searching for something to say, fearing everyone would think her drunk if she didn’t, Miss Hayes remembered that she would soon be moving to a smaller apartment and wanted to get rid of her large piano. But her words came out, “Anyone who wants my piano is willing to it.” After a long, terrible silence, playwright George S. Kaufman said, “That’s very seldom of you, Helen.” See BRONX COCKTAIL; MANHATTAN COCKTAIL.

and how! Indicating intensive emphasis of what someone else has just said, and how! is a popular catchphrase first recorded in 1924. The expression possibly derives from the German und wie! or the Italian e come!, both meaning “and how” and once very common in New York among Americans of German and Italian extraction, respectively.

Algonquin Round Table See MEN PASSES/AT GIRLS WHO WEAR GLASSES.

annerz A New York pronunciation of annoys. “She really annerz me.”

SELDOM MAKE

Amazin’ Mets An affectionate nickname for the New York National League baseball team since the team was formed in 1962. Said to be coined by Casey Stengel, the team’s first manager, when he watched them win their first exhibition game: “They’re amazin’!!” Later, however, he would lament: “They’re amazin’! Can’t anybody here play this game!” Also called the Amazin’s. See STENGELESE.

596 New Yawk Tawk appernt An old Brooklynese pronunciation of appoint that still survives in New York. “I’ve got a dentist apperntment today.” Apple

The apple is a nickname for New York City. See

BIG APPLE.

appleknocker An abusive term meaning a stupid person, especially a rustic stupid person, that is still used by city dwellers. The term is recorded in this sense in a 1939 New Yorker story: “I had a reform-school technique, whereas them other sailors was apple-knockers. They were so dumb they couldn’t find their nose with both hands.” Appleknocker first meant a fruit picker, deriving from the mistaken urban belief that fruit is harvested by being knocked from trees with long sticks. Archie Bunker

See

ELLIMHEYST.

arrow chase An old children’s game, seldom if ever played anymore. “The side that starts first is provided with chalk, with which the players mark arrows upon the pavement, pointing the direction of their course. The others follow when five minutes have passed, tracking the pursued by the arrow marks until all are caught.” (Journal of American Folklore, 1891) ash can A loud firecracker resembling a miniature ash can or garbage can in shape. asparagrass A pronunciation of asparagus, probably influenced by the vegetable’s resemblance to grass (hence the old folk etymology sparrow grass or simply grass, both of which are still heard in New York City among old-timers). Asparagas and asparagus are much more common pronunciations. assawayigoze That’s the way it goes. A pronunciation recorded in the Federal Writers’ Project Almanac for New Yorkers (1938). ast A common pronunciation of ask. “‘I shoulda ast you first. But I really thought this was your money, Sal, I didn’t know . . .’ ” (Evan Hunter, Criminal Conversation, 1994) See also AX. astorperious Stuck up, haughty, self-important. An eponymous word, probably obsolete, from New York City black slang that is a blend of Astor, the last name of one of America’s oldest rich families, and imperious, haughty, dictatorial, overbearing.

role, as Macbeth, and who died in 1873 at the age of 100. In 1849 both actors were appearing in New York, where each had ardent fans, the “common man” favoring Forrest and the elite supporting Macready. The rivalry degenerated into “a struggle between democracy and Anglomania,” in one critic’s words, and on May 10 a mob led by E. Z. C. Judson (writer Ned Buntline), possibly encouraged by Forrest, attacked the Astor Place Opera House, where Macready was playing Macbeth. In the Astor Place Riots 22 people were killed and 36 wounded, making this probably the worst such theater disaster of all time. Judson went to jail for a year for his part in the affair. Atlanter A typical New York pronunciation of the city of Atlanta. atomic wedgie To have an atomic wedgie is to have one’s underwear gathered in an extremely uncomfortable position between the buttocks. Specifically it refers to having the waistband of one’s underwear pulled up from the waist by abusive friends. Heard on the New York-inspired television comedy Seinfield. Aunt Hagar’s children A once commonly heard reference in New York City as well as in the South for African Americans in general. So called after Hagar, Abraham’s wife and Ishmael’s mother (Genesis: 21.9). avenoo Commonly heard as the pronunciation of avenue in all five boroughs of New York City. Recorded in the 1920s, it is indeed probably the prevalent pronunciation of the word, though the standard pronunciation avenyuh is also frequently heard. away

See

awchit

See

BONAC.

awdah New Yorkese for order. “Are you ready to awdah now?” awfice me.”

Office. “Come into my awfice, it’s all right by

awluh A pronunciation of all the, as in “He’s god awluh money.” awmobile Sometimes heard in New York as a pronunciation of automobile. awways

Astor Place riots The eminent American actor Edwin Forrest (1806–72) was a great rival of the older English tragedian, William Macready, who at 78 played his last

BONAC.

ax

Always. See quotation under

DIN.

A pronunciation of ask. See quote under

OFF IT!

COME

B baaad Commonly heard in New York among blacks. This slowly pronounced form of bad has long been black slang for something or someone good, and recently this meaning has come into general usage to a limited extent. The variation is so old that it is found in the American Creole language Gullah of three centuries ago, when baaad was used by slaves as an expression of admiration for another slave who successfully flaunted “Ole Maussa’s” rules. ba-ba-deh-boom A humorous term imitative of the sound a gun fired and used to indicate someone was killed by a gun, generally up close. First recorded in the film version of Mario Puzo’s The Godfather (1972) in which the word is used by James Caan, playing the godfather’s oldest son, Sonny Corleone. Ba-ba-deh-boom was probably around long before it found its way to the printed page, however. Heard frequently since The Godfather film it is usually said while simulating a gun with the thumb and index finger. Can also be written as babadehboom to indicate how quickly it is said. baby A common term of address used by one male to another in New York City, especially among blacks. “I can say ‘baby’ to another cat, and he can say ‘baby’ to me.” (Brown, Manchild in the Promised Land) Baby as a form of address between men is recorded as far back as 1835, but the term didn’t have much currency until the 1920s and wasn’t really widespread in use until the 1960s in New York. babushka One of the few Russians words widely used in English. Babushka, a woman’s kerchief or scarf, derives from the Russian baba, “grandmother,” because the scarves have long been worn hoodlike by old women in Russia, plus the diminutive Russian suffix -ushka. In

New York City a triangular head scarf tied under the chin is generally called a kerchief. This same kerchief is usually called a babushka in New York when worn by old women, especially eastern European immigrants. back in the woods Outdated, not with it. Usually black slang. “. . . I should have been their parents, because I had been out there on the streets, and I wasn’t as far back in the woods as they were.” (Claude Brown, Manchild in the Promised Land, 1965) backyard tree A local name for the tree of heaven or ailanthus tree, the famous tree that grows in Brooklyn. So called because it grows in many backyards in all the boroughs with great resistance to any type of air pollution. See TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN, A. badmouth To speak badly of someone, put someone down. Originally African-American slang and possibly deriving from a Vai or Mandingo expression, to badmouth came north with Southern blacks and is now used widely among whites as well in New York City, among other areas. It is first recorded, however, in a 1941 Saturday Evening Post story by James Thurber: “He badmouthed everybody.” Bagdad on the Hudson O. Henry’s favorite name for New York City. The “King of Story Tellers” chronicled the diverse lives of everyday New Yorkers, “the obscure and exploited masses of New York, the waitresses and hat-pressers, soda-jerkers and bums, the taxi drivers and policemen, O. Henry’s ‘Four Million’,” as Upton Sinclair put it. The years from 1902 to 1910 have been called New York’s O. Henry age. O. Henry drank an average of two quarts of whiskey daily, but this never prevented him from writing his 50–65 “wellmade” short 597

598 New Yawk Tawk stories a year (some 600 over his lifetime). The immensely prolific author wrote tales characterized by ironic, surprise endings—“twists,” “stingers” or “snappers”—which while they aren’t supposed to be fashionable anymore are still widely used by authors and known as O. Henry endings. O. Henry was the pen name of American writer William Sydney Porter (1862–1910). While working as a bank teller in Austin, Texas, Porter was indicted for the embezzlement (really mismanagement) of a small amount of money and fled the country to South America. On returning to his dying wife, he was imprisoned for three years and adopted the pseudonym O. Henry to conceal his real identity when he began writing and selling the stories that would make him famous. Released from prison he pursued his literary career in New York, where he published at least 15 books of short stories, including such perennial favorites as “The Gift of the Magi,” which he wrote in three hours to meet a deadline while his editor dozed on the couch in his furnished room. O. Henry suffered from hypoglycemia, the opposite of diabetes, his classic summary of the condition being “I was born eight drinks below par.” He died with only 33¢ in his pockets; his famous last words, quoting a popular song, were “Turn up the lights, I don’t want to go home in the dark.” Then came an O. Henry twist he would have liked. His funeral, in Manhattan’s Little Church Around the Corner, was somehow scheduled at the same time as a wedding. bagel (It is my opinion that a good bagel can’t be made with anything but New York water as an ingredient, but I won’t go into that here.) Bagels were possibly invented by a Jewish baker in Vienna in 1683. The anonymous baker, so the story goes, made the roll in the shape of a riding stirrup, in honor of Polish king John Sobieski, who had saved Vienna from Turkish invaders and whose favorite hobby was riding. The great invention was first called a bugel, the German for “stirrup.” This information and much more about bagels can be found in Marilyn and Tom Bagel’s (this is their real name) very entertaining The Bagel Bible (1992). The Bagels are not supported by Leo Rosten, however. Rosten claims in The Joys of Yiddish (1968) that the first mention of bagels came in 1610 when a community regulation in Kraków, Poland decreed that bagels “be given as a gift to any woman in childbirth.” He cites the German Beugel, a round loaf of bread, as the source of bagel and advises that a bagel was considered lucky by Jews because it is circular, “the perfect form.” Other authorities derive bagel from the Middle High German bouc, “bracelet,” which became the Yiddish beggel—the bagel, of course resembling a bracelet in shape. “Bagels, begorrah!” Macy’s bakery once advertised on St. Patrick’s Day in word-rich New York City from which the bagel was introduced to the rest of the country. See also BIALY; SHMEER.

bag lady A destitute homeless woman, so called because many bag ladies carry all their belongings in shopping bags, which they keep close to them in their sleeping places in the subways, building lobbies, parks and other public places. The designation, at first limited to New York City, seems to have been first recorded in 1972, but I heard it several years before then. There is no equivalent expression for a homeless man living the same way; a bagman is a man who collects or distributes payoff money. bah

A pronunciation of bar; a tavern.

Baked Alaska This dessert of ice cream baked briefly in a hot oven to brown its meringue topping into a crust was invented in Manhattan by Charles Ranhofer, chef at the famed Delmonico’s restaurant, in 1867 to commemorate the U.S. purchase of Alaska from Russia. baleboss A Yiddish term deriving from the Hebrew for “master.” Baleboss (pronounced BOL-eh-boss) can mean the head of the house, a store owner, a manager or anyone in authority. His female counterpart is a baleboosteh (pronounced bol-eh-BOSS-teh). baloney Al Smith, an East Sider who became governor of New York and an unsuccessful presidential candidate in 1928, helped popularize this expression with his remark “No matter how you slice it, it’s still baloney.” But baloney for “bunk” dates back to at least the early 20th century, bologna sausage having been pronounced baloney as early as the 1870s when there was a popular song entitled “I Ate the Boloney.” There are those who say that baloney for “bunk” has nothing to do with bologna sausage, however, tracing it to a corruption of the Spanish pelone, “testicles,” and claiming that this meant “nonsense” or “bunk” just as balls, all balls, and nerts did. The word is also spelled boloney. See also PALOOKA. Bandits Roost

See

TENEMENTS.

bar mitzvah A solemn but joyous ceremony held in a synagogue, usually on the Saturday morning closest to a Jewish boy’s 13th birthday, to recognize the boy as an adult member of the Jewish community. Bar mitzvah can also mean the boy himself, a bar mitzvah boy. The word comes from the Hebrew for “son of the commandment.” The equivalent ceremony for girls is called the bas mitzvah. barnyard epithet Used to indicate that an expletive has been stated. Bullshit. New York City hasn’t had any barnyards for years, but this euphemism was coined as recently as 1970 by a New York Times editor, in reporting the reply of David Dellinger, one of the Chicago Seven tried for conspiracy to disrupt the 1968 Demo-

Ben Day 599 cratic National Convention, to a police version of his actions. Dellinger’s actual words were “Oh, bullshit!” The editor reported that Dillinger had used a “barnyard epithet.” barrio A Spanish-speaking neighborhood or district. The first such neighborhood appeared in New York City above Canal Street shortly before World War I. It was composed mostly of people from Spain and South America. El Barrio is presently the name for a neighborhood in East Harlem whose inhabitants are Spanishspeaking. El Barrio lies between One Hundred Twentieth Street and Ninety-sixth Street and Third and Fifth Avenues. batlan Pronounced BOT-lin, this Yiddish term comes from the Hebrew for a “man who does nothing.” It is applied to a jobless person, an idler or someone unsuitable for any employment. Battle of the Aesthetes Irish-born author Ernest Boyd (1887–1946) became an important literary figure after immigrating to New York in 1913. His essay “Aesthete: Model 1924,” which appeared in the first issue of H. L. Mencken’s The American Mercury that year, attacked the young idealists of Greenwich Village and launched what was called the Battle of the Aesthetes. Before it was over, a terrified Boyd suffered insulted would-be aesthetes picketing his apartment house, throwing stink bombs through his window, jamming his doorbell with pins and making obscene phone calls to him in the early hours of the morning. bawss

bedbug A crazy person; someone who acts crazy. Often used in the old expression crazy as a bedbug, after the bedbug’s frantic running around in all directions when exposed. An example would be “I don’t know who shot him—who knows who done it with all the bedbugs in this country?” beeag

A pronunciation of bag.

beep A term used for a New York City borough president. First recorded in 1980 and patterned on veep for the vice president of the United States. beerbelly A big stomach or pot-belly that is attributed to drinking too much beer over the years. Often called a booze belly in other regions. beeuh

A pronunciation of beer.

begorrah! This Irish exclamation, heard almost always in a comic sense, if heard at all, is actually a euphemism for By God! and dates back to the 19th century. See quote under BAGEL. being Sometimes used for because, as in “Being that I’m sick, I can’t leave,” instead of “I can’t leave because I’m sick.” Belgian block A square stone about a foot long, used extensively a century ago to pave streets but now, due largely to cost, used primarily for driveways or to make low borders in gardens, etc. Some of New York’s streets built with Belgian block remain today. Also called Belgian.

A pronunciation of boss.

beanshooter A term often used instead of slingshot in New York of the 1940s and 1950s.

believe me A very common interjection, as in “I’m going! Believe me!” or “Believe me, it’s hot!” belly laugh

beard Police lingo for an undercover agent, after the beards grown by such operatives as disguises. Beau James A nickname for James J. Walker, the effervescent, high-living, cocky mayor of New York from 1925 until he resigned in 1932 after being investigated by the Seabury Committee about the “high, wide and handsome government” he gave the city. See FUN CITY. beautiful! There are many New York variations on the exclamation beautiful! It can mean everything from the very worst to the very best, depending on the situation and one’s tone of voice. Someone might say, “This new virus can wipe out a whole city in a matter of days,” and the reply might be an ironic, disgusted “Beautiful!” On the other hand, beautiful! is used to express one’s extreme happiness with something.

See

PALOOKA.

bellywhopping Used in New York City and on Long Island, among other places, to describe a sledding technique: first one runs, holding the sled up, and then one throws the sled down and falls down belly first onto it. Ben Slang for a $100 bill, named in honor of Ben Franklin, whose picture is on the bill. The term isn’t common in New York except among gamblers but is frequently heard in Philadelphia and parts of New Jersey, especially Atlantic City. “ ‘That’s worth a Ben at least.!’” (Frank Freudberg, Gasp, 1996) Ben Day A New York City printer named Benjamin Day (1831–1916) invented the Ben Day process of the quick mechanical production of stippling, shading or tints on line engravings. The process, which has been used since about 1879, eliminated the shading of a

600 New Yawk Tawk drawing by hand. Ben Dayed means produced by the Ben Day photoengraving method. berl A pronunciation of boil still commonly heard in New York City, especially Brooklyn. “Gimme those eggs hard berled.” Betty Boop

See

also been called the Big Burg, the Big City, the Big Onion, the Big Smear (these last two of tramp language), the Big Stem, and the Big Town. See also DIRTY SIDE; FATHER KNICKERBOCKER; FROG AND TOE; GOTHAM. Big Board A nickname for the New York Stock Exchange; first recorded in the early 1930s.

POPEYE.

beyoodyful Beautiful. “What beyoodyful skin,” Mr. Kaplan said. (Arthur Kober, “You Mean Common,” 1940) b’hoy An Irish pronunciation of boy common in the 19th century. His female counterpart was a g’hal. The b’hoy was usually a young worker, flashily dressed, who belonged to one of New York’s many fiercely competitive and colorfully named fire companies, such as the Black Joke, the Dry Bones and the Bean Soup. Their speech was called flash, and it is said that it contributed many words and phrases to the language—though this last is doubtful. See FLASH. bialy A round bread roll topped with flakes of onion. A bialy (plural bialys, not bialies, and pronounced beeOLL-ee) takes its name from Bialystok, Poland, where it was first made or perfected—long before its name was recorded in English. The bialy is not, as the bagel is, empty in the center; it does have a center depression, however, and has thus been called “a virgin bagel.” The word is actually short for Bialystoker begel, that is, a bagel made in Bialystok. See BAGEL. bidness A common pronunciation of business. “‘. . . Marowitz thinks that anybody in our bidness is glamorous, like a movie actor or something.’ ” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Honor, 1982) Big A A shortened form of Big Apple, a name for New York City. Also a common designation for the Aqueduct racetrack in Queens, because there’s bigtime racing there. See BIG APPLE. Big Apple A common nickname for New York City since the 1970s that is used only jocularly by residents, often in the shortened form of the Apple, mainly because it has been pushed by the local tourist bureau in advertisements and commercials. The term is first recorded by gossip columnist Walter Winchell in 1927, but no one is sure of the name’s etymology. The Big Apple, according to one story, was invented in New Orleans in about 1910. There, New Orleans musicians used it as a translation of the Spanish manzana principal, the “main apple orchard,” referring to the main city block downtown, or loosely the place where all the action is. Later, they brought the term to New York. New York City has

Big Burg A nickname for New York City; first recorded in 1933 but used before that for big cities in general. big butter-and-egg man New York City speakeasy owner Texas Guinan may have coined this expression for a wealthy big spender during the Roaring Twenties. According to the story, one of her patrons kept buying rounds for the house all evening and showering $50 bills on the chorus girls. Guinan asked him to give his name and take a bow, but he would only identify himself as being in the dairy business so Guinan put the spotlight on him, asking from the patrons and employees, “a hand for my big butter-and-egg man.” In any case, George S. Kaufman used the phrase as the title of a Broadway play in 1925, giving it greater currency. big casino (1) A very important person. (2) A major, often fatal illness, especially cancer. The term derives from the card game casino, in which the ten of diamonds is the most valuable card in the deck, worth two points, and is called the Big Casino or Big Gus. Big City A name for New York City common for nearly a century now and familiar throughout the U.S. See BIG TOWN. Big City rhythm

See quote.

‘The Big City rhythm’ has been dealt with in the movies, radio, books and magazines, but the fact remains that everything which has been told is no more than a pale suggestion of the dominant moods of the town, the qualities that place it by itself in the world: the whirling, driving tempo of existence, the efforts to relax within the battle to exist, the complicated individual adjustments to myriad personal relationships and to the whole process of the living city. (Federal Writer’s Project, New York Panorama, 1938)

Big Gus

See

BIG CASINO.

big house Once common slang for a penitentiary, originating in about 1900, but now rarely used except humorously. Wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald in a 1940 letter: “I feel like a criminal who has been in a hideout, been caught, and has to go back to the Big House.” big (whole) megillah Slang for a long, tedious explanation, as in “Don’t give me a big [or whole] megillah,

blintz 601 get to the point.” From the Hebrew for “scroll,” referring to the long, detailed Book of Esther read in synagogue during Purim. big one A $1,000 bill; any large denomination banknote. “He bet five big ones on the fight.” Sometimes used also for a million dollars, as in a recent newspaper headline, “TRUMP WON TWENTY BIG ONES ON THE FIGHT.” Big Onion A nickname hoboes had for New York City a century before Big Apple became popular. Its origin is unknown, but the term could be a reflection of the fact that there are so many diverse layers to the city. big shot This widespread term for a very important person has been traced back only to the 1920s in New York, where it is first recorded in Brooklyn-born humorist S. J. Perelman’s The Old Gang (1927): “They are big shots but too well-known to shake loose an ankle with the gals.” First applied to gangsters, the term is apparently patterned on the much older big gun, which is also still heard. Big Smear A nickname for New York City used by hoboes long before Big Apple became popular. Big Stem A name for the theater district in Manhattan, and sometimes for Manhattan itself. The Big Stem is first recorded in 1934, long after the Great White Way (1901) and Big Apple (probably the early 1920s). Big Town A nickname, especially in the East, for New York City that is first recorded in 1902. In the West, the Big Town often means Chicago. Big City is a variation on the term. Billy the Kid No one knows for sure if the famous western outlaw Billy the Kid came from New York or not—there were several young New York criminals who took that name. But there was a fabled gunman named Henry McCarty (1859–81) who took the sobriquet William H. Bonney; he was apparently dubbed “Billy the Kid” for his youth and small size after he killed at age 18 his first man (of 21) out West. He was perhaps the fastest draw in the West, and his shots often hit their mark before his gun was seen to leave his holster. He was killed by sheriff Pat Garrett, who caught him off guard. I recall, without supporting documentation, Billy being called “a homicidal maniac from Brooklyn.” bimbo Common term for a promiscuous woman, or a studied, empty-headed woman, since about 1930. Possibly originating among athletes, bimbo probably derives from the Italian bambino, “baby.” (The Bambino, of course, was also nickname for Babe Ruth). The word is almost always used disparagingly, humorously or not.

black frost A name sometimes heard in the metropolitan area for a frost that kills plants, sometimes turning them black or blackish; a killing frost. In the New York area the average date of the first black frost is about November 1. Black Hand An old offshoot of the Mafia in New York at the turn of the century whose activities were usually limited to extorting money, often by violent methods, from storekeepers and others in Italian neighborhoods. black Irish (1) An Irish person with black hair and dark complexion. (2) An Irish Protestant, used infrequently and usually in a derogatory way. black money Dirty cash made from illegal enterprises such as taking bribes and drug dealing. Black money has to be laundered, that is, made into white money, before it can be used. This is done by providing it with a legitimate history and source. Black Rock A nickname for the black-colored CBS building at Fifty-third Street and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan. The name, also applied to the television network itself, is said to have been suggested by the film A Bad Day at Black Rock (1953). In the trade NBC is called 30 Rock, from its address at Rockefeller Center, and ABC is called Hard Rock. Black Tom A children’s game of tag once commonly played in Brooklyn. Black Tom was the name of the player, usually called it in tag games. bladder Slang for a newspaper; from the German Blatt, “newspaper.” “. . . the best thing to do is to put an ad in the Lost and Found columns of the morning bladders. . . .” (Damon Runyon, “Little Miss Marker,” 1931) blast from the past The phrase was made popular by New York City disc jockey Murray the K in the 1960s as his way of introducing a great old song. Now used to describe someone or something that appears from one’s past out of the blue, as in “Wow! Seeing him was a blast from the past!” blickey A Dutch word for a small tin pail. It used to be common in New York but is seldom heard anymore. blintz Ultimately blintz comes from the Ukrainian blints, “pancake,” which became the Yiddish blintzeh and was then shortened to blintz. A blintz in Jewish cookery is a thin pancake folded or rolled around a filling of cheese, potatoes, fruit, etc., fried or baked, and often served with sour cream. The word is also spelled blintze.

602 New Yawk Tawk Blizzard of ’88 The great blizzard of 1888, which began on Sunday, March 11 and lasted until Tuesday morning, causing more death and destruction than any other storm in the city’s recorded history. block party A party held outdoors by residents of a block or street; the food, music and other entertainment are provided by the residents, and the street closed to traffic. blood Used by blacks as a name for a fellow black; the word isn’t widely used outside the black community. Bloody Mary A cocktail made of tomato juice, vodka and seasonings. Said to be named after Mary I, or Mary Tudor, queen of England (1553–58), who was called “Bloody Mary” because of her persecution of Protestants. But the name or drink is not recorded until about 1955. According to an article in U.S.A. Today (December 10, 1985), “The Bloody Mary made its debut in an ad that appeared in late December 1955. In it, (New York entertainer) George Jessel declared that he invented the drink at 5 one morning.” Bloody Mary is also the name of a character in James Michener’s South Pacific (1949). bloody mouth Used to describe a member of the Mafia who enjoys killing people and making them suffer. “In their world this was an idiom for a man who went beyond savageness, an intimation of bestiality while doing a necessary piece of work.” (Mario Puzo, The Last Don, 1996) Bloomies A popular nickname for Bloomingdale’s department store, founded in 1872 only a few blocks away from its present location on Third Avenue between Fifty-ninth and Sixtieth streets. Bloomsday Every year Bloomsday, which was created by New York James Joyce-o-phile Enrico Adelman, celebrates the June 16, 1904, day of Leopold Bloom’s odyssey through Dublin in Joyce’s Ulysses. A marathon public reading by actors is always held (Bloomsday 1998 took place at Symphony Space at Ninety-fifth Street and Broadway) and lasts from 8:00 A.M. until Molly Bloom says “Yes I said yes I will Yes,” some 40 hours later. blue Slang for a uniformed police officer. The term dates back to the 19th century. “The two blues searching the alley were complaining.” (Ed McBain, Romance, 1995) blue-chip stocks The most valuable counters in poker are the blue chips. Since the early 1900s, Wall Street, borrowing the expression from another world of gambling, has called secure, relatively high-yielding stocks

blue-chip stocks. Among the earliest terms for worthless or speculative stocks is cats and dogs, first recorded in 1879. blueclaw The usual name in New York City among fishermen and crab lovers for the large crab Callinectes sapidus, which is blue in color, red when cooked. “We went scalloping (with nets) in Jamaica Bay for blueclaws. Caught some in traps, too.” Rarely called the blueclawed crab. bluecoat A New York City policeman. The term dates back to 1853 when the first completely uniformed fulltime police force in New York City was formed, with the officers wearing a blue coat with brass buttons, gray trousers and a blue cap. Before this, policemen refused to wear uniforms because they felt that they were freeborn Americans and such “livery” would make them look like servants. bluepoint oyster Originally the name of a delicious oyster harvested in the waters of Blue Point, Long Island; then applied to any oyster found off eastern Long Island. The term was first recorded in 1789 but is seldom heard today. blue sailor An old name for the chicory plant, a blue wildflower very common along roadsides in New York City and vicinity. According to American Wildflowers (1949), the name comes from the legend of a beautiful girl who fell in love with a sailor. Her lover left her for the sea and so she sat day after day along the side of the highway looking for his return. Eventually the gods took pity on her and turned her into a chicory plant which wears sailor blue in its blossoms and still haunts roadsides in the hope of meeting her returning lover.

The roots of chicory are often ground and roasted as a coffee substitute or flavoring. blurb Humorist Gelett Burgess invented blurb in 1907 with the publication of his Are You a Bromide? Burgess’s New York publisher, B. W. Huebish, later told the story: It is the custom of publishers to present copies of a conspicuous current book to booksellers attending the annual dinner of their trade association, and as this little book was in its heyday when the meeting took place I gave it to 500 guests. These copies were differentiated from the regular edition by the addition of a comic bookplate drawn by the author and by a special jacket which he devised. It was the common practice to print the picture of a damsel—languishing, heroic, coquettish . . . on the jacket of every novel, so Burgess lifted from a Lydia Pinkham or tooth-powder advertisement the portrait of a sickly sweet young woman, painted in some gleaming teeth, and otherwise enhanced her pulchritude, and placed her in the center of the jacket. His accompanying text was some nonsense about “Miss Belinda Blurb,” and

Bonac 603 thus the term supplied a real need and became a fixture in our language.

boat race A fixed horserace. “. . . it is nothing but a boat race and everything in it is as stiff as a plank, except this certain horse.” (Damon Runyon, “The Lemon Drop Kid,” 1931) bobble A term dating back to the 1920s for a failure, as in “The dance was really a bobble.” Rarely used today. bobby

See

BONAC.

bo-bo A recent term for marijuana in New York and elsewhere; its derivation is unclear. Another term popular recently is blunt for a cigar with marijuana in it. boccie An Italian variety of lawn bowling played on short narrow dirt courts in New York City Italian neighborhoods, often by elderly people. The name comes from bocce, the Italian name of the game. It is pronounced BOTCH-ee. boddle of it.”

A pronunciation of bottle. “Gimme a boddle

bodega Originally a small Hispanic grocery store, often selling a large variety of items and including a wineshop; now often used to refer to any small grocery store. There are thousands of bodegas in the New York City area. Bodega derives from the Spanish for “storehouse.” boff To have sexual relations with. “ ‘What I heard [about her], I wouldn’t mind boffin her,’ Sal said.” (Evan Hunter, Criminal Conversation, 1994) boff-on-gool; bah-fong-goo Among the several pronunciations heard in New York for an Italian curse meaning “fuck you.” The widespread curse is often accompanied by the common arm motion meaning the same. According to the Random House Dictionary of American Slang, the curse derives from the Italian affanculo, “I fuck you up the ass.” See also FUN-GOO. boin

A pronunciation of burn.

boip

A pronunciation of burp in the New York area.

boloney

See

BALONEY.

Bonac Roughly 100 miles from Times Square a community of Long Island fishermen called the Bonackers speak a dialect that retains the sound of Shakespeare’s England and has rarely, if ever, been recorded in any lan-

guage book. The Bonackers reside in East Hampton, a town they helped settle in the mid-17th century when it was founded as a whaling port by settlers from Connecticut across Long Island Sound. The Bonackers were not among the affluent settlers; they were, in fact, often the servants of other settlers, and at first they built shacks along the Accabonac Creek, which led the richer citizens to disparagingly dub them “Bonackers.” Some 1,000 Bonackers live in the Hamptons today, many of them speaking the old English dialect called Bonac that retains much of the vocabulary and the same vowel sounds the original settlers employed. Many of the families are closely related. There are, for example, Posey Lesters and Devon Lesters and Roundswamp Lesters and Pantigo Lesters. The Posey Lesters take their name from a 19th-century ancestor who always walked the streets with a flower in his lapel, while the Roundswamp Lesters are named for the place where this branch of the family originated. Bonackers call anyone born outside the eastern end of Long Island a foreigner, and the entire world outside the area is known as away. “Even my wife’s a foreigner, she came from away,” one old fisherman says. The salty dialect spoken by the Bonackers is often related to fishing, still the main livelihood of the people. “What you got finnin’ over there?” a fisherman might shout to someone else pulling in a catch 100 yards away. “This spring I caught pretty good,” says a fisherman, “but I couldn’t get a price for the stock.” A harbor is hobboh in Bonac, its r’s melting away as they often do in this dialect. The word farmer, for example, becomes fammah. One also hears words like awchit for orchard, op’m for open, eebn for even, yit for yet, nawthin’ for nothing and winnuhry for wintry. In Bonacker homes, durst often takes the place of dare not. Cattywumper means “crooked” or “disorderly.” No matter what your name is, Bonackers reply, “Yes, yes, bobby,” or “Yes, yes, bub,” when you ask a question. Bonac’s nearest similarity to the vocabulary of another area is in a few nautical phrases also heard in Massachusetts, these including cutter, a command to turn sharply, and finestkind, which means “A-OK.” Bonackers, who speak with something resembling an Irish brogue, try not to converse in Bonac when strangers are around, and it is seldom heard in the summer season when the population of this community made famous in the movie Jaws increases threefold from its 55,000 winter population. Yet these people cling to their dialect, which one of them calls “The King’s English, only we come under an earlier king.” They are “a stubborn bunch,” in the words of another Bonacker fisherman, and resist all attempts by teachers to “get the Bonac out of their speech.” They still live modestly, as their ancestors did, often on the same land, maintaining their dialect as a badge of pride. If Bonac dies, it will only be because the Bonackers have been forced from

604 New Yawk Tawk their land by rising prices and real estate development in this summer playground of the rich, which is fast becoming a year-round suburb of Manhattan. bonebreaker An enforcer; a strong-arm man. “He had spotted Julia . . . with two men, one of whom was a Prizzi bonebreaker, Mort Violente.” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Money, 1994) bonehead play The original bonehead play was made on September 9, 1908, by Fred Merkle, the New York Giant’s first baseman, at the old Polo Grounds (torn down in 1964, in part with the same wrecking ball used to demolish Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field). It was the bottom of the ninth, two outs, and the Giants had Moose McCormick on third and Merkle on first. The next man up singled to center and McCormick scored the winning run, but Merkle ran into the dugout instead of touching second base. Johnny Evers of the Cubs got the ball and stepped on second, forcing out Merkle. The winning run was nullified, and the game was not counted in the standings. Merkle’s play became all the more significant later in the season when the Cubs and Giants finished tied for first place and the Cubs won the pennant in a play-off game. Though boneheaded had been used a little earlier, it was a New York reporter’s use of bonehead play in reference to Merkle’s blunder that popularized the phrase, along with the related boner and to pull a boner. See EBBETS FIELD.

borough A designation for county in New York City. There are five boroughs comprising the city. The Bronx is the only New York City borough that is not named for King Charles II of England or a member of his family. See BRONX; KINGS COUNTY; NEW YORK COUNTY; QUEENS COUNTY; RICHMOND. Borough of Churches

boo Marijuana. “Boo, cocaine and shit were for squares.” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Honor, 1982) boodle The Dutch in New Amsterdam (pre–New York City) called a bundle of paper money or a sack of gold a boedal, which served as the term for any property, goods or effects. The word’s spelling gradually became boodle, and it was used as underworld slang for counterfeit money and graft or bribery money, later becoming slang for a large bundle of money or money in general, with no implication of dishonesty. booting Bootlegging. “I think Judge Henry Blake figures to do a little booting on his own hook in and out of Canada.” (Damon Runyon, “Madame La Gimp,” 1929) borax Several authorities say that the source for the term borax, for cheap furniture, or any cheap and inferior merchandise is a Yiddish expression used by Jewish immigrants on New York’s Lowest East Side in the late 19th century. It could have its origins, however, in the premiums of cheap furniture offered by early makers of borax soap.

CITY OF CHURCHES.

borscht A beet soup served hot or cold, often with sour cream, that is a great favorite in Jewish and Russian restaurants. The word derives from an East Slavic word meaning the same. Also spelled borsht. borscht belt A resort area in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York. Famous for its abundant food and entertainment—many notable comedians and singers got their start there—the borscht belt caters largely though not exclusively to a Jewish clientele from New York City. It takes its name from the popular beet soup called borscht that was introduced to America by Russian Jews and is consumed in large quantities at the borscht belt or borscht circuit resorts. boss Boss was all the rage in the early 1960s to describe anything really cool: That’s real boss was the usual form. Today, the word seems to have largely passed out of use. Bottle Alley

bon verge A pronunciation of bon voyage heard in New York.

See

See

TENEMENTS.

bow-and-arrow squad A position assigned to a member of the New York City Police Department who has been relieved of his weapon, in other words, not any one real unit. “They relieve him of all armaments and assign him to units known, in police jargon, as Bow and Arrow Squads.” (Jimmy Breslin, World Without End, 1973) bowery Bowery derives from the Dutch word for “farm,” bowerij, and this was originally its meaning in New York. But the word came to be applied to an area in downtown Manhattan that was originally the site of a farm and became the city’s most famous skid row, the Bowery long noted in song and story for its saloons and cheap hotels. It is also the name of a street, stretching from Chatham Square to Cooper Square, that was once an Indian path. Bowery Boy Huntz Hall, Leo Gorcey and the Other Bowery Boys of movie fame with their extreme New York accents take their name from a number of real New York gangs dating back as far as the 1700s. Other gangs of the day, to name only a few, include the Dead Rabbits, the Roach Guards, the Shirt Tails and the Plug Uglies. Hell-Cat Maggie, a female member of the violent Dead Rabbits, “filed her front teeth to points and wore

Broadway 605 artificial brass fingernails,” according to Luc Sante’s Low Life (1991).

The Federal Writers’ Project, Almanac for New Yorkers (1938).

box ball A ball game, similar to tennis or Ping-Pong but played without racquets or a net, that has been popular among New York City children since at least the 1920s. It is played within two boxes of seamed sidewalk concrete with a rubber ball—usually a pink “Spaldeen” or a tennis ball. One player, facing his or her opponent, tries to serve the ball with his open hand over the seam into the second 4-foot square box, and the other player tries to slap it back into the server’s box. This goes on until someone misses. If the server wins the volley he gets a point; if the receiver wins the volley, he becomes the server and tries to win points. Twenty-one points wins the game. See SPALDEEN.

breadline In The Dictionary of Americanisms, breadline is said to be first recorded in 1900, but no specific account of its origin is offered. However, in his fascinating book Here at the New Yorker (1975), Brendan Gill attributes the expression to the Fleischmann family from whose yeast fortune rose the New Yorker magazine. The family ran the Vienna Model Bakery in New York City during the late 1870s:

boychik A term used in Yiddish for a boy or young man. It combines the English boy with the Slavic suffixchik and is effective largely because of both boy and chik (similar to chick) suggest someone young.

The term had its widest use during the Great Depression 50 years later.

boyo

See

BOYOBOYOBOYO!

boyoboyoboyo! An exclamation used in many ways that may just be a variation on the common boy oh boy. On the other hand, it could be related to the Irish English boyo for a boy or lad. There may be a Yiddish influence, too, for the expression is often heard among elderly Jews as an expression of exasperation. Boys of Summer A nickname for the Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950s era that first appeared in Roger Kahn’s book The Boys of Summer (1972), the title of which in turn comes from the Dylan Thomas poem “I See the Boys of Summer.” brain trust The group of experts forming the first brain trust were the advisers to Franklin Delano Roosevelt while he prepared presidential campaign speeches at Hyde Park, New York, in 1932. The brain trust consisted of Columbia University professors Adolf A. Berle Jr., Raymond Moley and Rexford G. Tugwell. The expression was coined by New York Times reporter James M. Kieran when he learned that they were in residence. Kieran originally called the group the brains trust in his Times’ dispatches, but other reporters and headline writers soon eliminated the cumbersome s. By the time Roosevelt became president, brain trust was commonly being used for his larger group of supposedly nonpolitical experts. The phrase had been previously employed in sarcastic reference to the first American general staff, in 1901, not at all in the same sense. braykidup Break it up. “A policeman’s suggestion to any group of loiterers.” A pronunciation recorded in

In order to call attention to the freshness of Fleischmann’s bread and also, it appears, because of an innate generosity, Lewis [Fleischmann] made a practice of giving away at eleven every evening whatever amount of bread had not been sold during the day. The poor lined up to receive it at the bakery door; hence our word “breadline.”

breakers

See

WAVES.

breeze Black English for man or buddy, dating back to the 1960s. “Hey, breeze, what’s happening?” Breezy Point The extreme western end of the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, a part of Long Island, bordered on the south by the Atlantic Ocean and on the north by Jamaica Bay. “Far off [from Coney Island] he could See the sparse lights on the darkened smudge of Breezy Point . . . on a stretch of the most beautiful unspoiled beach left in New York [City] . . . Breezy Point was populated by lots of cops and firefighters and was still 90 percent Irish.” (Denis Hamill, House on Fire, 1996) bridge-and-tunnel A term often used by Manhattanites to describe, usually negatively, suburban commuters to the city. “The place attracts a bridge-and-tunnel crowd.” bris The Jewish rite of circumcising a male child eight days after his birth. Usually done by a mohel (MOY-el) trained in this surgery. Also called a brith, berith and brit. broad

A woman. See quote under

PANCAKE.

Broadway Broadway is the oldest and of course the best-known street in New York City, though rivaled in fame by Wall Street, Park Avenue and Fifth Avenue. Famous for its theaters, restaurants and bright lights, it is also a synonym for professional theater itself. Broadway has in recent times become a nickname used to describe dapper dressers among baseball players and players in other sports. The first that comes to mind is

606 New Yawk Tawk Broadway Joe Namath, former quarterback of the New York Jets football team. According to the Dictionary of Americanisms, the first recorded use of the name Broadway for the street was 1673; before this it had been called High Street. Originally an Indian trail, it now runs 17 miles through Manhattan and four miles through the Bronx. It has been called the longest street in the world but doesn’t come close, the record being held by Toronto’s 1,178-mile-long Yonge Street. broderick His tactics wouldn’t be officially approved today, but Johnny “The Boffer” Broderick is still remembered as a tough New York City cop who relied on his fists as much as his police revolver. Known as the world’s toughest cop, Detective Broderick worked “the Broadway beat,” dealing out punishment with his fists on the spot so often that to broderick became a synonym for “to clobber.” Broderick once flattened the hoodlum Jack “Legs” Diamond, and he knocked out and captured Francis “Two-Gun” Crowley before Crowley could find the courage to shoot. Another time he battered two men molesting a woman, threw them through a plate-glass window and then arrested them for malicious destruction of property. In fact, Bellevue Hospital used him as an exhibit to show how much punishment the human hand could take. Broderick, an image of sartorial splendor, was used as a bodyguard by many celebrities, including Franklin Roosevelt and Jack Dempsey. Dempsey confessed that the detective was the only man he wouldn’t care to fight outside the ring. This graduate of New York’s gashouse district was immortalized by Damon Runyon as Johnny Brannigan and played by Edward G. Robinson in Bullets or Ballots. By the time he retired in 1947, after 25 years on the force, Broderick had won 8 medals for heroism. Broadway gamblers once gave 9–5 odds that he would be killed on any given day, but he died naturally in his bed in 1966, 72 years old. broker Runyonese for one who has no money, is broke. “Feet Samuels is generally broke, and there is no percentage hanging around brokers . . . Feet Samuels is one of the worst brokers in this town.” (Damon Runyon, “A Very Honorable Guy,” 1929) broker than the Ten Commandments A phrase common in the 1930s. “‘Listen, bud, I’m flat broke. I’m broker’n the Ten Commandments.’” (Henry Roth, From Bondage, 1996) Bronx The Bronx, one of New York City’s five boroughs, and the only one connected to the U.S. mainland, takes its name from Jonas Bronck, a Dane who first settled the area for the Dutch West India Company in 1641. Points of interest in the celebrated borough are

the Bronx Zoo, the New York Botanical Garden, the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage and Yankee Stadium (“The House That Ruth Built”). See BOROUGH; KINGS COUNTY; NEW YORK COUNTY; QUEENS COUNTY; RICHMOND. Bronx Bombers A nickname for the New York Yankees, more commonly called the Yanks, for at least the last 50 years. The name honors all the powerful sluggers who have played for the team and blasted, or bombed, the ball. Bronx Bunnies An old humorous nickname for the New York Yankees; a play on Bronx Bombers. See BRONX BOMBERS. Bronx cheer Long associated with baseball, the razz, or raspberry, called the Bronx cheer, wasn’t born at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, the home of baseball’s New York Yankees, as many baseball fans believe. It may derive from the Spanish word branca, “a rude shout,” and possibly originated at the old National Theatre in the Bronx. We only know for certain that the term was first recorded in 1929 and that many players have received Bronx cheers in Yankee Stadium. Bronx cocktail A mixture of gin, sweet and dry vermouths, and orange juice created in Manhattan by Waldorf Astoria bartender Johnny Solon around 1900. Explained the bartender: The name? No, it wasn’t really named directly after the borough or the river so-called. I had been at the Bronx Zoo a day or two before, and I saw, of course, a lot of beasts I had never known. Customers used to tell me of the strange animals they saw after a lot of mixed drinks. So when Treverson said to me, as he started to take the drink to the customer, “What’ll I tell him is the name of the drink?” I thought of those animals and said: “Oh, you can tell him it is a ‘bronx.’ ”

See

ALEXANDER; MANHATTAN COCKTAIL.

Bronx Indian

See

BROOKLYN INDIAN.

Bronx Zoo A derogatory nickname for the New York Yankees heard from 1979 until at least 1996 when the team won the World Series. The renowned Bronx Zoo is of course located in the same borough as Yankee Stadium, and the players seem to have reminded the fans of the animals in said zoo. The words were recorded for the first time in The Bronx Zoo (1979) by Sparky Lyle and Peter Golenbock, and may have been invented by the book’s editor, Larry Freundlich, when he named the book. Brooklyn The borough of Brooklyn is officially known as Kings County, but no one calls it that. In 1645 the area was named Breuckelen after an ancient village

bug 607 in the Netherlands; over the years this changed to Brockland, Brocklin, Brookline and finally Brooklyn. Brooklynese is a synonym for New York speech, or what some consider the worst of New York speech, coined in about 1945. It is, in any case, an extreme form of New York talk that had its golden age 60 years or so ago and has been heard less since. Someone long ago defined Brooklynese as what you have a bad case of if you recite the sentence There were thirty purple birds sitting on a curb, burping and chirping and eating dirty worms, brother, as “Dere were toity poiple boids sittin onna coib, boipin and choipin an eatin doity woims, brudda.” Brooklyn Bridge Called the “Eighth Wonder of the World” upon its opening, this bridge joining Brooklyn and Manhattan spans 1,595.5 feet between its towers and was at one time the longest bridge in the world. It was also the first suspension bridge to use steel for greater stability. John Augustus Roebling (1806–69), the inventor of wire cable, designed the bridge but died in a ferry accident during the early stages of construction. His son Washington Roebling (1837–1926) took charge after his father’s death. In 1872 Roebling became paralyzed, suffering from the bends, a common affliction among the men working the massive bottomless caissons used to sink the bridge towers onto the solid bedrock beneath the East River. From then until the end of construction, Roebling’s wife acted as his intermediary while he looked on through a telescope from the window of his Columbia Heights apartment. Twelve people were trampled to death in the crowd that rushed to cross the bridge when it first opened on May 24, 1883. Almost from that year on, buying the Brooklyn Bridge has become a phrase symbolizing gullibility— though it’s doubtful that any con man ever really sold it to anyone.

any secret of our common cause . . . lastly, you must never violate the wife or children of another member . . .” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Honor, 1982)

Also called by the Italian name Fratellanza. brudder A pronunciation of brother, as in “My uddah brudder’s bedder.” Bruglione

See quote.

The other Mafia Families served chiefly as executive Barons, or Brugliones, who when in trouble went to the Clericuzio [family] hat in hand. In Italian the words “Bruglione” and “baron” rhyme, however in the Italian dialect “Bruglione” means someone who fumbles the smallest tasks. It was Don Dominico’s wit, sparked by the Barons’ constant pleas for help that changed the word “baron” to Bruglione. (Mario Puzo, The Last Don, 1996)

bub

See

BONAC.

bubbe-mayse Yiddish for a grandma’s story or old wives’ tale. Said to derive from the title of a 16thcentury book entitled Buvo Mayse (Buvo Story). bubby John Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms (1877) states that bubby, a familiar name for a little boy, is a corruption of brother, claiming it as an Americanism first recorded in about 1848. More likely, it is from the German bube, “little boy.” Compare BUBEE. bubee Bubee, a Yiddish term of endearment that can be addressed to a child or any loved one, apparently derives from the Yiddish bubeleh, meaning the same, which probably comes from the Russian baba, “little grandmother,” and the Hebrew buba, “little doll.” Bubee is widely used in New York as an affectionate term for anyone. Compare BUBBY.

Brooklyn Indian A disparaging, offensive term for a Jew, as is Bronx Indian, both terms first recorded in the 1940s and probably originating in the military during World War II.

bubkes Usually pronounced BUB-kees, this Yiddish word from the Russian for “beans” means nothing or very little, a small amount, something trivial. “You know what I got for the job? Bubkes!”

Brooklyn

bucket shop Any unethical brokerage firm; a boiler room operation. “It made the Rockefellers’ little kerosene speculation look like a bucket shop.” (O. Henry, “The Gentle Grafter,” 1908) At the beginning of the 20th century many bucket shops were located on lower Broadway. At the time there were also saloons called bucket shops selling buckets of beer.

NATIONAL

National ANTEM.

Anthem

See

DA

BROOKLYN

Brooklyn side When the bowler hits into the wrong pocket of pins (the one opposite his bowling hand, for example, the 1-3 pocket if he’s right-handed) the hit is called a Brooklyn side or a Brooklyn, as in “You’ve been hitting the Brooklyn side all night.” Brotherhood

A synonym for the Mafia.

“There are three laws of the Brotherhood which must become a part of you. The first—you must obey your superiors, to death if necessary . . . You must never betray

bug To annoy, irritate as might a mosquito or any small insect. The term has been common in New York since the late 1950s, probably popularized by jazz musicians some 10 years before that, and is widespread throughout the United States today. Some etymologists

608 New Yawk Tawk trace the bug in “don’t bug me” to the West African bugu, “annoy.” This may be so, but if the term did come to America with slavery, there should be earlier references to it than we have, bug only being recorded in this sense since the late 1940s. This meaning of bug may also have derived in some roundabout way from one of the many other slang uses of bug, including an obsessed person, a trick, or even bugging a person’s phone calls surreptitiously, a term that arose from the underworld. It could also derive from bugger for sodomy. Bugs Bunny Bugs’s creator and voice, the late Mel Blanc, always insisted that the pesky wabbit had his (Blanc’s) New York accent, combining Brooklyn and Bronx elements. See POPEYE. bulldog edition In the 1890s several New York City newspapers brought out early morning editions that came to be called bulldog editions, possibly because the newspapers “fought like bulldogs” among themselves in their circulation wars. The first mention yet found of the expression is a reference to a “bulldog edition” of the morning World delivered to Brooklyn. Bull Durham! A euphemism for bullshit! using the name of the long popular trademarked brand of tobacco. “ ‘Bull Durham!’ cried Zeddy, ‘What was I going to let on about anything for?’ ” (Claude McKay, Home to Harlem, 1928) bunk into Bump into. This pronunciation probably dates back at least to the turn of the century and is still heard, especially among older speakers, though not as frequently as in the past. There is little doubt that it originated in Brooklyn. “I bunked into him on the subway last week, and we had a long talk.” buns Old slang for the buttocks; common in New York City area. “Up your buns!” (Norman Mailer, Why Are We in Vietnam?, 1967) bunt The bunt in baseball, used mostly by a batter as a sacrifice play to advance another runner into better scoring position, is probably a corruption of the word butt, which does sound like bunt when spoken nasally. Hitters “butt” at the ball with the bat when they bunt. Bunt dates back to at least 1872, when the first recorded use of this strategy was made by a player named Pearce on the Brooklyn Atlantics. burial society An organization that pays or helps pay for the burial of its members. One of the oldest is the

Hebrew Free Burial Society, which pays for the burial in Jewish cemetery of indigent Jews who otherwise would be buried in Potter’s Field. burn one with a feather A colorful example of old New York diner and luncheonette talk, meaning a chocolate malted milk with an egg mixed in it. Another example is burn the British, which means a toasted English muffin. Of these orders related to the chef by the waiter or waitress, a few have stood the test of time. Nobody, for example, has improved on one to go for a take-out order or on nervous pudding for Jell-O. bustin’ my onions A euphemism for bustin’ my balls; punishing, disciplining, pushing or annoying someone. “The boss was really bustin’ my onions today.” Also bustin’ my chops. busy as a one-armed paperhanger This phrase is often attributed to New York cartoonist and prolific word coiner T(homas) A(loysius) Dorgan (1877–1929) but may have originated with O. Henry, who wrote in a 1908 story: “Busy as a one-armed man with a nettle rash pasting on wall-paper.” buttinsky A meddler; someone who always butts into other people’s affairs. Some authorities believe the sky ending is a play on Russian and Polish names ending in “sky,” and buttinsky, a punning word formed around the turn of the last century when there were plenty of “greenhorn” immigrants among these ethnic groups who had to ask a lot of questions in order to survive. At any rate, the term was soon used in New York to describe all buttinskies and still is. Kibitzer is a similar word. button man A soldier or low-ranking Mafia member. The name, first recorded in the 1960s, may come from the fact that such low-ranking members are paid very little, the equivalent of buttons. “ ‘There are three thousand fucking button men out there who are millionaires. Just soldiers, button men, the dirty-work people, not even workers.’ ” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Honor, 1982) buying the Brooklyn Bridge

See

BROOKLYN BRIDGE.

B’way This spelling of Broadway may have been invented by gossip columnist Walter Winchell. See BROADWAY. by

With. “She lives by her parents.”

C cabbie

See

HACKIE.

can An old term for jail or prison. “He was thrown in the can last night.”

cablegram First used in 1868, the word cablegram initially met with some resistance, scholars condemning it as a hybrid derived from Latin (cable) and Greek (gram). Use the all-Greek calogram instead of the New York City-born monster, they suggested, but few agreed and the coinage proved durable. Such improperly formed words are of course common in English, and there is a liberal supply of like hybrids, including such common words as because, dentist, grateful, starvation, talkative and parliament.

Canary That Couldn’t Fly The nickname gangsters gave to Kid Twist Reles, who informed on Murder, Inc. in the 1930s and was consequently pushed to his death from the window of a Coney Island hotel while he was being guarded by lawmen. See MURDER, INC. candy

See

candy store

café society Said to be coined one night in 1919 by newspaper society columnist Cholly Knickerbocker (Maury Paul) when he saw a number of prominent socialites dining out at the Ritz-Carlton in midtown Manhattan. Up to that time, supposedly, most of this breed dined at home. Paramount Pictures later paid Lucius Beebe, another city newspaper columnist, $50,000 for using the term café society as the title of a movie starring Madeleine Carroll—thinking he had invented the expression. But it is fairly certain that Champagne Cholly (as Paul was also known) deserves the honor. He is also said to have invented glamour girl, an old standby, but is mostly responsible for such thankfully extinct cutesy coinages as sweetie sweets (nice people) and doughty dowagers (rich people).

SHOULDER CANDY.

See

MOM-AND-POP STORE.

cannoli A popular crispy Italian pastry, rolled and filled with a mixture of ricotta cheese, cream, candied fruits and other ingredients, that has become one of New York’s many popular “international foods” in relatively recent times. “. . . Corrado picked up a cannoli and wolfed it down like a sword-swallower.” (Condon, Prizzi’s Money, 1994) The pastry is named from the Italian cannolo for “tube,” being tubular in shape. But a cannoli is never called by the singular form, at least not in New York, although one such pastry should technically be a cannolo. cannon A name for a pickpocket, deriving from the Yiddish gonif. See DIP; FINGER. can’t anyone here play this game? The famous question New York Mets manager Casey Stengel asked his team midway through their first season in the National League. The Mets of 1962 have been nominated as the worst team in any one season, losing a record 120 games that year. Wrote columnist Jimmy Breslin: “This is a team for the cab driver who gets held up in traffic and the guy who loses out on a promotion . . . losers, just like nearly everybody else in life.”

calzone A favorite Italian food in New York, consisting of a crisp Italian pastry made from pizza dough and filled with mozzarella and ricotta cheese, among other ingredients. So named from the Italian calzone for “trousers” because of its resemblance in shape to one leg of a pair of pants. 609

610 New Yawk Tawk capeesh Pronunciation of capisce, Italian for “understand.” “ ‘Then he wants her to tell those banks to wire the money to the number accounts on the list of banks I’m gonna hand to you. Capeesh?’ ” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Money, 1994) capo di tutti capi Italian for “boss of all the bosses.” “He was the sole United States ‘friend’ who had enjoyed a personal relationship with the late Don Calo Vizzini, who was so close as to be actually within the family of the present Capo de tutti Capi of Sicily. . . .” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Honor, 1982) caporegime A Mafia leader serving under the don or godfather who heads a Mafia family. The caporegime has an organization of his own and is in charge of a large area but must report to the godfather. Also called skipper and captain. captain

See

SKIPPER.

Carvel Frozen custard or soft ice cream of any kind is often called Carvel in the New York area, so popular has the Carvel brand name become. In fact, I rarely hear anyone say frozen custard anymore; it’s “I feel like a Carvel,” or “Let’s get Carvel.” Thomas Andreas Carvelas, a Yonkers resident, invented his machine for making frozen custard in 1934, selling it from a truck he drove through city streets, where he competed with ice cream trucks like Good Humor and Bungalow Bar. Carvelas later changed his name to Tom Carvel and sold franchises that made the Carvel name a household word by the 1960s. Before then soft ice cream was usually called frozen custard. Castle Garden

See

ELLIS ISLAND.

Catch The Catch is a historical expression referring to a specific catch known to all New York City sports fans: the over-the-shoulder catch made by New York Giants center-fielder Willie Mays in the first game of the 1954 World Series of a long drive by Cleveland Indians first baseman Vic Wertz. Cathedral of Commerce

See

WOOLWORTH BUILDING.

Catlick A pronunciation of Catholic. “You think your mother would tell you to lie? She’s a Catlick, too.” (Pete Hamill, Snow in August, 1997) cattle call A large casting call for actors and actresses at Broadway theaters. The theatrical term is first recorded in the 1950s and is applied to any mass audition today. It apparently first referred to an audition held at a television studio.

cattywumper caught

See

See

BONAC.

BONAC.

caught with the store An expression gin rummy players use when an opponent goes out or knocks with a large number of points in his hand. “You caught me with the store.” Cedarhurst Alley

See

HOWARD BEACH WAIT.

cellar Cellar, for the lowest position in league rank for a baseball team, is first recorded in a New York Times headline of July 9, 1922: “Red Sox Are Up Again. Leave Cellar to Athletics by Taking Final of Series, 4 to 1.” Central Park Work began on the great Manhattan park in 1857 based on designs by Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux. The park was partially inspired by public grounds in great European cities and was meant to improve New York’s reputation and provide a recreational area for its citizens. The original grounds covered 700 acres running from Fifty-ninth Street to One Hundred Sixth Street between Fifth Avenue and Eighth Avenue. Olmstead and Vaux’s design called for a combination of pastoral settings and recreational facilities and included features such as Belvedere Castle, the Sheep Meadow and carriage drives. The park opened in 1859, and in 1863 its northern edge moved to One Hundred Tenth Street, increasing the grounds to 843 acres. In the 1930s Progressive reformers and Parks Commissioner Robert Moses built numerous playgrounds at the park’s edges, constructed ballfields, renovated the zoo and increased recreational activities. Since its opening, the park has been an important part of New York life, particularly in summertime. Among the park’s bestknown features are the Children’s Zoo, the Delacorte Theater, the Friedman Memorial Carousel, the Great Lawn, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Tavern on the Green restaurant. cerveza panics.

Spanish for beer; a word used mainly by His-

chalk player A horseplayer who only bets on favorites. Also called a chalk eater, which shows that such players are objects of ridicule. challa

See

Chanukah

HOLLY.

See

HANUKKAH.

change for; change of Both expressions are used in New York, but I’ve heard “You got change for a dollar?” more frequently.

chop suey Chapin stigmata In his City Editor (1934), Stanley Walker wrote of another city editor, Charles E. Chapin, who was widely respected for his professionalism but generally hated for his cold-hearted efficient methods. Chapin fired 108 men when city editor of the New York Evening World. When World reporter Irvin S. Cobb heard he was ill one day, he remarked “I trust it’s nothing trivial.” Walker writes that “Today, men who develop traits and methods similar to his are said to be marked with the ‘Chapin stigmata.’ ” Chapin died in 1930, in Sing Sing prison, where he was sent after killing his wife. Charges Gina / Was Obscena / On La Screena YORK DAILY NEWS. Charlie Chasidim

See

See NEW

MR. CHARLIE.

See

HASIDIM.

cheesecake; beefcake The old story is that in 1912 New York Journal photographer James Kane was developing a picture of an actress that included “more of herself than either he or she expected.” As he looked at it, he searched for the greatest superlative he knew of to express his delight and exclaimed, “That’s real cheesecake!” The word soon became synonymous for photographs of delectable models; however, not until 1934 is cheesecake first recorded. In the 1970s, beefcake became the male equivalent. cheese it, da cops! This street cry didn’t originate in Brooklyn, though it has often been heard there in fact, fiction and film. It dates back to early 19th-century England, the cheese in it probably a corruption of cease it, that is cease any criminal activity, the cops are coming. chestnut stabber An old derogatory name for an Italian because hot chestnut carts in the city were often operated by Italian immigrants. chewing gum

See ADAMS’ NEW YORK GUM NO. 1—SNAP-

PING AND STRETCHING.

Chicken à la King Chicken à la King, diced pieces of chicken in a sherry sauce, is now available canned or frozen and even found in army mess halls, which is a long way from the éclat tables where it was served in the late 19th century. The dish was not invented for a king, as is popularly believed, yet it’s hard to pinpoint just who chicken à la king does honor. Some say that New Yorker Foxhall Keene, self-proclaimed “world’s greatest amateur athlete,” suggested the concoction to a chef at Delmonico’s restaurant. The peerless Foxhall always claimed this was so.

611

chicken feed (1) Very common for many years in New York as an expression for a small amount of money. (2) Another name for the kernels of yellow, gold and white candy usually called candy corn. chicken lobster; chick A small lobster up to one and a quarter pounds. The terms also once meant a lobster under the legal size limit. Sometimes advertised as chix. chicken out To lose one’s nerve and back out of a situation. “He chickened out at the first sign of trouble.” chicklets Slang for teeth; after the trademark candycoated gum called chiclets. chief cook and bottle washer A humorous name for someone doing a lot of menial work. Chinese apple Common in New York for the seedfilled fruit generally known as a pomegranate. Chinese handball A variation on handball in which the ball must bounce on the ground before it hits the wall. Chinks’ Once very common for any Chinese restaurant or its food, as in “Let’s eat Chinks’ today” or “Let’s go to the Chinks’.” The derogatory expression is fading from use. chintz A pronunciation of gents, as in “chintz room.” Also used to describe cheap baubles and knickknacks or gaudy, tacky decorations. choose-up A baseball (or softball, basketball or football) game without regular teams in which players are chosen in turn from the available talent by two captains who are frequently the best players. The worst players are usually chosen last, and those not chosen at all often umpire. Also called a choose-up game. chopped liver Said of something or someone trivial. First recorded in a famous line of comedian Jimmy Durante: “Now that ain’t chopped liver!” (See SCHNOZZOLA.) Often heard today in the half humorous complaint “What am I, chopped liver?” chop suey Chop suey isn’t native to China; in fact, most accounts of its origin say that the dish was invented in America. The widely accepted theory, advanced by Herbert Asbury in his Gangs of New York (1928), makes the tasty mélange the brainchild of a San Francisco dishwasher, though the Chinese dishwasher is sometimes promoted to a “cook in a California gold mining camp.” I’ve traced the term’s invention, however, to 1896 when it

612 New Yawk Tawk was concocted in New York by Chinese ambassador Li Hung-Chang’s chef, who tried to devise a dish appealing to both American and Chinese tastes. Since the ambassador had three chefs, it’s hard to say which one invented chop suey. The name has nothing to do with the English word “chop,” deriving instead from the Cantonese dialect shap sui, which means “bits and pieces of mixed bits.” The chef who invented it took leftover pieces of pork and chicken and cooked them together with bean sprouts, green peppers, mushrooms and seasonings in a gravy, serving it with rice and soy sauce. Chunky

See

TOOTSIE ROLL.

Church of the Holy Rifles Preacher and author Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87), brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, was a complex man whose interests ranged from involvement in antislavery movements to involvement with female members of his congregation. Beecher’s Bibles, for example, were Sharp repeater rifles that the reverend, one of America’s most famous and controversial preachers, raised money for at his Brooklyn Heights church in New York and shipped to Bloody Kansas in crates labeled “Bibles.” Beecher encouraged his parishioners to join the “underground railroad” and even held mock slave auctions at Plymouth Congregational Church to illustrate the evils of slavery. The church, still in use, was called the “Church of the Holy Rifles” and is now a national historic shrine. Beecher once wrote that “the Sharp rifle was a truly moral agency . . . [had] more moral power . . . than a hundred Bibles.” Christmas Christian Used in the New York area and elsewhere for someone who only goes to church on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day or who rarely goes to church. Chrysler Building A skyscraper on Lexington Avenue that was briefly the tallest building in the world. The story is told in The New York City Guide (1939): William Van Alen, architect of the Chrysler Building, and his former partner, H. Craig Severance, became rivals when each was commissioned to design the world’s tallest building. When the Chrysler tower seemed likely to terminate at 925 feet, the builders of the Bank of the Manhattan Company structure (or Manhattan Company Building) at 40 Wall Street (designed by Severance and Yasuo Matsui) decided to halt their operations at 927 feet. Meanwhile, steel workers were secretly assembling the rustless steel sections of the Chrysler spire which, when lifted through the dome and bolted into place, brought building to its triumphant height of 1,048 feet. Subsequently the Empire State Building stole the laurels.

See

EMPIRE STATE BUILDING; WOOLWORTH BUILDING.

chutzpah Chutzpah derives from a Hebrew word meaning “insolence, audacity.” Signifying impudence,

gall, brazen nerve, incredible cheek and unmitigated audacity in Yiddish and in New York slang, it more often today indicates an admirable quality in a person: guts bordering on the heroic. Leo Rosten gives the classic definition of chutzpah in The Joys of Yiddish: “That quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.” (No one knows if this ever happened, but a 19th-century anecdote does mention such a man.) A study by the Lexis-Nexis information-retrieval system found that chutzpah is becoming very respectable nationally. From 1980 until 1993 the Yiddish word was used in fully 112 court decisions by judges across the United States, a large number of them in New York. ciao Italian for “goodbye” or “so long” that has been widely adopted into New York talk. Pronounced CHOW. cinema

See

PICTURE SHOW.

citizen In black slang a citizen is something of a square, but in Runyonese the word simply means any person. “Among these citizens is The Seldom Seen Kid, who is called the Seldom Seen because he is seldom seen after anything comes off that anybody may wish to See him about. . . .” (Damon Runyon, “Money from Home,” 1931) city Manhattan, one of the five boroughs of New York City, is the city to anyone living in any of the other four boroughs, and that person would usually say “I’m going to the city” if he or she was going to Manhattan, although “I’m going to Manhattan” might also be used. Out in the suburbs of Long Island, Connecticut and New Jersey, however, one might say “I’m going to the city” and mean he or she is going to the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island or the Bronx as well. City College City College is the usual name for C.C.N.Y., the City College of New York. It is also a humorous name for the Tombs prison, on Centre Street, which was once the site of the Collect Pond where inventor John Fitch experimented with his steamboat in 1796. City Hall The gracious structure was completed by French engineer Joseph Mangin in 1812. When Mangin designed the building it was decided that City Hall stood so far north that few people would ever See the rear of it—surely there would be no growth northward. Therefore, the rear facade of the building was finished with red sandstone rather than the expensive marble used for the rest of the structure. City of Churches A nickname for Brooklyn, after its many churches of many faiths. Also Borough of Churches.

cold-ass Mary 613 City of Towers A century-old nickname for New York inspired by the city’s numerous skyscrapers. clam digger A humorous nickname for residents of various bayfront towns near or in New York City; often because in years past they had a large population of people who clammed for a living. Residents of Inwood, New York, on the Queens border (next to Far Rockaway), for example, were often called clam diggers up until the 1960s, though the designation isn’t much heard today except among old-timers. The same could be said of Canarsie in Brooklyn and Broad Channel in Queens. clean up hitter Another term that comes to us from the sports pages of a New York newspaper: the New York Evening Journal, April 15, 1907. It means the player hitting fourth in a team’s lineup, who is supposed to clear the bases of any of the three men preceding him and by extension has come to mean the most reliable person in any group. Cleopatra’s Needles Cleopatra’s Needles is a misnomer. The two originally pink obelisks—one 68 feet tall standing on the Thames embankment, and the other 69 feet tall standing in New York’s Central Park—really have nothing at all to do with the queen of the Nile. Hieroglyphics on the needles show that Pharaoh Thutmose III erected them centuries before Cleopatra lived. Originally raised at Heliopolis in 1475 B.C., the obelisks were moved to Alexandria, under Augustus in about 14 B.C., where they adorned the Caesareum. In 1878 and 1880, Ismail Pasha made gifts of them to England and the United States, respectively, and it is said that they have suffered more from erosion in their present locations over the last century than they did over thousands of years in Egypt. The formerly rose-red syenite granite obelisks were probably named for Cleopatra because they stood outside the Caesareum, honoring her dictator lover. click

See

on street corners.” (Ed McBain, Mischief, 1993) For much more on clockers See Richard Price’s 1992 novel of that name. Clocker probably derives from the older slang Clock, to watch for a prospective victim of a crime or to watch for a customer. close the door, were you born in a barn? Born in a barn has widespread U.S. use in describing someone with bad manners (“He acts like he was born in a barn.”), but the above variation has been used in the New York City area since at least the 1930s, though it isn’t frequently heard today. clueless

See

DON’T HAVE A CLUE.

cockamamie Cockamamie means something worthless or trifling, even absurd or strange; a cockamamie excuse or story is an implausible, ridiculous one. The word may be a corruption of decalcomania (a cheap picture or design on specially prepared paper that is transferred to china, wood, etc.), a word youngsters on New York’s Lower East Side early in the century found tiring to pronounce and impossible to spell. coconut One dollar. “. . . he is a smart guy at his own dodge, and everything else, and has plenty of coconuts. . . .” (Damon Runyon, “Gentlemen, the King!” 1929) coffee milk This term seems to be recorded only in Louisiana as the words for coffee and hot milk mixed together, a translation of the French cafe au lait. But I distinctly remember it being used in the 1940s and 1950s in the New York metropolitan area, where it means a little coffee (usually from an adult’s cup) poured into a child’s glass of cold milk as a treat, to coax the child to drink the milk by making him feel like a grownup. It is also used in New York City to describe a coffeeflavored milk sold in stores.

PALOOKA.

cliff-dweller An old term used in New York to describe New Yorkers who live in tall apartment houses. The original cliff-dwellers were prehistoric peoples who lived on the rock ledges and in the natural recesses of cliffs. clip (1) To steal, swindle. The term apparently originated in New York City in the 1920s. Wrote Walter Winchell in Vanity Fair (1929): “When a patron in a nightclub is ‘clipped,’ he isn’t punched, he’s ‘taken,’ or ‘gypped’ out of some currency, or he is over-charged.” (2) To kill, assassinate, shoot. “‘Irene will clip the bodyguard.’” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Honor, 1982) clocker See quote. “At the moment, they were both clockers, who were low-level people who sold cocaine

coffeepot A common term in the 1940s for an old noisy junkheap of a car. Often used affectionately. coffin nail Commonly used in the New York City area for a cigarette from the 1930s on. coib A pronunciation of curb. “A little boid sat on the coib and choiped and choiped and choiped.” coil A pronunciation heard in New York for curl. “Her hair had lotsa coil to it.” coinel

A pronunciation of colonel.

cold-ass Mary Slang for a cold woman, unresponsive sexually, perhaps frigid. “‘Why would anyone wanna

614 New Yawk Tawk talk to Julia? She’s the original Cold-Ass Mary.’ ” (Condon, Prizzi’s Money, 1994) colder than a blonde’s heart I can only find this used by Damon Runyon in his short story “Broadway Financier,” 1931: “Silk asks the copper why these people are raising such a rumpus in the street, instead of being home keeping warm, for it is colder than a blonde’s heart. . . .” cold one A very common term for a bottle of beer, as in “How about a cold one?” In the New York City area the term isn’t used as a euphemism, as it sometimes is elsewhere. cold slaw

A frequent pronunciation of coleslaw.

cold-water flat The term was originally applied to apartment houses with common toilets in the backyard or hall and only cold running water in the sinks; it then came to mean any apartment with poor plumbing. “A walk-up cold-water Brooklyn tenement.” (William Faulkner, A Fable, 1954) College of the City of New York Popularly called C.C.N.Y. or City College, the public institution was founded in 1848. It moved to its present Washington Heights campus in 1920. See CITY COLLEGE. Columbia University A lottery accounted for the financial support of King’s College when its charter was granted on October 31, 1754. Thirty years later the name of the college was changed to Columbia College, which became Columbia University in 1891. The school moved to its present location in Morningside Heights in 1897. Of its many famous graduates, among the first are John Jay and Alexander Hamilton. come aboard In 1945 Joanna Colcord wrote in Sea Language Comes Ashore that come aboard commonly meant “come in” to a person knocking at the door of a house located on eastern Long Island. If the term still exists, no one I’ve questioned in the area has heard it. come off it! This is traditional New York talk for cut it out, stop it, don’t be preposterous, etc. The phrase dates back at least to the late 19th century in the form of come off! In 1892 the New York Mercury recorded the following conversation: “How much does yez ax fer this book?’ ‘Six dollars,’ replied the smiling clerk. ‘Oh, come off!’ ” communion A killing by a Mafia hammer or enforcer in which the body is made to disappear by burying it in the concrete of a building foundation, dumping it weighted down far at sea, etc. “ ‘Remember, it will have

to be a Communion. Their bodies must not be found.’ ” (Puzo, The Last Don, 1996) The term perhaps derives in some way from the bread and wine that is taken at Holy Communion by communicants. con artist A professional confidence man; any deceitful person. “He was a natural born con artist.” (Damon Runyon, More Guys and Dolls, 1937) Coney Island (1) The Coney in Coney Island should really be pronounced to rhyme with honey or money. The word derives from cony (or coney or cuny), meaning the adult long-eared rabbit (Lepus cunicula) after which the Brooklyn, New York, community was named. However, cony, pronounced CUH-nee, became a term for the female genitals in British slang, and proper Victorians stopped using the word, substituting it with rabbit, which previously had meant only the young of the cony species. The only trouble remaining was that cony appeared throughout the King James Bible, which had to be read aloud during church services. The Victorians solved this problem by changing the pronunciation of cony: It became COH-nee (written coney), which it remains to this day in Coney Island as well as the Bible. (2) Now widely known as a synonym for a hot dog, Coney Island first meant an order of fried clams in the 1870s. Today it means different things in different areas of the country. In Texas a Coney Island can be a “weenie and chili,” while in Oklahoma, Missouri and Ohio it can be a hamburger. Coney Island butter A humorous term for mustard, the spread of choice on the millions of hot dogs (Coney Islands) sold at the Brooklyn sea resort each year. Coney Island head The disparaging term describes a glass of beer that is all foam. It is heard in Los Angeles but not in New York. Coney Island whitefish

See

MANHATTAN EEL.

confession magazine Both confession magazines and soap operas got their start in New York. Confessions, which have been with us now for about 75 years, are an American invention and an outgrowth of the long soulsearching letters sent to physical culture crusader Bernard MacFadden’s Physical Culture magazine in 1919. MacFadden’s first confession book was the New York-based True Story, the great-grandmother of the genre. The first stories dealt with sweet young things who were so wicked that they dared to elope against their parents’ wishes, etc., while contemporary tales have virtually no taboo themes, ranging from wellwritten confessions about incest to stories such as “My Bride Is a Man” (where Julie was Jules before her sexchange operation). The yarns, which earn 5–10 cents a

cutter 615 word, aren’t all written by readers. Professional writers turn out a large number, perhaps the majority of them, though some magazines do require an author to sign a release saying his or her story is based on a true experience. The best biography of MacFadden is Robert Ernst’s Weakness Is a Crime (1991).

crackers A derogatory term for white people in general, sometimes used by blacks. “And the peoples, well some of them was peoples and some of them was vampire peoples. But the real peoples . . . You know crackers eating roast turkey and champagne and shit.” (Sapphire, Push, 1996)

consigliori The chief adviser to the head of a Mafia family; hence in popular speech any person in an important advisory position. “The Consigliori was also what his name implied. He was counselor to the Don, his right-hand man, his auxillary brain. He was also his closest companion and his closest friend.” (Mario Puzo, The Godfather, 1969)

creamers Small potatoes, even smaller than new potatoes, that are often used whole in a cream sauce dish made with onions. The term, not recorded in The Dictionary of American Regional English, is used in Long Island’s Suffolk County on the North Fork.

contract hitter A professional killer who gets a contract, often from the mob, to kill someone. “‘A person ain’t a contract hitter, he don’t throw away no weapon.’” (Ed McBain, Romance, 1995) Coogan’s Bluff An old name for the Polo Grounds, the long gone Harlem home of baseball’s New York Giants. It was so named for the hill behind the stadium. cookie

See

PANCAKE.

corker Someone exceptional or extraordinary. The origin of the word is unknown, but it is often associated with New York speakers of Irish origin. It may have originally referred to someone or some group of people from Ireland’s County Cork, although there is no proof of this. See AIN’T HE (SHE) A CAUTION. Cosa Nostra Italian for ”our thing” and another name for the Mafia. “ ‘. . . Sonna cosa nostra,’ Don Corleone said, ‘these are our own affairs. We will manage our world for ourselves because it is our world, cosa nostra!” (Mario Puzo, The Godfather, 1969) coulda A pronunciation of could have. See quote under WOULDA.

croaker Underworld slang for a doctor. “. . . I have Lily moved into a private room, and got her all the nurses the law allows, and the best croakers . . .” (Damon Runyon, “The Lily of St. Pierre,” 1929) Crossroads of the World A nickname for Times Square, for at least 60 years; the name had earlier referred to London’s Picadilly Circus. Croton cocktail A humorous old term rarely heard anymore for a glass of water. After the Croton reservoir system upstate, a major source of New York City’s drinking water. cruiser

cumtabull cupcake

A New York pronunciation of comfortable. See

MUFFIN.

A pronunciation of cup of.

A pronunciation of counter.

counterfeit lox couple

HEAVY CRUISER.

cuccidata See quote. “[She brought] . . . homemade cuccidata, Charley’s favorite, which were rolls of sweet pastry filled with cream made with raisins, dried figs, nuts, candied pumpkin, and pieces of chocolate.” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Money, 1994) Those pastries, also called cuccis, are generally considered a Christmas holiday treat.

cuppa counteh

See

See

LOX.

Couple of. “Give me a couple them candies.”

cowboy This word was first applied to members of Tory bands in New York State who rustled cows, but by the mid-19th century it came to mean a man who herds and tends cattle on a ranch in the West. Because of shootem-up Hollywood Westerns, cowboy had also taken on the meaning, in New York City and elsewhere, of any reckless person, such as a speeding automobile driver.

curveball The word curveball has been traced to William Arthur “Candy” Cummings (1848–1924), a Brooklyn Hall of Famer, who is credited with inventing baseball’s curveball over 120 years ago. Cummings’s curve was inspired by the half clam shells that he skimmed across a Brooklyn beach as a youngster, but he perfected it by experimenting with a baseball that he bought for a nickel. cutter

See

BONAC.

D da

the mid-19th century whose standard was a dead rabbit representing its enemies. One old story claims that the symbol and name derive from a dead rabbit one of the gang members threw at an opponent during a gang war.

A pronunciation of the.

DA Since the 1950s, DA has been short for a duck’s ass haircut, the back of which is cut like a duck’s tail. Da Bronx Bar A new candy bar named after the Bronx. It is called “the chocolate bar with an attitude.” See BRONX.

dead soldier or bottle.

dead wagon Once fairly common for a hearse in the New York area, but not used much anymore.

Da Brooklyn National Antem Written years ago by Orter Anonamus when Brooklynites all spoke Brooklynese:

Death Valley This Death Valley was in the Bronx, in Yankee Stadium: deep center field went by this name before the stadium was renovated recently and the fences were moved in. In Death Valley a ball hit 400 feet or more could be nothing but a long out.

Da Spring is sprung Da grass is riz I wunnah weah da boidies is? Da boid is on da wing?—dat’s absoid! From what I hoid da wing is on da boid.

dance

dem; dose; dat Some experts claim that dem, dose and dat for them, those and that long ago ceased to be used by New Yorkers. But the pronunciations still persist, often used by older residents and sometimes, if not frequently, heard in the speech of younger people. The pronunciations were still common, especially in Brooklyn, in the 1940s and ‘50s.

To fight. “You wanna dance wid me?”

Danish The common term for a Danish pastry in the New York area. “A Danish and coffee, please.” Dapper Dan A nickname for a very well-groomed man; sometimes used ironically. In fact, the local poolroom where I passed too much of my misspent youth was called Dapper Dan’s, after the always unironed old Dapper Dan who ran it. Dapper Don

See

A widely used term for an empty beer can

dem Bums According to one story, a legendary Brooklyn Dodger fan named Sid Mercer dubbed Brooklyn the Bums, an affectionate nickname for the team from the 1930s until they left New York for Los Angeles. Mercer, who attended every game—always sitting behind home plate—and was known as “the Spirit of Brooklyn,” got so disgusted with the team’s play one day that he cried out in his stentorian voice, “Youse bums, youse!” A baseball writer reported his words and it wasn’t long before Bums and dem Bums became part of the language. As for Mercer, he never set foot in Ebbets Field

TEFLON DON.

dead men A crab’s gills, the inedible part of a crab that is disposed when cleaning it. The crabs are always blueclaws, often from Jamaica Bay. dead rabbit A historical term for a gang member; after the Dead Rabbits, a violent gang of New York toughs in 616

Dixie 617 again. Bum for an unskilled boxer made its debut in New York long before this. den

A pronunciation of then.

de nada A Spanish phrase meaning “it’s nothing,” “don’t mention it” that is frequently heard today. “‘Thank you, sir, I appreciate your time,’ Kling said. ‘Da nada,’ Presson said.” (Ed McBain, Mischief, 1993) department store The term department store isn’t recorded until 1887 when a New York establishment advertised itself as H.H. Heyn’s Department Store; however, the idea of separate departments in stores can be found in print at least 40 years earlier. dere dey

A pronunciation of there, as in “over dere.” A pronunciation of they.

Diamond Jim Brady

See

dip A pickpocket. In a recent pickpocketing operation the dip works with an accomplice called a steerer who selects the score, or victim. The steerer then signals a stall, or stick, who blocks the score by slowing down or falling in front of him. A shield, or shade, walks on one side of the score, shielding him from witnesses while the dip, the actual pickpocket, moves in from behind and picks the score’s pocket. Another accomplice called the dish takes the wallet or money from the dip and passes it to another gang member in a nearby car. Sometimes there is even a sixth accomplice called a tailpipe who watches well back of all the other players for police surveillance. This is the latest very common pickpocketing scheme in New York City, where a pickpocket is also called a mechanic, an ocho (a master pickpocket), a cannon (a white pickpocket), a shot (a black or Hispanic pickpocket), a hook, a finger, a wire, a rouster and a spitter (who “accidentally” hawks phlegm on his victims to distract them.). See also DONNEGAN WORKER.

DINNER ON HORSEBACK.

diddy-wah-diddy The name for an imaginary fabulous place. Used mostly by blacks; origin unknown. did you ever! A common interjection, as in “Did you ever! Look who’s here!” dig To understand, as in “You dig.” Popularized by jazz musicians and possibly of black origin, perhaps from the African Wolof language dega, “to understand.” dijuh A verbal shortcut for did you in New York speech: “Dijuh read Hawking’s new book?” dime A $10 bill, $10. “I had six dimes on that bum, but he took a dive.” din Didn’t. “Din I awways smile at you?” (Kober, “You Mean Common,” 1940) See also DITINT. Dinner on Horseback A famous dinner given by millionaire C. K. Billings at Louis Sherry’s restaurant in 1903. The guests, all men, lounged in the saddle astride horses that had been brought to the ballroom by elevator and ate pheasant from feed bags and drank champagne from large rubber casks. It was said that Billings spent $50,000 for the feast, including the planting of sod on the ballroom floor. A couple of years later, in 1905, millionaire Diamond Jim Brady topped Billings with a dinner he gave for his racehorse Gold Heels; it cost over $100,000, including the $60,000 he spent for diamond jewelry for each guest. dint The letter d is often omitted within contractions in New York speech, turning didn’t, for example, into dint.

dirt nap Criminal slang for death. “Cross me and you’ll go down for the dirt nap.” Dirty Side A name in CB radio language for the New York City area. Also Dirtytown, both terms originating in the 1970s. Dirty Spoon

See

TENEMENTS.

dis To disrespect, disrupt, disparage. Originally Black slang, dating back to the 1980s; now widely heard. “ ‘I shouldn’t have dissed him that way.” (McBain, Romance, 1995) (2) A pronunciation of this that dates back at least a century and a half. “ ‘Drink dis,’ said the man, holding the glass to Raggle’s lips.” (O. Henry, “The Making of a New Yorker,” 1904) dish

See

DIP.

ditint A common New York pronunciation of didn’t. See also DIN. ditzy Scatterbrained, silly, irresponsible, dizzy, as in “That was a really ditzy thing to do.” Used in the New York area since at least the 1960s, perhaps deriving from dizzy. A ditzy person is called a ditz. Dixie Daniel D. Emmett, according to a biographer, composed his famous song “Away Down South in Dixie” (1859), the favorite marching song of the Confederacy, on his violin “while looking out on the cold dreary streets of New York City and wishing he were home in Dixie.” Ironically, his song was sung by troops aboard the Star of the West on their futile mission to relieve Fort Sumter early in 1861; thus, it could be said

618 New Yawk Tawk that Northern not Southern troops first sang the song in the Civil War. Dixieland One good though unlikely story claims that the first Dixieland, or Dixie, was in New York City. According to the Charleston Courier of June 11, 1885: When slavery existed in New York, one Dixie owned a large tract of land on Manhattan Island, and a large number of slaves. The increase of the slaves and of the abolition sentiment caused an emigration of the slaves to more thorough and secure slave sections, and the Negroes who were thus sent off (many being born there) naturally looked back to their old houses, where they had lived in clover, with feelings of regret, as they could not imagine any place like Dixie’s. Hence it became synonymous with an ideal location combining ease, comfort, and material happiness of every description.

Although no slave “lived in clover,” the explanation seems as good as several other theories about Dixie, whose origin remains unknown. do a Brodie Intrepid amateur athlete Steve Brodie once angered fighter Jim Corbett’s father by publically predicting that John L. Sullivan would knock out his son. “So you’re the fellow who jumped over the Brooklyn Bridge,” the elder Corbett said when the two met for the first time shortly thereafter. “No, I jumped off of it,” Brodie corrected him. “Oh,” replied Corbett, “I thought you jumped over it. Any damn fool could jump off it.” But Brodie’s name became proverbial as the result of his famous leap in the form of to do (or pull) a Brodie, to take a great chance, even to take a suicidal leap. Brodie made his famous jump from the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge on July 23, 1886, to win a $200 barroom bet. Eluding guards on the bridge, the 23-yearold daredevil climbed to the lowest chord and plummeted 135 feet into the water below, where friends were waiting in a rowboat to retrieve him. He was arrested for endangering his life and reprimanded by a judge, but that didn’t stop him from leaping off a 212-foot railroad bridge in Poughkeepsie, New York, two years later to win a $500 bet. Brodie, who later became a successful saloonkeeper, always laughed at charges that he had really pushed a dummy off the Brooklyn Bridge. His leap was not an impossible one; in the mid-1960s a man leaped off New York City’s George Washington Bridge from 250 feet up, hit the water at over 70 miles an hour and then swam 200 yards to shore. do a dance To be hanged. Said to be New York City police slang dating back over 60 years ago. Since convicted killers weren’t hanged in New York State at the time, it’s hard to imagine it originating here, unless hardboiled detectives coined it in reference to killers extradited to a state where they would be hanged for their crimes.

do an Arthur Duffy Arthur F. Duffy held the world record for the 100-yard dash in the early 1900s. At the time, New Yorkers used to do an Arthur Duffy as a synonym for to escape, run away. “He did an Arthur Duffy out of the city.” Also take an Arthur Duffy. Doctor’s Mob “In a spirit of medical humor,” one chronicler of the period wrote, a medical student, John D. Hicks, picked up the arm of a corpse he had just dissected and waved it at several young boys peering in through the window. “This is your mother’s arm!” he shouted. “I just dug it up. Get out of here or I’ll smack you with it.” The children scattered into the dark, but one frightened boy took Hicks at his word. By a strange coincidence his mother had died recently. The boy repeated Hicks’s threat to his father, who gathered some friends and hurried to the local cemetery. There by another strange coincidence he found his wife’s grave empty. Whoever had robbed it hadn’t even bothered to refill the hole, the coffin exposed and broken apart. The enraged man vowed to make someone pay for this desecration, leading his friends through the streets of lower Manhattan. Others joined them, and a mob of hundreds soon stormed toward the New York Hospital and its unsuspecting staff. The mob had heard too many stories about young interns stealing bodies from private cemeteries, and now they had “proof.” The “Doctor’s Mob” of April 13–15, 1788, one of America’s first riots, had begun. Before it was put down at least eight people were killed and scores more were injured. See also ASTOR PLACE RIOT. Dodgers Those incomparable Brooklyn Dodgers (who became comparable after their desertion to Los Angeles in 1958) were called the Dodgers because Manhattanites contemptuously referred to all Brooklynites as “trolly dodgers” toward the end of the 19th century. The bustling borough was famous for its numerous trolleys, especially in the Borough Hall area. Attempts were made to change the team’s name to the Superbas, the Kings and the Robins, all to no avail. does Macy’s tell Gimbels? Although Gimbels department store has long gone out of business, this expression is still heard. The by-now proverbial words arose from a friendly, well-publicized and well-advertised retailing war between the two giant New York department stores. The expression possibly originated as a publicity gag, perhaps as a line in an Eddie Cantor comedy skit when a stooge asked Cantor to reveal some dark secret and the comedian replied, “Does Macy’s tell Gimbels?” Actually, Macy’s often told Gimbels and vice versa. One time Gimbels ran an ad calling attention to Macy’s fabulous annual flower show, heading it: “Does Gimbels tell Macy’s? No, Gimbels tells the world!” On another occasion, in 1955, both stores posted signs on their buildings

do-re-mi 619 directing shoppers to the other’s store. The GimbelsMacy’s rivalry was further publicized in the film Miracle on 34th Street in which Macy’s directs customers to Gimbels when it doesn’t have a particular item in stock and flustered Gimbels executives, realizing their store has been made to look like “a profiteering money-grubber,” have to adopt the same P.R. policy. See also NOBODY BUT NOBODY UNDERSELLS GIMBELS. doesn’t know his ass from his elbow A common term describing a person completely ignorant of something. dog 1) A hot dog. (2) A worthless horse too slow to win. (3) A homely woman or man. (4) Among stock market players, a stock that doesn’t perform well. dog park The strip of grass between the sidewalk and the road where dogs are often walked by their owners. doity

A pronunciation of dirty.

dollar Used in mob talk, a dollar means a thousand dollars, when secrecy is required. It looked like a sixty-dollar score. People in the environment liked to think of a thousand dollars as one dollar to confuse the tourists at Vegas, but the measurement became universal because so much money was lying around in heaps, pleading to be taken. Sixty dollars was sixty thousand dollars. (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Honor, 1982)

D.O.M Since the 1960s short for a dirty old man; any lecherous male, usually but not always elderly. domblokadoor Don’t block the door. A pronunciation recorded in the Federal Writers’ Project Almanac for New Yorkers (1938). do me a favor, drop dead

See

DROP DEAD.

domebeeztoopid Don’t be stupid. A pronunciation recorded in the Federal Writers’ Project Alamanac for New Yorkers (1938).

wallet from his coat where it hangs in the toilet compartment while the victim helps pick up the coins. See FINGER. don’t do me any big (small) favors A sarcastic remark made to someone who is viewed as doing you no favor at all. don’t even think it A stern warning to someone who might be about to do something. “He gave them a look that said Don’t even think it, and they went on by.” (Ed McBain, Romance, 1995) Also don’t even think about it. don’t get your bowels in an uproar Don’t get excited, calm down, cool it. The expression may be a euphemism for don’t get your balls in an uproar. In any case it has been around at least 70 years. don’t gimme that Short or euphemistic for “Don’t give me that shit (crap, garbage, nonsense, etc.).” don’t have a clue Don’t have any idea, don’t know the first thing about how something is done, etc. “I like how Rita is, she shows the world, how to act and stuff. Sometimes I don’t have a clue.” (Sapphire, Push, 1996) Also clueless, as in “I’m clueless.” don’t jerk my chain Don’t harass or bother me, don’t victimize me. Suggested by someone harassing a chained animal or man. Also don’t yank my chain. don’t never get no breaks A common triple negative that, to be fair, is heard in other speech areas as well. “The Mets don’t never get no breaks.” dooawg

A pronunciation of dog.

doofus Originally New York slang dating back to the late 1950s or early 1960s meaning a fool, jerk, dope or any combination of the three. Some writers claim the word is an alteration of goofus for the same, while others say it is of Yiddish or German origin. It can also mean the penis.

do me a solid Do me a favor. Used by the character Kramer on the New York-inspired television comedy Seinfeld.

doper A dope addict. “‘I think I’ll watch the clockers and the dealers and the dopers doing their dance of death on the block in hell where I live, and I’ll hope to stay alive.’ ” (Evan Hunter, Criminal Conversation, 1994)

donker-goyndon An elevator operator’s “Down car [is] going down!” A pronunciation recorded in the Federal Writers’ Project Almanac for New Yorkers (1938).

doppess A useless bystander who is of little or no help when help is needed. Said to have been coined in the New York garment center from the Yiddish tipesh, a “fool.”

donnegan worker A pickpocket who works the donnegans, or toilets, in public restrooms. He often drops change on the floor in a washroom and steals a victim’s

do-re-mi Money, dough. “It must have cost him plenty of the do-re-mi.” (Damon Runyon, Guys and Dolls, 1929)

620 New Yawk Tawk Dorothy Perkins rose Ranking with Peace and Crimson Glory as the best known of American roses, the Dorothy Perkins is a pink rambler introduced by the famous Jackson & Perkins Nursery of Newark, New York, in 1901. It is a small, cluster-flowering type, and although ramblers have bowed in popularity to largerflowered varieties, this variety remains a sentimental favorite much mentioned in literature. The rose was named for the granddaughter of co-owner Charles Perkins.

ern Long Island. If it is so used there today, I have been unable to confirm it.

do the number on To kill, assassinate. “ ‘So first you put the fear on her. Then you find out where the money is. Then you do the number on her.” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Money, 1994) See PUT THE FEAR ON.

Dracula Old, perhaps obsolete, but colorful slang from the world of jazz musicians that describes a keypounding piano player who brings his hands all the way up to his face.

double In Jamaica Bay and other New York waters, a double (not a doubler) is the name given to a pair of mating crabs (that is, a hardshell crab and a more vulnerable softshell crab) caught (scalloped) with a crab net. Scalloping for crabs is also called walking. The more colorful Chesapeake Bay terms “channeler and his wife,” “cradle carrier” (for the male), and “buck and rider” are not often heard, if heard at all.

dreads Short for the dreadlocks style of hair worn by some blacks, or for a person wearing the ropelike strands.

double-dipping The impolite act of placing a chip in a dip, taking a bite, and then dipping again for more with the same chip. Heard on the New York-inspired television comedy Seinfeld, but dates back to the 1970s. double Dutch A jump rope game, with many variations, in which two jump ropes are used. double-talk Fifty years ago there were many more practitioners of New York double-talk than there are today. For an example, here is an excerpt from the Federal Writer’s Project New York Panorama (1938): Observe in this sample of Mr. Hymie Caplin’s double talk the creation of gibberish having a distinctly “sensible sound,” and the ingenuity with which it is woven into the entire melody line: “Well, take now you’re in a restaurant. So you say to the waiter, ‘Gimme the chicken and vegetables but portostat with the chicken with the fustatis on it.’ So he says ‘What?’ and you say ‘You know, the portostat, and moonsign the savina on the top, with the vegetables.’”

The same source explains that this “humorously conceived system of language corruption” is meant to seduce or rib the unknowing listener into believing that he is “either deaf, ignorant, or ready for a lifetime run in the part of Napoleon.” Also called talking on the double. douse the glim Joanna Colcord’s Sea Language Comes Ashore (1945) defines to douse the glim as to put out the lights in a house and says the expression is used on east-

D.P. The initials D.P. have been used in New York at least since the 1980s for a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne. D.Ph. Humorous slang, based on transposing Ph.D., for a damned fool. The Yiddish phudnik is a similar construction.

Dream Street

See quote.

Now this Dream Street Rose is an old doll of maybe fiftyodd, and is a very well-known character around and about, as she is wandering through the Forties for many a year, and especially through West Forty-seventh Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, and this block is called Dream Street. And the reason it is called Dream Street is because in this block are many characters of one kind and another who always seem to be dreaming of different matters . . . Many actors . . . handbookies, horseplayers . . . fight managers . . . burlesque dolls, hoofers and guys who write songs, and saxophone players, and newsboys, and newspaper scribes, and taxi drivers, and blind guys and midgets . . . and I do not know what all else. (Damon Runyon, “Dream Street Rose,” 1931)

dreck Dreck is most heard recently in its meaning of cheap, worthless trash, anything of poor quality. It originally meant excrement, from the German Dreck meaning the same, and came into the language through Yiddish. drip Slang for a dull, boring, foolish person, obnoxious but not quite as foolish as a jerk. The word is first recorded in the early 1930s. drop a dime To make a phone call to the police informing on someone. A dime-dropper is a rat, a snitch, a stool pigeon. The term dates back to the 1960s, when a phone call cost a dime. drop dead (1) This expression of rejection and contempt can be shouted forcefully in the heat of an argument or said almost casually when one is slightly annoyed; in any case, it has been commonly used since it was first recorded in 1925. Its classic local use carne in a New York Daily News headline (October 30,

dybbuk 621 1975) when New York City was verging on bankruptcy and President Gerald Ford refused its request for aid: FORD TO CITY—DROP DEAD. “Bill Brink wrote it with Mike O’Neill,” recalls author Jimmy Breslin, who was present at the creation. “It came out of the Garson Kanin line in Born Yesterday, ‘Do me a favor, Harry. Drop dead.’ They did it in fun first until they looked at it. Like, ‘Here’s one—“Ford to City: Drop Dead!”’ And then someone said, ‘Holy Christ, yes! Put it in the paper!’” (2) More recently an adjectival form, dropdead, dating back to about 1970, has appeared and means strikingly beautiful, sensational, as in “That’s some drop-dead dress she wore.” duh A word used to make fun of someone after that person has spoken, indicating that he or she is dumb or has said or done something stupid. The expression dates back to the early 1940s, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was introduced by ventriloquist Edgar Bergen’s dummy Mortimer Snerd, a rustic moron who constantly had the word put in his mouth. duhshuh-ul The shuttle. An underground railway connecting Times Square and Grand Central Terminal. A pronunciation recorded in the Federal Writers’ Project’s Almanac for New Yorkers (1938). dummkopf German for a stupid person, blockhead. The term has been used in New York City since the 1700s. dump; dumping To abandon an old person, usually one suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, by leaving him

or her in some public place, such as a hospital emergency room, without any identification. “ ‘We’d really like to locate his people, whoever they are, whoever dumped him here.’ Hospital personnel had picked up the media expression. Hardly anyone in a hospital called it abandonment. It was dumping, plain and simple. Like dumping your garbage. Only these were human beings.’ (Ed McBain, Mischief, 1993) Duncan Phyfe Duncan Phyfe’s furniture workshop stood on the site of the present Hudson Terminal Building in New York City. The Scottish-born master craftsman had arrived in New York in 1783 at the age of 15 and later opened his own shop, changing his name from Fife to Phyfe. Duncan Phyfe and Sons employed more than 100 artisans at its height of popularity, but the master craftsman’s best work was done in the early period up until 1820, when he evolved his own style, using the creations of Sheraton, Hepplewhite and the Adam brothers as models. This work has become known as the Duncan Phyfe style, characterized by excellent proportions, graceful, curving lines and beautifully carved ornamentation. durst

See

BONAC.

Dutch courage An old term still used for the courage liquor inspires; courage that comes in a bottle. dybbuk In Jewish folklore a demon or soul of a dead person that enters a living person’s soul and takes possession of him or her. Pronounced DIB-book.

E asts, Parade, and Specialty Dancers. But not every artfully unclad body was happy with Mencken’s invention. Said the queen of New York strippers, Gypsy Rose Lee: “ ‘Ecdysiast,’ he calls me! Why the man is an intellectual slob. He has been reading books. Dictionaries. We don’t wear feathers and molt them off . . . What does he know about stripping?” Most would agree that stripteaser is far more revealing.

earl A still common pronunciation of oil. “Pass the earl and vinegar for dis salad.” East Side The East Side of Manhattan in New York City lies east of Fifth Avenue and is bordered by the East River. East Sider is a term used since about 1900 for a resident or native of the East Side. See WEST SIDE. eat’m and beat’m A humorous name New Yorkers had for cafeterias where the food (generally sandwiches and drinks) were left out on tables for customers to choose from, each customer trusted to add up his or her bill honestly from the prices listed. Owners of these places generally agreed that people were quite honest about doing so, despite the cynical name given to such establishments. Nevertheless, few such places were left by the 1980s.

Edgar Allan Poe Cottage Often called “New York’s chief literary shrine,” this little cottage at Fordham in the Bronx is the place where Poe’s wife, Virginia, died of tuberculosis during the terrible winter of 1846–47 when they were desperately poor and close to starving. Poe wrote “The Raven” and “The Pit and the Pendulum,” among other great works, in New York. He was paid $10 for “The Raven,” immediately recognized as a work of genius when it appeared, and it was a year and a half before he pried loose his money from the New York Mirror.

Ebbets Field Demolished for a housing development in 1960, this was the home field of the late lamented Brooklyn Dodgers from 1914 to 1957 when the Dodgers left New York for Los Angeles. It was named for its builder, Charlie Ebbets.

eebn

See

BONAC.

effing Effing or effen has been a euphemism for fucking in America since at least the early 1960s, though it is first recorded in a New York Times Magazine article by Anthony Burgess in 1972: “I have already had several abusive phone calls, telling me to eff-off back to effing Russia, you effing, corksacking limey effer.”

ecdysiast New York stripteaser Georgia Southern, or her press agent, wrote H. L. Mencken in 1940 asking him to coin a “more palatable word” to describe her profession. The Sage of Baltimore, who had hatched other neologisms (e.g., “bootician” for a bootlegger), gallantly responded, suggesting that “stripteasing be related in some way or other to the zoological phenomenon of molting.” Among his specific recommendations was ecdysiast, which comes from ecdysis, the scientific term for “molting.” Miss Southern adopted the last, and it was publicized universally; born to the world was a new word and a new union called the Society of Ecdysi-

egg ball One-half of a spaldeen ball, the result of the ball having been batted too much. It is used in a variation of stickball called egg ball. See SPALDEEN. egg cream No one has identified the genius who first concocted the egg cream, but this New York favorite 622

Empire State Building was invented in the 1920s at a New York soda fountain. There are no eggs and no cream in an egg cream, so it is something of a misnomer. While no exact recipe for one can be given and egg cream lovers all seem to have their own methods and proportions for making one, it is generally agreed that its ingredients must be milk, seltzer from a seltzer bottle, and Fox’s U-Bet Chocolate Flavor Syrup. eggplant A derogatory slang term for a black person, especially among Mafia members, who also use the term melanzana, the Italian for “eggplant.” “ ‘. . . a week ago, this eggplant shows up on my biggest construction job.’” (Mario Puzo, The Last Don, 1996) Eighth Wonder of the World

See

eighty-six To murder someone or to put an end to something. “Eighty-six his ass, I don’t want to See him again.” The expression derives from the restaurant waiter slang eighty-six, which, among other things, means to “deny an unwelcome customer service” or to cancel an order (“Eighty-six the eggs”), or which directs the cashier’s attention to a customer trying to leave a lunchroom without paying his check. The code word has been used in New York restaurants and bars since the 1920s, but the extended uses of eighty-six have only been around for half as long. Its origin is unknown, although one theory suggests it may come from slang used during Prohibition to describe the back exit of a Village speaskeasy, now known as Chumley’s, on Bedford Street. eighty-two pounder See quote. “ ‘And you’re an eighty-two pounder, right?’ He’s picked up on fighter talk, dropping the hundred off the weight.” (Pete Hamill, Flesh and Blood, 1977) el A metal or concrete subway or train structure elevated above the street on which trains run and where stations are located. “He had a candy store down by the el.” A shortening of elevated, which it is rarely called. See

famous Elgin Gardens, one of the first botanic gardens in America. The Elgin Gardens were established by Dr. David Hosack (1769–1835), who subsequently deeded them to Columbia University. Hosack, a professor at Columbia, is remembered for his many medical and botanical books, as well as for being a founder of Bellevue Hospital and the physician who attended Alexander Hamilton after his fatal duel with Aaron Burr. The Hosackia genus of herbs is named after him. Ellimheyst The local pronunciation of Elmhurst, a neighborhood in Queens. It is the home district of Geraldine A. Ferraro, who ran for vice president in 1984 on the Democratic ticket and has a New York accent as good as Archie Bunker’s (he also lives in the area).

BROOKLYN BRIDGE.

eighty-seven and a half Restaurant slang used by waiters and countermen to indicate that a pretty woman is approaching; origin unknown.

elevated

623

EL.

elevator apartment An apartment in an apartment building with an elevator in it, rather than just stairs. The term has been in use for almost a century. Elgin Gardens Few New Yorkers know that New York’s Rockefeller Center was once the site of the

Ellis Island The chief immigration station of the United States from 1892 until 1943. Previously Castle Garden, an old fort that had been converted into an opera house and amusement hall, had processed immigrants from 1855 to 1892 in Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan. Located in upper New York Bay, Ellis Island originally occupied three acres but was built up with landfill to 27.5 acres to accommodate the millions of people arriving there. During its use as an immigration center, the Ellis Island facilities processed 16 million immigrants, roughly 70 percent of all immigrants to the United States in that time period. People arriving there were screened for various undesirable qualities such as contagious illnesses or mental deficiency before being granted entry to the United States. When the government began screening prospective immigrants in their native countries, Ellis Island fell into disuse. The government offered it for sale in the 1950s but could not find an adequate buyer, and the island eventually became a national monument under the care of the National Park Service. In 1998, Ellis Island officially became part of New Jersey after many years of legal debate over whether it actually belonged to that state or New York. Ellis Island was also once called Oyster Island because of the abundant oysters in its waters. emmis Confidential information known by insiders. “. . . whereas nobody had even been able to prove anything, it was very much on the emmis that the parrot business was a front for cocaine importing from South America.” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Money, 1994) Empire State Building In discussing the 13 original states President George Washington referred to New York State as “the seat of Empire,” and it thereafter became known as the “Empire State.” In 1931 the completed Empire State Building was named after the state nickname. Until 1972 it was the tallest building in the

624 New Yawk Tawk world at 1,250 feet. In New York today only the World Trade Center (1,350 feet) is higher, with the Sears Tower (1,450 feet) in Chicago being the tallest building in the United States. The tallest building in the world, the Petronas Tower, is presently found in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. See WORLD TRADE CENTER. English basement An old term, not often heard anymore, for a basement at street level, often found in brownstones in Manhattan. English sparrow People have compared the destructive English sparrow to the rat because of the damage it does in eating tree buds and grain. The bird is so named because eight pairs of them were brought from England to Brooklyn in 1850 and freed in an attempt to rid the area of a caterpillar pest called the inchworm. The birds thrived, ultimately proved more of a liability than an asset and are now ubiquitous pests throughout the country. enjoy! A common expression meaning have a good time, enjoy yourself, be happy. Often heard as enjoy, enjoy!, the term was influenced by Yiddish syntax. enough is enough already Said when someone has gone too far or something has been carried on too long, etc. Either Yiddish in origin or influenced by Yiddish speech patterns. environment The world of crime and gangs. “Well, Jesus, he thought, no wonder Irene understands the environment. . . . Her own father was a worker for a Chicago mob.” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Honor, 1982)

erster A pronunciation heard in New York for oyster. “The poil was in the erster.” Eskimo Pie Invented in 1919 and originally called an I Scream Bar, this still popular chocolate-covered icecream bar was manufactured in 1921 by Russell Stover (for whom the well-known chocolate-covered candies are named) and given the trade name Eskimo Pie. ever Frequently used before an adverb as an intensifier, as in “Am I ever mad!” everything worthwhile doing is either immoral, illegal or fattening A by-now proverbial saying attributed to New York wit Alexander Woollcott, a member of the Algonquin Round Table. See MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER, THE; MEN SELDOM MAKE PASSES / AT GIRLS WHO WEAR GLASSES. excuse the expression Pardon my language. A common saying influenced by Yiddish. extremely dead A good example of Runyonese, as in “Big False Face is extremely dead when they find him.” (Damon Runyon, “The Brakeman’s Daughter,” 1931) ey Hey. Common words upon greeting a caller on the telephone or meeting someone on the street: “Ey, Louie, how’re y’ doin’?” Pronounced ey as in hey, which it is a shortening of. eyeball To stare at; frequently heard among black speakers. “Stop eyeballin’ me, man.” Eye-tie

erl boiner

A pronunciation of oil burner.

A mildly derogatory term for an Italian.

F Services. “They ain’t no mutherfucking therapists on our side they just flunkies for the ’fare.” (Sapphire, Push, 1996)

face According to Douglas Le Vien, a former New York City Police detective, as stated in the New York Times (March 15, 1992), a face is “a guy who looks like a mobster’s supposed to look. . . . They [the mob] send him to scare the hell out of someone, like ‘Go send a face.’ ”

Fashion Avenue fast lane

faddah

Father. See

SPEED LANE.

father-and-son business A joking name for a shady enterprise that advertises “Going Out of Business” sales in the window for years and years in order to lure people looking for a bargain.

family An original Mafia unit, headed by a don or godfather, operating in a clearly defined area, the members of which are not necessarily blood relatives; sometimes called a crime family by the media. The term family has been used to describe groups of professional criminals since the 18th century but was not applied to the Mafia much before 1963. Every Mafia family is responsible to a council composed of representatives of all the Mafia families.

Father Knickerbocker A synonym for New York City. The prominent Dutch Knickerbocker family settled near Albany, New York, in about 1674. Among its prosperous descendants was the wealthy Harman Knickerbocker (b.1779), the great-great-grandson and namesake of the family founder, who became known as “the prince of Schaghticoke” for his great manor along the Schaghticoke River. So when Washington Irving burlesqued a pompous guidebook of the day with his A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty (1809), he decided to capitalize on the old familiar name, choosing the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker. Irving could not have concocted a better pen name in satirizing the stodgy Dutch burghers than this thinly veiled alias for the well-known Dutch “prince,” although the first great book of comic literature written by an American was also a satire on Jeffersonian democracy, pedantry and literacy classics. Soon his humorous work became known as Knickerbocker’s History of New York, but it wasn’t until English caricaturist George Cruikshank illustrated a later edition in the 1850s that the Knickerbocker family name was bestowed on the loose-fitting, blousy knee breeches known today

family hammer A hit man or assassin for a Mafia family. See HAMMER. See

RAG TRADE.

MUDDAH.

fahcrissake A common pronunciation of for Christ’s sake. “Fahcrissake, will you stop doing that?”

fammah

See

See

BONAC.

fancy-shmancy Something so fancy that it is pretentious. A Yinglish word, a blending of Yiddish and English, the Yiddish in this case being the shm sound it is often prefixed to a word to mock that word. Other examples are Santa-Shmanta and Oedipusschmedipus. ’fare A black slang term for welfare, the welfare department in New York City, officially called Social 625

626 New Yawk Tawk as knickers. In that English edition Cruikshank depicted the alleged author and his fellow Dutch burghers wearing voluminous breeches buckled just below the knee. His drawings of the style that the early Dutch had worn were widely copied for boys’ knee pants, baggy golf trousers (called plus fours) four inches longer, and even silk underwear for women—all of which were dubbed knickerbockers after the family Irving had immortalized. Eventually, the name knickerbockers was shortened to knickers, and knicks in England. The trouser style is no longer worn by schoolboys but was revived relatively recently as a short-lived fashion for women. The British still call women’s underwear knickers. As a result of Irving’s work Father Knickerbocker became an early synonym for New York City, Knickerbocker was adopted by a school of local writers called the Knickerbocker Group and an early New York City literary journal was called The Knickerbocker Magazine (1833–65). Much later it became the name of New York’s professional basketball team, the New York Knicks. See also BIG APPLE; GOTHAM; KNICKERBOCKER RULES; NEW YORK. fawk

A pronunciation of fork.

faygeleh I have only heard the Yiddish faygeleh used as a term of endearment for a child, but several authorities give it as a derogatory term for a homosexual as well. It derives from the German vogele, “little bird,” and is pronounced FAY-geh-leh. fayuh faz-ols

A pronunciation of fare, as in “cab fayuh.” Dollars. “He owes me two hundred faz-ols.”

Feast of Dedication Feast of Lights

See

See

HANUKKAH.

HANUKKAH.

Featherbed Lane According to the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, this humorous expression meaning any bad road dates back to at least 1698. The dictionary quotes a “doubtful” story about the term’s origin told by a New York City dentist: “I was told as a child that Featherbed Lane got its name in the Revolution. The story was that Washington was afraid his troops would make too much noise marching through town at night, so to fool the redcoats he got all the housewives to pave the roads with their featherbeds so the army could move silently. . . .” Most likely the term refers to vehicles sinking in a muddy road as if in a bed of feathers.

on April 6, 1789. In 1842 a new building was constructed at the site in downtown Manhattan. Today it is a museum. feeuh

feh! A common Yiddish exclamation of disgust similar to pew!, ugh! or yuck! It is usually associated with a terrible smell, but can be used to express any distasteful experience. “Feh! This monkey business I don’t like.” (Arthur Kober, “You Mean Common,” 1940) fer A very common pronunciation of for heard among poor and rich alike for several centuries. “Get it fer me, will ya?” fergit

A pronunciation of forget.

figger A pronunciation heard in New York of figure, as in “Go figger.” filladuppigin Fill it up again (usually with beer or whiskey). A pronunciation recorded in the Federal Writers’ Project Almanac for New Yorkers (1938). See YOUVADANUFFBUD. films

See

PICTURE SHOW.

fin A synonym for a $5 bill that isn’t heard as widely as it was even 20 years ago. It derives from the Yiddish finif, “five,” and has been around since at least the 1920s. See FINNIF. finestkind

See

BONAC.

finger Another name for the mechanics, dips, cannons, goniffs, donnegan workers, moll buzzers or pickpockets who work the city streets, one reputedly so skilled that she can steal the cheese from a mouse-trap set deep in a man’s pocket. Their accomplices are called stalls and sticks and shades. See CANNON; DIP. finger-wringer An old theatrical term for an overemotional actress, “an actress given to emoting,” as a New York Times article (March 11, 1928) put it. finnif A $5 bill. “I am not giving finnifs to guys like Feet Samuels, and he finally offers to compromise with me for a deuce. . . .” (Damon Runyon, “A Very Honorable Guy,” 1929) See FIN. finnin’

Federal Hall The original building was New York’s city hall and later served as the site of George Washington’s inauguration as first president of the United States

A pronunciation of fear.

See

BONAC.

finstins A telescoping of for instance often heard in New York speech.

Forty-Deuce 627 Fithavnya

Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

Five-O The police, a policeman; after the popular television police series Hawaii Five-O, introduced in 1968. Often used by street criminals as a warning that cops are approaching. Five Towns A prosperous Long Island suburban area of New York City. It consists of the Nassau County towns of Inwood, Lawrence, Cedarhurst, Woodmere and Hewlett. See KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES. flahwah

A pronunciation of floor.

flash Loud attire or lifestyle; sometimes called flashfront. “A jacket like this would stand out in New York. You don’t want clothes for that. My father used to tell me that twice a week. . . . He means all flashfront stuff but what he is saying to me is it’s better to stand out because of what you are than to let clothes or cars or diamond rings do it for you. For me, that is,” he added quickly. (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Honor, 1982)

See B’HOY. flatfoot A widely used term for a policeman in New York up until the last 20 or so years, when it has been heard less frequently. Before policemen were called flatfoots here, they were called flatties, a term common in the 19th century. flat-foot floozy with the floy-floy An expression well known in the early 1940s, when a popular song had the same title. A floozy was commonly used for a cheap or loose woman or a prostitute. The floy-floy, which isn’t included in slang dictionaries I consulted, apparently means a sexual disease such as gonorrhea. Flatiron Building

See

TWENTY-THREE SKIDOO.

flea market These bargain markets have nothing to do with fleas. Flea market has been an American expression as far back as Dutch colonial days when there was the Vallie (Valley) Market at the valley, or foot, of Maiden Lane in downtown Manhattan. The Vallie Market came to be abbreviated to Vlie Market and this was soon being pronounced Flea Market. flip one’s wig To greatly enjoy, appreciate, be crazy about. “You flipped your wig over her just two weeks ago and now you won’t give her the time of day?” flip someone Mob talk for to make someone a turncoat. “The cops paid a lot to flip him.”

floor broker Brokers today are associated with stocks or real estate, but all brokers were originally brokières, or men who opened up wine casks (usually to bottle and sell the wine inside). This old French word came to be transferred to wine salesmen, or brokers, and finally to one who sold anything at all. Wall Street brokers who work on the floor (or in the pit) of the exchange are called floor brokers; they were once called $2 brokers because they received a fee of $2 per transaction. floor-through A word encountered only in New York City for an apartment in a small apartment building, such as a brownstone, that takes up an entire floor. “They rented a nice floor-through.” Flushing A neighborhood in queens whose name is a corruption of the Dutch name Vlissingen for “the place.” FOB’s A historical term heard in baseball during the heyday of the Brooklyn Dodgers, when it meant the bases were full of bums or Brooklyns. See DEM BUMS. foist A New York pronunciation of first that is also heard in the South. “I’m always foist on line for the movies.” foot Speed of foot.“ ‘. . . the guy is too speedy for Shamus, who never has much foot anyway.’ ” (Damon Runyon, “Bred For Battle,” 1931) Fordham University This Catholic institution’s name was St. John’s College when founded in 1841 in the Bronx. In 1907 it took its present name. foreigner

See

BONAC.

Fort Apache A widely known name, originally police slang, for the 41st Police Precinct in the South Bronx, among the most crime ridden areas in New York City. The name is said to have originated in the early 1950s, when it was suggested by the cowboy and Indian movie Fort Apache (1948). Fort Pricks Punning slang for the army base Fort Dix in New Jersey. for-two-cents-plain One serving of soda water, from the days when it cost two cents a glass at soda fountains. “‘It was time to enjoy a “for two cents plain,’” only now it is for five cents plain.” (Harry Golden, For 2¢ Plain, 1958) Forty-Deuce Slang for West Forty-second Street, the Times Square area, since the 1970s. “I went down to Forty-Deuce.”

628 New Yawk Tawk Forty Thieves A common name in the mid-19th century for the Common Council of aldermen that governed New York City. The name was suggested by a dangerous gang of the time with the same name. Boss Tweed came from the ranks of the Forty Thieves council. four-box baseball A variation on the children’s game of box ball in New York City. Four Hundred Society columnist Ward McAllister coined the Four Hundred in 1889, when he claimed that only 400 people formed New York City’s high society. According to the traditional tale, 400 was chosen as the quantity because old Mrs. Astor’s ballroom held only that number, but the truth is that she often invited twice that many people to parties held there. Four Million

See

BAGDAD ON THE HUDSON.

fox-trot One story has it that actor Harry Fox’s original trotting type of dance was a showstopper in a 1913 Broadway hit musical. The show’s producers realized the dance had promotional value and hired the noted social dancing teacher Oscar Duryea to modify it and introduce it as the Fox-Trot to the public. This he did, and the fox-trot has been America’s most popular slow dance ever since. The story does jibe with the fact that the term is first recorded as Fox (with a capital F) trot in an RCA Victor catalog in 1915. Fratellanza

See

BROTHERHOOD.

freaking A commonly heard euphemism for fucking, as in “You’re outta your freakin’ mind.” free and easy A common term in New York before the Civil War for a house of prostitution. French ice-cream soda Heard in Brooklyn for an icecream soda topped with whipped cream. fress To eat, often in large quantities or ravenously, from Yiddish. Frequently used mixed with English, as in “I never saw anybody fress like that.” friend of mine

In mob talk, someone you’d vouch for.

friend of ours Someone who is a made man in the mob, who is a member of the “family.” See FAMILY. Frog and Toe In the mid-19th century this was a name in underworld slang for New York City. The origin of the name is uncertain. See BIG APPLE. from away A term used on Long Island’s North Fork, and apparently nowhere else in the metropolitan area,

for someone not born there. “He’s from away.” fuck According to a recent New York Times story by Carey Goldberg, “Welcome to New York, Capital of Profanities,” New York “appears to be the most foulmouthed city in the nation, rivaling only prison and the armed forces in its penchant for profanity.” This is especially true as regards the word fuck, the so-called Fword, which is used so often that it has lost its shock value among the underclass and overclass alike. The reason usually given is the stress of New York City life, but then what kind of release does a word that has become so namby-pamby or shock-valueless provide? In any case, according to Professor Lewis Allen, author of The City in Slang (1990), fuck “has become just an intensifier . . . like shucks and golly and darn that people used to say . . . and its -ing form (fucking) has become for many simply a substitute for ‘very.’ ” The Times article points out that in Do the Right Thing, a Spike Lee movie set in Brooklyn, fuck and fucking are used fully 182 times. fuck off! Get out of here, go away, don’t bother me. Very common slang in New York for the last 30 years or so, largely replacing similar terms such as buzz off! The phrase dates back, however, to the late 1800s. fuhgeddaboutit Forget about it. Usually the equivalent of “don’t mention it,” “it’s no trouble at all,” “no problem,” etc. But it can also mean “no way,” “I won’t even consider it,” etc. Fun City A nickname for New York City said to have originated with Mayor John V. Lindsay in 1966 on his first day in office when a reporter asked if he was happy he’d been elected. “I still think it’s a fun city,” Lindsay replied. Author Dick Schaap first capitalized the name in his Herald Tribune column “What’s New in Fun City.” Other New York mayors with a way with words include James J. Walker, who wrote the sentimental favorite “Will You Love Me in December as You Did in May?” before he was elected, and Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, who in 1934 invented the phrase “No more free lunch!” (No more graft), which is a translation of the Italian “È finita la cuccagna,” said to have been shouted by the Little Flower while he angrily shook his fist at City Hall. fungoo Very common since the 1940s for fuck you; from the Italian affanculo, meaning “I fuck you up the ass.” Also pronounced fongoo. Usually accompanied by the appropriate arm or finger sign. See also BOFF-ONGOOL; BAH-FONG-GOO. funny as a crutch The crutch here is short for someone on crutches, someone disabled permanently, which is of course not a funny matter nor something to laugh at.

futz around 629 Thus something said that is decidedly unfunny or tasteless is often called funny as a crutch. The expression was more frequently heard in New York 50 years ago than it is today. furgassi Pronounced foo-GAZE-ee; mob talk for a fake, especially fake jewelry.

futz around To fool around, play; often used as a euphemism for fuck around. Futz, possibly deriving from the Yiddish arumfartzen, is first recorded in 1929. We futzed around all day means we accomplished nothing, wasted the day. Don’t futz around with it means don’t touch it, don’t mess around with it, leave it alone.

G G Slang for a thousand dollars, short for a grand. “I am going to stake them to a few G’s.” (Damon Runyon, Guys and Dolls, 1929) Also G-note.

first failed to print his obituary. Belatedly the Times printed a brief item reporting the death of “Hiram” Melville.

gangbuster H. L. Mencken said, “Gang-buster was launched in 1935 to describe Thomas E. Dewey (a prominent New York District Attorney who prosecuted organized crime and later became Governor).” The radio program Gangbusters, introduced in 1936, popularized the term and it has since been applied to any law enforcement officer engaged in breaking up gangs. To do gangbusters is to be very successful as in “The show did gangbusters,” while come on like gangbusters means to approach something very aggressively and energetically, like the opening of a Gangbusters radio program with its machine guns, sirens, etc.

garbageman

See

AIRY WAY.

garbage mouth Mob talk for someone who consistently “talks dirty.” Garden The Garden is the usual name for Madison Square Garden in New York City. gate In the world of jazz a name that musicians have for each other, especially for someone who really swings. The word, very popular in the 1940s, had some general use in the expression, “Greetings, gate.” Gate was popularized by Louis Armstrong, whose nickname as a boy was “Gatemouth.”

gangland slaying A name in the past attached to almost every killing involving professional criminals. “And the next day in the Daily News there was a story about the body that was found in the Prospect Park lake and the cops . . . thought it was what they always called a gangland slaying. I was a kid and wanted to know where Gangland was. This new strange country that wasn’t in the geography books.” (Pete Hamill, Flesh and Blood, 1977)

gavoones See quote. “The Boston area had too many murders, too many petty wars for power . . . If the Chicago Mafia were savages, then the Boston people were gavoones, or uncouth louts, ruffians.” (Mario Puzo, The Godfather, 1969) Gaynor, William A reform mayor of New York, who was elected in 1909 and is the only New York City mayor ever to be assassinated. Gaynor was shot by a disgruntled city worker in 1910. The bullet was irremovably lodged below his right ear, and he died of his wound three years later.

Gansevoort Street pier The pier where New York City–born Herman Melville spent the last 20 years of his life as a “most inglorious” inspector of customs, in complete obscurity. Ironically, the name Gansevoort honored his affluent maternal ancestors. A neglected Moby-Dick behind him, the writer lived for the evenings during which he could work on Billy Budd in his bleak Gramercy Park room. So little known was America’s greatest novelist at his death that the New York Times at

Gay White Way Another name for Broadway in the early 1900s. See GREAT WHITE WAY. geddin gout 630

A pronunciation of getting out.

glamour girl 631 gee whiz

See

JEEZ!

gelati Italian gelati has become more popular in America, especially in New York, over the past 10 years. Gelato is the Italian for ice cream, and the delicacy, which is folded rather than churned when made, has a much higher butter fat content than any other kind of ice cream. George Washington Bridge Completed in 1931, this magnificent bridge joining New York City and New Jersey was once the world’s longest (with a central suspension span of 3,500 feet), but it has since been surpassed by the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and the Japanese Akashi-Kaekyo Bridge—the current recordholder at 6,532 feet. New York also has a Washington Bridge (not George Washington) that crosses the Harlem River; it was built in 1889. get a bun on To get very drunk. The expression has been common in New York for almost a century, but its etymology is unknown. get a haircut A New Yorker gets a haircut; he or she doesn’t take a haircut as many other Americans do. Few, if any, New Yorkers say “I’m going to take a haircut.” get lost (1) Get out of here, get out of sight, stop bothering me; as in “A dollar? Get lost. I haven’t got a dollar myself” (2) Often said during an argument when one person expresses an idea unacceptable to the other. “Get lost, ya creep!” (Rocky Graziano, Somebody Up There Likes Me, 1955) get makkes To get nothing, as in “You’ll get makkes from me.” A Yiddish term from the Hebrew makot, “plagues,” “blows,” etc.; pronounced MOCK-iss. get off the dime To get started, take some action, as in“You’d better get off the dime while you still have time.” Originally a term used by floor managers in dance halls, telling dancers to move from an almost stationary position. Ten cents was the cost of a dance. get one’s ears lowered Though this saying for getting a fresh haircut isn’t generally associated with New York City, I’ve heard it here a number of times over the years. get one’s pots on

To get drunk.

. . . every time King O’Hara gets his pots on, which is practically every night, rain or shine, he is always bragging that he has the royal blood of Ireland in his veins, so somebody starts calling him King, and this is his monicker as long as I can remember, although probably what King O’Hara really has in his veins is about ninety-eight percent alcohol. (Damon Runyon, “Princess O’Hara,” 1931)

get out of here! Usually not to be taken literally, these commonly heard words most often mean: that’s preposterous, you’ve told me an unbelievable story, that could never happen, etc. The perfect New York pronunciation is Ged ouda here! getty Pronounced JET-ee. An old term for a streetcorner organ grinder, usually one with a monkey trained to collect coins thrown by the audience. Sometimes the getty’s monkey would climb up the apartment windows to get the coins. Today the term is mainly remembered in the old song “The Sidewalks of New York”: “And the getty plays the organ on the sidewalks of New York.” gevalt! g’hal

See

OY!

See B’HOY.

gimme A common pronunciation of give me. “Gimme a pack of Camels.” gimme a break Don’t be ridiculous, spare me the lies or exaggerations. Often heard as “Gimme a break, willya.” gin mill A humorous name for any bar, but especially a low-class one; once widely used but now heard mainly from older speakers. giobba

See quote.

. . . the alien immigrant . . . Italian of a decade’s residence began to astound more recently arrived compatriots with such expressions as giobba (job), sanguiccio (sandwich), and sonomagogna (son of a gun). With the acquisition of American words came the acquisition of something of the American’s sweeping largeness of idea. (Federal Writers Project, New York Panorama, 1938)

give ’em the hook This saying, as well as the practice of hooking a failing act from the stage, is said to have originated at Manhattan’s Miner’s Theater during an amateur night sometime in the early 1900s. The first hook was apparently a shepherd’s crook (a prop from a play) tied to a long pole. The practice and saying spread from Miner’s to theaters all over the world. gizza A pronunciation of give us. “‘Gizza kiss, Al.’ He leaned over and kissed her cheek softly.” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Money, 1994) gladda Glad to. “‘Lay on the romance and she’ll be gladda marry you.’” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Money, 1994) glamour girl A glamorous young woman, often a film star or model. See CAFÉ SOCIETY.

632 New Yawk Tawk glass tea Tea served in a glass, not a cup. “Maybe you’d like a glass tea?” asked Mrs. Grass “Maybe a piece fruit you’d like?” (Arthur Kober, “You Mean Common,”1940)

go in the water To take a dive, intentionally lose or throw a fight. “They say he’s a tank artist, a tomato can, a guy that goes in the water for a few bucks. . . .” (Pete Hamill, Flesh and Blood, 1977)

glazza

go fight City Hall A saying of resignation, an admission of the futility of a situation, comparable to it’s like hitting your head against the wall, which is often in New Yorkese go hit your head against the wall.

A pronunciation of glass of.

glitch This scientific word, meaning a sudden change in the rotation period of a neutron star, has its roots in the Yiddish glitch, “a slip,” which, in turn, comes from the German glitschen, “slip.” Possibly a scientist in the U.S. space program (c. 1960) familiar with Yiddish is responsible for the coining, but he remains nameless. Today the term is most used in computerese for a mechanical malfunction or for any problem or emergency due to a defective or broken machine. On the other hand, some authorities say the word dates back to early radio days, when it meant an announcer’s slip or mistake. go Sometimes used to mean “say.” “My mother she go go to the store for milk. I go I don’t want to go, I’m busy.” godda one.”

Got to, have to, as in “We godda gedda bedder

godfather The head of a Mafia family. “Don Vito Corleone was a man to whom everybody came for help, and never were they disappointed . . . His reward? Friendship, the respectful title of ‘Don,’ and sometimes the more affectionate salutation of ‘Godfather.’ . . .” (Mario Puzo, The Godfather, 1969) God finally caught his eye New York playwright and wit George S. Kaufman’s mock epitaph for a dead waiter. New York waiters were Kaufman’s pet hate; he believed they were actually trained to exasperate him and other customers. go down

See

go figure An expression of frustration meaning something that defies logical thought, it beats me, I can’t explain it, you try. “There they are, the best team in baseball—the best pitching, the best hitters—and they lose three in a row to these stumble bums. Go figure.” goil Girl, and a better rendering of the word, according to some experts, than the gel or gairl of Britain. going, going . . . gone Any New York Yankee fan of the 1950s will remember this phrase, which became the trademark of Yankee radio announcer Mel Allen (1913–96) in describing a home run or a hit in the process of becoming a home run. Just as well known were the native Alabamians’s words How ’bout that?, a comment about how pleasing or depressing or dramatic something was. Goldberg Derogatory black slang for a Jew; first recorded in Claude Brown’s Manchild in the Promised Land (1965) but older. “Calling you Goldberg in the bargain, [they’ll] send you on your way.” (Philip Roth, Portnoy’s Complaint, 1968) See MR. CHARLIE. Gold Dust twins I heard this expression several times in 1951 from two boys from the Bronx who were describing two girls from the Bronx. The girls were always together, as inseparable as the Gold Dust twins pictured in ads for Gold Dust Washing Powder.

TO.

gole joolry God should be allowed to just watch the game Yogi Berra is supposed to have made this remark from behind the plate after watching Chicago White Sox batter Minnie Minoso appeal for divine intervention by drawing a cross in the dust on home plate. The story has become sports legend, but syndicated columnist William Safire recently contacted the former Yankee catcher and Yogi denied that he had ever said it. Yogiisms that Yogi hasn’t denied include “I’ve been playing eighteen years and you can observe a lot by watching” (on his managerial abilities), “He can run anytime he wants—I’m giving him the red light” (on giving a player permission to steal a base) and the much quoted “It ain’t over till it’s over.” See also STENGELESE.

A pronunciation of gold jewelry.

goombah Italian for friend. From the Italian compare. “He’s my goombah.” Said to have been popularized by boxer Rocky Graziano in his appearances on the Martha Raye Show (NBC-TV) in 1955. goniff Goniff, first recorded in 1839, is slang for a thief or a shady, dishonest person, the word deriving from the Hebrew ganef for “thief.” It was given wider currency when used in George Roy Hill’s film The Sting (1973). good field, no hit This baseball catchphrase is sometimes applied jokingly to anyone who does one thing

Guinea red 633 better than another thing, to someone who is good in one field and not another. The expression dates back to 1924, when coach Miguel “Mike” Gonzales scouted Dodger player Moe Berg for the St. Louis Cardinals. Observing Berg at Brooklyn’s training camp that spring, Gonzales wired his boss the four-word evaluation “Good field, no hit” and the Cardinals didn’t gossip center” in the 19th century, may have reinforced the coinage. graveyard stew A common humorous term during the Great Depression years for a meal of bread (or toast) and milk with sugar added. A steady diet of it, and you might wind up in the graveyard. greaseball An offensive term for people of Mediterranean or Latin American background heard since at least the 1920s. Great Black Way The part of Seventh Avenue that cuts through Harlem. So named because the area, populated mostly by blacks, rivaled Broadway (the Great White Way) for its nightlife, and its clubs and performers were renowned the world over. Great Fire of 1835 A fire of unknown origin that leveled downtown New York to the ground. Great Tight Way A humorous name for Broadway at the turn of the century, in reference to all the drinking that took place there. Other humorous or once humorous names for Broadway over the years include The Hardened Artery, The Grandest Canyon, Baloney Boulevard, The Big Gulch, Buzzard Boulevard, Phosphorescent Path, The Diamond Ditch, Gin Gulch, Beer Gulch, Aspirin Alley, The Flamboyant Floodway, Coffee Pot Canyon, Hooch Highway, The Milky Way, Artful Alley, Big Street, The Big Drag, Little Old Broadway, The Stem, Rue de Revelry, The Galaxy, Fraudway, Noisy Lane, Levity Lane, and The Dirty White Way. Most were invented by newspaper columnists like Walter Winchell, O. O. McIntyre and Mark Hellinger. See GREAT WHITE WAY. Great White Way This nickname for Broadway and the Manhattan theatrical or entertainment district, a reference to all the lights there, was coined by Albert Bigelow Paine, best known today as Mark Twain’s biographer. The words were first used as the title of Paine’s novel The Great White Way (1901). green hornet A name for New York City patrol cars, which in the 1940s were green, black and white. Probably suggested by The Green Hornet radio series (1936–52).

Greenpernt The usual pronunciation of the area officially known as Greenpoint in Brooklyn. Greenwich Village A lower Manhattan district of New York famous as a literary and artistic community since the early 20th century—earlier than that if one considers that Thomas Paine wrote The Crisis there and that Edgar Allan Poe lived in the Village for a time. It’s called the Village because it was a separate village through the colonial period and into the early 19th century. In a little district west of Washington Square the streets have run crazy and broken themselves into small strips called “places.” These “places” make strange angles and curves. One street crosses itself a time or two. An artist once discovered a valuable possibility in this street. Suppose a collector with a bill for paints, paper and canvas should, in traversing this route, suddenly meet himself coming back, without a cent having been paid on account! So, to quaint old Greenwich Village the art people soon came prowling, hunting for north windows and eighteenth-century gables and Dutch attics and low rents. (O. Henry, “The Last Leaf,” 1906)

gridlock A term describing the halting of vehicular movement in part or parts of the city because key intersections are blocked by traffic. I have it on good authority that the word was coined by Sam Schwartz, head of the New York City Department of Transportation, in 1975. guido An insulting stereotype for a young Italian male since the late 1980s; from the Italian name Guido. An article in New York Newsday (March 22, 1991) defined Guidos as “guys who usually have [hair]brushes in their pockets, drive expensive American muscle cars, wear Bugle Boy jeans, like dancing . . . and are mostly Italians.” Italian young women with similar interests are sometimes called guidettes. (“Guido Nazzo is nazzo guido,” drama critic George S. Kaufman wrote in a 1930s review of a young operatic tenor of that name. The wisecrack was so widely repeated that it nearly ruined the singer’s career. Kaufman was so truly sorry that he apologized to Nazzo and offered him a part in one of his plays.) See GUINEA. Guinea Another offensive name for an Italian, this one dating back to the late 19th century. Before then it was the name for a black from Guinea in West Africa, which is probably the origin of the word. Guinea has also been applied to any southern and central Europeans and to Hispanics in general. Guinzo, wop, greaseball and dago are also derogatory names for Italians, as is Eye-tie. See GUIDO. Guinea red A derogatory name for any cheap (though often good) red Italian wine often made at home.

634 New Yawk Tawk Guinea stinker A slang term for a strong cheap, foulsmelling cigar, called el stinko elsewhere; it is usually long and twisted, often smoked down to a stub. Also Guinea rope. gumnt not.

does not refer to a firearm but derives from the Yiddish goniff, a “thief,” and moll is 18th-century slang for a woman. A gun moll in the 1920s was a female pickpocket, before newspaper reporters mistakenly took to calling any racketeer’s girl a gun moll.

A pronunciation of government, believe it or

gun moll Female accomplices of criminals did not carry their guns for them. The gun in the term gun moll

guvnah gwan!

A pronunciation of governor. A pronunciation of go on!

H hackie A name for the driver of a hack or a taxi cab. More often called a cabbie today. A hoople used to be a hackie working a 24-hour stretch.

handball Handball became popular in America in about 1882, when it is said to have been introduced by Irish immigrant Phil Casey in Brooklyn, New York. The name of this popular sport can be traced back to 15thcentury England, but it originated in Ireland over four centuries earlier and was known as the game of fives for the five fingers of the hand, used to hit the ball.

hahbuh A pronunciation of harbor, as in “Poil Hahbuh.” See LEO THE LIP. hairbag

See quote. Hanukkah A Jewish festival of eight days that usually fall in December commemorating the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem by the Maccabees after their victory over the Syrian Antiochus IV. The festival is characterized by the lighting of the menorah on each of the festival nights, the giving of small cash gifts (Hanukkah gelt) and games such as one played with a four-sided top, or dreidel. Hanukkah is the Hebrew word for “a dedicating.” It is also spelled Chanukah and is called The Feast of Lights and The Feast of Dedication. See MENORAH.

Meeting Muldoon for the first time, one would note his bulbous nose, the broken veins in his cheeks. If close enough one would smell the beer on his breath, would note the stains on his tie, the garish sportscoat buttoned taut over his belly. Some cops called him a hairbag, though not to his face. Hairbag is [NYC] slang for men who don’t care anymore, who are waiting on retirement. (Robert Daley, Tainted Evidence, 1993)

halavah Halavah or halva is a Yiddish word, deriving ultimately from the Arabic haluva, “sweet confection,” for every sweet flakey candy of Turkish origin made chiefly of honey and ground sesame seeds.

hardie A common name in the New York area for a hard-shell blue claw crab. A soft-shell blue claw is often called a softie.

hall bedroom A hallway turned into a small bedroom by partitioning part of it. Also called a hall room. Hall of Fame

See

Hard Rock

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY.

See

BLACK ROCK.

Harlem A section of New York City in northeast Manhattan that has largely been populated by African Americans since World War I. Harlem was named in Dutch colonial days after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands. After the war it was the site of the Harlem Renaissance, a renewal and flourishing of black culture, especially in literature and music. See SUGAR HILL.

hammer An enforcer for the Mafia, usually the chief enforcer in a Mafia family, who kills or intimidates the family’s enemies. “ ‘You will go out and live permanently in Vegas,’ he [the Don] said . . . ‘However you will remain the Family Hammer.’ ” (Puzo, The Last Don, 1996) Sometimes called the number one hammer. A hammer man is black slang for a very strong authoritative person, but the two terms seem to have arisen independently.

Hart Island Named for Peter Hart, a New York City policeman and hero of the Civil War, this East River 635

636 New Yawk Tawk Island, off City Island in the Bronx, has been the home since 1869 of New York City’s Potter’s Field, or city cemetery, where the city’s unknown and unwanted poor are buried. The dead are taken to the potter’s field from City Island by the “Last Ferry” and buried in mass graves containing hundreds of cheap pine coffins. Few New Yorkers have been to Hart Island, and few would want to go there, before or after death. It is a dreary, barren place where little respect is shown for the dead, and where their bones, called leather by the Riker’s Island prisoners who do the burying, are frequently washed to the surface of the graves after heavy rains. Hasidim Members of a movement of popular mysticism founded in Eastern Europe in the 18th century. Their name derives from the Hebrew word hasidh, “pious.” The Hasidic movement was founded by the mystic Israel ben Eliezer (Baal-Shem-Tov), who taught that simple faith and joyous worship are more important than learning and religious formalities, among many other precepts. There are a number of Hasidic communities in New York, especially in Brooklyn. The word is also spelled Chasidim. have a catch New York youngsters usually have a catch when they go out to throw a ball around, not play catch as kids do in other parts of the country. have half a heat on To be half drunk. “In fact, she is nothing but an old haybag . . . and in all these years I seldom See her but what she seems to have about half a heat on from drinking gin.” (Damon Runyon, “Madame La Gimp,” 1929) haybag An old-fashioned term for a slovenly woman; a woman hobo. “She is nothing but an old haybag, and generally ginned up.” (Runyon, Guys and Dolls, 1929) hazarae Yiddish for junk or trash of any kind, including food, books, movies, cheap goods, etc. “I don’t want hazarae like that in my store.” headline Newspaper headlines are an American invention, the first one appearing in the Tory New York Gazette on October 20, 1777. Fortunately for the United States, the headline was all wrong: Glorious News from the Southward. Washington Knocked up—The Bloodiest Battle in America—6000 of his Men Gone—100 Wagons to Carry the Wounded— General Howe is at Present in German-town—Washington 30 miles Back in a Shattered Condition—Their Stoutest Frigate Taken and One Deserted—They are Tired—And Talk of Finishing the Campaign.

heavy cruiser A hardbitten, tough-looking prostitute. Cruiser has been a New York term for a prostitute since the mid-19th century.

Hebe An offensive name for a Jew first recorded in 1932. A shortening of Hebrew. he eats babies Said of a vicious killer. “The gang . . . was formed in 1890 under the leadership of Raymond the Wolf. He ate babies. Raymond the Wolf passed away in his sleep one night from natural causes; his heart stopped being when three men who slipped into his bedroom stuck knives in it.” (Jimmy Breslin, The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight, 1969) Heinz’s 57 varieties John Heinz the original Mr. (Henry John) Heinz, forebear of the millionaire senator John Heinz, adapted his company’s famous slogan from a New York City billboard ad he saw featuring “21 Styles of Shoes.” Heinz actually had 60 varieties of assorted products and condiments at the time he coined the slogan in 1896, but he thought an odd number sounded better. The company used its “57” slogan until 1969. Hell’s Hundred Acres A name in the early 19th century for what is now SoHo in Manhattan; of unknown origin. See SOHO. Hell’s Kitchen There are several theories, about the term’s origin, but the following letter from John H. Knubel to the editor of the New York Herald Tribune on January 25, 1942, gives an interesting, unusual derivation of the name: Years ago on thirty-ninth street between tenth and eleventh avenues there existed a combination “Beer Saloon and Restaurant” conducted by a German and his wife with the name of “Heil” and having a sign on the front reading “Heil’s Kitchen” where patrons were served with various dishes, the most popular being pigs knuckles and sauerkraut accompanied by a very large glass of good beer, which was extremely to the liking of those in the neighborhood and from others . . . When the “rough” boys wished to partake of the above or other food they would call out to one another, “Let’s go down to ‘Heil’s Kitchen,’” not pronouncing the name “Heil” properly, through an innocent error or by deliberate [mis]pronunciation, as it may have been more musical to their ears, and this name consequendy had to be borne by the neighborhood to this day.

helluva A compression of hell of a, which itself dates back to the 18th century. Helluva seems to have first been recorded in George S. Chappell’s novel The Younger Married Set (1926), according to William Safire in his On Language column (New York Times Magazine, September 7, 1996). Also pronounced helluvuh, it can express irritation, as in “That’s a helluva thing to say,” or even admiration, “That’s a helluva halavah they make.” Hemlock Forest A virgin forest in the Bronx, of all places, Bronx Park to be exact, containing some 3,000

Horseshoe Bend 637 trees. New York City, according to several sources, still has more trees than buildings! here Often heard as a superfluous interjection, as in “This here book is mine.” hero New Yorkers, too, have their special names for things. That long sandwich crammed with edibles on Italian or French bread and called a poor boy in the South and a grinder in New England is a hero in most of the metropolitan New York speech area. Other New York names for the comestible indude Italian sandwich, much less used, Italian hero, and the derogatory Guinea hero and Guinea sandwich. hersted York.

A pronunciation of hoisted heard in New

her (his) stomach thinks her (his) throat is cut Said of someone very hungry, starving. “‘. . . the best thing to do right now is to throw a feed into her, as the chances are her stomach thinks her throat is cut.’” (Damon Runyon, “Little Miss Marker,” 1931) highbinder A highbinder can be a swindler and cheat, especially a confidence man, or a gangster or rowdy. The word, first used in its latter meaning, derives from a gang of ruffians called the Highbinders that plagued New York City about 1800. Later their name was applied (in the lower case) to members of AmericanChinese secret societies believed to be employed in blackmail and assassination. high hat Jack Conway, a former baseball player and vaudevillian, who became editor of the New York show business newspaper Variety, coined the expression high hat for a snob in 1924. It suggests an affected rich or nouveau riche man in a high silk hat and tails strolling about town with his nose in the air almost as high as his hat. The term gave birth to the expression to high hat, to snub or act patronizingly. See PALOOKA High Hill

See

TODT HILL.

him Very often used in place of his, as in “I don’t like him being here,” instead of “I don’t like his being here.”

and getting a ride through city streets that way, a practice definitely not to be recommended. (How did we survive our childhood?) hit in the kishkas To hit someone in the stomach. Kishka is Russian for ‘’intestines.’’ The word came to describe a sausage-like food of the Jewish cookery and finally suggested the Yiddish expression above. hitter An assassin or hit man. “‘. . . this much I know, if you guys can double your pressure on every joint operating in the five boroughs, I think it’s possible that somebody might give you the hitter.”’ (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Honor, 1982) hit the hammer To push the accelerator pedal in a car to the floor to make it go very fast or as fast as it can. hizzonah hobboh

hitching In the 1940s hitching meant not only putting your thumb out for a ride from a passing car, but catching onto the bumper of a car or truck while on your sled

See

BONAC.

Hoboken For no good reason the New Jersey city across the river from New York has been the butt of jokes for over a century, just the mention of its name getting a laugh. Hackensack and Secaucus (once noted for its pig farms) have had much the same trouble. hoid

A pronunciation of heard or herd.

Holland Tunnel The tunnel connecting lower Manhattan and Jersey City has nothing to do with Holland or the Dutch. It is named for the great chief engineer who designed it: Clifford M. Holland. The tunnel opened in 1927. holler New York Used in other areas for vomit. “He was hollering New York.” holly A common mispronunciation of challa (KHAHLleh), a braided glazed white bread of Jewish cuisine. Challa is the Hebrew word for the bread. hook hoople

hindu! A cry of foul in the game of boxball and Chinese handball. Hindu! (probably a corruption of hinder) was cried out if the ball accidentally hit an object or went out of play because of some other interference. Today Do over! is usually heard instead.

A pronunciation of his honor (de Mayah).

(1) See See

DIP.

(2) See

GIVE ’EM THE HOOK.

HACKIE.

hootoadjuh? Who told you? A pronunciation recorded in the Federal Writers’ Project Almanac for New Yorkers (1938). Horseshoe Bend See quote. “Jackie Dunne is from the Horseshoe Bend section of Jersey City, which is perhaps the world’s leading supplier of Irish gunmen.” (Jimmy Breslin, The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight, 1969)

638 New Yawk Tawk Hosackia

See

ELGIN GARDENS.

hot dog A mainstay of sports cuisine, hot dogs were probably first served at a sports event at New York’s Polo Grounds. According to concessionaire Harry Stevens, who first served grilled franks on a heated roll there in 1901, the franks were dubbed hot dogs by that prolific word inventor and sports cartoonist T. A. Dorgan after he sampled them at a Giants ballgame; but Dorgan may only have popularized the word. Dorgan, or whoever invented hot dog, possibly had in mind the fact that many people believed frankfurters were made from dog meat at the time, and possibly had heard Stevens’s vendors crying out “Get your hot dogs!,” leading the indignant Coney Island chamber of commerce to ban the use of the term hot dog by concessionaires there (they could be called only Coney Islands, red hots and frankfurters). Hot dog! became an ejaculation of approval by 1906 and is still heard occasionally. Hot dog is also a term for a grandstanding baseball player or other crowd-pleasing athletes. Hotel Underwood A nickname for the Coney Island boardwalk, underneath which was a popular courting place. Also applied to the Rockaway’s 5 1/2-mile boardwalk in Queens. houghmagandy See quote. “‘His lawyer probably advised him to quit the houghmagandy till we reach a [divorce] settlement.’ ‘What’s houghmagandy?’ Mollie asked. ‘Hanky-panky,’ Heather said.” (Evan Hunter, Criminal Conversation, 1994) House That Ruth Built A name for Yankee Stadium, which Babe Ruth made famous. housink A pronunciation of housing in the New York area. “She lived in a New York housink project.” Howard Beach wait See quote. “When speaking on the phone, people developed what became known as the Howard Beach wait. Every twenty seconds the one on the phone had to say ‘Wait a minute’ and let the plane go over the house.” (Jimmy Breslin, He Got Hungry and Forgot His Manners, 1988) The wait is for the jets landing at and taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport, their flight paths often directly over Howard Beach. The same could be said of all the communities bordering JFK. Some seven miles to the east in Nassau County, the village of Cedarhurst is noted for what is called Cedarhurst Alley, a flight path directly over the residential community. how ’bout that

See

GOING, GOING

...

GONE.

how come? Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms (1848) says how come? is “Doubtless an English phrase,

brought over by the original settlers . . . the meaning . . . [being] How did what you tell me happen? How came it?” Others opt for the Dutch hockum, “why,” which the “original settlers” heard in New Amsterdam. howda TING.

A pronunciation of how to. See quote under

hows about An excrescent “z” sound is frequently added to the expression how about, as in “Hows about coming wid me to the party.” how they hangin’ A greeting among men, short for “How are your balls hanging?” “‘Hey Cholly!’ Pop said. ‘How they hangin’?’” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Honor, 1982) howzigohin? A common New York pronunciation of “how’s it going?” Hoyt is hoit! The immortal words of that anonymous Brooklyn Dodger broadcaster who on a linguistically memorable day at Ebbets Field in the 1930s saw the pitcher Waite Hoyt was knocked down by a line drive and exclaimed: “Oh, no—Hoyt is hoit!” hozzabotutbabe Hows about it, babe. “A prelude to romance,” a pronunciation recorded in the Federal Writers’ Project Almanac for New Yorkers (1938). Hudson River (1) Named for Henry Hudson, English explorer for hire who in 1609 sailed for the Dutch East India Company on the Half Moon trying to find a new route to the Indies and explored the river that now bears his name. His name was not Hendrick Hudson as is widely believed. The confusion probably resulted because Dutch explorer Hendrick Christiaensen was the first to sail the river after him and made numerous voyages to the Hudson from 1610 to 1616, when he was killed by an Indian near Albany. See also VERRAZANO BRIDGE. (2) See NORTH RIVER. huh A pronunciation of her. “I’m not talkin’ to you, I’m talkin’ to huh.” Hymie; Hymietown Hymie is an insulting name for a Jew, from the often Jewish name Hyman. Hymietown, similarly, is a derogatory name for New York City, home to many Jews. The Reverend Jesse Jackson used these words in private conversation during his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984, causing great national controversy. He apologized for his language, insisting that he had not believed the words were anti-Semitic.

I icebox Still used by some older New Yorkers who owned real iceboxes in earlier times. Today, out of habit, they call refrigerators iceboxes. icky (1) Used to describe anything overly sweet, or sickeningly sentimental, especially music. (2) Something sticky, such as candy stuck on one’s hands or face. ID To identify. “He ID’ed himself as a cop and went inside.” Idaho baked potato Strangely enough, this wellknown brand name was made famous by a New York department store “taster.” William Titon, better known as Titon the Taster, worked 60 years for Macy’s and was the store’s final authority on all groceries, wines and liquors. Among other accomplishments, Titon discovered the Idaho potato in 1926 while buying apples for Macy’s and promoted it until the spud’s name became synonymous with baked potato, for which Idaho’s governor wrote a letter of thanks to the store. idear A pronunciation of idea; New Yorkers often add an r in such words, another example being sofa; pronounced SO-fer. Idlewild A former name for John F. Kennedy International Airport. See KENNEDY. if Often omitted in dependent clauses, as in “She asked him would he go” instead of “She asked him if he would go.” One of many New York shortcuts. if I can’t dance, it’s not my revolution The expression originated with the American anarchist Emma Goldman in the early 1900s. She supposedly said this when her

lover and fellow anarchist Alexander Berkman berated her one night for dancing wildly in a radical village hangout. Copublisher of the anarchist paper Mother Earth with Berkman, Goldman was deported to Russia in 1919 but left that country two years later after a disagreement with communist authorities. “If We Must Die” Claude McKay, a Jamaican who immigrated to the United States, worked as a waiter for many years while writing his poems, stories and novels. His poem “If We Must Die” was written in reaction to the 1919 Harlem race riots, but its stirring words of resistance were chosen 20 years later as a World War II rallying cry by both Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., who read the poem into the Congressional Record, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who read it to the British people. if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere Probably coined by a New Yorker, this phrase dates back at least 30 years, possibly more. It was popularized in the song “New York, New York,” written by Fred Ebb and John Kander and recorded by Liza Minelli in 1977 and by Frank Sinatra in 1980. if you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime See quote. “Easy time . . . If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime. That’s what they say on the yard.” (Pete Hamill, Flesh and Blood, 1977) if you’ll pardon the expression Frequently used apologetically to preface any remark the speaker thinks is indelicate or prying, etc. I have seen the future and it works Muckraking New York writer Lincoln Steffens made a trip to Russia in 639

640 New Yawk Tawk 1919. Upon meeting financier Bernard Baruch after his return, Steffens made his famous remark about Communist Russia. “I have seen the future and it works.” Actually, his exact words were, “I have been over into the future, and it works.” Steffens’s companion on the trip to Russia, William Bullitt, claimed that Steffens’s remark wasn’t spontaneous, that he had invented it even before he set foot on Russian soil. I’ll be a turkey’s asshole! A recent variation on I’ll be damned. “‘Well I’ll be a turkey’s asshole!’ Jo Ann screamed. ‘Thas where I found it.’” (Sapphire, Push, 1996) I’m gonna make him (her, etc.) an offer he (she, etc.) can’t refuse Used jokingly today, but popularized by the film version of Mario Puzo’s The Godfather (1972) when the godfather, played by Marlon Brando, uses it as a veiled threat. One of his confederates tells him that a certain Hollywood producer will never give his godson an important part in a movie he is making. “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse,” the godfather says, implying the potential of violence to the producer. in a New York minute

Very quickly, in a heartbeat.

Indian burn The pain resulting from the act of grabbing someone’s wrist or forearm with both hands and twisting the skin in opposite directions. This mean trick has been inflicted by kids upon each other for many a generation. So far as is known the practice did not originate with any Indian tribe. I (he, she, etc.) need it like a hole in the head A common expression influenced by Yiddish that is said of something totally disagreeable. “More taxes? I need it like a hole in the head.” Much stronger than the similar Who needs it? or This I need yet? infamita Italian used in the Mafia for a terrible thing to do, a violation of a code, a sin. “‘The brother is right. It would be an infamita to lay hands on her.’ ” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Money, 1994) infattago A pronunciation of the common children’s skin disease impetigo. in line

See

ON LINE.

innarupted A pronunciation of interrupted. “‘It looks like we coulda just innarupted a mob hit.’ ” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Money, 1994) intiment

Often a pronunciation of intimate.

intimidatore An enforcer. “[Violente’s] second man was Joey Cloacacino. Violente, who was the chief intimidatore of the Prizzi family, would have frightened Siegfreid, El Cid . . . or Arnold Schwarzenegger. . . .” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Money, 1994) (Incidentally, Condon’s last name for Joey translates as “little sewer.”) in your hat Short for “shit in your hat.” “ ‘Ah, in your hat, Charley, and right down over your ears.’ She hung up heavily.” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Honor, 1982) I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country The last words that American spy Nathan Hale supposedly said on the New York City gallows before he was hanged by the British. According to the recently discovered diary of British officer Captain Frederick Mackenzie, what he really said was “It is the duty of every good officer to obey any orders given him by his commander-in-chief.” Hale was executed on September 22, 1776. British author Joseph Addison’s play Cato (1713) has the words “What pity it is that we can die but once to serve our country.” I really appreciate it New Yorkers are not nearly so rude as they are portrayed. Instead of a simple “thank you,” New Yorkers will often say, “I really appreciate it.” Irish fight nybrook. Irish tea

An all-out, no-holds-barred brawl, a don-

Tea strongly seasoned with whiskey.

Irishtown An old term, not heard much since the 1960s or so, for an area, often with a great number of bars or saloons, where there is a large Irish-American population. One that comes to mind is the 10–20 block area around the now demolished Rockaway Playland in Queens, not far from Brooklyn. The bars were noted for a lot of drinking, talking, singing, arguing and fighting. In some other states Irishtowns have been called Dublins, but I’ve never heard that term in New York. Irish turkey cabbage.

A humorous term for corned beef and

Iron Horse New York Yankee first baseman Lou Gehrig, who played in 2,130 consecutive games and was also called The Pride of the Yankees. The Iron Horse died in 1941 of a rare spinal disease named Lou Gehrig’s disease after him. I say it’s spinach and I say the hell with it E. B. White wrote the caption that became this catchphrase for a 1928

it’s o.k. by me 641 Carl Rose cartoon in the New Yorker showing a spoiled little girl who rejects her mother’s offer of broccoli with these words. The phrase has come to mean, “When I’m indulging my prejudices, I don’t want to be confused with facts.” The phrase’s abbreviated form, spinach, however, means the same as baloney, malarkey, bull, etc. ish kabibble An old term, its origin unknown, that means I should worry, I couldn’t care less, etc. In the 1940s trumpet player-comedian Merwyn Bogue in Kay Kyser’s band was featured as Ish Kabibble, giving the term wide currency. I should have such luck A common expression probably influenced by Yiddish. I should worry A common term, possibly Yiddish in origin, meaning it’s not my concern, I don’t care. See ISH KABIBBLE. I shuddah stood in bed widda doctor! A classic example of pure early Brooklynese. Rarely, if ever, heard anymore, but there may be a Brooklyn legion of angels flying around mouthing the economical words, which translate roughly as: “I should have stayed in bed this morning and had the doctor make a house call to treat me instead of being here (at work, etc.).” See STOOD; WE WUZ ROBBED! I swear on my mother’s eyes! used today. Italian Geography

An old mob oath still

See quote.

As a reporter, however, he is considered an expert in what is known as Italian Geography . . . Italian Geography is the keeping of huge amounts of information on gangsters: the price they pay for clothes, the restaurants in which they eat, the names of all relatives out to the fifth cousins, their home addresses, and their visible daily movements. (Breslin, The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight, 1969)

Italian ice Used frequently in the New York City area for smooth crushed ices infused with fruit-flavored syrup that are sold by street vendors and in stores. Also called an ice.

Italian pepper In New York City this does not mean a round bell pepper but long (4–6 inches) green or red pepper. It can be sweet or hot. Italian sandwich Very infrequently used for a hero sandwich made with Italian cold cuts and cheese. It Does Not Soil the Breakfast Cloth TIMES.

See

NEW YORK

itch A nickname for any old, run-down movie theater. “In fact, most people in the parish called it The Itch, implying that you could get fleas just by sitting on its hard seats.” (Pete Hamill, Snow in August, 1977) it doesn’t go on all fours Unlike similar Madison Avenue expressions, this saying, meaning “something isn’t quite right,” goes back to the ancient Latin proverb Omnis comparatio claudicat, which literally means “every simile limps,” but which British historian Thomas Babington Macaulay translated as “No simile can go on all fours.” it shouldn’t happen to a dog A common saying lamenting a person’s extremely bad luck. The expression probably derives from or was influenced by Yiddish. it’s how you played the game New York sportswriter Grantland Rice who coined the term the Four Horsemen to describe Notre Dame’s famous backfield in an account of a Notre Dame–Army game (“Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again . . .”) is also responsible for it’s how you played the game. The much loved writer, who died in 1954 at the age of 73, first recorded the expression in a poem he published in one of his “The Sportlight” columns: When the One Great Scorer comes To mark against your name, He writes—not that you won or lost— But how you played the game.

it’s o.k. by me A New York idiom that probably has its roots in Yiddish and means it’s all right with me, I approve.

J jabronie An old term, origin unknown, for a stupid, clumsy or inept person. Also pronounced jiboney.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph! A common exclamation, especially among Irish Catholics. “Dolores’s mother blessed herself. ‘Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, to think that kind of money.’ ” (Jimmy Breslin, Table Money, 1986)

Jack Robinson Contrary to popular belief, the saying as quick as you can say Jack Robinson has no connection with Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson, the first black major league baseball player, although Jackie Robinson was quick enough to beat out many a bunt and to steal many a base. Notable attempts have been made to trace this 18th-century British phrase, all unsuccessful. One popular explanation has the saying’s origin in the habit a certain Jack Robinson had of paying extraordinarily quick visits to his friends, the gentleman leaving even before his name could be announced. But Jack Robinson was probably used in the phrase simply because it is a very common name in England and is easy to pronounce.

jever?

Did you ever. “Jever See anythin’ like that?”

Jewel of Cities

A nickname for New York or Manhattan.

Jewish penicillin A humorous term for homemade chicken soup common almost since the invention of penicillin. Jewish pickles A kosher dill pickle. Also called a Jewish dill and a kosher dill. JFK airport

jalettum A pronunciation heard in New York for did you let him. “Jalettum go to the movies?”

See

KENNEDY.

jih-drool An Italian expression meaning a fool, dope, jerk. “‘So who is this jih-drool, you’re goin’ out on a limb for him?’ ” (Evan Hunter, Criminal Conversation, 1994)

jeet An amazing condensation of did you eat that would make a Reader’s Digest editor proud. “Jeet jet? Les gedda frank.”

Jim-Dandy No particular Jim Dandy seems to be the eponym behind the century-old term Jim-Dandy, which is still heard for someone or something that is especially fine or admirable. The Dictionary of Americanisms traces the term back to January 1887, but not in a sports context. Etymologist Gerald Cohen has cited a published sports usage of it some six months later in a New York Giants game, indicating a possible New York baseball origin.

jeez! A euphemism for Jesus that is frequently used as an interjection by New York speakers, as in “Jeez! I didn’t recognize you.” jerk around To take advantage of, con, lie to, etc. “‘You dumb fucken shit, this ain’t me you’re jerkin around, this is Frankie Palumbo whose money you bet.’” (Evan Hunter, Criminal Conversation, 1994)

jive-ass Mainly a black term, with some white usage, for a lying, false, ignorant person, someone almost totally worthless. “Get out of here, you jive-ass motherfucker!”

Jesus H. Christ! Though it is not noted in the Dictionary of American Regional English, this oath has long been common in the New York City area. 642

juke 643 Joe Echo A feature of New York speech that seems to be fading now but led to the popular designation of Joe Echo 100 years ago. People known as Joe Echoes (or Johnny Echoes, Eddie Echoes, etc.) in late 19th- and early 20th-century New York weren’t so called because they echoed other people’s words. Those bearing this common nickname, usually the offspring of poor, recent immigrants, often echoed themselves in sentences such as I betcha ya cant’t do it, I betcha, or I tell ya it’s mine, I tell ya! John Slang for a prostitute’s client, said to have originated from the habit of 19th-century New York City prostitutes of calling every prospective customer “Johnny.” John F. Kennedy International Airport Johnny on a pony children.

See

enough to put the unsold copies to some use. One cold winter’s night he used a pile of them to start a fire in his room. Joisy

A pronunciation of Jersey, as in “New Joisy.”

Joltin’ Joe A nickname for New York Yankee centerfielder Joe DiMaggio, one of the baseball’s greatest players, who hit safety in 56 consecutive games, a record that still stands. The popular song “Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio” was written in his honor. DiMaggio was also called the Yankee Clipper, both for the way he “clipped” the ball and for his grace as a fielder, moving as effortlessly as a clipper ship, or possibly the popular Yankee Clipper airline of the 1930s, across the field to make even the hard catches seem easy.

KENNEDY.

The name of a game played by older

There are two teams, usually of five or six boys each. The first team is the Pony, the second is Johnny. The Pony team lines up this way: One member stands upright with his back braced against a tree [or wall, etc.]; then the second player bends down, thrusts his head into the first person’s stomach, and grabs him tightly around the waist. The next bends down, placing his head between the legs of player 2 and grabbing him tightly around the thighs. Players 4, 5 and 6 repeat what number 3 did. The whole team then braces. The Johnny team . . . races at them, one at a time, and vaults atop the row of backs as far forward as he can, shouting “Johnny on a pony, one, two, three!” The object is to cave in the backs of the Pony team. If the jumping team can do that, the other must brace themselves again for the onslaught. If they hold and support all the members of the other team, then that team becomes the Pony and the jumpers have to bend over. (Fred Ferretti, The great American Book of Sidewalk Games, 1975)

Johnston Smith Stephen Crane published at his own expense his first novel, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893), borrowing the money from his brother and issuing it under the pseudonym Johnston Smith (the two most frequently listed names in the New York telephone book.) The grim paperbound novel, set in New York neighborhood called Rum Alley, sold just two copies. However, Crane, who shared a small rundown studio apartment with three young artists, was practical

Joosh A pronunciation of Jewish. “She had brought in a dinner from the delicatessen: boiled ham, potato salad, Joosh rye, a six-pack . . . and a gang of coleslaw.” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Money, 1994) juhhirmee A pronunciation of do you hear me. “Juhhirme this noise? So now y’know I godda thousand dollars wortha CD’s, when I go way some people insure clothes, on gana sure my music.” This was heard on the Eighth Avenue subway line. jujubes A favorite candy in New York and elsewhere over the past 100 years, especially as a “movie candy” because there were so many of them, enough to last through the entire show (at one time two pictures, a serial or two, cartoons and a newsreel). The candy has been made by Henry Heide, Inc. since 1869; the company was first located on Hudson Street in Manhattan. Heide also makes the popular Gummie Bears. juice man

A collector for the mob.

juke To stab or kill someone with a knife. “ ‘Even a knife costs money [the policeman said], what d’you think? A person’s gonna throw it away cause he just juked someone with it? Don’t be ridiculous. There’s switchblades cost fifty, a hundred bucks.” (Ed McBain, Romance, 1995)

K keeab

A pronunciation of cab.

many people still occasionally think of it as Idlewild, its original name when it was a small airport bordered by truck farms.

keepers A name dating back to at least the 1940s for a game of marbles in which the marbles won in the game are kept. One plays “for keeps.”

kerchief

keeping up with the Joneses According to his own account, New York cartoonist Arthur “Pop” Momand (1887–1987) lived in a community where many people tried to keep up with the Joneses. Momand and his wife resided in Cedarhurst, New York, one of Long Island’s Five Towns, where the average income is still among America’s highest. Living “far beyond our means in our endeavor to keep up with the well-to-do class,” the Momands were wise enough to quit the scene and move to Manhattan, where they rented a cheap apartment and “Pop” Momand used his Cedarhurst experience to create his once immensely popular Keeping Up with the Joneses comic strip, launched in 1913. Momand first thought of calling the strip “Keeping Up With The Smiths,” but “finally decided on Keeping Up With the Joneses as being more euphonious.” His creation ran in American newspapers for over 28 years and appeared in book, movie and musical-comedy form, giving the expression wide currency that made it a part of everyday language. Apparently not trying to keep up with the Joneses served Momand well, for he lived to be 100. keep your nose out of the gutter that you get drunk.

See

BABUSHKA.

kielbasa A name in New York and other areas for spicy Polish pork sausage; from the Polish name for the sausage. Killer’s Gat Found King Kong

See

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS.

Old slang for any strong drink.

King of Storytellers

See

BAGDAD ON THE HUDSON.

Kings County Kings County, better known as Brooklyn, takes its official name from King Charles II, who was king of England when it was named. See BOROUGH; BRONX; NEW YORK COUNTY; QUEENS COUNTY; RICHMOND. king’s man A mob member so well positioned that he can go directly to the boss without going through intermediaries. kishkas (1) A Yiddish word for the stomach or guts. “He hit him in the kishkas.” (2) A Polish or Jewish sausage.

Don’t drink so much kiss the canvas To be knocked out in a prizefight; by extension, to lose at anything. A phrase probably dating back to the 1920s that is also heard as kiss the resin.

Kennedy This is most common name for John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens bordering Jamaica Bay and the Rockaways. The airport was named for President John F. Kennedy after his assassination in 1963. It is also frequently called JFK, and

klutz Originally a Yiddish term, deriving from the German klotz, “a log or block of wood.” Klutz describes a clumsy, graceless person; a bungler; a fool. A klutz, 644

kvetch 645 however, can be an intelligent person, just someone badly coordinated. The adjective klutzy is also widely heard.

Jewish dietary laws, but by extension in English can mean authentic, trustworthy and legal, among various other shades of meaning. It is often heard in expressions such as “that’s not kosher,” that’s not right or legal.

Knickerbocker Rules Baseball’s first codified rules; adopted by the New York Knickerbockers baseball team in 1845. See FATHER KNICKERBOCKER.

Koster & Bial’s Music Hall STORE.

knockdown Mob talk for a demotion within the ranks, as when a capo is demoted to soldier when he fouls up the mob’s business.

kreplach A type of Jewish dumpling often served in soup. The word derives from the German kreppel meaning roughly the same.

k’nocker A Yiddish expression pronounced with the k a separate sound) meaning a boastful big shot, a showoff. It is said to derive from the German knocker, “someone who cracks a whip.”

kuduh A pronunciation of could have, as in “I kuduh come over.”

know from nothing To know nothing at all about something, or to know nothing about the true nature of something, as in “He’s read all the books on it, but knows from nothing.” Probably Yiddish in origin. kosher In The Joys of Yiddish (1968) Leo Rosten calls kosher “the most resourceful Yiddish word in the English language.” It derives from the Hebrew kasher, “fit, appropriate,” and strictly means fit to eat according to

See

WORLD’S LARGEST

kugel A dish of noodle pudding famous in Jewish cookeries. In German the word strictly means the pan in which the dish is cooked. kvetch Very common as both a noun, for a chronic complainer, someone who complains about the smallest things, and a verb meaning to complain incessantly about such things (“Stop your kvetching, will you?”). From the German quetschen, “to squeeze, pinch.” Pronounced kuh-VETCH.

L Latino A man born in Latin America or of Latin American descent. Latina is the feminine form. The terms are an alternative to Hispanic, which applies also to Spaniards and people of Spanish descent and hence acknowledges the Spanish (imperial) presence in Latin America.

ladderide Let it ride. “A warning not to pursue the matter further,” a pronunciation recorded in the Federal Writers’ Project Almanac for New Yorkers, 1938. Ladies’ Mile A. T. Stewart’s Cast-Iron Palace, built in 1862, was the first store encountered when walking north along Ladies’ Mile. At the top of this stretch of lower Broadway and Sixth Avenue between Ninth and Twenty-third Streets was Stern Brothers. Many early department stores, such as R. H. Macy’s, Lord and Taylor and B. Altman, lined the elegant, cobblestoned streets of this shopping district, which played host daily to exquisitely clad ladies in flowing gowns and feathered bonnets who alighted from their horse-drawn carriages and floated toward the grand emporiums. Women promenaded in their best here up until the end of the century, when the shopping district began to move uptown, but many of the old buildings that housed the stores remain. The women who strolled there may have inspired the phrase window-shopping.

latke In Jewish cookery a pancake, usually one made of grated potatoes. Ultimately from the Russian word meaning about the same. launder

See

BLACK MONEY.

lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred of men with guns A favorite saying of Don Corleone in Mario Puzo’s The Godfather (1969). laydown Sally Someone who doesn’t fight back, who will take any kind of abuse lying down. “He’s a real laydown Sally.”

Lafayette An old New York name for Leiostomus xanthurus, often called the spot elsewhere. The pretty little fish was named after the French marquis de Lafayette, who aided the American cause during the Revolution. La Guardia Airport

See

lay on the romance under GLADDA.

To romance someone. See quote

l’chayim A well-known toast, the Hebrew meaning “to life.” Also spelled le-hayyim.

LITTLE FLOWER.

lease lamb A name, among confidence men and police, for a victim or dupe of a confidence game. Mark and patsy are also used.

Least. “At lease, that’s what I think.”

leather A wallet. “. . . it seems that somewhere on this ride the sailor loses his leather containing a month’s salary . . .” (Runyon, “The Brakeman’s Daughter,” 1931) See also HART ISLAND.

large (1) Money, big money. “‘. . . money buys the dream . . . And the bigger the dream, the more of the large you’ll need.’” (Pete Hamill, Flesh and Blood, 1977) (2) A thousand dollars. “It cost me two large to get rid of him.”

leave Often used in place of let, as in “Leave me alone.” 646

Little Church Around the Corner 647 leave flat To desert a friend or friends to go off with someone else or to do something better; often used among kids since the 1930s. “ ‘We didn’t leave you flat, Michael,’ Jimmy said.” (Pete Hamill, Snow in August, 1977) Leaves of Grass Walt Whitman self-published the first edition of his famous book of poems in 1855, setting it in type himself on the printing press of Andrew and James Rome in Brooklyn. The book contained 12 poems on 95 pages, about 1,000 books printed. Whitman also wrote glowing reviews of the poems that he placed anonymously in several periodicals. Other famous books self-published in New York include Washington Irving’s History of New York (1809) by “Diedrich Knickerbocker,” and Stephen Crane’s first novel Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893). left tit The heart; courage. “ ‘And he taps his heart, you know. He says it depends if you got the heart. The desire. The left tit . . .’ ” (Pete Hamill, Blood and Money, 1977) lemmeawf Heard in the New York vicinity for let me off. “I asked the bus driver to lemmeawf at the next stop.” lemon man An old synonym for a pool shark, especially among confidence men. The origin of the term is unclear.

life (1) The life is a term for mob life in the mafia. (2) The life of prostitution. life is just one damned thing after another A phrase said to have been invented by New York Sun reporter Frank Ward O’Malley, who is also said to have coined the word brunch. See MOON HOAX. like Frequently used excessively, as in “Like, it came in a box, like.” like Grand Central Station Very crowded, packed, hectic. In use since the early 1900s, the phrase refers to New York’s Grand Central Terminal, where trains arrive and depart for many destinations, and the busy Grand Central subway stop in the terminal. like in Macy’s window A synonym for the ultimate in public exposure: “We’ll be like in Macy’s window.” Traditional window displays date back to the early 1880s when the use of plate glass on a wide scale made display windows a standard feature of department stores. Macy’s display windows in New York were long the most prominent among them, especially those in their flagship store on Thirty-fourth Street, “The World’s Largest Store” with over 2.2 million square feet of floor space. In fact, Macy’s old Fourteenth Street store in Manhattan was famous for its Christmas displays as far back as the mid-1800s, featuring a collection of toys revolving on a belt. See also DOES MACY’S TELL GIMBELS?

Leo the Lip A nickname for Leo Durocher in the late 1940s when he managed the Brooklyn Dodgers. One time he threatened Brooklyn’s arch rivals, the New York Giants, with the “cherce” Brooklynese: “It’s gonna be Poil Hahbuh fuh de Gints.” See also NICE GUYS FINISH LAST; PRACTICALLY PEERLESS LEADER.

likewise Shorthand for “I feel the same way,” etc. “ ‘Please to meet you,’ the Plumber said. ‘Likewise,’ said the driver.” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Honor, 1982)

let’s slip out of these clothes and into a dry martini A by-now proverbial quip by New York author and wit Robert Benchley. Benchley was known to drink; in fact, he was known to drink more and to be able to hold more than anyone in his circle. “What do you drink so much for?” F. Scott Fitzgerald, of all people, once lectured him. “Don’t you know alcohol is slow poison?” “So who’s in a hurry?” Benchley replied. See MEN SELDOM MAKE PASSES / AT GIRLS WHO WEAR GLASSES.

the li-on is busy Stuart Berg Flexner tells us in Listening to America that this immortal intonation was first used at the Metropolitan Telephone and Telegraph Co.’s old Nassau exchange in New York City, by a Brooklynborn operator around 1882. Dialing, Touch-Tone phones and the decline and fall of Brooklynese have made the words rare, possibly obsolete.

Lex A verbal shortcut for Lexington Avenue in Manhattan. “Where’s his store?” “It’s over on Lex.”

Literary Walk A section of a Central Park near Sixtyseventh Street where there are statues of prominent writers such as William Shakespeare and Robert Burns.

lezgehgohen

line The line refers to the odds bookmakers give all the games played on a certain day.

lissina Listen to. “‘Eddie, lissina me,’ she said.” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Money, 1994)

A pronunciation of let’s get going. Little Church Around the Corner

Liberty Enlightening the World

See

STATUE OF LIBERTY.

HUDSON.

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BAGDAD ON THE

648 New Yawk Tawk Little Christmas Some sources list Little Christmas, another term for Epiphany, January 6, as a New England expression, but it has long been used in the New York City area as well. Little Flower A nickname for Fiorello La Guardia (1882–1947), who served as mayor of New York City from 1933 to 1945. Later, after La Guardia headed the American war relief administration in Korea, many Koreans named their newborns Lee Mi Wah, a literal translation of “Little Flower,” in his honor. New York’s La Guardia Airport is also named after the colorful mayor, who regularly read the Sunday comic strips, or “funnies,” to New York kids on the city radio station. little girls’ (boys’) room The bathroom. “‘I gotta go to the little girl’s room.’” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Money, 1994) Little Odessa Nickname of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, where a large number of Russian immigrants live. lobster roll In Maine, a lobster roll is a sandwich made with lobster meat, but in New York City Chinese restaurants, it is essentially an egg roll filled with lobster meat, or at least some lobster meat. It is not as common as it was 40 years ago, if it can be found at all. lockers Locker room, for a changing room containing lockers in which to store one’s clothes (not to get undressed in), is recorded as far back as 1890, but no dictionary of any kind, so far as I can determine, records the word lockers for “bathhouse.” The lockers has meant bathhouse in the New York City area, especially in resort areas like Coney Island and the Rockaways, since at least the 1930s and probably before this. Someone might ask, for example, “Are you going to the lockers this year?” or “Are you taking a locker?” No one says, “Are you taking a bathhouse?” A locker here is a

narrow wooden structure about 7–8 feet high attached to others identical to it in rows that are called aisles. There is barely enough room to change in a locker, although there are larger family lockers. Lockers are rented by the season or by the day. Keys are provided, but in case you don’t have one available a lockerboy will open your locker with a pass key. loin A New York pronunciation of learn. “Will you please loin to speak correctly like me.” Looooo . . . It sounded like a boo, but it wasn’t. This was the famous cheer New York Yankee fans used in recent memory to greet their great favorite Lou Piniella when he became to bat. Lou Gehrig’s disease A fatal paralytic disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis has been called Lou Gehrig’s disease since the Yankee first baseman died of it in 1941. Known as the Iron Man, the Iron Horse and the Crown Prince (to Babe Ruth) of Swat, Gehrig played in 2,130 consecutive games for the Yankees before the disease took its toll. lox Although bagels and lox are a staple of the Jewish cuisine, the dish is not a staple of long standing. Jews were generally introduced to lox in late 19th-century New York, and even today lox is not commonly to be found in Europe or Israel. Lox is so valued in New York that there have been cases of counterfeit lox made from other fish (notably saithe from Germany) treated with chemicals and food dyes and sold as the real thing. Real lox is a highly salted smoked salmon. Lunk Guylin; Lung Guylin Pronunciations of Long Island, the island to the east of Manhattan that comprises the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, as well as the separate political (suburban) entities of Nassau County and Suffolk County. Long Island is about 120 miles long and 23 miles wide.

M machine politics Volunteer firemen in the early 19th century learned to work smoothly as a team on the levers of water-pumping machines, and perhaps, as one investigator suggests, their teamwork and wellorganized political associations suggested the term machine politics for this reason. Aaron Burr, who converted New York’s patriotic Tammany Society into the politically powerful Tammany Hall, is often credited with inventing the phrase, but then so are Nathaniel Hawthorne and even the Duke of Wellington. The use of machine in a political sense, however, doesn’t seem to have been recorded until 1865. See TAMMANY; TWEED RING.

’Tis vain for present fame to wish. Our persons first must be forgotten; For poets are like stinking fish, They never shine until they’re rotten.

maff A pronunciation of math heard mainly among Afro-Americans. “‘I don’t want to miss no more of maff class,’ I tell that stupid ass Mrs. Lichenstein.” (Sapphire, Push, 1996) Mafia See quote. “. . . the word Mafia had originally meant place of refuge. Then it became the name of the secret organization that sprang up to fight against the rulers that had crushed the country [Sicily] and its people for centuries.” (Mario Puzo, The Godfather, 1969) See BROTHERHOOD; COSA NOSTRA; OUTFIT.

made Often takes the place of a more specific verb, as in “She made like a dog,” instead of “She barked like a dog.” made man

See

FRIENDS OF OURS.

mahosker Pay, money, paychecks. “ ‘I mean the mahosker isn’t here.’ ‘The what?’ ‘The checks. The company don’t bring them here until after two.’ ” (Breslin, Table Money, 1986)

Madonna! A common exclamation. “‘He says to me that his wife has him eat macaroni with American cheese on it out of a can. I says to him—Madonna!—you ought to put your wife’s head in the oven.’ ” (Jimmy Breslin, Forsaking All Others, 1982)

Maiden Lane According to Albert Ulmann, who wrote Maiden Lane, The Story of a Single Street (1931):

Mad Poet of Broadway As evidenced by his book of verse, Elixir of Moonshine by the Mad Poet (1822), MacDonald Clarke (1798–1842) was known as “the Mad Poet of Broadway.” The New York poet, among the first of American bohemians, drowned in the East River, possibly a suicide. Author of “The Rum Hole” (1835), in which a groghouse is “the horrible LightHouse of Hell . . . built on a ledge of human bones, whose cement is of human blood.” Clarke was eulogized by Walt Whitman, among others. The Mad Poet of Broadway had no illusions about achieving fame while he lived, as this epigram of his shows.

There existed in the old days a rippling little stream that pursued its merry course along the curving path that has ever since marked the line of [Maiden Lane] . . . Directly or indirectly it was this very stream that led the old Dutch settlers . . . to bestow on the locality . . . the name of I Maagde Paatje, the Maiden’s Path. According to one tradition, the housewives and their daughters congregated along the banks of the flowing water to wash the family linen . . . Another and more romantic tale pictured the grassy slope with its murmuring rivulet as a favorite retreat for lovesick maidens and their favorite swains; hence, the popular designation.

649

650 New Yawk Tawk main man A term for one’s favorite friend. “He’s my main man.” make a bulba To make an error or a gaffe. Bulba is polish for “potato,” but the expression is Yiddish. “Boy, did he make a bulba!” make book on it To count on, let on. “He’ll be there— I’d make book on it.” make like To imitate. “Gimme a bat and I’ll make like Micky Mantle.” make nice (1) To be friendly or show affection. (2) To be accommodating, curry favor. make one’s bones To kill one’s first victim, become a qualified man in the Mafia. “He had started making his bones’ at the age of seventeen, and what had made the deed even more impressive was he had done so with the garrote.” (Mario Puzo, The Last Don, 1996) See also QUALIFIED MAN. make out An old term meaning to make love, usually in the sense of kissing and petting, lovemaking short of actual intercourse. make whoopee Whoopee! has been a New Yorkism used to express of joy or approval since about 1860. However, it was apparently newspaper columnist Walter Winchell who coined the expression making whoopee, for “wild merrymaking”; the expression was then made very familiar by the popular song “Making Whoopee” (1930). make with To use or exercise, as in “He’s making with the voice again, but he can’t sing a note.” Possibly from the Yiddish expression machen mit, “swing something about.” Man

See

MR. CHARLIE.

man-hands Used to describe a beautiful woman whose brutish, overly masculine hands are her only flaw. “She’s gorgeous, except for those man-hands of hers.” Coined on the New York-inspired television comedy Seinfeld. Manhattan The Algonquian Manhattan Indians who sold Manhattan Island to the Dutch for $24 in trinkets may have gotten the best of the deal. In the 1930s one statistician figured that if the Indians had invested their $24 at the prevailing interest rates, they would have had some $13 billion—$4 billion more than all the real estate in Manhattan was worth at the time. Of course Manhattan real estate is worth many times the $9 billion

the statistician estimated in the ’30s. The World Trade Center alone is worth about $1 billion. Manhattan, since 1898, has been the name of New York’s central borough and has always been a synonym for the real, though cosmopolitan, New York City itself. A Manhattanite is a resident of the borough of Manhattan. Manhattan clam chowder A clam chowder made with tomatoes, not the milk base used in the traditional New England clam chowder. The term’s origin is much disputed, some saying the dish is named Manhattan clam chowder because it was invented by one or another New Yorker in Manhattan, and others claiming it is so named because only New Yorkers would be crazy enough to use tomatoes in the soup instead of cream or milk. Doing so, incidentally, remains a heresy to some New Englanders. Some years ago one Maine state legislator introduced a bill making it illegal to add tomatoes to chowder within the state of Maine, the penalty being that the offender dig a barrel of clams at high tide. Manhattan cocktail A mixture of bourbon or blended whiskey, sweet vermouth and bitters that was invented by a bartender at the Manhattan Club to celebrate the election of Governor Samuel Tilden in 1874. There is also a Bronx cocktail, but no Brooklyn, Queens or Staten Island cocktail. See also ALEXANDER; BRONX COCKTAIL. Manhattan eel A Manhattan eel is a condom, because so many float in the waters surrounding Manhattan. For the same reason, a condom can be called a Coney Island whitefish, which in typical New York humor says much about the dirty waters off the famous resort in Brooklyn. Coney Island whitefish is recorded in few slang dictionaries, but I have heard the expression several times. Both terms probably date back to the 1930s. Manhattanization A relatively new word that seems to have originated in California of all places. In the 1971 fall election, San Francisco residents were urged to vote for an amendment halting the construction of tall buildings to avoid the Manhattanization of the West Coast City. The amendment lost, but brings an interesting story to mind that really has no moral to it at all. About 172 years ago there was actually an attempt made to saw Manhattan Island in two because too many tall and heavy buildings were being built near the Battery. To “prevent the tip from breaking off and sinking into the bay,” it was proposed that the Island be sawed off near its northern end, rowed into the bay, turned around and attached to firmer ground uptown. Over the two-month period that the project was the talk of the town, hundreds volunteered, huge oars and oarlocks were built,

menorah 651 “long-winded” men were recruited to do the underwater sawing, and supplies were finally provided for the workers. But on the appointed day the project’s architects, two hoaxers named Lozier and “Uncle John” de Voe, never showed up. They had played history’s zaniest pranks on the most cosmopolitan of Americans, though they had to wear disguises for a long time after they came out of hiding. Manhattan Project The name used for the program for the development of the atomic bomb during World War II. Manhattan schist The thick, tough bed of rock that makes it possible to build the skyscrapers of Manhattan. Exposures of it can be seen in Central Park. man of respect See quote. “Vito Corleone was now a ‘man of respect’ in the [Italian-American] neighborhood. He was reputed to be a member of the Mafia of Sicily.” (Mario Puzo, The Godfather, 1969) Man Who Came to Dinner, The Moss Hart got the idea for The Man Who Came to Dinner (1939) after author Alexander Woollcott spent a weekend at his house. After Woollcott left, Hart remarked to George S. Kaufman,”Can you imagine what would have happened if the old monster had fractured his hip and had to stay?” When Woollcott learned of his subsequent caricature as Sheridan Whiteside in the Kaufman-Hart play, he quipped, knowing a good thing when he had one, “The thing’s a terrible insult and I’ve decided to swallow it.” Later he toured in the part. See also EVERYTHING WORTHWHILE DOING IS EITHER IMMORAL, ILLEGAL OR FATTENING; MEN SELDOM MAKE PASSES/AT GIRLS WHO WEAR GLASSES. man with a belly

A very important, powerful person.

For one thing, the five New York Dons were in the old Sicilian tradition, they were “men with a belly” meaning, figuratively, power and courage; and literally, physical flesh, as if the two went together, as indeed they seemed to have done in Sicily. The five New York Dons were stout, corpulent men with massive leonine heads, features on a large scale, fleshy imperial noses, thick mouths, heavy folded chests. (Mario Puzo, The Godfather, 1969)

Mardi Gras Unlike the New Orleans Mardi Gras festival, held on the last days preceding Lent, New York’s Mardi Gras has traditionally been held on Labor Day weekend. Until about 30 years ago, it was held at Coney Island and Rockaway Playland, complete with parades, floats and other features of the New Orleans prototype. maricón A contemptuous Spanish word for a male homosexual; sometimes used by Puerto Ricans but has little general use.

matzo Unleavened bread that is thin and corrugated and shaped like large square crackers. Enjoyed year round but traditionally eaten by Jews on Passover. From the Hebrew word for the same. matzo ball A dumpling served in matzo ball soup that is made of matzo meal. See MATZO. matzo brei Small matzo pieces mixed with water and beaten eggs and fried. See MATZO. maven A Yiddish term, pronounced MAY-vin, for an expert on something; for the Hebrew for “understanding.” One can be everything from a pickle maven to a Beethoven maven. Also spelled mavin. mazel A very common expression for good luck; from the Hebrew for luck. mazel tov Although the literal meaning of the Hebrew words is “good luck,” the widely known Yiddish expression mazel tov means “congratulations” or “best wishes” on one’s success or good fortune; it is not said to a person when wishing him luck. mazuma Widely known slang for money or cash; from the Hebrew mezuman, “set, prepared, fixed.” Often used in a joking sense. McGurk’s Suicide Hall A Bowery Saloon of the 1890s. So named because so many people committed suicide in it: six in 1899 alone. Other colorfully named dives of the so-called genteel Gay Nineties included the Rat Pit, the Hell Hole, the Inferno, the Dump, and the Flea Bag. All were staffed with fearsome bouncers like Eat-’Em-Up Jack McManus of McGurk’s. mechanic

See

medium lane

DIP.

See

SPEED LANE.

meennuh A pronunciation of mean to, as in “didn’t meennuh do it.” meet me between the lions A favorite meeting place for New Yorkers, the lion statues in front of the New York Public Library, one on each side of the library steps, have become immortalized in the phrase “Meet me between the lions.” melanzana “Eggplant” in Italian, this word is pejorative slang for a black person, in reference to the eggplant’s black skin. menorah (1) A nine-branched candelabrum lit on Hanukkah, the Feast of Lights. (2) A candelabrum with

652 New Yawk Tawk seven branches used in the biblical tabernacle. (3) A candelabrum with any number of branches used in modern synagogues. men seldom make passes / at girls who wear glasses Author Dorothy Parker’s celebrated couplet, proverbial by now, was originally published in her friend Franklin Pierce Adam’s “The Conning Tower” column under the title “News Item.” One of the great wits of all time, Parker had the sharpest tongue of anyone at New York’s celebrated Algonquin Round Table, a luncheon group that met at the Algonquin Hotel in the 1920s and included Adams, Robert Benchley, Heywood Broun, George S. Kaufman, Alexander Woollcott and many others from time to time. meshuga Crazy, insane; from the Hebrew for the same. Only in New York could you hear, as I did, “He’s not a good example of mens sana in corpore sano; he’s meshuga.” meshugana A crazy person, as in “Get that meshugana out of here!” See MESHUGA. Met The common abbreviated name for the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City; it opened in 1883. It is also used to refer to the world-famous Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mets theory A stock market theory holding that the market falls when the New York Mets lose a game and goes up when they win. It wasn’t meant seriously and shouldn’t be taken seriously. mezuzah A small scroll, inscribed on one side with biblical passages (Deut. 6:4–9 and Deut. 11:13–21) and on the other with the word Shaddoi, a name for God, that is inserted in a small tube and attached by some Jews to the doorjamb of the home. An Orthodox Jew touches his lips and then the mezuzah on leaving or entering the house or apartment. From the Hebrew for “doorpost.” Mick Slang for an Irishman since the mid-19th century in New York City, as it has been elsewhere. mickey A white potato roasted until done in an open fire, often in a vacant lot, skin burned to perfection. This staple of childhood cuisine is also called a roast mickey. It is properly eaten charcoal and all. million-footed Manhattan A phrase used by Walt Whitman in his poem “A Broadway Pageant” (1883). In it he also called the borough “Superb-faced Manhattan.” It might more accurately be called twenty-million footed Manhattan today, counting visitors.

minyan The number of Jews needed by Jewish law to conduct a communal religious service, traditionally 10 Jewish males over 13 years of age. Minyan is also used in slang to mean any quorum. Miracle of Coogan’s Bluff WORLD.

See SHOT HEARD ROUND THE

mish-mosh Of this word, Groucho Marx wrote to a presidential candidate: “You’ll never get votes in the Bronx if you go on saying mish-mash instead of mishmosh.” The word means a mixup or a mess and is of uncertain origin. Miss Astor A pretentious woman, especially one who overdresses. After the Astor family of New York society. See MRS. ASTOR’S PET HORSE (PONY, COW). Miss Lizzie Tish A usually sarcastic term for a girl or woman who acts and dresses as if she were superior to everyone else. “She thinks she’s Miss Lizzie Tish with her nose up in the air.” No one seems to know the origin of “Lizzie Tish,” but the term was common in the 1930s and 1940s and is still occasionally heard in New York today. Mr. Charlie First recorded in 1923, this is a contemptuous black term for white men in general and especially those whites regarded as oppressors. Also Boss Charlie, Charlie, Mr. Chuck, Captain Boss, The Man. See GOLDBERG. Mrs. Astor’s pet horse (pony, cow) An old expression, not much heard anymore for a woman who behaves or dresses ostentatiously. “She thinks she’s Mrs. Astor’s pet horse.” The Astors are, of course, one of New York City’s oldest rich families. Also Mrs. Astor’s plush horse. See MISS ASTOR. moider A pronunciation of murder, as in “Moider Incorporated.” moll buzzer Not a purse snatcher but a skilled pickpocket who specializes in opening women’s handbags and removing their wallets etc. See FINGER. mom-and-pop store Mom-and-pop stores are an old American institution; there were, for example, thousands of candy stores run by husband-and-wife teams in New York City from the 1920s through the 1950s. But the term mom-and-pop store is first recorded in 1951. It is occasionally used today to describe any small business with a few employees. momzer Frequently heard slang for a bastard, rascal, detestable person; but sometimes used affectionately to

Murder, Inc. 653 describe a bright child. A Yiddish expression from the Hebrew for “bastard.” See MUMSER. money talks Now a folk saying rather than slang, money talks means that wealth is power or money buys anything. Though it is probably older, no one has been able to trace the phrase back before 1910. J. D. Salinger used it in The Catcher in the Rye (1950): “In New York, boy, money really talks—I’m not kidding.” monkey-in-the-middle A children’s ball game in which two players try to prevent a third standing between them from intercepting a ball or other object thrown to each other. If the “monkey” intercepts the object, the thrower becomes the monkey. moom pickcha Moving picture, movie. “‘How was the movie?” Bella asked. ‘A fine moom pickcha we seen,’ replied Mrs. Gross. ‘Such moom pickchas my worst enemy should oney see.’ ” (Arthur Kober, “You Mean Common,” 1940) moon hoax Quite a few Americans have walked on the moon by now, and none has seen evidence of life there; but in 1835, according to New York Sun reporter Richard Adams Locke, the eminent British astronomer Sir John Herschel trained a new, powerful telescope on the moon and observed some 15 species of animals, including what seemed to be a race of winged men. Locke’s article, supposedly reprinted from the actually defunct Edinburgh Journal of Science, raised circulation of his newspaper from 2,500 to 20,000 and inspired one ladies’ club to raise money to send missionaries to the moon. The book that the Sun reporter wrote based on the article sold over 60,000 copies and was studied assiduously by a scientific delegation from Yale. Locke finally admitted his hoax the following year, calling it a satire on absurd scientific speculations that had gotten out of hand. His friend Edgar Allan Poe, who never believed a word of the story, nevertheless admitted that it had anticipated most of his own “Hans Pfall,” which was the reason he left that story unfinished. more better I have heard the superfluous more better used by a number of younger New Yorkers, as in “Burger King is more better than McDonald’s.” mouse gun

A small gun with little firepower.

mouser An old term for a moustache. “He is a little guy . . . with a bald head and a small mouser on his upper lip.” (Damon Runyon, “Breach of Promise,” 1931) mout’ A pronunciation of mouth. “Keep your mout’ shut, you unnerstan’?” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Money, 1994)

movies

See

PICTURE SHOW.

muddah Mother, as in the song, “Hello, Muddah, Hello, Faddah!” See FADDAH. muffin Muffin is an affectionate term for a woman or a man that is not so commonly heard as it was 40 years ago. Cupcake was also commonly used in this way, but today it often describes a man who is “soft” and not difficult to deal with. “You won’t find many cupcakes pitching in the majors.” mug; mugging; mugger Mugging seems first to have been New York City slang for what was called yoking in other parts of the country, that is, robbery committed by two holdup men, one clasping the victim around the neck from behind while the other ransacks his pockets. The term either derives from the mugs who commit such crimes or from the expression on the victim’s face— which can appear as if he is mugging, grimacing or making a funny face—as he is brutally yoked. The term is now well known throughout the country. As often as not, the mugger acts alone today, and mugging has become a synonym for holding someone up. The spelling mugg seems to be yielding to mug. The word mug for grimace was introduced to England by the Gypsies and may derive from the Sanskrit word mukka, “face.” Mug was used as slang for face in England as early as 1840. Mug for a heavy cup may come from the Swedish mugg meaning the same. mumser A bastard. A variation on momzer. “Fifteen minutes later, the assistant walked into his superior’s office.’ I cut that mumser from Queens loose.’” (Jimmy Breslin, Table Money, 1986) See MOMZER. Murder, Inc. The enforcement agency of the organized crime syndicate during the 1930s, believed responsible for between 400 and 500 deaths. Murder, Inc. was controlled by top crime bosses such as Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano and Frank Costello, and led by Lord High Executioner Albert Anastasia, a notoriously violent killer. The group provided the mob with a ready pool of paid assassins to be used around the country. Killings were considered strictly business and carried out to protect the interests of the growing syndicate. Members of the group headquartered at Midnight Rose’s, a 24-hour candy store in Brownsville, Brooklyn, where they traded tips on killing techniques and waited for assignments. Most prominent among the assassins was Pittsburgh Phil Strauss, target of 58 murder investigations, but believed responsible for twice that many deaths. In 1940 law enforcement authorities arrested a number of mob members, including Abe Reles, a Murder, Inc. lieutenant. reles, fearing that others would talk to the police before him, turned informer to save himself, providing

654 New Yawk Tawk details on hundreds of murders and sending many of his colleagues to the electric chair. Before completing his testimony against the highest-ranking mob bosses, Reles fell to his death from the window of a Coney Island hotel where he was under police protection. See CANARY THAT COULDN’T FLY.

Mustache Pete A derisive term describing the old-fashioned leaders of the Mafia in America, who often wore mustaches, were out of touch with the times and were out of power by the 1940s. “‘The Don was an old ‘Moustache Pete,’ his day was over but he didn’t know it.’” (Mario Puzo, The Godfather, 1969)

muscle Power, physical or financial; influence. “The Prizzis had the political muscle in the country on every level . . .” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Honor, 1982)

muver A pronunciation of mother among some blacks and whites. “One thing I got is clothes, thanks to my muver’s charge at Lane Bryant. . . .” (Sapphire, Push, 1996)

N nathin’

See

BONAC.

nebbish Yiddish for a loser; a sorrowfully ineffectual, timid, unlucky person. Probably from the Czech nebohy, “poor.” “He’s such a nebbish.” Also nebech. Negro plot A so-called plot of 1741 in which blacks where accused of setting several fires in New York City, a charge never proved. As a result of the accusations 29 blacks were burned at the stake and 100 were transported out of the city. Nelly Bly New York journalist Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman adopted the pen name Nelly Bly from a song by Stephen Foster. She is said to have taken it when one of her editors insisted that she as a woman use a pseudonym and an office boy happened to walk by whistling the tune. One of the first female reporters, Nelly Bly began her career when only 18. Her forte became exposés, such as her account in Ten Days in a Madhouse (1887) of the horrible conditions on New York’s Blackwell’s Island, where she was an inmate for 10 days after feigning insanity. In 1889 the New York World sponsored her famous trip around the globe, which she completed in the record time of 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes, bringing her international fame far exceeding that of any other woman of her day. Flowers, trains and racehorses were named for Nelly Bly, and songs were written in her honor. nervous pudding

See

BURN ONE WITH A FEATHER.

nerz A pronunciation of noise. “The nerz from JFK is terrible.” neveh

A pronunciation of never.

New Amsterdam The Dutch name for what is now New York City. New Amsterdam, named after the city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands in about 1626, was originally one of the Dutch trading posts in New Netherland. Among other firsts during the New Amsterdam period of the city: the first murder occurred in 1638, the first lottery was held in 1665 and the first “welfare” assistance was given in 1661. New Jessey A mostly Puerto Rican pronunciation of New Jersey. See quote under THAS. new potatoes Small red-skinned potatoes that are the first of the year are called new potatoes in New York City. Travel less than 100 miles east to Long Island’s North Fork, and their name becomes salad potatoes, probably because they are used in making potato salad. news In times past the word news was treated as a plural, Queen Victoria once writing to the king of Beligium: “The news from Austria are very sad and make me very anxious.” Horace Greeley demanded, legend says, that his reporters on the New York Tribune always treat news as a plural noun. “Are there any news?” he cabled a reporter one time. “Not a new,” the reporter wired back. Incidentally, Greeley’s handwriting was the despair of printers in a typewriter-less world. The New York Tribune editor wrote so illegibly that an employee he fired used his letter of discharge as a recommendation letter for another job. Another time Greeley gave written instructions for a sign painter to letter ENTRANCE ON SPRUCE STREET over a door. This the sign painter interpreted as EDITOR ON A SPREE. New School for Social Research Usually called the New School, this institution was founded in 1919 to 655

656 New Yawk Tawk provide adult education in the social services and other fields. Its graduate faculty of political social science acquired the nickname University in Exile because so many of its members were refugees from totalitarian countries.

cheer the runners on that first rainy October day than they do now.

New York New York is named for James, duke of York and Albany, who in 1664 was granted the patent to all lands between the Delaware River and Connecticut by his older brother, King Charles II. The duke gave away the Jersey portion but held on to what was then the Dutch colony of New Netherland. York had become the patron of Col. Richard Nicholls, who earlier that same year had set sail for the New World, captured New Amsterdam from the Dutch, and named both the city of New Amsterdam (New York City) and the colony of New Netherland (New York State) after the duke. New York State’s capital, Albany, is also named for the duke of York and Albany.

New York County The official name for Manhattan, one of New York City’s five boroughs. It is named for James, duke of York, brother of England’s Charles II. See BOROUGH; BRONX; KINGS COUNTY; QUEENS COUNTY; RICHMOND COUNTY.

New York alligators There are many stories about New Yorkers flushing baby pet alligators down the toilet and the alligators growing to full size in the sewer pipes beneath the city streets. There were, in fact, several stories about New York alligator sightings in the local papers during the 1930s, and Smelly Kelly, a noted city worker who sniffed out gas leaks in the underground tunnels, claimed he had encountered one. True or not, the tales are part of New York City folklore. So are New York “rats as big as cats” in the subway tunnels, but these could simply be raccoons, hundreds of which commute on foot in the tunnels every day along with the 31/2 million people who prefer to use the trains. New York blister Everything has a name, if you dig deep enough. Even the swollen, slightly blackened bubbles on the top of pizza pies. They are called—in the trade, anyway—New York blisters. These New York blisters are said to be impossible to make perfectly without traditional Italian coal ovens. New York City buffalo hunt Fox hunting and horseracing were fairly common in old New York, but the most unusual “sport” held in the city was buffalo hunting. In late 1874 buffalo hunts with hounds were held, the buffalo imported from Kentucky. New York City Marathon Though it was held in Central Park several years before, the first real New York City Marathon, a 26.2 mile race that winds through all five boroughs, was held in 1976. There were about 3,000 runners, compared with about 30,000 each year presently, and they ran essentially the same course that runners do today, from Fort Wadsworth, Staten Island, to Central Park. Far fewer people crowded the streets to

New York City’s Finest A name for New York City’s policemen since the 1890s.

New York Daily News The tabloid newspaper was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Paterson, whose motto was “Tell it to Sweeney [the common man]—the Stuyvesants [the rich] will take care of it themselves.” The paper became increasingly conservative over the years, after breaking with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt over foreign policy in 1940. Notable News headlines include KILLER’S CAT FOUND; FORD TO CITY—DROP DEAD! and, after actress Gina Lollobrigida was criticized by an Italian prosecutor, CHARGES GINA / WAS OBSCENA / ON LA SCREENA. Among “New York’s Picture Newspaper’s” most famous photographs is a front-page shot of murderer Ruth Snyder executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing prison on January 22, 1928. The News photographer, Thomas Howard, sitting in the front row, crossed his knee and took the photograph with a camera strapped to his ankle just after the switch was pulled. New Yorker A name used in other places, but not in New York, for a hair cut with a brush cut on top and long on the sides. New York Evening Post The original name of today’s New York Post, founded in 1801 as a conservative Federalist paper. Its most famous editor was poet William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878), who edited the paper for nearly 70 years, until the year of his death. (Bryant wrote lovingly, with his usual nobility and dignity, of the month of June in his poem of the same name. In the poem he concluded that he wanted to die in June, and he did, 10 years later.) New York game A version of baseball popular in New York in the 1840s. Similar to present-day baseball, it led to the modern game when codified in the Knickerbocker Rules. See KNICKERBOCKER RULES. New York Gazette New York City’s first newspaper, first published on November 8, 1725. This semiofficial chronicle of current events was edited by its publisher William Bradford, who was the official royal printer at

nine 657 New York and also the first to print an American play. The paper ceased publication in 1744. New York Giants A New York National League baseball team from 1883 (when they were known as the New York Metropolitans) until they were moved to San Francisco in 1958. Their name was coined by New York sportswriters when their manager, Jim Mutrie, called them “My big fellows! My giants!” in 1885. Fans often called them the Jints in true New Yorkese. See also COOGAN’S BLUFF. New Yorkitis A disease that some outlanders think people with a New York accent suffer from. New York kiss-off A term for a very rude dismissal, a brush-off. “She gave him the New York kiss-off.” Kissoff can also mean to die, deriving in this sense from black slang. Often called a California kiss-off as well. New York Knicks New York Mets

See See

FATHER KNICKERBOCKER.

AMAZIN’ METS.

New York minute A very quick minute, a very short time. “He had it done in a New York minute.” New York Shitty A contemptuous derogatory term for New York City. Its origin is unknown but was probably coined by an outlander. New York steak Everybody disagrees about just what cut of meat a New York steak is. Some opt for a shell steak, others say a porterhouse, still others a sirloin; it also depends on what kind of steak is served at the restaurant. Actually, the name is used more by out-oftowners than by New Yorkers. New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was first named the New York Stock and Exchange Board (1817), taking its present name in 1863. The American Stock Exchange (AMEX), which took its present name in 1953, was formed as the New York Curb Exchange in 1842, because it was composed of curbstone brokers who were not members of any exchange and conducted business outside on the curb. New York system A Rhode Island term for a frankfurther with everything on it. New York Times The eminent daily newspaper was founded in 1851 by conservative Henry J. Raymond, whose goal was to oppose the distorted news reporting of the day. In the 1890s it went through a period of decline and then was bought by Adolph Ochs who

brought it back to prominence under the slogan “All the News That’s Fit to Print” and whose family has maintained the paper’s reputation since. The slogan remains on the paper’s masthead, unlike another slogan Ochs adopted: “It Does Not Soil the Breakfast Cloth.” See also YELLOW JOURNALISM. New York University Best known as NYU. A private, nonsectarian university chartered in 1831. Its Hall of Fame, on its former uptown University Heights campus, was established in 1900 to honor 50 Americans with memorial busts and tablets, these including Emerson, Hawthorne, Poe and Whitman. Since then additional persons have been so honored every five years. nice guys finish last This cynical proverb has been attributed by Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms to former Brooklyn Dodger manager Leo Durocher, who wrote a book using it as the title. Back in the 1940s Durocher was sitting on the bench before a game with the New York Giants and saw opposing manager Mel Ott across the field. “Look at Ott,” he said to a group of sportswriters. “He’s such a nice guy and they’ll finish last for him.” One of the writers probably coined the phrase nice guys finish last from this remark, but the credit for it still goes to Leo the Lip. It is one of several baseball expressions that have become proverbial outside the sport. nickel a shtickl See quote. “Atop the meat case [in the deli] stood a teaser, an open display of small knobs of a thickly sliced knublvoorst—garlic wurst—ornamented by a hand-lettered sign, A NICKEL A SHTICKL, or a nickel apiece.” (Elliot Willensky, When Brooklyn Was the World, 1994) nickel curve In baseball a nickel curve is a curve that doesn’t break much. The term has been traced to William Arthur “Candy” Cummings (1848–1924), a Hall of Famer who is credited with inventing the curveball over 120 years ago. Cummings’s curve was inspired by the half clam shells that he skimmed across a Brooklyn beach as a youngster, but he perfected it by experimenting with a baseball that cost a nickel. Nickel Series An old synonym for a subway baseball World Series, when the subway cost a nickel a ride. See SUBWAY SERIES. nine (1) Nine is obviously a synonym for a baseball team because that’s the number of players on a team. The first recorded use of the word nine in this sense is in the name of a team called the New York Nine, which played against the New York Knickerbockers Ball Club in 1846. Thus the term nine may derive from the name

658 New Yawk Tawk of a specific team. (2) Short for a 9-millimeter pistol. The following quote gives the full name and its firepower: “They were both armed with Intratec nine-millimeter semi-automatic pistols capable of laying down a barrage of fire at the rate of five or six rounds a second.” (Ed McBain, Mischief, 1993) Noah’s boy with Murphy carrying a wreath A plate of ham, potatoes and cabbage, as a luncheonette waitress or waiter might order it from the short-order cook. Noah’s brig Noah’s brig, a tiny rockbound island in the Hudson River, is named for one Captain Noah, an 18th-century New York City captain of a fleet of rafts, who had the misfortune of encountering the island under adverse conditions one night. Noah sighted “a dark object floating the waters,” which looked like a brig under sail. “Brig ahoy!” he cried, but no answer came. “Brig ahoy!” he shouted. “Answer or I’ll run you down!” There was still no reply and Captain Noah stubbornly held his course. Then a crash; wood crunched on rock. Noah had mistaken two trees on the island for masts with sails set. nobody but nobody undersells Gimbels You can’t get it cheaper anywhere else. This slogan of the now defunct Gimbels department store, often used by other stores today, was invented by the irrepressible Bernice FitzGibbon, an English teacher who became Macy’s star copywriter before Gimbels shoplifted her from the World’s Largest Store. (She had coined Macy’s famous It’s Smart to Be Thrifty slogan, not to mention a legendary ad featuring a voluptuous woman in a strapless evening gown that was captioned “How do you keep it up night after night?”) Gimbels’s slogan became world famous, Winston Churchill once asking his friend Bernard Baruch if it was “really true that nobody, but nobody, undersells Gimbels?” See also DOES MACY’S TELL GIMBELS?; LIKE MACY’S WINDOW.

North River The Dutch called the Hudson River the North River. Today North River is officially the name of the Hudson from the Battery to about Fourteenth Street. nosh To eat, especially between meals, to snack. A true nosher noshes whenever there is a nosh around. A Yiddish expression, from the German nachem, to eat on the sly. not to know one’s ass from one’s elbow To be completely ignorant about something or everything. “He doesn’t know his ass from his elbow.” not worth a Continental During the Revolutionary War, counterfeiting in New York City contributed to the coining of the still common phrase not worth a Continental, that is, worthless. The financial instability of Continental paper money was increased by the circulation of an immense amount of fake Continentals by the British and Tories after the spring of 1777. These were sent out of New York City literally by the cartloads, and the business was no secret. An ad in a New York paper ran: “Persons going into other colonies may be supplied with any number of counterfeit Congress notes for the price of the paper per ream.” Readers were assured that the counterfeits were so neatly and exactly executed “that there was no risk in getting them off.” nudnik; nudge A persistently dull, boring pest can be called a nudnik, from the Yiddish nudyen, to bore. A nudge (noodge) is a similar type, though less dull and boring than persistent, one who is always nudging; or pestering, someone about one thing or another. nuffin’ A pronunciation of nothing. “I still don’t say nuffin’. She know so much let her ass do the talking.” (Sapphire, Push, 1996) numbeh

no-goodnik A Yiddish term that adds the Slavic suffix -nik to no good, giving us a word for a low-life of one kind or another. noive A pronunciation of nerve. “She’s got a helluva noive barging in like that.” no more free lunch nookleeuh

See

FUN CITY.

A pronunciation of nuclear.

no problem The modest New York way of saying “You’re welcome.” Who says New Yorkers don’t got manners?

A pronunciation of number.

N’ Yawk Long a pronunciation of New York. “Maybe she’d like t’learna speak N’ Yawk!” F. Scott Fitzgerald has a character say in his famous story “The Diamond as Big as the Ritz” (1922). nyesplayshagottere Nice place you got here. “On first looking into a friend’s apartment,” a pronunciation recorded in the Federal Writers’ Project Almanac for New Yorkers, 1938.

O ocho

See

DIP.

of Often used in place of have. “‘Well,’ I said, we are in Washington and I could of borrowed from the United States Treasury. I could of pretended I was an Englishman.’” (Ring Lardner, “The Golden Honeymoon,” 1922) ofay An insulting black term for a white. First recorded in 1925 the word may come from the pig latin for foe, as the old story goes, or possibly from a Yoruba word meaning “great enemy.” No one knows for sure. off To kill. “‘But the kidnapping of her own husband and the fact that he was offed—that’s very good,’ Don Corrado said, nodding approvingly.” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Money, 1994)

can I have a cup of coffee and a glass of water.” In a “Best New York Accent in Houston” contest held some 10 years ago, contestants had to give the proper New York pronunciation of the room service order. Former Brooklynite John Occhiogrosso won the grand prize expense-paid trip to Brooklyn with the above. When asked about job discrimination he had experienced because of his accent the winner mused (in translation), “If people don’t like me for what I am, the hell with them—that’s the Brooklyn way.” o.k. by me In use for at least half a century or so, this expression is a Yiddish one given wider currency by the media. The by me in the phrase comes from the Yiddish bei mir. old ackamarackus

offuh yuh From you, off of you, as in “I wanna borra ten dollars offuh yuh.” The expression has been around for at least 100 years and has a number of variations, including offa ya. O. Henry age oh, forget it

See See

BAGDAD ON THE HUDSON.

UNDER THE TABLE.

oh yeah? Still a common feature of New York speech. “In his routine chatter,” as the Federal Writer’s Project New York Panorama (1938) put it, “the New Yorker cannot get along without his oh yeah? It is his most valuable buffer, knout, pacifier and bubble-pipe, a necessary protective lubricant in the daily wear and tear.” oim owan da toity-toid flohwah of da Noo Yowak Stadla—can oi hab a cuppa kowaffe an a glazza watta “I’m on the thirty-third floor of the New York Statler—

See

ACKAMARACKUS.

old lady in Dubuque Dubuque, Iowa is named for the area’s first settler, a French Canadian lead miner named Julien Dubuque, But what about that famous symbol of prudery, the little old lady in Dubuque? The phrase seems to have originated in this sense with Harold Ross, when he promised in a prospectus of the New Yorker that his magazine would not be edited for “the old lady in Dubuque.” According to Brendan Gill, in his fascinating Here at the New Yorker (1975), Ross may have been inspired by “Boots” Mulgrew, a former Broadway musical-comedy skit writer forced by drinking and financial problems to retreat from New York to his birthplace. Mulgrew soon after began contributing squibs to a widely read Chicago Tribune column called “A Line o’ Type or Two.” These pieces, describing “the provincial absurdities of Dubuque” were signed with the pseudonym “Old Lady in Dubuque,” and Gill suggests that “Ross read them, admired them, and, whether consciously or not, got the old lady in 659

660 New Yawk Tawk Dubuque fixed in his mind as a natural antagonist.” omerta The law of silence sworn to by members of the Mafia and observed for over a thousand years in Sicily. “. . . the Mafia cemented its power by originating the law of silence, the omerta. In the countryside of Sicily a stranger asking directions to the nearest town will not even receive the courtesy of an answer.” (Mario Puzo, The Godfather, 1969) In The Last Don (1996) Puzo adds, As a philosophy omerta was quite simple. It was a mortal sin to talk to the police about anything that would harm the Mafia. If a rival Mafia clan murdered your father before your eyes, you were forbidden to inform the police . . . The authorities were the Great Satan a true Sicilian could never turn to.

Richard Condon casts more light on the practice today in Prizzi’s Money (1994): It had almost appeared as though he had been about to violate omerta, the sacred oath of manhood of the Mafia with which, among other things, he had pledged in blood that he would never violate a woman of the family of a mafiosa. Everyone in the room knew that omerta was only a myth, something observed by the people who wrote newspaper stories and movies. But he was expected . . . to pay solemn lip-service to it.

on account Sometimes used in place of because, as in “I did it on account of her.” oncet; twicet Bona fide Brooklynese that is still heard in New York for once and twice. The words, however, were first recorded in Philadelphia and Baltimore by Noah Webster, and they are also heard in the Ozarks. one foot on a banana peel and the other in the grave Very old or very ill, slipping away fast. The Dictionary of American Regional English (Vol. I, 1985) gives 1965 as the earliest date the editors have found this expression used and do not list New York or New York City among the places where it has been heard. However, I recall hearing the phrase many times from the late 1940s to the 1960s and still hear it occasionally among older speakers, always in the form “He’s (she’s) got one foot on a banana peel and the other in the grave.” The words are a humorous extension of the old expression one foot in the grave. This, in turn, did not originate with the famous Grecian statue of an old man standing at the bottom of a long flight of stairs with one foot in the grave, as Roman tourist guides frequently claim (or used to). Fifteen centuries before the statue was carved, Roman emperor Julian said, “I will learn this even if I have one foot in the grave,” which is probably the origin of this phrase meaning on the brink of death. Julian may have gotten the idea from the ancient Greeks, who had a similar expression with one foot in Charon’s fer-

ryboat, that is, the legendary ferryboat that transported the dead across the river Styx to the Elysian Fields. Incidentally, one foot in the graveyard used to be slang for an order of soup among New York lunchroom workers, soup thought to be food for the old and infirm. one to go

See

BURN ONE WITH A FEATHER.

one with Commonly heard slang for a frankfurter with sauerkraut. One off is a less frequent term, used only by waiters, meaning a frankfurter without sauerkraut. One with the works is often used to order a frank with everything: sauerkraut, mustard and even relish. oney

Only. “You’re the oney one for me.”

on gana

I’m going to. See quote under

JUHHIRMEE.

on line New Yorkers stand on line, not in line as other Americans do. Those of school age, however, are kept in line, or orderly, by their teachers while on line in the schoolyard. And once people are on line in New York, they ideally stay in line. onnafyah On the fire, meaning “a short order is being prepared.” A pronunciation recorded in the Federal Writers’ Project Almanac for New Yorkers, 1938. onorata società See quote. “The older founders of the American Mafia refer to their group as the onorata sociatà, or honored society.” (Jimmy Breslin, The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight, 1969) on the arm Something free of charge, often used by police. “His meals were always on the arm.” on the job On the police force. “‘He was a sergeant. I have two uncles on the job in Long Island.’ ” (Jimmy Breslin, The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight, 1969) op’m

See

BONAC.

Outfit A synonym for the Mafia. “There was a jeweler in New York who The Outfit used to move out hot stones in bulk, and he was switching the good stones for shitty ones. . . .” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Honor, 1982) out in left field Since left field is not any more odd or less active a position than right or center field in baseball, it is hard to understand why it is featured in this common slang expression meaning very unorthodox and wrong, weirdly unconventional, even crazy. In fact, anyone who has ever played sandlot baseball knows that the most inept (and therefore a little odd, to kids) field-

ozone 661 ers were relegated to right field, because there were fewer left-handed hitters to pull the ball to right field. It has been suggested that the phrase refers to the left field seats in Yankee Stadium that are far away from the coveted seats near Babe Ruth’s right field position. out of here; outta here Finished, done with a place or thing. “She stared into the camera . . . until the operator gave her the signal that she was clear . . . and then turned again to her crew and said, “We’re out of here.” (Ed McBain, Romance, 1995) outta sight! Often regarded as college slang of the 1960s, outta sight for something remarkable or wonderful) has been part of the language since the 1840s in the form of the Bowery expression out of sight. Stephen Crane used it in his first novel Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893): “I’m stuck on yer shape. It’s outa sight.” oy! “Oy is not a word,” Leo Rosten writes in The Joys of Yiddish (1968). “It is a vocabulary. It is uttered in as many ways as the utterer’s histrionic ability permits. It is a lament, a protest, a cry of dismay, a reflex of delight.

But however sighed, cried, howled or moaned, oy! is the most expressive and ubiquitous exclamation in Yiddish.” Oy vay, a shortening of oy vay iz mir, is also used as an “all-purpose ejaculation,” Rosten notes. He doesn’t list oy gevald, which Henry Roth used as “a cry of alarm, concern or amazement” in From Bondage (1996). But he does list gevalt or gevald alone as the same kind of cry and cites the folk proverb “Man comes into the world with an Oy!—and leaves with a gevalt.” I have heard oy!, and oy vay! for that matter, uttered by New Yorkers of dozens of religions, races and nationalities. Gevalt also. oy vay!

See

OY!

ozone Ozone means fresh, pure air in everyday speech (the reason for the place-name Ozone Park in Queens, New York). But it translates as “stinking air,” deriving from the Greek ozein, “to stink.” German chemist Christian Friedrich Schonbein coined the name of this stable, pale bluish gas in 1840. Schonbein wrote that he named this most reactive form of oxygen “ozone because of its strong smell,” which he thought was similar to chlorine.

P padrino Patron, boss, an Italian title of great respect in the Mafia, meaning literally “godfather” in Italian.

set them on fire, and the smell would drift all through the park.” (Pete Hamill, Flesh and Blood, 1977)

pahrmee

Parsons table No old parson or any other clergyman invented the durable easy-to-make Parsons table. It was an innovation of Manhattan’s Parsons School of Design in the early 1930s.

paisan

A fast-clipped pronunciation of pardon me. Italian for a friend. “He’s my good paisan.”

palooka Former baseball player and vaudevillian Jack Conway, who became editor of the New York show business newspaper Variety, is said to have coined the expression palooka in about 1920. Walter Winchell called the prolific Conway “my tutor of slanguage”; belly laugh, pushover, to click (“succeed”), baloney (“bunk”), S.A. (“sex appeal”) and payoff are probably among his other memorable coinages. At first a palooka meant only a clumsy boxer lacking in ability (despite the comic strip Joe Palooka). Then it came to mean any ineffective athlete, and finally it was applied to any stupid, clumsy person.

party Often used in place of person. “A certain party I know told me.” passeggiatrice Italian for a “stroller,” hence a kind of streetwalker, prostitute. “‘You were going to marry the son of your grandfather’s old friend but you became a passeggiatrice instead.” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Honor, 1982) Not widely heard in New York. passel This variation of parcel is found in New York City speech as well as in New England and Southern speech. The form dates back to the 15th century, though the use of passel as a collective noun indicating an indefinite number dates back to the 19th century.

pancake See quote. “I can at once See that this Black Mike . . . has little bringing-up, or he will not speak of dolls as tomatoes, although of course different guys have different names for dolls, such as broads, and pancakes, and cookies, and tomatoes, which I claim are not respectful.” (Damon Runyon, “Dark Dolores,” 1949) papah

pasta fazool There is no such Italian dish—not spelled this way. Pasta fazool is the Neapolitan-American pronunciation of pasta e fagioli, a soup containing beans (fagioli), other vegetables, and little ditalini pasta.

A pronunciation of paper.

pardon my dust New York Algonquin wit Dorothy Parker’s famous mock epitaph. She also wrote the epitaph This is on me for herself. See MEN SELDOM MAKE PASSES / AT GIRLS WHO WEAR GLASSES.

patsy According to one theory, patsy, for someone who is readily deceived or victimized, originated in New York about 1909, deriving from the Italian pazzo, a “fool” or “crazy person.” Another theory has it deriving from Pasqualino, the Italian diminutive for the name Pasquale. Pasqualino is Italian slang for a

parkies An old term for city park department workers. “The parkies would make great piles of the leaves and 662

pisher 663 small, weak boy, someone very vulnerable. See also POTSY.

sonally, I don’t believe it,” instead of the franker “I don’t believe it.”

patza A casual, amateurish chess player, often one who plays chess in New York City parks. The term, which has only been traced back to about 1955, derives ultimately from the German Patzer, “bungler.”

pertater A pronunciation of potato. “‘Honest, I was pickin’ pertaters. I ain’t no rummy. I’m just goddamn hungry.’” (Henry Roth, From Bondage, 1996)

payoff

See

PALOOKA.

pearls before swine There has been some confusion about the origin of this famous New York–born quip. The old story has Clare Boothe Brokaw, who later became Clare Boothe Luce, encountering Dorothy Parker in the lobby of Vanity Fair headquarters one morning. “Age before beauty,” said the sharp-tongued Clare, holding the door open. “Pearls before swine,” said the sharper-tongued Miss Parker, entering first. Luce later denied this story, and a similar quip was used in one of Alexander Woollcott’s pieces, but it has nevertheless become part of the Parker legend. It may be true, though. Recalled Mrs. Robert Benchley when she was 80 years old: “I was right there, the time in the Algonquin [hotel], when some little chorus girl and Dottie were going into the dining room and the girl stepped back and said, “Age before beauty,” and Dottie said very quickly, ‘Pearls before swine.’ I was right there when she said it.” pelter An old horse. “In fact, this Goldberg is a most sagacious old pelter, indeed, and he is called Goldberg by the King in honor of a Jewish friend by the name of Goldberg, who keeps a delicatessen store in Tenth Avenue.” (Damon Runyon, “Princess O’Hara,” 1934) Penitentiary Row peoples pernt

See

TENEMENTS.

People. See quote under

CRACKERS.

A pronunciation of point.

perp A perpetrator, a criminal who commits an offense. “‘. . . the only perp tosses a weapon is the pros. They use a cold piece, they throw it down the sewer afterwards. . . .’” (Ed McBain, Romance, 1995) perp walk A term, short for perpetrator walk, used for over 50 years by New York City police and newspaper photographers. It describes the moment when a criminal case suspect is walked out of a station house; the exit was designed to allow the police to display their catch and shame the suspect. personally One of the most common terms heard in New York City is the apologetic personally, as in “Per-

pessonavante A big shot in mob talk; a .90 caliber. See quote. “‘At the end of the month you can go back to Hollywood and the pezzanovente, this .90 caliber will give you the job you want. Done?’” (Mario Puzo, The Godfather, 1969) Phaff’s Cellar Journalist Henry Clapp, writing under the pen name Figaro, reigned as the “King of Bohemia” at Phaff’s Cellar located on Broadway above Bleecker Street, the intellectual watering hole of the 1850s, where Walt Whitman, Fitz-James O’Brien, Ada Clare (Clapp’s mistress), and many others could be seen. phonus bolonus Something phony, an imitation, inferior; based on phony baloney. “Dave sells him good champagne when most guys are trying to hand him the old phonus balonus. (Damon Runyon, “Madam La Gimp,” 1929) phudnik pickpocket

A nudnik with a Ph.D. See D.PH; See

NUDNIK.

DIP.

picture show Still used in New York by some older residents instead of the far more common movies, or flicks, or film for a motion picture. Frequently used in its shortened form show, as in “Let’s go to the show.” I’ve even heard cinema used once or twice in this fashion fairly recently, perhaps humorously: “Let’s go to the cinema.” pig in a blanket A small-sized frankfurter encased in dough and baked; often served as hors d’oeuvres. The plural is sometimes heard as pigs in a blanket. pinstriper Another name for the New York Yankees; after their pinstriped uniforms. The uniform was not introduced to make Babe Ruth appear slimmer, as the old story has it. pinzone A courageous mob member who can handle difficult situations. pisher A Yiddish expression from the German pisser, “to urinate.” A pisher is thus a bedwetter, and by extension someone young and unexperienced, or a nobody, a young squirt: “He’s just a pisher.”

664 New Yawk Tawk pissbum A drunk. “‘Oh, yes, Father, that’s what happens when you get some guy got his own business and he’s nothing but a real, excuse me, ladies, but a real pissbum.’ ” (Jimmy Breslin, Table Money, 1986) pistol A name for pastrami in New York delis, where a waiter might convey your order to a counterman or short order cook as “A pistol on rye.” pizza parlor

See

play piano New Yorkers often say “I play piano” instead of “I play the piano,” leaving out the the. play the duck To avoid someone or something. “. . . many citizens are commencing to consider Marky something of a nuisance and are playing the duck for her. . . .” (damon Runyon, “Little Miss Marker,” 1931) A pronunciation of police.

plotz To plotz, as in “I could plotz,” is to collapse or faint, from surprise, exhaustion, etc. The slang term comes from the Yiddish platsn, “to split,” “burst.” Plotzed is slang for drunk or worn out. pock

Polar Bear Club An organization of winter swimmers based in Coney Island whose New Year’s Day dip is traditionally televised every year. But the most famous of New York’s cold water swimmers didn’t belong to the Coney Island group; it was playwright Eugene O’Neil, who when he lived in Rockaway Beach swam every day through the winter. Poor Man’s Paradise An old name for Coney Island, which has also been called America’s Playground, The Nickel Empire, and City of Fire, for its bright lights at night (when it opened in 1904 the park was lit by a million lights, more than most cities at the time). See CONEY ISLAND. poosh ’em opp! “A call to action in the sense of Get going! Get rolling! Let’s See you go in there now!” according to the Federal Writer’s Project’s New York Panorama (1938). Possibly Italian in origin, the expression is rarely heard anymore and was “definitely limited in usage” even when New York Panorama was written. pop Mob talk meaning to kill, as in “I’d like to pop him”—stated by Al Pacino in Donnie Brasco (1997). Popeye The Federal Writers Project’s New York Panorama (1938) tells us: The keen-eared movie-goer may have observed that Popeye, gnarled knight of the clenched fist and the corncob pipe, speaks Tenth Avenue’s indigenous tongue. Betty Boop, epitome of short-skirted innocence in the 1920s scolds her little dog and sings her ditties in exaggerated New Yorkese. It is not unlikely that her creation was suggested by the personality and appearance of a musical comedy and screen actress Helen Kane, whose short-lived star rose in the Bronx.

A pronunciation of park.

Poet of the D.T.’s The nickname of New York author John Bartholomew Gough (1817–86), who became a temperance author and lecturer after he was saved from alcoholism by a pledge he took. His moral authority was diminished somewhat when in 1845 he was found drunk in a New York brothel after being missing for a week. No one seemed to believe his story that he had been carried to the brothel after accidentally drinking drugged cherry soda. poil A pronunciation of pearl, not as common as it was in the past, as shown in the rhyming nickname of Knicks basketball player “Earl the Pearl” Monroe, which I’ve never heard as “Oil The Poil.” Poil Hahbuh

A pronunciation of purple.

SLICE.

play footsie To be intimately involved with. The expression first meant amorous touching between two people and was then extended to mean two people having any close relationship. “Whatsa matter with ya, playin’ footsie with the Commies,” Thelma Ritter says in the movie LO (1946).

pleece

poiple

See

LEO THE LIP.

point A percentage point. “ ‘You are going to get five percent for this job. Five points on two million five is a nice score.” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Honor, 1982)

See

BUGS BUNNY.

Pornographic The Pornographic was the nickname of the long defunct New York Daily Graphic, a tabloid newspaper founded in 1924 that competed with the New York Daily News and Hearst’s Daily Mirror. porterhouse steak Martin Morrison’s Porterhouse in New York City introduced the porterhouse steak in about 1814, according to the Dictionary of Americanisms. The tender steak taken from the loin next to the sirloin is an even more succulent cut than its neighbor but has a lot of waste. In England, there is generally no distinction between it and sirloin. A porterhouse was a tavern serving the dark brown beer or ale called porter, once favored by porters and other laborers.

putz 665 Porto

A name, not always derogatory, for a Puerto Rican.

positively Often added to statements for emphasis, as in “You positively got no idea of it.” potsy A New York City name for hopscotch, which may take its name from the potsy, the object thrown into the hopscotch boxes. The object potsy, in turn, may derive from patsy for an innocent victim, because the potsy like the patsy is kicked around. See PATSY. Potter’s Field

See

HART ISLAND.

Poverty Gap

See

TENEMENTS.

PR Puerto Rico. “‘It is only June and it is as hot as it is in PR,’ she said.” (Jimmy Breslin, Forsaking All Others, 1982) Practically Peerless Leader A nickname for Leo “the Lip” Durocher when he managed the Brooklyn Dodgers in the late 1940s. See LEO THE LIP; NICE GUYS FINISH LAST. Prime Minister of the Mob An unusual, old nickname for Frank Costello, once a prominent Mafia chieftain. See also THAT GUY. probly

A common pronunciation of probably.

public be damned In 1882 a reporter asked William Henry Vanderbilt why the New York Central Railroad had continued to run a highspeed train from New York City to Chicago despite the fact that it was losing money. Commodore Vanderbilt told him that he did it to compete with a similar Pennsylvania Railroad train. Wouldn’t you run it just for the benefit of the public, competition aside, the reporter continued, and Vanderbilt roared the classic reply that has unfortunately become associated with big business ever since: “The public be damned! Railroads are not run on sentiment but on business principles.” public relations It is said that publicity writer Eddie Bernays (1891–1995), a nephew of Sigmund Freud, coined the term public relations in May 1920, in the wedding announcements heralding his marriage, as a respectable way to describe his profession. He had previously established the first firm doing such work. punk rock See quote. “[Legs] McNeil, 40, [who lives in the East Village] has been sober for years now and is often credited with coining the word ‘punk’ as it is applied to the bands in the mid-70s that played jagged music, took lots of drugs and believed, roughly, in the release of believing in nothing.” (Ian Fisher, “Erin’s

Looking for Leg-Rub Steve . . .,” New York Times Magazine, December 8, 1996) purey A clear marble that is, along with the boulder, one of the most valuable marbles in the children’s game of marbles. This term dates back to at least the 1920s, though it is heard less today with the game’s decreasing popularity. pushover

See

PALOOKA.

puta A Spanish word meaning a prostitute or whore that is increasingly heard as a contemptuous term among Spanish-speaking and some non-Spanishspeaking people in New York. Puta is sometimes also heard as slang for a punchboard. put muscle on someone To force someone to do something, strong-arm someone. “Then he said harshly, his voice deliberately all East Side, ‘You trying to put muscle on me?’ ” (Mario Puzo, The Godfather, 1969) put someone on

See

PUT THE FEAR ON.

put the blast on To criticize severely and loudly. “Miss Missouri Martin puts the blast on her plenty for chasing . . . Dave the Dude out of the joint.” (Runyon, Guys and Dolls, 1929) put the fear on To intimidate someone by staring him or her down or by one’s formidable presence. This had never happened to Charley in his life since he had developed the science of putting fear on people . . . “Now I remember,” Julia said giggling. “You are putting the fear on me. My father used to tell me how your father made you practice blanking out your eyes and hardening all of the muscles in your face. Did you really do that in front of a mirror for hours every day when you were a kid.” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Money, 1994)

To put someone on or put on someone, originally black slang, can mean the same. put under the top of the water To murder someone by drowning him or her. “ ‘They put Ezmo under the top of the water,’ one of the hoodlums from the car yelled.” (Jimmy Breslin, The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight, 1969) putz Putz is Yiddish for “penis” and has also come to mean a fool, jerk, an obnoxious person. Wrote Judith Krantz in Scruples (1978): “ ‘You,’ she said, enunciating clearly, ‘are a putz, a schmekel, a schmuck, a schlong, and a shvantz. And a WASP at that.’” All of those “swords” mean penis as well and can also mean a jerk or obnoxious person. So does schlontz.

Q–R qualified man A Mafia member who has made his bones, who is qualified to do a job. Also called by the Italian qualificato.

I wish Moosh a hello, and he never raps to me but only bows, and takes my hat.” Moosh, incidentally, seems to be a popular name among Broadway characters. If I remember correctly, it was the name of the fight manager in Rod Serling’s Requiem for a Heavyweight.

Queens County Queens County, one of the five boroughs comprising New York City, takes its name from Catherine of Braganza, queen of England’s Charles II. See BOROUGH; BRONX; KINGS COUNTY; NEW YORK COUNTY; RICHMOND.

rat Mob talk for an informer, squealer. “If you’re a rat, I’m the biggest fuggen mutt in the history of the Mafia,” said Al Pacino in Donnie Brasco (1997). See MUTT. rat mother This common curse is a shortening of “rat motherfucker,” meaning a despicable person. “ ‘Now let them rat mothers, they think they all so smart, let them figger out what that was about.” (Jimmy Breslin, The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight, 1969)

rabbi Meaning “my lord” or “master” in Hebrew, rabbi of course refers to a teacher and scholar of Jewish law who usually heads a synagogue or temple. In police jargon one’s rabbi is a person who can help further one’s career, the person so called because he has influence with higher-ups—just as a rabbi has influence with the ultimate higher-up.

rat out out?”

To inform, squeal on someone. “Did he rat me

real macher Macher is Yiddish for an operator, a big wheel. From the German Macher, “maker” or “doer”; pronounced MOK-er.

rag trade A name for the garment industry. The city’s garment district lies between Eighth and Madison Avenues in the Thirties, but its main artery is Seventh Avenue, also called Fashion Avenue in that area.

real nothing Someone of no worth at all, as in “He’s a real nothing.” Probably influenced by Yiddish.

rain on one’s parade To spoil in any way something someone else is celebrating. “‘He’s had his turn at bat. Now he’s trying to rain on my parade.’” (Condon, Prizzi’s Money, 1994)

real thing

See

UNDER THE TABLE.

Red Hook A section of Brooklyn named Roode Hoek by the Dutch after its rich red soil.

rap The New Dictionary of American Slang (1986) suggests that rap, for to converse, dates from the 1960s, but it seems clearly from the context of “Madame La Gimp” to have been used in this sense in Damon Runyon’s tale written in the 1920s: “I get to the Marberry . . . and who opens the door of Madame La Gimp’s apartment for me but Moosh, the door man . . .

regella Regular. “I din know we had a regalla Greta Gobbo in the awfice.” (Arthur Kober, “You Mean Common,” 1940) regular In New York City a regular coffee is coffee with an average amount of milk in it and sugar served 666

rush hour 667 on the side. In other areas, however, regular means coffee with cream and sugar added to it. Regular can also mean real, bona fide. See REGULAR GENIUS. regular genius A common expression, as in “She’s a regular genius,” that is sometimes used sarcastically and was probably influenced by Yiddish. Reuben The grilled sandwich of corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and dressing on rye bread was possibly invented in the early 1900s at Manhattan’s Reuben’s Delicatessan. But no one is sure of this, even though the Reuben has long been associated with the city. revenge is a dish that tastes best when it is cold A favorite saying of Don Corleone in Mario Puzo’s The Godfather (1969). rich as Rockefeller Rich as Rockefeller refers to the huge family fortune amassed by John Davison Rockefeller (1839–1937). Variations on the phrase above include he’s a regular Rockefeller, and Rockefeller itself is the American equivalent of Croesus. John D. may have given only dimes to beggars, but his philanthropies totaled about a billion dollars. John D. Rockefeller Jr. built New York’s Rockefeller Center, with Radio City Music Hall completed in 1940. Richmond The New York City borough is named for the duke of Richmond, son of King Charles II of England. It is rarely called Richmond except in official business, being widely known as Staten Island. See BOROUGH; BRONX; KINGS COUNTY; NEW YORK COUNTY; QUEENS COUNTY. Rockaway Playland An amusement park much smaller than Coney Island but almost as well known to New Yorkers. It was torn down in the 1980s, and nothing but rubble has taken its place. roller derby A sport in which two roller-skating teams compete on an oval track in a race to complete as many laps as possible in a given time. The sport and its name were invented in 1937 by famed New York author Damon Runyon. rooster

See

DIP.

roscoe Old underworld slang for a gun. “Regret finds himself brooding so much over the idea of an everloving wife who is so handy with a roscoe that he never really asks.” (Damon Runyon, “The Bloodhounds of Broadway,” 1929) Also called a John Roscoe. rumcake A drunk, a rummy. “‘Some rumcake staggering around their house liable to take a pass at the wife while he’s supposed to be fixing the faucets.” (Jimmy Breslin, Table Money, 1986) rum, Romanism and rebellion This political slogan is usually attributed to the supporters of Herbert Hoover, who used it to defeat New York’s Catholic Democratic candidate Al Smith for the presidency in 1928, calling the Democrats the party of rum, Romanism and rebellion. Al Smith, “the Happy Warrior” from the East Side, who entered politics as a Tammany appointee, served four terms as governor of New York and later headed the company that built the Empire State Building. The slogan used to defeat him was actually first used in 1884 by New York Presbyterian minister Samuel D. Burchard, who spoke in presidential candidate James Blaine’s presence of the Democrats as “the party whose antecedents are rum, Romanism and rebellion,” this offending the large Irish Catholic vote in New York City and causing Blaine to lose the state by a scant 1,000 votes and thus the election to Grover Cleveland. Blaine’s political reputation didn’t help him either. The Democrat’s slogan for that election was “James G. Blaine, James G. Blaine, Continental liar from the state of Maine.” Runyonese The language spoken by New York characters invented by author Damon Runyon (1884–1946); a colorful if exaggerated New Yorkese. The author of Guys and Dolls, a journalist and short story writer noted for his tales of the New York underworld and New York City itself, requested that his ashes be scattered over Broadway. On his death his ashes were dropped on the Great White Way from a large transport plane flown by his friend, the famous American aviator Eddie Rickenbacker. rush hour This term describing peak morning and evening hours for commuting to and from work seems to have been invented in New York in about 1890 and is still commonly used here and elsewhere.

S S.A.

See

this from crack addict standing in front of abandoned building.” (Sapphire, Push, 1996)

PALOOKA.

Saddy Saturday. A pronunciation recorded in the Federal Writers’ Project Almanac for New Yorkers (1938).

schizerino No slang dictionary seems to record this slang substitute for schizophrenic. Henry Miller used it in Tropic of Capricorn (1939): “Once you became a real schizerino flying is the easiest thing in the world. . . .” Whether it was coined after or before schizo is unknown.

St. Patrick’s Day Parade The first one was held on March 17, 1779, and was actually led by a British band. Never mind, though. The band and the 400 marchers were “Volunteers of Ireland” who had been brought over to fight the Americans in the Revolutionary War but went over to General Washington’s side in great numbers (after the parade from lower Broadway to the Bowery and the banquet that followed).

schlemiehl; schlemihl Nothing ever turns out right for the awkward and unlucky schlemiehl. The word, by now common American slang, comes from the Yiddish shelumiel, “one who is worthless,” which is said to derive from the name of the first Shelumiel mentioned in the Bible. Shelumiel appears four times in the Book of Numbers as the son of Zurishaddai and the leader of the tribe of Simeon. Nothing is said about him except that he is the leader of 59,300 people and makes an appropriate offering for the dedication of the altar at the Lord’s command, but it has been suggested that Shelumiel lost in battle all the time while the other tribal leaders were victorious. Be that as it may, the word schlemiehl got a boost from the allegorical tale Peter Schlemihls Wunderbare Geschichte (The Wonderful Story of Peter Schlemihl), written by the German botanist and poet Adelbert von Chamisso in 1814. In the story the impecunious Peter Schlemihl makes a foolish bargain with the devil, selling his shadow for a neverempty purse and finding himself an outcast from human society because he has no shadow. Through this story, which was translated into many languages and virtually became legend, schlemiehl came to mean anyone making a foolish bargain, both living a life of its own and reinforcing the meaning of the earlier schlemiehl.

sanctioned stool Someone who pretends to be a stool pigeon informing on the mob but is actually working for them, a double agent. sandwich men Men who wear hinged signs that hang over their shoulders with advertisements on the front and back so that they are sandwiched between the boards. The practice is over 150 years old, and sandwich men are still occasionally seen today. sanguiccio sawlauf

See quote under

GIOBBA.

It’s all off, as in “Sawlauf between us.”

scapping; scalloping; scalping All terms used for catching a crab with a net in local waters around New York City. See DOUBLE. scarf To eat or drink, often hastily; a black term that is now widely used. “I grab chicken and roll, turn, run out . . . stuffing chicken in my mouth, ‘Scarf Big Mama!’ 668

shaddup 669 schmaltz In Yiddish schmaltz, from the German smaltz, is “chicken fat,” a common, sticky, and greasy substance that gives its name to anything common and stickily sentimental. schmegeggy A stupid oaf, usually rather harmless. The word, possibly born in New York’s East Side, is from the Yiddish shmegegi of unknown origin and can mean baloney, nonsense or foolishness as well. schmo A hapless, naive person, a fool. Possibly a euphemistic rendition of the Yiddish shmuck or shmok, meaning both penis and a dope or jerk. Al Capp gave the name Shmoo to the adorable egg-shaped character in the comic strip L’il Abner. schmuck Judging by its common use by New Yorkers, one wouldn’t think schmuck was an obscene word. Schmuck is Yiddish for penis, deriving somehow from a German word meaning “ornament,” and has come to mean a stupid obnoxious person of whom there are apparently so many that schmuck is one of the bestknown Yiddish expressions. schmutz

Yiddish for dirt, filth, garbage.

schnook A timid ineffectual person, one pitied rather than disliked; in fact, a schnook can be quite likeable. A Yiddish expression that comes from the German schnucke, a “little sheep.” schnorrer An impudent beggar, moocher or sponger who acts like it’s one’s duty to give him money; a haggler or habitual bargain hunter; a cheapskate; a chisler. Schnorrer can mean all these things and more. The word is a Yiddish one, probably deriving from the German verb for to beg. scimunito Italian for a jerk or a fool. “He had read that some guy had paid fifteen hundred dollars for a dead rose Garbo had kissed maybe twenty years before and he thought that guy was a scimunito.” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Honor, 1982) scompiglio A big fuss or argument. “Vincent Prizzi had made a big scompiglio about how he was the boss of the family so he should be the one to attend the meeting.” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Honor, 1982) score

See

DIP.

scrag oneself To scrag means to kill or murder (or to have sex with) someone, and to scrag oneself means to commit suicide. “‘I am figuring on scragging myself,’ Feet says . . . ‘Yes, I think I will scrag myself.’” (Runyon,

“A Very Honorable Guy,” 1929) Is it possible that scrag has something to do with frag, used in Vietnam for to kill someone, usually a detested officer? Frag is said to come from the fragmentation grenades used for this purpose, but scrag, much older slang, may have influenced the coining. scratch Money. “. . . so I judge Bookie Bob is as tough with his ever-loving wife about scratch as he is with everybody else.” (Damon Runyon, “The Snatching of Bookie Bob,” 1931) screwball “King Carl” Hubbell is probably responsible for this 1930s expression meaning an eccentric person. The New York Giants pitcher used his famous screwball, which he introduced in the early 1930s, to win 24 games in a row. Hubbell pitched 46 consecutive scoreless innings and, most amazing of all, struck out in order the greatest concentration of slugging power ever assembled—Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Jimmy Foxx— in the 1934 All-Star game. seeinya

Seeing you, as in “I’ll be seeinya.”

See yuh A shortening of See you later often heard in New York. See yuh later, alligator was popular for a time but is rarely heard today. send up the river To send to prison. The river referred to is the Hudson, up which, at Ossining, New York, is Sing Sing Penitentiary, founded in 1830. See also SING SING. seventh-inning stretch These words have become synonymous with a brief break from any long period of sitting. They come from baseball’s traditional seventh-inning stretch, which dates back to the late 19th century. The tradition originated at an 1882 game at Manhattan College in New York City. Manhattan College baseball coach Brother Jasper, also the prefect of discipline, instructed restless students in the stands to rise and stretch for a minute in the seventh inning before the game continued. This seventh-inning stretch became a ritual at all Manhattan College games and spread to the Major Leagues during the 1880s when the college team played exhibition games against the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds. Shabbes goy In Yiddish Shabbes is “Sabbath,” and goy means “a gentile.” A Shabbes goy is a gentile who performs such tasks as turning on the lights on the Sabbath, when such tasks are forbidden for Orthodox Jews. shaddup A pronunciation of shut up frequently heard in New York.

670 New Yawk Tawk shade

See

DIP.

shalom Shalom, from a Hebrew root meaning “peace,” is an Israeli greeting for both hello and goodbye. Leo Rosten notes that Israelis say they use it so “because we have so many problems that half the time we don’t know whether we’re coming or going.” shamus This term for a private detective may come from the Yiddish shammes, “sexton of a synogogue” (from the Hebrew shamash, “servant”), or from the Irish name Seamus (James) a typical name of an Irish policeman. Both may have influenced the coining of the word. Shea Stadium The New York Mets’s home field in Flushing Meadows, Queens. Completed in 1964, it is named for attorney William Shea, who was instrumental in getting the stadium built. shedshoole An often affected pronunciation of schedule, imitating the British pronunciation of the word and once fashionable in the New York theatrical world. Said Dorothy Parker to a young actor who repeatedly affected the pronunciation, “If you don’t mind my saying so, I think you are full of skit.” shekel Money; from the Hebrew word for “coin.” Shekel can be found in the Bible (Gen. 33:12–16) and is a monetary unit in Israel, but it became slang for money here in the mid-19th century. shield

See

DIP.

shifty as smoke Describes someone sly and untrustworthy. The expression was used in the 1940s and ’50s but isn’t often heard today. “Watch out for him; he’s shifty as smoke.” shiksa A sometimes disparaging term for a girl or woman who isn’t Jewish; a Yiddish expression from the Hebrew sheques, “blemish.” shine A derogatory term for a black person still heard, mostly among blue-collar whites. “The owner muttered as he picked up a knife, ‘These shines.’ ” (Breslin, Table Money) Shine is probably based on the brightness of the skin of some black people; possibly the word was influenced by the fact that a good number of black men were once employed as what were commonly called shoeshine boys. No one knows for sure. shit

Heroin. See quote under

BOO.

shit happens Coincidence plays a major role in human affairs. “Cops knew that shit happens.” (Ed McBain, Romance, 1995)

shlep A widely used Yiddish expression from the German schleppen, “to drag”; it usually means to drag, pull, carry, as in “Do I have to shlep all those packages upstairs?” Shlep and shlepper also widely means a jerk, a fool, as in “What a shlep he is.” shlock This Yiddish expression, for shoddy, cheaply made, defective articles, derives from the German Schlog, a “blow,” suggesting that the goods have been knocked around and damaged. Pronounced to rhyme with stock, shlock is sometimes spelled schlock. shlump Though it is Yiddish deriving from the German Schlumpe, a “slovenly woman,” shlump describes any slow, droopy, lazy person, a drip or drag of either sex. shmaltz A popular Yiddish word, from the German for “fat,” that means cooking fat, usually the drippings from chicken, and by extension anything excessively sentimental, mawkish and maudlin, what is often called corn. It is in the extended sense that the term is widely heard, as in “Turn off that shmaltzy music.” shmeer Schmeer is Yiddish for to print or smear, from the German for “grease,” but New Yorkers widely use the word to mean a bagel with cream cheese spread on it, as in “One with a shmeer.” Shmeer is also slang for a bribe, grease for the palm. shmooze To have a long cozy friendly talk with someone, as in “They walked in the park and shmoozed for an hour.” shnozzola The nose, especially a large nose. From the Yiddish shnoz, which derives from the German for “snout.” The term was popularized by comedian Jimmy Durante, who was called the Schnozzola or the Schnoz after his huge proboscis, the most famous nose on the stage since that of Cyrano de Bergerac. shoot the works To gamble or risk everything; probably from the game of dice or craps. shot

See

DIP.

shot heard round the world The Ralph Waldo Emerson line describing the opening of the American Revolution has a different meaning in New York. It is remembered by many as a name for the home run New York Giant Bobby Thomson hit in the ninth inning of the last game of the 1951 playoffs against the Dodgers to win the pennant. Only Babe Ruth’s “called shot” in 1932 is a more renowned homer. The Giants’ victory was called The Miracle of Coogan’s Bluff, after the hill behind the Giants’ Polo Grounds stadium. See COOGAN’S BLUFF.

$64 question 671 should Often used in place of to in an infinitive, as in “He wants you should See it,” instead of “He wants you to See it.” should be Frequently takes the place of is or are, as in “Make sure he should be honest,” instead of “Make sure he’s honest.” shoulder candy Candy for a sexy young woman is documented as dating back to about 1968, when the word possibly originated in New York City, but I haven’t seen shoulder candy in any dictionary. The term is defined in a New York Times Magazine column (November 24, 1996) by John Tierney: “Models are visual bait,” says David Jones, a gossip reporter at the Daily News . . . “Even the serious playboys, the rich guys who live to chase models, often aren’t that interested in sex. They mainly want their fellow wolves to see them walk in with a model. The term they use is ‘shoulder candy.’ ”

shpos Hospital slang for an obnoxious person, especially a patient; an acronym for subhuman piece of shit. shtarker Widely used Yiddish word; See quote. “. . . she was right back where she started, sitting between two professional ruffians, two men exactly the same as her father, shtarkers.” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Money, 1994) shtik Shtik (rhymes with lick) is a Yiddish word, from the German for “piece,” that is usually heard in the disparaging sense of a small, contrived piece of theatrical business, often comedic, designed to draw attention to oneself: “He uses the same shtik night after night.” It can also mean one’s special talent. shtup A Yiddish word, from the German for “to push,” that has general currency only in its slang meaning of to fuck, as in, “He shtupped her.” shudda Another contraction unconsciously tailored to meet the needs of the hurried, harried city dweller, this one a telescoping of should have: “I shudda ordered the special.” Shuttle

See

DUHSHUH-UL.

shvartzer A derogatory Yiddish term for a black man, from the German word for “black.” shyster Shyster, an American slang term for a shady, disreputable lawyer, is first recorded in 1846. Various authorities list a real New York advocate as a possible source, but this theory has been disproved by Professor Gerald L. Cohen of the University of Missouri–Rolla, whose long definitive paper on the etymology explores

more likely theories. Shakespeare’s moneylender Shylock has also been suggested, as has a racetrack form of the word shy (i.e., to be shy money when betting). Some authorities trace shyster to the German Scheisse, “excrement,” possibly through the word shicir, “a worthless person,” but there is no absolute proof for any theory. In any case, shady lawyers in New York have a long history of being called shysters. Sicilian

See

SLICE.

sick as a dog Common for very ill, as in “I was sick as a dog yesterday.” siddown A frequent pronunciation of sit down. “ ‘Siddown, Charley,’ Uncle Vincent said.” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Honor, 1982) sidekick New York pickpockets once called the side pants pockets side-kicks. These are the hardest pockets to pick because they are closest to the hands of a victim and are constantly moving with the motions of the legs. Therefore, any man wise to the ways of pickpockets kept his wallet in his trusty side pocket, or side-kick. Side-kicker thus became a slang synonym for a faithful buddy, a partner who is always at one’s side. O. Henry first recorded the term in one of his stories in 1904, and about 10 years later side-kicker was shortened to sidekick. Silk-Stocking District The 15th Congressional District, which includes Manhattan’s rich Upper East Side. Sing Sing The nickname for the New York State prison, Sing Sing Penitentiary, up the Hudson River at Ossining; a place where many New York City criminals have served time since it opened in 1830. See also SEND UP THE RIVER. sit shivah Shivah, from the Hebrew word for “seven,” is the seven days of mourning following the funeral observed by Jews for a deceased parent, sibling, child or spouse. To sit shivah is to observe this period and is so named because traditionally members of the family sat on stools or low benches while mourning, an ancient custom still observed by many today. sitting in the catbird seat A Southern expression, meaning being in an excellent position, that was popularized and spread nationwide by sportscaster Red Barber when he announced the Brooklyn Dodger baseball games on radio in 1945. $64 question On the radio quiz program “Take It or Leave It,” which premiered in 1941 and was emceed by Phil Baker, topics were chosen by contestants from the

672 New Yawk Tawk studio audience, and seven questions of increasing difficulty on these topics were answered by each contestant. The easiest question was worth $2, and the questions progressed until the ultimate $64 question was reached. The popularity of the show added to the language the expression the $64 question for any question difficult to answer and inspired a slew of similar quiz shows. A decade later came television’s $64,000 Question with its plateaus instead of levels, its isolation booth and its scandals involving contestants who cheated in cahoots with the producers. Then, after a long hiatus, there was the $128,000 Question, but despite these programs with their inflated prize, $64 question retains its place in the national vocabulary. skell New York police slang for homeless men who live on the city streets. The term, however, dates back to Elizabethan England. skimmer Slang for a hat. A word coined by New York sports cartoonist, T. A. Dorgan, known as Tad. See HOT DOG; TAD. skipper A synonym for a capo or capo regime in the Mafia. “You’re the one who tries to make peace between the skippers.” (Evan Hunter, Criminal Conversation, 1994) Also called a captain. skweet A contraction of Let’s go eat, as in “Jeet? Skweet.” (Did you eat yet? Let’s go eat.) See JEET. Skyqueen

See

WOOLWORTH BUILDING.

skyscraper On hearing the word skyscraper most people conjure up a vision of Manhattan, but the world’s first skyscraper office building was the 10-story Chicago office of the Home Insurance Company completed in 1883 by architect William Le Baron Jenney. The fitting name skyscraper was given to this first building of steel skeleton construction, a building much higher than any other of its time. The word was borrowed from the triangular sails that had long been used high on the masts of sailing vessels, “scraping” against the sky.

the vest was a huge dead fish . . . ‘The fish means that Luca Brasi is sleeping at the bottom of the ocean,’ he said. ‘It’s an old Sicilian message.’ ” (Mario Puzo, The Godfather, 1969) sleeper Slang for a reform school inmate; used as the title of a recent book and movie. slice Usually used by New Yorkers as shorthand for a slice-a (a piece of) pizza when ordering New York’s favorite fast food in a pizza parlor: “Gimme a slice anna small Coke.” Whether it’s a square cut of thick Sicilian or pie slice–shaped regular (Neopolitan) pizza, it’s always a slice. When a whole pizza is ordered it’s “Gimme a pie.” Piece is rarely heard. sliding pond A sliding pond (possibly from the Dutch baan, “track”) is a metal slide in a New York playground, the term used nowhere else. Sloppy Louie’s A famous landmark restaurant on South Street specializing in a large variety of seafood (they even sold whale steak 30 years ago). The “Sloppy Louie” here was proprietor Louis Moreno. He didn’t like the name, but customers who had frequented the place when it was “Sloppy John’s” insisted on calling it “Sloppy Louie’s” after he bought the restaurant in 1930. slow lane

See

SPEED LANE.

smatter A contraction of what’s the matter. “Smatter with you?” smatterthya?

As in “What’s the matter with you?”

Smelly Kelly

See

NEW YORK ALLIGATORS.

smush Face. “Hortense plunges right into Feet’s arms and gives him a big kiss on his ugly smush . . .” (Damon Runyon, “A Very Honorable Guy,” 1929)

slave bracelet An old name for a silver identification bracelet attached to a chain and worn around the wrist, often given by sweethearts to one another.

snatching Kidnapping. “So I am not surprised to hear rumors that the snatching of certain parties is going on in spots, because while snatching is by no means a highclass business, and is even considered somewhat illegal, it is something to tide over the hard times.” (Damon Runyon, “The Snatching of Bookie Bob,” 1931)

Slave Market A name in the 1890s for the area around today’s Union Square; after the hundreds of actors who congregated there every day hoping to be hired by the many theaters in the area.

sneeze Old slang for steal. “Miss Alicia Deering’s papa sniffs out where The Lemon Drop Kid plants his roll and sneezes same.” (Damon Runyon, “The Lemon Drop Kid,” 1931)

sleep at the bottom of the ocean To die a violent death by assassination. “When he came back he was holding Luca Brasi’s bulletproof vest in his hands. Wrapped in

sod farm In New York City and vicinity a place where sod grass is grown is called a sod farm. The sod is sold to garden nurseries and bought by homeowners who

spritz 673 want “instant grass.” Yet not 600 miles away in upstate Batavia, New York, a sod farm is called a turf farm. In New York City turf is heard in horseracing circles and has long been used by criminal gangs to designate an area controlled by a gang: “Don’t come on our turf.” sofer

See

IDEAR.

softie

See

HARDIE.

SoHo An area in Manhattan whose name is a shortening of South of Houston, the street by which it is bounded on the north. The area, revitalized in the 1970s and 1980s, is a fashionable neighborhood, among the most diverse and vibrant in the city. See also HELL’S HUNDRED ACRES. soldier The lowest-ranking member of a Mafia family. See FAMILY. solid Dating back to the 1930s and probably from the world of jazz, solid means something or someone remarkable or wonderful. A solid sender is usually an admirable jazz musician, while a solid citizen, the term often used by Damon Runyon, is any admirable person. The expressions are heard much less frequently today. sonomagona

See quote under

GIOBBA.

sottocapo An underboss in the Mafia. The serves under the boss, who, in turn, serves head (godfather) of the family. “Charley was . . . Vincent’s sottocapo, and the Prizzi’s (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Honor, 1982)

sottocapo under the Partanna enforcer.”

Soup Nazi Phrase used on the New York–inspired television comedy Seinfeld to refer to a real-life soup merchant located in midtown Manhattan. The impatient Soup Nazi is known for supposedly badgering disorganized patrons and for not including the customary piece of bread with an order of soup for customers who take too long to decide what they want. People tolerate his attitude because he reportedly serves outstanding soup. sout

pink rubber ball used in playing stickball, catch, etc. It is named after Spalding, the company that makes it. spanging The latest New York slang for begging or panhandling; used by young street punks and said to be the result of a slurred and shortened “spare any change?” “I don’t spang much because I don’t really like doing it. I eat out of trash cans a lot.” (Punk street person quoted by Ian Fisher in “Erin’s Looking for Leg Rub Steve . . . ,” New York Times Magazine, December 8, 1996) Spanglish A combination of Spanish and English spoken by many Hispanic people. The hybrid language features words such as fafu for “fast food”; tensen for a “10¢ store” like the late Woolworth or K Mart; choping for “shopping”; and chileando for “chilling out.” Its combination of Spanish and English might result in a sentence like “Vamos a lonchar, or what?” (“Are we going to have lunch or not?”) speed The use of speed as an alternative term for an amphetamine isn’t without precedent, for the word has also been used in reference to liquor. In at least one place, anyway: As for Judge Henry G. Blake, he is full of speed, indeed. By this time anybody can See that the judge is commencing to believe that all this is on the level and that he is really entertainig celebrities in his own home. You put a quart of good grape inside the old judge and he will believe anything. He soon dances himself plumb out of wind. . . . (Runyon, “Madame La Gimp,”1929)

speed lane In New York the speed lane is usually the name for the left lane on a road or highway, the lane customarily reserved for cars going at least the speed limit, while the right lane, or slow lane, is for drivers choosing to go slower. Sometimes the speed lane is called the fast lane, but fast lane is usually the term for the lane in a public swimming pool reserved for fast swimmers. In doing pool laps slow swimmers customarily use a lane labeled the slow lane, while swimmers of medium ability use the medium lane. sperl

A pronunciation of spoil.

A pronunciation of south. Spirit of Brooklyn

sowaddyasaybabe So what do you say, babe. Defined as “A prelude to romance,” a pronunciation recorded in the Federal Writers’ Project Almanac for New Yorkers (1938). spaghetti New York fireman’s term for fire hose. Running out the hose is called laying spaghetti. spaldeen

Spaldeen is the New York term for a smooth

spitter

See

See

DEM BUMS.

DIP.

sprinkles The chocolate or multicolored flecks of candy that ice cream cones are dipped into or that are sprinkled on ice cream sundaes are generally called sprinkles in New York. “Let me have a vanilla cone with chocolate sprinkles, please.” Sprinkles are called jimmies in other regions.

674 New Yawk Tawk spritz A little bit, a touch; from the Yiddish for a “squirt.” “Just add a spritz of seltzer.” Also shpritz.

stick (1) See DIP. (2) A marijuana cigarette. “You want a stick?” See BOO.

stall

stickball A kid’s form of baseball played on city streets with a sawed-off broomstick or similar bat and a rubber ball such as a spaldeen. Among many great New York players who began their careers as stickball players are Willie Mays, Whitey Ford and Joe Pepitone. See EGGBALL.

See

DIP.

Staten Island One of the five boroughs of New York City. The name derives from the Dutch name for the island. Staten Island is rarely called by its official name, Richmond County, outside official communications. It is frequently pronounced Statnylant. See CITY. Statue of Liberty The official name of the famous statue is “Liberty Enlightening the World,” but no one calls it that. Standing 305 feet and 6 inches high, it is the tallest statue in the world. stay in line

See

steerer

DIP.

See

Stengel, Casey

ON LINE.

See

STENGELESE.

Stengelese This minor language has been called a confusion of metaphors or double-talk or jabberwocky, but it is sometimes marvelous and was often a tactic used by the late New York Yankee and New York Mets manager Casey Stengel to confuse people who asked him questions that he didn’t want to answer. In The Dickson Baseball Dictionary (1989) Paul Dickson quotes Stengel’s reply to a U.S. senator who in 1958 asked him whether the Yankees intended to keep on monopolizing the world’s championship: Well, I will tell you. I got a little concern yesterday in the first three innings when I saw the three players I had gotten rid of, and I said when I lost nine what am I going to do and when I had a couple of my players I thought so great of that did not do so good up to the sixth inning I was more confused but I finally had to go and call on a young man in Baltimore that we don’t own and the Yankees don’t own him, and he is doing pretty good, and I would actually have to tell you that we are more the Greta Garbo type from success. We are being hated, I mean, from the ownership and all, we are being hated. Every sport that gets too great or one individual—but if we made 27 cents and it pays to have a winner at home, why would you have a good winner in your own park if you were an owner? That is the result of baseball. An owner gets most of the money at home and it is up to him and his staff to do better or they ought to be discharged.

Mickey Mantle, also present at the Senate hearing, was then asked his views on the same question. “My views are just about the same as Casey’s,” he replied. steptidyrearidybuspleez Step to the rear of the bus, please. A pronunciation recorded in the Federal Writers’ Project Almanac for New Yorkers (1938).

stiff pain A nuisance, as in “That guy’s a stiff pain.” Variations are swift pain and real pain. stink tree

See

stock

BONAC.

See

TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN, A.

stone in one’s shoe In Mafia speech, something or someone who irritates you; an obstacle. “‘As for Skannet, he was a stone in your shoe, another family saying, so why shouldn’t you get rid of him.’” (Puzo, The Last Don, 1996) See also TAKE THE STONE OUT OF ONE’S SHOE. stood Often used as the past tense of stay. “I stood at the hotel five days.” stoop; stoopball A stoop, from the Dutch word for “step,” is the front porch and steps of a New York house where games like stoopball are played. Stoopball, dating back to about 1940, is a game resembling baseball where the “batter,” the person up, throws a rubber ball hard against the steps so that it rebounds into the air. The number of bases and runs given depends on the number of bounces the ball takes before an opposing player catches it. A long “hit” over an opposing player’s head is a home run. stooper A man or woman who makes a small business of collecting winning pari-mutuel tickets that have been discarded, usually inadvertently, by horseplayers at racetracks. Sometimes the tickets are ripped up into small pieces by the players and pieced together by the stoopers, who have also been called ground squirrels. storm door I had assumed that this term was an Americanism invented in relatively recent times. But lexicographers trace it back to the Dutch storm deur, meaning the same, used here in the 17th century, when New York was called New Amsterdam. straphanger A term for a subway commuter popular at least since the first New York subways were built early in the 20th century and which may even date back to the days of horsedrawn trolleys.

sweet 675

Street People in the diamond trade call Forty-seventh Street the Street. It handles more than half of the finished diamonds in the world. Wall Street is also called the Street. Street of the Midnight Sun A colorful old name for Broadway said to have been coined by Diamond Jim Brady and referring to the street’s myriad night lights. Street O’ Ships An old name for South Street in lower Manhattan, which 150 years ago was “even more than Broadway the Main Street of the little Metropolis,” according to the Federal Writer’s Project New York Panorama (1938). street people A term for homeless people who live on the city streets. Street people seems to have been invented in New York in the early 1970s. Subway Series A New York baseball World Series that featured a local team from the American League and a local team from the National League and to which fans could travel by subway. These were traditionally held between the Yankees and Dodgers, before the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles. The Yankees and the Mets played a three-game series in June 1998. Sugar Hill A prosperous neighborhood in Harlem on upper Edgecombe and St. Nicholas Avenues. The area, possessing many fine private homes and apartment buildings, has been so called since the 1920s. See HARLEM.

suit Mob slang for a businessman. “The suits are crookeder than we are.” sumpin’ A common pronunciation of something. “You’re really sumpin’ else!” Also somethin’. sumpmscroowie Something screwy, as in “Sumpmscroowie is goin’ on.” A pronunciation recorded in the Federal Writers’ Project Almanac for New Yorkers (1938). supermarket The world’s first supermarket was the A&P, the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co., which was founded by tea merchant George Huntington Hartford in 1859 in New York City and had stores across the country by 1917. But the word supermarket didn’t come into the language until the early 1920s in California. It was probably first applied to one of the stores in the Piggly-Wiggly self-service chain. Swartwout Samuel Swartwout (1783–1856), collector of the port of New York in Andrew Jackson’s administration, stole more than $1 million of public funds and fled to England. Thus a Swartwout came to mean an embezzler and to Swartwout, to embezzle or abscond. swear on one’s mother’s eyes A fairly common oath. “‘Andrew, I didn’t know it was stolen, I swear on my mother’s eyes!’ ” (Evan Hunter, Criminal Conversation, 1994) sweet Street talk for a sissy, someone weak or unmasculine. “You sweet or sumpin’?”

T table money Money for food, rent and other household expenses, the part of one’s pay that is brought home and put on the kitchen table. This blue collar expression is used as the title of Jimmy Breslin’s novel Table Money, 1986.

armed paperhanger with the hives (sometimes attributed to O. Henry, who in a 1908 story wrote: “Busy as a one-armed man with the nettle rash pasting on wallpaper”). tag The signature of a graffiti writer. “He wanted to be known through all eternity as the writer who’d thrown up the most tags ever.” (Ed McBain, Mischief, 1993

Tad A number of references are found in these pages to T(homas) A(loysius) Dorgan (1877–1929), the great American cartoonist better known as “Tad” to millions of newspaper readers early in this century. Dorgan, born in a San Francisco tenement, taught himself to draw with his left hand when at the age of 13 an accident deprived him of the use of his right hand. He worked for a time on San Francisco newspapers, but his great fame came when William Randolph Hearst hired him away to New York. “Judge Rummy,” “Silk Hat Harry” and many of Tad’s characters, all dogs in human dress, became household words in America, and Dorgan was recognized as the country’s most prolific and original coiner of words and catchphrases. If there is a writer anywhere who invented more lasting words and expressions than Dorgan, I’ve missed him. Just for the record, here are some of the most memorable ones, a good number of which are described at length in these pages. Many were listed by humorist S. J. Perelman, a student and early admirer of Tad, in a New York Times Magazine article: hot dog; yes-man; dumbhead; applesauce (for insincere flattery); drugstore cowboy; lounge lizard; chin music (pointless talk); the once-over; the cat’s meow; press notice; 23-skiddoo; flat tire; for crying out loud; Officer, call a cop; Yes, we have no bananas; The first hundred years are the hardest (sometimes credited to Wilson Mizner); See what the boys in the backroom will have; The only place you’ll find sympathy is in the dictionary; Half the world are squirrels and the other half are nuts; as busy as a one-

take a cab Mob slang for to be killed. Comedian Alan King on the Arts & Entertainment channel’s “Las Vegas” program (December 1, 1996) said he was told of Bugsy Siegel’s killing this way: “Bugsy took a cab.” take a dive To fake a knockout in a boxing match and throw the fight; used since the early 1900s. take it in the arm Said of someone who widely exaggerates; the reference is to a mainline drug user. taken

See

CLIP

(definition 1).

take off To rip off, rob. “He says he’s gonna take off that bodega.” take the stone out of one’s shoe An old Italian saying used by the mob; to eliminate someone, remove him from my life so that he won’t bother me anymore. “ ‘All right,’ Don Corrado said with finality. ‘After you take the stone out of my shoe, leave her in a rent-a-car at the airport.’” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Honor, 1982) See also STONE IN ONE’S SHOE. talking Talking about, as in “This is fifty grand, we’re talkin’, not chicken feed,” or “I’m talking right away, tomorrow.” 676

thas 677 Tammany; Tweed Ring Tammany Hall has ceased to exist by now, but for over 150 years the machine held sway over New York City politics under such bosses as William Tweed, Richard Croker and Carmine DeSapio. Tammany’s unsavory association with machine politics dates back to the late 18th century, but Tammany clubs thrived in this country long before that, mostly as patriotic Revolutionary War organizations that ridiculed Tory groups like the Society of St. George. The clubs were named for Tamanend or Tamenund, a Delaware Indian chief said to have welcomed William Penn and signed with him the Treaty of Shakamaxon calling for friendly relations. Tamanend (sometimes his name is given as Taminy or Tammany) may have negotiated with Penn for the land that became Pennsylvania and may have been George Washington’s friend. The colonists jocularly canonized this friendly Indian chieftain as St. Tammany and adopted his name for their patriotic societies. These gradually died out, but not before one William Mooney had formed a Tammany Society in New York in 1789. By the Jacksonian era the club became one of the strongest Democratic political organizations in America. Thomas Nast created the famous symbol of the Tammany tiger in his cartoons attacking the machine in the 1870s, when the corrupt Tweed Ring was fleecing the city of over $100 million. tank artist

See quote under

GO IN THE WATER.

tartar sauce Often pronounced tawtuh sauce, especially in some parts of Brooklyn, where you’ll get a blank look at best if you order tartar (tar-TAR) sauce. taykadeezy, taykadeezy cool it.

“Take it easy, take it easy”;

tearing up the pea patch Red Barber popularized this southern United States expression for “going on a rampage” when he broadcast Brooklyn Dodgers baseball games from 1945 to 1955, using it often to describe fights on the field between players. Barber hails from the South, where the expression is an old one, referring to the prized patch of black-eyed peas which stray animals sometimes ruined. teddy bear Brooklyn candy store owner Morris Michtom fashioned the first teddy bear out of brown plush in 1902 and named it after President Theodore Roosevelt. Michtom’s inspiration was a cartoon by Washington Post cartoonist Clifford K. Berryman called “Drawing the Line in Mississippi” that had been reprinted throughout the country. Based on a news story about an expedition Teddy Roosevelt made to hunt bears near the Little Sunflower River in Mississippi, it showed the old Rough Rider with his back turned to a helpless bear cub. Gallant Teddy, it had been reported, refused to kill and

even set free the small brown bear that his obliging hosts had stunned and tied to a tree for him to shoot. Apocryphal or not, the story enhanced Roosevelt’s reputation as a conservationist and made Michtom rich. Teflon Don A nickname for New York Mafia boss John Gotti because the authorities couldn’t make charges stick to him. They finally did get some to stick, however, and he is now serving a life sentence. Gotti was also called Dapper Don, after the stylish clothes he wore. telling the tale Touting a horse to a prospective client at the racetrack. And of course if a guy whose business is telling the tale cannot find anybody to listen to him, he is greatly handicapped, for the tale such a guy tells is always about how he knows something is doing in a certain race, the idea of the tale being that it may cause the citizen who is listening to it to make a wager on this certain race, and if the race comes out the way the guy who is telling the tale says it will come out, naturally the citizen is bound to be very grateful to the guy, and maybe reward him liberally. (Runyon, “The Lemon Drop Kid,” 1931)

tell me about it I know exactly what you mean, perhaps better than you. “ ‘I hate cops getting shot.’ ‘Tell me about it,’ Sharyn said, and nodded grimly.” (Ed McBain, Romance, 1995) tenements City tenements are bad enough today, but toward the end of the 19th century they were horrors, often with names like the Dirty Spoon or Bandit’s Roost and located on streets actually named Poverty Gap, Bottle Alley, Penitentiary Row, etc. Often they were boarding houses with signs advertising “Five Cents a Spot,” “Hallway Space 3¢” and “Standing Room Only.” terlet A pronunciation of toilet sometimes heard in New York, though not as commonly today as in the past. tess

A pronunciation of test.

tetch inna cup Tens of thousands of days ago I worked on the mike in Coney Island for a much-loved woman whose favorite expression was tetch inna cup, which the applied to anyone who acted a little crazy, this including almost everyone. At least that’s how the words sounded. I always assumed the expression was Yiddish and meant “touched in the head,” cup being the Yiddish word for “head.” But though I’ve heard the words since, I’ve never found them in print and can only offer them in this raw form. thas A mostly Puerto Rican pronunciation of that’s. “If there was one thing she could not stand . . . it was

678 New Yawk Tawk that they [Puerto Ricans] said ‘thas’ and ‘New Jessey.’ ” (Jimmy Breslin, Forsaking All Others, 1982)

Prizzis again. They think they shit candy.” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Money, 1994)

that Often substituted for who, as in “She’s the one that went,” instead of “She’s the one who went.”

30 Rock

That Guy An unusual pseudonym, in this case for New York City mob boss Vincent “Vinnie the Chin” Gigante, whose mob members are not permitted to speak his name; they are required to say “That Guy,” while rubbing the chin, when speaking of him. See also PRIME MINISTER OF THE MOB. that’s a doozy Said of something splendid, outstanding, as in “That’s a doozy [of a striped bass you caught].” The term was common in the 1940s and 1950s in New York City, but is less frequently used today. It is first recorded in 1903 and is probably an alteration of daisy, influenced by the last name of the great Italian actress Eleonora Duse (1859–1924), who was indeed a doozy of a performer. It can also mean something outstandingly bad, as in “That’s a doozy of a cut you got.” that’s not kosher

See

KOSHER.

The Bronx?/No Thonx! Poet Ogden Nash (1902–71) created a scandal in the Bronx when he put down the New York City borough with the couplet: The Bronx? / No thonx! Nash never apologized, as Bronx politicians demanded he do at the time, but 20 years later, in 1964, he did make a kind of apology by writing the following poem in response to a request from Bronx Community College: I can’t seem to escape the sins of my smart-alec youth. Here are my amends. I wrote those lines, “The Bronx? No thonx!” I shudder to confess them. Now I’m an older, wiser man I cry, “The Bronx, God bless them!”

Which isn’t nearly as good as The Bronx? / No thonx! their The personal pronoun is often used instead of his or her, as in “That type of person needs their sleep.” there Frequently dropped from the phrase where there is, as in “You know where’s a towel?” instead of “Do you know where there’s a towel?” things happen A shorter alternative to such synonymous observations as such are the workings of fate; that’s the way it goes; that’s the way the cookie crumbles or the ball bounces. The term dates back to about 1955 and is often heard today. think one shits candy To be exceedingly vain, think one is God’s gift to the world. “This is those fucking

See

BLACK ROCK.

33 other McQuades A phrase remembered from the testimony to the Seabury Commission of Brooklyn Tammany leader James A. McQuade, who explained how he had banked $520,000 over a 6-year period on a total salary to $50,000 for that time. He borrowed it, he said, “to support the 33 other McQuades.” “They were,” vowed McQuade, “placed on my back, I being the only breadwinner, so to speak, and after that it was necessary to keep life in their body, sustenance, to go out and borrow money.” this I need yet? A common expression of lamentation influenced by Yiddish. this is on me

See

PARDON MY DUST.

this is true An affirmation in response to another’s opinion or statement. Often repeated: “This is true, this is true.“ thoid

A pronunciation of third.

Thomas Muffin This is a common name for an English muffin, even though it is a trademark. It honors Samuel Bath Thomas, founder of the S. B. Thomas Company (called Thomas’s today), who opened a bakery in Manhattan in 1880 and sold English muffins made from a recipe his mother brought from England. threepeat This new word, based on repeat and meaning to do something three times in a row, this expression seems to have been coined by New York Knicks coach Pat Riley in 1993, when the Chicago Bulls won the National Basketball Association title for the third straight year. Whether threepeat will last and pass into general usage remains to be seen. Times Square Part of midtown Manhattan surrounding the intersection of Broadway and Seventh Avenue. Originally known as Long Acre Square, it was an important commercial center and home to William H. Vanderbilt’s Horse Exchange, as well as to an exclusive neighborhood built by the Astor family between 1830 and 1860. It was renamed Times Square around the turn of the century in honor of the newly built New York Times building on Forty-third Street, and the newspaper’s publisher, Adolph Ochs, sponsored what has since become Times Square’s most famous event—an annual New Year’s Eve celebration that is still observed today. Following World War I, the district became a major center for the theater and entertainment industries and a

Tree Grows in Brooklyn, A 679 popular tourist destination. But the Depression and the interruption of theater productions by World War II allowed a seedy element to settle there in the form of erotic theaters, peep shows and prostitution. Regardless, Times Square never lost its appeal to theatergoers and visitors, and recent attempts to clean it up have dramatically changed its image. See CROSSROADS OF THE WORLD.

Joseph C. Gayetty of New York City began selling an unbleached, pearl-colored, pure manila hemp product at 300 sheets for 50¢. “Gayetty’s Medicated Paper—a perfectly pure article for the toilet and for the prevention of piles” had Gayetty’s name watermarked on each sheet. Before this the Ward and Sears mail-order catalogs were indispensable in the outhouses of America.

ting A pronunciation of thing. “Near the entrance to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, a cabdriver screamed, ‘Hey, whyn’t you learn howda drive dat ting?’ and I knew I was home.” (Pete Hamill, Flesh and Blood, 1977)

toin

Tin Pan Alley Tin Pan Alley is said to have been so named by songwriter Harry Von Tilzer, who in the early years of the 20th century gave us perennial favorites like “I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl Who Married Dear Old Dad,” “Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage,” “What You Goin’ to Do When the Rent Comes Round?” and “Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie.” He also wrote a pop hit called “Mariutch Make a da Hootch-a-Ma-Cootch,” which became a vehicle for New York’s Italian dialect comedians, who were starting to be heard along with Irish, German, AfroAmerican and Jewish dialect comedians of the day. The original Tin Pan Alley was and is located between Fortyeighth and Fifty-second streets on Seventh Avenue in New York City, an area where many music publishers, recording studios, composers and arrangers have offices. The place was probably named for the tinny sound of the cheap, much-abused pianos in music publisher’s offices there, or for the constant noise emanating from the area, which sounded like the banging of tin pans to some. Tin Pan Alley, the term first recorded in 1914, today means any place where popular music is published, and it can even stand for popular music itself. to The preposition is often omitted, as in “Let’s go over Harry’s house,” or “Let’s go down the store.” tochis Pronounced TUCK-iss (and sometimes TOOKiss) this is a widely known Yiddish word that means the buttocks or ass. It derives from Hebrew for “under, beneath.” Todt Hill At 409.239 feet above sea level, this hill on Staten Island is said to be the highest natural elevation in New York City. In fact, The Encyclopedia of New York City (1995) credits it with being “the highest point on the Atlantic Coast in the United States south of Maine.” High Hill, near Huntington on Long Island, is around the same height. toilet paper Toilet paper, or lavatory paper, which Nancy Mitford says is the “U” (proper) word for it, isn’t recorded until the 1880s. The first commercial toilet paper had been marketed, however, in 1857, when

A pronunciation of turn.

Toity-toid and Toid A pronunciation of Thirty-third Street and Third Avenue. tomato

See

tomato can Tombs

See

PANCAKE.

See quote under

GO IN THE WATER.

CITY COLLEGE.

Tootsie Roll New York candy maker Leo Hirschfield invented the Tootsie Roll in 1896. He named the chewy chocolate for his daughter Clara, whose nickname was Tootsie. Another similarly named candy is the square hunk of chocolate, cashews, brazil nuts and raisins called the Chunky. Candymaker Philip Silverstein invented the confection and named it after his daughter, nicknamed Chunky. tops Loaded dice. “. . . it seems they soon discover that [he] is using tops on them, which is very dishonest dice . . .” (Damon Runyon, “Madame La Gimp,” 1929) toy See quote. “The Herrara kid seemed to be at the bottom of the pecking order, a simple ‘toy’ in the hierarchy of graffiti writers.” (Ed McBain, Mischief) trambo A tramp, a disreputable woman. “So you are the trambo who keeps my husband out all night, are you, you trambo?” (Damon Runyon, Blood Pressure, 1929) traveler A name that a New York street punk might call him or herself. [They] count themselves as “travelers.” Which means that they travel with their Mohawks and pierced foreheads and romantic visions of unity against the larger society, in little bands to the St. Marks Places and Haight Streets around the country. Few steal, hustle and beg to support their habits. The major tension in their lives comes from deciding how long to stay in any one city before moving on. (Fisher, “Ernie’s Looking for LegRub Steve. . .” New York Times Magazine)

Tree Grows in Brooklyn, A Although never named in Betty Smith’s novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943) nor the movies made from it, the tree in the book is ailanthus altissima, also called the tree of heaven. No

680 New Yawk Tawk other tree withstands smoke and other city conditions so well, and the ailanthus seeds easily everywhere, often growing out of cracks in deserted sidewalks. Only female trees should be planted, however, as the odor of the male flower is noxious to many, which is why the ailanthus, a native of China, is also called the stink tree or stinkweed. The tree was brought to France by a missionary in 1751 and reached America 39 years later. Also called the backyard tree. tree of heaven

See

TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN, A.

Tricky Dick This nickname for former president Richard Nixon may have its roots in an Irish-American name for another politician named Richard. My grandmother spoke of a New York ward heeler named Tricky Dick, but she may have meant Slippery Dick Connolly, comptroller for the Tweed Ring. In any case, James Joyce named a politician Tricky Dick Tierney in his short story “Ivy Day in the Committee Room” (1914), and it is not inconceivable that it was a felicitous Irish turn of speech, one of so many that came to New York with Irish immigrants. trombernick Someone who looks like trouble. “ ‘Look at this trombernick,’ Weinstein said. He was watching Teenager . . . ‘Trouble,’ Weinstein said again . . .” (Jimmy Breslin, Forsaking All Others, 1982) troot

A pronunciation of truth.

true

A pronunciation of through.

tuh A common pronunciation of to, as in “Are y’ goin’ tuh come with me?” tumorra A pronunciation of tomorrow. “‘I’ll call you back at the office tumorra.’ ” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Money, 1994) Tweed Ring Possibly “the greatest plunderers of a great city the world has ever known,” the Tweed Ring was headed by political boss William M. “Boss” Tweed, elegant Mayor A. Oakey Hall and Richard B. “Slippery Dick” Connolly. It is said that the ring looted the city treasury of up to $200 million in the period from 1865 to 1874. One public building they commissioned, for example, included a bill of $41,190.95 for brooms! Thanks to crusading journalism on the part of the New York Times and cartoonist Thomas Nast, the ring was exposed, but only Boss Tweed went to jail, where he died in 1878.

Twenty-five Foot Mile The last mile, the distance from the holding cell to the electric chair at Sing Sing prison. twenty-three skiddoo For well over half a century no one has used this expression seriously, but it is still remembered today—mainly as a phrase representative of the Roaring Twenties, which it is not. Twenty-three skiddoo is important, too. It goes back to about 1900 and for 10 years enjoyed great popularity as America’s first national fad expression, paving the way for thousands of other dispensables such as Yes, we have no bananas; Shoofly; Hey, Abbott!; Coming, mother! and I dood it! Twenty-three skiddoo practically lost its meaning of “scram” or “beat it” and just became the thing to say, anytime. As for its derivation, it is said to have been invented or popularized by that innovative early comicstrip artist “Tad” Dorgan, encountered frequently in these pages under hot dog, yes-man and other of his coinings. Regarding its composition, skiddoo may be a shortening of the earlier skedaddle. Twenty-three is a mystery; perhaps it was a code number used by telegraphers. There is even a theory that it “owes its existence to the fact that the most gripping and thrilling word in A Tale of Two Cities is twenty-three”: in the book the hero, Sydney Carton, is the 23rd man to be executed on the 23rd day of the month. Another theory associates twenty-three skidoo with the address of the famous Flatiron Building: . . . standing on what was traditionally the windiest corner of the city, [the Flatiron Building] was facetiously considered a good vantage point for the glimpse of a trim ankle, in the long-skirted, prewar era; policemen used to shoo loungers away from the Twenty-third Street corner, and the expression “twenty-three skiddoo” is supposed to have originated from this association. (Federal Writers’ Project, New York City Guide, 1939)

twicet

See

ONCET; TWICET.

Twin Towers

See

WORLD TRADE CENTER.

twist it, choke it and make it cackle Colorful waiter’s slang of old for an order of a chocolate malted with an egg in it. twofers Twofers has meant two theater tickets for the price of one in America since about 1948. In New York City today half-price tickets for Broadway plays can be bought at Duffy Square. Twofer had previously referred to two-for-a-nickel cigars since as early as 1892. type Frequently used in place of kind of, as in “She’s the type person that lies.”

U U Mob talk for a thousand dollars. “How much would a boat like that cost?” “A boat like that? Oh, about 300 U’s.” (The movie Donnie Brasco, 1997)

ungotz Nothing; originally Italian slang. “‘You got everything, we got ungotz.’” (Jimmy Breslin, The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight, 1969)

uddah

University in Exile RESEARCH.

A pronunciation of other.

uf caws Heard in New York for of course. “Uf caws he can come with us to the store.” uhparment ment.

See

NEW SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL

unna Under. “I guess I din know how good-lookin’ you was because you was right unna my nose.” (Arthur Kober, “You Mean Common,” 1940)

Heard in the New York area for apart-

unnerstand A pronunciation of understand. Also unnastan’. See quote under MOUT’.

under the table New York character George Washington “Chuck” Connors, the so-called Bowery Philosopher in the 1890s and the early years of the 20th century, is said to have coined the expression under the table for dead drunk. He is also thought to be responsible for the catch phrases oh, forget it and the real thing.

unshushables The unshushables are the incessant talkers in a movie theater or any group who refuses to be quiet. Coined by the character Jerry on the New York— inspired television comedy Seinfeld. up in the paints High up. I’ve been unable to find the origin of this phrase, but I’d guess it derives from the slang paints for playing cards, up in the paints being the higher valued cards in a deck. “Madame La Gimp’s sister is not such a doll as I wish to have sawed off on me, and is up in the paints as regards age . . .” (Damon Runyon, “Madame La Gimp,” 1929) (Incidentally, this Runyon story was the basis for the very popular film Lady for a Day, which won three Academy Awards.)

underworld Since about 1608, when the term is first recorded, underworld had meant hell, or the nether world of the dead beneath the earth. But in the 18th century the word was applied to the world of criminals, who were considered “beneath” proper society. By the 1920s underworld was only being used in this second sense to describe organized crime, which the word generally means today.

uppah Manhattan Right before da Bronx, is uppah, or upper, Manhattan, below which is midtown Manhattan and further down, lower, or downtown, Manhattan, all of these areas taking in many other distinct areas, such as lower Manhattan’s Financial District (Wall Street), Chinatown, etc.

unemployment The unemployment is frequently used for unemployment insurance, as in, “I’m waiting to get on the unemployment.” But unemployment alone, without the the, is also frequently used: “I’m waiting to get on unemployment.” The same applies for welfare. 681

682 New Yawk Tawk upped Mob talk for promoted. “He got upped when Gotti took over.” uptick Though it has more complicated technical meanings on Wall Street, uptick has come to mean an

upsurge or a pickup, especially when referring to the state of the economy. A 1980s term, it of course has its roots in Wall Street’s stock ticker or ticker tape machine.

V vanella

longest in North America. The Verrazano is named for Italian navigator and explorer Giovanni Verrazano (c.1480–1527?) who sailed in New York waters 85 years before Henry Hudson. See HUDSON RIVER.

A pronunciation of vanilla.

Vaseline Among those flocking to America’s first oil strike near Titusville, Pennsylvania, in 1858, was Robert A. Chesebrough, a Brooklyn chemist, who noticed that workmen with cuts, bruises and burns used as a soothing ointment, a waxy substance from the pump rods bringing up the oil. Gathering some of the oily residue, Chesebrough took it back to Brooklyn and made a jellylike product from it. This he patented at once, giving it the trademark Vaseline, a word he formed from the German Wasser (pronounced vasser), “water,” and the Greek elaion, “olive oil.”

verse

A pronunciation of voice.

vic Police slang for a victim. “‘Who’s the vic, anyway,’ the other one [policeman] said.” (Ed McBain, Romance, 1995) vichyssoise The chilled potato and leek soup wasn’t invented in France as many people believe. Ritz Carlton Hotel chef Louis Diat invented it in New York City in 1910.

vending machine The term vending machine seems to have been introduced either by the Adams’ Gum Company (now part of American Chicle) in the 1880s to describe the machine that the company used to sell tuttifrutti gumballs on New York City elevated train platforms, or at about the same time by the Frank H. Fleer Gum Company, whose founder had agreed to an experiment proposed by a young vending machine salesman. The salesman argued that vending machines were so great a sales gimmick that people would actually drop a penny in them for nothing. Frank Fleer agreed to buy several machines if the young man’s pitch proved true, and the experiment was conducted at New York’s Flatiron Building. The salesman set up a vending machine there, with printed instructions to “drop a penny in the slot and listen to the wind blow.” He got Fleer’s order when hundreds of people contributed their pennies and continued to do so until New York’s Finest hauled the machine away.

vigorish; vig Many people have paid usurious rates of interest to loan sharks. The margin of profit in such transactions, 20 percent or more a week, late payment penalties and other fees, is called vigorish, or vig, which also means the percentage set by a bookmaker in his own favor. Vigorish is one of the few English words with Russian roots, deriving from the Russian vyigrysh, “gambling gains or profit,” which first passed into Yiddish early in 20th-century America as vigorish and was reinforced by its similarity to vigor. “The vigorish, or the percentage, or the house cut, the edge that made any gambling a winning proposition for the mob. Even when they lost, they won. Bet a hundred bucks on a football game, the bookie paid you the hundred if you won, but if you lost he collected a hundred and ten.” (Evan Hunter, Criminal Conversation, 1994) Village

See

virgin bagel Verrazano Bridge Officially named the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, this suspension bridge connects Brooklyn and Staten Island. Its 4,260-feet center span is the

GREENWICH VILLAGE.

See

BIALY.

voitue A pronunciation of virtue still hoid in all boroughs. 683

W waddadajintzoodisaft What did the (New York) Giants do this afternoon? A question commonly asked when there was a New York Giants (Jints) baseball team and daytime baseball games were common in New York. The pronunciation is recorded in the Federal Writers’ Project Almanac for New Yorkers (1938).

Waldorf salad Maître d’hôtel Oscar Tschirky of the Waldorf Hotel invented this salad of apples, celery, mayonaise and chopped walnuts in 1893. The nuts weren’t added to the popular salad until a few years later.

wahgoozidoo What good does it do. “Cynical dejection,” a pronunciation recorded in the Federal Writers’ Project Almanac for New Yorkers (1938).

Wall Street Wall Street, which is both a street and a term symbolizing varying views of American capitalism in general, is of course located in lower Manhattan, at the southern end of the island, and takes its name from the wall that extended along the street in Dutch times (a wall that was erected against the Indians and parts of which were used for firewood). The principal financial institutions of the city have been located there since the early 19th century. Wall Streeter, Wall Street broker, Wall Street plunger and Wall Street shark are among American terms to which the street gave birth, Wall Street broker used as early as 1836, and Wall Street being called the Street by 1863.

walking

wait’ll next year Wait until next year, the loyal, optimistic motto or battle cry of Brooklyn Dodger fans in years during the 1940s when the Dodgers didn’t win the pennant or, winning the pennant, failed to win the World Series. wake me up when Kirby dies An old New York catchphrase not heard anymore but whose story is worth hearing. The tale is told in Charles Hemstreet’s When Old New York Was Young (1902). Something more than sixty years ago [in about 1840] the attention of theatre-goers was directed to a young actor who appeared at intervals in the Chatham Theatre. He was J. Hudson Kirby. His acting had not much merit, but he persisted in a theory that made him famous. It was his idea that an actor should reserve all his strength for scenes of carnage and death. The earlier acts of a play he passed through carelessly, but when he came to death-scenes he threw himself into them with such force and fury that they came to be the talk of the town. Some of the spectators found the earlier acts so dull and tiresome that they went to sleep, taking the precaution, however, to nudge their neighbor, with the request to wake them up for the deathscene. And for long years after Kirby’s time, the catchphrase applied to any supreme effort was “Wake me up when Kirby dies.”

See

DOUBLE.

Wall Street Journal The daily newspaper was founded in 1889 by Dow Jones and Company, a financial news agency at the time. In 1901 it was purchased by newspaperman Clarence Walker Barrow, who started it on its way from a journal of business items to the international influential newspaper it is today. Walt Whitman house The birthplace of America’s greatest poet in West Hills (Huntington), Long Island. Whitman worked for over 25 years on various Brooklyn newspapers and knew the city and Long Island as well as any of his contemporaries.

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whatsa 685 wannamayksumpnuvit? Want to make something of it? Defined as an “Invitation to a brawl,” this pronunciation was recorded in the Federal Writers’ Project Almanac for New Yorkers (1938). warm piece of the sidewalk A decent living. “Even a dog gets a warm piece of the sidewalk.” (The movie Donnie Brasco, 1997) washastep A pronunciation of watch your step, as in “Washastep gettin’ off da bus.” wassitooyuh? What’s it to you? “A delicate rebuff to an excessively curious questioner,” this pronunciation appeared in the Federal Writers’ Project Almanac for New Yorkers (1938). watthitcha? What hit you? “To a gentleman with a shiner,” a pronunciation recorded in the Federal Writers’ Project Almanac for New Yorkers (1938). waves The portion of a public beach where the water is not calm and waves break on the shore. In the Rockaways, for example, the waters are calm from Beach First Street to Beach Twentieth Street because this area is part of an inlet. From Beach Twentieth Street to the end of the Rockaway peninsula the shore faces the rougher open Atlantic and this area is called the waves, as in “Let’s go down to the waves.” Also called the breakers. wazzitooyuh?

What’s it to you?

wear it in good health One of those expressions everyone hears a hundred times over the years, but whose inventor will never be known. It is thought to be a Yiddish contribution or to have been influenced by Yiddish; it is commonly said to someone who buys or is given clothing of some kind. We Can Kick Your City’s Ass A New York City slogan said to be a favorite of (and first uttered by) Rudolph Giuliani, according to the New York Times in an article entitled “Welcome to New York, Capital of Curses.” weekend warrior Originally a nickname for a National Guardsman who serves weekends in the military for a certain time. Now, the term is also used to describe professionals who work 9–5 during the week and then go wild on the weekend, either with partying or by playing dangerous sports. welcome to the club You’re not alone, there are many of us in the same sinking boat; words of commiseration. Heard on the street: “With three kids it’s getting so I can’t afford hospitalization anymore.” “Welcome to the club.”

welfare

See

UNEMPLOYMENT.

West Side The west side of Manhattan in New York City, west of Fifth Avenue and bordered by the Hudson River. The term was made famous by the musical West Side Story, which opened on Broadway in 1957. See EAST SIDE. wet one’s beak To partake of some of the rewards of an enterprise, usually a criminal activity. “ ‘After all, this is my neighborhood and you should let me wet my beak.’ He used the Sicilian phrase of the Mafia, ‘Fari vagnavie a pizzu.’ Pizzu means the beak of any small bird such as canary. The phrase itself was a demand for part of the loot.” (Mario Puzo, The Godfather, 1969) we wuz robbed! When Jack Sharkey won a decision over Max Schmeling in 1932 to take the world heavyweight championship, Schmeling’s manager, Joe Jacobs, grabbed the mike of the fight’s radio announcer and shouted, “We wuz robbed!” to a million Americans. The New Yorker’s words are still a comic protest heard from losers in any endeavor. Jacobs’s “I should of stood in bed” is even more commonly used in fun. He said it after leaving his sickbed to watch the 1935 World Series in Detroit. According to John Lardner’s Strong Cigars and Lovely Women (1951), Bartlett’s is wrong in saying Jacobs made the remark to sportswriters in New York after returning from Detroit, and it had nothing to do with his losing a bet that Detroit would win the series. Jacobs made the remark, Lardner says, in the press box during the opening game of the series, when “an icy wind was curdling his blood” at the coldest ballgame anyone could remember. whack out Mob talk for to kill. “You whack him out or I whack you out!”. whadda What do. “‘Whadda you want me to do?’” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Money, 1994) whaddaya do?”

What are you, as in “Whaddaya gonna

what am I, chopped liver?

See

CHOPPED LIVER.

what do you want I should tell you? want me to say?

What do you

whatever Whatever you say. “I’ll give you ten percent now, the rest when you deliver.” “Whatever.” whatsa What’s the. “After all, if we can’t be frank— well, I mean, whatsa use?” (Arthur Kober, “You Mean Common,” 1940)

686 New Yawk Tawk what’s the big idea! An interjection commonly heard in New York, as in “What’s the big idea, get on the back of the line!”

Allen, who ran an infamous dance hall on Water Street that was frequented by many prostitutes and their prospects in the 1860s.

wheel Common racetrack slang meaning to combine a horse’s number in the first race with the numbers of every horse running in the second race in an attempt to win the daily double (that is, to pick the horse that wins the first race of the day and the horse that wins the second race of the day). Playing such a bet at the ticket window, a horseplayer often says, for example, “Wheel eight” and pays for tickets combining “the eight horse” with every other horse in the second race.

wid A common pronunciation of with, as in “I’ll go widya.”

when a dog bites a man . . . Crusty New Yorker Sun city editor John B. Bogart (1845–1921) is said by some to have originated, in conversation, the old saw: “When a dog bites a man, that is not news, because it happens so often. But if a man bites a dog, that is news.” However, the adage may be based on an old story whose particulars have long been lost.

Winchell, Walter A sensationalist New York newspaper columnist who coined or popularized many slang terms from the 1920s to 1950s. Damon Runyon used him as the model for Waldo Winchester in “Romance in the Roaring Forties” (1929), his first Broadway story and probably the first story with a newspaper columnist of the Winchell type as the central character. Winchell had many admirers, but many detractors as well. While they were fishing in the Gulf of California, John Steinbeck and his friend Doc Ricketts noticed a little fish that lived in the cloaca of the sea cucumber and kept darting in and out of the creature’s anus. They named the hitherto unrecorded fish Proctophilus winchilli after the gossip columnist who got all the latest dirt.

when you’ve left New York, you ain’t goin’ nowhere An old saying, its exact origins unknown, which must have been coined by a New Yorker. where’s it at Where is it. “ ‘Do you want a drink of whiskey?’ Navy said. ‘Never. Where’s it at?’ ” (Jimmy Breslin, Table Money, 1986) white money

See

BLACK MONEY.

whole shebang The earliest recorded use of shebang is by Walt Whitman in Specimen Days (1862); Mark Twain used it several times as well. Meaning a poor, temporary dwelling, a shack, this Americanism possibly derives from the Anglo-Irish shebeen, “a low illegal drinking establishment,” older than shebang by a century or so. In the expression the whole shebang, first recorded in 1879, shebang means not just a shack but anything at all—any present concern, thing, business—as in “You can take the whole shebang,” you can take all of it. whole shmeer The entire package, the whole deal, as in “I’ll take the whole shmeer.” See SHMEER. who needs it? IN THE HEAD.

See I (HE, SHE, ETC.) NEED IT

LIKE A HOLE

Williamsboig A common pronunciation of Williamsburg, an area in Brooklyn that can be reached by the Williamsboig Bridge. “Will You Love Me in December As You Did in May” See FUN CITY.

wise boy A variation of wise guy. “ ‘They’re what you call wise boys,’ Hogan said. ‘Don’t you know them, too?’ ” (Ernest Hemingway, “Fifty Grand,” The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway, 1953) See WISE GUY. wise guy Another name for a member of the Mafia; made famous in Nicholas Pileggi and Henry Hill’s book Wiseguys (1985), which became the movie Goodfellas (1990). witchew A pronunciation of with you. “ ‘Don’t take The Plumber witchew.’ ” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Money, 1994) with; on New Yorkers rarely use on for with anymore, as in “Do you want zucchini or salad on your spaghetti?” On in this sense probably means “on your order.”

who’s buried in Grant’s tomb? An old joking question on exams or in contests between kids. It’s not so obvious as it seems: Both General Grant and his wife, Julia, are buried there. See GRANT’S TOMB.

without Sometimes substituted for unless, as in “I’m not going without you go, too.”

Wickedest Man in New York There may be many more wicked, but historically the title goes to one John

Woolworth Building One of New York’s most beautiful buildings, inside and out, this downtown structure

woim

A pronunciation of worm.

wuntcha was once the world’s tallest building. According to New York Panorama (1939): Cass Gilbert, the architect, liked to tell how Frank Woolworth came to put up the tallest building in the world at a time (1913) when the New York skyline was still dominated by the Metropolitan Tower. The Metropolitan Insurance Company had refused Woolworth a loan, and in so doing had roused his ire. He happened to See a postcard from Calcutta with a picture of the Metropolitan Tower—its fame as the tallest building had spread all over the world. Woolworth made a survey to determine the Metropolitan’s exact height, and then ordered his architect to exceed it.

It should also be noted that the Reverend Dr. S. Parker Cadman christened the Gothic-style building with silvery lacework the Cathedral of Commerce. Visiting British statesman Arthur Balfour observed: “What shall I say of a city that builds the most beautiful cathedral in the world and calls it an office building.” The 50story Skyqueen, modeled after London’s House of Parliament, was then the world’s tallest skyscraper, at 792 feet, but was proportioned so gracefully by architect Gilbert that it is still regarded as one of the most majestic buildings in the City of Towers. Frank Woolworth’s office inside is a replica of the Empire Room of Napoleon Bonaparte’s palace in Compiègne. But amid all the superlatives about the building, too myriad to catalog here, perhaps the most amazing is that it was built without a mortgage and without a single dollar’s indebtedness. Frank Woolworth just shelled out $13.5 million in cold cash—unique in the history of great buildings in the United States, or anywhere else for that matter. See CHRYSLER BUILDING. World’s Largest Garbage Dump New York City’s Fresh Kills Reclamation Plant No. 1 on Staten Island holds this title. Covering over 3,000 acres it processes some 4.38 million tons of garbage a year. It opened in 1948. World’s Largest Store This is the slogan of Macy’s department store and refers to its Herald Square anchor store, which contains 2.2 million square feet of floor space. A good-size house has 2,000 square feet of living space, so you could put 10,000 houses in Macy’s at Herald Square, which has as much selling areas as many large shopping centers. The Herald Square store (at Thirty-fourth Street and Broadway) opened in 1902 on a site that was once occupied by, among other enterprises, a few fine brothels and Koster & Bial’s Music Hall, where “Thomas A. Edison with the ‘Vitascope’ first projected a motion picture,” as a plaque still outside a Macy’s entrance informs. World Trade Center Also called the Twin Towers, this 1,350-foot-tall structure in downtown Manhattan is the

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world’s largest office building, with 12 million square feet of rentable space. It is not the world’s tallest building, however. Sears Tower in Chicago is the tallest building in the United States, and Petronas Tower in Malaysia is the world’s record-holder at 1,482 feet 8 inches. Over 50,000 people work in the World Trade Center, more than twice as many as in the Pentagon. See EMPIRE STATE BUILDING; WOOLWORTH BUILDING. woulda A pronunciation of would have. “‘I woulda scared her and she coulda lied to me.’” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Money, 1994) writer Slang for a graffiti artist. “New walls attracted these writers the way honey did bears. Put up a new wall or a new fence, wouldn’t be ten minutes before they were out spraying it.” (Ed McBain, Mischief, 1993) Wrong-Way Corrigan Douglas “Wrong-Way” Corrigan may have gone the wrong way unintentionally. The 31-year-old pilot flew from California to New York in a record time of fewer than 28 hours and took off the next day in his battered plane to return to California. His plane had no radio, beam finder or safety devices, and had failed safety inspections, which would indicate that he had no plans for a publicity stunt. But even though extra gas tanks blocked his view, it is hard to explain how, after he took off in a westerly direction over Jamaica Bay, near the present Kennedy International Airport in New York, he swung his plane in a wide arc and crossed the Rockaway peninsula, heading out over the Atlantic Ocean. Presumably, he flew through a thick fog convinced that he was California-bound until the fog lifted that fine morning of July 18, 1938, and he looked down at the grass roofs and cobblestoned streets of Ireland! Corrigan told officials at Dublin’s Baldonnel Airport that he had accidentally flown the wrong way, and he promptly became known as “Wrong-Way” Corrigan. As a result he became a hero, made close to $100,000 and even played himself in The Flying Irishman, a movie based on his “mistake.” When asked if he had really meant to fly to California, Corrigan replied, “Sure . . . well, at least I’ve told that story so many times that I believe it myself now.” wuh

A pronunciation of were. “We wuh there.”

wuhduh A pronunciation of would have, as in “I wuhduh done it for y’.” wuntcha Wouldn’t you; a common contraction among the New York speakers: “Wuntcha like to go?”

Y yada, yada, yada A catchphrase popularized by the television show Seinfeld (NBC-TV), starring Jerry Seinfeld. Yada, yada, yada is akin to blah, blah, blah in meaning and usage. “We exchanged greetings, went to lunch, yada, yada, yada, and signed the deal.”

Yankee Clipper

See

JOLTIN’ JOE.

Yankee Stadium The home field of the New York Yankees since 1923. The stadium in the Bronx is also called the House That Ruth Built.

yah The Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn has traditionally been the neighborhood of Scandinavians in New York, and the pronunciation yah for yes or yeah is still heard there. But yah never became a pronunciation widely used by other New Yorkers, as it has, for example, in Minnesota, where everyone seems to use it. Jacob Riis, a Danish immigrant, was responsible for popularizing the phrase the other half for the poor in his book How the Other Half Lives, an important contribution to sociological literature. Riis Park in the Rockaways is named for him.

Yaptown An obsolete name for New York coined by O. Henry. “If there was ever an aviary overstocked with jays it is the Yaptown-on-the-Hudson called New York.” yard One hundred dollars. “I am now able to explain to them that I have to wire most of the three hundred yards I win to Nebraska to save my father’s farm . . .” (Damon Runyon, “A Story Goes With It,” 1931) yarmulke Yarmulke, the skullcap worn by Jewish men, is said by most dictionaries to be a Yiddish word that derives from a Tartar word, which in turn comes from the Polish word for “skullcap.” However, in an article published in the Hebrew Union College Annual (Vol. 26, 1955), Dr. Gunther W. Plaut concludes that yarmulke derives ultimately “from the Latin almucia or armucella, the amice (vestment) worn by the priest.” The theory that yarmulke derives from a Hebrew word meaning “awe of the king” is a nice story but only folklore. The skullcap is worn, of course, as a sign of respect before God; this is a custom not only among Jews but is practiced by many people of the East.

Yankee The most popular of dozens of theories holds that the Yankee in the name of the New York Yankees comes from the Dutch expression Jan Kee, “little John,” which the English used to mean “John Cheese” and contemptuously applied to Dutch seamen in the New World and then to New England sailors. From a perjorative nickname for New England sailors, the term Jan Kee, corrupted to Yankee, was next applied to all New Englanders and then to all Americans during the American Revolution; the most notable example of this is found in the derisive song “Yankee Doodle.” Nowadays, the British and others use it for American northerners, and northerners use it for New Englanders, who are usually proud of the designation. The New York Yankees’s name was initially the Highlanders (in 1903) and then the Hilltoppers, becoming the Yankees (in 1913), so the story goes, because it was shorter and better suited to newspaper headlines.

yellow An old term for a yellow cab, or any cab. “Johnny stops a Yellow short, and hustles us into it and tells the driver to keep shoving down Eighth Avenue.” (Damon Runyon, “The Hottest Guy in the World,” 1929) yellow journalism William Randolph Hearst (1863–1951), American newspaper publisher, editor and 688

youse 689 model for Citizen Kane, is responsible for the term yellow journalism. In 1896 Hearst hired R. F. Outcault away from the New York World to draw his comic character the Yellow Kid for Hearst’s New York Journal. But the World continued the Yellow Kid cartoon, the first color comic, using another artist to draw the antics of the sassy little kid in his bright yellow nightdress. From the resulting sensational battle between the two Yellow Kids, plus the use of yellow to describe sensational books since at least 1846, came the term yellow journalism or yellow press, for sensational, unscrupuluous reporting, which was coined in 1898 and applied to Hearst’s Spanish-American War stories. Yellow Rose of Texas Just as Dixie, the marching song of the Confederacy, was written in New York City, so was the famed yellow rose of Texas first grown here. The yellow rose of Texas, which is part of the state’s folklore and even has a famous song written about it, actually originated in the 1830s on a New York City farm near the present-day Penn Station. There a lawyer named George Harrison found it as a seedling growing among other roses on his property and began cultivating it. Settlers soon took the yellow rose west with them, and legend has it that Texas finally claimed it as their own when Mexican general Santa Anna, the villain of the Alamo, “was distracted by a beautiful woman with yellow roses in her hair.” We have this nice story on the authority of Stephen Scanniello, rosarian of the Crawford Rose Garden in the New York Botanical Gardens. See also DOROTHY PERKINS ROSE. yenta Yiddish for a gossipy woman who talks too much and can’t keep a secret, yenta may derive from some unknown blabbermouth named Yenta. The proper name Yenta probably derives from the Italian gentile. A talkative character named Yenta Talabenta in a play by Sholom Aleichem popularized this term. yes, we have no bananas A popular catchphrase still heard occasionally; from a song written by Frank Silver and Sam Cohen in the mid-1920s. Silver got the idea for the song when he heard a Greek fruit peddler yell up to a woman at a New York tenement window,”Yes, we have no bananas!” yez Sometimes still heard for you, singular, or in its plural form of youse. See quote under COME OFF IT! Yiddish Yiddish, which has contributed many words and expressions to English and the New York dialect, is an entirely separate language from Hebrew. The word Yiddish is an Anglicized form of the German word judisch, “Jewish,” referring to a Jewish German language. Yiddish therefore is an Indo-European language like

German and English. Hebrew belongs to the Semitic language family, as does Arabic. Yinglish A blending of Yiddish and English to make a word. See FANCY-SHMANCY. yit

See

BONAC.

yiz A plural of you. “All yiz . . . I’ll see that yiz get put away.” (Pete Hamill, Snow in August, 1997) yo Present, or here, often in answer to a roll call. Yo is widely used in New York but actually dates back to 14th-century England. “. . . he loved Seigelman, the high school teacher who had forced him to say ‘present’ instead of yo.” (Jimmy Breslin, Forsaking All Others, 1982) Yo is also used to call someone’s attention, as in “Yo, John! (Hey, John!).” Sometimes yo has the meaning of “Here I am!” In this case someone might call,“Hey, John!” and John would answer,“Yo!” yob A pronunciation of job. “Valentin Perez, walking proudly in the hot sun . . . held the most important thing of all in the life of a person in the South Bronx, he held a yob.” (Jimmy Breslin, Forsaking All Others, 1982) Yogiism Any saying of Yogi Berra, beloved New York Yankee catcher and later manager and coach of several teams. Of Yogiisms he once said,“I really didn’t say everything I said.” See GOD SHOULD JUST BE ALLOWED TO WATCH THE GAME. yom A black person. “The whites stare at us one way, wondering what I’m doing with a yom. The blacks stare at Kirk.” (Pete Hamill, Flesh and Blood, 1977) The word’s origin is unknown. you better believe it! An emphatic term popular for the last 25 years or so meaning roughly “You’re damned right” or “You can bet on it,” as in “You’re going to eat that whole thing.” “You better believe it!” your mother! A common curse, short for fuck your mother! and thus to an extent euphemistic. “Kid Sully Palumbo swung around in his chair with his eyes flashing wildly. ‘Your mother!’ ” (Jimmy Breslin, The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight, 1969) youse Youse—the so-called generous plural—is in a class by itself as a New Yorkism, though the expression is definitely heard in several parts of the country, including other eastern cities and the Midwest. New York editor and author Barbara Burn, a New England transplant with a fine ear for regional speech, theorizes that youse is usually employed when a speaker is referring to the

690 New Yawk Tawk second person plural, helping the speaker differentiate between one person in the group he or she is speaking to and the group as a whole. It is the New York counterpart of the Southern you-all (a biblical precedent which can be found in Job 17:10), the “mountain tawk” youuns and the localized mongst-ye heard in Norfolk, Virginia, and on Albemarle Sound. you should live to be a hundred and twenty admired person, often an older person.

Said to an

you should live so long It is impossible, it will never happen. “The Yankees win the Series? You should live so long.”

youvadanuffbud You’ve had enough, bud; sometimes a bartender’s reply to a customer who says: “Filladuppigin.” Both pronunciations were recorded in the Federal Writers’ Project Almanac for New Yorkers (1938). yuppie Yuppie is a recent coinage of the last 20 or so years that originated in the New York City area but already is nationally used. It means and is constructed from young urban professional.

Z zhlub Zhlub during the past 25 years or so has been slang for an insensitive, boorish person. It derives from the Yiddish zhlub, meaning the same, which, in turn, comes from a Slavic word. A variation is zhlob.

ing birds away from ripening grapes. Since the loud guns are sometimes set to go off every 20 seconds for the entire day, seven days a week, their use is not appreciated by neighboring homeowners, who haven’t failed to express their displeasure. Some vineyards have turned to netting their grapes, but Zon-guns (also called birdguns) are much cheaper, costing only about 12¢ a day to operate each, and many growers still use them.

zip Said to be Mafia slang for mob members brought over from Italy to do low-level work. The pejorative term, however, was originally coined in Vietnam as an acronym for Zero Intelligence Potential and applied to the Vietnamese.

zotz To kill. “ ‘What is the use of zotzing her after she hands over all that money?’ ” (Richard Condon, Prizzi’s Money, 1994). Zotz means nothing or zero in slang, thus to zotz someone is to make a person nothing, kill that person.

Zon-gun Here’s a new word from the vineyard country of Long Island’s North Fork area, a word that hasn’t been recorded in any of the big dictionaries, or any dictionary at all so far as I know. A Zon-gun is a big gun timed to go off at intervals in vineyards, its sound scar-

Zulu

691

Derogatory slang for an African American.

VI da kine talk: hawaiian dialect

T

(broom) and sweep the floor.” “Where da kine (it) going to be?”, and “He da kine (crazy) about her.” Da kine speakers, according to authority Elizabeth Ball Carr, “have a habit of prolonging stressed vowels and of clipping unstressed vowels and all consonants. Sometimes it is difficult for an ear trained to Mainland American speech to catch words because of the comparative rapidity of utterance. There is little drawling, even where there is hesitation; the speed and pitch of utterance remind us more of the British norm than the American.” Several Hawaiians I talked to during a visit to the Islands a few years ago denied that such a dialect existed, apparently ashamed of it for some reason, but there is no doubt that da kine is alive and thriving. Da kine draws its vocabulary and some of its pronunciations from the many languages of the laborers who came to work in Hawaii, these tongues including Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Samoan, Filipino languages, Portuguese and Spanish—all of them and more mixing with Hawaiian and the English of whites and blacks. Bagoong, a popular shrimp sauce, is one of the many cooking-term loan words da kine borrowed from Tagalog, which was one of the languages Filipino laborers brought to Hawaii when they came to work on the sugar plantations. An open-necked men’s shirt made of pineapple fiber is called the barong tagalong. Hawaiian Filipinos are humorously nicknamed bayaws, from the Tagalog bayaw for “brother-in-law,” and the da kine term bayaw style refers to the supposed Filipino habit of segregating men and women at social gatherings—the men sitting on one side of the room and the women on the other. Most Hawaiians are familiar with the Filipino’s enthusiastic shout of joy and approval: Mabuhay! Portuguese first influenced Hawaiian English through bits of pidgin with a Portuguese base that came to the Islands via explorers and traders only a decade or so after Captain Cook and his crew touched land on Kauai in 1778. The first such word recorded was piquinini, meaning “a small thing,” which comes from the Portuguese pequenino, “small child.” In 1820 Lucia Holman, a Christian missionary’s wife, recorded in her diary that three huge, rotund Hawaiian women cast a

he Hawaiian dialect called da kine or da Hawaii kine talk has its basis in Pidgin English or Beach-laMar. Pidgin English is a lingua franca, a hybrid language that is a combination of various tongues. Originally developed by British traders in China, it takes its name from the way the Chinese pronounced “business”— bijin. It combines English and Portuguese as well as German, Bengali, French and Maylayan. One estimate has 30 to 50 million people speaking some variety of pidgin, and it ranks at least 20th among the world’s most common tongues. Pidgin usually contains some 300 to 400 nouns, 40 to 50 verbs, possibly 100 modifiers and a few dozen native terms. In it, whiskers are grass belong face, a pocket is basket belong pants, and the Sun is lamp belong Jesus. Lascar seamen employed as stokers on 19th-century British steamers used the apt pidgin expression shit belongum fire for ashes. Chinese pidgin came to Hawaii with Chinese immigrants hired to work in the Islands. Beach-la-mar, or Bêche-de-mer, is the pidgin or lingua franca known only in the Pacific, a conglomeration of English and native dialects. (The bêche-de-mer, a sea slug or sea cucumber, was a staple of trade, the natives prizing it for food, and the language takes its name from this sea slug or sea cucumber.) Beach-la-mar, which even then contained a number of Americanisms, such as boss and schooner, was used in Hawaii for many years, at least since 1818. Richard Henry Dana called it “the Sandwich Island language” in Two Years Before the Mast and quoted several examples. Among the pidgin expressions still heard in the islands is brokum-up for demolish. But pidgin began to be creolized (that is, become more complex in vocabulary and grammar) in Hawaii at about the time English was first taught in the Hawaiian schools in 1853, developing into the da kine dialect used by the contract laborers from many countries who came to work the Hawaiian cane and pineapple fields. The term da kine used in da kine talk is a shibboleth, a popular phrase distinctive of Hawaiian dialect that is employed many ways and which can mean “this kind of.” Because the words da kine—believed to have their origins in Japanese—are used so often, they have become the name of Hawaiian talk in general. One hears them in such varied expressions as “Take da kine 695

696

Da Kine Talk

critical eye upon the slender missionary wives who had just landed in Hawaii and laughingly called them piccaninny, which other Hawaiians translated for Mrs. Holman as “too little.” These ample Hawaiian ladies went on to advise Mrs. Holman to “eat and grow big.” When Portuguese workers came in great numbers to Hawaii during the late 1870s, more loan words were introduced. Over the years many gastronomic terms have entered Hawaiian English from Portuguese, including the popular pao doce (sweet bread). Portuguese themselves were dubbed baccaliaos because of the many codfish (Portuguese bacalão) they consumed. It has been suggested that the “Portuguese lilt” from Madeira and the Azores is the source of some Hawaiian intonation patterns. Portuguese also contributed terms like stay (from estar) for is, as when Hawaiians speaking da kine say, “Where you stay go?” (Where are you going?). Bobora head is a da kine blendword for a Japanese citizen, not a Japanese American, that is used jokingly by Americans of Japanese ancestry and derives from the Portuguese abobora (gourd) and the English head, having the literal meaning “pumpkin head.” (Americans of Japanese ancestry from the mainland sometimes call Japanese Americans born in Hawaii Buddaheads.) The use of already for yet in da kine expressions such as “I called you up but you weren’t there already” probably stems from a similar Portuguese practice, as does the use of for instead of to (“We don’t know what for do”), that of for why instead of why (“For why you tell lies?”), and that of what instead of that (“Eat all what you can”). The use of sabe in place of understand by Hawaiians is said to derive from the Chinese pidgin savvy, which came from the Portuguese sabe (he knows). The Japanese language has influenced spoken Hawaiian English both semantically and phonologically. Japanese immigrants gave the da kine dialect words like jabon (the shaddock) and hikka (a stew). It was in Hawaii that the Japanese hibachi, primarily a hand warmer in Japan, became exclusively a brazier for cooking. The Japanese word for tidal wave, tsunami, entered English in Hawaii, as did a number of other terms. All in all, close to a hundred Japanese words and phrases (which, for English speakers, are much easier to pronounce and remember than Chinese) are heard in the everyday speech of Hawaii, and even in the English phrases of Hawaiian speakers one can hear the typical syllable-timed rhythm of Japanese. An interesting Japanese expression is the word kibei for “a Japanese person returning to the United States (Hawaii) from Japan.” This is formed from the morpheme bei, the abbreviation of beikoku, “the United States of America,” and the morpheme ki, “the act of returning.” Japanese words blended with those of English and other languages also form part of the da kine vocabu-

lary. These include the bon dance, not a barn dance but a popular folk dance; a chawan cut, a haircut that looks as if it had been done with a bowl (Japanese chawan) placed on the head; mama-san, a respectful form of address to an elderly woman (san is a well-known Japanese honorific); and tamago head for an egg (Japanese tamago) head or stupid person, this term having no connotation of “intellectual” as does its American counterpart. When Hawaiian da kine speakers say, “My name begins with the alphabet B” (instead of “the letter B”), they are following a Japanese practice, the Japanese word for letter being the same as that for alphabet. The typical Hawaiian use of attend to instead of attend (“I attend to Honolulu High School”) also has Japanese roots, as does the use of eyeglass, in the singular, for eyeglasses and glass cup for glass. John Reinecke, a linguist who pioneered in the study of Hawaiian dialect, tells the story of the Japanese evangelist in Honolulu who never mastered the Japanese trouble with l and as a result sang “Jesus Rub Me” to his audiences. But then, just as Asiatic immigrants to Hawaii had their troubles with English, the Americans and British had their own troubles with the languages of the South Seas. Few people know, for example, that Pango Pango should really be the name of the Pacific island of Pago Pago, the chief harbor of American Samoa. Pango Pango, in fact, is the way the locals still pronounce the name. An old story, which might be true, explains that the island is called Pago Pago because missionaries transliterating the local speech into the Latin alphabet found that there were many sounds that had to be “represented by n in combination with a following consonant.” So many, in fact, that there weren’t enough n’s in their type fonts to enable them to set all such words in type. So they quite arbitrarily eliminated the n from some words, leaving us with Pago Pago instead of Pango Pango (the proper pronunciation). Chinese contributed few loan words to Hawaiian English because its phonetics differ too radically from those of the other languages; words in Chinese often alter in meaning when a vowel is pitched differently. The Chinese pidgin chowchow (for food or to eat) did become the still widely used da kine word kaukau, which many people mistakenly believe is a pure Hawaiian term because chowchow became Hawaiianized as early as 1791. Chinese restaurants are responsible for popularizing the Hawaiian word pupu, which means hors d’oeuvre or appetizer and was formerly fish, chicken or banana served with kava. This is familiar throughout the United States in the form of pupu platter, a Chinese restaurant hot plate of various appetizers. Spanish contributions to da kine began back in the early 1830s when cowboys of Spanish origin were recruited from California to deal with wild cattle that

Introduction were destroying the country around Waimea. These cattle, descendants of a bull and several cows that explorer Captain George Vancouver had left in 1783 and which had been protected previously under a strict taboo by Kamehameha I, were eventually controlled by the vaqueros, who were called paniola by the Hawaiians from the word espagnol (Spanish); the Hawaiian word for cowboy is still paniolo today. Other Spanish words came to Hawaii with the Filipinos and the Puerto Ricans, who immigrated there later in the century. The term calabash cousins is a familiar da kine blend from Spanish and English meaning two close friends, so close they drink from the same calabash. A ratoon crop is a second crop of shoots growing from a ratoon mother plant and is used metaphorically to mean a child born late in the life of its parents. The last of the large immigrant groups contributing to da kine talk is the Koreans, who arrived in the Islands at the turn of the century, though not in such great numbers as the Chinese and Japanese. Korean names for various foods, such as kimchee, are well known in Hawaii, as are respectful loan words such as abuje for father. The haunting folk song “Arirang,” which takes its title from a hill path in Seoul and describes the sadness of two parting lovers, is often played and is the name of a famous Korean restaurant in Honolulu. Various other languages, including German, Russian, Samoan and similar Pacific Island languages have also made contributions to da kine talk, minor though they may be. Lavalava, for a rectangular cloth worn by men or women, is an interesting Samoan loan word that is recorded in Webster’s. Hawaiian itself, fast disappearing as a language, has of course contributed the most words and expressions to da kine talk, aside from English. Hawaiian, with a vocabulary of only 20,000 words, didn’t become a written language until missionaries developed a written form of it in 1822. “Poor in sounds,” it has but seven consonants (h, k, l, m, p, and w), and these can’t be used without a following vowel, so that Merry Christmas, for example, comes out “Mele Kalilimaka.” Hawaiian has the distinction of having the word with the most consecutive vowels in any language—hooiaioia (certified), with eight in a row. In this language, related to Tahitian, Samoan and Maori, words can mean different things depending on the speaker’s inflection—kaus, for example, can mean “rain,” “two people,” “a class of slave people in old Hawaii,” “a war,” or “a battle.” Some scholars fear Hawaiian may gradually become as dead as Latin, a language that only specialists can read or speak. There are only 1,000 to 2,000 native speakers of Hawaiian in the Islands, out of the 130,000 or so people who identify themselves as Hawaiians, and some 300 of these live on the private island of Niihau, where Hawaiian is spoken exclusively. On the other

697

hand, several experts feel that the language is going through a consolidation rather than a decline, that new words such as bicycle and 747 are coming into it and it is being brought into the 21st century. Though its 20 letters combine into only 40 possible syllables, Hawaiian has contributed numerous words and expressions to da kine, and many of these have become standard English words as well. Aloha, meaning either “hello” or “goodbye,” is probably the bestknown of these. Alhoa literally means “love” in Hawaii and can mean “I love you” if mi loa is added to it—Mi loa aloha. It has been called “the world’s loveliest greeting or farewell.” Hawaii is of course the Aloha State, its anthem “Aloha ‘Oe” (Farewell to Thee), written by Queen Liluokalani. Muumuu, for a long, loose dress, is another Hawaiian word that had been adopted into English. The style of dress, fashionable from time to time on mainland America, was modeled on the Mother Hubbard missionaries introduced to cover up “immodest” Hawaiian maidens. The ukulele may take its name from the Hawaiian word for “flea,” in reference to the way a player’s fingers “jump like fleas” over the instrument’s strings. On the other hand, “Ukulele” or “Flea” was the nickname of Edward Purvis, a short, frail British Army officer attached to King Kalakaua’s court who loved to play the Portuguese instrument and helped popularize it in Hawaii. The ukulele may have been named for him. Americans are quite familiar with the hula-hula, too, though the Hawaiian name for this pantomine story-dance is simply hula, the dance noted for its highly stylized hand imagery, which uses many of the 700,000 “distinctive movements of the hands, arms, fingers, and face by which information can be transferred without speech.” Pau, for “pow, finished, exhausted,” has wide currency in English, at least in Hawaii, as do the directional terms makai (toward the sea), and mauka (toward the mountains), invaluable directions in the Islands, where everything is either more toward the mountains or toward the sea. Hawaiian weather forecasts commonly make predictions like “Mostly sunny, with a few mauka showers in the afternoon.” Incidentally, Hawaiian has no word for “weather” in general. In all, more than 250 Hawaiian words are commonly heard in Hawaii’s English, which provides the framework for da kine talk. A listing of some of these follows this introduction, along with interesting blends of Hawaiian, English and other languages. Humorous blends of Hawaiian and English include aku head pupule (“crazy fishead”), which was long the nickname of a popular Honolulu radio announcer, and wikiwiki burger, a fast-food hamburger. Hapa haole means a person who is half-white, hapa here the English word half

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Da Kine Talk

assimilated phonologically into Hawaiian with the f replaced by p and the final vowel added. Wowie Maui or Maui Wowie means a variety of Hawaiian marijuana grown on the island of Maui, much higher priced because it is said to contain a higher percentage of the substance in marijuana that gives the high. Da kine talk is said to be “coming closer and closer to everyday vulgar American,” but this dialect of American English still holds its own, being spoken to some

degree by anywhere from two-thirds to almost all the people who have lived in Hawaii for any length of time, according to various estimates. There is no sure indication that it has declined in use since Hawaii became our 50th state (“The Oversea State”) in 1959. It seems likely that Hawaii’s polyglot population (only 2 percent are pure Hawaiian) will go on speaking it and conducting business in it for years to come, using many of the following expressions and more.

A ‘a’a

aloha shirt The typical short-sleeved, bright-colored print shirt of Hawaii.

A kind of rough lava.

across Used instead of “across from,” as in “I sat across you at school.”

alphabet Often used in place of “letter,” as in “My name begins with the alphabet B.” See Introduction.

ae The Hawaiian word for yes; commonly used in da kine speech. ahana!

already

Shame on you!

anybody Frequently used in place of “everybody,” as in “Anybody go to beach today.”

ain’t no big thing It’s not important. Derives from a song popularized by Hawaiian singer Don Ho. akamai

Often used instead of “yet.” See Introduction.

‘a ‘ole

Very smart, clever.

An Hawaiian expression meaning “no.”

assa madda you? What’s the matter with you? Also wassa madda you?

aku head pupule “Crazy fishhead,” long the nickname of a Honolulu radio announcer.

attend to Often used instead of attend, as in “I attend to Honolulu High School.” See Introduction.

aloha Hello; goodbye; love. For more of the story of this best-known of Hawaiian words See the Introduction.

auwe!

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Hawaiian for “Oh!”

B bagoong

A popular shrimp sauce. See Introduction.

barong tagalong

A men’s shirt. See Introduction.

bon dance

borrow Often used to mean “use,” as in “May I borrow your telephone to call him?”

bayaw style The segregation of the sexes at social gatherings. See Introduction.

broke

bayaw

brokum-up

Brother-in-law. See Introduction.

A popular folk dance; not a barn dance.

Tore, as in “My shirt broke on the nail.” Demolish. See Introduction.

bedclothes Used to mean “pajamas,” as in “I had on my bedclothes.”

buddahead A Japanese-American born in Hawaii. See Introduction.

bla Brother, a term of address (like bro in Black English) used by Island-born men.

bumbye In a while, later, as in “Bumbye we go beach.” Bumbye means “later” in Chinese pidgin.

bobora head

business wahine

A citizen of Japan. See Introduction.

bogus Has taken on the meaning of “boastful” in da kine talk.

700

A prostitute. See

WAHINE.

C calabash cousin

A very close friend. See Introduction.

close the light expression.

catch Used instead of “get,” as in “Us go beach— catch da tan.” Derives from the Chinese pidgin catchee, meaning the same.

cool head main thing corns

chawan cut duction.

Turn off the light. Originally a Spanish

Don’t panic, play it cool.

Corn on the cob. “We first ate some corns.”

A popular short haircut. See Introcousin

701

A common form of address for anyone.

D da kine

See Introduction.

driving hui A carpool that takes children to school; hui is Chinese for “club.”

702

E ele ele

The Hawaiian for the color black. See also KEA.

703

F fire

Burn, as in “Volcano fire us.”

704

G geev um! events.

Give ’em hell! A cry often heard at sporting

get down Get out, as in “We all get down from the car and walk.”

go for broke Make your greatest effort. Now widely used in all the United States, it is a Hawaiian expression that began life as the World War II slogan of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

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H half Often used instead of “and a half,” as in “We stay here eight years half, no?” hana

A Hawaiian noun meaning “work.”

hanahana man hapa haole tion.

A plantation laborer.

A person who is half-white. See Introduc-

ho’olu’olu hoomalimali mali.”

Hawaiian for “what?”

hibachi

A cooking brazier.

hikka hilahila

A stew. See Introduction. Shy or flustered.

Baloney or bull. “He a lot of hoomali-

hot tea A term for what most Americans call tea (though this da kine term is used in South Carolina, too). huhu

he aha?

A way of saying “please.”

Very angry, mad

hula-hula tion.

A traditional Hawaiian dance. See Introduc-

huli stomach An upset stomach (stemming from the belief that babies suffering from colic have their stomachs turned upside-down by a jealous, evil-eyed person, a huli).

hooiaioia Hawaiian for “certified.” Its eight vowels in a row make hooiaioia, the word with the most consecutive vowels in any language.

706

I I make die dead An expression used by children in games like cops and robbers, when one “shoots” another.

ipo

707

A lover, sweetheart.

J jabon

The shaddock fruit. See Introduction.

708

K kala mai ia’u kamaiina kanaka

Hawaiian for “excuse me.”

kea

An old-timer, any old person.

Hawaiian for the color “white.” See ELE

ELE.

kibei A Japanese person who returns to Hawaii from Japan. See Introduction.

The Hawaiian word for human being.

kane

Hawaiian for “man.” See

kapu

An Hawaiian word meaning taboo or forbidden.

kill one’s neck To break one’s neck. “He fall into the hole and kill his neck.”

WAHINI.

koku

kaus See Introduction for the various meanings of this Hawaiian word, which means “rain,” a “war,” or “two people,” among other things.

The Hawaiian word for help.

kola Money, cash. “He carries a lot of kola in his pocket.”

709

L lab A bathroom; the word derives from a confusion of laboratory and lavatory. lani

Can mean both the sky and Heaven.

lavalava lei

A cloth garment. See Introduction.

The well-known Hawaiian flower wreath.

lolo

Stupid, dense, extremely ignorant.

look-see Often used in place of look, as in “I take one look-see.” Derives from Chinese pidgin English. luau

The well-known Hawaiian word for a feast.

luna

A foreman; the head man on a job.

710

M mahalo

Thank you.

mai ka’i no mails

mauka A directional term meaning toward the mountains. See Introduction.

Good, fine, excellent. meat Means only beef in da kine talk, not other kinds of meat.

Letters, as in “Did I get any mails today?”

Mele Kalilimaka

makai A directional term meaning “toward the sea.” See Introduction.

menehune The legendary good elves of Hawaii, who work only at night when they can’t be seen.

make soft Be careful, as in “Make soft with the eggs in that package.”

moemoe malahimi tourist.

A derogatory term for a greenhorn, a

Maluhay!

See Introduction.

moku

mama-san woman.

A respectful term of address to an elderly

muumuu tion.

mokeu

manine-looking Starving, thin, like the common marine reef fish called the manine. manu

Merry Christmas. See Introduction.

The Hawaiian word for sleep. The Hawaiian word for ship.

Hawaiian for an island. A long loose Hawaiian dress. See Introduc-

more better Often used in place of “better,” as in “Leela bitch drunko, kaukau first, moah betta” (“It’s better to have a little bit to drink and some food first.”)

A bird of any kind. much

manuahi man An “extra” man, hence any male lover of a married woman.

711

Many, as in “I don’t get much days off.”

N nani

Beautiful; good-looking.

no pau yet!

nene

The Hawaiian goose; the official state bird.

no pilika

niu

The coconut, or coconut tree.

nui

I’m not finished! It’s no problem, no problem.

Large, great, massive.

no can Used instead of “can’t,” as in “He no can open the door.”

number one The best, as in “Him number one.” The expression derives from Chinese pidgin.

no huhu! A popular expression meaning don’t get angry, cool it. The expression became the title of a hit song in the 1950s.

number one luna tation.

712

The head boss or foreman on a plan-

O o The popular name for the humuhumunukunukuakuaa, “the world’s littlest fish with the longest name.” The fish won fame in the 1930s song “My Little Grass Shack in Lkealakekua,” which has a verse that mentions it. By popular vote the little creature became Hawaii’s official state fish in 1984.

one-finger poi A POI dish thick enough to be scooped up with one finger, as opposed to thinner two-finger poi.

one Used for “a” or for each, as in “I drink jus’ like one horse.” Due probably to the absence of an indefinite article in Chinese.

open the light expression.

ono

The Hawaiian word for “delicious.”

ono-looking

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Good-looking (literally “delicious-looking”). Turn on the light. Originally a Spanish

P package Bag, as in “Put the groceries in one brown paper package.” pali

Hawaiian for a cliff.

Pango Pango panielo

See Introduction

Cowboy. See Introduction.

pão doce

pio the light

Da kine for “put out the light.”

plenty Often used in place of “many,” as in “I got plenny place stay.” poho

Out of luck, unlucky.

poi A native dish made of taro root. See POI.

ONE-FINGER

Sweet bread. See Introduction.

pau

Finished, exhausted. See Introduction.

poi dog A typical Hawaiian dog, formerly fed on and used to hunt wild pigs.

pa’u

Another word for a sarong.

pop oki

pehea’oe? piccaninny pilau pilikia

How are you? A small child. See Introduction.

Rotten, rancid.

pua pua’s

A cat. See

POI

POI DOG.

Hawaiian for a flower of any kind. Hawaiian for a pig.

pull down Lose weight, as in “Didn’t you pull down since last year?”

Hawaiian for “trouble.”

pine Pineapple. Hawaiians call pineapple a pine because the first name for the fruit in the islands was the Spanish piña (pineapple), which was anglicized to pine.

pupu platter tion.

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A platter of hot appetizers. See Introduc-

R ratoon crop duction.

A child born to elderly parents. See Intro-

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S slangs Slang words, as in “We don’t like to use slangs.”

small-little here.”

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Small, as in “When I was small-little I lived

T that’s O.K.

Short for “thank you.”

tamago head

throw out Often used in place of throw up, as in “The baby throw out his milk.”

two-finger poi

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A stupid person. See Introduction. See

ONE-FINGER POI.

U ’uka bla An ugly boy or young man. Literally, this means “flea brother,” from the Hawaiian uka, flea, and pidgin English bla, brother.

ulu The Hawaiian name for breadfruit or the breadfruit tree.

ukelele See Introduction for the story of this musical instrument.

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W wahine

Hawaiian for woman. See

where you stay go? duction. wikiwiki

KANE.

wikiwiki burger

Where are you going? See Intro-

Any fast-food hamburger.

Wowie Maui A potent variety of marijuana grown on the island of Maui. See Introduction.

Hurry up.

719

VII FERHOODLED ENGLISH: PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH TALK

ou must go dat road, straight one little way, den “ Yyou see stable directly—dat road, straight, house

traditions carefully preserved by the strict religious sects to which they belong. The Pennsylvania Dutch, or “plain people,” as they have called themselves since at least 1680 (when they dubbed the more worldly Lutherans and Calvinists the gay people), came to America in the 17th and 18th centuries, fleeing religious persecution in southern Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands. They responded to Quaker William Penn’s propaganda pamphlets describing the colony named after his father as a rich land of promise free from religious hatreds, and by as early as 1776 they numbered some 100,000—about one-third of the colony’s population. The plain people were mostly Palatinate Germans from the country bordering on the Rhine from Switzerland to Koblenz, though they included a large number of Swiss, people from Holland, and even French Huguenots. In fact, the Mennonites, who were the first Pennsylvania Dutch to settle in America, founding Germantown, Pennsylvania only two years after Penn’s colony was established, were a Swiss Anabaptist sect who came from Holland and Germany and were originally called the Swiss Brethren. They take their present name from their founder, Menno Simons (1496–1561), and are perhaps 250,000 strong throughout the United States today. The Old Order Amish, or Amish, named after 17th-century Mennonite reformer Jacob Ammann, or Amen, are a conservative sect of the Mennonites so noted for their quaint customs that Pennsylvania Dutch country is frequently called Amishland. They often regard English as a language to be used only with outsiders. Generally, however, Mennonites have assimilated to a greater degree in language and customs than any of the Pennsylvania Dutch. Almost as numerous as the Mennonites are the Dunkers, who claim about 200,000 members throughout the United States in sects called the New Dunkers (arch-conservatives), the Old Oder Dunkers and the Progressive Dunkers. First emigrating from Germany to America in 1719, they took their name from the German Tunker, meaning “dunker” or “dipper,” which refers to their belief in triple immersion during baptism to symbolize death, burial and resurrection. Their church is called the German Baptist Brethren.

directly,” a Pennsylvania Dutchman was quoted as saying by English traveler William Ferguson in his America by River and Road (1856). Over a century later another pair of impeccable ears, these belonging to American novelist John O’Hara, heard this Pennsylvania Dutch conversation: “What did they do with the auto?” “She got towed in town with a team.” “What for make was she?”

Americans have been recording the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect for well over two centuries now—and there is no sign that they won’t be amused and ferhoodled (crazy, mixed up) by it for another two centuries or more. This direct descendant of the 17th-century RhenoFranconian dialect of German (the Dutch in Pennsylvania Dutch has nothing to do with Holland, being a corruption or Americanization of Deutsch, German) has proved “a notable exception to the mortality of immigrant dialects,” as one linguist puts it. The theory that among immigrants the first generation speaks “old-country language with heavily accented English,” the second generation is “bilingual with a preference for English,” and the third generation “is essentially monolingual in English” is exploded by the Pennsylvania Dutch, who have persisted in preserving at least traces of old-country language in their dialect long past the three-generation period—for what amounts to about six or seven generations, in fact. Linguist Mario Pei has written that the dialect seems “destined to go the way of all pidgins” and that though a chair of Pennsylvania German language has been established at Muhlenberg College, Allentown, “the continued vitality of the dialect under modern conditions is doubtful.” But no signs of an imminent demise are apparent. One tends to agree with that student of linguistics who grew up among the Pennsylvania Dutch near Reading. Informed that most authorities predicted the dialect would “soon” be dead, she observed, “I vunder vot iss meaning to a linguist ‘soon.’ ” Pennsylvania Dutch has mainly survived as a pidgintype dialect in America because of the clannishness of the pious people who speak “Dutch” and the Old World 723

724 Ferhoodled English The Moravians came from Germany to Georgia and the West Indies, where they were unsuccessful in converting slaves to their religion, before founding Bethlehem, Nazareth and Lititz, Pennsylvania, beginning in 1740. They did manage to convert a good many local Native Americans. The Moravian Church named for Moravia, at various times part of Bohemia and Czechoslovakia, is officially designated the Renewed Church of the Brethren, or Unitas Fratrum. Least in numbers among the Pennsylvania Dutch are the Schwenkfelders of the Schwenkfelder Church, which has some 2,500 members in the Philadelphia area. The Schwenkfelders are followers of Kaspar von Schwenkfeld (1489–1561), a religious reformer, whose middle road between Catholicism and Lutheranism caused his sect to be persecuted by Germans of both religious persuasions. This small group fled to America in 1719. These Pennsylvania Dutch groups occupy almost the entire southern half of the state of Pennsylvania, where they have established themselves as hardworking, expert, prosperous farmers. Soon after they had sunk roots here they were observed to be speaking a German dialect which, Mario Pei tells us, “with the exception of Alemannic peculiarities in the morphology and vocabulary, and numerous evidence of English influence in the syntax and vocabulary, resembles most closely the dialects spoken in the eastern half of the Rhenish or Lower Palatinate [a German region extending from the left bank of the Rhine bordering in the south on France and in the west on the Saar Territory].” From the beginning there were also references to the “dumb Dutch” and resistance in surprising and quite exalted places to their different ways and language. Even Ben Franklin objected to the “Palatine boors.” Why, he wrote, should they be permitted “to swarm into our settlements and by herding together, establish their language and manners to the exclusion of ours? Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a colony of aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to germanize us instead of our anglifying them?” (This, however, did not stop him from publishing in 1732 America’s first foreignlanguage newspaper, the Philadelphia Zeitung, aimed at the city’s German population!) But more tolerant thinking prevailed, in part because the Pennsylvania Dutch never did become so “numerous” as to make Pennsylvania “a colony of aliens.” The plain people mostly kept to themselves, wearing clothing based on early 17th-century models and opposing slavery, public education, the obligation of a citizen to bear arms for his country and the taking of legal oaths. They lived like the Quakers, abiding by the Bible according to their lights, and like the Quakers they were tolerated and more often admired than scorned. Clannish in their communal and personal affairs, the Pennsylvania Dutch groups persisted in speaking the

Deitsch or Deutsch (German) of the Rhineland, this language sprinkled with Schweizerdeutsch, and English words and even borrowings from French, Scotch and Irish. It is somewhat ironic that a Pennsylvania German’s vote decided that the official language in Pennsylvania would be English, for the linguistically and socially insular churches of these groups were at first insistent that German be their language; their Bibles were in German, and church authorities decreed that German, and never English, always be used in church services. But this attitude changed with the passage of time. By 1850 some of the Pennsylvania Dutch groups claimed English as their first language, and all of the plain people can speak it today. Nevertheless, one study shows that 300,000 or more Americans “feel more comfortable speaking Pennsylvania Dutch than English” and a “considerably larger number use the language readily.” There may be close to a million Pennsylvania Dutch speakers in America, and the dialect has remained fairly faithful to its mother tongue over the centuries. It has been reported, for example, that a platoon of Pennsylvania Dutch on patrol in Germany during World War II “were not machine-gunned because the Nazis who heard them talking assumed they were Palatinate German.” Though they have migrated to Ohio and other parts of the country, taking their language and customs with them, most of the plain people still reside in southern Pennsylvania, mainly in the counties of Berks, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Northampton and York. Their Palatinate dialect mixed with High German and English does vary a bit from county to county, but the differences are few, and almost all “Dutchmen” can understand each other. The dialect seems to be here to stay for a long time. Not only are the plain people still clannish (though the strict sects are taking more liberal attitudes, and younger people are more frequently leaving the fold), but the Pennsylvania Dutch are a very practical people who clearly see the economic benefits of their quaint ways. One observer is of the opinion that “they probably regard the dialect as being as obsolescent as the hex signs on their barns, but if there’s one thing these people are notable for it’s hard-headed pragmatism—chances are they’ll go on speaking Pennsylvania Dutch as long as it attracts the free-spending ‘outlanders.’ ” The free-spending outlanders have made “Pennsylvania Dutch Country” a favorite American vacationland, and tourists flock there by the millions each year to see the quaintly dressed plain people clopping along the roads in their canopied, side-curtained rockaway wagons (named for Rockaway, New Jersey, their first place of manufacture) and to eat home-style “good and plenty” communal suppers at dozens of tourist restaurants in towns like Intercourse and Blue Balls (neither, incidentally, named by the plain people). The visitor

Introduction 725 hears virtually no Pennsylvania Dutch spoken in the usual tourist traps, but in out-of-the-way markets, in country stores, at auction sales, and at other places where Dutchmen gather, the good listener is rewarded, and often with humorous linguistic gems. Pennsylvania Dutch is widely regarded as a humorous dialect because of the extraordinary lengths it goes to force English words into German word order or syntactical constructions. “A combination of brokenEnglish, bad grammar, and grotesque construction accounts for most of the humor in their speech,” says one local expert. The results are gaffes like “Come in and eat yourself” (an invitation to dinner) or “I can’t go to the party because I have nothing to wear on me.” Other notable examples include: • “Miller will pay me two dollars a day if I eat myself— but chust one dollar if he eats me” (if he provides meals). • “Sally, you chew your mouth empty before you say.” (Finish eating before you speak.) • Sister calling her brother to dinner: “Amos, come from the woodpile, in; Mom’s on the table and Poppa’s et himself done already.” • “Lizzie, go in the house and smear Jakie all over with jam and a piece of bread.” • “Eli stung his foot with a bee.” • “Cousin Sarah ain’t good—she’s been with the doctor all winter.” (She’s very ill.) Pennsylvania Dutch pronunciation often stays with a person despite one’s education. In one story a boy returns home after graduation from college: “John, I’m so proud of you; you’re a college graduate now, ain’t?” his proud mother says. “Ya, Mom, I’m one of them,” the boy replies. “Why, Mom, you know’d when I went away to college I couldn’t say norse (north) or souse (south), and now I can say bose (both) of them.” The pronunciation of v like w has been called the Pennsylvania Dutch’s shibboleth. (Shibboleth, for “password,” derives from the Hebrew for “ear of corn,” and the Gileadites used it to distinguish the sons of Ephraim from the members of other tribes; the Bible relates that they slew 42,000 Ephraimites who couldn’t pronounce the sh in the password shibboleth and had to say it sibboleth.) The plain people, unless well educated, often pronounce valley as walley, and volume becomes wollum, etc. W, on the other hand, is generally pronounced vf, as in UhvfAY (away), and vfl (will). The dialect features an excessive elongation of heavily stressed vowels, but is affected more by consonant variants like w for v than it is by vowel changes. These consonant changes include, among others, the heavy pronunciation of b so that a weak p seems to be added to it, as in ghri:bp (crib); f with a v coloring as in vfI:vf (five); g with a weak k flavor to it, as in hAWgk (hog); r pronounced as

the German guttural r; th pronounced as d or dt, as in dtOH:s (those); and z pronounced as s. Scholars have pointed out likenesses between Pennsylvania German and both Yiddish and Plantation Creole (See section on Gullah dialect [p. 751]). With Yiddish there is a similar German-English idiomatic pattern in answers such as “Why not?” in response to the question “Why did you do that?”; in identical words like foggel, “a light fog”; in the inverted word order of sentences (“Throw your father down the stairs his hat”); and in the use of already in the final position of sentences (“Let’s go, already”). The similarities probably “reflect the importance of German in the formation of both Yiddish and Pennsylvania German,” as Professor J. L. Dillard suggests in his All-American English. As for the Plantation Creole connection, Professor Dillard points out that 19th-century writer John H. Beadle reported a “Hoosier dialect,” which he believed was “the result of union between the rude translations of ‘Pennsylvania Dutch,’ the ‘Negroisms’ of Kentucky and Virginia, and certain phrases native to the Ohio Valley.” According to Dillard, the forms cited in Beadle’s Western Wilds and the Men Who Redeem Them (1878) “do look like Plantation Creole (and are thus ‘Negroisms’ in some sense),” but “it would take considerable research to determine whether Beadle’s more general statement is true . . . [though] many such things were going on on the border.” As would be expected, older Pennsylvania Dutch speakers use a broader dialect speech than the younger generation, who have become more assimilated or at least acclimated. But the lilt and stress of the dialect, with its unique German inflections, has even “infiltrated into the talk of non–Pennsylvania Dutch speakers,” the Pennsylvania Dutch accent being called the “Berks County Accent” by Pennsylvanians. In addition to enriching the lilting “Berks County Accent,” Pennsylvania Dutch has made a small, picturesque contribution to the American language. From the dialect came the word sauerkraut, the German for “sour cabbage.” The term was first recorded in 1776; later, in 1869, General Joseph Heister ran for governor of Pennsylvania and was dubbed “Old Sauerkraut” because he was of German extraction, his sobriquet perhaps contributing to the use of kraut for a German in years to come. Other Pennsylvania Dutch contributions to the American dinner table were pretzel and noodle (from the German nudal), which came into the language early in the 19th century. Mashed potatoes, too, were introduced as a Pennsylvania Dutch dish in the 18th century and were, in fact, called Dutch or German potatoes before being dubbed mashed potatoes. Philadelphia scrapple, an American breakfast dish for almost two centuries now, is an invention of the plain people. Scrapple, literally meaning “little scraps,”

726 Ferhoodled English is made of scraps from hog butchering mixed with cornmeal, onions and spices, chilled into a loaf and then fried in slices. Snit (a slice of dried apple) is also a Pennsylvania Dutch term. When you dunk your doughnuts you are using a Pennsylvania Dutch word, just as you are when you put a hex on someone or buy a good-luck hex sign or hex mark that the plain people put on their barns. The important Conestoga wagon, which helped settle the West, and the flatboat were introduced by the Pennsylvania Dutch. So was the German fireplace or stove, a five-sided stove placed in a fireplace and using its chimney as a smoke pipe. It takes its name from the tradition the plain people had of decorating such stoves with pictures of biblical scenes described in German. The German stove is named for the German words on it, not after the people of German descent who invented it. It was introduced in the early 18th century and its design was widely copied. Mario Pei has observed that “there is no perceptible influence from German in the speech sounds of American English, save insofar as German has given rise to a new mixed language like Pennsylvania Dutch.” A number of Pennsylvania German words have limited use in English today. Toot or tut for a paper bag is sometimes heard, as are spritzen (to sprinkle), wunnerfitisch (inquisitive) and strubbly (disheveled). Typical Pennsylvania Dutch usages have also spread to a limited extent, especially (because lasen is both leave and let in German) the use of leave for let (“leave her have it”), that for so that (“Heat the water that it boils”) and all for all gone (“The cheese is all”) or dead (“Papa is all,” which phrase, incidentally, was the title of a popular Broadway comedy).

Few people are aware that the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect is composed of rural pioneer pronunciation and vocabulary as well as German words and pronunciation. Backwoods loan words and pronunciations are still found in the speech of the plain people, including plumb (very), buss (kiss), flitch (bacon), younguns, mebbe, nuther, hitch (marry), sech (such), a coon’s age (a long time), kever (cover), Old Harry (the Devil), datter (daughter), dander (temper), yonder, tother (the other), elbow grease and purty. Finally, it should be noted that Pennsylvania Dutch has strongly influenced what is called the Pennsylvania accent, spoken by almost all Pennsylvanians except those living in Erie, Warren, McKean, Potter, Tioga, Bradford, Pike and Susquehanna Counties—these people speaking a dialect modified by the speech of upstate New York. The Pennsylvania accent is sometimes called the Philadelphia accent, but “Philadelphian” features the Eastern habit of dropping the consonant r in words, while most Pennsylvanians pronounce it, though not as strongly as Midwesterners. Among other vocabulary differences, Philadelphians more frequently use square instead of block (“It’s two squares away”) and anymore to indicate a positive continuing action or emotion (“She loves it anymore”) than most Pennsylvanians. Pennsylvania Dutch accounts for the elongation of the so-called long vowels in the Pennsylvania dialect and for the rising or falling intonation these vowels receive when stressed; for example, say is pronounced sAY or sAH, and mile is pronounced mAHl. Following is a brief glossary of common Pennsylvania Dutch terms.

A alter

all (1) Often used instead of “all gone.” (2) Frequently means “dead.” See Introduction. abedit aesal

A German-based term meaning “old man.”

Amish An orthodox Swiss religious sect that settled in Pennsylvania. See Introduction.

A German-based term meaning “appetite.” A German-based term meaning “jackass.”

Amishland A common name for the Pennsylvania Dutch county.

ain’t Often used for “won’t,” as in “Ain’t she will? (Won’t she?) Frequently employed as an oral question mark (the way the French use n’est-ce pas), as in “Nice day, ain’t?” (It’s a nice day, isn’t it?), or “You’re coming, ain’t?” (You’re coming, aren’t you?).

amohl

A German-based term meaning “once.”

a plump wife and a big barn/never did any man harm A proverbial Pennsylvania couplet.

ain’t you ready maybe, yet? A typical Pennsylvania Dutch expression meaning “Aren’t you ready?”

727

B bauch

A German-based term meaning “belly.”

beddlar

bodderation trouble.”

A German-based term meaning “bother,

A German-based term meaning “beggar.” boghie

Belsnickel

A frequent pronunciation of buggy.

The Pennsylvania Dutch Santa Claus. booghered up

bendle

Mixed up, confused.

A German-based term meaning “string.” bortsch

better it is single to live/than to the wife the britches give A proverbial couplet from a notably patriarchal society. big bug

An aristocrat or a very important person.

biscotza

A German-based term meaning “skunk.”

blabbermaul tive.”

A frequent pronunciation of porch.

borrowing makes for sorrowing vania Dutch saying.

A common Pennsyl-

bose

A frequent pronunciation of “both.”

brill

A German-based term meaning “eyeglasses.”

A German-based term meaning “talka-

Black Bumpers A sect of Amish called the Church Amish (they don’t worship at home) who do own cars but paint the bumpers and all the chrome black to avoid vanity. blaid

A German-based term meaning “bashful.”

blow

See

britches

A frequent pronunciation of bridges.

bubbely

A German-based term meaning “baby.”

bull

A common pronunciation of pull.

bush

A frequent pronunciation of push.

buss

A kiss.

TO HORN.

butter bread blut-kup

A German-based term meaning “bald head.”

bobbeer

A German-based term meaning “newspaper.”

butzed up up.”

bobble-mouth Someone who speaks without thinking. “Rachel is a big bobble-mouth; she don’t think before she says.”

728

Bread and butter. Cleaned. “The haus (house) is all butzed

C cham

A frequent pronunciation of jam.

chudge

chaw

A frequent pronunciation of jaw.

coffee soup An Amish dish of bread with coffee poured over it.

Cherry

A common pronunciation of judge.

A common pronunciation of Gerry. colt

chitterlins’ Possibly derives from the German Kutteln (entrails, tripe), a deep-fried dish the plain people make from batter-dipped small intestines of various animals. The word may not be a Southern one at all. chob

A common pronunciation of job.

choin

A frequent pronunciation of chain.

choose

A frequent pronunciation of juice.

Chorge

A frequent pronunciation of George.

A common pronunciation of cold.

come here, once!

“Come here at once!”

Conestoga wagon A famous wagon invented by the Pennsylvania Dutch. See Introduction. corrisser

A German-based term meaning “to court.”

crittlech

A German-based term meaning “crabby.”

croosht

A German-based term meaning “crust.”

crotch

729

A common pronunciation of garage.

D dander

Temper. See Introduction.

devil’s dreck A German-based term meaning “devil’s manure” used to describe anything extremely distasteful.

donkbaur

A German-based term meaning “thankful.”

don’t use good Mistreats. “It ain’t right—he don’t use his wife so good all the time.” dormlich

A German-based term meaning “giddy.”

diddling A Pennsylvania Dutch term for sexual intercourse heard in other areas as well.

dummkup

dippy

Dunkers

dobbich

An Amish word for gravy. A German-based term meaning “awkward.”

does he sing yet?

Does he still sing?

A German-based term meaning “dumb.” A religious baptist sect. See Introduction.

dutch potatoes dutchie

730

Mashed potatoes. See Introduction.

A tramp or hobo.

E elbow grease

Hard work. See Introduction.

731

F fashoongart “starved.” fartzoon’d cross.”

A

German-based

term

meaning

A German-based term meaning “angry,

flitch

flittin’ day April 1st in Pennsylvania Dutch country, traditionally moving day. foggel

fastnach

Rotten or spoiled.

for Often used superfluously, as in “She doesn’t want for to go” (She doesn’t want to go), or “I don’t want for to see him” (I don’t want to see him).

A German-based term meaning “bewitched.”

ferhoodled fershitt

A light fog.

What the Amish call a doughnut.

ferfowled ferhext

Bacon. See Introduction.

Tangled, mixed up.

A German-based term meaning “spilled.”

finger hat

A thimble; also called a finger hut.

friendschaft A lot of relatives. “A big friendschaft helped them.” fress

To eat, dine.

full of mischt

732

Full of manure, horseshit, shit.

G gabootzt gabut

gleedich-hase

A German-based term meaning “cleaned.”

glutzkupp head.”

Tired, exhausted.

gadonka

Red hot, very hot.

A German-based term meaning “dumb-

A loud cry. go gay

ganook

A German-based term meaning “enough.”

garooch

A smell or odor.

gounsh

gay people, the A name traditionally supplied by the Pennsylvania Dutch to the Lutherans and Calvinists. Pennsylvania Dutch call themselves the plain people.

gowtz

geitsich

grex

See Introduction.

A German-based term meaning “horrible.”

A German-based term meaning “grunt.”

grexin’

733

A swing, or to swing. A German-based term meaning “bark.”

greislich

A German-based term meaning “stingy.”

German fireplace

To marry outside of the Amish religion. See GAY

PEOPLE.

Complaining. “Stop all your grexin’.”

H half a loaf or half a ton/each is better by far than none Pennsylvania Dutch proverbial couplet. hands-in-the-pocket weather ing very cold weather. hase-wasser water.”

A colorful idiom mean-

A German-based term meaning “hot

high-nosed

Said of a conceited person.

hinnerdale wards.”

A German-based term meaning “ass back-

his or her eating went away appetite. hitch

haus

See

Marry. See Introduction.

BUTZED UP.

he or she doesn’t know what for know what it’s all about. he or she made out to come come. hesslich

He or she lost his or her

hongerish

Hungry. “The men are hongerish now.”

hootchelly

A German-based term meaning “colt.”

He or she doesn’t

He or she planned to

horn, to To blow a car horn. “Don’t horn the machine so much, Jake—you’ll blow the baby awake.”

A German-based term meaning “hateful.”

hex sign A painted sign on barns to ward off evil or bad luck. See Introduction.

734

I ice

A common pronunciation of eyes.

it wonders me he went.”

it’s going to give a storm A typical Pennsylvania Dutch expression meaning “There’s going to be a storm,” or “a storm’s coming.” it will make down soon

I want out

It will rain soon.

735

I wonder, as in “It wonders me where

I want to go outside.

J jonifumbubs flowers.”

A German-based word meaning “pansy

736

K kedreck

A German-based word meaning “cow dung.”

keep the paint off Amish country. kenn

kissin’ wears out—cookin’ don’t saying.

Wet paint!, as seen on signs in knoatching und schmutzing

A German-based term meaning “knowledge.”

kerflommixed it.”

koos

Excited. “He’s all kerflommixed about

kretty krottle

kever

Pennsylvania Dutch

A German-based word meaning “kiss.” A German-based word meaning “itch.” A German-based word meaning “crawl.”

See Introduction. krotz

737

Hugging and kissing.

Scratch or itch.

L leave leddich legner

Often used instead of “let.” See

INTRODUCTION.

Single, unmarried. A German-based word meaning “liar.”

lippy lobbich

Smart-aleck, wise guy talk. A German-based word meaning “silly.”

look good in the face, to

738

To look healthy and happy.

M machine

A car. See

TO HORN.

mate

A frequent pronunciation of made.

make Often used for “go,” as in “Make down the road,” or for “close” (see “make the window shut”).

may your friends be many, your troubles be few, and your sausages long Pennsylvania Dutch saying.

make the fire finish

mebbe

Put out the fire.

make the window shut making down hard hard.” Maple

Close the window.

Maybe. See Introduction

Mennonites

Raining hard. “It’s making down

A religious sect. See Introduction.

mind of the time

Remember the time. “I mind the time.”

mischt

FULL OF MISHT.

Shit. See

A frequent pronunciation of Mabel. Moravians

marickaedich able.”

A religious sect. See Introduction.

A German-based term meaning “remarkmy off is on

739

My vacation has begun.

N nixnootzich A German-based term meaning “goodfor-nothing.”

nookich norse

noodle A German-based word introduced to English by the Pennsylvania Dutch. See Introduction.

nuther

740

A German-based word meaning “naked.”

A common pronunciation of “north.” Another. See Introduction.

O obladit

A German-based word meaning “appetite.”

Old Harry

ouch To hurt. “Sarah’s tooth ouches her something awful.”

The devil. See Introduction. ousgabootz’d out.”

onion snow The last snow of the year, while the onions are starting to grow.

outen the light other people’s bread tastes better The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Pennsylvania Dutch proverb.

741

A German-based term meaning “cleaned

Put out the light.

P Philadelphia scrapple See Introduction.

A Pennsylvania Dutch foodstuff.

the plain people A name the Pennsylvania Dutch have called themselves for over three centuries. See Introduction.

plesseer

Joy, pleasure.

pretzel A foodstuff introduced to the U.S. by the Pennsylvania Dutch. See Introduction. purty

742

Pretty. See Introduction.

R redded up ret

roontsel

A frequent pronunciation of red.

to rift rite

Tidied up. “The haus (house) is redded up.”

rootsh

To belch. “He made a rift.”

roppled

A common pronunciation of ride.

743

A German-based term meaning “cease.” To crawl or squirm. A German-based term meaning “rattled.”

S sank you

Commonly heard for thank you.

sauerkraut A food introduced to the U.S. by the Pennsylvania Dutch. See Introduction. say not?

Isn’t it?, as in “Nice crop of wheat, say not?”

schmear

A German-based word meaning “fat, grease.”

schmecklich

shnovvel sing

Beak, snout, nose.

A frequent pronunciation of thing.

sink A common pronunciation of think. “Sink about it, Jacob.” sit broad To be plump, heavy. “Aunt Min is wonderful heavy; she sits broad.”

Tasty, wet, luscious. sitz

schnoop-dooch kerchief.”

A German-based term meaning “seat.”

A German-based term meaning “handskitters

The runs, diarrhea.

schrocching A German-based term meaning “twisting and squirming.”

sneaky weather Snowy weather, especially an unexpected overnight snow.

Schwenkfelders

some

sech

A religious sect. See Introduction.

Such. See Introduction.

settin’ up

A Pennsylvania Dutch term for courting.

schendlich ful.”

A German-based term meaning “disgrace-

shite-poke A worthless no-good person; the word is common in other areas as well. shlepperich pery.” shlooxa

Frequently heard for thumb.

sought souse

A common pronunciation of thought. A common pronunciation of “south.”

spossich

A German-based term meaning “funny.”

spritzen

To sprinkle. See Introduction.

store-boughten food homes.

Food that isn’t made in Amish

A German-based term meaning “slipstrubbly

A German-based term meaning “hiccups.”

744

Disheveled. See Introduction.

T ten o’clock piece A second breakfast brought to farmers in the field by their womenfolk. Usually carried in a basket.

thicker Deeper, as used by a mother calling to her child at a swimming pool: “Don’t dive there—come up here where the water is thicker.”

that

tie loose

Often used for “so that.” See Introduction.

the hurrier you go, the behinder you get Dutch saying.

Pennsylvania

toot

A paper bag. See Introduction.

tother them what works hard eats hardy saying.

Untie. “Go out and tie the dog loose.”

The other. See

INTRODUCTION.

Pennsylvania Dutch tzooker

745

A German-based term meaning “candy.”

U unglicklich

A German-based term meaning “unlucky.”

up a stump

746

To be pregnant.

V ve get too soon oldt—und too late schmart We become knowledgeable about life when we’re too old to do much about it. Pennsylvania Dutch saying.

vendue vistle

747

A public sale or auction. Commonly heard for whistle.

W walley weest

A common pronunciation of valley. A German-based term meaning “nasty.”

what does it give for dinner? meaning “What’s for dinner?”

worldly Often applied to modern labor-savings things; many of the Amish, for example, won’t have electricity on their farms because it is too “wordly.”

A common expression

wonderful good “Aunt Emma’s shoo-fly pie sure eats wonderful good.”

what’s the matter of you? A typical Pennsylvania Dutch expression meaning “Aren’t you ready?”

wonnernous A German-based term meaning “an inquisitive person.”

windla

woted

A frequent pronunciation of voted.

wutz

A German-based term meaning “pig.”

wisit

A German-based term meaning “diapers.” A frequent pronunciation of visit.

748

Y yarixed To have vomited. “He ate plenty and yarixed.”

749

Z zus

Commonly heard for this.

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VIII more odd ways americans talk: including bawlamerese, bonac, conch, gullah and boont

called a dialect, even if its speech is essentially the same as that of its region and the only variations are the use of a few words differently or the different pronunciation of a word or two. Philadelphia (see also Part VII) is another big Pennsylvania city with its own special pronunciation and vocabulary. Unlike many Pennsylvanians, Philadelphians, whose city is bordered by the New York metropolitan area, disdain the r in words, preferring the New York habit of dropping it. Typical Philadelphian pronunciations include oys for always, bounce for balance, kore for car, kear for care, DAY-un for down, GLEE-ad for glad, GEH-oh for go, HAY-us for house and Ful-UFF-yuh for Philadelphia. It would, of course, be impossible to include all the U.S. city, town and village dialect variations in this small space. It is said that Basque sheepherders in the western United States have developed a new language or dialect by adapting English words to Basque flections. As for the speech of Chicagoans, one might quote Agatha Chris-tie’s butler in Murder on the Orient Express. “Does he speak English?” detective Hercule Poirot asks, referring to another character. “A kind of English,” the butler replies. “I think he learned it in a place called Chicago.” Then there is the speech of Minnesota Swedes, Brighton Beach (N.Y.) Russians, New England’s Portuguese fishermen, Vietnamese in Boston, Laotians in Louisiana, Puerto Ricans in the Bronx, Arabs, Cubans, Jamaicans, and many, many more specific populations. One could even include the dialects of Eskimo tribes in Alaska, which have some truly odd pronunciations. Mario Pei, noting that the sounds of animals can be closely observed, reported that there are actually words for the speech of a whale in Eskimo. Some Eskimo tribes use peu-wu for the whale’s sound, while the Alaskan Nutka Indians say chw (“constriction of the throat, strongly uttered h, sound of w”). As Walt Whitman’s poem “Song of the Answerer” puts it: “Every existence has its idiom, every thing has an idiom and tongue.” In point of fact, every American might be said to have a dialect of his own by which his family and friends can identify him, such dialects of individual speakers of a language called idiolects. While

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y various estimates, anywhere from three to 27 major dialects are spoken in North America. Professor Hans Kurath’s Linguistic Atlas of the United States and Canada recognizes at least 24 well-defined regional ways of North American speech. Many of these have been covered in this book, but there are many more local dialects, or subdialects, that are spoken by relatively few people, several of them confined to certain towns or islands. Actually, the dialect number could be increased myriad times, depending on how loosely one uses the term dialect. James Thurber, for instance, claimed that there was a nasal, rapidly spoken dialect called Gudda in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio. He named the dialect for the “verb of possession” gudda (got a) “that most frequently pops up in it”: I gudda house; I gudda horse; I gudda barn, and so on. It might be said that all American cities, towns and villages have their peculiarities of speech that distinguish the natives from visitors, such as the pronunciation of Boise as Boysee by Idahoans (outsiders call it Boyzee), or the employment of distinctive expressions like the use of you’re driving me to Poughkeepsie (where there is a famous mental hospital) for “you’re driving me crazy” by people who live in small towns near that New York city on the Hudson. Dahntahn (downtown) is from busy Pittsburgh, where most two-syllable words lose a syllable: “Howard is hired” sounds like Howard is Howard (Howd is howd). Also, the sounds of hard i and ow are merged in the Smoky City, as Michael McGough of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette has demonstrated by writing a Pittsburghian poem in which the words I’ll, towel, owl, cow and how all rhyme. There is, incidentally, no marine influence accounting for the name of the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team. The team takes its name from the nickname of its first president, J. Palmer “Pirate” O’Neill, who was so called because he signed a player from another club, pirating him away rather unscrupulously. Pittsburgh is just one of the 176 cities in America with a population of more than 100,000 that has its own dialect. If an old Hindu proverb is right, then dialect changes every 18 to 20 miles, and, strictly speaking, almost every American hamlet has what could be 753

754 More Odd Ways Americans Talk there isn’t nearly time or space enough to examine even most such “subdialects” here, following are a few conspicuous ones, all of them heard not far from major cities. BAWLAMERESE IN MURLIN

Baltimore, Maryland, named for the English Baltimore family so prominent in its history, and famous nationally for such diverse things as the Baltimore oriole, the Baltimore clipper, the Baltimore Flyer, the Baltimore beauty, the Baltimore belle, the Baltimore heater, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) and even baseball’s Baltimore chop, is also noted for its local Baltimore dialect—called Bawlamerese because the place is locally pronounced Bawlamer, Murlin. According to an official guide published for torsts (tourists), Bawlamer is 40 miles from Warshnin, the nation’s capital. Among other linguistic curiosities, Bawlamer men cut (not mow) their lawns with a paramour (power mower), while their wives do the warsh (wash), wrenching (rinsing) the clothes and arning (ironing) them on an arnin board. Little Bawlamer kids like the zoo’s elfin (elephant) and draff (giraffe), and teenagers hang out at the local drucksterer (drugstore) after hoskull (high school) lets out. Crabs are their favorite, but many Bawlamerins do like a cole race beef sanwich (cold roast beef sandwich). Basically, Bawlamerese is part of the Delmarva Peninsula dialect (this Southern dialect spoken in sections of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia), but Baltimore’s proximity to Washington, D.C. makes it a cosmopolitan city with a language character all its own. In 1981, when the Bawlamer Aurioles were playing the Pittsburgh Parrots in the World Series, TV newscaster Howard K. Smith, who hails from Louisiana, twitted the locals about their twang. “They call their city Bawlamer, Murlin,” Smith said. “They call garbage gobbidge. Legal is pronounced liggle and if you ever ask directions, remember that Droodle Avenue means Druid Hill Avenue. Clays means clothes, doll means dial—the phone. Cancel means council, as in town council. Council means cancel, as with a check.” Soon Baltimore officials drafted a reply to Harrid K. Smmiff, this reading, in part: “You get the picture, but what’s so funny about a paramour to cut the grass, we’d like to ax?” An aig in Bawlamerese is an egg, while arnjuice is orange juice; the Arsh (Irish) come from Arlin (Ireland); awl (oil) goes into the crankcase; arspern is what you take for a headache; the Beeno (B&O) is a railroad; a bleef is what you believe in; and blow is the opposite of above. Down is pronounced day-on; shore is sure; food is feud; and fight is fat. With these principles in mind anyone should be able to translate the following preamble of the “Livelier Baltimore Committee” in their guide to the city: We’ve been watching Bawlamer and its gubmint for over thirty-five years and we’re not tarred yet! We don’t work

all over Murlin, though . . . We are, however, concerned how to get you help if your landlord won’t fix a broken bawler or a leaky fawcit in your baffroon . . . Whether rapid transit goes down Harrid Street, or across Norf Abnew, or on to the old Beeno tracks concerns us too. And we’ll call the gubmint in Naplis or Warshin to get things done. So while we know little of Drooslin, Arlin, or Yerp (Europe) ax us a question about Bawlamer and we’re lobble to be less ignernt.

BONAC FOR “FOREIGNERS”

Less than a hundred miles from Times Square, a community of Long Island fishermen called the Bonackers speak a dialect that retains the sound of Shakespeare’s England. The Bonackers reside in and around East Hampton, a town they helped settle in the mid-17th century when East Hampton was founded as a whaling port by settlers from Connecticut across Long Island Sound. They were not the affluent among these settlers; they were, in fact, often their servants, and at first they built shacks along Accabonac Creek. The richer citizens disparagingly calling them Bonackers after the place where most of them lived. Some 1,000 Bonackers live in the Hamptons today, many of them speaking the old English dialect called Bonac that retains much of the vocabulary and the same vowel sounds the original settlers employed. A large number of the families are closely related. There are, for example, Posey Lesters and Devon Lesters and Roundswamp Lesters and Pantigo Lesters. The Posey Lesters take their name from a 19th-century ancestor who always walked the streets with a flower in his lapel, while the Roundswamp Lesters are named for the place where this branch of the family originated. Anyone born outside the East End of Long Island is called a foreigner by a Bonacker, and the entire world outside the area is known as away. “Even my wife’s foreigner, she came from away,” one old fisherman says. The salty dialect spoken by the Bonackers is often related to fishing, still the main livelihood of these people. “What you got finnin’ over there?” a fisherman might shout to someone else pulling in a catch a hundred yards away. “This spring I caught pretty good,” says a fisherman in relating his luck, “but I couldn’t get a price for the stock.” A harbor is a hobboh in Bonac, its r melting away as r’s often do in this dialect; the word farmer, for another example, becomes fammah. One also hears words like awchit for orchard, op’m for open, eebn for even, yit for yet, nawthin’ for nothing and winnuhry for wintry. In Bonacker homes durst often takes the place of dare not, and cattywumper means “crooked” or “disorderly.” No matter what your name is, Bonackers reply “Yes, yes, bobby,” or “Yes, yes, bub,” when you ask a question. About the nearest similarity to the vocabulary of another area in Bonac are a few nautical phrases also

More Odd Ways Americans Talk 755 heard in Massachusetts, these including cutter, a command to turn sharply, and finestkind, which means “AOK.” Bonackers, who speak with something resembling an Irish brogue, try not to converse in Bonac when strangers are around, and the dialect is seldom heard in the summer season when the population of this community increases threefold from its 55,000 winter population. Yet these people cling to their dialect, which one of them calls “The King’s English, only we come under an earlier king.” They are “a stubborn bunch,” in the words of another Bonac fisherman, and resist all attempts by teachers to “get the Bonac out of their speech.” They still live modestly, as their ancestors did, often on the same land, maintaining their dialect as a badge of pride. If Bonac dies, it will only be because the Bonackers have been forced from their land by rising prices and real-estate development in this summer playground of the rich, which is fast becoming a year-round suburb of Manhattan. AMERICA’S COCKNEYS: CONVERSING IN CONCH

The Conchs (pronounced Conks) of the Florida Keys speak a Southern American subdialect that is notably different from the rest of the speech of the South and even differs from the dialect of south Floridians, who were called fly-up-the-creeks in the mid-19th century (after the popular nickname of the small green heron, Butorides virescens, native to Florida.) The Conchs are so named because as the first English fishermen to settle in the Keys, they depended on the conch (Strombus alatus, a spiral-shelled gastropod) for food and even used its giant shell as a trumpet to communicate from shore to ship and from key to key. The descendants of a band of Cockney Englishmen called the Eleutherian Adventurers who migrated from London to Bermuda in about 1649 in search of religious and political freedom, they came to the Florida Keys early in the 19th century from Eleuthera in the Bahamas. Once in the Keys they made their livelihood from fishing, wrecking and gathering sponges. From the beginning, the Conchs built homes on both sides of Key West and tried to keep separate from other settlers, their close family ties binding them together. Their aloofness helped the Conch dialect last as long as it has. Influenced by Bahamian English, Cuban Spanish and Cockney as well as Southern American and General American dialects, their speech contains words and expressions found nowhere else in the area. A dishcloth, for example, is called a natural sponge by the Conchs. Their umbrella is a bumpershoot, and they regard the pantry as the kitchen safe. Conchs call any native of Nassau a saw. In Conch speech, as in Cockney speech, the w and v are confused, a vest becoming a west and visit becoming wisit. An a before g is pronounced like short i, so that rag is transformed into rig and bag into big.

The Conchs treat the h in the Cockney way, saying orse instead of horse and pronouncing hell as the letter l. Other special characteristics are the frequent use of ain’t instead of haven’t or won’t, and the ommission of ed from verb past-tense forms (“The orse jump the fence yesterday”). Spanish idioms tend to be translated literally by the Conchs: “Cuantos años tiene?” for example, becomes “How many years you got?,” not “How old are you?” They pronounce i in the Spanish manner, particularly in the names of people—Olivia becomes Oleevia when addressed by a Conch. Among other British dialect features in Conch talk is the use of the i (as in pit) in unstressed suffixes spelled ace, ain, ate, ed, en, es, ess, et, ice, id, in, ip, is, ist, it, ite, and uce. Palace is thus pronounced palis and actress pronounced actris. Conchs use the a of father for ar in words such as cigar, park, and car, just as Southern Americans and many other Americans do, but which is also a characteristic of British speech. There are a number of other similarities to Southern talk, just as there are to British and General American dialect features. Conch talk lives on the Florida Keys, but appears to be slowly disappearing, as is the case with other island languages, including the Ocracoke dialect of the Outer Banks of North Carolina and the island dialect of Bonac examined above. Recent studies have shown that among younger people it is giving way to Southern and General American English, but that it will be around for a long while in the speech of old and middle-aged Conchs, with the older inhabitants using the British or Cockney dialect much more than all the others. THE GULLAH DIALECT

Gullah, still another language of the South, is spoken in its purest form by African Americans on the Sea Islands off the Georgia–South Carolina coast. Gullah is an example of a kind of Plantation Creole that has survived until today. The Plantation Creole languages of the South were invented by black slaves from the languages of their homelands, the pidgin English used in the slave trade and the varying English dialects of the owners and overseers on their plantations. A good number of Americanisms—including goober, okra, chiggers, poor Joe (a heron), banjo, jazz, voodoo, mumbo jumbo, zombie, cooter and yam—derive from these languages, and less certain claims have been made for many others, including massa (master), dig (to understand), hip, jukebox, tote, sweet talk, speak softly and carry a big stick and even the universally known OK, the most American of all words. The word Gullah itself takes its name from either Ngola (Angola) or the West African Gola tribe. For several centuries the Sea Islands have harbored this language, a tongue foreign to most Americans and one of

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whose very existence many are still unaware. Because of its geographical isolation, Gullah has escaped much of the eroding influence of American English that has afflicted the mainland communities where it is spoken. Although it was once the prevalent black language of the South’s great cotton and rice plantations, the language has contracted and thrives only on these few islands that originally provided optimum conditions for its birth and incubation. Possibly arriving in the Sea Islands directly, instead of from Barbados through the Caribbean route, the slaves who first came there had, at any rate, little acquaintance with English. The heat, dampness and inevitable malaria of the islands discouraged white settlement, so the black population always sharply exceeded the white, and black overseers were commonplace. Unfortunately, today’s islands are under siege by those two most formidable foes of tradition—tourist trade and real-estate development. But though Gullah may be doomed to the notebooks and recordings of philologists, it is still spoken to some extent by more than 250,000 people along the southeastern coast from South Carolina to the Florida border, and its vitality echoes from the rhythmic chanting of the flower sellers at Charleston’s Four Corners to the rappin’ of urban youths on the streets of New York. In fact, there are also about 1,000 pure Gullah speakers in New York City, most of them living in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant section. In the past, Gullah (often called Geechee among its speakers) was for some a source of derision and shame, but for others it has always been and continues to be one of ethnic pride. Beyond all else today, Gullah stands as the living testimony of a people’s determination to survive and preserve the linguistic bulwark that had shielded them from the most divisive and dehumanizing conditions. Though we might question the medical wisdom of “Mumps ain’t nuttin’ if you can get sardine grease to grease em wid,” we have little difficulty understanding what is being said. Gullah appears at first glance to be simply a case of “broken,” “poor” or “childish” English. Early scholars, misled by the superficial similarities between the languages and perhaps reluctant to credit blacks with any cultural contribution, conceived of Gullah as a corruption of English. One theory described the language as a simplified form of English that arose by necessity when masters had to communicate with their slaves. Relying on sentences shorn of all but uninflected words in the simplest word order and accompanied by extensive gestures, the master would make known his wishes, and the slaves would accede to his language as well as his commands. This “baby talk” theory gained wide acceptance because it was plausible and because it made the white man, who had lost his political sovereignty after the Civil War, still the linguis-

tic master of any black. Another theory that would have wholly excluded African influence posited a complex system of geographical references according to which every idiosyncrasy of the language was traced to dialects and localisms within England, Wales or Scotland. Not until midway in our own century did scholars recognize the contributions of African languages to Gullah, for the first speakers of Gullah were also its originators. Born speakers of Bantu, Wolof, Fante, Mandingo, Ewe, Twi, Ibo, Yoruba or another of the hundreds of distinct tongues of West Africa, they forged from this diverse linguistic heritage a unique language. The pioneering studies of the black scholar Lorenzo D. Turner revealed in their comparisons of Gullah and West African languages that the grammatical peculiarities of Gullah are not corruptions of English but an amalgam of forms indigenous to a number of West African dialects. Gullah is not an infant’s rendering of English or a random sampling of British dialects but a language whose structure is the outcome of a historical experience in which select aspects of West African dialects adaptable to an English environment merged to form a common grammar and syntax. Chief among the 28 or so African languages that influenced the development of Gullah are Wolof, spoken on the coastline closest to the United States; Mandingo, spoken by the largest percentage of first-generation blacks to arrive here; Akan, the language of what was formerly known as the Gold Coast; and Hausa, the geographically extensive language of West Africa’s interior and a tongue spoken as a second language by many of the smaller tribes. Turner, in his Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect (1949), compiled the first extensive list of African words that were directly loaned to Gullah. Most of these 6,000 or so words were personal names, and many were descriptive of the African zoological or botanical experience. Mandingo gave its word for turtle, cooter, and Wolof yielded banana. Turner’s etymological investigations of the personal names and nicknames of Gullah (such as Angku, “boy born on Saturday,” or Betsibi, “mischievous”) revealed more than 4,000 traceable to African personal or proper names. Other African words used in Gullah include common terms like dafa (fat) and bong (tooth). Many such terms are convergences, words introduced from Africa that merge with similarsounding English words, as has been previously noted in the case of massa and the slang (dig (to understand). The vocabulary of Gullah at its inception may have reflected more clearly the pervasive influence of Africa, but as the language expanded, it borrowed most of its vocabulary from English. Recent scholarship has enlarged considerably Turner’s list of Africanisms in Gullah, but except for names, the vocabulary of Gullah is nevertheless derived predominantly from English. It is

More Odd Ways Americans Talk 757 rather the grammar of Gullah that best reflects the defining influence of Africa. All the distinctive aspects of Gullah’s grammatical structure have been identified with West African dialects, though the language is not a pale reflection of one or several of these tongues. In the slave camps awaiting shipment to the New World and during those endless months aboard the slave ships on which deathin-life prevailed, the slaves, bereft of family and friends, were by necessity forced to find some means of communicating their most basic needs to their masters as well as to one another, just as their masters needed to communicate with them. From the mutually unintelligible but linguistically related languages of West African and the language of their oppressors, the slaves and their captors developed their own pidgin, a simple language capable of serving only the most essential needs in very restricted linguistic contexts. Finally, on the plantations of the South, this pidgin evolved into a language suited to the slave’s complete needs. Gullah had to accommodate itself to English, which it did in large part by accepting English vocabulary and certain grammatical categories while retaining those African terms and syntactic rules that were uniquely descriptive of its past. It was never overwhelmed by English. In the segregation of their slave cabins and long halls, in the fields of rice and cotton, slaves reinforced and expanded the uses of their by-now native tongue. The syntactic structure, or underlying grammar, of Gullah is relatively simple and extraordinarily economical, making it quickly and readily accessible to new learners—an important feature for a language that in its infancy would be exposed to a highly developed, socially preferred and legally enforced tongue. If Gullah had not been so easy to learn, it would doubtless not have survived even a generation. Several of Gullah’s syntactical peculiarities are found in today’s nationwide urban-based Black English dialect, just as they have influenced black speech in general. An example of the latter is what has been described as “the behind preposition,” the use of at at the end of sentences (Where you stay at?). As for Gullah’s vocabulary, it not only used African words such as okra, cuchie (a cornmeal cake), yam, cooter, goober, tote, banana and buckra, it passed these words on to speakers of English. African words used by Gullah speakers that didn’t pass into general usage include nyam (to eat), ki! (an exclamation) and plateye (for an evil spirit). Expressions long common to Gullah include: • • • • • •

to study on (think about) it first fowl crow (early morning) posit your word (take an oath) all two (both) tiel (stole—“’E tiel um.” [He stole it.]) evening (afternoon)

• peruse (to stroll) • wha’ fuh ya is fuh ya (whatever is for you is for you; que sera, sera) • up all the windows (open the windows) • Great God in Zion, man! (a common exclamation) Two of the most cherished of African linguistic traditions, proverbs and child-naming, were preserved in Gullah. The African proverb, with its indirect construction, ambiguous speech and poetical language, survives in its combination with English vocabulary. Some proverbs define metaphysical notions: Hell, det one ditch you cannot hump. Others offer advice: Work while it is day. Still others reflect a fatalistic view: Trouble goin’ fall. In continuing the African tradition of proverbs, Gullah provided for the cultural initiation of the young into a world of beliefs, superstitions, hopes and fears that was beyond their own often degrading American experience. They identified with a culture and its language that were not completely shackled by the constraints of plantation life. An example of a practical and amusing Gullah proverb that passed into general American use is Likker’ll make you not know your mamma, which dates back at least to the 18th century and probably before this, possibly being adapted from an African proverb brought to America by South Carolina slaves. The African practice of naming had an almost mystical importance to Gullah speakers. Naming afforded an opportunity of sharing personal and historical experiences, attitudes toward life and a system of values. Slaves would often have two names: one that the master gave, such as Brutus, and a unique name, such as Sabe, that would be the individual’s within the community that really mattered to him, his own. In accordance with African tradition, children were often named after the English equivalents of the days of the week. Sometimes, African names themselves (Sango, Mingo) or homonyms of African names (such as Joe, for “Cadjo”) were chosen. Finally, the tradition of naming according to prevalent ideas was carried on in the new tongue, so that children were named for the weather: Bright or Rainy; their appearance: Curly; or their parent’s attitude toward their birth: Welcome. In all, Gullah strove to strengthen the naming tradition, which gave the family a sense of power over their masters and their children a sense of heritage and pride. The child was not defenselessly incorporated into the white man’s slave society at birth but entered the inhumane system protected by a sense of self and history—the parents had given the child, and would continue to give the child, everything that it was possible to give. HARPIN’ IN BOONT

Our last dialect treated here illustrates how a dialect can become extinct. For Boontling is dying, almost dead.

758 More Odd Ways Americans Talk This remarkable lingo of Boonville, California—its name a telescoping of “Boonville lingo”—is spoken fluently today by only a small handful of the town’s older residents and several enthusiasts enchanted by the history of this town only 100 miles north of San Francisco. At one time almost all the residents of the coastal town of Boonville understood Boontling, and perhaps a thousand people spoke this enlarged family language or lingo fluently. Boontling might strictly be called an “American English jargon,” as its best scholar, Charles C. Adams, termed it, but it is more often dubbed a lingo (Adams even entitled his book Boontling, an American Lingo), lingoes being languages similar to family languages with private expressions, nicknames, words used by children, and the like. In any case, its unique lexicon qualifies it as a dialect under a loose definition of the term. Boontling was born about a century ago in the beautiful backwoods country around Boonville, whose steep hills and lush fields were first settled in 1850. It thrived in the isolation of the valley, enjoying its heyday from around 1890 to 1930. One story has the lingo originating in 1892 at the Anytime Saloon, where the four Burger and Duff brothers concocted a vocabulary composed of old Scotch dialect words (the area was settled by Scotch-Irish pioneers) and freshly minted expressions into a code that children, women and their rivals could not understand. More likely, according to one old-timer, or codgy, the lingo began in the hop fields of Bell Valley, “where children worked alongside their parents, and adult harvesters invented a jargon as a medium for private group gossip deemed unfit for young ears.” In any case, the rural dialect or argot was nurtured by Boonville’s relative isolation and self-sufficiency up until the 1930s. Boonters liked to shark (fool) the brightlighters (city dwellers) and each other by coining new words. One favorite amusement was to hang around the stagecoach depot and talk about strangers in Boontling. Boontling seems to be the one bona-fide American dialect we know of that originated as a kind of word game, the only other notable example, Pig Latin (or Igpay Atinlay), which gives us the English word amscray (scram), having originated in seventeenthcentury England. Boontling has a vocabulary exceeding that of any other secret language. As one old-time speaker has boasted, “Almost anything can be said in Boontling.” Another man claimed that when he was drafted during World War I Boontling was so much his language that he “had to learn English all over again” on leaving home. Over the years Boontling acquired about 1,200 unique words and phrases. Its vocabulary consists of 20 or so different types of terms: Scotch-Irish dialect words; other foreign-language words; American dialect and slang words; Native American words; telescoped or

reshaped words from English; biblical allusions; metaphors; coinage; references to local people, places and happenings; and nonch harpin’s, or taboo off-color speech. Scotch-Irish dialect terms include tweed for young man, deck for look at, and wee for little. The local Pomo Indian bishe for deer was transformed into the Boontling word boshe for to hunt deer and the bosher’s (deerhunter’s) boshe barl (barrel), meaning deer rifle. California Spanish of a earlier day yielded the Boontling doolsey, sugar or candy (from dulce, sweet), as well as layche, milk (from leche), and breggo, sheep (from borrego, yearling lamb). The French gourmand became the Boontling gorm, to eat, as did the Old English term chiggle, while the Old English verb harp (which Shakespeare put into the mouth of Polonius—“Still harping on my daughter!”) came to mean to talk. Local characters gave their names to a great many Boontling words—perhaps 15 percent of the vocabulary. These eponyms include a camp cook called Z.C. whose thick, potent coffee inspired Boonters to name all coffee zeese in his honor. Charlie ball means to embarrass in Boontling because a local Indian named Charlie Ball was quick to blush. A telephone is called a buckeywalter because in the old days one Walter Levi was the only person in town who had a phone at home. Working was called ottin’ after an industrious German logger named Otto. A big fire in the fireplace is designated a jeffer, since old Jeff Vester always had such a blaze going. Pie became charlie brown because logger Charlie Brown ate pie with every meal. Because clotheshorse Nettie Wallace always wore lace, Boonters called anyone who affected fancy dress nettied. A retarded boy named Tudd inspired tuddish for all similarly handicapped people. To joe mack (to defeat in a fist fight) came from the name of Joe McGrinsey, a brawler who never lost a battle. Boontling itself, of course, takes its name from Boonville, the largest community in Anderson Valley and named for W. W. Boone, an early storekeeper and relative of Daniel Boone. Outsiders also qualify as eponyms. A booker, for example, is any black man, after Booker T. Washington. Trilbies are small feet, honoring the heroine of George du Maurier’s novel Trilby (1894), who was noted for her beautiful feet. Boontling telescoped words (or, to be more accurate, “phonemic reshapings”) from English are more numerous, including bourp (a contraction of boar-pig) for bacon; forbes for four bits; toobs, two bits; haireem, “hairy mouth,” for a shaggy-muzzled dog like an Airedale; and nonch (from non plus much for bad, or inferior, hence the term nonch-harpin’, dirty talk. Metaphors in Boontling include the poetic white spots, meaning dead lambs in a field; peerls (pearls) for rain; milky for foggy; mink, “a girl with expensive

More Odd Ways Americans Talk 759 tastes”; and bulrusher, an illegitimate child, from the biblical story of Moses found in the bulrushes. One visiting politician from Sacramento was dubbed a pottager from the Gold Dome, a biblical allusion to Esau, who sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. When the Hippies came to Mendicino County in the 1960s, the Boonters dubbed them posey tweeds, a translation of “flower children.” The language can adept itself colorfully to modern circumstances. For another example, the action of the Apollo 11 Moon landing was summarized by a Boonter as “Thribs kimmies piked to the green-teesle region” (Three men traveled to the green-cheese region). Other interesting Boontling expressions are applehead for a woman, tonguecuppy for sick, strung for dead, book for place, sluggin nook for a sleeping place, and croppies for sheep, because sheep crop the grass when grazing. Nonch harpin’, or “dirty talk,” is said to comprise about 15 percent of Boontling’s vocabulary. These are, in reality, kind of rough-hewn pioneer euphemisms for sensitive subjects and were a necessity for the speech of a lusty yarn-spinning people who indulged in much hootin’, hornin’ and fisterin’ (laughing, drinking and fighting). Madge, for example, meant a whore, after the name of the local madam, and one went madgin’ at a madge house. According to legend, burlapin’ means to make love or fornicate because a local youngster spied the owner of a local store and a customer making love

on a pile of burlap sacks in the back room of the store. The boy ran out into the street shouting, “They’re burlapin’ in there!” Several sources, including Dr. Adams’s authoritative book, conclude that Boontling was probably spoken by almost everyone in Boonville at the height of its popularity, the language something of a local sport. It may not strictly qualify as a genuine dialect—its pronunciation (except for the Scotch-Irish and foreign loan words) and its grammar are like that of the Midland dialect of American English—but had it lasted in an isolated valley longer than the century or so that it thrived, Boontling might have developed into one. In any case, by the 1930s the Great Depression migration from the Dust Bowl to California had flooded the valley with non-speakers of Boontling who diluted the town’s “tight little society.” A logging boon during the war years added to the watering down, as did television with its “Standard Network English,” and, finally, the dude ranches that opened in the area brought in even more outsiders. The town’s phone booths are still marked Buckywalter, men’s restrooms are marked Kimmie; and there is a gift shop called the Eeble Heelch, which means “eyeball everything.” But as the original Boonts grow older and pass from the scene and their descendants marry outsiders, there’s “nobody left to harp to,” as one old-timer puts it. Boontling is already a curiosity and will soon and sadly be only a historical curiosity.

INDEX A a (article) 428 a (broad pronounciation of) 172 a (indefinite article) 8 A (letter worn on clothing) 172 a (pronunciation) 336 a’a 699 Aaron’s rod, 8, 172 A-B-Abs 8 aback 8, 172 aback of 8 abanded 8, 336 abasicky 8 abb and ebb 8 ABC store 8 abeam 172 abedit 727 Abe Lincoln bug 8 Abert’s towhee 428 abide 8, 336 able 8, 172, 336 able to set an’ eat . . . 172 abody 336 abogado 428 Abolition War 172 about east 172 abouten 8, 336 abouts 8 about to die 9 about to find pups 336 about to give out 9 above his bend 428 above one’s bend 9 above snakes 428 abra 428 an Abraham Lincoln 9 abroad 9, 336 abscess of the bowels 9 abscond 9 absoid 594 absolute auction 9 absquatulate 9, 336 Acadian owl 173 (a) carrying 351 accommodatin’ as a . . . 173 accommodation 173 account of 9 ace boon coon 594 acequia 428 a-childing 336 acid test 428 ackamarackus 594 ackempucky 9, 336 acknowledge the corn, 9, 336 Acoma 428 a-come 336 a-coming on 336 acorn calf 428 acorn-cracker 336 acorn duck 9 acorn tree 9 across 699 across-the-track 9 acrost the waters 336 act like you’re somebody 9 acts like folks 173 actual 336 Adam apple 9 Adam’s ale 173 Adam’s cup 173

Adam’s housecat 9 Adams’ New York Gum . . . 594 Adam’s pet monkey 9 adays 9 adder’s tongue, 173, 428 addled 10 adieu 10 adios 429 adjern 594 adjinning 336 admirable bolete 429 Admiral Dewey 10 Admiration 173 admire 336 admire to 173 admiring 429 adobada sauce 429 adobe 429 adobe-maker 429 adrift 173 advanced female 173 adz into 173 ae 699 aesal 727 afeared, 10, 337 affidavy 10 afflicted 10 Affrishy town 10 a-fleetin’ an’ a-flyin’ 10 afoot, 337, 429 afore 10, 173, 337 afore you could scat . . . 337 African-American 10 African language influence linguistic, 756–757 linguistic child-naming 757 proverbs 757 African-Negro 10 African refugee 10 Africky 10 Afromobile 10 after 337 afterclap 173 afterdinner 337 aftergrass 173 afternight 10 after-night 337 aftersupper 10 aftertimes 10 afterwhile 10 afur 337 agarita 429 agave 429 ageable 10 agent 10 ager bumps 10 aggerpervoke 337 aggie forti(e)s 10 agg on 337 aggrafret 10 aggravoke 10 agin 11, 173, 337 aginer 337 aglee 337 agley 337 a-going 11 agoment 11 agone 337 agony 11 a good riddance 11 agricultural ant 429 aguardiente 429

agy 337 ah 337, 429 ahana! 699 ahn 594 ahorseback 429 ahp 173 aig 11, 337 aiglefin 173 ailded, 11, 337 ailish 11 aim 173, 337, 429 ain’t 11, 594, 727 ain’t got nothing? 173 ain’t got sense enough . . . 173 aint got sense enough . . . 337 ain’t got the backbone 337 ain’t he a caution 594 ain’t no big thing 594, 699 ain’t on it 429 ain’t that a dinger 429 ain’t worth a fart . . . 173 ain’t you ready maybe, yet? 727 air 11, 337 airified 337 airin’ the lungs 429 airish 11, 337 air the paunch 429 airtights 429 airy way 595 ajo 429 A.K. 11 a.k. 595 akamai 699 aknown 11 aku head pupule 699 Alabama 11 Alabama egg 11 a la famiglia 595 alameda 429 alamo 429 alarm duty 11 Albany beef 595 albondigas 430 albur 430 alcalde 430 alderman in chains 173 Aleck 12 alegria 430 alewife 173 alewife in his . . . 174 Alexander 595 Alexander Hamilton 12 alforja 430 alfresco 430 algaroba 430 alibi out of 430 alight and look . . . 430 alive 12 alkali 430 alkali dust 430 alkalied 430 alkali grass 430 all 12, 430, 727 all ahoo 12 all alligator 12 all around 12 allas 337 all bally-which-way 430 all chalk and water 174 all decked up 337

all dressed up like . . . 12 all drug out 337 all druv (drove) up 174 Allegheny Mountains 337 alley bat 12 alley cat 12 all-fired 12, 174 all fired up . . . 12 all fluking 174 all fogged up 12 all get-out 338 all git out 12 all hair by the nose 174 all hands and the cook! 174 all heeled 12 all his bullet holes . . . 430 all his (her) born days 174 all horns and rattles 430 all humped up like . . . 174 alligator 12, 430 alligator bait 12 alligator cooter 12 alligator juniper 430 alligator tag 12 alligator weed 431 all I know is . . . 431 all in a pucker 174 all is 338 all kinds of times 12 all leather 431 all man 431 all my lone 12 all my whole life 12 all nature 174 all oak and . . . 431 all oak and iron bound 12 allocochick 431 all of a biver 174 all of a green 12 all of a high 174 all of a rush 174 all of a scatter 174 all of a shiver 174 all of a size 12 all of a twitter 338 all of a washing sweat 174 all one’s born days 12 allot upon 174 all over East Jesus 174 all-over fidges 338 all over hell and . . . 12 all-overs 12 all-overst 338 allow 13, 338 all right already 595 alls 13 all she wrote 13 all smiles and johnnycakes 174 all-spine 431 all standing 174 all stark alone 175 all’s well alow and aloft 175 all the bigger 338 all the far 13 all the farther 338 all the fast 13 all the faster 338

760

all the harder 338 all the high 13 all the higher 338 all the longer 13 all the more 13 All the News That’s . . . 595 all the smaller 13, 338 all the time 13 all tore up about it 13 all two 13 alluh 595 allus 13, 175, 338 allus ago 338 all used up 175 all vine and no taters 13 all vines an’ no taters 338 all wool . . . 13 all wool and . . . 431 almanick 338 almighty dollar 595 aloha 699 aloha shirt 699 alphabet 699 Alphabet City 595 alpine 431 already 595, 699 alrighnik 595 alst 175 alter 727 alter kocker 595 always astern of the lighter 175 always reefer down . . . 175 am 13 amalgamationist 175 amargosa 431 Amazin’ Mets 595 ambeer 13, 338 ambition 13 ambitious 338 ambulance 431 amen corner 13 American 175, 431 American dialects 753–759 Amherst 175 amigo 431 a mind to 175 Amish 727 Amishland 727 ammonia Coke 13 amohl 727 amole 431 amongst 175 amoosement 175 amost 175 ample 175 anadama bread 175 anaqua 431 and 338 ándale 431 and how! 595 and that’s a fact 13 anent 338 anesthesia 175 Angeleno 431 angel flying by 14 angels on horseback 431 angel teat 338 angledog 175 angle in 431 Anglo 431 Anglo-African 14

Anglo-Rebel 14 angoras 431 angry tree 431 anigh 14 animal 175, 432 animule 432 ankle-biter 14 ankle express 14 ankle over 432 annerz 595 Annie Oakley 432 anoint 14 another guess 338 another-guess 14 anothern 338 ansund 338 answer the last . . . 432 an’t 14 a’n’t 175 ant-bed 175 ant cow 14 antelope 432 antelope brush 432 antelope chipmunk 432 antelope horns 432 antelope jackrabbit 432 ant heap 176 antic 338 antifogmatical 176 antigodlin 338, 432 antigoglin 14 antimacassar 176 antiques and horribles 176 ant killer 14 ant mashers 14 antses 14 anvil 432 anxious bench 14 anxioused up 14 anybody 699 any day and time 14 any God’s amint 176 anymore 14, 338, 432 any much 14 anyways 14, 338 ‘a’ole 699 Apache 432 Apache plume 432 Apache State 432 apache tears 432 aparejo 432 aparejo grass 432 apast 14 ape 14 ape oil 14 aplenty 14 a-plenty 432 Appalachia 339 Appalachian speech. See Mountain speech Appalachian tea 339 Appaloosa 433 appearanced 14 appearment 14 appernt 596 Appian Way of North Carolina 339 Apple 596 apple 433 apple . . . 176–77 apple bird 433 appletreer 177 applicant 177 apron-faced horse 433 Arab 14, 177

INDEX Arapaho 433 ara thing 14 arbuckle 339, 433 arched his back 433 arction 15 are, 15, 339, 433 are you of a mind to? 339 are you quits? 433 argie 339 argonaut 433 argufy 15, 339 Arizona 433 Arizona cloudburst 433 Arizona fever 433 Arizona nightingale 433 Arizona paint job 433 Arizona ruby 433 Arizona strawberries 433 Arizona tenor 433 Arizona travels 433 Arizona wedding cake 433 Arkansas, 15, 339 Arkansas asphalt 339 Arkansas chicken 15, 339 Arkansas fire extinguisher 15, 339 Arkansas lizard, 15, 339 Arkansas stool 339 Arkansas T-bone 15 Arkansas toothpick 15, 339 Arkansas travels 15, 339 Arkansas wedding cake 15, 339 Arkansaw 339 Arkansawyer 15, 339 Arlington 177 armadillo 433 armas 433 armstrong 339 arn 434 Aroostook County 177 around Cape Horn 177 around the horn! 434 around time 177 arriviper 433 arrowbush 434 arrow chase 596 arroyo 434 arroz con pollo 434 arse 339 arsle 339 artermatic 15 arthur 339 arthuritis 339 artickle 340 artillery 434 arty-facts 434 ary 15, 177, 340 aryplane 340 as 340 asafetida bag 177 as bad as all possessed 177 as big as old Cuffey 177 as busy as a man . . . 177 ascared 340 as chirk as a chitterdiddle . . . 177 as close as the bark . . . 177 as crooked as . . . 15 ashamed 340 ash-barrel baby 15 ashcake 15, 340 ash can 596 ash-cat 15 ashy 15, 340 ask no odds of anybody 177 as long as grass . . . 434

as mad as a beaver 177 as mad as a pig . . . 15 as mad as a rooster . . . 15 as Maine goes . . . 177 as mean as turkey bitters 177 as much chance as . . . 15 as (omission of) 15 asparagrass 596 aspen poplar 434 aspersed 15 as poor as Job’s turkey 177 as pretty a hand 434 as pretty as . . . 434 a-spudding around 340 as rich as . . . 15 assa maada you 699 assawayigoze 596 assessment work 434 ass-hole kinfolks 340 assin’ around 434 ass in a sling 15 ass licker 16 association saddle 434 ass-ripper 16 as stylish as . . . 434 ass-up 177 assurance 16 as sure as God made . . . 16 ast 596 astern the lighter 178 as the feller says 178 as thick as huckleberries 178 asthma dog 16 as tight (drunk) as a peep 178 astorperious 596 Astor Place riots 596 at 340 atago 434 at all, 16, 340 atall 434 a-tall 340 atamasco lily 16 ataunto 178 ate supper before . . . 16 Atherton gag 178 Atlanter 596 Atlantic Monthly 178 a (to) 594 atomic wedgie 596 at oneself 16, 340 a-torture 340 attackted 340 attend to 699 atter 340 attle 434 atween 340 atwixt 340 auctioneer 340 auger-eyed 340 augerino 434 augur 434 Augusty 178 aumost 340 Aunt 178 Aunt Hagar’s children 16, 596 Auntie 16 auntie 178 autermatic 340 autymobile 178, 340 auwe! 699 avalanche 434 avast 178 avaytor 16 Avenging Angel 434 avenoo 596 aviation 334 away Down East 178

awdah 596 awfice 596 awful 178 awfullest 16 awful old fart 178 awl 434 awluh 596 awmobile 596 awnt 178 AWOL 16 awork with 16 aw sound 587–588 awways 596 ax 596 axe 340 ax handle 434 ax-handle party 434 ay, chihuahua! 434 ayards 340 ay gonnies 16 ayuh 178

B baaad 597 baa-baa 435 baad 17 ba-ba-deh-boom 597 babbitt 179 Babe 17 Babe Ruth of rodeo 435 babushka 597 baby 597 baby-batter 17 baby blue eyes 435 baby buggy 435 baby-catcher 17 baby in the bushes 435 baby morning glory 435 babytears 341 baby-trough 341 baby-waker 17 bachelor’s lantern 435 bachelor’s wife 435 back 17, 179, 341 back-actually 341 back along 179 back and fill 179 backard 341 back back 17 back-back 341 Back Bay 179 backbone’s rubbin’ . . . , his 374 backbreaker 435 backcheeks 179 back-door trots 341 back East 435 backed up 17 backer 341 backfin 17 back forty, the 435 backhouse 179, 341 backhouse lily 179 backing 341 backing and forthing 341 back in the saddle . . . 435 back in the saddle again 17 back in the woods 597 backlander 341 backlog 179 back one’s play 435 back out 341 backset 17 back-set 341 back sick 342 Back Side 179 backslide 341 back states 180 backstick 341 back the breeze 435 backwards and forwards 17

backy 17 backyard tree 597 backyard trots 180 bacon and collards 17 bacon and greens 17 bacon and rice aristocracy 18 bacon up 341 bad 435 bad as I hate . . . 18 Badlands 435 bad man 435 badman 435 Bad Man, The 342 bad medicine 436 badmouth, 18, 597 bad pay 18 bad place 342 the bad place 18 bad place in . . . 436 bad place in the road 18 bad sick 18 bad time 18 bad to 18, 342 bag 18, 342 bagasse 18 Bagdad on the Hudson 597 bagel 598 bag lady 598 bagonet 342 bagoong 700 bag plant 180 bag yer head 180 bah 598 bahr’l 342 bahstid 180 Bahston 180 bait 18, 342, 436 baited for widow 18 bait tree 18 bajada 436 bake 180 bake beans 18 Baked Alaska 598 baked beans 180 baker’s bread 436 baker’s cart 180 bakeshop meal 180 baking powders 342 bald 18, 342 bald face, 18, 342 baldface 436 bald-faced shirt 436 bald face whiskey 18 baldhead 436 baldheaded 180, 436 bald-headed prairie 436 bald-headed ship 180 baldies 436 Baldwin 180 baldy 436 bale 18 baleboss 598 bale of hay 180 baler 18 Balize pilot 18 balks 18 balky 180 ballast for her (his) balloon 180 balled up 180, 436 ballet 342 ball naked 18 balloon bread 436 ball the jack 18 Ballyhack 180 balm o’ Gilead 180 balm tree 436 balmy 180 baloney 598 Baltimore 19 Baltimore clipper 19 Baltimore oriole 19 ’Bam 19

’Bama 19 bambache 19 bammy 342 ’Bammy 19 banana 436 banana ringer 19 banana slug 436 banco 436 band 436 banded up 342 bandido 436 bandit 437 bandy-shanked 19 bange around 180 Bangor rule, the 181 banjer 342 banjo 19 banker 19, 181 banking 181 bankrupt worm 437 banned in Boston 181 bannock 181 banquette 19 banter 19, 342 banty-legged 342 bapsouse 342 baptist cake 181 bar 437 b’ar 342 barbecued pigskins 19 barbed wire 437 barbed wire deal 437 barber 181 bard 19 bar ditch 437 bardog 437 bardogging 437 bare as a milk pan . . . 181 bareassed 181 barefoot 181, 437 barefoot bread 342 barefoot breed 19 barefooted 342 bare naked 342 bareneked 181 barf 437 Bar Harbor 181 bar-hog 342 bark 181, 342, 437 barking dogs 19 barking squirrel 437 barking wolf 437 bark nutmeg 181 barleycorn sprints 437 Barlow knife 19 barm 181 bar mitzvah 598 barmy 181 barnburner 19 barney 181 barnlot 19 barns 342 Barnstable 181 barnyard 19 barnyard epithet 598 barnyard golf 181 barnyard pipe 437 barnyard preacher 19 barometer bush 437 baron 19 barong tagalong 700 Barre 181 barred rock 181 barrel 181 barrel-dogger 342 barrio 437, 599 barrow pit 437 Bars 19 bar thorn fence 19 Bartlett pear 181 Bartlett’s 182 barvel 182 baseball child 19 baseborn 342

761

baser 19 Bashaba 182 Basin State 437 basket 182 basket fish 182 basket makers 437 basket meeting 19 bass-ackwards 182, 342 basswood pumpkin seeds 182 bastard oak 20 basting big 182 bate 182 bathcloth 20 bathe 182 bathin’ one’s countenance 437 batlan 599 Bat Masterson, a 437 battens 437 batter bread 20 battercake 20 battery 437 battle 20 Battle-born State 438 Battle in the Clouds 20, 343 Battle of the Aesthetes 599 battling block 343 batwings 438 baubee 20 bauch 728 baufat 182 Bawlamerese (Baltimore, Md. speech) 754 bawling 438 bawlin’ hound 343 bawss 599 bay 20, 182 bayaw 700 bayaw style 700 bayberry wax 182 Bay Bridge 438 bay chicken 20 Bay City 438 Bay colony 182 bayman 182 bayo 438 bayou 20 Bayou Salade 438 Bayou State 20 Bay Province, the 182 Bay Psalm Book 182 bay scallop 182 bay shrimp 182 Bay State 182 Bay State dialect 182 Bay Stater 182 bay steer 438 bay window 343 bazooka 20, 343 be 20, 182 beach out 183 beach plum 183 Beacon Hill 183 bead tree 20 be after someone . . . 438 beal 343 be all day with one 183 bean 438 Bean Eater 183 beaner 438 bean hole 183 bean master 438 beans 438 beanshooter 599 bean stringing 343 bean swagger 183 Bean sweater, etc. 183 Bean Town 183 bearberry honeysuckle 438 bear cabbage 438

762

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN REGIONALISMS

bear cat 438 beardy 343 bear flag 438 bear grass 438 bear-hug 20 bearm 343 bear paw 438 bear sign 20 Bear State 343 bear story 438 bear trap saddle 438 beary country 343 beast 343 beast back 20 beastback 343 beasties 343 beast with a belly . . . 438 beat, 183, 343 beat all nature 183 beat around 20 beat bobtail 20 beat ’em all hollow 183 beaten biscuit 20 beatenest, 183, 343 beatin’est 20 beating the devil . . . 20 beat out 20, 183, 343, 438 beat out all creation! 183 beats pickin’ cotton 20 beat the devil . . . 343 beat the devil and . . . 20 beat the hound out of 20 beat the stir 343 beau 20, 183 beaucoup 120 beau dollar 21 Beau James 599 beauticious 21 beautiful! 599 Beautiful Bodacious, the . . . 438 beautifuller 21 became shot 438 because 21 become to be 21 be dawg 21 bed baby 21 bedbug 599 bedclothes 700 bedcord strong 343 bedded 438 bedding ground 439 beddlar 728 bed down 439 bedfast 439 bed-ground 439 bed it 343 bedpost on a dress tail 343 bedrid 21 bedroom shoes 21 bed-slat 439 bed wagon 439 bed with 343 bee-ad 183 beeag 599 beebee 343 beech seal 183 bee-eh 183 beef 183, 343, 439 beef driver 439 beef drover 439 beef-head 439 beefsteaked 439 bee gum 21 bee-gum 343 beehive cactus 439 beeler 344 beeline 183 been known to 183

been to the bushes 21 been try 21 beep 599 beer 344 beerbelly 599 beerhead 21 bee’s honey 183 beeswax 21 beeuh 599 beeves 439 before-day 21 beforetimes 21 beggar-trash 21 begin with b! 183 begone 21 begorrah! 599 begouge 344 begrutch 184 behind the door . . . 344 beholden 21 beignet 21 being, 21, 599 being as 184 being done for 184 belay 184 Belgian block 599 believe me 599 belike 21 belittle 21 bell 21 bell cow, 21, 344 belled snake 439 bell horse 439 belling 21, 344 bellota 439 bellows 184 bellyache root 21 belly-bump 184 belly bumping 184 belly cheater 439 belly like a rain barrel 344 belly rub 21, 344 belly timber 21 belly up 439 belly washer 21 bellywhopping 599 belong 21 belongers 344 Belsnickel 728 belt of wampum 184 Ben 599 ben 184 benastied 344 benasty 21 bench-kneed dog 344 bench-legged 22 Ben Day 599 bendified 344 bendle 728 bendy bow ice 184 benefit 22 benighted 344, 439 benne 22 Ben Thompson, a 439 bentonite 439 be on someone like . . . 22 be proud 344 bereft, 22, 344 berl 600 Berlin 184 berm 344 bescrow and bescrew 22 be-shame bush 22 bespoke 184, 344 best, 22, 439 bestest, 22, 344 best feller 184 best good 22 best-goodest 22 bestmost 22 best parlor 184 best thing out, the 439 best woman 22

be taken aback 184 bet-down 20 be the whole herd 439 be they 184 betimes 22 bet straghtening 22 betsy bug (crazy as a) 53 better a hash at home . . . 184 better had 22 better it is single . . . 728 betterments 184 bettermost 184 bettywood 22 between a rock . . . 439 between grass and . . . 440 between grass and hay 184 between hawk and buzzard 22 between hay and grass 344 betweenst 344 between two suns 440 betwixt, 22, 344 betwixt a balk and . . . 22 bey-h 184 beyoodyful 600 b’hoy 600 bialy 600 bias road 22 Bible Belt 22 biddable, 22, 344 biddy 22, 184 biddy-peck 344 bidness 22, 600 bien 23 biff 23 big 23, 344 Big A 600 Big Apple 600 big as a Dutch oven 184 big as all outdoors 184 big as the broad daylight 23 big-balled for . . . 440 Big Bellies 440 big bend 440 Big Board 600 big bug 728 Big Burg 600 big-butt 23 big butter-and-egg man 600 big casino 600 Big City 600 Big City rhythm 600 big D 440 big-eyed time 344 Big Foot 440 big frog in a little puddle 184 biggity 344 Big Gus 600 Big H 440 bigheaded 440 big-headed 344 bighole 440 Big Hungry 23 Big Ike 23 big iron dollar 185 big laurel 23 big lazies 23 Big Mama 23 Big Mama’s Everlasting Rolls 23 big megillah 600 bigmouth 23 Big Muddy 440 bigness 185 big one 601 Big Onion 601 big pasture 440

big road 23, 344 big rock 23 big room 23 big shot 601 Big Sky 440 Big Smear 601 Big Stem 601 big stick 23, 185 big swimmin’ 440 big time 23 Big Town 601 big water 23 big word book 23, 344 bile 185, 344 biled cider apple sass 185 biled dinner 185 bilin’ 344 bilk 440 bilker 440 bill 185 billdad 185 Billerica 185 bill-show 440 billy-be-damned 440 Billy the Kid 601 Billy the Kid, a 440 bimbo 601 bindle 440 bindlestiff 440 bingbuffer 344 bing cherry 440 binnyache 23 bip into 23 birch 185 birchen bark 185 bird 185 bird dog 23 bird-egg pea 440 bird-foot violet 185 bird minder 23 bird of freedom 185 Bird o’ Satan 23 bird wire 344 Bird Woman 440 birdwork 345 birth 23 biscotza 728 biscuit bread 185 biscuit-bread 345 biscuit shooter 441 biscuit weather 345 bishop 185, 345 bisnaga 441 bit 185, 441 bitch hopper 185 bitch light 441 biter 23 bites 441 bite the dust 441 bit house 441 bitin’ and gougin’ 345 biting dog 345 biting frost 23 bitter as boneset 185 bitterbrush 441 bitters 185 bizzing 441 bla 700 blab 441 blabbermaul 728 Black American speech 4 black as Coaly’s tail 345 black-assed pea 23 black as the king . . . 185 black as zip 185 Black Bart 441 Black Belt 23 blackberry baby 23 blackberry storm 345 blackberry winter 24 Black Betts 185 black blizzard 441

black bottle 24 black bottom 24 blackbrush 441 Black Bumpers 728 black cap 185 black cats (it’s raining) 91 black Christmas, 24, 345 black codes 24 Black Daniel 185 black-dark night 345 black drink 24 blacker’n a stack of . . . 185 black-eyed Susan 441 black-eye gravy 24 black flesh 24 black frost 601 black grama 441 black growth 185 blackguard 345 blackguard talk 345 Black Hand 601 black hand 24 black hawk 441 black ice 185 black Irish 601 blackjack 24 black jacks 186 blackland 441 black locust 186 black money 601 black moose 186 black moss 24 black persimmon 441 Black Protestant 186 Black Republican 24 Black Robe 441 Black Rock 601 black roller 442 black sage 442 blacksheep 345 blacksnake 24, 345 black snap 186 black stock 24 blackstrap 186 Black Tom 601 black water 442 black wax 442 bladder 601 bladebones 442 blaid 728 blamedest 345 blanco 442 blanket fever 186 blanket Indian 442 Blanket Mountain 345 blanny 345 blare 186 blast from the past 601 blast my old shoes! 24 blate 345 blatherskite 345 blatting 442 blazer 442 blazing star 442 bleed 24 blemage 345 bless Kay! 24 bless out 345 bless the meat . . . 442 blickey 601 blind as a Burma hat 186 blind as a one-eyed . . . 442 blind billiards 345 blind-born eyes 345 blind pig 24 blind the trail 442 blind trail 442 blinger 186 blinked 345 blinky 345 blinky milk 442

blintz 601 blip 24 blister bug 442 Blizzard of ‘88 602 bloat 442 bloaters 186 blobbermouth 442 block 186 blockade 345 blockader 345 block and fall 346 blocker 442 block party 602 blonde bound 442 blond Swede 442 blood 602 blooddrops 442 blood kin 24, 346 bloodnoun 24 blood pig 24 blood pudding 25 blood’s thick 25 bloody back 186 Bloody bill 25 Bloody bones 25 bloody bucket 32 bloody flux 25 Bloody Mary 602 bloody mouth 602 bloomer car 186 Bloomies 602 Bloomsday 602 blossom rock 442 blow 186 blow clear to glory 346 blow-down 186 blowed 186, 346, 442 blow fire 25 blow fire out 346 blow gum 25 blowhard 443 blow his stirrup 443 blow horn 346 blow in 186 blowin’ fit to make . . . 186 blowing 186, 443 blow leaf 186 blow my shirt! 186 blown up like a toad 25 blow out his lamp 443 blow snake 443 blows so hard . . . , it 249 blowth 186 blue 25, 187, 602 blue as a possum’s cod 346 blue as calm water 187 bluebacks 25 blue-bellied 187 bluebelly 25 blueberrying 187 bluebird weather 25 bluebonnet 443 blue book 187 blue-bottles 187 blue-chip stocks 602 blue claw 187 blueclaw 602 bluecoat 602 blue devil 443 blue devils 25 blue ginseng 346 bluegrass 25 Bluegrass and Bourbon State 25 bluegrass country 25 blue gum 346 blue-gum 25 blue hen’s chicken 25 blue John 25, 346 blue laws 187 Blue-Law state 187 blue light 187

INDEX blue lightning 443 blue meat 443 blue-mouthed alligator 443 Bluemouths 443 blue norther 443 bluenose 187 bluepoint oyster 602 blue racer 443 Blue Ridge Mountains 346 blue sailor 602 blue-skin 187 bluestem 443 blue tick 25 bluewood 443 bluff 25 Bluff City 26 blurb 602 blut-kup 728 board 26 boardwalk 443 boar’s nest 443 boat race 603 boat steerers 187 bobbasheely 26 bobbeer 728 bobble 26, 603 bobble-mouth 728 bob house 187 bobo 26 bo-bo 603 bobolition 26 bobora head 700 bob ruly 443 bob-tail 187 bobtailed flush 26 bobtailed flush (straight) 443 bobtailed straight 26 bobwhite 346 bobwire 26 bob wire 346 bob-wire 443 boccie 603 bodacious 26, 346 bodark 443 bodderation 728 boddle 603 bodega 603 bodgo! 187 body 187, 346 body meeting 187 body-naked 346 body-pew 187 boff 603 boff-on-gool 603 bog 26 bog bugle 26 boggle 346 boggy-top pie 444 boghie 728 bog rider 444 bog trotter 187 bogue 26, 346 bogue in 188 bogus 700 bohind 444 bohunkus 26, 444 boil 26 boil cabbage 26 boiled bacon 26 boiled custard 26 boiled dinner 188 boiled pie 26 boiled shirt 26, 444 boiler 26 boiling 26 boiling corn 27 boiling spring 188 boiling up 27 boiling with 27 boil over 444 boil potatoes 27 boil shrimp 27

boil the pot 27 boin 603 boip 603 bois de vache 444 bold hives 346 bold stream 27 bolichi roast 27 bollicky 188 bolliwog 27 bollixed up 27 boll weevil 27 boll-weevil 444 boll weevil weather 27 bologna bull 444 bolson 444 bolt 188 bomb 27 bombazine 27 bombo 27 bomb-proof 27 Bonac 603 Bonac speech 754 bonanza 444 bon dance 700 bone-box 346 bonebreaker 604 bone dish 188 bone felon 27 bonehead play 604 bone idle 346 bone orchard 444 bones 188 boneset 27 boneyard 444 bonnet squash 27 bonnet string 444 bonnet walker 27 Bonnie Blue Flag 27 bonnyclabber 188 bon verge 604 boo 604 boodle 604 boody 28 boof 444 booger 28, 444 booger-man 346 boogers 346, 444 booghered up 728 boojy 28 book, 28, 346 booked on out 28 bookie sug 28 bookity-book 28 book larnin’ 188, 346 bookooing 28 books 28, 346, 444 book-writer 28, 188 boomalally 28 boomer 346, 444 boondoggle 444 Boontling dialect 757–758 booshway 444 boot 28, 444 Boot Hill 444 booting 604 bootkisser 28 boot pack 445 boots 188 boots and saddles! 445 booze 28 boozefuddle 188 bopper 28 borax 604 border tale 445 bore 232, 346 bored for the simples 346 bore for the hollow horn 28, 346 boresome 28 bore with a bug auger 346 borga 28 born 28

born a-horseback 445 borned to 347 bornin’ 347 born in a hurricane 445 born in the middle . . . 188 born on a crazy creek 28 born on the wrong side . . . 347 born tired and raised lazy 28 born with a burr . . . 445 born with the gift . . . 188 borough 188, 604 borracho 445 borrasca 445 borrego 445 borrow 347, 700 borrowed 445 borrowing makes for . . . 728 borry 347 borscht 604 borscht belt 604 bortsch 728 bose 728 bosom bread 28 Bosox 188 boss 188, 604 boss dice 445 boss dog 28 boss-man 29 boss of the Plains 445 Boston 188, 445 Boston accent 188 Boston bag 188 Boston . . . 189–90 Boston dollar 189, 445 Bostonese 189 Boston fern 189 Boston folks are full . . . 189 Boston Garden 190 Bostonian 190 botheration 190 bothered up 29 botherment 29, 347 both two 29 bottle 29 bottle-arsed tupelo 29 bottled in the barn 347 bottle drink 29 bottom 29, 445 boudin 445 bought 29 bought champagne 29 boughten 29, 191 boughten beans 191 bought flowers 29 bound 29, 191 bound and determined 29 boundary 347 bounden 29, 347 bouquets 191 bourbon 29 bourbon ball 29 Bourbon Street 29 bow-and-spike 347 bowel off 347 bowels 347 Bowery Boy 604 Bowie knife 445 bowleg country 445 bow the blinds 29 bow up 347 bow up to 29, 347 bow your back 445 box 29, 445 box-ankled 29 box ball 605 box canyon 446

box house 347 boxing 29 box tortoise 191 boxwood 191 boy 29 boychik 605 boy child 347 boyoboyoboyo! 605 boys in gray 29 Boys of Summer 605 bozo 446 bracero 446 braces 191 Bradley 29 brag 29 brag dog 347 braggable 29 braggadocious 29 braggin’ ranch 446 braggy 347 brag on 347, 446 Brahma 446 brain trust 605 brake 347 branch 29 branch water 30, 347 brand 446 brand artist 446 brand blotter 446 branded-in-the-hide 446 brand-fired-new 347 brang 30, 347 brasero 446 brash 191, 347 brash songs 347 brass ankle 30 brass-eyed whistler 191 brassy 446 Brave 191 brave around 446 brave heart 347 bray 30 braykidup 605 breachy 191, 446 bread 30, 347 bread-and-with-it 446 breadline 605 bread wagon 347 break 30, 347, 446 break a breath 30 break a leg 30 break bad 30 breakbone 30 breakdown 30 breakers ahead! 191 breakfast bacon 30 break for the tall timber 446 breaking corn 30 breaking one’s arm 30 break in two 446 break it off in . . . 30 break land 30 break one’s manners 30 break one’s neck 30 break one’s pick 446 break out a path 30 break over 347 break the Pope’s neck 191 break trail 446 Break-up 446 break western 30 breast complaint 30 breath-and-britches 30 breath harp 30 breathing image of 30 breath of spring 30 breed 446 breed a scab on . . . 446 breeding ranch 447 breeding vein 30 breeding woman 30 breedin’ up a storm 191 breedy 447

breeze 605 breezing up 191 Breezy Point 605 Bremmer cattle 447 brer 30 bresh 447 Brevoortia Ida-Maia 447 Brewer’s blackbird 447 brewis 191 Brewster chair 191 briar-hopper 347 brickle 30, 348 bridesman 191 brides of the multitude 447 bridge-and-tunnel 605 bridlewise 447 brierhopper 30 brierpatch child/kid 30 briggoty 348 Brigham’s Destroying Angels 447 Brigham Young cocktail 447 Brigham Young weed 447 bright as a button 191 brill 728 Brimstone Corner 191 brindle 191 bring 31 bris 605 bristlecone pine 447 Bristol 191 britches 31, 348, 728 britches riding high 31 British lady 31, 348 British soldier 191 brittlebush 447 broad 348, 605 broadhorn 447 broadhorn dialect 31 broad open daylight 31 broadus 31 Broadway 605 brockle-face 447 broderick 606 brogan 31 broke 700 broken arms 31 Broken Arrows 447 broken glass (crawl on) 53 broken-mouths 447 broke of one’s rest 191 broker 606 broker than the Ten . . . 606 broke up 348 brokum-up 700 bronco 447 bronco-buster 447 bronco busting 447 bronco grass 447 Bronx 606 Bronx . . . 606 Bronx?, the/No Thonx! 678 Bronx Zoo 606 bronze gas 447 Bronze John 31 Brook Farm 191 Brooklyn 606 Brooklyn Bridge 607 Brooklynese 587 Brooklyn Indian 607 Brooklyn side 607 brook-southerntine 192 broom clean 192 broomstick 348 broomtail 448 brother 31 brother, I’m bobbed 31 Brotherhood 607

763

Brothertown Indians 192 broughten 31 brown bread 192 brown-eyed peas 31 brownie 31 Brown Mule 31 brudder 607 bruder 31 Bruglione 607 brung 348 brunonian 192 Brunswick stew 31 brush ape 348 brush-ape 31 brush arbor 348 brush-arbor whiskey 348 brush breaking 448 brush colt 31 brush drag 348 brush hand 448 brush lodge 448 brush mouth 31 brush mover 31 brush popper 448 brush rabbit 448 brush splitters 448 brustle 192 bub 192 bubba 31 bubbe 31 bubbely 728 bubbe-mayse 607 bubblegum machine 31, 192 bubble-work 192 bubbly-jock 348 bubby 31, 348, 607 bubby bush 348 bubee 607 bubkes 607 buck 31, 448 buck a bull off . . . 32 buck a dandy 32 buck a game 448 buckaroo 448 buckarooing 448 buckbrush 448 bucket 32, 192 bucket candy 32 bucket letter 32 bucket man 448 bucket of blood 32 bucket of spit (don’t amount to a) 60 bucket shop 607 buckeye 348 buckeyed 32 buck fence 448 buckhead 32 bucking at the halter 32 bucking on a dime 448 bucking season 448 bucking straight away 448 bucking the tiger 448 buck-kneed 448 buckle 192 buckle bunnies 449 bucklety-whet 32 buck like a colt 32 buck load 32 buck-nekked 32 buck nun 448 buck out 449 buckra 32 buckra yam 32 buckshot soil 32 buckskin 32, 348 buckskins 449 buck the tiger 449 bucky 192 buddahead 700 buddy 32, 192

764

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN REGIONALISMS

budge 192 budget 348 buffalo 32, 348, 449 Buffalo Bill 449 buffalo . . . 449–50 buffle-brain 192 bug 32, 192, 607 bug-bite and moonshine 192 bug-eater 32, 450 bughouse 32 bug juice 450 Bugs Bunny 608 Bugtown 32 bug under the chip 32 build a better mousetrap 192 build a fire under 348 build a smoke 450 built from the ground up 32 bulkhead 192 bull 192, 348, 728 bull ant 32 bull bay 33 bullberry 450 bullboat 450 bull bucker 450 bull-built 450 bullcorn 450 bulldocia 33 bulldog 450 bulldog edition 608 bulldogging 450 bulldozer 33 bull-drunk 450 Bull Durham 450 Bull Durham! 608 bulleye 33 bullfeathers 33 bull-footed 33 Bull fuck 450 bull gang 348 bull-goaded 33 bull goose 348 bullheads 192 bull of the woods 33, 450 bull pad 192 bullpen 450 bull rat 348 bull roarer 349 bull’s eye 193 bull’s foot (doesn’t know B from) 59 bull-snake 450 bull tongue 349 bulltongue cactus 450 bull train 450 bull wagon boss 450 bully boy 193 bully club 193 bbum 451 bumbersol 349 bumblebee cotton 33 bumblings 349 bumbye 700 bumfidgets 33 bum fodder 33 bumfuzzle 33, 349 bum jacket 33 bummer 33 bummy 349 bump 33 bumps 33 bum-rub 451 bunch 451 bunch grass 451 bunch oysters 33 bunch quitter 451 buncle 33 bundle 33 bundling 193 bungo 33 bung up and bilge-free 193

bunk 33 bunkhouse 451 bunk into 608 bunko 451 buns 608 bunt 608 Buntline Special 451 Buntlinism 451 Bunyan camp 451 Burbank potato 193 burden 193 burgoo 33 burial ground 349 burial society 608 burk 34 burn 34, 451 burn down 34 burn down in bed 349 burning a river 34 burning drink, the 451 burnin’ green wood . . . 349 burning green wood . . . 34 burn off 193 burn one with a . . . 608 burnt blacker than a crow 193 burnt cattle 451 burn the breeze 451 burn the britches off 34 burn the earth 451 burnt hurry 349 burnt-out on 34 burr artichoke 34 burrhead 34 burrito 451 burro 451 burro grass 451 burry 349 bursted 349 buryin’ 193 bury the hatchet 193 bury the tomahawk 349 bush 728 bush baby 34 bush-buster 349 bush colt 349 bush hog 34 bush line 34 bushtail 451 bush up 349 bushwacker 451 bushwah 451 business wahine 700 busk 34 buss 349, 728 buss-eyed 34 busthead 34 bust head 349 busthead 452 bustin’ my onions 608 busy as a cat . . . 34 busy as a goose . . . 349 busy as a one-armed . . . 608 busy as a three-pricked goat 34 but-and-ben 349 Butch Cassidy, a 452 butcher 194 butcher cart 194 butt 349 butte 452 butter and sugar corn 194 butterballs 349 butter bean 34 butter bean teeth 34 butter bread 728 butter-churn horse 452 buttercup 349 buttermilk 452 butternut 34, 194 buttery 194

butt fiend 194 butt floss 194 butt-headed 34 buttinsky 608 button 452 buttonball 194 button box 194 button man 608 button up for the winter 194 but what 34 butzed up 728 buy your luck 194 buzzard 452 buzzard bait 452 B’way 608 by 608 by doggies 452 by fire! 194 by God and by Jesus! 34 by Godfrey 194 by Godfrey! 452 by godfrey! 34 bygones 349 by-grabs! 349 by guess and by God, 194, 349 by juckies! 349 by sun 34 by the great horn spoon 194 by the hardest 34 by the living law! 194 by the Old Lord Harry! 194 by the prophet’s nippers! 194 by the snakes of Babylon! 194 by-word 349

C caballero 453 cabbage night 195 cabbage patch 35 cabinet 195 cabinet pudding 195 cabin song 35 cablegram 609 caboodle 453 caboose 195 cabrito 453 cabrón 453 cachinnant 35 cack 453 cackeberry 350 cackle 35 cackleberry 453 cacomestle 453 cactus apple 453 cactus boomers 453 cactus candy 453 cactus mouse 453 Caddo 35 cade 195 café society 609 cain’t 453 Cajun 35 Cajun dialect 4 cake 453 cala 35 calabash cousin 701 calaboose 35, 453 Calamity Jane 453 calcified fact 453 calculate 195 calf fries 453 calf-kneed 453 calf-slobbers, 350, 454 Calhounery 35 calibogus 195 caliche 454 calico fever 454 calico pony 454 calico salmon 454

California 454 California . . . 454 Californio 454 call 350 callahooting 350 called aft 195 called to straw 350 call hogs 35 Cal-lina 35 calling hours 195 calling the brands 454 call it up 195 call one’s name 35, 350 call out of one’s name 350 calluses on one’s feet 350 callyhooting 35 calm as a clock 195 calm as a horse trough 454 calzone 609 c’am 350 camas 454 camas eater 454 cambric tea 195 Cambridge 195 Cambridge flag 195 camelback house 35 camel cricket 36 camel walk 36 camino real 454 camisa 454 camp 36 camp bird 454 camphor chest 196 camp meeting 36 camp meeting baby 350 camp on one’s trail 454 campoodie 454 camp robber 454 camp swamper 455 campyard 455 can 609 canada 455 canal 455 Canary That Couldn’t . . . 609 candelabrum cactus 455 candleberry bush 196 candle-light 350 Candlemas Day, Half . . . 196 candle wood 196 candy 36 candy ankle 36 candy breaking 36, 350 candy pulling 36 candy roaster 36 candy snake 350 cane beer 36 canebrake 36 cane cholla 455 canecutter 36 cane grass 455 can I carry you home? 455 cankered 350 canker rash 196 canned dog 455 canned milk 455 cannikin 196 cannoli 609 cannon 609 cannonball 36 canoe 36 canoodle 196 can openers 455 can-see-to-can’t-see 36 can’t anyone here play . . . 609 can’t for the life . . . 196 can’t-help-its 36 cantina 455 can’t pour piss . . . 455

can’t rightly know . . . 196 can’t spin a thread 196 Canuck 196 canyon 455 canyoned 455 caouane 36 cap 36 capador 455 Cape, the 196 Cape Ann turkey 196 cape bonnet 36 cape catboat 196 Cape Caud 196 Cape Cod cat 196 Cape Cod clam chowder 196 Cape Cod clergyman 196 Cape Cod cottage 196 Cape Codder 196 Cape Cod fence 196 Cape Cod Girls 196 Cape Cod measure 196 Cape Cod turkey 197 capeesh 610 Cape Flyaway 197 cape jasmine 36 cape merchant 36 Cape of Eternal Peace 197 capful of wind 197 Cap’n 197 capo di tutti capi 610 capon egg 455 caporal 455 caporegime 610 capper 36, 350, 455 captain, 36, 350 Captain Bill vine 36 Captain Lynch 37 captain’s beat 37 Captain’s walk 197 caracara 455 carajo 455 carajo pole 455 caramba! 455 carbox 37 carcass 37 carcel 455 card 455 cardboard carton 197 cards beat all . . . , the 197 care 350 Careboo 197 careen 37, 350 careful 197 car house 37, 350 carnival 456 Carolina . . . 37 Carolina jessamine 351 Carolinian 37 carpetbagger 37 carpet sack 37 carrelet 197 carried 37 carried on to 37 carrion crow 37 carrot 37 carry 38, 351 carry guts to a bear 38 carry one on a chip 351 carry oneself 351 car shed 38 Carson county 456 cart 38 Carter’s oats 38 carve 456 Carvel 610 Carver chair 197 casa 456 casa grande 456 cascade 38 case 197, 456

cash down 38, 456 cash in 456 cash money, 38, 351 cashmoney 456 Castine 197 cast-iron dog 456 cast-iron sweat 197 cast up 38 cat 38 catabias 38 Catahoula hound dog 38 catamount 351 cat and bull story 197 cat and clay 351 cat-and-clay 38 cat-and-rat rifle 38 catarrh 351 catasterfy 38 catastrastroke 38 catawampus 38 catawampus cat 456 Catawba grapes 38 catbird seat 38 catbrier 38 Catch 610 catch 701 catch a crab 197 catch a fly 38 catch a Yankee, to 197 catch air 38 catch a weasel asleep 197 catcher 39 catch ‘im! 39 catching weather 197 catch one red hand 39 catch-pain 39 catchpenny 39 catch-rope 456 catchy weather 351 catering 197 caterpillar 197 cat-eyed 456 catface 39 cat fever 39 catfish hole 39 catfish row 39 catfish stew 39 cat-hauling 39 cathead 39, 351 cat-ice 197 cat in the meal 456 Catlick 610 catlinite 456 catmint 39 cat on a hot tin roof 39 catouse 198 cat-road 198 cat’s fur to make . . . 39 cat-shaking 351 cat’s hind foot! 198 catslide roof house 198 cat squirrel 351 catstepping 39 catstick 198 cat switch 351 cattawampus 38 catting 39 cattle 39 cattle baron 456 cattle call 610 cattle droppings 39 Cattle Kate 456 cattle king 456 cattle moss 456 cattle paper 456 cattle queen 456 cattle range 456 cattle show 198 cattle singer 456 cattle spinach 456 cattle thief 456 cattle town 457 cattle war 457 cattlo 457 cat-tongues 39

INDEX cat track 39 catty-strangling 351 cat wagon 457 caucus 351 caught, 39, 198 caught milk 198 caught short 39 caught with the store 610 Cause, the 39 cave 351 cavy 457 cawked 39 cayuse 457 cayusein’ 457 cease 39, 351 cedar pencil 39 cedar pine 40 cedar robe 40 ceiling 40 ceitful 40 celebrity wagon 457 celery 40 cellar 610 cellar bang 198 cellar case 198 cellar way 198 cemetery pink 198 cent 40 Centennial State 457 center shot 40 Central Park 610 cent shop 198 century plant 457 certain 198 certain-sure 40 cerveza 610 c’est vrai 40 chachalaca 457 chain-gang pea 40 chain lightning 457 chairbacker 40 chair bottomer 198 chaland 40 chalk above, a 198 chalking the hat 457 chalk player 610 chalupa 457 cham 729 chamber 198 chamber lye, 40, 351 chamber mug 198 cham-chack 40 Champ 198 cha-muck-a-muck 351 chance, 40, 351 chance blow 198 chance off 40 chaney 198 change 40 change for 610 change-up 40 change words 40 chankings 198 chanky chank 40 channel catfish 40 chap 40, 351 chaparral 457 chaparral bird (cock) 457 Chapin stigmata 611 chapote 457 chapping 457 Chappy 198 chaps 458 charcoal out 40 charge 199 charge all outdoors 199 charge it to . . . 40 charging school 40 Charleston 40 Charleston . . . 40–41 Charlestonian 41 Charleston (S.C.) dialect 3

Charlie Dunns 458 Charlie Noble 199 Charlie Taylor 458 charm string 41, 351 chartered whiskey 41 charter oak 199 chase a cloud 458 chase the gator 41 chat 199 Chatham 199 chaw 41, 351, 458, 729 chawan cut 701 chawbacon 41 chaw tobacco 41 Chay! 41 chayote 458 cheap John 199 cheapwad 41 cheaters 458 chebacco 199 checker bee 199 check in 458 checklines 351 checks 41 cheechako 458 cheeky as a man . . . 199 cheep 41 cheer 351 cheerwater 458 cheese 41 cheese and crackers! 199 cheesecake 611 cheese-eater 41 cheese it, da cops! 611 chemise 457 chere 41 cherie 41 chermany 41 Cherokee 351 Cherokee outlet 458 Cherokee rose 41 Cherry 729 cherry phosphate 41 cherrystone 199 chess pie 41 chesterfield 458 chestnut stabber 611 chestnutting 199 chew-bubble 41 chewed 41 cheweeka 41 chewing 351 chewing iron and spitting . . . 458 chewing wax 351 chew it fine 458 chew one’s bit 41 chew one’s tobacco . . . 42 chew one’s tobacco twice 351 chew over 199 Chewsday 42 chew your own tobacco 42 Cheyenne 458 Cheyenne saddle 458 chia seed 458 Chicago of the South 42 Chicano 458 chickadee 199 Chickasaw 42 Chickasaw plum 42 Chicken à la King 611 chicken asshole 42 chicken bird 199 chicken-bone 42 chicken butt 42 chicken coop 42 chicken corn 42 chicken crow 352 chicken-eater 42 chicken-eating 42 chicken feed 42, 458, 611

chicken flutter 42 chicken-fried steak 459 chicken granny 352 chicken grape 42 chicken guts 42 chicken lobster, 199, 611 chicken meat 42 chicken money 42 chicken ’n’ egg 42 chicken out 611 chicken preacher 42 chicken pulling 459 chicken ranch 42, 459 chicken snake 459 chickens today, feathers tomorrow 352 chickenweed 42 chicklets 611 chick nor child 42 Chic Sales 459 chief cook and . . . 611 chifforobe 42 chigger 42 Chihuahua 459 Chihuahua Town 459 chilacayote 459 chilchote 459 child 459 child-fetchin’ 352 child is born!, the 311 child of the earth 459 chile 459 chili 459 chili-belly 459 chill bumps 42 chillern 352 chillin 42 chimbley 42, 199 chimbly 352 chimney shelf 199, 352 Chin 460 Chinaman’s chance 459 China pheasant 459 chinchy 42 Chinese apple 611 Chinese handball 611 Chinese home run 459 Chinese language and Da Kine talk 696 Chinks’ 611 chin music 42 chin-music 460 chinning 42 Chinook (wind) 460 chintz 611 chin-wag 460 chin whiskers 460 chippendale 43 chipper 460 chipperdale 43 chippy 43 chippyhouse 43, 352 Chiricahua 460 chirk 199 Chisholm Trail 460 chism 199 chist 199 chit 199 chitlins 43 chitlin strut 43 chittamwood 43 chitterlings 43 chitterlins’ 729 chivey 199 chizzwink 43 chizzywink 43 choaty 43 chob 729 cho cho 460 chockablock 199 chock-cherry tree 352 chock full of brag . . . 460 chocolate root 200 chocorua plague 198

choice of 200 choicy 43 choin 729 choke ‘em 460 choke rag 352, 460 cholmondely 43 cholo 460 choog 43 choose 43, 729 choose-up 611 choosing match 460 chop 43 chop-mouth hound 43 chopped liver 611 chopping 200 chopping horse 460 chop suey 460, 611 chore, 200, 352 Chorge 729 choring round 200 chouette 43 chousing 460 chowder 200 chowderhead 200 Christ bird 352 christened in salt water 200 christer 200 Christian 43 Christmas 43 Christmas at you! 43 Christmas Christian 612 Christmas gift! 43 Christopher Columbus! 200 Chrysler Building 612 chrysocracy 200 chub 460 chuck 460 chuck-a-luck 460 chuckaway 461 chuckheaded catfish 43 chuck hole 461 chuck line rider 461 chuck wagon 461 chuckwalla 461 chuco 461 chudge 729 chuffle-jawed 43 chuffy 43, 352 chug, 43, 352 chuggy, huggy hills 352 chum 200 chune 43 chunk 43, 461 chunked 200, 461 chunk-floater 43 chunking 43 chunking distance 461 chunk of a boy 352 chunk of fire 352 chunk of lead 461 chunk up 44 chunkwood 200 chur 352 church 352 church house 352 Church of the Holy Rifles 612 church stick, 44, 200 churn-dash calf 461 churn-twister 461 chutzpah 612 ciao 612 Cibola 461 cider beggar 200 cider frolic 200 cider toast 201 cimarron 461 cinch 461 ciphers 352 citified 201, 352 citireen 352 citizen 6112 city 612

City College 612 City Hall 612 City of Churches 612 City of Corruption 461 City of Elms 201 City of Fair Colors 461 City of Monuments 44 City of Nations 201 City of Rocks 44, 352 City of Spindles 201 City of the Angels 461 City of the Hills 44 City of the Plains 461 City of the Saints 462 City of Towers 613 City of White Sand 44 city sparrow 44 City Where the West Begins 462 city whiskey 44 civil 44 Civil War 44 civit cat 462 civvy cat 352 clabber 44, 462 clabber cheese 44 clabberhead 44 claim 462 claim jumper 462 clam 44 clam boil 201 clam cakes 201 clam chowder 201 clam digger 613 clam pie 201 clamshell hoe 201 clap one’s fists 44, 352 clapper-clawing 44 clark 352 Clarkia 462 class dialect and New Yorkese 592–593 clattermints 352 claw-hammer coat 462 claw out 201 clawthumper 44 Clay 44 claybank 44 clay-eater 44 clean 44 clean as a hound’s tooth 352 clean ground 353 cleaning lady 201 cleanly 44 clean one’s plow 44, 353 cleanser 201 clean-up 462 clean up hitter 613 clean up your own backyard 44 clear 201 clear full 462 clearin’ 353 clearstone 44 clear thing 201 Cleopoatra’s Needles 613 clever 45, 201, 353 cleverly 201 cleverness 45 clew 353 clew bird 353 click 201 cliff 353 cliff-dweller 613 cliff dwellers 462 clim 201, 353 climate 353 climb one’s frame 45 clinch one’s frames 353 clinch peach 45 cling john 201 Clingman Peak 353 clip 613

765

clip and clean 45 clipe 353 clip in 201 clitchy 201 clocker 613 clod buster 45, 353 clomb 353, 462 clomper 45 close 201 closed for flu 45 closed the door 201 closet 462 close the door, were . . . 613 close the light 701 close to heaven’s gate 353 close upon 201 clothespress 45 clothes press 201 clothes to die in 45 cloud mesa 462 clove apple 201 cloy 202 clumb 45, 353 coaling 45 Coal Oil Johnny (Tommy) 462 coarse-gold 462 coarse-grained 462 coarse voice 353 coast 353, 462 coaster 462 coasting 202 coast of Nebraska, the 462 coast on the spurs 462 coat 45 coat-pocket whiskey 462 cobbler 202 cochon de lait 45 cock 45, 353 cock-a-doodle-doo 463 cockamamie 613 cocked 353 cock of the plains 463 cock of the roost 45 cock one’s pistol 353 cocktail 463 cock the hay 202 Co’Cola 45 coconut 613 cod 202 code duello 463 codfish aristocracy 202 codfish ball 202 codfish chowder 202 codfish gentility 202 Codfish State 202 codge up 202 codhead boots 202 cods 353 cod(s) 45 codster 353 Coeur d’Alene 463 coffee milk 613 coffeepot 613 coffee soup 729 coffin 202, 463 coffin canoe 202 coffin money 45 coffin nail 613 coffin-tack 45 coffin varnish 463 cohab 463 cohee 45 cohoes 202 cohog 202 cohosh 202 coib 613 coil 463, 613 coinel 613 Coke 45 Coke money 46 Cold Arse 202

766

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN REGIONALISMS

cold as a banker’s heart 353 cold as a clam digger’s . . . 202 cold as a dog 202 cold as Christmas 202 cold as hell on . . . 463 cold-ass Mary 613 cold as the north side . . . 202 cold-blooded 463 cold brand 463 cold bumps 46 cold cellar 202 cold deck 463 cold drink 46 cold enough to freeze . . . 202 colder than a blonde’s . . . 614 cold-footed 463 cold in the grave 353 cold in the pants 463 cold nose 354 cold one 614 cold-out 46 cold-out as a wedge 46 cold-out meanness 46 coldover 46 cold pimples 46 cold potato 46 cold slaw 614 cold timberline 463 cold-trail 354 cold-water flat 614 cold-water man 202 colear 463 collar 354 collard(s) 46 collash 46 college ice 203 College of the City . . . 614 collogue 46 collywobbles, the 203 Colonel, 46, 354 color 463 Colorado 463 Colorado Kool Aid 463 Colorado potato beetle 463 Colorado rock 463 Colorado spruce 463 Colorado turkey 463 colored 46 colored people’s time 46 colors 463 color-struck 46 Colt 463 colt 729 Columbia University 614 coma 464 comadre 464 comancero 464 Comanche, à la 429 Comanche moon 464 Comanche pill 464 Comanche yell 464 comb 464 combat zone 203 combed with a hatchel 203 combings 464 comb’s getting red, his 85 come a 46 come aboard 614 come across 46 come-along 464 come bad 354 come by 46 come-by-chance 46 come-by-chance child 354 come ci 46

come day, go day, . . . 203 come down in a pile 464 come easy, go easy 46 come grass 354 come here 46 come here, once! 729 come in a one 354 come it over 203 come off 46, 354 come off it! 614 come on at one’s own gait 47 come on the town 203 come on to rain 47 come-outer 203 come out the little . . . 354 come out the little end . . . 203 come over one’s head 47, 354 come over the trail with 464 comer-and-goer 47 come-see 47 come sick 47, 354 come stout 47 come the giraffe over 47 come through 47 come to fetch fire 47 come-too-soon 47 come to the end of one’s rope 47 come up 47 come up amongst the missing 203 come up at 464 comeuppance 47 come up with 203 come Yankee over 203 comfort 47 comfort powders 203 comical 47 comin’ up a cloud, it’s a 91 coming off 464 comings 47 coming up a cloud 47 comme ça 47 commence to 47 comment? 47 common 47, 203, 354 common as an old shoe 354 common as pig tracks 47 common crackers 203 commonest 47 common pin 203 common talk 203 Commonwealth 203 commune 464 communion 614 compadre 464 compañero 464 companion 47 compass cactus 464 compersation 47 complainy 47 complete 47 complicate up 47 complications 203 compliment 464 compressed hay 464 comstock lode 464 con artist 614 conch 47 Conch speech 755 Concord 204 Concord grape 204 conducts like 204 Conestoga wagon 464, 729 Coney Island 614 Coney Island butter 614

Coney Island head 614 Coney Island whitefish 614 Confed 48 Confederacy 48 Confederate 48 Confederate . . . 48 Confedrit 49 confession magazine 614 confidence, 49, 354 congealed salad 49 Congo 49 Conjuer John 49 conjure 49 conjure bag 49 conk 49 Connecticut 204 Connecticut Jonathan 204 Connecticut River pork 204 Connecticut stone 204 Connecticut warbler 204 Connecticut Yankee 204 connipity 354 conniption fit 204 con permiso 465 conquedle 204 consarn 49, 204, 354, 465 considerable 49, 204, 465 considerable more 49 consigliori 514 consult your feelings 204 consumpted 49 contintment 49 contract hitter 514 contraious 354 contrary 49, 354 contrary . . . , he’s so 241 conversation fluid 354, 465 cony 465 coof 204 Coogan’s Bluff 514 cookee 465 cookroom 354 cook vessels 354 cool as a blue norther 465 cool head main thing 701 cooling board 49 coon 49, 465 coon ass 49 coonass 49 coon bottom 49 cooncan 465 coon cat 204 coon dick 49 coon dog 49 coonfine 49 coon juice 49 coon oyster 49 coon root 354 Coors 465 coosie 465 cooster 465 cooter 49 cooterin’ around 354 coot stew 204 copperheads 50 copper lily 465 coral snake 465 cordillera 465 Cork ball 50 corked 465 corker 204, 615 cork high and bottle deep 50 corky 204 corn 50 corn beer 50

corn chowder 205 corn coffee 50 corncracker 50 Corncracker State 50 corn dodger 50, 354 corn dog 465 corner 205 cornfield bean 354 cornfield pea 50 cornfield school 50 corn freight 465 corn husk mattress 205 corn juice 50 corn light bread 50 corn lightning 205 corn money 205 corn pone 50, 354 cornrow 50 corns 701 corn shucking 50 corn song 50 cornstalk gun 354 cornstalk shoot 465 cornstealers 205 corn weather 205 corporosity 50 corpse candle 205 corral 465 correspond 354 correspond the idea 50 corrisser 729 corruption 50 Cosa Nostra 615 cosh 465 co-sheepie 355 cosset 205 Costa’s hummingbird 465 costive 355 cot-betty 355 cottage cheese 205 cotton 205 cotton bag 50 cotton bale 50 cotton broker 50 cotton chopper 50 cotton chopping time 50 cottonclad 51 Cotton Confederacy 51 cotton-eyed 51 cottonhead 51 cottonmouth-bit 51 cotton pickers 51 cotton pickin’ 51 cotton picking 51 cotton rebel 51 cotton rose 51 cotton senator 51 cottontop 355 cotton-white 355 cottonwood 465 cottonwood blossom 465 cottonwood ice cream 466 cougar 466 cougar juice (milk) 466 couillon 51 coulda 615 couldn’t carry a tune . . . he 240 couldn’t hit a bull . . . 51, 355 couldn’t hit a bull’s arse . . . 205 couldn’t hit the ground . . . 51, 355 couldn’t say “hell,” he 498 couldn’t wrest a tater . . . 355 could talk a cat down . . . 51 coulee 51, 466 Coulter pine 466 count coup 466

counteh 615 counter 205 counterpin 51 count over 466 country . . . 51 country-fair job, a 205 County, the 205 county attorney 466 county hotel 466 county pins 355 county site 355 couple 615 coup stick 466 courage 51 courage bump 51 coursed 355 courting fool 52 courting man 355 courting stick 205 cousin 701 cousining 205 cove 355 covered him (her) like the . . . 52 covering the waterfront 52 coverlid 205 cover one’s back . . . 466 cover one’s dog 466 cow 205 cow, the 205 cow alligator 52 coward-hearted 52 cowards never started, the . . . 466 cowbelly 52 cowberry 205 cow boss 466 cowboy 466, 615 cowboy all the way, a . . . 466 cowboy . . . 466–67 cowboys and Indians 467 cow brute 355 cow corn 205 cowcumber 52, 355 cow cutter 52 cow doctor 52 cowdog 467 cow dressing 205 cow-dung cooter 52 cowgirls 467 cowhand 467 cowhide 52 cow hunt 467 cowlick 467 cowman 467 cowpea 52 cow-pen tea 52 cowpoke 467 cow pony 467 cow prod 467 cow puncher 205 cow rigging 467 cow saddle 467 cow sense 467 cow’s gentleman friend 52 cows get . . . , I’ve seen 507 cow skinner 467 cowslop 205 cow tight 205 cow town 467 cow yard tar 205 coydog 206 coyote 468 coyote around 468 coyote days 468 coyote gold 468 coyote house 468 coyotero 468 Coyote State 468 coyotey 468

coyoting 468 crab-apple switch 52 crabburger 52 crack 52 cracker, 52, 206 crackers 615 Cracker State 52 crackling 52, 206 cracklins 355 crack of day 52 crack one’s sides 52 crack one’s teeth 52 Cradle of American Liberty 206 Cradle of New England 206 Cradle of the Confederacy 52 Cradle of the Revolution 206 cramp-colic 53 Cranberry Capital of the World 206 crank-sided 53 crank up the car 53 cranky 53, 355 crany-crow 53 craps 53 crawdad 53 crawfish 53, 468 crawfish boil 53 crawfishing 53 crawl 53, 468 crawl on broken glass . . . 53 crawm 206 crawthumper 53 crazier than . . . 206 crazy 53, 206 crazy as . . . 53 crazy as a . . . 468 crazy as a loon 206 crazy bone 206 creaker 53 cream cheese 53 creamed potatoes 53 creamers 615 cream gravy 53 cream of the pot 53 cream pea 468 cream potatoes 53 cream toast 206 creamy ass 53 crease 53 creasing 468 creation! 53 creature 53 creatures 206 creek 53 creek and holler folks 355 Creek claims 53 creepified 54 creepmouse 54 creep the goose 54 creeter 206 Creole 54 Creole coffee 54 Creole dialect 4 Creole State 54 creosote bush 468 Crescent 54 Crescent City 54 crevettes 206 crevice 468 crib 468 cribber 54 crick 206, 468 crimmy 206 crimpy 54 crip 54 critters 468 crittlech 729 croaker 615 Croatan 54 crocodile 54

INDEX crocus sack 54 cronch 206 crooked 468 crooked as a barrel of fishhooks 54 crooked rail fence 54 croosht 729 crope 54 croping 206 cropper 54 cross as Sam Patch 206 crossbred squatter 468 cross-breed 54 cross-buck saddle 468 crossed up 54 Crossroads of the World 615 crossways 54 crotch 729 crotchical 206 Croton cocktail 615 crow 54, 469 crowbait 206, 469 crowd 469 crowder 54 crowner, the 206 crucifixion thorn 469 cruelize 206 cruller 206 crumb crusher 54 cruncher 206 crust 469 crust coffee 206 crusting 206 cry one’s wife down 207 cry over spilt milk 207 crystallized pickle 54 Cuban sandwich 54 cubbitch 54 Cuby 55 cuccidata 615 cuda 55 cue 55 cuffy 55 culch 207 culinary water 469 cultch 207 cultus 469 cumtabull 615 cuna 469 cunner 207 cunnin’ 55 cuppa 615 cup plate 207 cup towel 55 curb market 55 cur dog 55 curfew 207 curious 207 curiouser 55 curious (person) 55 curioussome 55 curl up 469 curly dirt 55 curly flower 55 curly wolf 469 currying 55 curveball 615 cush 55 cusk 207 cuss 208, 469 cuss fight 355 Custer Battle (Tragedy) 469 cut 55, 355, 469 cut a hog 55 cut along 207 cut a pie, to 207 cut a rusty 55, 355 cut a sign 469 cutback 469 cut behind 207 cut dingdoes 207 cut dirt 207 cute 207, 355 cute as a kitten . . . 55

cute as a shithouse rat 207 cute as a speckled pup 55 cut finer than . . . 469 cut for sign 469 cut it 207 cut it wild aloose . . . 469 cut mud 355 cut-nose woman 469 cut off 55 cut off the light 55 cut on 55 cut one’s eyes 55 cut one’s eyeteeth 208 cut one’s foot 55, 355 cut out 469 cutter 207 cut the alkali in . . . 469 cut the cake 55 cut the fool 55 cut the tail off the dog 55 cut the trail of 469 cutting 55, 207, 355 cutting cross-lots 208 cutting horses 469 cuttyhunk 207 cutty pipe 207 cut your foot 207 Cyclops 55 cymbal 208 cymbling 355 cymbling head 355 cymling head 55 czar 208

D d (pronunciation of) 209 DA 616 da 616 dab 56 dab-ass 356 dabble 356 Da Bronx Bar 616 Da Brooklyn National Antem 616 dad-burned 356 daddied 356 daddock 209 dad drat it 470 dad-durned 356 Daddy 56 daddy longlegs 56 daddy oneself 356 dad-gum 56 dadgumit! 356 dag 356 daisy ham 209 da kine 702 Da Kine speech 693–698, 699–719 Dakota 470 dally man (roper) 470 Dalton 209 Damnation Alley 209 damn-blasted 56 Damn to blue blazes! 56 damn Yankee 56 damn-you-straight-to-hell 209 dan 56 danburite 209 dance 616 dance hall hostess 470 dance in the pig trough 356 dancing devil 470 dander 209, 730 dandle 209 dandy funk 209 dang 56 dangdest 470 danged 470 dangleberry 209 dangus 356

Danish 616 daow! 209 daown 209 Dapper Dan 616 dar 356 daren’t 56 daresome 56 Dark and Bloody Ground 56 dark as a pocket 209 dark as Egypt 209 darkey 56 dark-hole 209 dark of the moon 356 dark stranger 356 darling 56 darnation 209 darning needle 470 darsn’t 210 darst 210 Dartmouth College 210 D (as a word) 209 dassant 56 dast 210 dat 56, 616 datura 470 daube 57 Daughters of Liberty 210 dauncy 356 daunsy 470 daur 210 dautie 356 Davisdom 57 Davy Crockett 470 day and time 57 dayburst 57 day-bust 356 dayclean 57 day-down 356 a day late . . . 470 day-lazy 210 daylight-dawn 356 day’s busted 471 dazed as a goose . . . 57 deacon 210 deacon off 210 Deacon Porter’s hat 210 dead as a beef 57 dead as a hammer 57 dead as four o’clock 356 dead cat on the line 57 deaden 57 deadening 357 deader than a pelcher 210 deadfall 471 dead forver 471 dead hearing 57 dead horse 210 dead Indian 471 dead-level best 357 deadman’s hand 471 dead-man’s pinch 357 deadman still 357 dead men 616 dead men don’t talk 471 dead rabbit 616 dead soldier 616 dead to know 57 dead wagon 616 deadwood 471 Deadwood Dick 471 deafer n’ a coot 210 deaf with hate 471 deal a 210 dear 210 dear, dear, bread and beer . . . 210 dear goodness! 57 dear me suz 210 dear only knows, the 210 death baby 210 death bells 357 death bones 357

death camas 471 death feast 471 death tick 357 Death Valley 616 deceiver-woman 357 decent 357 Decoration Day flower 357 decoy brand 471 deeedie 357 deef 57, 357 deep cake 210 deep cold 210 deep-dish pie 210 dee-po 57 deer eye 357 deermeat 211 deer meat 357 deers 357 de-horn 357 delta dog 57 dem 57 dem; dose; dat 616 dem Bums 616 democrat 211 demoiselle 57 den 617 de nada 617 Denver . . . 471 department store 617 derail 211 derby 357 dere 617 dern 471 Derne Street 211 derrick 357 Derringer 471 Derryfield beef 211 dese 57 Deseret 472 Deseret alphabet 472 desert . . . 472 deserted house 357 desperado 472 despise to 357 despizable 211 destrouctous 357 destroy 357 Destroying Angel 472 devil 57, 357 devil and Tom Walker! 211, 357 devil is whipping his wife 357 devil’s apron 211 devil’s bouquet 472 devil’s dancing rock 211 devil’s darning needle 211 devil’s dreck 730 devil’s footsteps 211 devil’s grandmother 57 devil’s half acre 211 devil’s hat brand 472 devil’s head 472 devil’s horse 472 devil’s music box 357 devil’s picture book, the 211 devil’s tongue 472 dewberry 57 Dewey Decimal System 211 dewlap 472 dew poisoning 357 dey 57, 617 Diana 211 dice-house 472 dicho 472 dicker 211, 472 dicty 57 didapper 57 diddle 358 diddled 57 diddledees 211 diddling 730

diddly 57 diddly-squat 57 diddy-wah-diddy 617 didje 358 didn’t go to 211 didn’t nobody go 58 dido 212 did you ever! 617 died off 358 die game 472 dientical 58 die up 58 die-up 472 die with throat trouble 472 differ 358 differential grasshopper 472 differ not 58 dift 358 dig 617 Digger Indian 472 digging one’s grave . . . 58 dight 212 dijuh 617 diked up 358 dilapidate 358 dilatoried 358 dilbert-head 58 dilitary 358 dime 617 dimes 473 din 617 dinero 473 dingclicker 212 dingdie 212 dinges 58 dinging 212 dingle cabin 212 dinglefuzzie 212 Dingley 212 ding-toed 212 dink 473 dinner 58 Dinner on Horseback 617 dinner on the ground 358 dinner on the grounds 58 dinners, 58, 358 dint 617 dip, 58, 358, 617 dipping 473 dippy 730 directly 58 dirt-dauber 58 dirt-dog poor 58 dirt grubber 473 dirt land 358 dirt nap 617 dirty rice 58 Dirty Side 617 Dirty Thirties 473 dirty-up 58 dirty water 212 dis 58, 617 disablest 358 discomfit 58, 358 disconvenient 58 discovery dance 473 disencourage 358 disfurnish 358 disgust 58, 358 dish face 58 dishwater diarrhea 212 dismal 58 Dismalite 58 Dismal Swamp 58 dis night 58 disputed bounds 58 disremember 58, 358, 473 distressing one’s ears 58 district attorney 473

767

District of Maine 212 ditch-edge child 59 ditch hunter 59 ditch riders 473 dite 212 ditint 617 ditzy 617 dive 473 divide 473 diving in shaller water 358 divinity 212, 473 divorcement 358 divvy 358 Dixie 59, 473, 617 Dixie cup 59 Dixieland 59, 618 Dixie mafia 59 Dixie wine 473 dizzies, the 59 do 59 do about 59 do a Brodie 618 do a dance 618 do an Arthur Duffy 618 dobbich 730 dobbin’ 59 dobe 473 dobe wall 473 dock 212 doctoring 212 Doctor’s Mob 618 doctor woman 59 dod blast ye . . . 212 doddly 358 Dodgers 618 dodge times 358 do don’t 59 does 59 does a bear shit . . . 473 does he sing yet? 730 does Macy’s tell Gimbels? 618 doesn’t amount to . . . 212 doesn’t know, he (she) 734 doesn’t know A from . . . 473 doesn’t know B . . . 59 doesn’t know beans 212 doesn’t know beans . . . , he 240 doesn’t know beeswax . . . 473 doesn’t know his ass . . . 619 do for 212 dofunnies 59, 473 dofunny 59 dog 619 dogan-headed 212 dog barking navigator 212 dogberry 212 dogbit 473 dog bite it! 59 dogbread 59 dog dance 473 dog drunk 59 dog-faced liar 59 dogfight 473 dog finger 59 dogged 59 doggery 358 dogging 473 doghouse 473 doghouse stirrups 473 dogie 474 dog me if I’ll do it! 358 dog my cats!, 60, 474 dog my hide! 358 dog my skin! 474 dog park 619 dog’s age 213 dog’s bait 358

768

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN REGIONALISMS

dog soldiers 474 dog take it! 60 dog trot 60 dogwatch 213 dogwood winter 60, 358 dogwood-winter bird 358 doin’ for oneself 213 doity 619 dole 358 do-less 358 do like that 60 dollar, 359, 619 dollar bugs 213 dollar-fish 213 doll baby 60, 359 dollop glass 474 dolphin striker 213 D.O.M. 619 domblokadoor 619 do me a solid 619 domebeeztoopid 619 domino 474 Donation Land Act 474 done 60 done and gone 60 done called it 359 done done it 359 done to a finish 60 done told 60 done went 474 doney-gal 359 donk 359 donkbaur 730 donker-goyndon 619 donkey’s breakfast 213 donnegan worker 619 Donner Pass 474 don’t 60, 213 don’t amount to . . . 60 don’t amount to a poot . . . 359 don’t bust your biler 213 don’t care (give) a hate 359 don’t charge your mind . . . 359 don’t chew on something . . . 474 don’t count on a rain . . . 474 don’t crowd the mourners 359 don’t cut no ice 60 don’t differ 359 don’t do me any . . . 619 don’t drown the miller 213 don’t even think . . . 619 don’t fence me in 474 don’t get crosslegged 60 don’t get your bowels . . . 619 don’t gimme that 619 don’t give a hoot . . . 474 don’t give a hoot in . . . 60 don’t give shucks for 359 don’t go a cent on 474 don’t go back . . . 60 don’t got 60 don’t got but 60 don’t guess 60, 359 don’t have a clue 619 don’t have enough sense . . . 213 don’t jerk my chain 619 don’t know as I know 213 don’t know beans when . . . 359 don’t know but what I will 359

don’t know enough . . . 213 don’t know shit . . . 474 don’t know whether . . . 213 don’t like the cut . . . 213 don’t look back . . . 60 don’t look no higher . . . 213 don’t make a speck a sense 359 don’t need it any more . . . 213 don’t never 60 don’t never get no . . . 619 don’t piss on my back . . . 60 don’t plant corn . . . 213 don’t signify 474 don’t strain your pooper 213 don’t take any . . . 213 don’t that beat . . . 60 don’t that beat all . . . 213 don’t that take . . . 60 don’t that take the rag . . . 359 don’t use good 730 don’t you fret 60 don’t you worry . . . 474 dooawg 619 doodads 474 doodle 60, 359 doofus 619 dooley 60 do one bad 60 door dung 214 door potato 359 door rock 214 dooryard call 214 dope 60, 359, 475 doper 619 doppess 619 do-re-mi 619 dormlich 730 Dorothy Perkins rose 620 Dorr’s rebellion 214 dose 61 doss over more often 214 dot and carry one 475 doted 214 do tell! 214 dote on 359 do the number on 620 do they climb . . . 214 do trading 214 double 620 double-barrel 214 double cousins 359 double-damned lie 475 double-dipping 620 double-distilled liar 475 double-dog dare 61 double Dutch 620 double house 214 double jack 475 double negative 359 double shovel plow 359 double-talk 620 doughbeater 359 doughboy 475 Dougherty wagon 475 dough god 475 dough gut 475 douse 475 douse the glim 620 Dover 214 do which? 359 dowie 359 down along 214 down and did it 359

down bucket! 214 down by the head 214 down cellar 214 downcy 359 down East 214 Downeaster 214 downer 475 downgone 359 downhill side of March 214 down in the back 360 down in the mulligrubs 360 down on one’s uppers 214 down one’s Sunday . . . 475 downright 61 down street 215 down to a gnat’s . . . 475 down to the heel 215 downwinder 475 doze 215 dozens 61 dozeneth 61 D.P. 620 D.Ph. 620 Dracula 620 draftee 61 drag 475 dragging anchor 215 draggy 360 drag one’s foot 61 dragoness plant 215 drail 215 drammer 360 dramming 360 dram whiskey 360 drank 61, 360, 475 drap 61, 360 drap off 360 drappin’ 61 draps 360 drastic 215 drat 475 drat! 61 draw 215, 360, 475 draw a bite 360 draw lots of water 215 drawn bucket 215 draw one’s steel 475 draw up 61 dreadful 215 dreads 620 Dream Street 620 drean 360 dreck 620 dressed 360 dressed egg 61 dressed up gals going . . . 61 dressed up like . . . 475 dressed within . . . 61 dressfied 360 dressing 215 dress the bed 61 drew 61 dribs and drabs 215 drift 475 drifter 475 drift whale 215 drindling 360 drink easy 360 drinked 215 drinking hole 476 drinking mash and . . . 61 drinkin’ liquor 61 drint 360 drip 620 drip-drop 61 drippings 360 drive 215 drive a nail 61 drive a nail into . . . 61

drive one’s ducks . . . 61, 360 driver 215, 476 driving hui 702 drivin’ like a blue . . . 61 drizzles 476 drizzly-drazzly 215 droll-natured 360 drop a dime 620 drop a stitch 215 drop band 476 drop dead 620 drop his (her) candy 62 drop-in 360 drop in the grease 62 drop of, a 215 drop of a hat 476 dropped egg 215 dropped like an ox 62 droprock 360 dropsy 360 drouth 476 drouthed out 476 drove one’s ducks . . . 360 drug 62, 360, 476 druggy 360 drunkards 215 drunk as a biled owl 476 drunk as a bowdow 62 drunk as a coot 62 drunk as a fiddler’s bitch 62, 360 drunk as Cooter Brown 62 drunker than who shot John 62 druthers 62 druv 62, 215 dry as a prune 215 dry bridge 215 dry camp 476 dry clothes man 360 dry-goods cart 215 dry-goods store 215 dry grins 62, 361 dry-gulch 476 drygulch whiskey 476 dry-ki 215 drylander 476 dry salvages, the 216 dry skin 216 dry so 62 dry-weather stock 62 dry wilts 62, 361 dub around 216 dubersome 216 Dublin 216 duckback clothes 361 duck fit 62 ducking 476 duckin’s 361 ducy 361 dude 476 dude ranch 476 due me a compliment 62 duff 216 dugout 476 duh 621 duhshuh-ul 621 du’in’ 62 dulce 476 dulcimore 361 dulge 361 dull 216 dull as a frow 361 dull as a hoe 216 dumb Betty 216 dumb-fish 216 dummern 361 dummkopf 621 dummkup 730 dummy 216 dump 476 dump(ing) 621

dumpling mover 476 dun 476 Duncan Phyfe 621 dunderfunk 216 dunderment 216 dung out 361 Dunkers 730 dunnow 216 dunstable 216 durgen 361 durn 62 durned 62 dursn’t 216 dust 476 dust along 476 dust as high as a . . . 216 dust bowl 476 dust bunnies 216 dust-dawn to dust-dark 62 dust devil 477 duster 477 dust pneumonia 477 dusty dark 361 Dutch 62 Dutch courage 621 dutchie 730 Dutchman’s anchor 216 dutch potatoes 730 dybbuk 621 dying man’s dinner 216

E e 63 eaceworm 217 each and every 362 earbobs 63 ear down 478 earl 622 ear-notched 478 ear sewer 478 ears like a fox 478 earthquake weather 478 ear to the ground 478 eastard 217 Easter flower 362 eastern hemlock 217 eastern parts, the 217 eastern white pine 217 East India captain 217 East Side 622 easygoing as old Tilly 217 easy rider 63 easy walker 63 eat cooter liver 63 eat dog for another 478 eat good 63 eat gravel 478 eating a green ‘simmon 63 eating apron 63 eating tobacco 217 eating went . . . , his or her 734 eat lead 478 eat’m and beat’m 622 eat oneself full 63 eat scaps off a . . . 362 eats babies, he 636 eats good 362 eat something with . . . 362 eaves spout 217 Ebbets Field 622 ecdysiast 622 E Clampus Vitus 478 Edgar Allan Poe Cottage 622 educated in his books 478 edzact 362 eeef 478 eelgrass 217 eelspear 217 eel stifle 217

eenamost 217 ef 217 effing 622 egg ball 622 egg cream 622 egg on 63 eggplant 623 egg pop 217 eggshell tea 362 egg sucker 362 Egypt of the West 478 eight-day man 63 eighteen-hundred-and . . . 217 eight square rifle 479 eighty-seven and a half 623 eighty-six 623 eighty-two pounder 623 eitherhanded as a spider 479 eke 362 el 623 elastic 217 Elberta peach 63 elbow grease 731 elbow room 479 El Dorado 479 election cake 217 election pink 217 electric 362 ele ele 703 elegant 218 elephant tree 479 Elgin Gardens 623 Eli 218 Ellimheyst 623 Ellis Island 623 elm-bark tea 362 Elm City 218 elsehow 63 embarcadero 479 emigrant 479 Emigration Road 479 Emmanuelism 218 emmet 362 emmis 623 emory 479 Empire State Building 623 Empire State of the South 64 empty as a . . . 362 emptyin’s 218 enchilada 479 encina 479 end 362 end for about 218 endowment 479 endurable 362 enduring 64, 362 Enemy, the 362 English basement 624 English elementary school 218 English monkey 218 English peas 64 English sparrow 624 enjoy 362 enjoy! 624 enjoying dretful poor health 218 enough is enough . . . 624 enough sight 218 enough to choke a sloat 64 enough to gag a maggot 218 enough to make a Texas preacher . . . 64 entire wheat bread 218 entitlement 64 enty 64 environment 624 eperlans 218

INDEX equalizer 479 erl boiner 624 erster 624 Eskimo Pie 624 essence peddler 218 -est 64 estancia 479 estufa 479 et 64, 362, 479 Ethiopian breakdown 64 ethyl 479 euchre 479 Eureka State 479 even his in-growed toenails . . . 64 evenin’ 362 evening 64 evening was already . . . 64 ever 64, 624 ever’ 64 ever body 64 everen 363 ever fetchin’ one . . . 363 Everglades 64 everglom 362 Evergreen State 479 everhow 363 ever I saw 64 ever I seed 363 everly 363 everthin’ 64 everwhat 64 ever-what 363 everwhere 363 everwhich 363 ever-which-a-ways 363 everwhichway 64 everwho 64, 363 every dog for his dinner 363 every hair a rope yarn 218 every little whipstitch 363 everyone to their liking . . . 363 everything’s drawing 218 everything worthwhile . . . 624 everywheres 479 every which way 64, 218 ever(y) whichway 479 ex 218 exalted 479 exaltify 363 excape 363 excuse the expression 624 excusin’ 64 exercised 218 exoduster 64 extremely dead 624 extry 65, 363, 479 ey 624 eyeball 624 eyeballer 479 eyeballing 479 eye-eating 65 eye of America 218 eyes 65 eyes like two burned . . . 218 eyestone 218 Eye-tie 624 ey-uh 218 ezactly 363

F fabling 66 face 625 face hurt 66 faculized 219 faculty 219

faddah 625 fadedy 480 fag along 480 fahcrissake 625 failed up 219 failing disease 66 faint at the stomach 219 faintified 66 fair 66, 219 fairground 480 fairly 66 fair off 66 fair up 364 fairy primrose 480 fallacy 66 fallen away 219 fallen away to a cartload 219 fallen hide 480 fallen timber 480 fallen weather 364 fall grape 364 fallin’ away 364 Fall Indians 480 fall out 66, 364 fallow 219 falltime 364 false 66 false pond 480 fambly 364 Fameuse 219 family 625 family hammer 625 family woman 66 fan 480 fancy-shmancy 625 fancy work 219 fandaddies 66 fandango 480 Faneuil Hall 219 fanfoot 66 fannie daddies 219 Fanny Heath raspberry 480 fantods 480 far 480 far and squar 364 ’fare 625 farewell summer 364 farewell-to-spring 480 far-gone 66 farm liquor 364 farm to the walls . . . 481 far piece 219 far piece, a 481 farplace 364 farrer 66 farrow cow 219 Far South 66 farting against the wind 481 fart-knocker 481 fartzoon’d 732 Far West 481 farziner 219 fascinator 219 fashoongart 732 fast 219 fast as a cat in a gale 220 fast as skim milk . . . 364 fast as (the) Forty 66 fast day 220 faster ’n greased lightning 364 faster than a cat . . . 220 fastly 364 fastnach 732 fat as a butterball 220 fat as a doe 220 Fat as a nigger’s hog 66 fatback 66 father-and-son business 625 father God and Sonny Jesus! 220

Father Knickerbocker 625 father longlegs 220 Father Mississippi 66 Father of Floods 67 Father of His Country, the 220 Father of Rivers 67 Father of Waters 67 fatnen’ hog 66 fat pine 364 fatter’n a settled minister 220 fatty-bread 67 fat up 220 fault 67 faunch 481 favor 67 favorance 364 fawk 626 fay 220 faygeleh 626 fayuh 626 faz-ols 626 fearnaught 220 Feast of Shells 220 Featherbed Lane 626 feather crown 364 feather duster 481 feather into 364 feathers in his britches 481 feather white 220 federal building 67 Federal Hall 626 feel below the ford 67 feel bluer’n a whetstone, to 220 feeling stones 220 feel like a stewed witch 67 feel of 364 feels to me 67 feetings 220 feeuh 626 feh! 626 feist 365 feisty 67 fella 365 feller, 220, 481 fell flat on his floot 220 fell off 67 fellow 67 fellowly 365 female daughter 67 female person 365 fence lifter 67, 365, 481 fence rider 481 fence viewer 220 fence war 481 fer 220, 626 ferfowled 732 Ferginny 67 fergit 626 ferhext 732 ferhoodled 732 fernent 365 ferricadouzer 365 ferrididdle 67 fershitt 732 fertili 365 fertilize 365 fetched 220 fetched out 481 fetched up 220, 365 fetching 67 fetching stick 365 fetchy 67 feudin’ kinfolks 365 fever tick 481 few 365 F.F. 67 F.F.V. 67 fice 67 fiddle dancing 365 Fiddle-dee-dee! 67

fiddlefooted 481 fiddlehead ferns 220 fiddleheading 221 Fiddler’s Green 365 fiddlesticks! 221 fidgets 67 ffield Indian 481 field whiskey 365 fierce 221 fiesta 481 fiesta flower 481 50-50 481 54-40 or fight 481 57 varieties of a fool 481 figger, 365, 626 fight a circle saw 365 fight fire with fire 481 fightin’est, 365, 481 fight one’s face 365 fight shy of 482 fight till hell . . . , he’d 498 fight until . . . , he’d 498 Figinny 67 figures don’t lie . . . 67 fil‚ 67 Filene’s basement 221 file one’s teeth . . . 482 filer’s two inches 221 fill a blanket 482 filladuppigin 626 Filliloo bird 221 fillit 221 fill to the north 221 filth 365 fin 626 find 67 find the devil’s golden tooth, to 221 fine-haired, 67, 365 fine-haired sons . . . 482 finer than frog’s hair 67 finest kind 221 ffinger 626 finger hat 732 finger-wringer 626 finish one’s circle 482 finnan haddie 221 finnif 626 fin out 221 finstins 626 fire 704 fire balloon 221 fireboard 365 fire coal 365 fire dance 482 fire-eater 68 fire hangbird 221 firehole 482 firehunt 68 fire in the hole! 365 fire one’s shuck 482 fireroom 221 fire-time 68 fire trumpet 221 firewater 482 first 221 first along 221 first-dark 68 First Fathers 221 first-folks 68 first-handed 365 firstlight 68 fish, 221, 482 fish, cut bait, or . . . 222 fish ball 221 fish-blooded 68 fish draft 222 fisherman farmer 222 Fisherman’s Monument 222 fish fry 68 fish hash 222 fishhooks (crooked as . . . ) 54

fishhooks in one’s pockets 365 fishing falls 482 fishing worm 68 fish muddle 68 fish pea 222 fish warden 222 fishworm 365 fist 365 fist and skull 482 fist and skull fight 68 fisty 366 fit 222, 366 Fithavnya 627 fit like a Mediterranean pass, to 222 fitout 222 fits like a hog . . . 482 fits like a shirt on a beanpole 222 fittin 366 fittin’ 68 fitting 222 fitty 366 fit with a Yankee jacket, to 222 Five Civilized Tribes 482 five-fingers 222 Five-O 627 five-shooter 482 Five Towns 627 fixin’ 366 fixing 68 fixtures 482 fixy 366 fizzy 222 flacket 222 flag 366 flags 366 flahwah 627 flake 222 flamigigs 222 flaming falls 222 flang one’s thang 68 flapdoodle 222 flapjack 222 flared 222 flash 68, 627 flasharity 482 flat 482 flat as a flitter 366 flatfoot 627 flat-foot floozy . . . 627 flathead 482 flatlander 366 flat on the back 68 flat out 68, 222 flatwoods 366 flax out 222 flea market 627 fled 68 fleece 482 fleet 223 fleshen 68 Fletcherize 223 flew 223 flicker 223, 366 flickertail 482 Flickertail State 482 flicker up 223 flinderation 68 flip one’s wig 627 flipper 223 flippy whippet 366 flip someone 627 flirt o’ snow 223 flitch 732 flitter 68 flittercakes 68 flittin’ day 732 floating town 482 flock 482 flog 366 floor broker 627 floor-through 627 flop 223

769

Flora’s paintbrush 223 Florida 68 Florida . . . 68 Floridy 68, 223 flour gold 482 flow 223 flower-pot judge 223 flowing bitch 69 flowzy 366 flugins 69 flume 223 flummery 223 flummoxed 366 flummydiddle 223 Flushing 627 flushration 223 flush-to-bung town! 223 flux 366 flying 482 flying axhandle 223 flying light 482 fly off one’s jib 223 fly off the handle 223 fly poison 366 fly-up-the-creek 69 F.M.C. 69 FOB’s 627 fodder corn 223 fofarrow 483 fofarrow house 483 fog 483 fog-beaded 69 foggel 732 fogging 483 Foggy Bottom 69 fog mull 223 fogo 223 fo’ God 69 fog’s so thick . . . 223 foist 627 folden pants 483 folderol 69 fold up 483 folks 223 folks, he’s 374 folksy 223 follow to the middle . . . 366 fool 223 fool hay 483 foolhead 224 fool hen 483 fool hoeman 483 fooling around 69 foolish 224 foolishment 69 foolkiller 224 fool plover 224 fool’s gold 483 fool’s water 483 fool thing 69 fool with me and . . . 366 foopaw 224 foot 627 foot! 69 footburner 483 footermans 483 footin’ around 224 Foot Indians 483 footins 224 footrags 483 footslaves 483 footstove 224 foot trail 483 footwasher 69 foot-whacking 366 for 366, 732 for a fact 366 for certain 69 forched 69 Fordham University 627 fore-and-after 224, 483 foreceput 224 foredoor 224 forefather’s cup 224

770

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN REGIONALISMS

Forefather’s Day 224 forehanded 224 foreigner 69, 224 forelay 224 forenoon 69 fore pay 483 foreroom 224 fore-royal 224 Forest City 224 foretop 483 for force 69 for good and always 69 for goodness-goodness Agnes! 224 fork 483 for sure 69 fort 224, 483 Fort Apache 627 for Texas! 484 forth-putting 224 Fortino 224 for to 69, 366, 484 Fort Pricks 627 for true 69 Fort Whoop-Up 484 for-two-cents-plain 627 42 484 40 acres and a mule 69 Forty-Deuce 627 forty eleven 224 forty-gallon Baptists 366 40 miles of bad road 484 49er 484 40 rod lightning 484 Forty Thieves 628 Fort Yuma 484 for why 366 for why? 70 fotch 366 fotch-on 366 found the hole, he (she) 83 foundy 69 four-box baseball 628 fourcorners 224 four cows and calves 484 four-five-six 484 fourflusher 484 Four Hundred 628 four-legged word 484 fourpence ha’penny 224 four rooms and a path 366 the fourth Thursday 484 fowl 225 fowl-crow 70 fowy 225 fox and dogs 367 Foxes 225 foxfire 367 fox-fire 70 fox grape 225 foxhead 367 foxpath 367 fox-trot 628 fraction 367 fractious 367 fractured like a watermelon . . . 484 fraid hole 367 frail 70 frame 367 frammed 70 “Frankly, my dear . . . ” 70 franzied 367 franzy 70 franzy house 70 frapp‚ 225 frazzle 70 frazzle-headed 367 frazzlin’! 70 freaking 628

freckled as a turkey egg 367 Fredonia 484 free and easy 628 free-for-all 484 free grass 484 freehearted 70 free range 484 Freestone State 225 freeze 484 freeze down 225 freezeout 484 freezy 225 Fremontia 485 Frenchers 225 French harp 70 French ice-cream soda 628 Frenchman 225 French Quarter 70 frequent 367 fresh 70, 485 fresh cook 225 freshen 70 freshet 225 freshwater clam 225 freshwater lobster 225 fress 628, 732 fret 70, 225 fretting 485 frettish 225 fried pie 225 fried pudding 225 friend of mine 628 friend of ours 628 friendschaft 732 frig around 225 frijoles 485 frijoles refritos 485 fringe bush 367 Frisco 485 frisky as a flea . . . 70 fritter-minded 70, 367 friz 70 frock 225 frog 70 Frog and Toe 628 frog it 225 frogmow stew 70 frogsticker 70 frog sticker 367 frogstool 70 frog-strangler 70 frolic 225 from 70 from away, 225, 628 from can see to can’t see 367 from Fort Kearney . . . 485 from the jump 70 frontage road 485 frontier 485 Frontier Day 485 front parlor 226 front porch 485 front room 226 front yard fence 226 frostbird 226 frost blow 226 frostfish 226 frost flower 226 frost heave 226 frothed up 226 frouch 226 frowzy 226 frozen words, 70, 485 frozen Yankee Doodle 226 fruitjar-sucker 367 fruit-orchard 367 fruit tramp 485 frying pan 485 fryin’ size 485 fry-meat 70

fry pan 226 fry thin 485 fub 226 fuck 628 fucking the dog 485 fuck off! 628 fuck up 71 fuddy-duddy 226 fuhgeddaboutit 628 full 226 full as a tick 485 full blood 485 full chisel 226 full ear 485 fulled 71 fulled up 226 full-handed 367 full of bounce 485 full of ginger 226 full of mischt 732 full of weasel juice 226 full stick 226 full-up 71 fun 71, 367 Fun City 628 funeral 367 fungoo 628 funkify 226 funky 71 funning 485 funny as a crutch 628 funny eye 226 funny-peculiar 71 fur 367, 485 furgassi 629 furnish, 71, 367 fur piece 71 furriner 367 furrow out 226 furse 367 fush out 226 fuss, 71, 485 fuss and feathers 71 fussbox 71 fussbudget 485 fusspot 226 fust 226 futter mill 69 futz around 629 fuzzed up 71 fuzzle 226

G G (noun) 630 gabootzt 733 gabut 733 gachupin 486 gad 227 gadonka 733 Gadsden Purchase 486 gaffle 227 gaggle 368 gahd 227 gaily 368 gaint 368 gal 486 galamander 227 gal boy 227 gale 368 gale wind 227 gallery 72, 368 galleta 486 gallied 227 galliwampus 486 galloopus 368 galloping fence 72 gallowses 72 gallus 227 galluses 72 gallynipper 368 galon 486 galoot 486 galvanized Yank 227 galvanized Yankee 72 gam 227

Gambel oak 486 gambrel roof 227 gambrel stick 227 game of the arrow 486 gander 227 gander berry 368 gander party 227 gang 72 gangbuster 630 ganging 227 gangland slaying 630 gank-gutted 72 gannet-gutted 227 ganook 733 Gansevoort Street pier 630 gansey 228 ganted 486 gap 368 gap-and-swallow 228 gape 228 garbage mouth 630 garbanzo 486 garbroth 368 garb up 228 Garden 630 garden hash 228 gardenia 72 Garden of the Gods 486 garden sass, 72, 228 garooch 733 garret 72 gaschupin 486 gasser 486 gat 486 gate 630 Gate City 72 Gateway to the West 486 gather-all 368 gator 72 gator-bit 73 gaum 73, 228, 368, 487 gaumy 228 gaunted up 228 gaup 228 gavoones 630 Gawdfreediamonds! 228 gawky 228 gawnicus 228 gay 73 Gaynor, William 630 gay people, the 733 Gay White Way 630 gazook 487 geddin gout 630 gee 73 gee and haw 73 gee-bucking 228 geechee 73 geed up 487 gee haw 368 geev um! 705 gee whittakers! 228 geik 368 geitsich 733 gelati 631 gellyon 368 gemmen 73 gempmuns 73 Gem State 487 Gene Autry 487 general court 228 General Grant Tree 487 generally always 368 General Southern Lowland dialect 3 generation 368 generosity is longer . . . , his (hers) 85 Genius of the Divide 487 gentile 487 gentle 368 gentle as a milkpen calf 487

gentleman cow 228 gentling 487 George Washington Bridge 631 Georgia 73 Georgia . . . 73 Georgia pine (higher than a) 84 German fireplace 733 Geronimo! 487 gerrymander 228 get 487 get about 73 get a bun on 631 get a haircut 631 get a halo gratis 487 get a holt of 73 get a hunch . . . 487 get a wiggle on it 228 get done 228 get down 705 get down and stay . . . 368 get-go 73 get gone 73 get grown 73 get in behind 74 get in the wind of 73 get it, to 148 get leave of 74 get lost 631 get low for Jesus 74 get makkes 631 get me 74 get offen 368 get off the dime, 487, 631 get one’s ashes hauled 74 get one’s dander up, to 228 get one’s ears lowered 631 get oneself a boss 74 get oneself harnessed 487 get one’s goin’-homeacryin’ 229 get one’s pots on 631 get one’s spurs tangled 487 get on the river 74 get on to 368 get onto yourself and . . . 229 get out! 229 get out of here! 631 get shed of 74 get shut of 369, 487 get someone cold 487 gets up so early (s)he . . . 229 get the bulge on someone 74 get the deadwood on 487 get there with both feet 487 getting fair 74 getting less and leaster 369 getting oneself up 74 getting sweet 369 getting up the wood 229 getty 631 get up and dust 487 getup backwards 74 get your bait back 229 get yourself on . . . 487 ghost dance 488 ghost town 488 ghy 74 giant bird’s nest 488 giant powder 369 giasticutus 369 gibraltar 229

gift child 74 giggle soup 74 Gila 488 Gila monster 488 gill-ver-the-ground 229 gimlet 488 gimlet-assed 369 gimme 631 gimme a break 631 gimp 229 gin 74, 229, 369 ginat cactus 488 gin gang 369 ginger! 229 ginger plum 229 ginger water 229 gin mill 631 gin rickey 74 giobba 631 gip 74 girl-child 369 girling 229, 488 gism 229 git 229 git a holt 229 gitar 74 git-up end 488 give a damn 74 give a lick and . . . 369 give a little sugar 74 give a turn 229 give a whaling to 229 give down 369 give down the country 74 give ’em Jesse 369 give ’em the hook 631 give her honest measure . . . 229 give him the go-by 74 give in 74 give it a lick and . . . 75 give Jesse 488 give-me-leif 75 given up 369 give off 75 give one scissors 75 give one’s eyeteeth for 229 give one the blacks 75 give out 75 give-out 369 give the gate 488 give tittie 369 give tongue 488 giveup to be 75 give-way 75 givey 75 give Yankee Doodle 229 giving down 229 giving tongue 75 giving tongue like . . . 75 gizza 631 gizzard 488 gizzard-string 75 gladda 631 glamour gal 631 glare 229 glass tea 632 glauackus 229 glazza 632 glede 369 gleedich-hase 733 glib 369 glid 75 glinning up 230 glitch 632 glom 75 glomb 369 Glorious Cause 75 glorit 230 glory 369 glory hole 488 Gloucester 230

INDEX glow-shoes 230 glut 230 glutzkupp 733 go 75, 632 go around Robin Hood’s barn 230 go ashore to windward 230 goat 488 goat meat 369 go away 75 go-back 488 go back on one’s hash 488 go bag yer head! 230 the gobble 488 go-billy 230 go by cow express 75 go chase cats 75 God Almighty’s overcoat . . . 75 God-awfulest 369 godda 632 goddam 488 Goddams 230 go-devil 488 godfather 632 God finally caught . . . 632 godfrey! 230 godfrey dorman! 230 godfrey lijah! 230 godfrey mighty! 230 godfrey’s might! 230 Godlike 230 God made the fool . . . 230 go down 75 go down cellar 230 God respects you if . . . 369 God rock 230 God’s acre 369 God’s amount 230 God should be allowed . . . 632 God’s nightgown! 75 God sometimes shows . . . 230 go-easter 488 goed 75 gofer matches 488 go fight City Hall 632 go figure 632 go for broke 705 go fry some ice 230 go gay 733 gogo 75 go halvers 75 go hungry and ragged 75 goil 632 go in 76 goin’ drink till . . . 369 going, going . . . 632 going around Robinson’s barn 230 going down to salt water 230 going full stick 231 going greening 231 going out on a flink 231 going West 488 go in the water 632 go it, Sal! 231 goldarn! 231 gold belt 488 Goldberg 632 goldbrick 488 Gold Coast 76 Gold Coast Negro 76 gold digger 489 Gold Dust twins 632 golden banner 489 golden bells 369

Golden Bible 489 Golden Gate 489 Golden Gate Bridge 489 gold fever 489 gold fields 489 gold rush 489 gold story 489 gole joolry 632 gollop 76 golly-whopper 369 golly-wopper bird 231 go’long! 231 gondola 489 gone abroad 369 gone back on . . . 369 gone beaver 489 gone by 231 gone coon 489 gone goose 231 go neighborin’ 273 goneness 231 gone to his long home 231 gone to Texas 489 gone up the flume 489 gone where the woodbine twineth 76 goney 231 goniff 632 gonna clean your clock 76 goober 76 goober digger 76 goober grabber 76 goober-grabber 369 goober pea 76 Goober State 76 gooch 76, 370 good 76, 231, 370 good and far 489 good and heavy 76 goodbyes 489 good earth and seas 231 gooder 76, 370 goodest 76 good fences make . . . 231 good field, no hit 632 good for the wholesome 76 good holding ground 231 good honk 370 good Indian 490 good land! 231 good land a mercy! 231 good leather 490 good liver 370 goodlye 370 good man 76, 490 Good Man, The 370 good morning, damn you 231 goodnighting 490 good old boy 76 good ole rebel 76 good pear or apple . . . 231 good riddance to . . . 231 good scribe 370 goods trader 490 Goody 231 goody 76 gooey weather 76 goofer 76 goofer dust 76 go-off 231 google 370 goombah 632 goomer 370 go on 77 go on a high lonesome 490 gooney 231

go on the fight 490 go on with your bird’segging 231 goose drownder 77 goose drowner 490 goose hair bed 490 goose hangs high, the 490 goose hangs (honks) high 77 gooses 77 goot 77 go out to themselves 370 go over the grade 490 goozle 77 gopher 490 gopher wood 77 go pleasurin! 231 go quick plant 490 gorby bird 232 gores 490 gore the other man’s ox 490 go right along out 232 Gorilla 77 gorm 232 gorming 232 go-round 232 gorry! 232 go sandpaper the anchor 232 gosh all fish-hook! 232 gosh all hemlock! 232 goshed 490 goshfrey mighty dorman! 232 go snucks 232 go south 490 gospel bird 77 gospel sharp 490 got 77 got aged out 490 got a low eye for a . . . 77 got behind 490 gotch-earred 490 gotch-eyed 490 got his kettle on 490 go to 370 go to Ballyhack! 232 go to grass! 232 go-to-hell 232 go to hell across lots 490 go to hell and fry . . . 370 go to hell in a bucket 77 go-to-meetin’s 232 Go to poodic! 232 go to ride 77 go to the bad 77 go to the bridge with 77 go to the brush 370 go to the well with 77 go to the whole coon 77 got up 370 got up any size 370 go under 491 gounsh 733 go up 77 go up the flue 491 go up the flume 491 gour 77 go us 232 government liquor 370 governmint 370 governor 491 governor’s meat 232 Governor Winthrop 232 gower 77 go west 491 go west, young man 491 gowrow 370 gowtz 733

grabble 370 grab-it-and-growl 491 graceful as the capital letter S 77 gracias 491 gracious evers! 232 gracious plenty 77 Graddaddy 491 grade up with 491 grain 77, 370 grama grass 491 grammy 232 gramp 232 grampus 370 gramy 77 grand 77 grandbaby 77 grandboy 77 Grand Canyon State 491 granddaddy 78 granddaddy clause 78 Grand Dragon 78 Grande 491 Grandfather 78 grandfather clause 78 grandfather graybeard 78 grandma 370 grandmother story 491 grand-rascal 370 grandsir 233 Grand Tetons 491 Grand Wizard of the Empire 78 Granite boys 233 Granite City 233 granite insides 233 Granite State, the 233 grannies! 78 grannie woman 370 granny 78, 233 granny knot 233 granny-woman 78 granted out 227 grant ring 491 grapevine 491 grape-vineyard 370 grass about the bows 233 grass-bellied 492 grass bloom 492 grass dance 492 grassers 492 grasshopper 233 Grasshopper Battle 492 grasshopper fruitcake 492 grasshopper Indians 492 grasshopper mouse 492 Grasshoppers’ Library 492 Grasshopper Year 492 grassing 233 grasswiddy 370 grave-box 78 grave house 370 gravel 78, 371 gravel flipper 371 grave rock 371 graveyard 233 graveyard cough 78 graveyard dead 492 graveyard rabbit 78 graveyard stew 78, 633 graveyard widow 78 gravy 78 gravy-licker 492 gray 78 grayback 78 graybacks 78 graybeard 78 grayjacket 78 graze 492 grazing fee 492

greaseball 633 greaser 492 greasewood 492 greasy 492 greasy bean 371 greasy door family 371 greasy luck 233 greasy-sack outfit 492 great 233 Great American Desert 493 Great American Mudhole 79 Great Awakening 233 great balls of fire! 79 Great Basin 493 Great Black Way 633 Great Carbuncle 233 great day in the morning! 79 Great Divide 493 Great Father 493 Great Fire of 1835 633 great hand for 493 great Keezer’s ghost! 233 Great Knives 493 great long 371 great medicine 493 Great Medicine Trail 493 Great Plains 493 Great Rebellion 79 Great Revival 79 Great Roundup 493 Great Salt Lake 493 great sand and sagebrush! 493 great seizer 493 great smoke 493 Great Smokies 371 Great Spirit 493 great sufficiency, a 233 Great Tight Way 633 Great White Father 493 Great White Way 633 gredge 371 green 371 green beans 79 greenbroke 493 green corn 233 greener 493 green front 233 greenhead 233 Greenhorn Canyon 493 green hornet 633 Green Mountain . . . 234 Green Mountaineer 234 green out 371 green peach 79 green river 493 green sauce 234 green snake 234 green to green 234 green up 371 Greenwich 234 Greenwich Village 633 Greenpernt 633 greezy 234 greislich 733 gret 234 grex 733 grexin’ 733 griddlecake 234 gridlock 633 grigri 79 grinder 234 grind one’s own bait 234 gringa 493 gringo 493 Grinnich Village 79 griping of the gizzard 234 gripsack Republican 79 gris-gris 79 grit 494

771

gritchel 371 grits 79 grits mill 79 gritted bread 371 grizzly bear 494 grizzly lager 494 gr’ma’mam 232 groaner 234 grocer store 79 grocery sack 494 groom’s cake 79 Groton 234 ground bird 234 grounded out 234 ground hemlock 234 groundhog 371 groundhog case 79, 371 Groundhog Day 234 ground pea 79 ground swamp robin 234 ground worm 79 grouty 234, 371 grouties, the 234 Grover’s Corners 234 growed 79, 371 growing moon 79 grow like Topsy 79 growned 79 grow off 79 growthy weather 235 grub hysen 371 grub-line rider 494 grubstake 494 grub up 79 grue 235 grulla mare 494 grumtion 79 grunt 235 G.T.T. 494 guano 80 guardun 80 guayave 494 gudgeon 235 guess 235 guess off 494 the guide 494 guido 633 Guinea 80, 633 guinea corn 80 Guinea red 633 Guinea stinker 634 gulch 494 gull 235 Gullah 80 Gullah dialect 755 gull hunter 235 gullup 235 gully-jumper 371 gully washer 371 gully-washer 80 gum 371 gum! 80 gumbo 80, 494 gumbo box 80 Gumbo dialect 4 gumbo fil 80 gumbo town 80 gummer 235 gumnt 634 gump 80, 235 gumpshoe 235 gump tickler 235 gumption 235 gunbroke 494 gundalow 235 gun fanner 494 gun fight (battle) 494 gunja 80 gunkhole 235 gun moll 634 gunning season 235 gunnysack 494 gunsel 494 gunshot wedding 235

772

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN REGIONALISMS

gun-toter 494 gurnet 235 gurried up 235 gurry 235 gusher 494 gussied up 495 gut 371 gut hook 495 gut-shrunk 495 gut twister 495 guv 80 guvment 371 guvnah 634 guyascutus 235 guying 495 guzzle 235 gwan! 634 gwine 80 gwinter 495 gypped 495 gypwater 495

H H (letter) 236 habañero pepper 496 habbage 236 hacienda 496 hack 81 hackamore 496 hackie 635 hacking and hammering 236 hackmatack 236 Haddam 236 hadn’t ought 81 hadn’t oughter 236 had out 236 had the pork 236 hae 81 hagdon 236 hahbuh 635 hahnsome 236 hail 236 haint 81, 236, 372 hairbag 635 hair brand 496 haired up 236 hair in the butter 496 hairlegger 236 hair lifter 496 hairpin 236 hair raiser 496 hair-raising 496 hairy dick 81 hairy money 496 halavah 635 half 706 half a bubble off . . . 496 half a loaf or half . . . 734 half-baked yokum 372 half-breed 496 half in two 372 half-leg high 81 half-moon pie 372 half-runner bean 372 half-strainer 81 half-stripe 496 half the bay over 236 Halfway Rock 236 half woman and . . . 496 hall 81 hall bedroom 635 halo 496 ham-meat 372 hammer 635 hamper basket 81 Hampton boat 237 hana 706 hanahana man 706 hand 81 handball 635 handcarter 496 hand-fighting 497 hand-gallop 81

hand-going 372 handily 372 handing down 81 Handkerchief Moody 237 handle 237 hand out 497 hand-running 81 hands-in-the-pocket weather 734 handsome 237, 372, 497 handwrite 81, 372 handy as a pocket in a shirt 237 hang and rattle 497 hangbird 237 hanging around 237 hang on by one’s eyelids 237 Hangtown fry 497 hang up 81 hang up your boots 237 hanker 81 hant 81 ha’n’t 237 hantle 81 ha’nts 497 Hanukkah 635 hapa haole 706 happen-so 81 happen to an accident 82 happify 82 happy as . . . 237 happy as a dead pig . . . 372 happy as a frog 497 happy as a jackass . . . 497 happy as a pine borer . . . 82 happy hunting ground 497 happy-pappies 372 happy trails 497 hard-boiled 497 hard-boiled hat 497 hard day’s work makes . . . 237 harder’n climb’n a peeled . . . 497 hard fight with a big stick 372 hard fisted 237 hardhack 237 hardie 635 hard money 497 hardness 372 hard oil 372 hard-proved hand 497 hard pushed 237 hard rocker 497 hardscrabble 237 hardshell 82 hardshell Baptist 82 hardshell church 82 hardshell clam 237 hardshell sermon 82 hard-tail 82 hard wood 237 harelip 372 hark! 237 harker 237 Harlem 635 harm 82 harness bull 237, 497 harness cask 238 Harpers Ferry, West Virginia 82 harrycane 372 harry dick 82 harrykin 82 Harry of the West 497 harry wicket 238 Hart Island 635 Harvard 238

Harvard accent 238 Harvard beets 238 Harvey 497 Harwich 238 has 82 has a screw loose 238 hase-wasser 734 hash 238 has his sitting britches on 238 Hasidim 636 haslet 238 has more wrinkles . . . 497 has no more suavity . . . 238 hasn’t got a snowball’s . . . 238 hasn’t sense enough . . . 82 hassle 82 hassock 238 hast 372 has too many shingles . . . 238 hasty pudding 238 hatchway doors 238 Hat City of the World, the 238 hate 373 hateful 373 Hatfield and McCoy feud 373 haul ass 82 haul one’s coat 373 have 82 have a bear by . . . 497 have a bloodrush 82 have a brick in one’s hat 239 have a burr . . . 497 have a burr in one’s saddle 82 have a catch 636 have a chicken to pick 82 have a great good mind to 239 have an edge on 239 have brass on one’s face 82 have half a heat on 636 have no time with one 82 haven’t seen you . . . 239 have off 82 have one over 82 have one’s head in a bucket 239 have one’s high-heeled shoes 239 have one’s nose broke 239 have out 82 have rabbit in one’s feet 373 Haverhill 239 have the big eye 373 have the bulge on 497 have the collywobbles 498 have the horrors 239 have the luck of Hiram Smith 239 have the stouts 239 have the world by . . . 498 have you ever tried . . . 373 Haviland 82 Hawaiian language 697 haw-eater 373 hawg 373 hawg-killin’ 83 hawkbill 373

Hawkins’ whetstone 239 hawse 498 haybag 636 haybunner 239 haycap 239 hayfield lobsterman 239 hay-shaker 373 haystack 239 hazarae 636 hazer 498 head 373 headache! 498 head aint done, his (her) 85 headin 83 heading 373 headish 83 headkerchief 83 headline 636 head looks as if . . . , his (her) 241 headmark 83 head of the heap 373 headright 498 head’s not done, his 374 he aha? 706 heap 83, 498 heapa folks 83 heap a folks 373 heap hogs 498 heap right rather 373 heap sight 373 heap-walk-man 498 hear? 83 hear a fox bark . . . 373 heared 239, 373 hearn 83, 239 heart 83 hear tell 83, 373 hearts-a-bustin’-with-love 83, 373 heater piece 239 heathen Chinese 498 heave and haul 239 heavens to Betsy! 239 heavy case 83 heavy cruiser 636 heavy dictionary 240 heavy water 240 Hebe 636 he-cow 240 hedgehog 240 heel 498 heeler 498 heel fly 498 heel string 83 heel tap 240 heem 498 heidi 498 heifer 373, 498 Heinz’s 57 varieties 636 heir 373 hell 83, 373 hellacious 498 hell ain’t a mile away . . . 373 hell a mile 83 hell and gone, to 498 hell and sulfur 83 Hell and Texas 498 hellatious 374 hell-bent 498 hell-bent for breakfast 498 hellbent for election 240 hell-bent for leather 499 hell-bent n’ crooked 240 hellborn 83 hell fire! 83 hell fire and damnation! 499 hell-fired 374 hell-for-leather 499 hell for stout 499

hell heard him holler 499 helling around 499 hello, brother! 374 hell-on-wheels 499 hello the house 499 hell-raisingest 499 hell’s banjoo 374 hell’s fuzzy 374 hells’ half acre 499 hell’s hollow (don’t give a hoot in) 60 Hell’s Hundred Acres 636 Hell’s Kitchen 636 hell to pay and no pitch hot 240 hell-to-split 499 hell-totin’ 83 helluva 636 hell wind 499 hell with the fires out 499 help 83, 240, 499 helpkeeper 240 helpless as a turtle . . . 83 helt 83, 374 Hemlock Forest 636 hem up 83 hen-aflying (don’t that beat) 60 hen fruit 374 hen-hussy 240 hennery 240 hen skin 499 hen-wood 374 hen wrangler 499 hep 83, 374, 499 he quoi 83 her 240, 374, 637 herb 83 herdie 240 herd’s grass 240 here 84, 240, 637 hereford 499 here’s to swimmin’ . . . 240 hermit 240 hern 84, 240, 374 hero 637 Herod all handsaws! 240 Heroes of America 84 hero of New Orleans 84 herring bird 240 herringbone fence 240 herring-choker 240 her smile makes the old . . . 84 hersted 637 hesh 374 hesh up 84 Hessian 84 hesslich 734 het 84, 374 he-uns 84 hex sign 734 hey 84 hiaqua 499 hiat 374 hibachi 706 hickernut 84 hickory 84, 241 hidalgo 499 hid away 374 hide and coop 241 hide and tallow factory 499 hide-hunters 499 hidey-hole 241 Hidy 84 high as a Georgia pine 374

high as the hair . . . 84, 374 highbinder 499, 637 high blood 84, 374 highbush blueberry 241 high cheek rein behavior 241 higher than a Georgia pine 84 high fence (got a low eye for) 77 high grade 499 high hat 637 high-headed 84, 499 high hook 241 high jamboree 84 high land 500 highlander 241 high-line rider 500 highlone 84 high lonesome 84, 374, 500 high-minded 84 high-muck-a-muck 500 high noon 500 high-nosed 500, 734 high plains drifter 500 high road to hell 500 high sheriff 84 High Sierra 500 hightail it 500 high-tempered 84 high time 241 highty tighty 241 highway patrol 241 high yellow 84 hikka 706 hilahila 706 hillbilly 374 hill countryman 241 hill-hawk 374 him 84, 637 him and wuk (work) has had . . . 241 hind end 84 hindside 241 hind side to 241 hindsight before 374 hindu! 637 hiney 84 hinnerdale 734 hinny 241 hippen 85 hippin 374 hippoed 374 hip-shot 374 hired money 241 hire it done 85 hire one’s time 85 his 85 hisn 85 his’n 374 hisself 85, 374 hissy 85 hissy fit 374 hist 241 hist-a-boy! 241 hit 85, 375 hit between the face . . . 241 hitch 85, 734 Hitchcock chair 242 hitch horses 242 hitching 637 hitch-up 375 hitch your wagon . . . 242 hit for 85 hither an’ yen 242 hit in the kishkas 637 hit out 500 hit’s 375 hit some people with . . . 375 hitter 637 hit the felt 242

INDEX hit the grit 85, 375, 500 hit the hammer 637 hit the leather 500 hit the trail 500 hit up 85 hizzonah 637 hoarsed up 242 hoary marmot 500 hobby 242 Hoboken 637 hobsonize 84 ho-cake 242 hoe 375 hoecake and sorghum syrup 84 hoe handle 375 hoe out 242 hog 84 hog age 242 hogan 500 Hog and Hominy State 84 hog-and-panther 375 hog fat 84 hog Howard 242 hog-killing time 375 hog Latin 242 hogleg 500 hog-leg 375 hog meat 375 hog-meat 84 hog-nosed skunk 500 hog plum 500 hog ranch 500 hog-ranger 375 hog’s back son-of-a-bitch 242 hog-smelly 86 hog-tied & weary 242 hog-tight, bull-strong . . . 375 hog wallow 500 hog walnut 242 hogwild 86 hog-wild 375 hoicked 86 hoid 637 hold her, Newt! 242 hold oneself too high 86 hold one’s feet . . . 86 hold one’s tongue 242 hold on till the last . . . 500 holdover 86 hold the thought 242 hold up 501 hold your tater, 86, 375 hole, 242, 501 hole up 501 holiday 242 Holland Tunnel 637 holler 375, 501 hollered like whores . . . 375 hollering 86 hollering for the Lord 86 holler New York 637 holler up 375 hollow horn 501 holly 637 holp, 86, 375 holt 86, 242, 375 holy doggie! 501 holy laugh 86 Holyoke 242 holy old mackinaw! 242 holy poke 242 holy roller 86 holy sailor, call the water! 243 holy tone 86 hombre 501 home boy 375 home correction 243

home folks 86 home-folks 375 homely as a stone fence 243 homely enough to stop a down train 243 home of the bean and the cod 243 home-place 86 home range 501 home state 501 Homestead State 501 hominy bread 86 homogenization of speech 7 honda 501 hone 86, 375 hone off 375 honey 86 honey fuggle 375 honey hole 375 honey pond and fitter tree 375 honeypot 243 honeysuckle 243 honeysuckle apple 243 honey wagons 243 hongerish 734 hongry 86, 376 honk 243 honker 243 honky-tonk 86, 501 honor jar 243 hooby 243 hoodlum wagon 501 hoodoo 86, 376, 501 Hoodoo Bar 501 Hoodsie 243 hoofed locusts 501 hooiaioia 706 hoojee 243 hook 637 hook Jack 243 ho’olu’olu 706 hoomalimali 706 hooped-up with 86 hoopy 501 hoorah 376 hooraw’s nest 243 hooray 87 hoose 87 hoosegow 501 hoot 376 hootchelly 734 hootenanny 376 hooters 87 hootnanny 87 hoot-n-holler 376 hootoadjuh? 637 hoot-owl train 501 hope how soon . . . 376 hoper 243 hope to die and cross my throat 243 Hopi 501 hoppergrass 87, 501 hoppers 501 hopping John 87 hopping like peas . . . 87 hoppytoad 87 horn 376 to horn 734 horn, hide and hair 501 horn-bugle 376 horned gentleman, the 243 horning 243 horn off 501 horns 243 hornswoggle 87, 502 horny toad 502 horrt 244 horse apple 502 horseback 376 horsebit 376

horse clogs 244 horse corn 244 horse dose 376 horse dressing 244 horsefeathers! 244 horse heaven 502 Horse Indian 502 horse-mackerel 244 horse opera 502 horse pistol 502 horsepittle 87 horse pucky 502 horse-quart 376 horse-reek 87 horse restaurant 502 horse sense 502 Horseshoe Bend 637 horseshoe crab 244 horseshoe violet 244 horse’s patoot 87 horse-throwed 376 horse wrangler 502 horsing 87 horsing and studding 87 hosey 244 hoss 502 hosteen 502 hostile Indians 502 hostiles 502 hot 244 hot as a red beet 376 hot as a red wagon 244 hot as bill hell 502 hot as blue blazes 87 hot as floogies 87 hot ass 244 hot as the Devil’s kitchen 244 hot blood 502 hot cross bun 244 hot damn! 87 hot dog 638 hotel 87 Hotel Underwood 638 hot hot 87 hot-me-tot 244 hot of a day, a 502 hot of summer 502 hotroll 502 hot tea 706 hotten 87, 376 hotter’n a . . . 376 hotter’n a skunk 244 hotter’n love . . . 244 hotter than a Methodist Hell 244 hot-toe-mitty 376 hot-top 244 hot-water tea 87 houghmagandy 638 houlihan 502 hound 376 hound dog 87, 376 hour by sun 87, 376, 502 house 87, 244, 376 housen 244, 376 house names 244 house Negro 87 house plunder 376 House That Ruth Built 638 house wine of the South 88 house with lungs, the 245 housink 638 houstonize 502 hovel 245 how 502 how? 245 Howard Beach wait 638 how are they crawlin’? 245 how be you? 245 how come? 88, 638

howda 638 how does your tobacker . . . 376 howdy 88, 376, 502 howdy do 503 however you does 88 how many 88 howms 376 how much tobaccco have you got? 245 hows about 638 howsomever 88 how-so of it, the 503 how they actin’? 245 how they hangin’ 638 howzigohin? 638 hoya 503 Hoyt is hoit! 638 hozzaboututbabe 638 Hub, the 245 hubbard squash 245 hubbly 245 hubbub 245 huck 245 huckabuck towel 245 huckleberry pie 376 hucky duck 88 huddle 245 huddup 245 Hudson River 638 huero 503 huff-puffs 245 huge-big 376 huge paw 245 hugger 245 hug-me-tight 376 huh 638 huhu 706 hula-hula 706 huli stomach 706 hull 245, 377, 503 hullabaloo and uproar 88 Hullahwee tribe 246 hulled corn 246 hull-gull 377 hull the goobers for 88 hull kaboodle 246 Hull-yoke 246 hum 246, 503 human rifle 377 humbug 246 humdurgan 246 humility 246 hummer 246 hummock 246 humpt it! 503 hungrier than . . . 503 hungry as a graven image 246 hungry enough to eat . . . 246 hunk 88 hunkers 503 hunky-dory 88 hunting 377 hunt the top rail 503 hurd 377 hurdy-gurdy houses 503 hurricane deck 503 hurrier you go . . . , the 745 hurrup! 246 hurt 88, 377 hurted 88, 377 hurting 88 husband 246 husband-high 377 husher 246 hush my mouth! 88 hush puppy 88 hush-up-with-you 246 hush your mouth 88 hush your mouthing 377 husking 246

hwich 88 hyar 88, 377 hyas kloosh 503 hydrant 88 hydrophobia skunk 503 Hymie 638 hymns 503 hyper 246 hyper out-a there 246 hysterical marker 88 hystericky 377

I I ain’t a-hurting . . . 378 I ain’t much of . . . 378 I ain’t never done . . . 378 I be dawg 89 Ibo-shin 89 I bought his thumb 247 ice 735 icebound 247 icebox 639 ice-cream shot 247 ice cream social 504 ice-cream supper 89 ice storm 247 Ichabod 247 icky 639 ID 639 Idaho 504 Idaho baked potato 639 Idaho brainstorm 504 I’d druther 378 idear 247, 639 I declare! 89 I declare to goodness! 89 idee 247 I didn’t go to do it 89 idiolects 753 idjit 378 idlesome 378 Idlewild 639 idn’t 89 I do believe! 89 I done it 378 I don’t care to . . . 378 I don’t chaw my terbacker . . . 378 I don’t chaw my tobacco . . . 89 I don’t know him from . . . 89 I’d sooner sleep . . . 378 I’d take it kindly 378 I’d tell a man 89 idy 89, 378 if 89, 639 iffen 378 if his IQ skips any lower . . . 504 if I can’t dance . . . 639 if ignorance ever goes . . . 504 if I had my druthers 504 if I had my rathers 378 if it harelips the South 89 ifn 89 if so be 89 if that don’t beat all 89 “If We Must Die” 639 if wishes were horseflesh . . . 89 if you ain’t the lead . . . 504 if you can make it . . . 639 if you can’t do the . . . 639 if you can’t listen . . . 89 if you don’t like . . . 504 if you don’t like the weather . . . 247

773

if you’ll pardon . . . 639 if you’re a mind 247 if you’ve got a rooster . . . 89 I generally surround it 378 I god 504 I-God! 378 I Godfrey! 90 I gonnies! 378 I guess 247 I guide 247 I have seen the . . . 639 I just ate chagrin 247 il dit 90 il est bon heur 90 I (letter) 247 ill, 378, 504 ill as a hornet 90 I’ll be a turkey’s . . . 640 I’ll be blowed! 247 I’ll be bound 90 I’ll be buggered! 247 I’ll be danged! 247 I’ll be dinged 90 I’ll be dinged! 248 I’ll be dogged! 378 I’ll be jiggered! 248 I’ll be there . . . 504 I’ll be vummed! 248 I’ll bust yer haslet out! 248 I’ll declare 378 I’ll drink all the blood . . . 90 I’ll eat the goose . . . 378 I’ll give you a box . . . 90 Illinois Baboon 90 ill news flies fast 248 I’ll shoot through the . . . 505 I’ll take the longboat . . . 248 I’ll tell you why . . . 378 I loved the sweat . . . 378 I’m a curly-tailed wolf . . . 379 Ima Hogg 90, 505 I make die dead 707 I may not be a cowboy, . . . 505 I’m doing nicely 248 I’m from Missouri 90 I’m gonna make him . . . 640 I’m here to tell you 505 I might would 505 immigrant 505 immigrant cattle 505 Imperial Wizard 90 impotent 90 improved 248 improvement 248 impsonite 505 I’m shootin’ you . . . 505 I’m so made I could . . . 90 I’m tellin’ you right 379 in 505 in . . . 90 in a bit of a tight 248 in a dither 90 in a great while 90 in a hole 505 in a manner 90 in a New York minute 640 in a pucker 248 in a sull 90 in a swivet 91 in a terrible wacket 248 in a tickle 248 in a tight 505

774

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN REGIONALISMS

in cahoots with 505 incense cedar 505 in course 91 indeed an in-double-deed 379 Independence Rock 505 Indian 248, 505 Indian agent 505 Indian barn 248 Indian Bible 248 Indian bread 505 Indian breadroot 505 Indian-broke 505 Indian burn 640 Indian corn 248 Indian country 506 Indian dog 248 Indian fungus 506 Indian giver 506 Indian-named places 248 Indian paintbrush 506 Indian post office 506 Indian saddle 506 Indians don’t count 506 Indian territory 506 Indian-up 506 Indian warrior 506 Indian whiskey 506 Indiany 248 indigo planter 91 I never shot a man . . . 506 infair 91 infamita 640 infare 379 infattago 640 in good case 248 in good heart 379 inheaven 248 Injun 248, 506 injun bannock 248 inkle 379 inkslinger 506 inna 248 innards 248 innarupted 640 innernational 506 in one’s country 91 in one’s naked bed 248 in primlico order 249 in reason 91, 379 insides 91 instead 249 intend for 91 inter 249 interestin’ 249 intervale 249 in Texas the cattle . . . 506 in the boot 506 in the Cape Ann stage 249 in the gales 379 in the ground 91 in the name of the Great . . . 249 in the seeds 249 in the wood 249 in time 379 intiment 640 intimidatore 640 into 249 Invisible Empire 91 in your hat 640 I only regret that . . . 640 ipo 707 Ipswitch sparrow 249 I really appreciate . . . 640 Irish fight 640 Irish tea 640 Irishtown 640 Irish turkey 249, 640

irk 379 ironclad oath 91 Iron Horse 640 iron in your barrel 506 iron men and wooden ships 249 irregardless 249 irrepressible 91 irrepressible conflict 91 irrigation 506 is 91 isabel 379 is all, 91, 506 I say it’s spinach . . . 640 I’se 91 ish kabibble 641 I should have such luck 641 I should worry 641 I shudda stood in bed . . . 641 island cotton 91 Isleboro 249 islet 91 I snum! 249 istle 506 I swan! 249 I swear on my . . . 641 it 91 I-talian, 91, 507 Italian Geography 641 Italian ice 641 Italian pepper 641 Italian sandwich 249, 641 itch 641 it doesn’t go on . . . 641 it’s a comin’ up a cloud 91 it’s a poor back that . . . 249 it’s as thick as marsh mud 249 It’s gettin’ a bit . . . 507 it’s going to give . . . 735 it shouldn’t happen to . . . 641 it’s how you played . . . 641 it sounds to me! 507 it’s some hot today 249 it’s such a fur piece . . . 507 it takes a voyage to learn 249 it will make down . . . 735 it wonders me 735 I vow! 91 I vowny! 249 I vum! 249 ivy 250 Ivy League 250 I want out 735 I want to know! 250 I wish I had a neck . . . 250

J jabon 708 jabronie 642 jacal 508 jack 92, 251 jackalope 508 jackaroo 508 Jackass Gulf 508 jackass mail 508 jackass rabbit 508 jacket 508 jackleg 92 jack Mormons 508 jackrabbit 508 Jack Robinson 642 Jackson Day 92 Jacksoniana 92 jag 251, 380, 508

jailhouse fish 380 jake 92 jake leg 92, 380 jakes 508 jakey 380 jalapeño 508 jalettum 642 jam 251 jambalaya 92 James River 92 Jamestown lily 92 jam it 92 jamoka 508 jam-rock 380 jam up 92 janders 380, 508 jape 380 jarfly 92 jar fly 380 jarhead 92 jaw 508 “Jawbone” 92 jaw cracker 509 jawing 509 jay 509 jaybird 92 Jayhawker State 509 jazz 92 jazz up 93 jedge 380 jeeroosely 251 jeet 642 jeez! 642 jeezly cold 251 jeezly-crow 251 Jeff Davis . . . 93 Jefferson 509 Jefferson Davis 93 Jefferson Day 93 Jeffersonian simplicity 93 Jefferson Territory 93 Jeffrey pine 509 jelly 93 jemison 380 Jenny-Johnny 93 jerk around 642 jerk one baldheaded 509 jerkwater town 509 jerky 509 Jerusalem cherry 251 Jerusalem crickets! 251 jessamine 509 Jesse James, a 509 jessie 93 jest 251 Jesus, Mary and Joseph! 642 Jesus H. Christ! 642 Jesus to Jesus . . . 251 jever? 642 Jewel of Cities 642 Jewish penicillin 642 Jewish pickles 642 jewlarky 93 jibble up 380 jicama 509 Jicarilla 509 jig 93, 380 jigger 93, 509 Jih-drool 642 jill-flirt 380 jillikens 380 Jill-o’er the ground 251 jill-poke 251 Jim Crow 93 Jim-Dandy 642 Jim Hill mustard 509 jim-kay 380 jimmey 380 jimmies 251 jimmy jawed 380 jimplicute 380 jimpsecute 509

Jim-slicker 251 jimsonweed 93 jimswinger 94 Jim Whittiker! 251 jine 94 jined 380 jingleberries 381 jingle bob 509 jingler 510 jingle your spurs! 510 jint 94 jist 94, 381 jist a little piece 381 jittery as a bird . . . 510 jive-ass 643 jizzicked 251 jizzywitch 94 job 94 job of work 381 joe 381 Joe boat 94 Joe Booker 251 Joe Brown’s pets 94 Joe-darter 94 joe-darter 381 Joe Echo 643 Joe Frogger 252 Joe-Pye weed 252 John 643 john 510 John B. 510 John Brown 94 John Brown pike 94 John Henry 510 John Law 510 johnnycake 252 johnny house 94 johnny-jug 94 Johnny Navajo 510 Johnny on a pony 643 Johnny Reb 94 johnny-walkers 94 John R. Braden, a 252 Johnston Smith 643 John Wesley Hardin, a 510 John Yankee 252 join the great majority 252 Joisy 643 jo-jeezly 252 jojoba 510 jokey 381 jolly 252 Joltin’ Joe 643 jolt-wagon 381 Jonathan 252 jonifumbubs 735 jonny-cake 252 joogled up 94 Joosh 643 joree 94 joree bird 381 jornada 510 jorum 252 josh 94 Joshua tree 510 joual 252 jower 94, 381 joy o’ the mountain 381 juba 381 juba dance 94 juberous 94 jucket 252 Judas eye 510 Judas Priest 252 Judas steer 510 judge 94, 381, 510 Judge Colt 510 judge of the plains 510 jughead 94, 510 juhhirmee 643 juice, 381, 510 juice ain’t worth, the . . . , 94, 510

juice man 643 jujubes 643 juke 643 jukebox 94 jularker 95 jumping alligator 95 jumping around like . . . 253 jumping bean 510 jumping cactus 510 jumpin’ gehosephatt! 253 jumping jings! 253 jump the broom with 381 jump up dust 510 jumpy as a pregnant . . . 381 junction 253 Juneteenth 510 junk 253 just a hoot . . . 95 just as good 95 just a small, puny . . . 381 just got a bound to 381 Justins 510 just staggerin’ around 253

K kachina doll 511 kaffir corn 96 kah! 96 Kaintuck 96 kala mai ia’u 709 kamaiina 709 kanaka 709 Kancamagus 254 kane 709 kangaroo court 511 kangaroo rat 511 kapu 709 katouse 254 Katy, the 511 Katy-bar-the-door 511 katynipper 382 kaus 709 kaybecker 254 kea 709 kedge 254 kedgeree 254 kedidoes 254 kedreck 737 keeab 644 keel 511 keeled up 254 keep 254 keep an eye to windward 254 keep close to . . . 382 keepers 644 keeping room 254 keeping up with the Joneses 644 keeping vegetables 254 keep it under your . . . 511 keeps 254 keep the paint off 737 keep up 96 keep your britches on 96 keep your dobbers up 382 keep your eyes . . . 511 keep your nose out of . . . 644 keep your tail . . . 382 keep your word . . . 511 keer 382 Keezer’s ghost! 254 Kelly’s 511 kelp 254 kenn 737 Kennebecker 254 Kennebec turkey 254

Kennedy 644 Kentucky ark 96 Kentucky . . . 96 Kentucky rifle 96, 382 Kentucky right turn, 96, 382 Kentucky screamer 97, 382 Kentucky windage 97, 382 Kentucky yell 97, 382 kept his private graveyard 511 kerflommixed 737 kerflummix 97 kernel 97 kershaw 511 ketch 97, 255, 382 ketch dog 512 ketched 382 ketch hound 97 ketchy weather 382 kever 737 Key lime pie 97 Key West 97 kibei 709 kick 97 kick and stram 255 kicked into a . . . 512 kicked to death by cripples 255 kicker 512 kicking the dashboard 255 kicking the jackrabbits . . . 512 kick like a bay steer 512 kick the cat 97, 382 kid-glove orange 97 kielbasa 644 kilfliggin 382 kill-devil 255, 382 kill-fighter 512 killhag 255 killick 255 kill one’s neck 709 kill your own snakes 382 Kilroy was here 255 kilt 97, 383, 512 kilted 383 kin 97 kinder 255 kinder sorter 255 kindling wood wagon 255 kindly 383 kindly noisy 512 kinfolks 383 King 97 King Cotton 97 King King 644 King Kleagle 97 King Ranch 512 king salmon 512 Kings county 644 king’s cure-all 97 king’s ex 512 king’s ex (excuse) 97 king’s gifts 97 King’s man 644 King’s Mountain Day, 97, 383 king snake 97 kinry 97 kin to 97 Kiowa 512 kishkas 644 kissing cousins 97 kissin’ wears out . . . 737 kiss my back cheeks 255 Kiss my grits 97 kiss the canvas 644 kiss the ground 512 kitchen closet 255

INDEX kitchen-settin’ weather 383 kit fox 512 kittencornered 255 kittens 255 kiver 97, 383 kivered cars 383 kivy 255 ki-yi 512 kiyoodle 97 K.K.K. (KKK) 98 klutz 644 knee-deep in summer 383 knee-high to a . . . 383 knee-high to a scupper 255 kneewalkin’ drunk 98 Knickerbocker Rules 645 Knight of the Ku Klux Klan 98 Knights of the Golden Circle 98 Knights of the Invisible Empire 98 Knights of the White Camellia 98 knitting pain 383 knoatching und . . . 737 knockabout 255 knock along 98 knock cat-west 98 knockdown 645 k’nocker 645 knockers 383 knock galley-west 255 knock out 98 knowance 383 knowed 98, 256, 383 know from nothing 645 know how to die . . . 512 knowings 383 know in reason 383 know one’s cans 512 knows 98 kof 256 koku 709 kola 709 koos 737 koosy 383 kosher 645 kreplach 645 kretty 737 krottle 737 krotz 737 krummkake 512 kub 256 kuduh 645 kugel 645 Ku Klux Klan 98 kvetch 645 kyat 256

L L 99 “L” (architectural term) 257 lab 710 la bas 99 laborin’ oar 257 labrador tea 257 lace-curtain Irish 257 lace curtains 257 ladderide 646 Ladies’ Mile 646 ladies of the line 513 Ladies Walk 257 ladrone 513 ladybird 99 Lafayette 646 lagniappe 99 laid off 384 laid out 513 Lake Webster 257 lalock 257

Lamanite 513 lamb 257, 646 lamp-lifting time 384 land! 257 landgrave 99 land in a shallow grave 513 land o’ cotton 99 Land of Abstractions 99 Land of Baked Bean 257 Land of Blood, 99, 384 land-office business 513 Land of Flowers 99 Land of Gold 513 Land of Johnnycake 257 Land of Legree 99 Land of Lumber 257 Land of Magnolias 99 Land of Perpetual Youth 99 Land of Pork and Beans 257 Land of Promise 513 Land of Punkins 257 Land of Red Apples 513 Land of Setting Sun 513 Land of Silver 513 Land of Steady Habits 257 Land of the Golden Hills 513 Land of the Honeybee 513 Land of the Redwoods 513 Land of the Sky 99, 384 Land of the Webfeet 513 Land of the Wooden Nutmegs 258 land pike 99 lands 513 land sakes alive! 258 landshark 258 Languid Cape, the 258 lani 710 lap 384 lapboard 513 Lapland rosebay 258 lap tea 258 la raza 514 lard eaters 258 large 646 large as life 258 lariat 514 larrigan 258 larripin’ good 384 larrup 514 larrupin’ 514 larruping 258 larrupin’ truck 99 lashings and lavins 384 ’lasses 384 lasso 514 last rose of summer 258 lasty 384 later 258 Late Unpleasantness, The 99 lath-open bread 384 latigo 514 Latino 646 latitudes of lovely langour (the) 99 latke 646 laundress 258 laurel 99 laurely 384 lavalava 710 laverick 514 lavish 99, 384 law 99, 514 Law, I reckon! 384 law and order 258 law-and-order 514 lawdog 514

Lawdy Mussy! 100 lawed 384 lawing 514 law is off, the 258 Law me! 384 law of the prairie 514 law sakes alive 258 Laws a mercy! 384 Lawson’s cyprus 514 lawsy! 258 law wrangler 514 lawyer with his briefcase . . . 646 lay 258 lay around the house . . . 100 lay away 258 lay back 384 lay by 100 lay by! 258 laydown Sally 646 laying-by-time 100 laying fence-worm 514 laying the worm 384 layin’ off 385 lay it to 100 laylock 385 lay off 100, 258 lay on the romance 646 lay out 514 layout 514 layover to catch . . . 385 lay (put) on the cooling board 100 lay the dust 514 lay up 100 lazy 514 lazy dog 258 l’chayim 646 leader 100 lead-pipe cinch 514 league 514 leaky mouth 514 lean 100 lean, mean hombre 514 lean toward Jesus 385 learn 100 lease 646 least 385 least one 100 leastways 100, 385 leather 646 leather breeches 385 leather it 515 leather pounder 515 leather slapper 515 leave 100, 646, 738 leave flat 647 Leaves of Grass 647 leave the reservation 515 leavin’ Cheyenne 515 leddich 738 Lee’s Miserables 100 leetle 100 leewardly 259 left an orphan at . . . 100 left holding the bag 259 leftment 385 left out 385 left settin’ on air . . . 515 left tit 647 leg 515 leg down with 100 leg knife 515 legner 738 leg stretcher 259 lei 710 lemita 515 lemmeawf 647 Lemon Fair River 259 lemon man 647 Leominster 259 Leo the Lip 647 lepero 515

leppy 515 lept 100 les oreilles de cochon 100 less, 100, 385, 515 let go 385 let her rip 515 let on 259 let’s see your color 515 let’s slip out of these . . . 647 let’s talk turkey 259 letter carrier 515 levee 100 level down on 100 Levis 515 Lex 647 lezgehgohen 647 liar’s bench 259 liberty tea 259 liberty tree 259 license 385 lick, 100, 515 lickblock 100 licker 385 lickety-brindle 515 lickety larrup 259 lickety split 259 lickety whittle 259 lickety-whoop 385 licking good 259 lick-log 100 lids 385 lie 100 Lie-all League 100 lief 101, 259, 385 lie like a tombstone 259 lie tale 385 life 647 life does get daily 101 life-everlasting 259 life is just . . . 647 life-of-man 260 life’s a twisting stream 515 lifted 260 lift the hair 515 light 101, 385, 515 light and shut 260 light a rag 385, 515 light a shuck 385, 515 light bread 101 light-bread 385 lighterd knots 101 light in 101 lightning bug 385 lightning wood 101 light out 101, 516 light out like a . . . 385 light pie 260 lights 101 lightwood 101 like 260, 385, 647 like a cat in . . . 260 like a chicken-eating . . . 101 like a house on fire 516 like a kerosened cat 516 like all get out 260 like all possessed 260 like a sick kitten . . . 101 like a steer, I can try 516 like a thousand of bricks 260 like Barney’s brig 260 like climbin’ a ground . . . 385 like diarrhea through a duck 260 like eatin’ pie 260 like for 101, 385 like Grand Central . . . 647 like haulin’ hog . . . 260

like in Macy’s window 647 likely 385 like poundin’ sand . . . 385 like salts through a goose 260 like the devil . . . 516 like the mill tail o’ thunder 260 like to 101 like trying to find . . . 101 like wildfire . . . 101 likewise 647 Likker’ll make you . . . 101 lilac 260 limande 260 limb 260, 385 limber pine 516 limb out 260 limping Susan 101 limpsy 260 limp-to-quaddle 261 limsy 261 Lincoln Brotherhood 101 Lincoln coffee 101 Lincoln flag 101 Lincolnite 101 Lincoln navy 101 Lincoln skins 101 Lincoln spy 101 line, 516, 647 line out 385 line rider 516 lines 385 line storm 261 lingo 516 linguister 261, 385 lint-head 101 the li-on is busy 647 Lion of the West 516 lip 102 lippin’ 516 lippy 738 lissina 647 lit a shuck 102 Literary Emporium, the 261 literary school 385 Literary Walk 647 little 516 Little Alec 102 Little bitty 102 little bitty 516 Little Christmas 648 little cow-and-calf deal 516 Little Flower 648 little girls’ room 648 little lady Haley, a 261 little million 261 little miss 102 little mite 261 Little Odessa 648 little old 102, 516 Little Rhody 261 little skeezicks 261 Little Sure Shot 516 live along with 102 live dictionary 516 lived over it 386 lived with the world 386 live free or die 261 live oak 516 live on what a hungry coyote . . . 516 liver and lights 261 livestock 102 livestock king 516 living on the lucky . . . 102 L.L. Bean 261 llano 516

775

lluvia de oro 516 Lo 516 load of cork-stopples 261 loafer 517 Loafer’s Hall 102 loaned 261 lobbered milk 261 lobberheaded 102 lobbich 738 loblolly 102 lobo 517 lobscouse 261 Lobster Capital of the World, the 231 lobster glop 261 lobster roll 648 Lobster Scoundrel 261 locker 102 lockers 648 lock horns 261 loco 517 locoed 517 locoweed 517 locust 517 lodgepole pine 517 lofer 517 loft 102 loganberry 517 logrolling 517 loin 648 lollygag 262 lolo 710 loma 517 London English 5 Lone Ranger, the 517 lonesome 386 lonesome water 386 Lone Star 518 lone star flag 102 Lone Star State 102, 518 long country 518 long drink of water 262 longer’n the moral law 262 longer than a hard winter 262 longer than a wet week 262 long ever ago 386 longful while 262 long green 102 long handles 386 long hunters 102 long-jawed 262 long knife 518 long lick 262 long longer’n 518 long of 262 long ones 262 long potato 386 long rider 518 long sauce 262 long shot with . . . 386 long socks 518 long sugar 102 long sweetening 262, 386 long sweetnin’ 102 long syphilis 518 long-tailed blue 102 Long Tom 518 long-tongue 386 longways 262 looby 386 lookahere 386 look-a-here 102, 262 look-a-hush 102 lookathere 518 looked as if . . . 262 looked up like a flash 102 lookey 518 look good in, to . . . 738

776

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN REGIONALISMS

looking for salt pork . . . 262 looking-glass prairie 518 looking porely 386 look like 12 miles . . . 518 look-see 710 looks like he dove off . . . 518 look without let 102 looky there 518 looloo 518 Loooo . . . 648 loose as a goose 386 loose the herd 518 loose-titted prostitute . . . 102 loost 103 loppered milk 262 Lord-a mercy! 103 Lord-God 103 Lord help my time! 386 lord of the jaybirds 103 Lord’s eye on it 386 Los Angeles 518 losel 386 lose one’s britches 103 losing one’s lunch 103 los muertos no hablan 518 lost bread 103 Lost Cause 103 lot on 262 lot upon 262 loud 386 Lou Gehrig’s disease 648 Louisiana bit 103 Louisiana flag 103 louse around 386 lousy with 518 love apple 386 love bubbles 103 love-car 262 love-cracked 262 love-hole 386 low 103, 386 low and little with it 386 low blood 103 low cotton 103 low-downer 103 Lowell 262 lower’n doodle-bug 103 lower than whale shit 262 lowlands 386 low man 103 low-neck clothes 518 low quarters 103 low-rate 103, 386 low wine 386 lox 648 luau 710 lub 103 lubber 518 Lubberland 262 lucivee 262 luck 103 lucky dab 518 “Lucy Long” 103 lug 518 lug along 263 lull down 263 Lum 103 lumbago 263 Lumber State 263 luminaries 518 lumper’s helper 263 lumpus 263, 386 lumpy jaw 519 luna 710 lunger 519 lung fever 519 Lunk Guylin 648 lunkhead 519 lusty 386

Lyme disease 263 lynch 103

M ma’am 520 machete 520 machine 104, 739 machine politics 649 mackerel gull 264 mackerel hawk 264 mackerel sky 264 maclura 520 macock 104 mad 104, 264 madam 104 mad as a hopper 264 mad as all get-out 387 mad as hops 520 madder ’n a wet hen 387 madder’n snakes . . . 264 mad-doctor 387 made 649 made a nine in his tail 520 Madre de Dios! 520 Madonna! 649 made out to . . . , he (she) 734 Mad Poet of Broadway 649 madrina 520 maff 649 Mafia 649 Magnolia City 104 Magnolia State 104 maguey 520 mah 387 mahalo 711 Mahershallalhashbaz 264 mahn 264 mahogany tree 104 Mahonia 520 mahosker 649 Maiden Lane 649 mai ka’i no 711 mail rider 520 mails 711 main big 387 Maine 264 Maine black fly 264 Maine hunting shoe 264 Maine molasses doughnuts 264 Mainer 265 main holt (hold) 387 Mainiacs 265 Mainite 265 main man 650 main strength 104 mais 104 mais non! 104 makai 711 make 104, 387, 739 make a blue fist of 104 make a branch 387 make a bulba 650 make accustomed 104 make a crop 104 make a die of it 104 make a fancy 387 make a goose-run 265 make a great splather . . . 265 make an outfit a hand 520 make a touse 265 make book on it 650 make it up 104 make like 104, 650 make long arms 265 make nice 650 make of 265 make one’s bones 650

make one’s manners 104 make out 105, 265, 650 make out like 520 make out your supper 105 makes me so mad . . . 105 make soft 711 make the fire finish 739 make the riffle 105, 520 make the window shut 739 make things hum 265 make tracks 520 make whoopee 650 make with 650 make yourself pleasant 387 make yourself to home 520 making 387 making down hard 739 making land 265 making up to 265 makin’ horse-hair bridles 520 makin’ more noise than . . . 387 makin’s 520 malahack 265 malahimi 711 male brute 387 male-child 387 male cow 105 male hog 105 mallyhack 387 malpais 521 Maluhay! 711 mam 105 mama-san 711 mamelle 521 mamma 105 mammy 105 Man Above 105 mañana 521 Manassas 105 man at the pot! 521 man-cow 265 man-fever 105 man for breakfast 521 mangana 521 man-hands 650 Manhattan 650 Manhattan clam chowder 650 Manhattan cocktail 650 Manhattan eel 650 Manhattanization 650 Manhattan Project 651 Manhattan schist 651 man horse 105 Manifest Destiny 521 manine-looking 711 mannerable 105, 387 manniporchia 105 man of respect 651 Man of Sumter 105 man-person 387 manpower 387 mantilly 265 manu 711 manuahi man 711 The Man Who Came to . . . 651 man with a belly 651 man works from sun . . . 265 many a time 387 Maple 739 maple bar 521 maple-headed 388 maple honey 265 maple sugar 265 maquiladora city 521 marais 105 March meeting 265

march of soldiers 265 Mardi Gras 105, 651 marickaedich 739 maricón 651 marijuana 521 markin 521 Mark Twain 521 Mark Twain! 105 Marlboro man 521 maroon 105 marr 105 marrying close to home 388 marry together 105 marry up 388 marshal 521 marster 105 Martha’s Vineyard 265 martin storm 388 marvels 388 Mary had a little . . . 266 Marylander 106 mash, 106, 522 mashed flatter than . . . 106 massa 106 Massachusetts 266 Massachusetts game, the 266 Massachusettsian 266 mast 388 master 266, 388 master chilly 266 master onset 388 Mast pine 266 mate 739 mater 388 mate up with 106 matilija poppy 522 matterating 266 matto wacca 266 Matt Peasley, a 266 matzo 651 matzo ball 651 matzo brei 651 mauka 711 maul oak 522 maven 651 maverick 522 maw 388 may 388 May breakfast 266 may can 522 Mayflower American 266 Mayflower Compact 266 may you always ride . . . 522 may you never get . . . 522 may your friends be . . . 739 mazel 651 mazel tov 590, 651 mazuma 651 McCarthy 520 McGurk’s Suicide Hall 651 me 106, 266 meadow 522 meadow dressing 267 mealin’ 267 me-all 106 mean 106, 267 mean as . . . 522 mean as a skunk 106 mean as garbroth 388 mean enough to . . . 267, 522 meaner’n tripe 267 meaner than a junkyard . . . 106 meaner than goose grease 267

mean old hound dog that . . . 106 mean to don’t pick . . . 106 mean woman 267 Mearn’s coyote 522 measly old smidgen 388 measly-weight 106 meat 388, 711 meat in the pot 522 meat pie 267 mebbe 267, 739 mechanical and artistic . . . 267 meddle and make 267 medicine 522 medicine arrow 522 medicine bag 522 medicine man 522 medicine show 522 medicine wolf 522 medico 522 medium strip 106 medrick 267 meech 267 meeching 522 meennuh 651 meetin’ 388 meeting 267 meeting house 267 meeting seed 267 meet me between the . . . 651 meet-up 267 meet up with 106 meet with the rubbers 267 mehbe 267 melanzana 651 Mele Kalilimaka 711 mellered 267 Melungeon 388 me-ma 522 memorize 388 mend the fire 388 menehune 711 menfolks 388 men-folks 106 menhaden 267 Mennonites 739 menorah 651 mens 106 men seldom make passes . . . 652 menses 106 men with beards 267 mercy no! 268 merlan 268 merluche 268 Merrimac 268 merry-go-round in . . . 522 mesa 523 mescal 523 mescal button 523 Mescalero 523 meshuga 652 meshugana 652 meskin 523 Mesmeriser Creek 523 mesquite 523 mess 106, 388 Messiah craze 523 mess of salet 106 mestizo 523 Met 652 methinglum 388 metis 523 Mets theory 652 Mex 523 Mexican breakfast 523 Mexican hog 523 Mexican peak 523 Mexican promotion 523 Mexicans standoff 523

Mexicans strawberries 523 mezuzah 652 miching 268 Mick 652 mickety tuck 388 mickey 652 middle-day 106 middlesex 268 middling 106 midlin meat 388 midnight ride of Paul Revere, the 268 miggid 270 might can 523 might could 106, 388, 523 might near to 107 might nice on you 107 might nigh 107 might right 107 might shouting right 107 might would 107, 523 mighty 107, 388 mighty come a-shouting’ 107 mighty small potatoes . . . 268 miglet 268 mikal 107 Mike Fink, a 523 Milan 268 milden 268 mile 107 mile wide, a foot 523 milkshake 268 Milk Street 268 mill 523 milling 523 million-footed Manhattan 652 millionist 268 mimic 388 Mimphis 107 mincy 388 mind, 107, 268, 388 mind off 107 mind of the time 739 mind your orts 268 miners’ court 523 minge 268 mingo 268 Mini‚ rifle 523 Minister’s Rib Factory, the 268 minner 388 minners 107 minnim 268 minor 107 minorest 107 mint julip 107 minyan 652 mirate 107 miration 388 miscegenation 107 mischiefs 107 mischt 739 misdoubt 388 miserable 107 misery 107, 388 miseryn’ 388 mish-mosh 652 mislick 107 misling 388 misorderly 389 misput 388 misremember 388 miss 107 Miss Astor 652 Miss Elizabeth 107 Missippi 107 missis 107 Mississippi 108 Mississippi . . . 108 Miss Lizzie Tish 652 Missouri 108, 389

INDEX Missouri toothpick 108 missus 107 missy 108 Mr. Charlie 108 mistis 108 mistook 389 mistook identity 524 mistress 389 misuse 108 mite 108, 268 mite of a body 268 mite of trouble 108 Miz 108, 524 mizzle 389 mizzling 108 moaningestfullest 389 Moby Dick 268 mockbird 269 mockernut 269 Mockingbird State 108 modesty songs 389 moemoe 711 moger 269 mohuh 269 moider 652 mokeu 711 moku 711 mold warp 389 moll buzzer 652 mollyhawk 269 mollyjoggers 389 mom-and-pop store 652 mommick 389 mommocked up 108 momzer 652 monadnock 269 money cat 269 money talks 653 monkey-in-the-middle 653 monkey nigger 108 monkey skull 524 monkey-stove 389 Monkey Ward cowboy 524 monkey wrench 269 Montana 524 Montana feathers 524 Montana peak 524 Montany 524 monte 524 Montpelier biscuits 269 moodie 108 Moola 524 moom pickcha 653 mooncussers 269 moondown 109 moonglade 269 moon hoax 653 moon pie 109 moonrise 389 moonshine 109, 389 moonshine wars 389 Moravians 739 mordido 524 more 109, 389 more airs than a . . . 269 more better 109, 653, 711 more grog shops than . . . 269 more guts than . . . 524 more luck than . . . 524 more’n common stupid 269 more pretty 389 more rain 109 morey 270 Morgan horse 270 Mormon 524 Mormon City 524 Mormon tea 524 mornglom 109, 389 Morocco shop 270 morral 524 mort 389

mortal 270 mortal sight o’ 270 mortgage-raiser 109 mosey 109, 524 mosquito hawk 109 mossback 109 most 270 mostest 109 motel 524 Mother Hubbard sling 270 mother lode 524 mother naked 389 Mother of Commonwealths 109 Mother of Presidents 109 Mother of States 109, 270 mother wit 389 mott(e) 524 mought 109, 389 moules 270 mountain antelope 525 mountain boomer 389 mountain dew 389 mountaineer 389 mountain grill 390 mountain hoojy 390 mountain ivy 390 mountain lion 525 mountain man 525 mountain time 525 Mount Bote 390 Mount Desert 270 Mount Katahdin 270 Mount Kephart 390 Mount Vernon 109 mourning cloth 390 mouse bush 390 mouse gun 653 mouse in the meal 390 mouser 653 mout 390 mout’ 653 mouth organ 109 mouthy 525 move like a toad . . . 270 mover 525 moves like dead lice . . . 109 mow 270 Moxie 270 mozo 525 Mr. Charlie 652 Mr. John 524 Mr. Lincoln’s War 108 Mr. Man 268 Mrs. Astor’s pet . . . 652 m’sieu 109 much 390, 525, 711 mucha 109 muchacho 525 mucher 390 much oblige 109 much of a man 270, 390 mucker 525 muckle 270 muda grass 109 mudcat 109 Mudcat State 109 muddah 653 muddy enough to bog . . . 109 mud hen 525 mud lump 109 mud season 270 mudsill 110 mud time 270 mudworm 270 muertos no hablan, los 518 muffin 653 muffle jaw 525 mug 525, 653 muggs 271

mug up 271 mulberry mania 271 mule deer 525 mule-ears 525 mule skinner 525 muley 110, 525 mulligrubs 390 mumble peg 110 mummichog 271 mumser 653 Murder, Inc. 653 Murfreesboro 110 muscle 390, 654 mush 525 music 390 musical 271 musicker 390 muslim toast 271 muss 110 mussel chowder 271 mussy 110 Mustache Pete 654 mustang 525 mustang cattle 525 Mustang Colt 525 mustang court 525 mustanger 525 mustang grapes 525 mustarded coffee 271 mutt 525 mutton corn 110 mutual admiration society 271 muumuu 711 muver 654 mux 271 my 110 my care! 271 my heavenly day! 110 my mama didn’t raise . . . 110 my man 390 my off is on 739 my ownself 525 my woman 390

N nachurally 526 Nahant 272 nahrr’ 391 nail the coonskin . . . 526 nail to the counter 272 nairn 111 nairy 526 nairy a one 526 naked as a . . . 111 name 391 nani 712 nanny-plum tea 272 nanny tea 391 Nantucket 272 Nantucketer 272 Nantucketism 272 Nantucket owls 272 Nantucket sleigh-ride 272 naow 272 nap o’ sleep 391 Narragansett 272 Narragansett draft 272 narrow-asted 111 narrow at the equator 526 narrow-contracted 272 narsty 272 narvish 391 nary 111, 272, 391 nary’n 391 nary-nary 391 nary red 111 nasalization (New England) 168 nash 272 nasty, 273, 391 nasty-neat 273

Natchez Trace 111 nation 391, 526 nation! 273 national bird of Texas 526 Native American 526 native beef 273 native corn 273 nat’ral how d’ye do 273 natural 391 natural sorry 111 natural turn 273 nature 111 Navajo 526 Naw’lins 111 nawthin 273 near 273 nearabout 111 near about 391 nearer the bone, the . . . 526 near’t 391 nebber 111 nebbish 655 Nebraska 526 necessary 273 neck, I wish I had a 250 neckid 391 neck oil 526 necktie party 526 neck twister 273 needcessity 111 needful 111 need it like a hole, I . . . 640 needle 391 needments 391 negatives 391 Negrah 111 Negro English 111 Negro plot 655 Negro quarter 111 nehkid 527 neighbor with 391 neither hide nor hair 527 nekkid, 111, 273 Nelly Bly 655 nene 712 nervous as a rat 273 nerz 655 nester 527 nestes 391 netop 273 neutral ground 111 Nevada 527 neveh 655 never grab with . . . 273 never hit a lick 111 nevermind 527 nevermore 112 I never shot a man . . . 506 neversomeless 112 never stand when . . . 527 never-sweat 527 never turned a tap 112 New Amsterdam 655 New Connecticut 273 New England 273 New England . . . 273–74 New Englandish 274 New Englandism 274 New England short o 274 New English 274 new ground 112 New Hampshire 274 New Hampshire screwdriver 274 New Jessey 655 New Mexico 527 New Orleanian 112 New Orleans . . . 112

new potatoes 655 news 655 New School for Social Research 655 New York 656 New York alligators 656 New York blister 656 New York City buffalo hunt 656 New York City Marathon 656 New York City’s Finest 656 New York County 656 New York Daily News 656 New Yorker 656 New Yorkese 587–593 New York Evening Post 656 New York game 656 New York Gazette 656 New York Giants 657 New Yorkitis 657 New York kiss-off 657 New York minute 657 New York minute, in a 640 New York Shitty 657 New York steak 657 New York Stock Exchange 657 New York system 657 New York Times 657 New York University 657 Nez Percé‚ 527 nice guys finish last 657 nick 112, 527 nickel 112 nickel a shtickl 657 nickel curve 657 nickel-plated 527 Nickel Series 657 nig 112 nigger 112, 527 nigger baby 112 niggerly 112 nigger out 112 Niggra 112 nigh 274, 391 nighcut 391 nigh horse 527 nighthawk 527 night-herding 527 night horse 527 night mail 274 night mare 527 night on to 112 night rider 112 nimble Will 527 niminy piminy 274 nimshy 274 nine 657 nine months winter and . . . 274 ninepence 274 ninny 112 nip and tuck 527 nippers 274 niu 712 nixnootzich 740 Noah’s boy with Murphy . . . 658 Noah’s brig 658 no beans in the wheel 527 no bigger’n . . . 274 no bigger’n a pint . . . 274 no bigger than . . . 527 nobody but nobody . . . 658 nobody’s never spied . . . 392 no breakfast 274

777

no breakfast; no supper 274 nocake 275 no can 712 no-count 112 no earthly good 275 no game, plenty of beef . . . 528 noggin 275 no-goodnik 658 no great kill or cure 275 no great of 275 no ham and all hominy 112 nohow 112, 392 no how 528 no huhu! 712 noise 275 noise tool 528 Noisette rose 112 noive 658 No Man’s Land 275 nome 112 no more chance than . . . 113 no more heat in the . . . 275 no more shame than . . . 113 no-nation 275 non compos mentis . . . 113 none 113 none of one’s funeral 528 none-so-pretties 528 nonpariel 528 noodle 392, 740 nookich 740 nookleeuh 658 noon 113, 528 no one knows the luck . . . 528 nooning 275 nopal 528 no pau yet! 712 no pilika 712 no problem 658 norate 392 norated around 392 nor-easter 275 nor more use for them . . . 275 norse 740 Norskie 528 North Carolina Yankee 113 North Caroliny 392 North Dakota 528 norther 528 northern fox grape 275 North River 658 North (South) Carolina 113 Norwegian steam 275 norwester 275 Norwich 275 no sabe 528 no say-so 528 nose bag 528 no-see-um, 275, 528 nose like a blue tick 528 nose like a preacher for . . . 113 nose paint 528 nosh 658 no slow fuckin! 113 no such of a thing 113 not about to 113 not a circumstance to 113 not as much light as . . . 275 not backward in going . . . 275 not by a jugful! 275

778

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN REGIONALISMS

notch 275, 528 notcher 528 not enough room to cuss . . . 392 nothard 275 nothing marrying nothing 275 nothing to him 528 notional 276 notionate 113 notions 276 not one tittle 113 not right 276 not to know beans 276 not to know beef . . . 113 not to know one’s ass . . . 658 not worth a chaw . . . 276 not worth a Continental 658 not worth a Hannah Cook 276 not worth a hole . . . 276 not worth a red piss 528 now 276 nowadays 276 noway 113, 528 noways 113 nowheres 113 now I lay me 113 nubblin 276 nubbut 276 nudnik 658 nuffin’ 658 ’nuf sed 528 nui 712 numb 276 numb as a hake 276 numbeh 658 number one 712 number one luna 712 nummy 276 nutcrackers 528 nuther 392, 740 Nutmeg State 276 Nutmeg Stater 276 Nutmeg Yankee 276 N’Yawk 658 N’Yawlins 113 nyesplayshagottere 658 nyu 276

O O (name) 713 oak-acorn 277 Oak-Caper 277 oak winter 393 obeah 114 o-be-joyful 114, 277, 529 o-be-rich-an’-happy 529 obfusticated 529 obladit 741 obleeged 277 obliged 529 obstropulous 277 ocean pout 277 ocho 659 ocotillo 529 octoroon 114 odd come short 393 oddling 393 of 114, 659 of a morning 114 ofay 659 Off 277 off 659 off-bear 393 off-breed 529 offcasts 393 offen 114 off his feed 529 off islander 277 off’n 529

off one’s cabeza 529 off soundings 277 offuh yuh 659 often one’s box 393 o fush! 277 o-grab-me 277 oh, my God in this world! 114 oh, we jist fumigate 278 oh dear me, suz! 277 oh fiddlesticks! 277 oh Rinehart 277 oh the devil! 277 oh yeah? 659 oilnuts 278 oily 529 oim owan da toity-toid . . . 659 oi sound 587, 590 o.k. by me 659 o.k. by me, it’s 641 oker 529 Oklahoma 529 Oklahoma rain 529 okra 393 okry 114 ol’ 114 old Baptist 114 old baster 278 Old Bay State 278 Old Betsy 529 old biddy 529 Old Blackie 393 old blade 114 Old Bourbon 114 Old Boy 393 old cackler 529 “Old Cape Cod” 278 Old Christmas 393 Old Clock on the Stairs, the 278 Old Coaly 393 Old Colony 278 Old Defender’s Day 114 old dog for . . . 114 Old Dominion State 114 Old Driver 278 olden times 393 older than Methuselah’s . . . 278 old field colt 114 old field land 114 old field parlor 114 old field pine 115 old field(s) 114 old fuddy dud 278 Old Gentleman, the 393 Old Glory 278 Old Gyarbro 393 old haint 115 Old Harry 741 Old Hickory 115 Old Ironsides 278 old jeezer 278 Old Jimson 393 Old Kentucky 115 old lady 115 old lady in Dubuque 659 old lark 115 Old Line State 115 Old Mad Jackson 115 old-maid gal 393 old man 115, 278, 529 old man cactus 529 Old Man of the Mountain 278 Old Manse 278 Old Master 393 old Medford rum 278 old mosshorn 530 Old Moster 115 Old Mother State 115 Old Muddy 115 Old Ned 393 Old Nick 278

old niddy-noddy, an 278 old none 393 Old North State 115 Old Red 393 Old Roman 115 old salty buzzard 115 Old Sam 393 Old Scholar, the 278 Old Scratch 393 old seed folks 278 Old South State 115 old stock 278 old thing 530 old-timey, 115, 393 old-timey-days 530 Old Town Turkey 278 Old Tuscaloosa 115 old Virginia 393 Old Virginia Breakdown 115 old whale 279 old woman 115 olla 530 Ol’ Man River 115 Ol’ Virginie 115 omerta 660 on 279 on account 660 on a credit 394 oncet 394, 660 one 115, 713 one and another 279 one-finger poi 713 one fishball 279 one foot on a banana . . . 660 one-gallused 530 one-horse outfit 530 one more time 394 one perry and one porter . . . 279 one-trough town 530 one with 660 oney 660 on-faithful 115 on foot 530 on gana 660 onion snow 741 onliest 115, 394 on line 660 the only good Indian . . . 530 on me 394 onnafyah 660 ono 713 ono-looking 713 on one like a duck . . . 115 onorata società . . . 660 onset 394 ontelling 115 on the arm 660 on the block 530 on the carpet 115 on the coast 279 on the cull list 116, 394 on the dodge 530 on the down-go 394 on the drift 530 on the drop edge . . . 394 on the flakes 279 on the gain 279 on the grass 530 on the hind tit (teat) 279 on the hoof 530 on the job 660 on the lift 530 on the mending hand 279 on the peck 530 on the prod 530 on the ragged edge 530 on the shoot 530

on the town 279 on the way 116 ontil 394 on your own hook 279 oojit-nawsty 394 ooze 394 open and shet’s . . . 279 open and shut day 279 open-faced cattle 530 open the light 713 open weather 279 opodildocs 279 opossum has 19 lives, an 116, 393 op’ry house 530 oquassa 279 orchard grass 394 ordiance of secession 116 Oregon 530 Oregon bedstead 530 Oregon grape 531 Oregon jargon 531 Oregon Trail 531 or either 116 original 394 Orlando, Florida 116 Orleanian 116 Orleans 279 ornery 116, 531 oro 531 orphant 394 orpicues 279 orter 394 orts 279 oryide 531 Osage 531 Other One, the 394 other people’s bread . . . 741 otter 279 ouch 741 oucher 116 ought 279, 531 ought (to) 116 ought to be bored . . . , 394, 531 ought to could 116 oui 116 ounce 531 our contemporary ancestors 394 our country’s bird 279 our folks 279 Our Lord’s candle 531 ourn, 116, 394 oursins 280 ousgabootz’d 741 out 116, 280, 394 out among the willows 531 outdacious 116 outdoingest 394 outen 116, 394 outen the light 741 outfavor 116 Outfit 660 outfit 531 outgrowed 116 out in left field 660 outlander 116, 394 outlandisher 280 outlaw 531 outlay 394 out’n 116 out of banks 394 out of heart 394 out of here 661 out of kin 280 out of pocket 531 out of pure cussedness 280 out of snuff, 116, 531 out-of-the wayest 280 outsider 394

outspoken as a norwester 280 outta sight! 661 outten the light 116 outward Adam 116 out Yankee 280 overbraeden 394 over-fattened on . . . 394 overhauls 395 over in one’s book 280 overlander 531 overland stage 531 overlay 395 overpeer 395 overplus 116 over street 280 over the bay 280 over to 280 over-topped 116 over to the continent 280 over yonder 116 owah 280 owlin’ around 280 own cousin 395 owning to it 280 own the corn 395 ox 116 oxen 116 oy! 661 oy vay! 661 ozark 395 Ozarks 395 ozone 661

P paams 117 pachucos 532 pack 396, 532 package 714 packin’ the mail 396 pack lead 532 Padanaram 281 paddlefish 117 paddy wagon 281 padre 532 padrino 662 pahk the cah in Hahvahd yahd 281 pahrmee 662 pail 532 pain de babeurre 117 pain perdu 117 paint 532 painted cat 532 painted Jezebel 281 painter 396, 532 paintless 117 paint one’s tonsils 532 paints her face like . . . 396 paint up 281 pair o’beads 396 pairsaul 117 paisan 662 paisano 532 palamity 117 palaver 532 pale as dishwater 281 pali 714 pally 281 Palm Beach suit 117 palmeeter 117 palmetto 117 palmetto . . . 117 Palmetto . . . 117 palo duro 532 palomino 532 palooka 532, 662 pamelas 117 Pamunkey Indians 117 pan 532 pancake 662 pan fried potatoes 281 Pango Pango 714 Panhandle State 117

panielo 714 panne meat 117 pant 396 panther piss 533 pantod 281 pants rat 533 pao doce 714 papah 662 paper birch 281 paper the wall 281 papoose 533 pappy 396 parcel 118 parch 118 pard 533 pardner 533 pardon 118 pardon my dust 662 parish 118 park 281, 533 parkies 662 parking 533 parkway 281 parlor gun 533 parlor stove 281 Parmachenee Belle 281 parson’s nose 281 Parsons table 662 parted her fasts 281 partial to 533 partida 533 partridge 281 parts 533 party 662 paseo 533 passage 118 passed in his checks 533 passeggiatrice 662 passel 662, 118, 282, 396, 533 pass the biscuit 118 pasta fazool 662 pastor 533 pasture field 396 patch 396 patched like a whaleman’s 282 pater 533 Pathfinder of the West 533 patio 533 Patriots Day 282 patrón 533 patsy 662 patza 663 pau 714 pa’u 714 Paul Bunyan 533 pavement 118 paw 533 pawing 118 pawin’ round for turmoil 533 paw-pawer 396 payback 282 paydirt 533 payoff 663 pay (one) no mind 118 pea beans 282 peaceful place 533 Peacemaker 533 Peacham 282 peach and cane land 118, 534 peacherino 534 peach-orchard board (crazy as a) 53 peach-orchard coal 118 peaked 282, 396 Peaked Hill Bars 282 pear 534 pea-rifle 396 pearls before swine 663 peart 118, 534 pea soup fog 282

INDEX peavey 282 pecker-fretted 282 peckerwood 118, 396, 534 Pecos 534 Pecos Bill 534 peculiar domestic institution 534 Pedernales 534 peeler 534 peeling 396 peel out of 534 peep 282 peep of day 282 peepstone 534 peers 396 peert 118 peg out 282 pehea’oe? 714 pelado 534 pelican flag 118 Pelican State 118 pelled out 118 pell-mell for a cat-race! 282 pelter 663, 282, 534 Pend d’Oreilles 534 pendejo 534 penitentes 534 Penitentiary Row 663 Penn Yan 282 penny one 118 penny-piece 118 Penobscot 282 peon 534 peoples 663 pepper-bellied son of a bitch 534 pepperbox 534 pepper duster 396 Pequot 282 perambulate the bounds 282 perambulator 118 perceivance 282 perch 282 percoon 396 perked up 118 Perkins’ tractors 282 pernt 663 perp 663 perp walk 663 perro enfermo 534 persimmon skin 118 persnickety 282 personally 663 pertater 663 pesky 282 peso 534 pessonovante 663 pestle around 282 pet 118 peter 396 peter out 534 petoncles 283 petticoat government 283 pettish 535 peverly bird 283 peyote 535 Phaff’s Cellar 663 Philadelphia scrapple 742 phonus bolonus 663 phudnik 663 P.I. 283 piazza, 118, 283 picayune 118 picayunish 118 piccaninny 714 pick 283 pick a crow 118 pickaninny 119 pick at 119 pick-ed 283

picked before ripe 119 Picketwire 535 picklement 535 pickpocket 663 picnic pot 535 pictur 283 picture show 663 piddle-diddle 119 piddling around 119 pie 119, 283 piece 119, 397, 535 piece out 283 Piedmont rice 119 pieplant 283 pie supper 397 pigeon roost 283 pigeon-tailed coat 119 piggin, 119, 283 piggin’ string 535 pig in a blanket 663 pig sticker 535 Piker 535 Pikes Peak 535 Pikes Peak or bust 535 piki 535 pilau 119, 714 pilch 283 piled 535 pile on the agony 119, 283 pilgrim 283, 535 Pilgrim . . . 284 pilikia 714 piller 119 pillow bier 284 pilon 535 pimping 284 pin 119, 535 pinder 119 pindling 284, 397 pine 714 pine cone and tassel 284 pine knot 284 pine straw 119 pine-tree cod 284 pine-tree flag 284 pine-tree shilling 284 Pine Tree State 284 Pine-tree stater 284 piney 397 piney woods 119 piney woods Georgian 119 piney woods rooter 119 pink-eye gravy 397 pinkletink 284 pinkwink 284 pinky 284 pinny 536 pinole 536 piñon 536 pinstriper 663 pint, 397, 536 pint! 284 pinto 536 piny 284 pinzone 663 pio the light 714 pious as a barn rat 284 pipeline 536 pisher 663 pismire 284 pissant 119 pissbum 664 piss-cutter 284 piss-pot 536 pissybed 284 pistol 284, 664 pistolero 536 pistol-whip 536 pita 536 pitch 536 pitch out 119 pity on us 119 pixilated 284

pizen 119, 397 pizened 397 pizen neat 284 pizzle-grease 119 pizzlesprung 119 placer mine 536 plagued 284 plaguery sight 284 plague takes it! 119 plaguing 284 plaguing at 285 the plain people 742 plainscraft 536 plain speaking 285 plantation Negro 119 plantations 285 plant the corn . . . 397 plaster 285 plate full up with 285 plat-eye 120 platoo 536 play 536 playa 536 play cat’s cradle . . . 536 play footsie 664 play hell sowed . . . 536 playing possum 285 playing Texas 536 playing the red onion 397 play like 120 playments 397 play-party 397 play piano 664 play-pretties 397 play pretty 120 play the dozens 120 play the duck 664 play the sober Indian 536 play whaley 397 play Yankee with 285 plaza 536 pleasantest day that ever . . . 397 pleased as a basketful . . . 120 please one about to death 285 please up 285 pleasure 397 pleasures 397 pleasuring 285 pled 536 pleece 664 plenty 714 plesser 742 plews 536 pliersman 536 Plott hound 397 plotz 664 plow-chaser 536 plucky 285 plug 537 plug ugly 120 plum 285, 397 plumb 120, 537 plumb curdled 120 plumb smackety-dab 285 plumb stark naked 120 plum crazy 285 plummy 120 plum peach 397 plump wife and . . . 727 plum tuckered out 397 plunder 120, 537 plunder room 120, 537 plural of ‘you’ (New Yorkese) 588 Plymothean 285 Plymouth Pilgrim 285 Plymouth Rock 285 pneumonia fever 397 po’ 120

poach 285 pocasin 120 pock 664 pocketbook 537 pocket-miner 537 pod 397 podge 285 Podunk 285 Poet of the D.T.’s 664 pogonip 537 pogy 285 poh’ boy 120 poho 714 poi 714 poi dog 714 poil 664 point 664 pointblank 397 point-blank tale teller 397 poiple 664 poisson blanc 285 poke 120, 285, 397, 537 poke a dead cat at 120 poke-easy 120 pokeloken 285 Poke stalk 120 poke supper 397 pokomoo 537 Polack fiddle 285 Polar Bear Club 664 polecat 537 pole cat trail 285 pole fence 120 police 120 polpisy 285 poltroon 120 pompano 120 pom-pom-pete-away 286 poncho 537 pond 286 pond monkey 537 pone, 120, 397 ‘pon my honor! 398 pony 537 pony bread 120 poochin’ out 286 pook 537 poontang 120 pooquaw 286 poor 121 poor as poverty . . . 286 poor buckra 121 poor colored trash 121 poor-do 121 poor doe 537 poored away 286 poor-hoggin’ 398 poor Joe 121 poorly 121, 286, 537 poor man’s manure 286 Poor Man’s Paradise 664 poor old country railroad 286 poor white 121 poor white folksy 121 poor white trash 121 poosh ‘em oop! 664 poot the rug 398 pop 121, 537, 664 pop-call 398 Popeye 664 pop oki 714 popple 286 popskull 121 popskull whiskey 398 popular 286 porch, 286, 537 porch baby 121 porched 398 Porchmuth 286 pore 121 pore as a rail fence 398 pork-meat 398

porkpick 286 Pornographic 664 porridge 286 Portagee 286 portal 537 Port Clyde sardine 286 porterhouse steak 664 Portlander 286, 537 portly 398 Porto 665 Port Orford cedar 537 Portsmouth 286 positively 665 possibles 537 possum 121 possum belly 538 possum fat and hominy 121 possum grapes 398 possum toddy 121 post-bellum 121 posy-flowers 398 potater 398 potato 286 potato bargain 286 potato hill 121 potato stomper 121 pot head 286 potlatch 538 pot likker 121 pot luck 286 potrero 538 potsy 665 potty 286 pounding 121 pound up 286 pourdown 538 pour-off 398 pour the rain down 398 poverty 398 poverty grass 287 powder-burnin’ contest 538 Powder River! . . . 538 power 538 powerful 121, 287, 398 powerful ashy 398 powerful cash money 398 powerfully 121 powerful much 122 powerful sight of 538 powerful way 122 power of 398 pozo 538 PR 665 Practically Peerless Leader 665 prairie . . . 538–39 praise the Lord! 122 praline 122 prank 398 pranking 122 prayer-bones 398 prayer-handles 287 Praying Indian 287 preaching funeral 398 preachment 398 precious thang 122 predicament 539 prespire 122 press the bricks 539 presume likely 287 pretty 122, 398, 539 pretty as a new . . . 398 pretty-by-night 398 pretty nigh fin out 287 pretzel 742 prickly pear 539 Pride of the West 539 prides 398 pries up the sun . . . , he (she) 240 prime 539 Prime Minister of the Mob 665

779

prince 398 privileged 287 privy-pit 539 prized up 287 prize open 122 probly 665 prod 539 professor 287, 398 progressive 539 prolly 287 prone 122 prong 122, 398, 539 pronto 539 pronunciamientos 539 prop’ty 287 prospector 539 proud 122, 398 prove up 122 prowlin’ 122 prudent 287 pruney 399 P-town 287 pua 714 pua’s 714 public be damned 665 public relations 665 public school 287 public woman 122 puckerbrush 287 puckersnatch 287 Pudding Town 287 puddle jumper 399 pudgetty 287 pudge up 287 pueblo 539 puffing like a grampus 287 pug 287 pugnuckling 122 puke 122, 399 Puke Ravine 539 pukes 399 puke-stomached 122 pukish 122 pull down 714 pulleybone 122 pull freight for . . . 539 pullikins 122 pulling the badger 539 pull in your horns 539 pull leather 539 pull out of a jackpot 539 pulque 539 pulqueria 540 pummy 122 Pumpkin-Heads 287 pumpkin pie 287 pumpkin-roller 399 pumpkin yam 122 pumple-footed 287 pumple stones 287 punch 540 puncheon floor 399 puncher 540 pune 540 pung 287 pungle 540 pungy 288 punish 399 punk 288 punkin 288 punkin’ roller 540 punk rock 664 puny 399 puny feeling 399 pup 540 pupu platter 714 pure 122 pureblood 540 pure corn liquor 399 pure dee luck 540 purely 122 pure-quill 399 purey 665

780

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN REGIONALISMS

purgatory 288 Puritan Fathers 288 Puritan Provinces 288 puro 540 purp 540 purple fool 540 purse 288 purty 122, 540, 742 purty up 399 pushencry 123 push rowing 288 puss 123 pussel-gutted 123 pussley 288 pussy 288, 399 pussyflage 288 pussyfoot 540 pussy-gutted 123 puta 665 put a big pot . . . 540 put a fire 399 put a flea in one’s ear 288 put a mouth on 123 put apast 399 put a spider in . . . 399 put at 123 put down the laundry 123 put for 288 put him under the jail 123 put him up 123 put in bed . . . 540 put muscle on someone 665 put on a corn sweat 288 put on a face like . . . 399 put on the cooling board 399 put out 123 puts him on the funny side 123 puttened 123 putter 288 put the bee on someone 123 put the blast on 665 put the cat on one 123 put the fear on 665 put the John D. to her 288 put the oakum to 288 put the rug 123 put to one’s stumps 288 putty 288 put under the top . . . 665 put up 540 putz 665 Puyallup 540 puzzlement 123 puzzly-gutted 540

Q quadroon ball 124 quaggle 400 quahog 289 quaker 541 qualified man 666 Quandary Peak 541 Quantrill, a 541 Quapaw 541 quare 400 quarter 124, 400 quarter-breed 541 quarter horse 541 quartering 124 Quarters 124 quarter section 541 Queen City of the Hills 541 Queen City of the Mississippi 124 Queen City of the Mountains 541

Queen City of the Plains 541 Queen City of the Rio Grande 541 Queen of Floods 124 queen of the prairie 541 Queen of the West 541 Queen’s-arm 289 Queens County 666 queer 289 quern 400 qu’est-ce que c’est? 124 quick 289 quick as a dog . . . 124 quick draw 541 quicker’n a snake . . . 400 quicker than hell . . . 541 quid 124 quién sabe 541 quietus 124 quile 400 quile down 124 quill 124, 400 quill-pig 289 quills 124 quilting 124 quilting bee 289 quince drink 124 Quincy 289 quinnat salmon 541 quint 289 quiring 124 quirley 542 quirt 542 quishion 289 quit off 542 quitter 289 quit the flats 542 quit time 400 quituate 124 quiver bug 124 quoddy 289 Quonset hut 289 quote 400 quoto 400

R R (pronunciation) 290 rabbi 666 rabbit bush 543 rabbiteye blueberry 125 rabbit roundup 543 rabbit’s chance 401 rabbit tobacco 125 rabbit twister 401 race 290 racing 290 rack 401 rackabone 543 Rackensack 401 rackergaited 290 racket store 125 raft 125 rag-baby 125 rag city 543 raggety 125 rag house 543 rag on every bush 125 rag out 290 rag-tag and bob-ends 125 rag-tag-and-bobtail 543 rag trade 666 rail-mauling 401 rain belt theory 543 rainbow cactus 543 rain bullfrogs 125 rain bull yearlings 125 rain crow 401 raining black cats, it’s 91 raining pitchforks and . . . 543 rainin’ pitchforks . . . 249, 401

rain on one’s parade 666 raise a ruction 290 raise billy hell 543 raise Cain 543 raised on sour milk 543 raised with a tick . . . 401 raise hair 543 raise it 125 raise Ned 290 raise sand 125, 401 raise the fog 543 raising 125, 543 raising hightantrabogus 290 raising more hell than . . . 125 raising up 401 raisin’ Jupiter 401 raking down 290 Ral 125 ramada 543 rambling 543 ramming 290 ramp 401 rampageous 125 ramrod 543 ramrod rolls 125 ramshackle 126 ramshagging 126 ramstudious 126 ’ramus 126 ranch 543 ranch egg 544 rancher 544 ranchero 544 ranchette 544 ranch hand 544 ranch house 544 rancho 544 range 401 rangeland 544 ranger 544 range rider 544 range wars 544 ranikaboo 544 ranny 544 ransation 544 rantankerous 126 rantum scoot 290 rap 666 Rapaho 544 rap full 290 rare 126 rare as a virgin in . . . 126 rascals 126 raspberry 290 rat 290, 401, 666 rather 126 rather be shaved . . . 290 rations 126 rat-killing 126 rat mother 666 ratoon crop 715 rat out 666 rattler 544 rattler-mean 544 Rattlesnake Buttes 544 rattlesnake colonel 126 rattlesnake killer 544 rauncher 291 raven 126 raw 401 raw-heels 544 rawhide 544 rawhide artist 544 Rawhide State 544 rawhide Texan 544 raw land 544 raw one 544 razee 126 razoo 291 razorback 401 R.C. 126

Reach 291 reach 126, 544 read after 401 real blinger 291 realm 126 real macher 666 real McCoy, the 544 real nothing 666 rearing plantation 126 reb 126 rebel brigadier 126 rebel yell 126, 544 rebozo 545 receet 127 receipt 291 reckon 126, 401, 545 reckon how 401 recollection 126 reconstructed rebel 126 red assed 545 red brothers 545 redbugs 127 red-combed woman 401 Red Cross Banner 127 reddance 291 redded up 743 redding 401 red dog 545 redeye 127, 545 red-eyed 401 redeye dish gravy 127 red flannel hash 291 redhead 291 Red Hook 666 redneck 127 Red Paint Men 291 red Republican 127 Red River country 545 redskin 545 Red spruce 291 red-tail 127 red-up 402 redwood 545 red worm 127 redworm 402 reefin’ 545 reelin’ 291 refugee 127 regella 666 regular 666 regular coffee 291 regular genius 666 regular hurrah’s nest 291 regulator 127 Rehoboth 291 relish 127 relocation center 545 remblings 545 remember the Alamo! 545 Remington 545 remuda 545 rendezvous 545 rent 291 rep 545 reservation 545 reserve 545 residenter 402 restless as the tip . . . 402 resty 402 ret 743 retch 127 retire 402 return address 545 Reuben 666 revenge is a dish . . . 667 revenues 402 reverse nod 291 rheumatiz 291 Rhode Island . . . 291 rhubarb 402 riata 545 ribbons 545 rice bird 127

Rice Coast 127 rice rat 127 rich as Rockefeller 667 richere 402 Richmond 667 ricos 545 rid 127 ridden hard and put away 545 riddle 402 ride a line 545 ride and tie 402 ride close herd on 545 ride herd 546 ride him, cowboy! 546 ride mail 546 ride-out 292 ride over that trail . . . 546 ride point 546 ride someone bug-hunting 127 ride the chuck line 546 ride the fence 546 ride the owlhoot trail 546 ride the skin off 546 ride to the last roundup 546 ride trail 546 ridge runner 402 ridge-runner 127, 546 ridiculous 546 ridin’-critter 402 riding out of town . . . 546 rid one bug-huntin’ 402 riffle 546 rifle-gun 402 to rift 743 right 127, 402, 546 right addled 127 right around 292, 546 right as bean water 292 right as rain 292 right by 127 righten up 292 right good 402 right good time 546 rightly 127, 546 right much 127 right off 292 right on 128 right on the goose 546 right on your drag 546 right proud to go 402 right sharp 128 right smart 128, 292, 402, 546 right smart of 128 right smart of hardness 402 right uncommon 402 rile 402 riled up 546 rim 292 rimptions 402 rincón 546 rings him off 128 ring-tailed snorter 546 ringtum ditty 546 rinktum 292 ripgut 546 rippit 128 rip-roodle 128 ripshack 402 ripsniptious 547 rip-snorting 547 rise 292, 547 risin 128 risin’ 402 rising beauties 128 risse 292 rite 743 ritiracy 292

river-driver 292 river’s so low . . . 402 riz, 292, 547 riz bread 292 road agent 547 road agent’s spin 547 road brand 547 roader 292 roadrunner 547 Roanoke 128 roaring camp 547 roasting ear 547 roasting ears 128 Robert E. Lee cake 128 robin snow 292 robustous 128 rocenears 402 rock 292 Rockaway Playland 667 rock crab 292 Rockies 547 rock round the corner 292 rockweed 292 rocky ford 547 Rocky Mountain canary 547 Rocky Mountain cedar 547 Rocky Mountain goat 547 Rocky Mountain locust 547 Rocky Mountains 547 Rocky Mountain spotted fever 547 Rocky Mountain states 547 rod 547 rode hard and . . . 402 rode hard and put up wet 128 rodeo 547 rodeoing 547 Rogues Island 292 roll 547 rolled out flatter than . . . 547 roller derby 667 roll one’s tail 547 roll-way 292 room-keep 128 roontsel 743 Rooshians 402 roost 292 rooster 403 rooster fights 403 rooster tale 403 root, hog or die 128 rootle 292 rootsh 743 rope 548 roper 548 roping rope 548 roppled 743 roscoe 667 rose bread 292 Rosebud Senator 292 rose moss 403 rotary 292 rotten 403 rotten apple cider 293 rotten before . . . 403 rough and easy 128 rough as a cob 548 rough’n a cow’s tongue 403 roughneck 548 roughrider 548 round ass 548 round clam 293 roundup 548 roust out 548 rove 128 rowen 293

INDEX rowty 293 Roxbury Russet 293 rubbage 293 rubber-nosed woodpecker . . . 128 rub out 548 rub the time close 293 ruction 128 rud 128, 293 ruddle 293 ruddock 403 rue back 128 ruff 293 rugged weather 293 ruinatious 548 ruint 128, 403 rullion 403 rum, Romanism and . . . 667 rumcake 667 rummy 293 rum sweat 293 run 128, 403, 548 run a blazer 548 run afoul of 293 run a Mick 128 run around in the dark . . . 128 run a sandy 403 run a taut ship 293 run haunts 129 run into the gorund 548 run-mad 129 runnin’est 548 running cattle 548 running one’s mouth 129 running the wangan 293 run off 548 runt 548 run wild as . . . 548 Runyonese 667 rusher 548 rush hour 667 russet cider 293 rustic siding 548 rustle 548 rustler 548 rustle up some grub 548 rut 293 ruther 403 ruttin’ 403 rutting 129

S S.A. 668 Sabbaday 294 sabbey 549 sabe 549 sack 130, 404, 549 sacked 404 Saco 294 Sacred Cow 294 sacred fire 549 saddle tramp buckaroo 549 Saddy 668 sad enough to bring . . . 549 sadiron 549 safe 130, 404 safe as in God’s pocket 294 safen 294 sagaciate 130 sage 549 sagebrush 549 Sagebrush State 549 Sage Hen State 549 Sage of Concord 294 saguaro 549 said it right out 294 sail too close . . . 294 saint 549 St. Patrick’s Day Parade 668

sakes alive! 294 sala 549 salad tomatoes 130 salat 404 Salem Gibralter 294 salt a mine 549 salt duster 404 salted down 294 salter’n the briny ocean 294 salt horse 294 salt potatoes 294 salt shake 404 salty 549 Saltzburgher 130 salubration 130 Sambo 130 same as a singed cat 295 same as if 295 same dog bit me, the 130 same like 130 same old six . . . 550 samp 295 Sam Peabody 295 sampler 404 san 295 sanctimonious old bastard 295 sanctioned stool 668 sand 550 sand buggers 130 sand carpets 295 sand eel 550 sand-hiller 130 sand-lapper 130 sand painting 550 sandrock 404 sandstorm 550 sand whirl 550 sandwich glass 295 sandwich men 668 sandy 550 sandy Claus 130 sang 130, 404 sanger 404 sangin’ 404 sanguiccio 668 San Jose scale 550 sankfield 404 sanko 404 sank you 744 sannup 295 Santa Anna 550 Santa Fe Trail 550 santo 550 santy pay 404 sap coffee 295 saphouse 295 sap’lasses 295 sap orchard 295 sardines 295 sarpent 295 sartin 404 sarvant 295 sarve 295 sashay 550 sass, 130, 295 sassafac 131 sasser 404 sassinger 131 sasy 404 sattisfactual 131 sauceman 295 sauerkraut 744 save 550 save out 295 Save us from the devil . . . 131 savvy 550 saw 295 sawbuck 550 sawchips 550 sawdust sorter 295 sawed-off 550 sawed-off shotgun 550 saw gourds 131, 404

Saw-ko 295 sawlauf 668 saw off a whopper 404 sawyer 131 saxon 295 say it pretty 550 say not? 744 says I 295 says which 550 says which? 131 S’bay-go 295 S-boat 295 scabland 550 scadoodles 404 scalawag 131, 295, 550 scalp 551 scamp 131 Scandahoovian 551 scaper 131 scapping 668 scarce as preachers . . . 405 scarce-hipped 405 scarce of 405 scare-cat 131 scare the puddin’ out of 131 scarf 668 scarified pavement 295 scarify 131 scarlet letter, the 295 scat 131 scattered from here . . . 551 scatter-gun 131 schendlich 744 schizerino 668 schlemiehl 668 schmaltz 669 schmear 744 schmecklich 744 schmegeggy 669 schmo 669 schmuck 669 schmutz 669 schnook 669 schnoop-dooch 744 schnorrer 669 scholar 405 scholard 296 schoolmarm 296, 551 schooner 296 schrocching 744 Schwenkfelders 744 scimunito 669 scissortail flycatcher 131 Scituate 296 scoff 296 scoggins 296 scompiglio 669 ‘Sconset 296 scooch 296 scoop town! 405 scoots, the 296 scorpion 405 scotch 131 scottin’-long-the-shore 296 Scovilite 131 scrag oneself 669 scrape cotton 131 Scrap Islander 296 Scratch 296 scratch 131, 669 scratchback 131 scratched along 296 scrawl 296 screamer 131 screaming fantods 551 screwball 669 screwed hay 296 scriber 405 scrid 296 scrimp 296 scrimped and saved 131 scrimshander 296

scrimshaw 296 scrimshonting 296 scringe 132 scrod 296 scrods 297 scrog 297 scronch 297 scrooch 297 scrouge over 132 scrouging 132 scummer 297 scum of the run 551 scunner 297 scup 297 scuppernong 132 scuppernong arbor 132 scuppernong claret 132 scuppernong wine 132 scurry funge 297 scutter 132 scuttle hole 405 seabeach knotweed 297 sea-clam 297 sea corn 297 sea dogs 297 sea duck 297 Sea Island cotton 132 sealer 297 sea lion 551 sea room 297 sea squall 297 seater 297 sea turn 297 Sebago 297 sebem 405 secede 132 secesh 132 secesh colonel 132 secessia 132 “Secession Two-step” 132 sech 551, 744 Second American Revolution 132 second-handed 405 second settin’ 132 Second War of Independence 132 see 132 seed 132, 551 seeded 405 seed-tick coffee 132 seegar 551 seeing of 132 seeing pleasure 132 seeinya 669 seem 297 seen 297, 551 seeps 551 seepweed 551 see the elephant 551 sego 551 segundo 551 seldom 551 selectman 297 sell down the river 132 sellin’ pumpkins 405 send to hell and the devil 132 send up Green River 552 send up the river 669 Señor 552 Señora 552 Señorita 552 sequoia 405, 552 Sequoyah 552 serape 552 serenade 405 serious as a jackass in . . . 132 serve 298 serviceberry 552 set 298, 405, 552 set a bed-spell 405 set fire, you! 298

set in to rain 405 set one’s budget down 405 settee 132 set the fur 405 setting 298 settin’ up 132, 744 settled 132 set up one’s Ebenezer 298 set up to 405 Seven Cities 552 seven-sided son . . . 552 seventh-inning stretch 669 Seventy 552 several 405 severe 552 sewer of New England, the 298 sew with a hot . . . 405 Shabbes goy 669 shack 133, 552 shacket 298 shacklety 405 shaddup 669 shade, a 298 shade it 298 shadetail 133 shadow potatoes 298 shadow-shy 405 shag 298 Shagimaw 298 shalom 670 sham-built 298 shame 133 shamus 670 shanghai 552 shank of the day 552 shan’t 298 sharecropper 133 sharking 298 sharp as a meat axe 298 sharp enough to hew . . . 133 sharper’n a tack 405 Sharps 552 Sharpsburg 133 shatters 133 shaving 553 shavings 133 shay 298 Shay’s Rebellion 298 Shea Stadium 670 she-cow 406 she-crab soup 133 shed 133 shed (cut) one’s baby teeth 133 shed of 133, 406 shedshoole 670 sheep dipper 553 sheep dumplings 406 sheep-eaters 553 sheepherder’s delight 553 sheep off 553 sheet anchor to windward 298 she has a leak that will . . . 298 she (he) thinks he (she) hung . . . 133 shekel 670 sheldrake 298 shelling the woods 406 shell out 133 shell-oyster 298 shelly beans 406 shenanigans 553 shenanigin’ around 133 Sherman’s . . . 133 sherry-vallies 553 she-stuff 553 shet, 406, 553 shift of clothes 406 shifty as smoke 670

781

shiksa 670 shin 133 shindig 553 shine, 133, 553, 670 shiner 406 shingle 298 Shining Mountain 553 shinnery 133, 553 shiplap 133 shipoke 133 Shiprock 553 shirttail 133 shirt-tail boy 133 shirt-tail lads 133 shirt-tail run 133 shirt-tail woodpecker 133 shit 670 shite-poke 744 shit happens 670 shitkicker 553 shivaree 134, 406, 553 shivering owl 134 shlep 670 shlepperich 744 shlock 670 shlooxa 744 shlump 670 shmaltz 670 shmeer 670 shmooze 670 shnovvel 744 shnozzola 670 sho’ 134 shoal 299 shock 553 shoemake 134 shoemouth deep 406 sholy 134 sho’ nuff 134 shook 299 shook his foot 134 shool 299 shoot 553 shoot a mile 553 shootin’ fixin’s 406 shootin’ iron 553 shootist 553 shoot one’s grandmother 299 shoot-out 554 shoot plumb 554 shoot the works 670 shoot today kill . . . 554 shop 299 shore 134, 406, 554 shore dinner 299 shore don’t 134 shore-hugger 299 shorely 134 short bit 554 shorten his stake rope 554 shorthorn 554 shorts 299 short sweetenin’ 134 shortsweetening 406 short talk 134 short-weight 134 shot 554 shot heard round the . . . 670 should 671 should be 671 shoulder candy 671 shoulder draw 554 shoulder strap 554 shouldn’t ought to 134 shouldn’t wonder 299 should ought to 406 shout 134 shove in the steel 554 shovelful of chicken tracks 134 show 406 show a feather 554

782

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN REGIONALISMS

showerstick 406 Show Me State 134, 554 Show out 554 shpos 671 shrub 299 shtarker 671 shtik 671 shtup 671 shuck 134, 554 shuckle 406 shuck out 134 shucks! 554 shudda 671 shummick 406 shun out 406 shut 299 shut down on 299 shut my mouth! 134 shvartzer 671 sh-yit 554 shyster 671 sibley 554 sich 134, 406 sick 554 sick as a dog 671 sick at (to) the stomach 134 siddle 410 siddown 671 side 554 side-hill ranger 299 sidekick 671 side meat 134 sidewinder 554 side-winder 299 sierra 554 siesta 554 sight 134, 299 sightly 299 sight of satisfaction 406 sign 554 signify 135 sign rider 554 signs 406 sigogglin 135 Silicon Valley 554 silk popper 554 Silk-Stocking District 671 silver baron 554 silver bloc 554 silver gray 135 silver gray squirrel 135 silver king 554 Silver Knight of the West 554 silverland 555 Silver State 555 silver thaw 555 simblin 135 ’simmon 135 Simon Legree 135 since Adam was a . . . 555 since ever 406 since God made . . . 299 since Heck (Hector) was a pup 406 since I was . . . 555 since the Concord fight 299 since the hogs ate . . . 406 since the hogs et grandma 135 sing 744 sing Indian 555 singing 135 singing beach 299 singin’ with one’s tail up 555 Single Star State 555 Sing Sing 671 sink 744 sinker 555

sink of New England, the 299 sink-taller 406 sinning shame 135 sint 555 a sin to Davy . . . 555 Sioux 555 sippin’ whiskey 135 sire 299, 555 sister 135 sistern 135 sisters 555 sit broad 744 sitfast 299 sit for a spell 555 sit in the shade . . . 555 sit shivah 671 sit shotgun 555 sitting in the catbird . . . 671 sitz 744 sivving 135 Siwash 555 6666, The 555 six-gun 555 six-shooter 555 16-shooting liquor 555 $64 question 671 69er 555 six weeks sleighing . . . 300 skag 300 skedaddle 555 skeerce 406 skeered 135, 555 skeert 555 skeery-crow 407 skeet 135 skeeters 555 skell 672 skelped 407 skid row 555 skillet-an’-led 407 skimmer 672 skin a flea . . . 407 skinch 300 sking the bear at once 135 skin your eyes 407 skipper 135, 672 skipple 300 skirt scat 556 skite 556 skitters 744 skive 300, 407 skoodle 300 skrid 300 skrivvel 300 skulheeg 300 skully-jo 300 skunk blackbird 300 skunk in the . . . 556 skunk wagon 556 skunt 556 skweet 672 sky pilot 556 skyscraper 672 sky-winding 135 slab 556 slack 135 slacker’n dishwater 300 slack salted pollock 300 slam-bang 135 slangs 716 slapping leather 556 slash 556 slash pine 135 slat 135, 300, 407 slatch 300 slatcky sky 300 slathers 407 slattery 407 slattin’ his sails 556 slaunch 135 slave auction 135 slave bracelet 672

slave catcher 135 slave depot 135 slave driver 135 Slave Market 672 slave pen 136 slave quarters 136 slave songs 136 sleazy 136 sleek as a whistle 300 sleep at the bottom . . . 672 sleeper 672 sleeping 300 sleeprs 556 sleight 407 slice 300, 672 slick 556 slick as a . . . 300 slick as a peeled . . . 407 slicker 407, 556 slicker’n a smelt 300 sliding pond 672 slime in the ice . . . 556 slimpsy 300 slink 407 slip 136, 300 slipe 136 slip gut 300 slipper 136 slipper-down 300 slippernoose 300 slipperslide 136 slipper-toe 300 slipping 300 slit-lip 136 sliver 300 slop 136 slopdozzle 300 Slope Country 556 slope out 556 sloppin’ good 136 sloppin’ good gravy 556 Sloppy Louie’s 672 slopsided 136 slorate 136 slouch hat 136 slow as Christmas 407 slow bear 136, 556 slow brand 556 slow country 556 slow elk 556 slowern’ sorghum 407 slower’n stock-still 301 slower than a hop . . . 301 slug 556 slumgullion 301, 556 slump 301 slunk school 301 slurred speech 587 slut 136, 407 slut’s wool 301 smaaht 301 smack 136 smack dab 136 smack out of 407 small life 556 small-little 716 smarm 301 smart 301, 407 smart as a steel trap 301 smart as a whip 301 smarter than a hooty owl 136 smart to work 301 smart up 136, 301 smatter 672 smatterthya? 672 smearcase 556 smechin 556 smell 556 smell like a beamster 301 smidgen 407 smile 556 smile like a basket . . . 136

smiler 556 smiley 301 smilin’ 301 Smith and Wesson 557 smithers 136 smithfield ham 136 smoke 557 smoked 557 smoked Yankee 136 smooth 136 smooth as a smelt 301 smooth as goose . . . 557 smooth mouth 557 s’mores 136 smothered pork chops 136 smothering spell 407 smudder 301 smurr up 301 smurry 301 smush 301, 672 snake 136 snake blood 557 snake dance 557 snake-head whiskey 557 snake killer 557 the snakes 557 snap bean 136 snap in her tits and . . . 136 snapped 137 snapper 301 snapping turtle 137 snaps 407 snap shooting 557 snatch 137 snatching 137, 672 snatch (or jerk) baldheaded 557 Snawfus 407 sneakin’ by 557 sneaky weather 744 snedricks 301 sneeze 672 snew 301 snibbling 407 snicker 301 sniptious 137 snit 137 snivver 301 snollygoster 137 snoose 557 Snopesism 137 snot-flyin’ drunk 137 snow eater 301 snowed up 301 snow roller 301 snowshoe dance 557 snub 407 snuff dipping 137 snuffed out 557 snuffing the candle 557 snuff stick 137 snug 301 snug by 301 so 137 soak 302 soaker 302 soapball 557 soapstone son-of- . . . 557 sob 407, 557 sobby 407, 557 sock-dodger 137 sock feet 557 Sock Saunders 302 so cold the wolves . . . 407 so contrary he floats . . . 407 soda fountain 557 soda pop 137 sodbuster 558 soddy 558 sod farm 672 sodhouse 558

so drunk he couldn’t . . . 558 so dry the bushes . . . 559 sody 137, 302, 407, 558 sody pop 137 so far back in jail . . . 137 so far south . . . 137 so-fashion 302 so fat he’s in his own way 137 soft as a young . . . 558 soft as mush 302 soft berm 137 softer than a stewed pumpkin 302 soft sawder, to 302 softshell Baptist 137 softshelled cooter 137 soft water men 302 sofy 302 sog 407 SoHo 673 so hot we’re spittin.’ . . . 558 so hungry my belly . . . 137 soldier 673 solid 673 Solid South 137 sombrero 558 some 744 some better 558 some dearer 302 some desperate 302 some good 302 some hot today, it’s 249 some several 407 something on a stick 137 something to lift the scalp 302 some tired 302 some ugly 302 someway 138 somewheres 558 some wicked good 302 sommers 138 son 138 so neat s/he squeaks 302 son-of-a- . . . 558 son of a . . . 558 son of a biscuit eater 138 son of a bitch 302 son of a bitch’s son.. 138 son of a sea cook 302 son of a whore 302 son of ebony 138 sonomagona 673 sonora 558 sons 558 Sons of the South 138 soon 407 sooner 407, 558 Sooner State 558 soon or late 302 soon start 407 sop 138, 407 so poor his shadow . . . 558 sopranner 558 sopysyvine 302 sora 138 sorghum 407 sorgum lapper 408 sorriest critter . . . 408 sorrow 408 sorry 138 sorry girl 138, 408 sortilege 303 sorty 408 so stingy he’s afeared . . . 408

sot 303 so that 303 so thievish they have to take . . . 303 sottocapo 673 sought 744 so ugly that when . . . 558 soul driver 138 soul shark 138 sounded like a bull . . . 303 sounds to me, it 507 souple 303 Soup Nazi 673 sour as swill 303 sour belly 558 sour dean 138 sourdough bread 558 soured 138 sour grape 408 sour milk cheese 303 sour morning 303 souse 138, 303, 408, 744 soused clams 303 sout 673 South 138 South Carolina 138 South Carolina Low Country dialect 3 south-end 303 Southern Chivalry, the 138 Southern coffee 138 Southern Confederacy 138 Southerner 138 Southern fried chicken 138 Southern gentleman 138 Southern hospitality 138 Southern names 139 Southlander 139 Southron 139 southwest spurs 558 sow 408 sowaddyasaybabe 673 sowbelly 139 sow bosum 559 sowbug 303 sow’s bosom 139 spaded 139 spaghetti 673 spaghetti western 559 spaldeen 673 span, to 303 spandy 303 spang 139 spanging 673 Spanglish 426, 673 Spanish-American 559 Spanish bayonet 559 Spanish dagger 559 Spanish moss 139 Spanish trail 559 spare room 303 spark 139, 303, 408 sparrow-bird 408 sparrowgrass 303, 408 spat 303 spatterdabs 139 speak howdy 408 speaking 408 spear-side 408 specie 303 speckled pup (cute as a) 55 speed 673 speed lane 673 spell 303 spell baker, to 303 spere 139 sperl 673 spew 408 spice and tang 559 spider 303

INDEX spigot 139 spike 559 spike-nail 408 spile 303 spills 303 spindle 303 Spindle City 303 spindle-side 408 spindletop 559 spint 559 spit cotton 139 spit of 559 spitting spell 303 spittin’ image 139 spittin’ snake 408 spity 304 spizorinkum 559 spizzerinctum 139 spleeny 304 Splendid Splinter, the 304 splindid 559 splinter-broom 304 splinters 139 split 139 split the log 559 splitting the log 139 splo 408 spook 559 spooky 559 spoon bread 139 spoon victuals 304 spoopsie 304 sport 304 sporting house 139 sporting woman 559 spossich 744 spouse 408 spouting 304 spraddle 139 sprang 140 sprangle 408 sprawl 304 sprawly 140 spread 559 Springfield 304 spring holster 559 springing heifer 558 spring poor 559 sprinkles 673 spritz 673 spritzen 744 sprout lands 304 spruce 304 spruce beer 304 spruce gum 304 sprung 304 spry 304 spry as a cat 304 spud 559 spudding round 408 spudge 304 spuds 559 spunk 304 spunk-water 408 spurrer 140 sqeezay 305 squack 408 squack head 408 squale 304 squall like a painter 408 squam 304 squander an opinion 408 squantum 305 square 140 square day 305 square up 559 squash 305 squat 305, 559 squaw . . . 559–60 squaw ax 559 squeech owl 560 squeezins 140 squinch 140 squire 408 squirm like a worm . . . 408

squirmy 408 squirrel-turner 408 squirrel whiskey 409 squush 140 stable horse 409 stack cakes 409 staddles 305 stag dance 560 stake 560 stake horse 560 stallion 409 stampede 560 stamper 560 stamping ground 560 stancheous 140 stand 409 stand dayherd 560 standing dead 560 standing pat 560 standin’ in need of 140 stand like a post 560 stand one up and down 140 stands in hand 305 stands out like a blackberry . . . 305 star 140 star flower 409 starling 140 starn 409 Stars and Bars 140 stars and stripes 305 start 305 startle a body . . . 305 starved fit to eat . . . 305 starved rat 560 starve out 409 starving hungry 140 stash 409 Staten Island 674 state-right party 140 state-rights Democrat 140 stationhouse 560 statriot 140 Statue of Liberty 674 staver 305 stave up 305 stay 140 stay in the tree! 560 stay until the last . . . 560 steal the butter, he’d 498 steam doctor 305 Steamer Day 560 stemmy 305 Stengelese 674 stent 305 steptidyrearidybuspleez 674 Stetson 560 stew 409 stewed as a fresh . . . 305 stick, 140, 674 stickball 674 stickman 140 stick to your own blood 140 sticky 140 stiff as a church 305 stiff pain 674 stiff rope and a . . . 560 stifle 305 still as mouse work 305 Still Corners 306 still have some snap . . . 140 stilling 409 still in the bed 140 sting 306 stinger 560 stingy enough to skin . . . 560 stink 409 stinkin’ Benjamin 306 stir up hell . . . 409

stit 409 stitch 140 stiver 306 stivy 306 stob 140, 409, 561 stob pole 140 stock ranch 561 stock saddle 561 stodge up 409 stogy 561 stoled 140 stomach thinks her throat . . . , her 637 stomp a mud hole in . . . 140 stomp dance 561 stomp-down 140 stone 409 stoneboat 561 stone drag 306 stone fence 306 stone in one’s shoe 674 stone’s got a pretty heavy . . . 306 stone sloop 306 stone wall 306 stone wall nobody’s yet . . . 141 stood 674 stook 306 stoop 674 stooper 674 stoop one’s head 306 store-boughten food 744 store choppers 306 storm door 674 story 141 stout 409 straddle 409 straddle bug 561 straight ahead 306 straight arrow 561 straight as a . . . 306 straight grain clear . . . 561 straight-out 141 straight shoooter 561 straight through hell and . . . 561 straight up 141 straight up-and-dicular 141 stram 306 stram about 306 stramming around 306 strams 306 strange 409 straphanger 674 strapped on his horse, . . . 561 strawberry friend 409 straw sailor 306 streaked bass 306 streaked meat 141 stream 306 Street 674 Street of the Midnight Sun 675 Street O’Ships 675 street people 675 strengthy 561 stretching the blanket 409, 561 strike 561 strike it rich 561 strike-out 306 strimmered 306 string 561 stripper 561 strollop 141 stromp 306 strong arm 561 strowed 141 strubbly 744 struck with the Spanish mildew 306

strung up 561 strut 409 stubborn as . . . 141 stubborn as a . . . 561 stubborn coal of conscience 141 stud 409 studhorse 561 studied 409 study 561 study on 141 stuffy 307 stump 409 stumped her toe 409 stump liquor 409 stump sucker 561 stun 307 stunded 307 stupid water 561 suade 409 submissionest 141 sub-spucky 307 Subway Series 675 succotash 307 such 307 such a much 561 suck-egg 141, 409 sucking the nether teat 307 suck the hind tit 409 sudden-quick 409 suffocate for moisture 141 sugah 141 sugan 562 Sugar Bowl 141 sugar-bread 409 sugar bush 307 sugar corn 141 Sugar Hill 675 sugar-liquor 410 Sugar Loaf 307 sugar-lot 307 sugar maple 307 sugar-mouthed 141 sugar mule 141 sugar orchard 410 sugar-pie 141 sugar rag 141 sug-jist 141 suicide gun 562 Suicide Six 307 suit 675 suit one’s tooth 562 sull 141, 410, 562 sullen 410 sull up 141, 562 sulphur and molasses 307 sumac 307 sum bitch 141 sumbitch 562 sum buck 562 summer boarder 307 summercater 307 summer complaint 307 summer name 562 sumpin’ 675 sumpmscroowie 675 Sumpter 141 sunapu 307 sun-ball 410 sunck 307 Sunday-goin’-to- . . . 410 sun don’t shine on, the . . . 562 sundown 562 sunfishing 562 sun-hot 141 Sunny South 141 Sunshine State 142, 562 sunt 410 sup 142 supawn 307 sup dirt 142 supermarket 675

supper 307 sure 142 sure as shootin’ 562 sure as the world 562 sure-God 142 surl 307 surly 410, 562 surprisedly 307 surrender, the 142 surround 410, 562 survigrous 142 suspicion 142, 307, 410, 562 sut 307 sutton 307 swad 307 swaddle out 308 swag 142, 410 swag! 308 swagun 308 Swainson’s hawk 562 swale 142, 308 swallowed a watermelon . . . 410 swallow the anchor 308 swallow the puppy 562 swamp angel 142 swamp dew 142, 410 swamper 562 Swampers 142 Swamp Fox 142 swamp-mucker 142 swamp trash 142 swamp Yankee 308 swan 142, 410, 562 swan boats 308 swankie 308 swapped off bad 410 Swartwout 675 swarved 142 swatson 308 swayged 142 swear on one’s mother’s . . . 675 sweat and swivit and scrabble 142 sweepin’ broom 410 sweet 675 sweet bubby 142, 410 sweeter than a suck of sugar 143 sweet gum 143 sweet magnolia 143 sweet potato bun 143 sweet potato coffee 143 sweet potato ice cream 143 sweet potato pie 143 sweet potato pone 143 sweet potato pudding 143 sweet potato soup 143 sweet potato waffle 143 sweet rolls 562 sweet-talk 143 sweet tater 143 sweet tea 562 swept hold 308 swimmy-headed 143 swing 562 swing a wide loop 562 swinge 143, 410 swinged 143 swing rider 562 swiome 143 Swiss broom 143 switch 143 switchel 308 swivel-eyed 308 swivet 410 swllow-and-get-out trough 562 swoggle 410 swole(d) 143 swoonded 410 swurging 143

783

symptom book 308 syotuib 142 syrup 308

T t (pronunciation) 309 Tabasco 563 tabernacle 563 table money 676 taboo speech 334 taboo words 411 tack 144 tacky 144 Tad 676 tad 411 tadpoles 144 tag 676 tahrs 411 tail, 411, 563 tailings 563 tail rider 563 t’ain’t 309 take a cab 676 take a dive 676 take and rake 144 take a scoocher 309 take a seat of work . . . 309 take a walk up . . . 309 take foot in hand 144 take in 144, 411 take in after 411 take it in the arm 676 take leave of one’s senses 144 taken 676 take off 676 take off for . . . 411 take out 144 take sick 411 takes like a hog after . . . 144 take the bull . . . 563 take the bun 144 take the cake 144 take the chute 144 take the hair 563 take the long trail for 563 take the mountain 411 take the rag . . . 563 take the stone out . . . 676 take the town . . . 563 take to do 309 take to it like . . . 411 take to the tall timber 563 take up books 144 take up the books 563 take up the hatchet 309 take up with . . . 411 taking up for 145 tale 145 talking 411, 676 talking big 309 talkingest 145 talking Texas 564 Talking Water River 564 talk meeting 411 talk moonlight 411 talk the bark off . . . 564 talk to 411 talk to one’s plate 411 tall as a beanpole 309 tall country 564 tallywags 145, 411 tamago head 717 tamale 564 tamarack 309 tame Indian 564 Tammany 677 tanglefoot rye 564 tank 564 tank artist 677 tantoaster 309

784

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN REGIONALISMS

Taos Indian 564 Taos Lightning 564 tap 145 tap the admiral 309 tar 145 Tara 145 tarantula juice 564 tard 411 tarheel 145 Tarheel State 145 tarnal 309 tarnation 145 tarnation! 309 tarpoleon 564 tarpollyon 145 tarred and feathered 309 tarryhoot 411 Tar State 145 tartar sauce 677 tarvia 564 tasted 145 tat 411 tata 564 ta ta’s 145 tater 145, 411 tater-grabber 411 tautog 310 taw 412 Taxas 145, 564 taxel 564 taykadeezy 677 teacherage 564 teacher-doctor 412 team 310 teared 310 tearing up the pea patch, 145, 677 tears of the sun 564 tear the bone out 412 tear the stars out . . . 412 tear up Jack 145 tech 145 techy 412 techy as a cook 564 ted 310 teddy bear 677 teedle board 310 teem off 412 teeter totter 310 teeter-totter 564 teethache 310 Teflon Don 677 Tejano 564 telescoped words (Boont) 758 tell 145 tell for 145 tell him where to head in 310 telling 145 telling the tale 677 tell it on 145 tell it on . . . 412 tell me about it 677 tell the truth and . . . 310 tell the truth and shame . . . 145 temblo 564 tempest 310 temple 564 tend 310 tender 564 tenderfoot 565 tend out on 310 tenement 310 tenements 677 10-gallon hat 565 tennis 310 ten o’clock piece 745 tepee 565 tepee on wheels 565 terlet 677 termaters 412 terriblest 412 tess 677

tetch inna cup 677 tetchous 412 Teton Range 565 Texas 565 Texas . . . 565–66 Texas Independence Day 565 Texasism 565 Texas-size 566 Texas T-shirt 145 Texian 566 Tex-Mex 566 thack 310 Thames 310 thang 145, 412 thang cue 566 thank 566 thankee 145, 566 thanky 412 thank-ye-ma’am 310 thank you kindly 310 thank you much 566 thar 145, 412 thas 677 that 145, 566, 678, 745 thataway 145, 566 that-a-way 412 thatchy 310 that damned cowboy 566 that dog don’t hunt 146 that dog won’t hunt 412 that don’t mean pig . . . 566 That Guy 678 that’s a doozy 678 that’s a fact 310 that’s a great spoon 311 that’s all she wrote 566 that’s how the cow . . . 146 that’s how the cow ate . . . 412 that’s O.K. 717 that’s the out doingest . . . 412 that’s two different buckets . . . 146 that’s where the West . . . 566 that’s your lookout 412 that takes the rag . . . 146 that there 412, 566 thay 311 the 146 theah 311 their 678 theirin 146 theirn 146 theirselves 146, 412 them 412, 566 them there 146, 566 them-uns 146 them what works . . . 745 there, 146, 678 there ain’t no horse . . . 566 there’s another verse . . . 412 there’s more difference . . . 566 there’s more ways of killing . . . 146 there’s nothing in the . . . 567 there’s somethin’ dead . . . 412 there’s squirrel in . . . 412 there’s two sides . . . 412 (the) Rock 292 ther’s a one-eyed man . . . 566

these here 146 these yere 567 they call a house a . . . 311 they-uh 311 they-uns 146 thick as fiddlers in hell 311 thicker 745 thick of snow 311 thimbleberry 311 thin as vanity 311 things 146 things happen 678 think one shits candy 678 33 other McQuades 678 thisaway 146, 567 this child 146, 567 thish-yer 567 this I need yet? 678 this is true 678 this’n 567 thither 311 thoid 678 thole 146 Thomas Muffin 678 thorough 146 those 146 thoughty, 146, 567 thout 146 ‘thout 567 th’ow 146 thowed 567 3-7-77 567 three bricks shy . . . 146 the three B’s 567 threepeat 678 three-pricked goat (busy as a) 34 three sheets in the wind 311 three sheets to the wind . . . 311 thribble 146 thriblets 146 throughway 311 throw a double duck fit 146 throw a tub at(to) a whale 311 throwed 567 throwed it out 146 throw off 311 throw off on 146 throw out 717 throws a big loop 567 throw up Jonah 311 th sound (New Yorkese), 587–588 thumb-buster 567 thumber 567 Thump ‘em and see if . . . 147 thundering herd 147 thundermug 567 Thu’sday 567 thuse 147 tickled as a cat with . . . 311 tickle grass 311 tidies 567 tie a knot in his (her) tail 147 tie a rag to your tongue 311 tied hand and foot 311 tie loose 745 tienda 567 tie one to that! 567 tier 311 tie-tongued 147 tie up 311 tiger shits 567 tigers of the desert 567 tight 147

tight as Dick’s hatband 147 tighter than a bull’s mouth . . . 311 tighter than a teddy bear 311 tighter than skin . . . 147 tighter than the . . . 567 tight-stowed 312 Tilbury Town 312 till rattlers get tame 567 till the last pea’s out . . . 147 tilt 312 timber beast 567 time 147 times, ver’ quiet . . . 567 Times Square 678 time to whistle . . . 568 tin 147, 568 ting 679 tinhorn gambler 568 tinker 312 tinnis 568 Tinnissee 147 Tin Pan Alley 679 Tio Taco 568 tippet 312 tippy-toed 147 tipsy cake 147 tipsy parson 147 tip-toe Nancy 312 tiswin 568 titi 147 titman 312 tivis 312 ti yi yee . . . 568 to 147, 312, 679 toadfrog 147 toad-strangler 147 tobacco road 147 tobacker 568 Todt Hill 679 toe injection 312 toe the chalk 312 to get it 148 to hell I pitch it 312 to home 312 toil and moil 312 toilet paper 679 toin 679 Toity-toid and Toid 679 tol’able 312 tol’able well 568 tol-able well 148 tole 148 tolerable 148, 568 toll 148 toll away 148 tolt 148, 568 tomally 312 tomato can 679 tomatoeses 148 tomcat 148 tomorrow is another day 148 tom-walkers 148 tongue oil 568 tonic 312 tonsil varnish 568 Tonto 568 too 148 too big for his (her) britches 148 too brittle to bend 568 too high for . . . 148 took 148, 312 took a fit 312 took down with 148 tooken 148 took sick 312 too lazy to work . . . 568 toolhouse 568 too much mustard 568 too poor to paint and . . . 148

tooser 312 too slow to catch . . . 148 too sorry to hit a lick . . . 148 toosted 312 toot 745 tooth carpenter 312 tooth doctor 148 too thick to drink . . . 568 toothpick 568 tootle 148 tootling 148 Tootsie Roll 679 top cow 312 top dressing 312 top gallant 312 topping 312 tops 679 top screw 568 torch up 313 tore 568 to-rights 313 torn-down 148 toro 568 tortience 313 tortilla 569 tossel 148 tote 148, 313, 569 tote road 313 tote sled 313 tote-team 313 tote the mail 148 tother 413, 745 t’other 313 to tochis 679 touch a hundred 313 touch hands 413 touchin’ up 313 touch-me-not 148 touch of the holy bone, a 313 touchous 148 tough as a boiled eel 313 tough as puttin’ socks . . . 148 tougher than a bagful . . . 313 tourister 413 tourtiere 313 touse 313 town farm 313 town fathers 313 town pound 313 tow sack 413 Towser 149 toy 679 trace 413 trade 313 trade rat 569 trading 313 trail 569 trail broken 569 trailin’est 569 Trail of Tears 413, 569 trail waddy 569 train 313 trainer 313 traipsin’ about 313 trambo 679 trap a squaw 569 trapper 569 trap war 313 trash 149, 313 trash wench 149 trashy poor and no ’count 149 traveler 679 traveler’s friend 569 traveler’s-joy 313 traverse 313 travois 569 tread 413 tread on 313

treadsalve 149 Treasure State 569 tree 413 tree-bender 313 tree dozer 569 Tree Grows in Brooklyn, A 679 tree of heaven 680 tree squeak 313 tree yucca 569 tremblish 149 trembly 149 trememjus 149 triangular trade 314 trick 149 Tricky Dick 680 trifflers 314 triflin’ 413 trill 149 trimble 149 trimming 314 Trimontane peninsula 314 Trimount City 314 troll 149 trollup 413 trombernick 680 tromp 149 tromple 149 troot 680 trot around all day . . . 314 troubles 314 trout chowder 314 truck 149 true 680 true as preachin’! 314 true grit 569 truth to tell 149 tryin’ to cut a . . . 413 T.T.T. 569 tub 569 tuck 413 Tuckahoe 413 tuckahoe 149 tuckered 314 tuckered out 413, 569 tuh 680 tule land 569 tumbadore 569 tumble 314 tumbleweed 569 tumorra 680 tump 149, 314 tunk 314, 413 tunket 314 tunnel 314 turd-floater 569 turkey-and-hog dinner 149 turkey-mouthed 413 turkeytailed 413 turn 149, 413 turnaround 569 turned around some 314 turned off colder 413 turn him in the cold 149 turn loose 149, 570 turn off 413 turn one every way . . . 149 turn over the gravel 413 turn-row 149 turn the paunch 314 Turpentine State 149 turr 413 turrible 570 tutor 413 ’twarn’t 314 Tweed Ring 680 twenny 314 Twenty-five Foot Mile 680 twenty tailors around . . . 314

INDEX twenty-three skiddoo 680 twice as cold as zero 314 twict 149 twink! 314 twinkles 413 Twin Towers 680 twistification 149, 413 twist it, choke it . . . 680 twitch 314 twitchet 413 twizzle 314 twofers 680 two-gun toter 570 two lamps burning and . . . 314 twouble 149 ’twould break a snake’s back . . . 314 two whoops and a holler 570 tyee 570 type 680 tzooker 745

U U (noun) 681 u (pronounciation) 315 uddah 681 uf caws 681 ugh! 571 ugly 150, 315 uhparment 681 ujinctum 150, 414 ’uka bla 718 ukelele 718 ulu 718 unaker 150 unbalm 150 unbeknown 414 unbleached Americans 150 unbounded 414 unbreathing 150 unbutton the collar of 150 Uncle 150 uncle 315 Uncle Bud 150 Uncle Tomahawk 571 uncombed 571 uncomfortable as a . . . 315 undecent 150 under a flag 571 underminded 150 under the hack 150 under the table 681 under the window 315 underworld 681 unemployment 681 unfinancial 150 unglicklich 746 ungotz 681 unhealth 150 Union League 150 United Daughters of the Confederacy 151 Unity States 151 unlessen 151 unliving 414 unmorals 151 unna 681 unnatural 151 unnerstand 681 unpleasantness 151 unquile 414 unreconstructed southerner 151 unshushables 681 unteched 151 Unterrified Democrat 151 unthawed 315 unthoughted 151 unthoughtless 414

until the last dog . . . 571 unwind 571 up 571 up-along 315 up and died 315 up and done it 414 up and down as a . . . 571 up-and-gone-person 414 up a stump, 315, 746 up attic 315 upchuck 151 up Green River 571 upheaded 414 uphold for 414 up in 414 up-in-G 414 up in the paints 681 up on one’s . . . 315 upon the top (side) . . . 151 uppah Manhattan 681 upped 682 upped and 151 uppity 414 uppowoc 151 up shit creek . . . 151 up Shit Creek without . . . 571 upstair 315 upstropolis 315 up the road a piece 151 uptick 682 up to Green River 571 up to the shoe . . . 414 urn 414 urrant 414 us 151 use 414 used to 571 used-to-be 151 used to could 151, 414, 571 used to couldn’t . . . 151 use it up, wear it out . . . 316 useless as tits . . . 151 usen 414 use to couldn’t 151 usings 414 us-ums 151 Utah 571 Utahan 571

V V 152 vaca 572 vag 572 vaggers! 317 Valley 415 vámonos 572 vamoose 572 vamp it up 317 vanella 683 vanity cake 152 vapors 152 vaquero 572 variable hare 572 various 152 varmint 152, 572 varmint stew 572 varsity 152 Vaseline 683 vasty 415 vault 415 vaya con Dios 572 veal 317 vecino 572 vega 572 ve get too soon . . . 747 velvet 317 vending machine 683 vendue 747 verbena 572 verdin 572

Vermont 317 Vermont charity 317 Vermontese 317 Vermont gray 317 Vermont kindling 317 Vermont psalm 317 Verrazano Bridge 683 verse 683 very dinky 572 very poor man’s dinner 317 very spit of 152 veto 152 vic 683 vichyssoise 683 view 317 vigilance committee 152 vigintial crop 152 vigorish 683 vigroush 415 vinegaroon 572 Virginia 152 Virginia . . . 152–53 Virginial 153 Virginianism 153 Virginia Tidewater dialect 3 visit with you 572 vistle 747 vittles 153, 415, 572 voitue 683 volunteer, 153, 415 vomick 415 vomito 573 vouchers 573 vow and bedamn 153 voyage 317 voyageur 573 vum 317

W waddadajintzoodisaft 684 waddle 415 waddy 574 wadgetty 318 wadn’t 415 wageworker 318 wagon 318 wagon boss 574 wagon mound 574 wagon train 574 wagpole 154 wahgoozidoo 684 wahine 719 waistie 415 waiter 154, 415 wait’ll next year 684 wait on 154, 318, 574 wake me up when Kirby dies 684 wake snakes 318 wal 318, 574 Walden Pond 318 Waldorf salad 684 walkalong Joe 154 Walker Colt 574 walkin’-around longhorns 574 walking off with . . . 154 walking treaty 574 walk in the wind 415 walk it to him! 318 wall 154, 415 waller 154 walley 748 wallop 318 walloper 154 Wall Street 684 Wall Street Journal 684 Wallstreet Panic 154 Walt Whitman house 684 waltz through handsome 574 wamble-cropped 318

wamble-jawed 318 wampum 318 wampus 415 wangan 318 wanigan 318 wannamayksumpnuvit? 685 wan’t 319 wa’n’t 574 wanted up 154 want no truck with 574 wants up 154 war 415, 574 War, the 154 War Between the States 154 War for Constitutional Liberty 154 War for Nationality 154 War for Separation 154 War for Southern Freedom 154 War for Southern Independence 154 War for Southern Nationality 154 War for Southern Rights 154 War for States’ Rights 154 warm from the cow 319 warm it to him 319 warm piece of the sidewalk 685 warn’t 319, 574 warnut 415 War of Inequity 319 War of Secession 154 War of the North and South 154 War of the Sixties 155 warrant 415 warsh 574 War to Suppress Yankee Arrogance 155 Warwick 319 was 155 was a year 155 wash 155 wash-ashores 319 washastep 685 wash-hole 155 washing 155 washline 155 Washoe 574 Washoeites 575 wash-off 415 wash out the dishes 319 wasn’t done it, I 91 wasp’s nest 155 wassitooyuh? 685 wassy 415 waste 416 watcher 319 watchin’ his bees 416 Watch Night 319 watch the night fully . . . 155 watch your hair 575 water 155 water bar 319 water bewitched, meal . . . 319 Waterbury 319 watermillion 575 water-shy 575 water witch 319 water witcher 575 watthitcha? 685 waves 685 wave the bloody shirt 155 waw 319 wawa 575 wawnchalla 155 wawsh 416

wax 155, 416, 575 ways 155 way yonder 155 wazzitooyuh? 685 we 155 We ain’t what we want to be . . . 155 weaked 416 weakified 155 weak jerks 155 we-all, 155, 416 we-alls 416 we-all’s 155 weaner 575 wear 575 wearing calluses on . . . 575 wear it in good health 685 wear out 155, 319, 416 wear the britches 155 wear the green willow 155 wear to a frazzle 155 wear to a nub 155 wears a two-inch . . . , he 499 wearying 416 weather 416 weather breeder 319 weather varieties 319 webfoot 575 webfooter 155 We Can Kick Your City’s Ass 685 wedding-elms 319 wedgy 319 weed-bender 416 weedmonkey 155, 416 weekend warrior 685 weest 748 wee-wawing 319 we have two seasons . . . 319 weight 416 welcome to the club 685 well 319 well, fry me brown! 416 well, I’ll be 155, 319 well, I’m a hollow-horn 575 well, I’m fexatiously . . . 416 well, knock me off . . . 320 well, shoot a bug! 156 well broom me out! 416 well fixed 416 well-greased 575 well-knowed 155 well slap the dog . . . 156 well to live 320 we must take it as . . . 320 wench 156 went 156, 320, 575 weren’t 320 West 575 West-by-God-Virginia 156, 416 Westering 575 Western 575 Westernism 575 Western sandwich 575 West Side 685 West Virginia 156, 416 West Virginny 156, 416 wet 320 wet as sap 320 wetback 575 wet bars and dry trails 575 wet one’s beak 685 wet stock 575 we-uns 156

785

we’ve howdied, but . . . 156 we wuz robbed! 685 wha 156 whack 416 whack out 685 whadda 685 whaddaya 685 Whaleman’s Chapel 320 whaler 320 whale the daylights . . . 320 whaling 320 wham bam, thank you, ma’am 576 whang-doodle 156 whang leather 576 whap over 320 whapper-jawed 156 whar 156, 416, 576 wharves 320 what 156 what-all 416 whatcheer 320 what-da-ya-think? 320 what does it give . . . 748 what do you want I should . . . 685 whatever 685 what fo 576 what for? 156 what I mean 576 what in tarnation! 320 what in tunket! 320 whatness 576 whatsa 685 what’s the big idea! 686 what’s the matter . . . 748 what’s the state of your . . . 320 what’s the word? 320 what’s your hand read? 576 what the world’s going to 156 what time be it? 320 wheat and Indian 320 wheat ranch 576 wheel 320, 686 wheel barrel 576 wheelbarrow fashion 320 wheel baw 156 wheeler dealer 576 wheelhorse 416 whelp 156, 576 when a dog bites . . . 686 when elephants roost . . . 156 whenever 416 when good Texans die, . . . 576 when it rains porridge . . . 320 when the cheese . . . 156 when the hoot owl . . . 416 when you call me . . . 576 when you don’t know what . . . 320 when you’ve left New York . . . 686 where 416 where are you preaching? 320 where at’s 576 where’s at 156 where’s it at 686 wheresomever 156 where y’at? 156 where you going? 321 where you stay go? 719 whet 156

786

DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN REGIONALISMS

which 156 whichaway 417 which-a-way 156 whickering owl 321 whick-whack 321 whiffle-bird 417 whiles 156 whilst 156, 417 whimpery 157 whip 576 Whip City 321 Whip of God 576 whippet 321 whippoorwill storm 417 whistle pig 417 whistling up the wind 321 white bacon 157 white-bellied weasel 576 white buffalo 576 white captain 157 white-faced New England 321 whitefish 417 whitefolks 157 whitefolk’s nigger 157 White Graveyard of . . . , the 321 white hats and black . . . 576 white hen’s chickens 321 White League 157 white lightning 417 White Line 157 white-livered widder 417 white man 157 white marsh 157 White Mountain freezer 321 White Mountains 321 white mule 157, 417 white nigger 157 white oak 321 white person 577 white Republican 157 white wind 577 whittle 321 whittlety-whet 157 whit up 157 who-all 417, 577 whoa up 577 who beat? 321 who laid the chuck 157 who laid the chunk 417 whole biscuit (don’t that take the) 60 whole boodle, the 321 whole caboodle 321 whole enduring day 157 whole shebang 686 whole shmeer 686 whole tote, the 321 whomper-jawed 157 who needs it? 686 whoo-ee 157 whoop-la 577 whoop owl 417 whoop ti do 577 whop 157 whopper-jawed 157 who put Tabasco sauce . . . 577 whore’s egg 321 who’s buried in . . . 686 whoses 157 whup 417 whupped 157 whur 417 whut 417, 577 why in pluperfect hell 157 Wianno 321 Wichita 577

Wickedest Man in . . . 686 wicked good 321 wickiup 577 wid 686 widder 157, 417, 577 widder woman 157 a wide place in the . . . 577 widow and orphan maker 417 widow maker 321 widow’s walk 321 wife of 321 wigs on the green 321 wikiwiki 719 wikiwiki burger 719 wilcox 322 wild, wooly and full . . . 578 wild and wooly West 577 wild as an acre . . . 157 wild as spikehorn bucks 157 Wild Bill Hickok, a 577 wildcat 577 wildcat trail 322 wild geese 322 wild Indian 577 wild pork 417 wild west show 578 will 158 Williamsboig 686 willipus-wallupus 417 willipus-wollopus 158 Winchell, Walter 686 Winchester 578 wind blew straight . . . 322 winder 158 winder lites 417 wind is out, the 322 windla 748 windowlight 158 window stool 322 wind-pudding 322 windy-making 565 wine book 158 wing 417 winkum 322 win one’s spurs 578 winter fever 417 winter never rots . . . 322 winter Texans 578 wipe 578 wiry as hog-bristles 158 wise boy 686 wise guy 686 wiser’n a tree full . . . 578 wishful-like 417 wishing book 322 wisit 748 witchew 686 witchgrass 322 witching wand 322 witch woman 158 with all sail set 322 with a penny to bless him (her) 158 Witherlick 322 withey 417 with-its 322 with (on) 686 without 158, 322, 578, 686 withouten 578 with socks on 417 with squirrel 417 withy 322

wizzled 322 wobble 158 wo-haw 578 woim 686 wolfer 578 wolf fish 322 wolfish 578 womenfolks 417 womens 158 wonder 322 wonder cakes 322 wonderful 322, 417 wonderful good 748 wonderment 158 wonders me, it 735 wonnernous 748 won’t 158 won’t nothin’ make . . . 417 won’t pass without . . . 417 won’t stay shot 578 woodchuck, 322, 417 wood house 578 woodpecker 418 woodpile cousin 322 wood pussy 578 woods 322 woods colt 158 wood’s colt 418 wood’s queer 323 wood wax 323 wool 418 wool-hat boys 158 woolies 578 woolsey 578 Woolworth Building 686 woolyhead 158 woolyneag 323 woon’t 158 woppering 578 wopple-jawed 158 wopse 323 Worcester 323 words and trickery and flummery 158 wored 418 wore out 158 workbrickle 418 worked over with . . . 578 working without a full . . . 158 work like hell-on-fire 158 workup 578 worldly 748 world’s a sorry . . . 323 World’s Largest Garbage . . . 687 World’s Largest Store 687 World Trade Center 687 worried up 158 worrisome 158 worrit 578 worryation 158 worser 159, 418 worse than a Massachusetts driver 323 worse than the plagues . . . 159 worstest 159 worth doodley squat 159 wosh 323 woted 748 wotta 323 woulda 687 wouldn’t give him . . . 323 wouldn’t know him . . . 250, 323

wouldn’t know him from . . . 578 wouldn’t pass without . . . 418 wouldn’t touch it . . . 250, 323 wouldn’t trust him . . . , I 91 wouldn’t wear it . . . 323 would use to 159 Wowie Maui 719 wowser 418 W.P.&A. 159 wrangle 579 wrangler 579 wranglings 579 wrastle 159, 418 wrathy 579 wreck 323 wreck of the Hesperus 323 wrench 418 wrenching out 159 wringing wet 323 wring-jaw 159 wrinkled his spine 579 wrinkle-horn 579 writ 418 write 159 writer 687 write when you get work 418 writhen 159 written 418 Wrong-Way Corrigan 687 wrop 418 wrote 579 wrote up 323 wudge 323 wuh 687 wuhduh 687 wunst 579 wunt 323 wuntcha 687 wust 324 wutz 748 Wyatt Earp, a 579 Wyoming 579

X X 160 X (letter name) 419 xat 580 xerga 580 XIT 580 xter 419

Y yada, yada, yada 688 yager 161 yah 688 yahoo 161 ya-hoo! cake 581 yakima 581 Yale 325 Yale banger 325 Yale blue 325 Yale lock 325 Yalensian 325 y’all all come! 581 yaller janders 420 yam 161 Yamassee 161 yander 420 Yank 161 yank 325, 420 Yankee 161, 170, 325, 688 Yankee . . . 326–28 Yankee bummer 161 Yankee bump 161, 420 Yankee catchers 161

Yankee cheesebox on . . . 161 Yankee dime 161 Yankeedom 161, 326 Yankee Doodle 326 Yankee-doodle dandeeism 326 Yankeedoodledom 326 Yankee female, the 326 Yankeefied 327 Yankee Invasion 161 Yankeeland 161, 327 Yankee Notion State 327 Yankees are coming!, the 161 Yankee shot 161 Yankee Stadium 688 Yankee states, the 327 Yankee tea 161 Yankee vegetables 161 yapped up 161, 420 Yaptown 688 yard 688 yarixed 749 yarmulke 688 yarned 328 yarnin’ 420 yaw-ays 581 Yazoo Fraud 162 ye, 328, 420 year, 162, 420, 581 yearling 162 yearth 162 yeaw 420 yedra 581 ye gods and little fishes! 162 yellow 162, 688 Yellow Dog 581 Yellow Dog Republican 581 yellow hammer 420 yellow jasmine 162 yellow jessamine 162 yellow journalism 688 yellow plug 162 Yellow Rose of Texas 689 yellow rose of Texas 162 Yellowstone National Park 581 yellow streak (stripe) . . . 581 ye’ns 420 yenta 689 Yerba Buena 581 yes, we have no . . . 689 yessum 162 yester 162 yestiddy 420 ye-uns 162 yez 689 y’heah 162 Yiddish 689 Yinglish 689 ying-yang 420 yins 420 yippie-ki-yi-yay 581 yit 162, 420 yiz 689 yo 162, 420, 689 yob 689 yobm 689 Yogiism 689 yokefellows 328 Yoknapatawpha 162 yon 162, 328 yonder 328, 581 yooper 420 yopped up 420 york 162

York shilling 328 Yosemite 581 you 328 you ain’t just whistlin’ . . . 162 you’all 581 you-all 162, 420 you’all come! 163 you all’s 421 you’all’s 163, 582 you bet! 582 you better believe 328 you better believe . . . 689 you can bet your . . . 582 you can drive a nail . . . 582 you can play with my . . . 582 you can’t keep . . . 421 you caught me speedin’ 582 you come 421 you come! 163 you could carry me out . . . 328 you dance with them . . . 582 you might as well talk . . . 328 youngberry 582 youngling 163 young sapling 163 young’un 163 young-uns 328 your-all 421 your all’s 582 your cotton is low 163 your druthers is my ruthers 163 you’re lookin’ for a . . . 582 your happy tootin’! 421 your mother! 689 yourn 163, 421 your un’s 421 youse 689 you should live so long 690 you should live to be . . . 690 youth 421 you’uns 163 you-uns 421 youvadanuffbud 690 yow 328 yowe 421 yown 421 yucca country 582 yuppie 690 yuther 163

Z zanja 583 zany 422 zanzibar 329 zat 422 zebra 164 Zephyrinas 164 zero 329 zhlub 691 zink 164, 583 zip 422, 691 zombie 164 zondike 164 zone 329 Zon-gun 691 zoon 164, 422 zotz 691 Zouave 164 Zulu 691 zus 750