Folklore: I don't take no tea for the fever

Subject: Folklore: I don't take no tea for the fever
From: keberoxu
Date: 01 Sep 18 - 06:11 PM

Because that figure of speech is completely new to me,
I started a folklore thread about it.
How did I hear it?

The late great Aretha Franklin was being remembered,
in People magazine, by Glynn Turman, her second husband.
He recalled her tough-minded stubborn attitude in these words:
"She didn't take [no] tea for the fever,
as the old folks say."

Do they? I never heard old folks say that,
but maybe I wasn't around the proper old folks for it.

My woolly initial grasp of this statement of attitude
is, I don't settle for less than what I need or desire.
Am I mistaken?

Subject: RE: Folklore: I don't take no tea for the fever
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 01 Sep 18 - 08:35 PM

And the other one is:
"hatched under a cabbage leaf."

Subject: RE: Folklore: I don't take no tea for the fever
From: keberoxu
Date: 02 Sep 18 - 05:10 PM

Mudcatter Azizi was here and gone before my time,
and I reckon this figure of speech is one
that she was raised with.
It seems not only African-American but the kind of thing
transmitted orally amongst the women,
and the young men growing up, along with the young girls,
would learn it from the women elders.

When I look around online
for quotes of this figure of speech,
women are ALWAYS involved and they are women of color.

I wish
that I had learned not to take tea for the fever.
I was rigorously schooled to ... make do with the darned tea.

Subject: RE: Folklore: I don't take no tea for the fever
From: Thompson
Date: 03 Sep 18 - 03:22 PM

I would assume that this means someone so tough that she eschews any healing teas if she has a fever.

Subject: RE: Folklore: I don't take no tea for the fever
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Sep 18 - 03:53 PM

"Look around the web and you'll find countless references to "feed a cold, starve a fever" being a misinterpretation of a line in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales that reads "fede a cold and starb ob feber" which is translated as "encourage a cold and die of fever." - i.e. a cautionary message that if you allow yourself to get a relatively minor cold you could contract something much nastier."
https://www.bookbrowse.com/expressions/detail/index.cfm/expression_number/523/feed-a-cold-starve-a-fever HERE

May be she don't take no tea for a fever cause it's BS to do so?

Opinions vary : feed a cold, starve a fever

Also, there are more then one type of fever : the white hand of a lady fever thee

Rest her soul

Subject: RE: Folklore: I don't take no tea for the fever
From: GUEST,paperback^
Date: 03 Sep 18 - 03:53 PM

Subject: RE: Folklore: I don't take no tea for the fever
From: keberoxu
Date: 03 Sep 18 - 05:00 PM

I guess there's no way of tracing something like this back.

Anyway when I read this in context of
what African-Americans are saying, writing, or posting online,
it's all about standing up to a challenge.

There is a subtext of:
The fever is a challenge that no tea will cure;
don't offer me tea if it won't cure the fever in the first place.

In this day and age, whether speaking of Aretha Franklin,
Paul Robeson, or one of the speakers at the Aretha Franklin service,
when this figure of speech is said,
it's about a statement in which the speaker did not beat about the bush
but said what was to be said even though it might give offense.

I guess this figure of speech has got layers to it.

Subject: RE: Folklore: I don't take no tea for the fever
From: GUEST,paperback
Date: 03 Sep 18 - 05:53 PM

I see, I misunderstood your wording cuz I don't really follow the news, I think I understand now. Shouldn't be that hard to find out, I'll ask around.

Subject: RE: Folklore: I don't take no tea for the fever
From: keberoxu
Date: 19 May 20 - 10:28 AM

My thanks to former Mudcatter Azizi Powell,
who will not post here herself
but who kindly responded to my e-mail.

Azizi directed me to DARE,
the online Dictionary of American Regional English
at the website for
The University of Wisconsin-Madison.

An entry there reads:
tea for the fever, not to take
Not to put up with any nonsense.
Theresa is a woman with a "take no tea for the fever" attitude.

Azizi confesses in her response to me,
"I had never heard that saying
'not to take tea for the fever' before.
I asked my adult daughter and
she hadn't heard it before either.
[. . . ]
Perhaps it used to be commonly said
among some Black Americans way back when,
maybe in certain regions of the USA -- and maybe not."

and further:
"My GUESS is that
that saying came about because
herbal tea was one of the first options for a fever,
but when that didn't work,
people had to move to stronger methods
(perhaps such as hot toddies -- adding liquor to the tea)."

Subject: RE: Folklore: I don't take no tea for the fever
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Mar 21 - 02:25 PM

Means you don’t put up with ANY nonsense

Subject: RE: Folklore: I don't take no tea for the fever
From: GUEST,Felipa
Date: 15 Mar 21 - 11:43 AM

There's an old saying in Irish Gaelic "tá an tae ina leigheas ar achan [gach aon] ghalar" , Tea is a cure for every illness. The longer version is "Tá an tae ina leigheas ar achan ghalar ach an bás,"tea is a cure for every illness - except death."