Folklore: favorite southern US expression

Subject: RE: Folklore: favorite southern US expression
From: Kim C
Date: 13 Feb 03 - 10:17 AM

Ah bleeve it's comin up a rain.

I have read the expression "crazier 'n owl shit" somewhere before.

My friend Howard, who is originally from Mississippi, likes to use the word "fantods." I don't know that it's particularly Southern, but it is somewhat old-fashioned. It sounds like a digestive ailment, but what it really is, is a case of the willies.

I like the word "ain't." I use it often, because I can, dammit. I also frequently disagree my subject and verb, on purpose. I do know better, thank you, but in informal conversation, I really don't care. That don't mean I ain't halfway smart. The college down yonder give me a piece of paper that says so.

Subject: RE: Folklore: favorite southern US expression
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Feb 03 - 09:59 AM

"With no more regard than a mule at a funeral"

Subject: RE: Folklore: favorite southern US expression
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 13 Feb 03 - 09:29 AM

Slicker than snot on a doorknob
Useless as tits on a bull
Dumber than sled tracks
Slower than Christmas
Couldn't pour pee out of a boot with directions on the heel
More x than Carters has got pills
Dumber than a bucket of hair
Dumber than a bucket of rocks

Subject: RE: Folklore: favorite southern US expression
From: Rapparee
Date: 13 Feb 03 - 08:16 AM

Went in to git me a beer, 'cause I was drier'n seven acres a parched corn. Buncha boys in the joint were mean, mean'r'n spoilt meat, an wanted to tare up some. Ugly, too, each of 'em was uglier'n six miles of homemade mud fence, but strong enough to drive ten penny nails with their thumbs. I didn't fancy a poundin' much cuz my face is so pritty an all, and these were the sort who'd stomp shit outa you an then smear it on your face, so I sorta sidled outa there afore they tore it all to flinderations. Managed to finish ma beer, first, though.


(I think someone mixed "homemade sin" and "mud fence" but it comes out okay.)

Subject: RE: Folklore: favorite southern US expression
From: Bullfrog Jones
Date: 13 Feb 03 - 04:07 AM

Another one from Mitch Jayne on 'Dillards -- Live, Almost': 'Slicker than deer guts on a door-knob'.

BJ

Subject: RE: Folklore: favorite southern US expression
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Feb 03 - 12:59 AM

Once when looking at a line I'd made to mark a saw cut he was about to make my uncle remarked, "S**t, you call that straight?! Why's it's crooked-er than a bull's d**k!"

Subject: RE: Folklore: favorite southern US expression
From: Merritt
Date: 13 Feb 03 - 12:48 AM

Over the years, have lived/worked in North Carolina, W. Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, & Mississippi. Also dated a woman from Texas.

"That Midnight Train Brandy ain't nothin' but the truth!" The "truth" = the real deal. (NC)

"I liketa die. I liketa had a heart attack." (Texas)

"Uh oh, Bobby Joe 'bout to whoop one on." When you start lose your temper, people would try to tease you out of it with little jabs like this. (NC)

"Might could." (NC, WV)

"The hawk is out today." The "hawk" referring to a cold, cutting wind. (NC)

"If it was a snake, it woulda bit me." Meaning that the thing you were looking for was right there in front of you, or the thing you were trying to remember was obvious. (All over)

In response to the question, "Can I buy you a soda?" the phrase "I don't care" or "I don't mind" is common in some parts of the south. It means "yes" but if you're used to a more direct answer it can throw you.

"Barkin' up a stump." Wasting one's time.

"Well, if I ever do this again, that'll be twice."

"Lininumum Rug" = linoleum floor

"Well, a couple of inches this way or that don't make no never mind to Charlie." Local contractor explaining why a house foundation was less than perfect.

"Don't that beat all."

- Merritt

Subject: RE: Folklore: favorite southern US expression
From: CapriUni
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 11:42 PM

I don't remember the context or who said it, but this is a phrase I heard when I was beginning to move house for New York State to southeast Virginia, and it's stuck in my mind:

"Grinnin' like a butcher's dog"

...

or was it happy as a butcher's dog? ...

Subject: RE: Folklore: favorite southern US expression
From: Miken
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 11:37 PM

"Shakin like a tall pine in a high wind"

From a friend in Mississippi "les go get us a cona cream" (an ice cream cone)

Answers to an obvious question:
"is a pigs ass pork?", or "does a hobby horse have a hickory dick?"

Subject: RE: Folklore: favorite southern US expression
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 11:17 PM

"was it rainin'?..man, it was rainin' like a cow pissin' on a flat rock!"

Subject: RE: Folklore: favorite southern US expression
From: TNDARLN
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 11:12 PM

Shoot yeah, Dave-- Daddy said that all the time!

He also talks about "going about his ratkilling..." [which I've never heard anywhere else]

...and the term "sigh foggin'" from an old joke [I think] meaning loosely, that since you can't get there in a straight line, you have to "sigh fogg" [accent first syllable] or, put another way, the path is as crooked as a dawg's hin' leg. Or did I say that bass-ackwards?

Here's another: my Grandmother useta' talk about stinky things as being a "kee yarny" mess...Daddy thinks that comes from "carrion", but I'd love to hear that there's an old Scots phrase similar to it.

What about "flatter'n a flitter"? After I run over hit wi' my four wheeler, that 'possum was flatter'n a flitter.

And from my h.s. physics teacher, "you're a lost ball in high weeds"- he was an onery cuss....

I'll speak my Southern English as natural as I please........!

Subject: RE: Folklore: favorite southern US expression
From: Dave Swan
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 10:13 PM

Anybody ever hear "Yankee dime" for a kiss? Anybody got the background? It was used by a friend's grandmother who came from Oklahoma, which I know is not really the South, but this seems like a good place to ask the question.
D

Subject: RE: Folklore: favorite southern US expression
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 10:07 PM

More expressions here than a carter's got oats.

Some given here are well-known outside of the south.

Subject: RE: Folklore: favorite southern US expression
From: catspaw49
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 09:57 PM

VULGARITY ALERT

Okay?

There must be about a hundred ways to call someone a cocksucker because I know probably 75 and there are bound to be more. One of my "TOP TEN" came from a Southerner and has that certain peculiar Southern "ring' about it. I've loved it since the first time I heard it: "Tell ya' whut, that boy there would suck a root as long as a rake handle."

Spaw

Subject: RE: Folklore: favorite southern US expression
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 09:49 PM

McLeoud: Most of us hillbillies are called Southern Highlanders for a reason--the majortiy of us are of Scots descent. Therefore, it's not unusual that Scot terms would wind up here.

What are some terms that you know? Post them and we may see a very common linguistic connection.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned A (uh) "I'm a'comin'."

Don't think that all of us hillbillies talk this way. AND DON'T EVEN DARE TO THINK THAT BECAUSE SOME OF TALK LIKE THIS THAT WE ARE DUMB AND STUPID!

Subject: RE: Folklore: favorite southern US expression
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 09:48 PM

Frequently heard Southern conversation:

"Djeetchet?"
"Nawdjoo?"
"Notchet."
"Yawntoo?"
"Chitchayuh!"
"Aw-ite."

Bruce

Subject: RE: Folklore: favorite southern US expression
From: Ferrara
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 09:30 PM

ROFLMAO!

Here's a few from my mom:

"He hasn't got a pot to pee in!" (shiftless and improvident...)
"He hopped on that like a chicken on a June bug."
"I've been running around like a chicken with its head cut off." (very busy, disorganized)
"He called her everything but a lady." (insults)
... and my favorite, "Uglier than home made sin."

Rita

Subject: RE: Folklore: favorite southern US expression
From: Mudlark
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 09:21 PM

Windah lights = panes of glass
Bedfast = ill in bed
Haint..."Why I haint see'd you since....Hec was a pup" /said sooo slowly you could feel yourself age as you listened in
You'ns, us'ns
Fight? Why, it was like Daddy 'n the bear...
Leetle, as in leetle ole redbird
Y'all come = invitation
Y'all come go with me...said as someone was leaving
Y'all come back ... said whenever one left a store, or any place else
Feist dog = small, terrier yard dog good for getting snakes and other
        vermin
"Why, I wouldn't take 500 dollars fer that dawg." Usually said of a
        useless hound dog someone was wanting to trade...
The mispronunciation of words: despite the 5 foot high letters in the
        Walmart sign, everybody in Huntsville pronounced it Walmark.

All from the 1970's Ozarks. With the advent of a TV in every house this wonderful vernacular was dying out however, by the time we left in the 80's.

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 08:53 PM

"spank mah britches and shet mah mouth!" - Cousin Bill
"Kiss mah ass in th' red!" - Uncle Rob
"Hope ya s**t an' fall back innit!" - Joe(a friend of mine)
"Way-ell, it's fer shur them gals aint a gonna starve to death." - Friend referring to a couple of upper middle class women we saw 'uptown' one time.
"Go cut me a switch!" - Grandma(whenever I'd misbehave)

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: Neighmond
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 08:51 PM

Well-here goes:

Slower 'n the angel o'death
sail to and do her (git going on it)
ain't worth the shot to shoot 'em
aggrevates my soul
agitates my bein'

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: artbrooks
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 08:25 PM

Wa'ul, all ah kin say is "Sheee-it!"

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: Rapparee
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 07:29 PM

It got cold here last night. It was so cold that the thermometer went and said it was five feet below zero. Snow's purtier'n a newborn pup, though. Lotsa younguns got the flu, sicker'n shit and don't smell nowhere near as nice, either. Feller t'other day told me I couldn't walk cross his paster, so I told him to go piss up a rope, I wasn't harmin' nothing. He wanted to light into me, but I lit a shuck outa there -- there's a time an place fer fightin' and that weren't it.

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: GUEST, Dale
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 06:42 PM

The thing to remember about all this is that these are expressions to treasure. Listen while you can because the influence of TV, etc. is fast homogenizing the language. Listening to the old tapes from the 70s and 80s that I am privileged to hear and work with, I can detect a difference from what usta be, and what you would hear now.

That is not to say that the colorful local language is completely gone. I did hear the ultimate fixin' a couple of weeks ago.   A young lady I know (about 21)who was home from college said she was fixin' to fix a particular thing.

Students (most anyway) still speak with a certain amount of respect to, for example, school secretaries.   Now in the North you'd hear them say Mrs. Jones or Miss Smith, or possibly use their first names. But here in the South, while you will hear those titles used, you are far more likely to hear them referred to as Miz Julie, Miz Barbara, whatever. In the North, that would not have been an option.

An excellent source of Ozark humor and language is by Mitch Jayne. (former Dillard and of course, former Darlin' boy!)
Home Grown Stories & Home Fried Lies (subtitled Words With The Bark On Them And Other Ozark Oddments)   Ten sample pages are available for viewing at Amazon.

More about the book here.

Mitch is also a regular contributor for the Missouri Conservationist Magazine. Use the Missouri Conservationist search engine to find Mitch Jayne storys.

Here's an excerpt from one ~~~~

Zeke: Well onct you get past 65 it evens out purty smooth, but 65, that's the rough one.

Mitch: Why 65?

Zeke: That's when everbody figures if you ain't dead yit yer missin' a good chaince. They all fly in to sell you yer box or a plot to plant ye or burial insurance, or they set in to put ye in a home som'ers.

Mitch: They all came at you at once?

Zeke: Hit was a sight on earth. Had to nail up a barrel fer a mail box to catch all the dodgers fer rockin' cheers and wheel cheers and funerals and old folks magazines and nostrums fer regularity and perpetchural keer fer yer plot and rest homes and nursin' homes and a whole outlandish bunch of other plunder I cain't remember.

Mitch: Weren't interested, huh?

Zeke: Well sir, I bottled up a batch of my cold remedy jist fer us old folks. I call it "Ol Quiet Owl."

Mitch: "Ol Quiet Owl"?

Zeke: Take reg'lar doses of it, you keep gettin' old but you won't give a hoot.

_______________________________________________

The expression used by Zeke, "Hit was a sight on earth." was commonly used by my old Uncle Walter, gone from us for many years, but his language lingers on for me.

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: mack/misophist
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 06:09 PM

Cautious as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Some of these I didn't know were southern. It's just the way I talk.

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: GUEST,Puffenkinty
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 06:09 PM

My two favorites:

He was "knee-walkin' drunk".

And when you don't want somebody to mess with something
you say, "Just leave it where Jesus flung it."

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: Sam L
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 06:05 PM

My favorite mountain preposition of all time was my grandmother telling us to "come on out from back down up in under there".

Steepr'n a cow's face.

Bins. This took me a while, my wife's family said it and didn't remember saying it a second later so you could ask them about it. B
But from use it seems to be "being as". Bins you're going there I'll go with you.

   Ruirnt. That corn's ruirnt.

   It may not be southern, but my wife loves things going to hell in a handbasket. It's not simply that things are going to hell, but somewhat daintily, in a handbasket.

Kindly, for kind of. I kindly thought so.

Twicet. Once or twicet. Sometimes onest or twicest.

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 06:01 PM

Fascinating thread.

"Redd up" (clean up) is actually a very old Scots expression. Haven't heard it in years, and it is interesting that it should have migrated to the Southern States.

Murray

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: GUEST,Claymore
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 05:42 PM

A couple of my favorites:

"Felt like a duck at a cock fight"
"I have no dog in that fight" (variation of one above)
"Pretty as a deer, but dumber than owl shit"
"One wheel in the dirt" (meaning about to go out of control)
"Smelled like a fart in a gym sock"
"Shitting in tall cotton" (meaning doing well in life)
"Ugly as a stump"
"I want to date outside the family"
"Too much sugar for the dime" (meaning overwhelming or false praise)
"Herding cats" or "Pushing string" (meaning doing something difficult)

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 05:27 PM

Redd up. As in 'clean up.' "well, I guess I'd better redd up the kitchen."

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: Rapparee
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 05:16 PM

Dad gum, iffen y'all don't talk funny! Why, here I am, fuller'n a tick an' feelin' lower'n a snake's belly in a wagon rut, an' y'all start this here stuff! Iffen I had my mind, I'd think that y'all were a couple sannwiches shy of a picnic, er maybe yer elevators don't go all the way up! 'Course, I know better'n that, 'cause y'all are purty good folks, mostly.

(As we say here in Kentucky....)

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 05:15 PM

"You can stick a cat in the oven but that don't make it a biscuit."

Here's another usage for the word 'fix'. "How are you fixed for bread?" Meaning do you have enough bread.

-Kaleb

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 05:10 PM

"I ain't goin' up there. It's too fur an' snakey!"
oh, I like that one!

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: chip a
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 04:52 PM

When he got hungry out on the job, my old boss used to say "if we had some bread, we'd make us a sandwich, if we had some jelly"
He also said, if we got in a bind: "we can do anything that can be done by us"
Or for a hard job: "we'll do it by mean strength and awkwardness"

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: Kim C
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 04:46 PM

Well, if it ain't broke..... I guess there ain't no fixin it!!!!

I don't know where that comes from, but my guess is this:

Fixin = gettin ready = preparing to do something.

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: chip a
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 04:42 PM

crooked as a dogs' hind leg
he could make money on a flat rock!
I ain't got no dog in this race.... meaning, I have no stake in what's going on.
"I ain't goin' up there. It's too fur an' snakey!"

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: TIA
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 04:29 PM

Shakin' like a dog shittin' peach pits....

(ewwwww)

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 04:13 PM

"Deader'n a by-god"
"Crookeder'n a snake with a cramp"
"He died the death of a red-headed woodpecker"
"Ya ain't from 'round here, are ya?"

And "Ah'm own teh yu wutt", which is "I'm going to tell you what", in English.

Bruce

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: Bobert
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 04:03 PM

Now don't ask me the context but this is something out of western North Caolina: "Hairlip to the Salvation Army". Hey, like I said. Don't ask me but the P-Vine says it now and then without thinking and then when I ask her about it she nuts up. If anyone knows tha origins of this phrase, please let me know.

But that "fixin'" is *fixin'* to drive me nuts. Can't do nuthin with out something else having to be fixed first. The P-Vine says, "Looks like it's fixin' to rain..."

"Why's that, PVine?" I ask, "Are the clouds broke?"

Now Spaw brought up one from Virginia. You don't take anything or anyone anywhere. You "carry" them. Thats fir real.

I call this stuff Bubba-onics. Kind of my take off on Ebonics.

Well, gotta carry my sorry butt home 'cause its fixin' to snow some more...

Bobert

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 04:01 PM

I have always been bemused by the way (as Catspaw mentions) of getting 4 or 5 syllables from a 1 or 2 syllable word..

well - "way-ul"

(and I remember my mother in 1946 bewildered by her neighbors offer to "carry her somewhere"...perhaps "back to old Virginny"

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: chip a
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 03:55 PM

When I first got to Ga. in the early seventies, old people still said ere for when.
.

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: Allan C.
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 03:49 PM

That dog won't hunt - meaning your suggestion isn't feasible

Finer than frog's hair - refers to something especially pleasing

...at - one of those prepositions we were always warned about in school. This is often unnecessarily added to a question such as: "Where's JoeBob's house at?"

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: Beccy
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 03:42 PM

Spaw- I don't doubt that's what Gramps SHOULD have said, but he was awfully well known for messing up common sayings. To wit:

"You can lead a horse to drink but you can't make him water." (That one was delivered from the pulpit where Gramps was a UM pastor...)

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: catspaw49
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 03:36 PM

Thanks Kim.......Which would go a long way towards explaining why it is still used in some parts where much of the language is either a throwback or some throwback variant.

Beccy, I'd submit that maybe Gramps said slicker than a greased pig and bleedin' like a stuck hog. Maybe not, but the slick pig comes from the contests and bleedin' hog generally refers to castration.

Spaw

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: chip a
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 03:33 PM

"his bread ain't quite riz"
dead as a hammer
dead as four o clock
cold as a wedge
sharp as a frogs' tooth
fish belly white (Huck Finn)

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: Kim C
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 03:31 PM

Spaw, "carry" is a very old expression. I've seen it used in 18th & 19th century diaries & letters & such. Along with, of course, "yonder" & "reckon."

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: chip a
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 03:30 PM

slicker'n owl shit
slicker'n a moles' ass
he/she's everwho's dog'll hunt with him/her
punkin as in "How are you doin'? well, I ain't much punkin"
"It ort ta crank, it crunk yesterday"
"stay all night"
"You got your music with you?"

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: harpgirl
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 03:25 PM

" I showed my behind!"

as in, "I got mad or I made a dang fool of myself!'

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: GUEST,TNDARLN at work
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 03:23 PM

"The driveway don't go all the way to the house" courtesy of some of my Sand Mtn. sangin' buddies. Equivalent to being "one brick shy of a load".

My Mama uses the term "light wad" [He's a light wad- meaning that there's not much there of substance]. Which I know goes back to the days of muzzleloaders, but could [and probably does] have a totally different meaning in other contexts...and I'm sure someone here will point it out to us if that's the case...

thanks for startin' this Wilco: we're doing an Appalachian unit at school, and collecting sayins' is a part of it...

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: Beccy
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 03:21 PM

Oh- and a couple other of Grandpa's illustrious sayings:

"I'm sweatin' like a stuck pig."

"Slicker 'n a greased hog."

(coincidentally, Grandpa's favorite food was bacon...)

"Looks like a sow in a dress..." (Gramp's version of "you can dress her up but you cain't take her out..."

Subject: RE: favorite southern US expression
From: wysiwyg
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 03:17 PM

You'll find some serious hilarity in some older threads, too. But in the time since I posted my faves there, I learned a new one:

"Sicker than a boiled owl."

(Actually, "Sicker'n'a boiled owl."

~S~