It’s time for this month’s Appalachian Vocabulary Test-take it and see how you do!
- Lope
- Leastways
- Lastingest
- Love bump
- Lopper-jawed
- Lope: to run or walk fast with long strides. “The Deer Hunter lopes as he walks. Back in the day, when we had been dating a few months, I told him I could tell who he was in the dark-by the way that he loped along. I”m positive I could still pick him out of a group of people walking in the dark by the way he lopes along.”
- Leastways: at least. “Leastways we know we shared what we had. It’s up to them if they decided to use it or let it go to waste.”
- Lastingest: durable; last a very long time. “That is the lastingest pair of boots I’ve ever had. I’ve worn them near every day for a good 5 years. Makes me wish I had bought two pair when I had the chance.”
- Love bump: small infected bump usually on face. “Oh don’t worry about that little love bump all teenagers get them.”
- Lopper-jawed: crooked. “He built him a little shed out back to play in. I swear its so lopper-jawed it’ll be a miracle if it don’t fall in on him and kill him!
I’m familiar with all of this month’s words. But I only hear the first 3 on a regular basis. How about you?
Tipper
Cheryl-LOL Than you for the comment! I dont like slimy okra either : ) We do use mess for things other than beans. And like you said-meaning enough for a meal!
Tipper
Blind Pig The Acorn
Celebrating and Preserving the
Culture of Appalachia
http://www.blindpigandtheacorn.com
On Wednesday, July 23, 2014 9:02 AM,
We had a cold cellar in the basement with large bins to store apples, potatoes, onions, etc.
It was my job to move the potatoes from one side of the bin to the other side
taking off the eyes that had developed.
My neighbor just called and said he was sending me a mess of green beans. How many are in a mess??
Tipper,
Late posting here.
Love bump…pregnant woman not a zit..ewww!
Lope…steady gait. He just loped over rite over hyar, so he mean’t whare he was a’goin’!
Lastingest…heard and used in the past or nowadays!
Leastways…I usually say leastwise!
Lopper-jawed…Seen quite a few folks that were lopper-jawed. Usually had to send them to the orthodontist. A friend of mine was lopper-jawed. She had to have surgery to remove part of her lower chopper. She was beautiful before but after she was knock-dead gorgeous! I told her not to be stealing my boyfriends or I’d put her jaw right back where she started…Just kiddin’ and she knew it too!
Mess…A mess of fish, beans, okra, squash or whatever, a mess is enough to cook fer supper!
Now when that boy’s a mess, you pinch his ear and throw him in the old zinc washtub out back to warsh up!
Pietist…I heard my Grandma say this about a calf once. Only I thought she was sayin’ pity-est!
Meaning, what a pity, it is such a runty little thang, I don’t think it will ever grow!
Thanks Tipper
Loved ’em all!
OK, 1, 2, & 5. Also used to say whopperjawed.
Ed Ammons! Mitchell’s mother used to call him spizzerinctum. After the Hootendasher episode I just thought it was more of her very inventive vocabulary. Mr. Phillips was inventive too, but this is a family blog…
When I was a teenager I was told that those “love bumps” would go away when you started getting some “loving.” I’m in my mid sixties and still have some, so what does that tell you?
Words one and two I’ve heard often, though leastways I’ve also heard as leastwhys. I’ve heard lastingest a time or two, and #4 was called another kind of bump when we were preteens and teens, the slang word for a naughty woman of ill repute that one of our Grandmas called ’em before we even know what that word meant, and I can’t remember which Grandma it was, but she was intimating we’d been naughty and that’s why we got the bump. I don’t think I’ve heard #5, although I have heard that called lopsided and whanky.
God bless.
RB
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Like brother Jim, I’ve always thought of “love bump” as the belly of a pregnant woman. Along with several others, I think of loping being at a leisurely but long-strided pace. I am interested in a term Ed mentioned, “spizzerinctum.” Heard that term a lot in my youth, but have no idea of the definition!
Come to think of it I don’t believe I ever heard lastingest, leastways that I can recall.
I have heard loppie jawed, whoppie jawed and out of kilter. As a matter of fact I have been described that way.
My daddy used to call me a spizzerinctum. Have you ever been called that or have ever heard it?
Whopper-jawed is what I’ve always heard in Okla.. Never heard love bump used for a ‘zit.’
Know the others tho.’
Sure do enjoy these tests. The reports of your class at JCCFS were great, too.
Familiar with and use the first three as you describe them. I use lopjawed but in reference to someone who is 1) having serious trouble getting their words out or 2)any human or animal who has been in a tussle that left their jaw a bit askew. I’m more likely to use “cattywumpus” or “lopsidoodled” to describe your version of lopjawed. Never heard “love bump” as you present it but rather as a reference to pregnancy before the media imposed the term “baby bump”.
I always find you vocabulary tests fascinating because most of the words I know from growing up in Texas. I’m familiar with all of these. However, in Texas a love bump is something your girlfriend/wife gives you when you come home a little late and tipsy.
I’m familiar with all but “love bump”, and I still use “lopper-jawed” and “lopin”.
This is first time most words not familiar. In our neck-of-the-woods building a lopsided building is referred to as “looks all whopper-jawed.” Perhaps, only familiar to a small area or even a family saying.
Taking into consideration I was raised “way back in the hills” my mind always saw loping as sauntering along in a lazy fashion. My mind stands corrected as my role model, Tipper, and the dictionary both have a different meaning. I realize the Deer Hunter walks like a man with a mission.
I love the vocabulary test, and I learn so much. Keep it comin’.
Familiar with all, but only hear the first two regularly. I’ve heard “lope” a lot more as a horse’s gait rather than a person’s.
Tipper,
I love these word tests, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard “love
bunp.” All the others I’m familiar
with…Ken
Definitely lope, leastways, and lopper-jawed (or
lop-jawed). The other two are new to me — leastways I don’t remember them. 🙂
I was able to decipher three of the words correctly – leastways, lope, and lastingest – but love bump, I had my own interpretation and lopper jawed, well, I had no idea. Good learning this morning!
I just failed my first Appalachian Vocabulary Test! Since I am not familiar with any of the words, I know I need to study harder.
Never heard of lopper jawed down here in SC. I know it’s early for “m” words, but I have to ask…My friend just referred to cooking up a “mess” of okra. Now, I know the proper term for a family sized portion of greens is a mess, but do y’all use that for okra too? Maybe I am just suppressing the memory of hearing it, just like I try to suppress the memory of the first (and last) time I tried boiled okra. My friend, Karen, swears that the way she cooks it (sautéed in an iron skillet with garlic, onions, tomato) completely prevents any sliminess, but I still avoid okra like the plague.
For some reason, I thought of a lump on the noggin as a love bump (like one that had been raised by the tap of a cast iron pan).
Loping is walking along at a steady, but not a fast pace, and you can’t lope when you’re climbing a stiff grade – leastways I sure can’t – because you can’t take the long step that goes with loping.
My mother, now 87, says wonkerjawed rather than lopperjaw.she got that from her maternal grandmother and grandfather who were born and reared in the Dark Corner of SC.
Heard lope and leastways before. Heard of lie bump. When I had a bump on the end of my tongue, my grandmother called it a lie bump. Love bump made me think of it.
I have never heard love-bump. I have always heard “lop-jawed” instead of lopper-jawed. Love the word “lope” – it is so descriptive!!! These were great.
Never heard the last two.
Tipper–I always thought a “love bump” was the stomach of an obviously pregnant woman, and I’ve always heard it lop-jawed rather than lopper-jawed. The others are familiar in the context you describe them, although sadly my days of loping or lumbering (to me, lumbering has a somewhat similar meaning) along have given way to leisurely meandering.
Jim Casada
Tipper, I’ve heard lope as long as I can remember and yes, the Deer Hunter walks with purpose.
Leastways I’ve heard a lot but lastingest is not something I’ve heard. Also never heard love bump.
Yes also to Lopper jawed, lop jawed and lopsided.
Don’t you just love our language and what we do with.
We Appalachians are a thrifty people. Instead if inventing new words we just repurpose the ones we already have!
Lovebump, I have never heard before. The rest I am very familiar with, some I use and some I don’t
I just came across a new work that I never heard. “pietist” It was used in a book by Mildred Haun. The sentence read” The little cow was the pietist thing I ever saw?