sweltery adjective
A Variant forms swoltry, swultry.
1837 McLean Diary 51 Vary warm and Swoltry. 1983 Broaddus Estill Co KY Word List 58 swultry. 1996 Montgomery Coll: swultry (Oliver).
B (also sweltersome) Extremely hot, sweltering.
1895 Edson and Fairchild TN Mts 374 sweltersome = sweltering.
—Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English
There are many reasons behind my great love for the “Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English” and the “Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English.”
Of course they greatly benefit my work. It’s also wonderful to know the language of Appalachia has been documented in such a thorough and comprehensive manner.
Often when I’m searching the dictionaries for a certain word I stumble on something I’ve never heard but find fascinating or alternatively I see something that I’ve never given any thought to being different from general language.
This week it was the word sweltery. A word that is familiar to my ears and mind, although I can’t remember the last time I heard it.
We’ve certainly been having sweltery weather in Western North Carolina. Most of June was unusually hot and humid. The last few days have offered a break from the heatwave and I’m thankful for it.
Last night’s video: French Toast Like Granny Made & Homemade Syrup in Appalachia.
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Sweltering is not a word I use or any of my family as far as I can remember, but I have heard my wife say it. Maybe she says it because her family carried it from the mountains of NC. several generations ago. A wild guess.
This describes our weather here perfectly. I would say sweltery for sure. Way too hot for June. We finally have had a couple of light showers but not enough to hardly wet the ground good. We are east of Raleigh in Smithfield, and I can tell you the gardens are suffering and the crops in the fields are also. Grass is dying and leaves are coming off a couple of our trees like it was the Fall of the year. I think it’s just about the whole state. I do pray we get enough rain soon to do some good. I remember when we didn’t have air conditioning and we did have screens on windows so every night mama would raise them in our bedrooms, and I remember using a paper church fan on a stick and I fanned until I fell asleep. Now, what would we do without air conditioning?
To me sweltery is when it is hot and dry. Sultry is when it is hot with high humidity. It has been sweltery here since the 1st of April. There have been a few showers, gone in a few minutes and dried up immediately by the hot dry wind that follows. I’ve had to water my little garden since the day I put it in.
My yard is dead! It crumbles with every footstep. It crunches when I walk across it. I leave clearly discernable footprints as if I were walking in freshly fallen snow. There have been significant thunderstorms all around me. I watch them form a black wall, advance toward me then stop and fade away, only to reform on the opposite side and move away.
♫♪ Storms to the left of me, showers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle ♪♫
Ed, I know how you feel about it raining all around you but not at your place. It seems like that happens a lot around me. If you look at the weather radar for my area and think of it as a doughnut my area will be the hole in the doughnut. My father in law would tell me to count our blessings, we very seldom have real bad storms but they were some strong winds about 1/2 mile from me Monday afternoon. Luckily it only damaged the trees.
I’ve heard sweltery used to describe the hot weather, but I can’t say I’ve used it myself. I’ve never heard the other variations of it either. I just say hot or blazing hot when the temperature and humidity are high like it’s been recently. Hopefully, we will get some relief from the sweltery weather soon! (Now I can say I’ve used the word sweltery…lol)
Sweltry I am very familiar with. My gramma and both parents would use it when it got hot and not a breath of air dtirring. I love these wirds that are so fiscriptive you have no foubt of their meaning
It started feeling sweltry in May and hasn’t let up until the last two days. I have been doing my outside chores and getting ready for the next sweltry spell that’s supposed to arrive today. The lack of rain in the record-breaking temps is really starting to worry me. I ran three water hoses to my garden and watered it last week. It’s time to do it again.
So it happens to you to, that not being sure whether a word or phrase is ‘Appalachian’ or common, when you heard it last and whether or not you use it yourself. That’s a relief to me because I have often felt rather alone with regard to those three things.
Today, for example, I would have no clue whether “sweltery” is Appalachian without DSME or DARE helping me out. But I would take it and its variants in stride if I heard it or them and not think it/them anyways odd. Yet I would have no idea when I ever heard it, much less the last time. Nor would I know when, or if ever, I had used it.
Anyhow, “sweltery” it has been here and is. Grass crunches when walked on. Almost all the leaves have turned yellow and fallen off on my rattlesnake beans. The same thing has started on my Crowder peas. My yard is liberally sprinkled with fallen leaves and sycamore bark flakes. May have to start calling this place Poverty Hill except it would sound so ungrateful.
We would like to come to the “clearing out” sale but we ought to be more than we are in the clearing out mode ourselves. We’ve been accumulating nearly 50 years to. However, our “stuff” is not as interesting as that in your all’s video.
I have also heard the weather called sweltery. I live in the upstate of SC and it has been very hot, humid and dry during the month of June either breaking or tying the record for some of the days. In the last couple of days it has cooled off and we have had some good rain showers. I am very thankful for the cooler temps and the rain. It has been so dry the trees were beginning to fight over male dogs.
Sweltering May be what is going on down your way but it’s been colder than a well digger’s behind up here in WV! Ive been wearing jackets after 6 pm. I found out my beans have been overloaded on nitrogen. Now to see if and when they’ll make the first bean. When I first read “swelter,” I am reminded of the movie Throw Mama from the Train where they used “sultry” to describe the night in Owens terrible memoirs… sweltering or sultry- take a pick- we have had little of it up here in the Antarctic of the Appalachians.. BTW I did see it snow on Snowshoe Mountain in WV in July… that’s true and to think you’re only several hours away is ridiculous as far as weather goes…
Tipper, your blog always amazes me. I heard sweltery growing up, but it has been years. I think maybe I have also heard the expression, “I am sweltering.” Then there you are on your blog describing how I often feel when I reach back in my mind to remember where and when was the last time I heard a certain word or expression. Sometimes I will randomly use an expression I have not used for years, and I decided to start writing them down. A couple that that popped into my head recently was when somebody was really struck on themselves, we used to call it “big headed” or say they thought they were the “cock of the walk.” Oh, I just remembered your grannyisms and I just loved what that conjured up.
The weather here on the Plateau has indeed been sweltery. The past few days have been much more agreeable though. Yesterday morning in particular was much like a fall day with low humidity and a refreshing breeze. My morning walk was very enjoyable.
That’s a very descriptive word, I can see how it would catch your eye. I’ve never heard either of the variants listed swoltry and swultry. I do know what sweltry is here in the mountains, as you said we have been experiencing it recently. I think it’s kind of rare for us to have this kind of warm weather. Our mountains are known for cool nights but that sure hasn’t been the case lately!
Another familiar word I often heard from Aint Gene’s lips. Some summers were just unbearable without one of those hassock fans. We did not have air conditioning. Opening the windows would invite bugs and burglars into the house so the parents had a gun or rifle near the bed and military surplus netting over the beds. When screens became affordable, those helped. To this day, I can honestly say that summer is still my least favorite season for its sweltery ways. The only redeeming characteristic of summer is the fresh garden veg and fruits.