October 4, 2014
floweredy adjective Featuring a floral pattern or design, flowery.
1952 Justus Children 14 Yes, if I have enough berry money, I’ll buy a floweredy dress. 1997 Andrews Mountain Vittles 69 Her floweredy house dress and apron were wringin’ wet.
~Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English
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I always did like a flowerdy dress…especially if I had a flower to put in my hair too.
Tipper
Appalachia Through My Eyes – A series of photographs from my life in Southern Appalachia.
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It’s time for this month’s Appalachian Vocabulary Test. I’m sharing a few videos to let you hear some of the words…
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And Brother John Cash could be heard talking about his longtailded coat! You just let loose a my long-tailded coat was something he’d sing about when trying to get away from June Carter-Cash.
I haven’t heard that in the longest time…
We said “flowerdy” in SW VA and yes, Jim, that’s the way I would spell it. We also said stripe-id and checkid.
Remember Ray Steven’s song about the “Shriner’s Convention?”
One of the Shriners had on “..one of them Hi-whayun flairdy shirts….”
I’ve said floweredy many times. I was born in the fifties and live near Atlanta.
Not mountain but up in central MS where I was born, we too said flowerdy. I don’t remember Mama using flower sacks but I remember a lot of my clothes were made from mill ends from the cotton mill where she worked. Gingham, calico and wonderful flowerdy material. I rember climbing up a tree, I was a tomboy, and having a girlfriend laugh about my flowerdy under pants. LOL
Tipper,
I like floweredy things on women
too. Anybody remember “The Dick
van Dyke Show”? Rose Marie always
wore a flower in her hair.
I had a far last night and probably
for the next few too…Ken
Tipper,
and Ed, I figured you as more of a “paisledy” type, rather than the “checkerdy” type per your comment!
Thanks Tipper,
I loved all the comments today! So right on with the pronunciations of all of them! Funny isn’t it, how we talk or talked!
This conversation brought smiles and out right laughter as I read. Yes, me and all my family says flowerdy, stripedy, and yes Ed checkerdy. The younger girls are too sophisticated for that now though. I could hear my grandmothers at different times while I was reading talking about material for dresses, curtains, and quilts. I wore alot of flowedy dresses that Ma made out of feed sacks. She would let me pick out dresses in the Sears and Roebuck catalog and she would cut out the pattern and make it as close as she could. I can still see Daddy and
Pa unloading the sacks and me picking out my favorites for dresses.
I can’t remember flowerdy feed sacks but have heard about them. We did get our flour in a big cloth sack & it had a towel attached. Looking back I don’t see why the flour wasn’t all over everything.
Those flairdy dresses sure could fade. Possibly they saw too much bleach. The children couldn’t wait to see the next flour sack
I love that flower in the hair; I think one of the wonder girls posed for that picture. While floweredly is a new usage for me, I, too, like floral dresses, shirts and skirts. May all enjoy the show this weekend.
Mamma often said flowerdy, as did my grandmother.
Personally I was never much for flowerdy or stripedy. I am more of a checkerdy type myself.
I used to work with a lady who wore a flower in her hair ‘most all the time. I don’t remember her real name. I called her Blossom except when she wore a tiny flower. Then I just had to call her Bud. You know life can be a lot of fun if we let it.
I pronounce it flardy. Mainly because I want to. Flowers are flares. Flour is flare. I have returned to my native tongue. Hens lay aggs. Harses pull plows. I comb my hare and breath are. And my britches have lags. People look at me funny. “What, you don’t speak Anglish. Do I gotta spell it out fer ye?”
I lied about combing my hare. I don’t have none.
I have heard and used floweredy for as long as I can remember. I love a pretty girl wearing a floweredy dress!
My wife and I slipped off and married and she wore a pretty floweredy dress and I thought she was the prettiest thing I had ever seen.
we always heard flowerdy and stripedy
feed sacks that were flowerdy were in great demand for our dresses or boys shirts , dish towels etc
The lovely word flowerdy was part of the standard vocabulary in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and New Mexico all through my childhood.
As far as I know, it still is — I still use it!
Have heard “flowerdy” used in SW Virginia.
The floweredy (flaredy) printed fabric will never go out of style. I remember the feed sacks and their pretty pastel flowers Mom used to make our clothes. If a square inch was left over, it was used in a patchwork quilt.
I’m with Jim – get rid of the extra syllable. – – and with Ethelene: Grandma would let my sister and I chose the chicken feed sacks for our next dresses. Those flowerdy dresses were so durable! – and went on to be reincarnated as aprons, child’s stool covers, pillow cases, quilt pieces, clothes and comfits for dolls,and strips for crocheted rag rugs!
I was just searching the catalog for a long sleeved floweredy T-shirt to wear with my new blue jeans.
It’s cool, even here in Middle Georgia’s Millidgeville (Georgi’a capitol from 1806-1868). I can imagine that in the mountains around Brasstown and over the line in Blairsville where I hail from, it is cooler still. Best wishes today and Sunday at the John C. Campbell Folk School. I would love to see you, the twins, and the Blind Pig Gang and see and hear all perform! Best wishes! You’ll not doubt “steal the show”!
Floweredy dresses were part and parcel of our attire at Choestoe. But since they were lighter and thinner, as fall and winter came on, we’d store them away for linsey-woolsey sweaters and skirts (girls didn’t wear pants much when I was a child; maybe by my teen years pants had come into vogue).
I remember going with my Daddy to the feed store in Blairsville to purchase chicken feed for our houses of chickens we were raising to sell. My purpose in going was to choose three “flowerdy” sacks the same pattern I liked so a dress could be made from them for me to wear! We made use of everything, even sacks for cloth.
Tipper,
I laughed out loud when I read the post this morning. How many times I heard my Grandmother say “floweredy”! I thought the word was so much easier to say. For instance, “She pieces quilts that has so many flowers in it”, when I can just say, “That’s Grannies floweredy quilt!” I adopted that word years ago and have used it when I want to! I’ve also heard, “What did you just say?” LOL
I have also heard my grandchildren say “floweredy”, when trying to explain a lot of flowers, especially when they were very small. It is a simple, easy word that just flows naturally off the tongue.
That is all I have to say about “floweredy”!
Thanks Tipper,
PS…Have a great Fall “floweredy” filled day, and wish we could be there. Maybe another time, I hope soon!
Funny how Girls are drawn to floweredy things, my wife made our daughter a small floweredy blanket this week to drape across her lap, and she couldn’t wait for Daddy to come home to show it to him…she is so proud of it…
Tipper–I’ve heard it all through my life, although the pronunciation invariably comes out a syllable short of the spelling–as flowerdy. That’s non unusual. Mountain folks have always been as sparing with their use of repetitive vowels as Cockneys are with the aitches.
Jim Casada
http://www.jimcasadaoutdoors.com