Grandpa Dave McKinney (not my grandpa, but a subscriber’s)
A few weeks ago I received a dandy list of Appalachian sayings and words along with a cookbook order.
The list came from Richard and Ramona. I enjoyed it so much I wanted to share it with you.
- I’d just as soon as to eat a bug (“Granny” Margaret Ruth Boatright-Ramona’s mother)
- Chimley – Chimney
- Squarsh – Squash
- Back a letter – write name and address on letter
- Roastin ears – ears of corn
- Bad – bad to buy something, etc.
- Aimin to do it – intend to do it
- Sweet art – sweetheart
- Jot it down – to write, make note of it
- Lay by – to put off, delay (I’ve also heard lay by to mean put back for later use)
- Laid by – the cornfield is laid by when it’s hoed the last time
- Getting shed of something – discarding something
I’ve heard all of the sayings and even say several of them myself. The ones I use often are: roastin-ears, bad, aimin, jot it down, laid by, getting shed of.
Hope you’ll leave a comment and tell me which ones you’re familiar with.
Last night’s video: Watermelon Hill 7.
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A dear friend just passed away in NC. On our last visit with him he was very particular to explain to my wife and to me a parting custom after spending a visit in the southern mountains… “Go with…” “Stay on…” We were very moved by this – especially since it turned to be the last visit we were to have with him. Do you have any knowledge of this back and forth between the folks leaving, and those staying, when its time to wrap up the gathering and hit the road? When we left him that day we certainly took him on with us – and a chunk of us stayed on with him – even still. Anything you can add?
Andy-I’m sorry I don’t have any knowledge of the exact saying, but I am very familiar with the intent behind the words. I will share it on the blog tomorrow (Saturday) and we’ll see what others have to say about it.
Thanks, Tipper. I hope someone out there can shed some light on this custom of phrases. It sure meant something to my friend who lived in the mountains north of Asheville.
“To back a letter” – This is a very old saying in Appalachia.
This refers to the days when a letter was written on a single sheet of parchment or later on paper.
Prior to the use of envelopes with stationary, your letter was written on one side of the paper, then the whole letter was folded up into an envelope.
the reverse side of the paper, or “back” of the letter was where the address was placed.
In olden days, the address might be very lengthy, as there were often no street addresses in the country, and ZIP codes didn’t come along till 1963.
So, you might describe an address like this:
John Smith Esq.
Glenn Ferry Crossing, Two-Mile, past Cabell County Courthouse, Virginia
This way of addressing a letter took a good bit of space, then there still had to be room to stamp the postage on the letter.
This is how our forefathers, communicated back years ago.
Im from North Central Alabama and I grew up saying “used to could” and also “might should” or “might could.” A few years ago when I was living in Arizona, a friend of mine who is a linguistics professor got excited when she heard me say one of those phrases. She said they’re called double modals and she’d studied them in school, but had never heard anyone say them in real life – lol!
Funny , I currently live in AZ and it is here that someone called me out on it.not in a mean spirited way just pointing out that it was unusual and I must of grown up with it. Before that I’d never thought a thing about it , I like that.
Yes! I grew up in Metro Atlanta with paternal grandparents who lived a very Appalachian lifestyle on their sustenance farm outside the city. The Farm remains my happiest place of my lifetime. I am now 66 and blessed to live across the creek from the farm in NW Georgia, but not on the family plot. My mother was a city girl and valedictorian of her class. She was also the grammar queen. We said “might could and used to could” and Mom never corrected us. My son, when in his late twenties with a college diploma, was “called out” on “might could” by someone from up north. He was perplexed as he was brought up to speak properly and it has served him well in his career. It was then I researched this phrase and realized how our regional speech wasn’t always proper. But I ain’t gonna get shed of some of my grandparents’ mountain speak, as it is a comfort to me in our topsy-turvy world as it takes me back to simpler times when family worked hard together to provide for all; when no-count relatives were called out to take care their own; when faith sustained through the Great Depression and WW II; when Daddy truly walked barefoot to his one room school house; when a trip to the outhouse was a city kid’s adventure with a flashlight; when Grandmother, wearing a cotton house dress with apron, shouted from the porch “younses come to supper”. So thankful for my rich heritage! God bless younses!
Here are a few that I’ve heard in my family:
• Ferninst – against, near, adjacent. “The next morning it was leaning ferninst the schoolhouse door.”
• Sigodlin – out of plumb, crooked. “I tried to put up a shelf, but it got all sigodlin on me.” I’ve also heard it as antigodlin or antisigodlin.
• Backer worms – tobacco worms, but also what Grandpa humorously called Cheetos.
• Cyor – a pronunciation of cure. “I put some backer up in the loft to cyor.”
• Quile – a pronunciation of coil, as in a coiled snake or rope. “Hit was all quiled up, fixin’ to bite me.”
• Hope or hoped – helped. “I hoped him put up his hay all last week.”
• Tetchious – contrary, ornery. “Don’t be so tetchious, I’m just teasing at you.”
• Waller – wallow, but also to laze about, or to pester or aggravate something. “You’ve wallered around here long enough, get out yonder and get me some stovewood.” “That little fiest just come a hair of gettin’ eat up, a-wallerin’ that big dog’s ears.”
• Fight a circle saw – mad as all get-out, or too ornery to reason with.
• You’d just as soon sandpaper a wildcat’s a–. – Said to discourage a really, really foolish attempt to pick a fight or argument with someone who’s “bound to whup you.”
• I’d just as soon drink stump-water. – Said about a drink you don’t like, like instant coffee or “town water.” I think of stump-water as literally the water you find in a hollow stump in the woods, but for the old-timers it meant bad corn liquor or other alcohol.
Hello all, yes most of these are very familiar ,so much so that I don’t realize that they’re a Southern way of speaking. . Is anyone familiar with ” I used to could”when speaking of something that they used to be able to do… and my mom always said ” wompy- jawed ” when something was crooked. and I say that too but I had a friend from Virginia who would say catty-wompus I think they both come from Scotland…?
Im from North Central Alabama and I grew up saying “used to could” and also “might should” or “might could.” A few years ago when I was living in Arizona, a friend of mine who is a linguistics professor got excited when she heard me say one of those phrases. She said they’re called double modals and she’d studied them in school, but had never heard anyone say them in real life – lol!
Oh yea, I’ve heard the majority of these words & saying to and I use some of them today like:
Getting shed of something &
Jot it down
Enjoyed this post, thanks for sharing
I have heard every one of these sayings
I didn’t score too well on Tipper’s list. I know Chimley/chimney, Squarsh/squash, roasting ears/rosenears, aimin to/intending. A few others I can dredge up on the fly include: Ho cake and flitter, meaning corn pancake and flour pancake, respectively, laid up/sick, ailing/sick, sickly/chronically sick, overbearing/unnecessarily rude or mean, yellow streake’d/cowardly, backerds/shy, quar/wierd, well spoken/gentlemanly, genteel/also gentlemanly
I was a good sized kid before I knew better than to say “chimley”. That was the way we said it at home.
We also used “get shed” of something when we were getting rid of it.
I absolutely love your news letters It reminds me of being back home with Mom and Dad and my brother.
They’ve all gone on. But, I still cherish their memories and the good times we had growing up.
Roasnears. Corn
“I don’t know if I m a’warshin’ er a’hangin’ out”……I am confused.
My husband and I live in southwest Virginia near the Blue Ridge Parkway. Around here you might hear these sayings:
mash the button —-to push a button.
cut it off or cut it on—–turn something on or off
aggravating—bothering, as in these shoes are aggravating me
scuttle hole—entrance to the attic
kindly—-please
liberry—library
I’m seeing this late, but I must comment. I can hear my Mother’s voice in many of these phrases (especially, “I’d just as soon as eat a bug!”) and I have heard them all, except “back a letter”. Like Timothy, I thought it was “chimley” until I read it as chimney- the same for liberry. And as for my sister Sherry’s comment, that was from our Uncle Henry.
Thanks to Richard and Ramona for these colorful phrases, and also Vicky and the others.
I’ve heard them all except back a letter:) I’ve even heard some of the words the commenters mentioned and my Daddy would use that word flitter as an expression as Oh flitter!
By the way, love the picture of the Palomino above. Growing up in the 50’s I loved Roy Rogers and Trigger. I so wanted a horse like Trigger, a golden Palomino. I had graduated from high school and was working when my Daddy bought me Ginger. She was a beautiful TN Walker more red in color but not a golden Palomino. I still loved her, but even in my old age I get a thrill when I pass a pasture and see a golden Palomino.
Love these! I’m always “fixin to”.
A man I know pronounces it something like “fid-en-uh”, with the accent on the first syllable: “I’m fid-en-uh go to town.”
When I was younger I tried to not say things in our native way of speaking…I fell head first into the trap of believing those that said it’s makes one sound like an uneducated hillbilly. The older I get though I’ve realized that’s just ridiculous and embraced the way we mountain folk speak. I’m embarrassed that I was ever ashamed of our speech. Some of the wisest people I’ve ever been blessed to know would have been considering ignorant hillbillies by those proper speaking people. They may have been simple people to some but the lessons they taught me are more valuable than anything I could have learned elsewhere
Oh! and we put a b in chimbley. If you look it up in Marriam Webster’s dictionary it says it is a variant of chimney.
I’ve heard just about all of them except for eat a bug and back a letter. I use a lot of these sayings also. Thanks for sharing!!
How about…”I’d ruther be nibbled to death by baby ducks!”
The book I mentioned in my first comment, also had a lot of Appalachian sayings in the stories. Some were familiar and some were not. The author’s name was Rhoda Bailey Warren.
A friend who moved to North Carolina from Indiana said he almost cracked up when discussing turkey hunting with a native hunter who said “I call a right smart”, meaning I use my yelper a lot, a good bit–more than a little–when working a bird.
I’ve heard a few of them saying before, but only used two, “aimin to do” and “bad”. It’s funny how each generation has a different use for the word bad, as well as other words. It’s fun to learn about them all. Thank you for sharing!
In our family it was both ‘chimley’ and ‘chimbley’. There’s a road named Jot-Em Down off 400 towards Atlanta.
Fixin’ to … getting ready to do something.
Warsh – wash … like squarsh that particular ‘a’ sound always has an ‘r’ added to it.
Lay-by and laid-by were used the same way as you noted.
Laid-up … ill or hurt.
JC, do you remember the old radio show “Lum ‘n’ Abner” and the Jot ’em Down Store?
I hear those sayings and more in the voices of those gone on. My uncle was the family genealogist who, when we visited, always took me and my sister when he went out to chat with the older folks. They loved him because he loved to listen to their memories and tales. We liked going visiting with uncle Forrest because he never stayed too long at any one place. Our favorite extended relatives were Marie and Madolyn (Muh- DOH-lyn) who he called Dolie. My sister and I remember their pretty little house full of shelves near the ceiling holding lovely china. I wonder what became of the set of Lusterware I always admired. Marie was a second grade teacher for many of her long years, and taught my girls a rhythmic poem she’d used in class. Madolyn had a fascinating workshop where she dried flowers to sell at the Hendersonville curb market.
I’m familiar with all these sayings except “back a letter.” Once upon a time I was married to a Yankee from upstate NY. (It’s a long story that did not end well.) We would scrap and argue about what each other said cause things mean and sound different in different parts of the country. Also, he was German and I’m a Cherokee Irish hillbilly. He was a Catholic and I’m a Pentecostal. Oh there was nothing but trouble and a whole lot of bossing of me and that did not last as long as Pat was in the Army. If you’ve not experienced this, you may think I sound nuts. Lol. At my age it’s all water underneath the bridge…
I can remember my ex-husband’s family talk about the “roashin” ears growing in the garden, it took me only one trip through that garden to understand what they meant!
I have missed Miss Cindy’s comments on your blog. Her posts seemed to be very encouraging on whatever subject matter you chose to write. Please assure her that she is remembered in the prayers of so many of us.
I’ve heard or read all of them except eating’ a bug. But I’ve heard “I’d as soon ______” then finished out however the notion struck which is what I’m guessing the grandma did. I think that just shows how we make up sayings to suit ourselves as we go along. We may be unusual in that respect if not in doing it then maybe in doing it more than other folks. Sometimes we use it to commemorate a funny or serious event, especially within families.
Back a letter and bad are new to me.
I’ve never heard the first one about eating bugs.
Roastin ears would be pronounced “roast nears”.
I’ve never heard sweetheart called sweet art.
Lay by is the process that leads to laid by.
Lay up is the term I would use for “put back for later use”. Matthew 6:20 speaks of laying up treasures in heaven
Grandpa Dave McKinney’s list was familiar to me, too. Our people often miss-pronounced words too. we said chimley instead of chimney and also alblum instead of album. It wasn’t until I learned to read that I changed those words in my own speech. My mother was an avid reader, but she didn’t change her speech pattern. We pronounced roasting ears, “rossenears”. Ain’t that funny? That’s just what we called them. My sisters and I still do!
Who is to say how words are pronounced? Is there a central authority who gets to decide and who appoints them?
My people don’t mispronounce words, we pronounce them the way we learned them. We are happy to rephrase if the listener doesn’t understand. We are proud of our Appalachian culture and are trying to preserve it. Our choice of words and their pronunciation is a huge part of that. When the speech police come to our door we tell them to cut a trail before we turn the dogs aloose on ’em.
we say fixin to not aming to, but have heard or read the rest. my favorite is shed of or shut of. First time I heard that my momma and her friend were talking about another friend, “She finally got she’d of that man” They used both she’d and shut as the same thing.
My husband says “chimley” as does all of his family.
Dear Tipper,
I “spect” you will get a lot of replies. “Don’t cha know”?
I agree with Larry’s comment 100%. I also use “fixin’ to” as in getting ready to do something. “I’m fixin’ to sew a little bit.” I’ve also heard and used “purt near” for pretty near and “nigh to” for near to. “Well, I’ll be,” expressing amazement or surprise. All good ole Appalachian phrases well used.
good morning friends of Appalachia, God bless you and your family, God bless me and my family, God bless Ms Cindy with healing and health in Jesus name ✝️❤️, God bless Tipper and her family!
I’ve never heard of eating a bug or backing a letter. My granny used most of these sayings and I find myself using some also.
Have a wonderful book signing day
Not familiar with “back a letter ” but it certainly makes sense. All of the others I’ve heard and remember my parents and aunts and uncles using.
Have a Great Weekend!!! Prayers continue for Miss Cindy.
I’ve used chimney all my life, aimin, gettin shed of, and actually have heard most of them. Enjoy your blogs so much and love the cookbook. I was clearing promotions from my emails yesterday and accidentally unsubscribed from you, panicked but eventually figured out how to get restarted! Have a blessed day.
Im familiar with most of them. Except ì would say “get shet” of instead of “get shed” of. And it’s never a roastin’ ear, but roastneer.
I’ve heard them all but backing a letter. I agree with Larry. Our words are like seasonings and make things better.
I enjoyed the video last night.
We say flatter ‘n a flitter all the time. Another one our family uses if we are not looking good enough to get out to go somewhere is ” I better not get out, I look like a haint fore daylight”.
I love our colorful language. I’m going to try and make a list of sayings at our reunion this year that our people have heard used in our family over the generations. Should be interesting! I wish I would have thought about it before Momma died. She would have loved that. We used to sit around talking about these things all the time.
We continue to pray for Miss Cindy and your family! May the Lord be gracious to her and may He be glorified in all. Love to all!
I still say them cause they are near and dear. They remind me of ancestors and that is a good thing. My husband does say ‘bed cloths’ instead of linens and I found that a little strange, but that is what his Grandmother said years ago. I do hope that some of the sayings don’t leave us, however, I do have a problem with bad grammar. I had a beloved 5th Grade Teacher, Ms Wright, that pushed grammar and it has stuck with me. I do not class these saying with bad grammar….two different things for me. Prayers for Ms Cindy and your family as always.
Bed clothes is what I heard growing up and what they are to me still. If sheets and pillowcases were made of linen I might call them linens.
I have heard about everyone of those sayings. I often use the same ones you mentioned using. I read a book during the last week titled Appalachian Mountain Girl. The author wrote about growing up from the 1930’s onward and living in a coal mining town or camp in Kentucky. While in school, she misspelled a word in a spelling bee because of the way the teacher pronounced it. In the book she said back then they would say it took a year for a Yankee to learn to speak English.
I’ve heard and use them all except the one about eating a bug and backing a letter. Appalachian sayings are a bit like seasonings, they just make things better.
Larry,
You hit the nail square on the head!