It’s time for this month’s Appalachian Vocabulary Test.
I’m sharing a few videos to let you hear the words and phrases. To start the videos click on them and to stop them click on them again.
1. Ruint = ruined “Don’t drink that milk, it’s ruint!”
2. Ragler = regular. “It’s just your ole ragler plugin not one of those new gfci ones.”
3. Redd = clean up; make things tidy. “I’m going down to the garden and while I’m gone I want you to redd up the house.”
4. Reach = hand. “Reach me that apple. I haven’t had a bite to eat all day.”
5. Rare = enraged, to berate, angry. “I don’t care who he is! I’m gonna go down there and rare him out. There ain’t nobody going to do my youngun like that!”
All of this month’s words are common in my area of Appalachia except the word redd. I’m still over the moon with excitement after hearing redd used right here in my county. Ragler will forever make me think of Pap because that’s exactly how he said regular.
Hope you’ll leave me a comment and tell me how you did on the test.
Tipper
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The only one I’ve heard is “redd up” but I don’t remember where. Not in MA, for sure.
Tipper, what is that picture of the pipe in the tree??? I’ve peered and pondered and I give up!
I’ve heard all these except “redd”. My mother used “rare”, but in the sense of someone “rared back” or “rared up.”
Granny used them all except ‘reach that’. Redd up, very common. I knew my orders. Daddy rared all the time over absolutely nothing. Never thought to hear them again and am going to tell my boys about them.
Thanks Tipper for bring memories to a rainy Saturday.
Well, there’s an old country joke that uses ‘ruint’. What did the little piggy squeal when the farmer castrated him? Ruint! Ruint! Ruint! Ruint! Having participated in a ‘changing’ many years ago I can testify that’s awful close to the sound they make.
We use all except red and rare. Somebody is always reaching something to somebody or handing it. I said regular a couple of times and realized I say reglar. My regler always refers to coffee. That first video made me really smile.
Hi Tipper,Sure enjoyed hearing ya’lls voices this morning, causes tears as I don’t hear southern acsents very often.God Bless.Jean
Great collection.
Know and use all except “Redd” – we would use “ready up” – even here in Central Texas but connecting back to the Appalachias: South Texas to Kansas to Iowa & Indiana to W. Virgina about 4 -6 generations ago. Makes me curious that language patterns seems to “cling” in families or possibly in the nature of the family livelihoods – mostly farmers or working off the land.
Whoever used redd must be a Yankee, I’m thinking.
Tipper,
I ain’t never heard redd either. But in school, I remember my friend saying “ragular” and the teacher would just look at him. The next paragraph had the word “eggs” in it and he said “aggs”.
Some folks just say words as they’re taught at home. …Ken
I am sad. For the first time ever, I missed one. Redd. But, now, on the bright side, I have increased my vocabulary. Thanks again for the brightening of the day.
I only remember “ruint” out of those words but that word “redd” I came to know when I moved to Pennsylvania. A dear friend of mine that was born and raised here used that word “redd.” I first heard her say I’ve got to REDD up the house. I had no idea what she was talking about but then she explained clean up the house. She and her husband came from German ancestry. I come from English, Irish and Indian. She would also say cut off the light and I would say turn off the light.
I too didn’t know two. The same two. Redd and rare. I have heard rare used like “if he keeps it up ima gonna rare back and slap his face around on the back of his head.”
I’ve also heard “rurned” instead of ruint but in the case of milk it would be spiled.
I’ve heard ragler but mostly I say regler. And as for the gas being cheap, if I was running a gas station and ran out of a pertickler grade I’d drop the price to 10 cent a gallon.
Do you know what a reach fork is?
No but please tell us Ed 🙂
It’s not tableware. It is a forklift. Instead of driving under a pallet, the forks reach out while the machine sits still. The reason I thought about it was because I remember seeing people reach me something at the table using a fork. I know it’s probably not good manners but it is more sanitary.
Knew all of them but never heard “redd”spoken . Haven’t heard “rare” used that way. “Rare up” was what I’ve heard used–like “don’t rare up at me”–meaning don’t have a mad fit at me.
Redd and rare are not familiar to me, but all others are everyday words around here. The word reach reminds me of the time my ex husband was hanging out in the pool with some “proper speaking” folks while we were on vacation. He said something about when I retch him a towel and the pool crowd roared. He didn’t miss a beat and came right back with, “you should see me fetch.”
Down home about 90% of church goers are Freewill or Old Regular Baptist. You might hear someone ask if a person is an old ragler, never adding Baptist–a sure-fire way to confuse an outsider.
Ruint can also mean pampered and spoiled. Those Pressley girls are so cute, it’s a wonder they ain’t ruint instead of being mature, hardworking young ladies.
I know all but Redd up. We said rernt in regard to spoiled food, milk or kids!
Dad always put Hi-test gasoline in his truck because they just didn’t run good on that ole “ragler” gas.
Tip, I don’t think I’ve ever heard rare in this way and redd on only a few occasions. The remainder are a part of everyday life. Also a part of every day life is the Deer Hunter gonna shoot something! That boy has always loved his guns and hated snakes!
Got a 80%..Wished I could say I had heard redd up but only heard ready up.
I hear ruint and rernt for ruined.
In e.ky. I hear one group of Baptist always called ole ragler Baptist.
Did you ever hear of a buzzard Baptist. I’ve heard that used for people who only come to church for funerals.
I was familiar with all but redd. I never heard it used around Needmore while growing up nor around Bryson City after moving to town.
Well, I’m not familiar with Redd, or Rare, but I have increased my vocabulary in the last 5 yrs, you see being in collections for the power company when you turn someones power off for nonpayment you learn all kinds of new words in several different languages, but there is only one universal hand gesture tho, I find that interesting.
All but ‘redd’, I do not recall ever hearing it used. If it were in common use around 1900 where I grew up, I think I would have heard my Grandma use it. She was born in 1902.
Although I understand these, I doubt if I would use them myself. It isn’t a conscious decision, just exposure to school and media I guess. I wish I could pinpoint how our speech slips away. I do know that when I travel and hear someone use an ‘Appalachianism’ I feel more at home. I guess it works in reverse to, that people recognise where I’m from if I use them.
We use redd up all the time. Being from Pennsylvania I thought it was from my German or Scotch-Irish heritage.
Tipper–I would never have thought there would be a time when two of your words were unfamiliar to me, but redd and rare are. That’s probably a testament, as much as anything, to the manner in which speech usage can, at times, be highly localized.
Jim Casada
I redd up to this very day, every room in the house. I redd up the kitchen several times a day.
Raglar was common growing up. Ruing and reafch as well.
Rare? Not so much although I have heard it.