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.
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1. Sull up: to sulk. “I told her she couldn’t go to town with that gang of boys and now she’s in there all sulled up.”
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2. Sugar: diabetes. “Wanda found out she has sugar yesterday. Lord as much as she likes sweets I don’t know what she’ll do.”
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3. Studyment: contemplation. “I’ve been in a studyment about how to increase my garden size without increasing my work.”
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4. Stripedy: having stripes. “I never have liked stripedy shirts much, but now all the sudden I’ve got two that I like a lot.”
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5. Stone bruise: a bruise on the heel or sole of the foot. “I guess a stone bruise is so aggravating because you keep stepping on it all day.”
I’m familiar with all of this month’s words, although I rarely hear anyone use sugar for diabetes these days. You don’t hear studyment much these days either. Hope you’ll leave a comment and let me know how you did on the test.
Tipper
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Swig is not a word you hear anymore like a swig of milk or a swig of water, or a swig of Moonshine.
My husband and most of the men he works with call it having “sugar”. Haven’t heard studyment but have all the others. I especially like “sulled up”–makes me immediately think of a possum!
Haven’t heard “studyment” or “sull up” but I still hear all the others.
2nd comment: I do use “study on” but my father-in-law and my husband use
“cogitate”; also when we talk about someone behaving in an “unrefined” or “crude” manner, we refer to them as “coarse”, spelled like a rough or “coarse” fabric.
“Sull up” and “studyment” are new to me. I’m familiar with and use the others though I don’t use “sugar” for diabetes so much – mainly hear other folks in these part use it.
I’ve heard all of these, Tip, with studyment probably the least. I’ve had a stone bruise and let me tell you they are a royal pain. There us no way to get away from it when it’s right there on the bottom of your foot with every step you take!
I just love our colorful language.
Sull up has been used often in my family. One time my aunt said it in a fancy beauty salon she ran in Atlanta. A man that worked there said he didn’t believe sull was a word. We had a good laugh over it.
I don’t think I’ve heard studyment but I’m bad to study on something a good long while before making up my mind. I’m very familiar with the other words. Haven’t heard stone bruise in a long time. My older sister was talking about someone’s sugar being high the last time I talked to her.
I know about studyment but I usually say just study or study on. More often study means the same thing as stable or firmly anchored. “Please study the ladder while I climb up on the roof.”
When I hear “sulled up” I think immediately think of a possum. They freeze up and make a hissing, spitting sound. I can’t imagine Miss Chitter being sulled up like a possum.
Sugar, in my vernacular was, and still is for the most part, the chosen word for diabetes. The same as high blood means hypertension or high blood pressure.
I use stripedy all the time. I don’t like to wear horizontal stripes. Sometimes I get shirts as gifts. If they have horizontal stripes I call them Stripedy. “But I think it would look good on you!” “Then you wear it. I don’t like stripedy shirts” I don’t like checkerdy shirts either.
I’ve had stone bruises. They are unpleasant to say the least.
Never heard studyment. We did the studyment thing, except we called it studying on. A few people I know get all sulled up like a possum when they don’t get their way. Sugar runs in Daddy’s family and I sure hope I didn’t inherit it. I do hope I can claim to inherit their sweetness though. The stripedy clothes are my favorite as long as they run vertically. Stone bruises are as common as a stubbed toe when you don’t wear shoes.
I love hearing these words from someone else besides my family!
Heard all them but studyment. I know all about the stone bruises. Thanks so much Tipper for all the post.
Studyment is a new one, have heard “studying on” used in the same manner.
Studyment is called to study on when thinking over an issue around here. As to ‘Sugar’, I do hear it now and then still. As a child, we called is sugar diabetes more often than not even as an adult I still slip sometimes. Stone bruises had them, painful buggers. Sull up is new, but sulky used a lot.
I’ve heard and used all of these except studyment. In fact I have ‘Sugar’ and in high school I ran track bare footed and suffered several ‘stone bruises which were very painful.
All of them I still use except studyment. I have only heard and used study in that manner.
I am very familiar with all the words except “studyment.” I think I may have heard it used, but it’s not really part of my normal vocabulary.
Oh, lol, just saw another commenter had added “course” and I hadn’t thought of that word in years. In fact, it must have been over 50 years ago that I heard that word being used.
I have not heard studyment or stone bruise ever but have heard the others. The only time I heard the word sugar used for what I years later thought was diabetes was when I took my mother to see her cousin near Savannah, TN. Mother was in her 80’s and the cousin would have been older. Her cousin told her she had been down with sugar. That is the first time, I had noticed someone using that word for a health problem.
All but “studyment”. I should know that one as it really fits me. And those of us who ran barefoot as a kid know about stone bruises.
I have only read studyment in a book with setting in the south, I think. Otherwise, all very familiar. I would like to add that checkerdy was once often said as is stripedy. I should know as Mom often chose a practical checkerdy to make our dresses, as it did not show dirt as easily and was more durable. Practical, that is the word!
In the medical profession I still was able to enjoy the older folks who used their older terms to describe their ailments. Diabetes became sugar di-betus. hypertension was simply, “my pressure is up.” Once long ago apparently the lady had no idea what it meant when I asked if she had dentures, and she told me she had Medicare. I miss that wonderful generation. My mom sure had an unusual term for one of my loud mouthed friends. She said she was “course.” Of course there is a sulker or maybe a pouter in most large families. I would tease them just because. Thank you, Tipper, as this is my favorite part of your blog.
NEVER heard “studyment.” Heard all the others.