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. *This morning I noticed the videos are not playing on my site like they usually do, they’re playing on Instagram. I’ll have to investigate and see if Instagram has changed their platform. Hopefully you can still see them!
1. Jayho: a warning yelled by a logging teamster to those below that logs are being released down the mountain. “My Papaw Wade was a logger in the old days. I wish I could ask him if he ever yelled JAYHO.”
2. Jim-jams: anxiety. “He had the jim-jams so bad he couldn’t even talk.”
3. Job: to strike or stab. “When I was little someone was always yelling at us kids to be careful or we’d job an eye out.”
4. Jump: to startle an animal. “I jumped a small rabbit this morning and it liked to have scared me to death!”
5. Juberous: undecided. “I’m juberous all the time. The Deer Hunter is my sounding board. I’m always asking him what I should do about this or that. He says I always do the opposite of what he tells me so sometimes he tells me the opposite of what he thinks I should do so that I’ll actually do what he thinks I should do.”
I hope you’ll leave a comment and tell me how you did on the test.
I’ve never heard jayho but it was such a good word I had to use it. Juberous and jim-jams are not common here, but jump and job are.
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Job, and Jump I hear quite often the others I’m familiar with but don’t hear them at all, being said.
For Ed; The Jay grabs were sometimes called logging dogs. Refering back to my 1st comment: I didn’t recognize jayho But would have recalled jay hole.
Jayho and jim jams are new to me The rest are familiar.
Jump, job, and juberous. Mama said juberous pretty often and also warned us about jobbing out an eye
sorry I don’t have Instagram. My grandparents were from the Missouri Ozarks so some of the words are familiar. I think their kinfolk brought them when they migrated from North Carolina to the hill country of Missouri
Tipper,
I’ve heard most of these words before, Joel was forever saying he had the Immy-Jemmies, I never knew what he meant. When me and Harold would go Possum hunting with Daddy, he’d let them old saw-briars fly back and laurel bushes to make us tough. We got use to that, so we stayed back far enough to not let them hit us. Anyway, Daddy always carried the lantern, and me and Harold was left to Fend on our own.
Joel drove the School Bus, so did John and Harold. Harold had to pick-up Keith Wright’s and Ortha’s daughter, she was Crippled from Polio, I guess, and she had braces and crutches and all, but Harold was strong as an Ox, so he didn’t mind. He’d put on the Emergency Brake and Jump off the Bus like nobody’s business, pick her up and wait for her to be seated. I was so proud of my Brother. I made a Fixture for IOl (Industrial Opportunities, Inc.) a few years ago, and saw Karen there. She said she was Married and had a child of her own, and we talked for a long time. She said “I never got to Thank Harold for all the times he Put Me on the bus.” I said, “he knows”. …Ken
I have a logging background too. I’ve never heard jay-ho but I have heard j-hole. When loggers skidded down very steep mountainsides they established turnouts (same general idea as the runaway ramps where modern truckers can stop their runaway trucks with a minimum of damage) on the sides of the skid road where the horses, mules or oxen could divert if the logs started to run (slide faster than the animals could move). The animals were attached to the logs by a device (I have forgotten what they are called) which if they could move to the side would detach itself as the logs moved past.
Logs were brought down the mountains in chains or trains wherein several would be attached end to end. The teamster (if you want to call him that) would walk far back along the train where he could see it all and would holler commands to the animal(s). These animals were trained as well as many people train their kids and treated better. “J-hole” was just one of a number of verbal commands they understood. Maybe you didn’t want to know all that!
Of course I know and use jump and job in exactly the same way.
To me juberous means a false display of excitement. Like the surprise you show when you know someone is throwing you a birthday party. Or when you open a can of tuna for Christmas and you exclaim “Oh I love it! It’s just what I was hoping for! How did you know I have been thinking about tuna salad?”
I have heard jim-jams but prefer heebie-jeebies. Or actually I prefer neither!
I failed miserably, but job is probably the only one I heard regularly as a child. I think maybe gouge out an eye was more common. I always thought jumping something was if you had a gun.
I wish my grandfather was still here to ask about Jayho, because he was foreman for a lumber gang in the early 1900s. Also he lost an eye to an accident when he got a piece of metal in his eye. The old timey doctors sometimes still used old timey practices. They used a magnet to pull out the metal. The magnet pulled out the metal, but destroyed his eye. He had a glass eye, but he never bothered with it. I am not on Instagram, but was still able to read the posts with the pictures. I always enjoy your Appalachian vocabulary test.
Jump is the only one I know.
You’re gonna job your eyes out was a scary warning that would make a kid stop doing just about anything. It worked when my mom said it to me and I tried it on my girls a few times without much success. Jump is a word I’ve heard all my life when the guys go hunting. The other words are brand new.
Jump, yes. Job? We tried not to jab eyes out. The rest are new — and very interesting!
Just two, jump and job. Read about “jay hole” and “jim jams” but never heard either used to the best of my recollection. Never heard of “juberius” before but have heard and used “straddling the fence”.
I’m thinking the Foxfire book with ‘Moubtain logging’ in it talked about the ‘jay hole’. It was a turnout on the side of a steep skid trail. The log was connected to the team with a “jay grab” which would pull straight ahead but would unhook when the pull was to the side. So at the top of the steep pitch the animals swung aside to safety and the log rolled on its own. So “jayho” as a warning cry seems like it is derived from ‘jay hole’.
i have always known ‘jump’ being used most often as you say, jump (up) a rabbit or a deer. As mentioned, “jump” can also mean angrily engage someone suddenly.
You made this test too hard, school marm. Like several of the others, I only knew job and jump.
Well, I made a F on this one. Only knew job and jump. Juberous is a better way of saying, ” I can’t make up my mind.” I’ll probably get some strange looks when I use it.
Job and jump are the only ones I’m familiar with. Sometimes around here it would be jab instead of job.
The only one for me is job. I haven’t heard the others used except jumped.
The only one I have used is jump. I still say that.
We frequently jump some sort of creature when out in the woods. Just don’t want to jump a bear when berry picking. The other words are not familiar to me. We usually say “put” a eye out.
Tipper–Like Miss Cindy, I’m far more in the dark on this test than is usually the case. I’ve jumped many a rabbit and called the beagles, and I reckon juberous comes from dubious. Likewise job is familar, but the other two are new to me. I must have been in the wood shed when the “j” words were being uttered.
Jim Casada
Job is jab here. The Jimmie legs is our Jim jam. Jumped means a fight. As usual, I love to see and hear from you and your beautiful family!!! Im with Miss Cindy in this vocabulary today. Lol
Mr too Miss Cindy, jimjam, and jump are the only ones I knew
Well Tip, This is the worst I’ve done on any vocabulary test. I’ve heard juberous but not much and I don’t ever recall hearing jayho. Job I heard all my life. Jump is common and jim-jam I’ve not only heard but I’ve had the jim-jams.