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.
1. Galacker: One who gathers galax or other ornamental greens for sale to florists. “Although I think being a galacker would be hard work, I also think it would be wonderful to spend my days stogging through the woods in search of the perfect plant.”
2. Gald: to insult; chafe. “Sometimes when I get a new pair of shoes they gald my heels until I get them broke in good.”
3. Garb: clothes. “The older I get the less I worry about my garb or anyone else’s for that matter.”
4. Gather up: to assemble. “It’s almost time for teachers and students to gather up and start a new school year.”
5. Gommed up: messy; dirty or sticky. “My nephew shared his peaches with us this week. As we were under the tree picking the sweet orbs of goodness we had to step in a gommy mess from peaches that had fallen and were rotting on the ground.
How did you do on the test? All of the words/phrases are common here except for galacker. I suppose that one will totally be gone in a few more years when folks who actually were galackers are gone from this ole world.
Last night’s video: The BEST Dill Pickles We’ve Ever Eaten 😃
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I have not heard of galacker, but we use the others.
I watched your video and Justin’s video on the pickles and think we’ll give them a whirl. I’ve never found a crisp dill pickle recipe. Thanks for sharing!
Continued prayers for precious Granny!
Gather up and garb are the only two I use. “We used to gather up the kids and supplies and go to the beach or somewhere special.” In the late 70s early 80s I worked in a florist shop. We had a man and his older son come into town in November every year with Balsam for us to have to make Christmas items. I can’t remember his name for the life of me but my boss told me he lived in the mountains and cut all fresh himself. We would load a walk in freezer with wreaths of different sizes that he had wrapped with cord and piles and piles of loaded branches. They also sold boxes of boxwood branches too. I used to love how the freezer smelled the following weeks. Especially after I would give all a light misting.
We got another storm here earlier. I left here going to the post office and the grocery store (looking for a short handled sponge mop because I need to sit down to mop because moping standing up hurts my back so bad). Anyway when I left it was almost 95º. While I was gone it came up a huge storm. The wind blew and the rain fell in what seemed like buckets. The storm also seemed to follow me. Once when it slacked up I went into the drug store to get one of my medicine which wasn’t ready.
While I was waiting the storm found me. I heard it on the roof and it was roaring. I had to wait at the front door for a long until it died down. I can’t “make a dash for it” any more. The wind was howling, fast enough that I feared being blown away. Maybe that’s an exaggeration but I’m confident I wouldn’t be able to walk into it to get to my truck. It slacked a little and I was able to get to my truck before it hit again and followed me home. The good thing about it is that it dropped 20º. It was almost 95º when I left and 74º when I got home at 5:00 o’clock.
I didn’t find the mop I wanted. I bought a cheap disposable one and I’m going to try to cut it down to the size I need. I haven’t made it to the garden yet to see what damage the wind did there.
Lord, what a gomm!
All are familiar to me. My neck is galled on one side from the brace/collar I’m having to wear. The heat adds to the discomfort. I have a checkup in three weeks to see if the breaks are healing. If not the options are a ‘halo’ brace or surgery. I don’t look forward to either option. My neighbor found the section that hit me. It’s 9 ft long and about 40 lbs. It fell about 50 ft and knocked me loopy. I wasn’t aware of anything for about 6 -7 hours. Peace, love and good health to Granny.
Love you all, and GOD BLESS YOU! 🙂 You make my dreary days so much brighter 🙂 <3
Tipper, thanks to you I knew them all. I’ve never heard or used ‘gaylacker’ but I remember your video on the subject. I have heard and use the others except, like Ann A., I use ‘gall’ and ‘galled’ instead of ‘gald.’
I might be wrong but I think the word ‘gommed’ or the term ‘gommed up’ is used by those NC natives known as ‘high tiders’ (hoi toiders). Their geographic isolation preserved their speech until after WWII when bridges and ferries and radio and TV brought the ‘dingbatters’ in. Their speech has been described as being like Elizabethan English from around the time of Shakespeare.
God’s Blessings to all and especially to Miss Louzine . . .
Galded is what you get from walking in wet britches after you’ve been wading neck deep in the river on a hot summer day. Gall and galled have to do with bile from a gall bladder. It is something quite bitter. There is an Appalachian phrase “bitter as gall”.
Galded (sometime spelled gaulded) is a chafing of the skin usually caused by different areas of your skin rubbing together.
This has nothing to do with today’s post but more to do with the comments over the last several days about the heat and dry weather. I talked to my good lifelong “Sweet Potato” friend a couple of days ago and he said if he/we didn’t get some rain soon he was going to loose his sweet potatoes this year (26,000 down from a high of 40,000) and some of the other produce groups he grows. He has several acres of watermelons and cantaloupes and said they were not going to be very good. Some other farmers in my area have begun to plow some of their crops up. The pastures for the dairy farmers are also drying up. For most of us, this hot, dry weather is more of an inconvenience, but for ones like him and the other farmers that depend on these crops for their lively hood it is serious. Along with praying for Granny and Tipper’s family, I would like to ask for us to pray for these farmers to get the rain they so desperately need.
It’s so interesting to hear the terms & phrases. Some I’ve heard of before, some I say & some are so very new to me.
Hugs & prayers being lifted up for Granny & all of you!!!
I have heard gummed up and galled, I think theses two are a derivative of your words. Never heard galackers before. Thanks for sharing your vocabulary. Prayers for Granny and the rest of your family at this time.
Tut ipper
I’m afraid I didn’t fair so well. The only one I could relate to in any way was gommed. As children, we always went barefoot in the summertime. Thus we always found any mud puddles out there. one of my sisters always called them gommlollies. I guess I do recall “gathering up” we always had to gather up our dirty clothes for laundry day, gather up firewood, gather up vegetables in the garden. That’s about it. I did see your video about your tomatoes coming in and how much Matt loves tomato sandwiches. I’m just like him. I am always beyond excitement about the first tomato sandwich. The ones available in the winter months just stay in the grocery store. We don’t buy them. Wishing ya’ll well.
Jeri Whittaker
7/28/2023
near Athens, Georgia
All but galacker! I always heard galded referring to thighs and rear ends getting rubbed raw from working too long especially in the summer heat and especially those who are not rail thin. Usually Gather together–was heard in church . There are antichafing rubs, etc. to help with this problem. When I injured my knee, I told the xray tech that I was “stove up”. She didn’t know what I meant.
I reckon I am included as a galacker in an earlier life. I gathered moss and boxwood cuttings to sell to florists. Gathering moss makes me a galacker but not a rolling stone. What does the boxwood make me?
“Galds my hide” and “galacker” are new to me. And for whatever reason, the thought of someone gathering galax has never crossed my mind. You’ve given me something fun to think about. Thanks for introducing me to new things. 🙂
Tipper–All the words are quite familiar to me in one way or another. I’ve written about galackers on more than one occasion, and just the other day someone told me galax leaves, with their wonderful sheen and bright colors of all sorts of deeper tints of maroon, are still in use by florists in fancy-dancy shops. I have no idea where they get the leaves because I thought this was a way to make money that was long gone.
As for galded, I still have painful memories of walking from way up Noland Creek in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park after falling in while trout fishing when wearing jeans. The resultant chafing (galding) was so bad that by the time I got back to the trailhead I was walking more bowlegged than a lifelong cowboy.
Jim,
Unfortunately up my way the galax has been over harvested, mostly along BRPWY Mitchell County. It’s still plentiful on private lands away from the parkway. I would surmise the over harvester is not native to this country, given recent news stories. The drive for monetary value is a dangerous thing for a lot of our native plants. Prime example is yellow lady slipper, I have walked a tremendous number of miles in the mountains of the 4 adjoining states and have yet to see one in the wild. The first time I actually saw one was in someone’s backyard. There medicinal value has likely made them scarce.
Love these interesting words. I think garb was the only one I have heard. Prayers for all. Go quietly on and trust Jesus. Take care and God bless ❣️
My Irish grandmother used words that sounded like “gom” and “gommed.” I looked it up and found “gaum”, meaning a sticky mess or something like that. I later saw gaum used in a book of Irish short stories. As for “galded,” we said “galls” and”galled.” Same meaning, similar pronunciation…and I’ll bet the town of Galax, Virginia, was once full of galackers. That term was new to me. Thanks.
Never heard of ‘galacker’ but the rest are familiar.
I enjoy hearing the old words and phrases.
I had not seen galacker until I saw your video. All the others I have heard from my parents mostly.
Your videos really spark my memories.
I’m familiar with all of those. It makes me realize how much I miss language spoken by my parents and grandparents.
Garb is good but getup is better. Your getup looks great when you’ve nailed it but you look like a goon when you don’t. Getup is like a formal garb. “You” in this comment refers not to you, but to me and others whose glad rags are not so pleasing to the eye.
I never heard galacker . I never heard gathered up used to mean a meeting. I have heard the others. But I have only heard garb used in sort of an insulting way, as in “Surely you are not going to town in such a garb as that.”
Oh my, Tipper, I got an A+. Every one of those were something I still use except nothing ever “galds my hide” anymore. Instead it “just burns me up.” Sis and I recently laughed about one expression I blurted out we knew was strictly Appalachian. When I told her I was as tired as “all get out” we both got really tickled. We love the moments when either of us pull a word or expression from way back in the past and throw it out there. You inspired us to love and truly enjoy the colorful language of our people. One more humorous thing I will mention is that I am not getting senile. Those misspellings and strange inappropriate words I sometimes post are my IPad overriding my brain. Although with time, my spelling ability has deteriorated, I believe auto correct may be doing me more harm than good. I try to proof read, but sometimes my coffee just has not kicked in yet!
I have heard of all of them except “Galacker”. In my mind, I was pronouncing it “Guhlacker” instead of “Gaylacker” until I watched your short.
Gosh I’ve only heard of one, gald, but I love the use of “gather up!” Another hot one here in Central IL. Yesterday was the second hottest “Feel Like Temp” ever recorded for a July 27th. Felt like 114* at 6pm, with a dew point of 82. It’s been spinning off some pop up showers, and the gardens must love the bit of rain water poppin up, to go along with all the city water, bc they’re thriving. We may can a few quarts of whole tomatoes today, would be the first time in years.
I have heard all of these before, I’d say I use all of them except “galacker” and “garb” pretty regularly.
I have used “gather up” and “gald” before. Thank you for the pickle recipe video last night. They look delicious and I am so excited to try them. If I don’t get enough from our garden, I may just have to buy some from a farmers market to try. We definitely have enough garlic to use. We harvested 140 bulbs and have them still drying. I cook with garlic almost daily and love that I never have to buy it from the store. I will let you know how my pickles turn out. Have a blessed day everyone!
Brenda-I hope you like them! Make sure to look at Justin’s Recipe. It calls for 1/4 teaspoon alum, and I think I said 1 teaspoon at some point in the video 🙂
Ok. Thanks a bunch.
I’m very familiar with all these sayings in southernmost WV, but “galacker” and the funny part is Galax is about an hour and half from here. I learned from you about Galax the plant and it used to be popular with florists. It surely does have nice leaves. Have a blessed day and I pray (I know I complain about rain ALOT) for a little rain- not a gully washer just a gentle rain…. Prayers going up for Granny the queen bee!!! She is loved by all because she is the mother of the ambassador of Appalachia- you, Mrs. Tipper!!!
I’ve heard of garb and gather up, but not the rest. Instead of gommed for sticky mess, I’ve used gunky for sticky or messy.
I’m always learning something new from you Tipper. Thank you for sharing!
I can’t spleak splain for spluttering! God bless you Tipper God bless granny in Jesus name
I grew up saying gall ( not gald ) and gummed up (not gommed ). I know garb, but not any of the others. I love the sound of galackers!
Like Mr. Eddings, I have heard and used/use all except for galackers. I have never heard that one. Is it a local term?
Jeffery-it is noted in the Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English and the Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English so maybe more so in the southern mountains 🙂
Tipper I so enjoy your blog and look forward everyday to reading it. I love these old words and sayings from ancestors and the old folks still with us. Reminds me of all the phrases and words my Mawmaw and Pawpaw always said. One of mine that I use everyday is “Init” Such as, Init good or init time to go. I’m sure that’s one that is very common in many places. Your blog always brings so many sweet memories of my growing up and what a wonderful and different time it was. Thank you for sharing your life and family with us. Have a beautiful blessed day.
Kay
Galacker is a new one
Stay cool!!
Prayers for Granny.
I love hearing these old familiar phrases! When my great niece got married, I went to great lengths to put together an outfit to wear to the wedding. After I got it together, I told my sister that it felt like I was wearing some kinda “garb”, so I found something else to wear.
Oh gosh, those are sooo familiar except for the galacker…hearing them was fun. I am gonna do those pickles today. I am anxious to hear how your sliced ones are. Hugs to Granny.
Glenda-make sure you look at Justin’s recipe 🙂 It calls for 1/4 teaspoon of alum and I think I said 1 teaspoon at some point in the video 🙂
I am only familiar with two, they are gather up and gald, but it is not my heels I have trouble with galding in this hot weather. I have heard clothes called garb, but not often, like you I don’t worry much anymore what people may think, if you don’t like the way I look, turn your head.
I read the older post about soft drinks being called dopes. As a child of the south where at one time cotton and cotton mills were king and the lifeblood of the south, I often head soft drinks called this by the mill workers. Before vending machines, a wagon would be pulled, usually by a lady through the mill selling soft drinks (dopes) and snacks. A lady in Greenville, SC would do this and also sell sandwiches made by her and with her homemade mayonnaise. Her mayonnaise is now known as Dukes mayonnaise. Me and other older folks in my area still call all soft drinks either coke or drink. I think the original Coke Cola did have Cocaine in the recipe.
Knew all but “galacker”; grew up hearing them in my own family; have used them myself.
I am going to get “all garbed” up to go shopping today LOL. Thanks Tipper for the post and awesome vlogs!
I’m familiar with all those phrases except for galacker.
have you ever of heard of being “carried high”? Meaning to be teased about something embarrassing that you did.
Joe-I haven’t heard that 🙂 Thank you for sharing it!
Galacker is a new one on me!
Hope tomorrow is a successful day at the museum! I would like to drive over but it’s just too hot!
Everyone have a good day and stay hydrated. Blessings to the family♀️
I have! But not since I was a girl! I remember that term!
I heard it when I was young. Sadly, not anymore!