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. Hub deep: mud or mire reaching hub of wheel. “The freezing and thawing of winter really makes our driveway a mess. Sometimes it gets so bad you mar up hub deep if you don’t stay on the high side.”
2. How do: hello. “You don’t hear as many folks using the greeting of “how do” today. But you can count on Billy Ray Palmer saying it every last time you see him.
3. Hissy: an outburst of anger; a tantrum. “I don’t know what all went on, but I’m a telling you the whole shebang is in a hissy about it.”
4. Heave: bulge, swell, expand. “The ground froze so hard during the cold spell we had a couple of weeks ago that it heaved up in places all along the backyard.”
5. Hippo: hypochondria. “I think that bunch has all got the hippo. There’s one of them a going to the doctor every time you turn around.”
All of this month’s words/phrases are pretty common in my area of Appalachia except hippo. I’ve never heard anyone say the word, but have been enamored with it ever since I first learned it when researching Appalachian language.
Hope you’ll leave a comment and tell me how you did on the test.
Last night’s video: Cube Steak with Gravy, EASY InstaPot Rice, Green Beans, EASY Bread Machine Recipe & Cinnamon Cake!
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I say, “Hi” and my wife says, “Hey”. Our daughter’s greeting was , “Hi – a” the first couple of years after she learned to talk. Friends from Canada laughed at her one word vocabulary with a Southern drawl. I don’t consider myself as a hippo or hypo but after three days of running a fever and some other symptoms my wife called our doctor and was told to call 911 and get me to the hospital. I spent about 8 hours in the local emergency room where the flu was diagnosed as well as a gall bladder duct blockage. After three days at Mission I got home about 6 tonight with three new bottles of meds and instructions to see my doctor in a week and to arrange to get my gall bladder out asap. I was just released from therapy on 12/28/23 for the neck breaking experience in early July. My wife says I’m a walking disaster as something is always happening to me.
Here in the Midwest, the only word I am familiar with is hissy, as she had a hissy fit because she couldn’t go with us.
Hope Gtanny is feeling better these days. I continue to pray for her and the rest of the family. God bless everyone! H H
I always love your vocabulary posts. All of these words/phrases were familiar except for ‘hippo’. Loved that one too!!! Thanks for all of the effort and work you put into your blog and videos. They are something I look forward to on a daily basis. ❣️
Tipper, All of the words are familiar, regularly used, recognized, and understood here far and wide except the pronunciation of hypo – as in hypochondriac. We say “hypo” which rhymes with “typo.. not hippo as pronounced like the animal “hippopotamus”. We probably say “hypo” because it is just a shortened form of the word “hypochondriac”.
Blessings to all of you. Praying Granny is feeling much better.
I use hissy all the time with the grandkids. Heave is a common word here used to describe what the frost does to the ground…a frost heave.
I remember reading , I believe, a story about Mary Todd Lincoln as a young woman in which it was said that Abraham Lincoln had the “hypo”. I know he was troubled with depression so maybe at thattime “hypo’ meant depression. I believe I have heard “how do?” sometime in the past and was familiar with the others. Love these vocabularies!
I’m very familiar with all of them but “hippo.” Hissy or hissy fit was so common when I was growing up.
My father, whose parents immigrated from rural Ireland, always asked, “How do?” He’s the only one I’ve ever heard say it. It makes me wonder if that’s an import by way of Ireland. We say hissy fit up here. Never just hissy, though.
I am familiar with all of them except hippo. Always enjoy these Appalachian vocabulary tests. Thanks for sharing! Have a blessed day everyone!!
I say hypo /hi·po/ not hippo /hip·o/. Doctor drugs make them feel better. More drugs makes them feel more better. Having tests done makes them feel better even though they reveal nothing. I’ve known a lot of folks like that.
Referring to someone as a Hippo was forbidden in my world. Equating particularly rotund people to the southmost end of a north bound hippopotamus might earn you a bit of retribution.
I most often say “axle deep” but “hub deep” is also quite familiar. “Lock in the hubs, this is getting deep!”
I’ve heard “How do?” but it’s not my choice. I am a “Hey” or “Howdy Do?” man. Brother Vance’s greeting was always “Howdy Howdy”.
The “heaved up” Matt is referring to is what I call “mush ice” when appears on the surface. What with all the rain and abnormally cold temperatures we’ve been having I see it a lot.
I had a “Hissy” last night when I was cutting a piece of cheese off a block. The block jumped out of my hand and fell in the nasty floor. I had some choice words for it before it hit me that I was yelling at a chunk of cheese. I would have been embarrassed if there was anyone there to witness my foolishness.
I reckon only Southerners have hissy fits.
Knew all the vocabulary words except hippo.
And, guanner, I think, comes from the word guano. We Southerners pronounced it by the syllables and threw in an R ending.
I will try to shut up after this but will not make any promises. My dear Mother had a sure fire cure for any hissy fits I might pitch when I was a child growing up, it was a good/large dose of hickory tea. I hope this brings a smile to some of you that have knowledge about hickory tea.
Heard and used all of them before except hippo. It’s amazing to me how similar our language down here in Eastern South Carolina is to y’all’s up there in Western North Carolina. We have a lot in common.
Thanks for sharing.
I still carry my Specail Forces medic coin with “First Do No Harm”, the Hippocratic oath, inscribed on one side. Abbreviating Hippocrates into hippo comes as naturally as turning doctor into doc.
I heard all these used as a child in Mercer County, W Va back in the 40’s and 50’s. My Mawmaw would refer to someone who was a hypochondriac as “hippoed”.
I know this sounds bad but as a kid growing up in Cherokee co.nc. I always heard adults say ” old ___(insert name) _ runs to the Doctor ever time they get a fart hung cross ways”.
New saying to add to my collection!
I’ve heard and used all those words except hippo. I’ve used hissy by itself or further descriptive “hissy fit.”
Your cube steak meal looked delicious!! I was looking in the index of your cookbook for the page number and my book says page 69 Cubed Beef Steak and you just happened to say the page number 71 so I turned to 71 and there it was:) I noticed Jim’s country style steak was on page 69, that being a baked steak which actually is the way my Mother made it:)
I’m familiar with How Do and Hissy, but not any of the others.
Growing up in Massachusetts we had many a road sign that warned of “FROST HEAVE” & also “Thickly settled” ones for areas with more people. My parents use them as spelling & vocabulary lessons!
I’ll say 3 1/2 of 5 familiar to me. “How do” is the 1/2; think I have heard it but very rarely and do not say it myself. The missing 1 is “hippo”. By context I’d figure out the meaning but do not recall ever having heard it. Among the ” Hs” have you ever done “hope” with the meaning “help”? I cannot recall. My Grandma said that and my father-in-law (92 yrs old) says it. I expect it will drop out of use very soon.
My Granny would exclaim “Hope my die” when professing that she was telling a truth about something – I think it was a form of “Help me die (if I’m telling a lie)”.
Minnie Pearl always began her comedy greeting with a big, “How Do.”
We say “ how do” and “ hissy” here in north Alabama. Sent you a email about “ uanner” fertilizer sacks being made into quilts and clothing. Not sure about spelling of it. Curious if that something y’all knew of in your nick of the woods?
Richard-I have never heard of that 🙂 hopefully someone else has and will chime in.
Richard and Tipper, I spelled it guanner. At one time it was in cloth sacks -maybe up to 200 lbs unlike the 40/50 pound bags of today. These sacks would often be used for cotton sacks. A strap to go around your neck and shoulder would be tied or sewn to the sack and then the sack would be used to put your cotton in when picking cotton by hand. I see no reason these sacks like flour sacks couldn’t have been used for cloth to make other things. Yesterday at the retiree lunch I have already mentioned, I talked with someone about picking cotton and these sacks. For ones that may not know, guanner is an old time name for what is known today as granular fertilizer such as 10-10-10. Sody was the old time name for pure nitrogen such as today’s 33 percent nitrogen. The Bulldog brand was a favorite brand in my area. I have a story I could tell about me, a cotton sack, a rock and a dried up cotton stalk. Mama would play a BIG part in this story. How many know what a Cole guanner distributor is? I have one along with a Cole cotton planter.
Here in our neck of the woods, pretty printed feed sacks, as well as flour sacks were used to make clothing and quilts as well as dish towels. When a bachelor uncle of mine died, we found a whole trunk stuffed full of these feed sacks. It was a gold mine for all the quilters and seamstresses in the family. These types of sacks were prized by quilters and seamstresses. Many times a small corner of a sack was sent by the lady of the house to the feed store when the man of the house went to buy feed so he could see if he could match it for her for some project she was working on at the time. Sadly those days have long gone. Feed no longer comes in pretty printed sacks that can be repurposed for clothing or made into quilt squares or backing. This would be so nice to have these days. It would be a great up-cycle to repurpose instead of the plastic bags we get now. We have a bunch of quilts that were quilted by our elders that have these feed sack backs or squares.
The only fertilizer sacks I’m aware of were made of burlap or what we called “tow” sacks or else stiff double paper sacks.. an of course today fertilizer comes in plastic bags. There was one other bag that my daddy said was used for picking cotton or perhaps other crops that was called a gunny sack that fitted over the shoulder of the one dragging it through the field picking cotton, peas, beans, etc. Probably very similar to what Randy describes in his post.
Would that be “geuanner” sack? Same or similar to tow sack? I’ve seen it used as quilt backing.
I think the name might come from “Guano” a fertilizer used for many years before modern technology changed to the use of a manufactured product. Guano is bat excrement that builds up in caves where they live. It was dug up, bagged up and shipped to farmers for use on their fields.
Guano is the correct world, at least it is for me. Years ago I would hear many of the older folks still calling the modern day fertilizer guano. Chicken manure is some of the best “guano” you can get just as long as you get plenty of rain, otherwise it will burn up /kill your plants. Today there is some dry, granular nitrogen made from city sewage. The sewage is heated to very high temperature to kill anything harmful. It has a slight smell to it that deer do not like. Some people will scatter it around the edge of their garden or other plants and flowers in an effort to keep deer away. I know of two brands of this but can not think of either one right now.
Grandma referred to our neighbor as being hippoed. She would say that woman runs to the dr more than anybody I ever knowed. We thought the word hippo was short for hypochondriac. Grandma always used some flowery language, some of her words and phrases we never heard anywhere else, and many I have seen here on your wonderful blog. Thank yall for letting us share in your lives.
I’m with you and Ann A. I’ve never heard hippo except referring to the animal. But all the other words are familiar. We’ve had colorful characters in our family and community who said a lot of these words. Since my son has lived in Australia and married a native I’ve learned a lot of new words and shortened words that are common there just as we shorten words here. Maybe they are different words but they shorten them as we sometimes do. I find people and language so very interesting. It’s also fun to hear words spoken that tell what area of southern Appalachia the speaker is from. My husband said to be sure to unplug the hosepipe before temperatures got down to freezing. I had always called it a hose or had heard water hose. He was from Nashville, his mother from W Tn and I’m from E Tn. Keep up the good work. Thanks again.
Familiar with all except hippo
How do! It’s always interesting and fun when we learn some new Appalachia vocabulary.
Always enjoy and sometimes feel somewhat challenged at your Blind Pig vocab test. My favorite, and one which I’ve yet to hear in one of your forums, is “Heecups” for “hiccups ” or “Direee” for “Diarrhea. Let’s face it. There are just some sounds that some of us cannot or will not utter!
Both hippo and hub deep are new ones on me! But hey if you ain’t learnin’ you ain’t livin’! Btw HOWDY DO from WV where it’s wild and wonderful – at least that’s what the license plates say…. honestly it looks like y’all are in for a really spectacular year ahead with the hustle and bustle of new younguns and the big garden at Pap’s! I’m excited already for yas down the road a piece! May the Lord Bless you, Tipper, your sweetie pie man, those sweet girls and their babies for a safe delivery, Paul, Steve, their families and of course the beloved and gracious Granny Louzine!!! She’s our mascot and matriarch too! Just special and wonderful describes the whole lot of yas!!! It’s a pleasure to know and hear from ya every day!!! It’s very reassuring and comforting seeing yas every day! Speaking of hippos (hypochondriacs) I told the doctor, the more I see ya, the sicker I get! I mean he’s had plastic on his chairs since 2020 and those chairs ain’t been cleaned the first time. I think they’re in a comatose near death cold state. I’m pronouncing them dead soon.
I am only familiar with two of these, hissy or hissy fit and how do. Yesterday I had lunch (dinner to me) with about 70 of my Michelin retired coworkers, many of them were good friends. I remember asking many of them my version of “how do”. It is how you been doing. I agree with Phyllis, I can’t put into words the enjoyment I get from reading the BP&A posts.
After reading yesterday’s posts about rich pine and the cost of buying the small bundles of it. I thought of selling and taking bids on an arm size 4 or 5 foot stick of genuine SC lighterd that I have. I picked it up many years ago to give to my Daddy. He has now been gone for 33 years. Since I can no longer walk through the woods and look for it, I think I will just keep it.
Hummm Hippo. Not heard that one.
P.S. love following along with you in the recipe book. Thanks so much for the page #s.
I grew up with all those “words/sayings” but for hippo…here we call it “hypo”….
I continue using the unique word phrasing I grew up hearing but with all the new people moving to Eastern Tennessee, I am afraid my language will be swallered up by all the strangeness of the words new people bring with them.
Thanks for recording the many phrases used at one time by everybody in the Appalachians. Carolyn
My Big Mom, my paternal grandma used to tell us “hissy fit” if we were showing out over something. I’ve not heard of hippo in that way but have heard it referred to a hippopotamus. That one stumped me. Blessings to you all.
here in Oklahoma I have heard and used all the words except for hippo—hypo is what I say and have heard all my life…almost all of your vocabulary words are what we say here–but then probably most of the people who have lived for years in Oklahoma originated from your area or near you…we have the Cherokees of course of which many of our ‘whites’ are descendants and of course Irish, Pennsylvania Dutch (which is what my grandmother preferred calling her and her family–they were full blood German)….anyway as you have said many times the immigrants to this country (parts of them or their relatives) worked their way settling all across the country so the same words are scattered everywhere…I do notice though that in the younger generations the old words are disappearing and are being replaced with new words that when I hear them I do not have a clue what the kids are talking about—give me the old ways of talking acting living and cooking
Doggies! I hain’t heered not nary a one uh them there words. What’s amatter with me?
Good morning Tipper. I have heard all these except hippo. We say “hypo”—as in someone that has every illness you mention is a “hypo”. Having several grandchildren, someone—especially toddlers—may occasionally have a little “hissy fit” about something. With all the freezing and thawing this winter, our yard has several “heaved up” spots in it too. I love learning and reading about the Appalachian phrases used. I watched your cube steak supper video this morning too, and it just made me hungry. Did you grow and can your own pickled beets in the video? If so, do you have a video of you canning them? They just look so healthy and delicious. Thanks for this blog and all you do.
Never heard “hippo” except short for hippopotamus.
I always enjoy the vocabulary review from your shorts. Most are familiar to me but sometimes there is a real zinger that I have never heard like hippo.
January gone already!
I can’t begin to tell you how much I enjoy your posts and the YouTube channel. My husband and I live in Fairview just on the outskirts of Asheville. We were both raised in the northern end of Buncombe County. We are beginning the 30th year of his pastoring Reynolds Baptist Church. Matt reminds me so much of Bobby my husband. Watching you and your family is like taking a step back in time. I feel like we are a part of your family. I can’t wait each night to watch your posts on YouTube. First thing each morning I read Blind Pig and Acorn with my coffee. If you ever want to have a place for a book signing in Asheville we have a large family life center at church. The church is located just off I-40 in the Reynolds Community. It is about 10 minutes from the Asheville mall. I would love to meet you.