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. Proud: pleased, delighted, honored. “I’m proud to hear Joann is out of the hospital.”
2. Popskull: poor grade homemade liquor. “I told him and told him if he didn’t quit drinking that popskull his uncle made he’d end up in the hospital. He should a listen to me.”
3. Preacher meat: chicken. “Chicken is often the meat served to preachers at dinner on Sunday after church.”
4. Quarrel at: to scold find fault with. “I hate to quarrel at the kids all the time but they don’t leave me no choice when they run around acting like heatherns.
5. Quiltingest: most devoted to making quilts. “They said she was the quiltingest woman in the county. Said there’s no telling how many quilts she made and gave most of them away.”
I’m familiar with all of this month’s words, but seldom hear preacher meat or popskull. I hope you’ll leave a comment and tell me how you did on the test.
Last night’s video: Snow, Music, & Working Up Apples – February in the Mountains of Appalachia.
Tipper
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I’ve not heard of popskull. Interesting term. Must of had a batch that made them feel like they were gonna flip their lid. Funny.
I had trouble posting my first early comment, I thought I posted it twice, my reason for thinking in had messed up.
Around here, moonshine was often referred to as creek water. I often say I am proud of this or that, I like to tease my friends and say “ I am so proud YOU got to see me today!”
I have always heard inferior liquor referred to as “skull-popper”, like the ‘shine made in prisons.
I stopped at a small store this morning and was asked if I needed help finding anything. I said, “I think I can find it. I just need some cow squeezings.” When I saw the puzzled look on the young man’s face I then said, “Milk.” I then explained that I used to squeeze the cow’s teats to get milk – hence – squeezing the milk out.
I had to laugh out loud (which I seldom do) after Matt described the popskull adventure. He is hilarious!
I’ve heard all of those except for popskull. I always heard it called rot gut liquor if it was no good
A synonym is rotgut. Rotgut and popskull can be used interchangeably.
pops kill isn’ familiar but preacher meat is very familiarand the rest I have heard off an on
None of them.
The only one I hear around my area is “quarrel at”. I have never heard “popskull”. We say moonshine or white lightning. We add ‘est’ to lots of words. My mama is the cleaningest person I know. She would be happy cleaning day and night. I have always wanted to learn to quilt. Then I would be the quiltingest person I know.
Brenda, my wife is the same way, and I’m always afraid she’ll make the bed when I go to the bathroom at night.
In Appalachia, we can add est to any word and make it our own. Eatingest child, layingest chicken, hurtingest toothache are a few that come to mind. Quarrel at is one I use all the time, and so is heathern. I will save this post to show the people who laugh when I say those things that they are real words, and they’re the wrong ones. I have never heard of popskull. Likker or far (fire) water described the stuff brewed in the hills of KY. When I was growing up, preacher meat, known as fried chicken, was always followed with jokes I won’t repeat here.
The only one of these I’ve heard or used is “proud”, but I think I could have figured out what the other ones meant just by hearing them. The videos for “popskull” and “quarrel at” cracked me up
I’ve not heard popskull or preacher meat until now. The others I’ve heared before.
Excuse my posting messes this morning, but according to my Daddy I am doing good, he would say “as long as I am getting older and making mistakes, I am doing good, if I ever stop either one I am in trouble and very worried.” I have gotten older and see that I am still making plenty of mistakes in the last week.
Going by today’s picture, Matt has stepped up in the world and got him a gas powered hydraulic “go devil !” Congratulations! Back years ago when we were burning wood, three of my family members got together and made us a log splinter similar to yours. We shared it between us.
Our log splitter was a wedge and a maul or sledge hammer. Later I saw a splitter that was a big screw mounted on a jacked-up vehicle wheel with the lug nuts. Then I watched a neighbor split wood blocks with a Bobcat attachment. I have nevefr seen that little beauty of a go-devil that Paul is using.
Popskull is a new one to me. Thanks for sharing. Always enjoy these tests.
I passed with flying colors! I’ve heard them all used in my family. The quiltingest made me laugh. My late Granny used to put est on everything…laughingest, eatingest, craziest and the like. I have heard popskull too. My late Papaw would call “a drink” all sorts of things…Panther Pee, Mt. Dew, Corn Squeezings, Devil’s Brew. I love how colorful the southern language is.
Blessings.
Tipper, have you ever heard the phrase “cut you a hus” ? As in to be let off for something done wrong. An example would be: ” The sergeant said you were late for morning formation, Im gonna cut you hus this time but don’t let it happen again.” I heard this from mostly from southerners in the service, from the Carolinas.
JohnT, I’ve never heard that phrase. Thank you for sharing it 🙂
Never heard that word or usage…and I was one of those soldiers. I wonder what word “hus” was substituted for? Sounds nothing like “a break” or “some slack.” I love language.
I’ve heard and used all of those words but the younger folks don’t seem to speak that way any more. Jim Casada said it very well as “the genius of mountain folks when it comes to descriptive language.”
The word pop skull was never used but lots of “swamp water” was made back in the hills of East TN and probably still is!
Living close to where John Rice Irwin was from, I heard the word quiltingest often.
When my son became a pastor I was a proud Mom but I did say “son don’t start eating a lot of fried chicken”.
Everyone have a great day.
I really enjoy the singing I would like to ask granny if she has ever sung “on top of old smokey”
Jane-Granny said she used to sing it to Steve when he was a baby 🙂
What the douce is going on ,,,,,, that I said this morning, nor realizing at the time it was one of the slang my Mt Man used. Over 60 years I picked up a lot of slang from him.
When I say “I’m fixing- to do something,” my grands and greats think that is funny!
By the way, I ordered Postum and have been enjoying it. Plain and cocoa blend! I remembered it from my childhood and forgot all about it. I’m 82 now, so that’s a lot of years in between!
I have heard or said all of these especially pop skull
I like heatherns. Use that a lot recent years
I am familiar with all of them. I’ve heard gospel bird more often than preacher meat. And I’ve heard est added to lots of verbs.
I have heard all but popskull and preacher meat. I do know that Sunday dinner was usually Fried chicken day and that folks had their pastor over for Sunday dinner. When eating out, if the preacher was in company, we had the PNP rule. Preacher Never Pays! Always enjoy your vocabulary words. Blessings to all.
Proud is the only one I’m familiar with.
Never heard popskull or preacher meat before but the others were familiar.
Proud and quarrel at are common for me. I don’t think I heard any of the other three. I have heard est added to a plethora of other verbs, lyingest and talkingest probably being the most commonest.
Hmmm “proud” is well-known to me but not used frequently. The others I know or would understand fine also but have rarely heard. I have heard chickens called the “gospel bird” due to the connection to preachers and Sunday dinner but also specifically about the rooster that crowed after Peter had denied the Lord. Whiskey must have “more names than you can shake a stick at”. I reckon I’ve heard and used “fussed at” as the equivalent of “quarrel at”. As to that, seems to me ” quarrel” was once much more common and its use is declining? Growing up, “quarrel” covered the whole range of disagreement from mild fuss to serious trouble. And how come it is you reckon that I think Matt might be the prankiest fella?
I’ve heard “proud” used this way all my life. Every time I hear somebody say they’re proud, I think of Minnie Pearl in her store-bought hat hollering “I’m just so proud to be here!”
The only two I’ve heard of are “proud” and “quarrel at”. I’ve heard, “had preacher for dinner” when asked what was served. “Rot gut” was used for likker and “quarrelsome” for quarreling. “proud” was used many times. “Proud” to meet you.
Tipper–All of them are familiar although I seldom hear and never use quiltingest, never mind that Momma was one of the quiltingest women you’d likely run across.
Preacher meat is the term I use frequently, thanks in part to the fact that a goodly amount of my writing focuses on food.
As for popskull, there are synonyms aplenty that, like this word, show the genius of mountain folks with it comes the descriptive language, viz.
Golden moonbeam
Moonshine
Tanglefoot
Stump water
Peartin’ juice
White lightning
Devil’s brew
Fool’s delight
Rot gut is another I heard growing up.
I think it was the WW II generation that added “hooch” to the list, and it was allowed to age only about 15 minutes.
I have
Another name (‘cuz there are thousands of them) for ‘shine is “Autumn leaf”.
Proud is used frequently in my circles. I’m bad to say after being introduced to someone, “I am proud to have met you”. Not long ago, I was at a funeral where at the request of the family, many men wore overalls (I’m a Liberty man myself). I was standing around in my newest-bluest pair when my mother asked one of her friends what she thought of my overalls and the woman replied, “he wears them proud”. I have heard variations of the others, but not the phrase “preacher meat”. Bad whiskey I have heard referred to as “rot gut” or “poison whiskey”. True story: My mother had a first cousin in the early ’60s who was helping another family make whiskey. The fellar in question was in his early 20s. I am not really sure what happened, but the young man lost consciousness and died. The tale was, “he drank poison whiskey” and the family the young man was working for claimed he got dizzy and fell off the side of a barn. This was a supposedly a cover story to keep the law from investigating and to protect the “reputation” of their “likker”. I have not heard “quiltingest”, but people in the south and especially Appalachia are notorious for adding “est” to most any noun. I have not hear heard quarrel used in that form as a verb, but have heard quarrelsome all my life as an adjective to describe a person who likes to argue or seems to enjoy unpleasant confrontations.
I hope everyone has a great weekend and gets some sunshine, even though it has cooled back down from the warm temps earlier this week. God Bless,
Jeffery
Should of been coming to visit.
Quiltingest and Popskull are new ones to me, but all the others are common here in East TN
I have heard of all of them except 5 and have not said “popskull” very much. Concerning “preacher meat,” I read of one lady’s chickens running and hiding anytime they saw the preacher coming to visit and eat with her. Back when I was a child, it was common for our preacher to visit and eat dinner (midday meal) with my grandparents at least once a month.