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. Torge; twarge: towards. “I heard a big boom over torge Pinhook. I hope nobody ain’t hurt or nothing ain’t tore up.
2. Turn: of milk to sour or curdle. “When the milk turns we say it’s blinky.”
3. Touchous: Irritable disposition. “During my teenage years Pap often told me: Tipper you don’t have to be so independent and touchous when I’m just trying to help you.”
4. Top out: to walk out on the crest of a ridge or mountain top. “I love to top out on the ridge above our house. The view is pretty and more than that it feels like I’ve left the world behind.”
5. Time about: at an alternating interval. “We took time about sawing till we finally got the tree down.”
All of this month’s words and phrases are beyond common in my area. I hope you’ll leave a comment and tell me if they are where you live.
Last night’s video: October in Appalachia.
Tipper
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I am very familiar with all these turns of phrase. They are still common here in North Georgia.
I got purty touchous the other day. I often take time about going to different grocery stores. When I needed milk I went to that small store torge the the bypass where you top out of Haney’s Hill. After I got home, I was ready for a glass but when I took a drink, I could tell mighty quick that that new bought milk had already turned. lol
All are common to me but time about
I’ve heard my parents use all these words. My mother would say techous instead of toucheous. Pronounced like tetch us. When she would comb the tangles out of my hair and I cried, she would tell me I was too techous.
Unthaw . Instead of just thaw out
Unthaw should mean refreeze, shouldn’t it? And yes we use that too.
Happy Halloween Have a blessed day.
Familiar with all of them. Thanks for sharing!
I don’t no not nary one of them words, not nary one!
“Not nary one” is a double negative. Does that then mean I know and use every single one if them?
These are new to me but they make absolute sense as do most Appalachian sayings! Thanks for sharing!
I failed big time. I don’t know any of these.
All were interesting, but new to me!
I have heard and used all the words, and never gave much thought to them not being correct. We used to say milk was clabbered when it turned. I think unpasteurized and raw milk was intentionally left to turn and was then used for eating and baking. Torge is my favorite and most used word on the list. My parents would have said over yander torge Pinhook. Touchous was often called techous when describing a whiny baby. Tipper, your vocabulary test brings back so many memories, I can almost hear my parents saying some of the words I haven’t heard in years.
All of those expressions are familiar to my ears. I hadn’t heard or read “blinky” in decades, but I knew immediately what had happened to the milk. I remember the taste of wild onions and bitterweed in old Daisy’s milk too. I would have preferred blinky milk for my cereal.
As always praying for Granny.
All familiar terms here in East TN, but becoming rarer as our cadence and heritage becomes more diluted each year with the influx of yankees.
5 for 5! Like Elena, I grew up hearing “blinky” for milk that had “gone off”. I thought of that the other day and wanted to ask you if that is said in Brasstown. A variation of ” turn about” is “time about”; that is, teaching kids to share. And ” touchous” can be said as “teegous” (however it is spelled!). But of them, that “top out” got me most. Lord only knows how many times in my life I “topped out” working in the woods. Topping out works great as a metaphor in life to, especially this time of year when the sun has gone south and never rises quite as high nor stays up as long. Many a day when I “topped out” I’d briefly get into the sun but my way would take me into those cold, dark shadows down in the hollow. I often thought of it as “the going down”. Easy in such a time to recall,” Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow … thou art with me…” Lord knows when I topped out but it is certain now that I am in the going down, headed home.
My husband says he finally found someone who talks like me. I was raised in the mountains in Alabama. Matt sounds like he was my neighbor!
I’ve heard all but “touchess” and “take time about” and I’d have said “touchy” and “take turns,” but I see we do have “six of one and half a dozen of the other.” I’d love to see the grandsons four wheeling off road and even arguing about the toy truck. I’ll never forget one of my girls took a plastic kiddie pool that was empty, got the baby on her hands and knees and took that pool, covered her up and sat down on her as poor old baby cried and shrieked -all the while her older sister was shushing her. I knew right then who’d always have the quicker upper hand and who could be led straight down the prim road path. Lol It never changed. Your family is looking healthy and in good spirits! Here’s a shout out of good tidings to all of yous this morning! It’s a good day in the Lord!
I hear all these except touchous and top out. I completely understand what they mean…just don’t hear them spoken here. I love how you get all the family involved in your vocabulary tests. Your October video was so much fun to watch last evening. I also loved taking a walk outside with Katie during her latest video…best things to watch on television for sure!!
The only one I have ever heard is turn.
Yep. We say most of them. Lucky always says “hit” for “it”. Lol
I’m familiar with “take time about” and saying that the milk has turned. My parents used “blinky” to refer to milk that’s just starting to turn. They’re from the Arkansas foothills of the Ozarks, which has similar speech to the Appalachians. I was born and raised in western Kentucky, and grew up hearing a lot of Appalachian expressions from people whose families may have migrated from the hills.
Happy Halloween
I grew up with all these sayings. It was only after I got older that I began to realize everyone didn’t know what they meant.
We say Torge, Milk has Turned and Top Out. My fav saying ever on your site is Matt when he has “come unfed”. I love Y’all.
Sorry about the mistake about my area. My chicken peck finger has a mind of it’s own and will double up on what is in my head
I have heard and say all of them except for number three. I will say ill as a wet hen. Many of you know I have wrote about the lack of rain for my area in my area since the beginning of summer except for a week in August. This week we had 4 inches of much needed rain in 3 days. Before this rain the soil was like talcum powder. Several farmers with large corn fields are not even harvesting it, there is no corn on the stalks. Tonight we are suppose to have our first frost of the year, I am usually a few degrees colder than Greenville so the temperature for me will be close to 32 degrees. I have been getting a few small tomatoes and eating them on sandwiches (may take two to make it) but that will come to an end. I think I will try chopping up any greens ones and frying them like Tipper mentioned a few days ago.