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. Wampus cat: imaginary large fearsome cat. “Tales of the fearsome wampus cat were often used to scare wandering children into staying close to home after dark.”
2. Wasper: wasp. “The first bee sting I ever had was from a wasper. We were living at Sherlock’s over in Martins Creek. I still remember how bad it hurt and how much I cried.”
3. Warsh: wash. “I’ve heard folks say they are so busy they don’t know if they are a warshing or a hanging out.”
4. Waste house: an unoccupied building that has fallen to ruin. “I always wonder about waste houses. There’s even one on our road, abandoned by the folks who own it. Looks like they’d sell it but seem to prefer letting it rot down to the ground.”
5. Watch service: church service held on New Year’s Eve to pray the new year in. “When I was a girl I thought watch services were held because everyone thought the end of time was going to happen that night. Sometimes we went to them and children were always stretched out asleep on every other bench.”
So how did you do on the test?
I’m familiar with all of them but waste house. Alex Stewart uses the phrase in the book Alex Stewart Portrait of a Pioneer. I recently read a piece by Cratis D. Williams. He also uses the phrase.
It is the perfect description for houses that go to waste from neglect.
Last night’s video: I Made a Lot of Mistakes in 2025.
Tipper
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I have heard and said wasper all my life, but also say wasp. My mother’s family say Warsh, but public school got that R out of me by the end of first grade. I think I heard about the Wampus Cat from Jerry Clower, does that count? I have never before heard the term waste house, but it is a perfect description. Growing up in WV I attended many a Watch Service where we prayed the old year out and the new year in.
Hi again Tipper,
Charles and I were talking about warnuts, wild cats, and warshing.
He told me to me to add a few more–
Booger Den– an enclosed place that is scary and often home to wild animals
the Laurel thicket was a booger den. (A swampy place were alot of rhododendron survive)
Public Work– work off the farm or work for a company
Pumpkin– Pumkin— word of endearment used with mostly pets. Sometimes children
hot house– greenhouse
running around— doing errands out of the house
loaferen’– wandering around with no purpose
Plundering– going through things you are not suppose to go through– She was plundering in her grandmother’s chest when she found old love letters. He went through the old house and found pieces of gold
pilfer– stealing
Have a good one–
Charles and Kathy Patterson
Kathy, tell Charles thank you! Those are all good ones 🙂
Happy New Year everyone!! It’s time for us to grab another blank book with 365 pages, & start writing a new story. I’ll be starting my story by Celebrating Appalachia, Blind Pig & The Acorn, making Bacon Wrapped Dates Stuffed with Goat Cheese, & Bacon Wrapped Pickled Jalapenos. I have big goals this year!! Thank you Tipper for allowing us to Celebrate Appalachia with your family! *Big hug*
I have heard and or used all of these growing up in NW NC mountains except waste house. The only thing worse than the Wampus cat, might be a big nest of waspers taking up residence on your back porch. They are mean!
Love these vocabulary tests. Matt’s word reminds me of when I use to go up to Hill NH where I hunted in the winter time. There use to be a small collection of stone cellars where homes use to be. A small cemetery nearby shows that the last person buried was in the 1850’s. The area is surrounded by stone walls where live stock were kept. There’s even an old apple orchard in the area which wad a great place to hunt because of the rotten apples on the ground. Nothing like rotting apples to attract deer. While hunting I, like Matt, imagined who lived in these empty foundations and why everyone left the valley at about the same time. It was also a great place for my first wife and I to go digging through the old dumps in back of the homes to find the bottles and other treasures hidden buried the years. Have a Blessed New Year.
Did you go back and read my explanation of a Bark House?
Welp, this Boston accented lady 100% uses so many of y’all’s words and phrases. Love them all. Puney was today’s I lived in SC and learned some. Buggy is carriage in my grocery stores. My neighbor said oil like y’all and ‘put up’. His mom would drive down for holidays with tons of deer meat. They’re from PA. I keep forgetting to ask about the connection there with so many similarities in language and culture. Anyhow, I love it all. Happy new year to everyone here. I’ve not any expectations truly. Losing family is unfortunately what’s happening in my 52nd year of life. I need some Appalachian grit!!!
Like a lot of folk who have replied, I’ve heard all of these except “waste house”.
I’ve only really heard of warsh! Through your blog, Tipper, I have realized that one of my childhood friends growing up must’ve had Appalachian heritage in her family. She uses much of the rich, colorful language that you talk about! I am thinking that her family transplanted up north, but she has many southern roots!
This morning, I was reading a small local magazine for our Electric Co Op and saw a recipe for Black Walnut Sheet Cake. I thought I would share and type it out as I know you like black walnuts, and probably others do as well!
Black Walnut Sheet Cake
Recipe courtesy of the Home Baking Association.
CAKE:
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 sticks butter
4 T cocoa
1 cup water
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°. Sift dry ingredients into a medium size mixing bowl. In a saucepan, melt butter, then whisk with cocoa and water. Bring mixture to a rapid boil, then carefully pour over dry ingredients. Add buttermilk and eggs, stir well, then pour into a cookie sheet pan with edges. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.
ICING:
1 stick butter
4 T Cocoa
6 T buttermilk
1 lb powdered sugar
1 cup black walnuts
Directions for icing:
In a saucepan, melt butter. Add cocoa and buttermilk; bring to a boil and add powdered sugar and walnuts. Spread over cake while the cake is hot. Makes 24 servings.
Happy New Year, all, and God’s richest blessings!
Hi Tipper and family,
We have had a good Christmas. It is still windy here in the Blue Ridge with wind chills to cold to talk about. Our yard is so clean from the wind blowing off all the junk.
I had never heard of wampus cat– We use the term wild cat here for any cat that will eat you up if you try to catch it.
I use the term wasper now with I get stung. Somehow, we always have a wasper nest on the house or buildings all the time. It think the overhangs on them offer them protection in the winter.
We have watch services all the time around here. We use the term waiting for it to come in or see it come in. It is especially used when the weather comes from the south and folks go to the Parkway overlook and watch the clouds come toward the top of the mountain. Really a sight to see.
I always warsh my clothes in the warsher and warsh my face every morning.
We don’t have waste houses here but we have houses that are all to pieces and you might fall through them if you go in. One of the big troubles here with that are old cow sheds they are really bad to go all to pieces because they ain’t got locust posts in them. Hog houses are bad too.
We also cut burshes off the side of the road so they won’t tear up the car paint. Briarer are especially bad around here for that.
We also have WArnut cake like the one in today’s recipe. I want to try it as soon as I get the gas in the stove going again. They sure taste good too. Anything with warnuts are good. Kathy Patterson
Never has there been a more charming test to fail. Thank you for introducing me to four new words/phrases. The only word I knew before reading this post was “warsh.” That is how my mother (whose father hailed from a southern Appalachian region) pronounced “wash.” She also said “chimley” instead of chimney. Thank you for the vocabulary lesson – and for allowing me to hear the voice of my sweet mother.
Happy new year, Tipper and family! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Someone whom I remember saying “warsh,” albeit as part of “Wa(r)shington,” was Cong. Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the House in the late 1990’s. He was born in Central PA (or “Pennsyltucky,” as some call it) and had that sort of an accent, even though much of his young life and later professional pre-Congressional career was in Metropolitan Atlanta. His parents apparently spoke “Pennsyltucky” even in GA, and the ATL being pretty cosmopolitan even in the 1960’s, probably he never felt he needed to sound more “Southern” since not everybody in Atlanta did.
I haven’t heard waste house. If I saw an old run-down house, it was considered a ” shack.” Waste house makes perfect sense because it’s just wasting away. It’s a sad site to see one in that kind of condition. I always enjoy these vocabulary tests. Thanks for sharing. Oh, I did enjoy yesterday’s song, but my comment didn’t go through. Have a great New Year’s Eve everyone!!
My grandmothers never threatened us with a wampus cat, for one it was bloody bones and rawhide and for the other one, it was her bad eye. She was almost blind in one eye.
I’m only familiar with watch service.
Waspers are not bees. Bees are fuzzy and fat around their middles. Waspers are thin and slick with a tiny “wasp waists”. Honey bees, bumble bees and sweat bees are true bees.
Paper waspers, hornets and yeller jackets are waspers.
No, I didn’t learn that from google, I actually went to school. Maybe biology has changed since then though!
Oh, and carpenter bees are a kind of fly and don’t sting at all. I learnt that in school too.
“Waste house” was new to me. We had no single term for them other than “shack,” often preceded by “deserted,” “falling-down” or maybe “tenant” if its small size and construction style so indicated. My father-in-law and I once discovered two 9 mm pistols in a brown paper bag in the attic of a waste house. We had the serial numbers checked by law enforcement. Both were clean, so we we kept them. After that, I never passed up a chance to inspect a shack I came across while hunting.
I missed “waste house” too. I would have said “abandoned house”.
We had ring-tailed galleywampuses. And watch night at church. I have also heard warsh.
I’ve heard a few of these from some of your other videos. I especially like “waspers”. I still say “warsh” to this very day. We use Cattywompas here which means something is out of kilter. Happy New Year! Prayers for Granny throughout 2026!
I’ve heard warsh and wampum cat. We have a baseball team in Albemarle named Uwharrie Wampus Cats. They are part of the Blue Ridge Baseball League. Mascot is a large scary cat.
Happy new year!
The word “warsh” was common among my kin back in Oklahoma when I was growing up. However, my maternal grandparents had moved there from Tennessee so my grandpa could work in the oil fields, so “warsh” may have actually come with them from Tennessee.
I really enjoyed last nights “mistakes”, you are too hard on yourself. Happy New Year to Wilson Holler. As always praying for Granny.
I failed the test! I have never heard these abandon homes called “waste house” but when I see some of them, I find myself wishing I had a house like that. So of them look to be a good house left to rot. I have lived in a double wide mobile home my married adult life. Living in this home allowed my wife to stay home and raise our children when they were young. It has provided me with everything I ever needed. I don’t say “warsh” but do say wrench for rinse.
Familiar with all but Waste House. Happy New Year!
I am familiar with all the phrases except the waste house … but it does make sense with the way it was used ..
I watched the newest video of Blind Pig and Acorn with Granny and Paul singing … it’s was such a blessing to watch and hear .. also to see the talent that Granny has with her crocheting.. her sweater is so beautiful .. my prayers are with her and her health..
thank you for all your content on
Celebrating Appalachian & Blind Pig and Acorn .. I pray your family has the most Blessed coming New Year
Good mornin’ y’all. Did purty good for the last test of the year except for waste house. Happy New Year!
The most familiar one is “warsh”, as my mama says that all the time. I used to correct her when I was a young girl because of teachers correcting us…but now I realize how precious the Appalachian words and phrases she says are. I have only heard of wampus cat and wasper on your channel. You teach us so much. I have not heard of waste house, but it makes sense—and it sure always makes me wonder why a forgotten house wasn’t sold before it got that way. It always makes me sad to see them along the road. I listened to Granny and Paul sing last evening. It was so sweet. Happy New Year everyone! We are getting lots of snow!
Have heard and used all of them
My dads family said warsh alot.
We have waste houses in central Michigan. I’m sure most places have them. Makes me sad. My great grandparents house on my father’s side is a waste house. When I was a little girl (in my 40s now) I remember the house was in good enough shape to go in on one side, but even then it had been abandoned for years. I didn’t go inside because I was afraid of it falling apart around me. 30 years later and I now wish I would have went inside. I think it was the living room or could have been a parlor.
My husband and our family have lived in my Grandparents house for 11 years. I am sure we saved this old farm house from becoming a waste house. Our house is just about 1/8 a mile down from the waste house that was my great grandparents.
Happy New Year to all!
If I am awake at midnight it’s because I had to go to the bathroom.
I know and am familiar with the usage of all EXCEPT WASTE HOUSE. I gotta say that’s a very good description of a house gone to ruin and who can top that one? Your family are good sports in helping you with the vocabulary test. I knew a girl/woman since we were in diapers and I asked her what she was going to do with her life at 40. She responded “my mom thinks I should go to VOCABULARY SCHOOL.” I said right back “don’t you mean VOCATIONAL SCHOOL?” Ummm yeah….”those ones” will ALWAYS be with us on the short bus… good times really and it’s the crazy funny stuff we all remember and laugh about all our lives… HAPPY NEW YEAR to all and the gustatory black eye pea and cabbage crowd! I’m making homemade pizza. Italian food is our tradition for New Years Day…I was a the store and was talking about snow. The bag boy responded “yes, we will get a lot NEXT YEAR!” In my mind, I was thinking what weather model has he seen that he knows about NEXT year…then I said “When?” He said “In a few weeks.” Now at 60 next year is a far off and at 20 and and a bag boy in college, next year is literally a couple days away…. I had to laugh cause time strikes different I think as we age…I LOVED MATT’S FAST FOOD SHIRT!!!! Ain’t it the truth? Lol HAPPY NEW YEAR and be the firecracker you set off this year!!!!
I’ve heard Wampus cat watch service but we called it watch night service. waste house I’ve never heard that one warsh i still use that but my wife and kids say we’re is the r in that word
I’ve never heard of “wampus cats” or “waste house” but my family used the other words. I used to use the phrase “waspers” when I was small. I used to be threatened with the “Booger Man” if my parents wanted to make me behave.
I grew up hearing tales of Wampus cats and like critters. I don’t believe I have ever heard “waste houses” and surely not in that context. Similarly, I have heard the phrases “going to seed”, “going to pot”, “wastin’ away”, or “that place is a rottnen’ down” (for rotting). One my daddy used a lot was “that place is dying on the vine”. I occasionally did hear folks put the R in wash, but I don’t think that was local. The families I recall using the R had either came from other parts of the country or had people who at one time or another had worked “up north”. Some of my kin did use it, but that bunch had migrated from TN to AL in the 1920s. Thirty years ago or so I traveled with my job and particularly in northwest AR and southwest Missouri (the Ozarks). I noticed the use of “warsh” and “wrench” (rinse) very frequently there among “locals”. I always enjoy the vocabulary tests. Stay warm, It’s in the mid-20s this morning here.
I’m familiar with all of them but waste house. I’d not heard that one. It makes perfect sense because we always say “I hate to see that house go to waste. Looks like someone could have used it”
Praying everyone has a safe and Happy New Year. I never make it to midnight. I’m always too tired and go to bed early.
May the Lord bless y’all each new day! May His presence be near!
Good Morning Tipper. I love hearing Appalachian dialect. We never said Wampus Cats. My Little Granny (Mama’s Mother) would scare us kids at night talking about Panthers. We had to walk to the outhouse in the dark if we didn’t go before sundown. Also, something gross that we did was go out in the front yard and pee on the ground before bedtime. Mama, Granny, Aunt Sue and all 5 girl would walk out past where the porch light hit the ground and pee in a group. All the while we could hear the squalling from Granny’s Panthers in the hills/mountains around the house. Country ways. LOL. I keep you all in my prayers. I love y’all.
Most if not all country boys have peed off the porch before going to bed, but I would never have thought of it as a group activity. Made me laugh.
Did your grandmother pronounce it “painther”? Sort of like someone who applies paint to a wall, or makes a picture on a canvas?
Anyhow, the reason for urinating may well have been to chase critters away by using the scent of human beings. People who live off-grid do that.
I haven’t heard of “Wompas Cat” but we use “Cattywompas” a lot. Cattywompas is something that is out of whack or off kilter. For example: “That chicken coop is built out of all kinds of wood scraps and it sure it cattywompas!” Always love your vocabulary tests. So much fun!
4 of 5 – do not recall ever hearing ‘waste house’ though – as others noted – I have seen and spoken of houses sitting empty and “going to waste”. Dyed-in-the-wool country folks don’t like waste for a variety of reasons. I’ve heard ” waspers” way more than I have used it. I suspect the “er” was tacked on because it is a bit easier to say. I think the same is true of “warsh”, easier to say a hard sound than a soft one in some connections. I’ve never seen a wampus cat – and wouldn’t know one if I did – but I have heard tell of places where they are reported to be. As to “watch service” we will have one tonight. I’ve known that tradition all my life. And I have a growing sense that we all best be watching “the changes that are coming upon the earth” and being sure we are hidden in the rock.
Happy New Year everybody, God bless you and your family very much in Jesus name, Happy New Year Granny, the only one I hadn’t already seen or heard was about to waste house