pap
Time for this month’s vocabulary test-take it and see how you do:

  1. Kindly
  2. Knee baby
  3. Kiver
  4. Kilt
  5. Knowed

 

  1. Kindly– kind of, somewhat, rather. “Pap said he was feeling kindly sickly and took to his bed.”
  2. Knee baby– a toddler. “Last time I saw her was down to Johnson’s Store. She had all those young’uns with her-the least one was just a knee baby.”
  3. Kiver– cover. “After the last frost in the spring of the year Mother used to put all the kivers out to air in the sun.”
  4. Kilt– killed. “Old man Ledford has kilt more bear than most folks have ever even seen in their whole live long life.”
  5. Knowed– past tense and past participle of know. “I knowed that boy was trouble the first time I laid eyes on him.”

This month-I’m familiar with all the words. The 3 I hear on a regular basis are: kindly, kilt, and knowed.

So how did you do? Leave me a comment and let me know.

Tipper

 

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43 Comments

  1. Howdy,
    What a wonderful discovery! Born and raised in the mountains, I feel blessed. Now in the golden yesrs, I still carry on the old ways and I Thank You for introducing others to our heritage! The pride I feel when looking at my shelves filled with veggies and fruits we “put up” for the winter, and talking about “hog killing” weather, making liver mush, or laying by the garden. My mountains, my people.

  2. My family uses “Kilt” to refer to the wilted branch lettuce salad that Mr. Casada referred to. I’m from northeast Tennessee. My wife’s mother’s family is from southwest virginia and they refer to the same dish as “scalded lettuce”. They use the same hot grease technique but instead of vinegar, they use buttermilk. Completely different taste but also good.

  3. I have to say I have never heard knee baby before. Of course I have heard all the others and most of them I hear regularly. What’s sad is a lot of these sayings are going away.
    Thanks for another great test.

  4. Never heard knee Baby but know the remainder. I am familiar with kilt as in “papa kilt a bar”. Like Jim I am also familiar with kilt lettuce….a fine meal.
    Thanks Tiller, I love these vocabulary tests.

  5. Thank you, Tipper, for what I believe to one of our country’s most important links to Appalachian heritage.

  6. knee baby – hadn’t heard it.
    Even though I usually “know” most of the words, when I really think about it — I rarely hear them anymore.

  7. Tipper–Like my brother, knee baby was new to me. On the other hand, I can add a second meaning for “kilt,” one with a culinary focus which I’ve heard all my life. “Kilt” branch lettuce or “kilt” ramps refer to the common mountain practice of pouring hot bacon grease or, better still, hot grease from fried streaked meat, over some of the earliest offerings of the good earth in spring.
    Jim Casada
    http://www.jimcasadaoutdoors.com

  8. Hi Tipper, this same vocabulary was and still is used in southern Mississippi. I have heard the knee-baby and also here if the child could not walk it is called an arm tote. I made a 100! 🙂

  9. i love these tests… funny that we dont live in your corner of the world… but ive never heard of knee baby.. or kiver lol
    but at least i knowed a few of them lol
    hope you are staying cool… its been a warm on here in pa..
    big ladybug hugs
    lynn

  10. Tipper,
    All the words are familiar except
    “knee-baby”, and some of my friends use the expression “shot-
    who” quite often. Good job explaining the vocabulary words.
    Ken

  11. I love this..I knew all but “knee baby” also..When I first moved to NC I was shocked how some of the older folk talked..now it does nuttin’ but make me grin from ear to ear.

  12. I knowed them all too! They were used daily in my house. School changed my speaking, but I still say kindly, kiver, and kilt on occasion. Mostly kindly.
    Sheryl

  13. Tipper, like the others I’m so glad you are documenting this. I had not heard knee baby either, but knew most of the others. I have heard a similar phrase – knee high to a grasshopper.
    Sam

  14. Tipper,
    I ’bout “kilt” myself laughing so hard at this vocabulary test!
    When about the same time… I was keeping on, wouldn’t you have “knowed” that the neighbors little “knee baby” kindly started to “squal”, after hit skeered him making him drop his “sugar tit”. I had to “kiver” him a little with my arm so’s he wouldn’t see my “happy tears” a fallin’… and cry out more causing the dogs to “holler up” like they had “treed” a coon.
    Thanks…for the fun

  15. I have heard kilt and knowed. You got me on the other ones, but I could guess was a knee baby was.
    I should take my laptop over to Aunt Sarah’s. She grew up in Philadelphia, Mississippi. I bet she knows most of your vocabulary words.

  16. Knee baby was the only one I hadn’t heard before. But don’t hear many of them used in conversation any longer. I think the use of a lot of these words are going away as the older generation passes.

  17. I am extremely familiar with knee baby, because I was the knee baby in my family. Thanks for sharing. Have a wonderful day!

  18. sitting here with a big grin on my face, i knew all of them but knee baby, and i could guess what that one meant. Kivers is the one that made me smile. i had forgotten about it. love these tests

  19. didn’t ever hear anyone say ‘knee-baby’ and if they ever said ‘kindly’ I thought they said ‘kinda’, I guess. All the rest I have heard in common use. Some jargon is not much different from the way people speak in South GA.
    But there is a funny instance that comes to mind. There is one old guy, who, if he doesn’t hear your correctly, doesn’t say “WHAT” and ask you to repeat yourself. He looks at you and says “Shot Who?”–Caro

  20. Some good’uns, Tipper.
    Knee baby was a new’un for me. You threw in young’uns – although you misspelt it – for free, I reckon.
    Love your work – and I’m mighty proud to know you!

  21. tipper:knowed a percentile,but not knee baby,easy to figger though,i alays could recon some. i thought i was kilt onst in a car smackup,but wasent.so long for now.k.o.h

  22. Kilt and knowed are pretty common around earshot for me. Gosh I love that you’re documenting these! I forget that not everyone knows how we talk!

  23. Have heard of all except “knee baby”. Don’t hear people using any of them now as much as when I was a kid.

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