Its time for this month’s Appalachian Vocabulary Test. Take it and see how you do:
- Tear up
- Terrible
- Terrible to
- To do
- To where
- Tear up: to break an object; to become exhausted either physically or emotionally. “You better put up your Daddy’s guitar before you tear it up.” or “Sounder is one of my favorite movies but it tears me up every time I watch it.”
- Terrible: extreme, very large, extraordinarily. “There was a terrible crowd at the movie last night.”
- Terrible to: having a tendancy to. “I’m terrible to keep on working when I know I ought to sit down and rest.”
- To do: a party or other social gathering. “They had closed off most of town cause they were having some big to do over at the courthouse.”
- To where: to the point. “Before his surgery it had gotten to where he couldn’t even walk up the steps anymore.”
I’m familiar with all this months words-in fact I use them all myself. How about you-how did you do on the test?
Tipper
We still use all of those. Love the photos of the clog dance shoes too. I have torn up and wore out several pairs of clogging shoes over the years because that’s my stress relief: clogging.
I am terrible to use all of those! tee hee
Love Ed’s spellin. Judith
I love reading this stuff, bringing attention to our wonderous uniqueness, right down to tearing up the gettar. Judith
“Have you ever heard of the term cattawampus (sp.)?”
We pronounced it cattywampus, and it meant the same as whanky which meant to us, not quite right in some way…crooked, off kilter, odd.
For instance, the new minister’s brother was whanky, REAL whanky. Know what I mean?
God bless.
RB
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Yep, I use every one of them, a couple I didn’t even realize I used til I saw them here. LOL
God bless.
RB
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Pretty good. I’ve heard of them all.
I don’t use #3 but I use all the rest and I hear #3. I love this segment!
I have heard them all,even used a couple. #2 heard only rarely(my grandmother, I think). On # 3,it was ‘bad to drink’, more often. How about ‘tore up’? Or, ‘tore down’? Have either one been covered in a test? They get a lot of mileage betwixt their several meanings. I love these vocab tests!
Great fun, Tipper! Yes, these are used here.
Carol–A synonym for cattywampus is sigogglin’, and both of them are in regular use in the mountain country where I grew up. Off kilter is another synonym, although I’ve heard it used to refer to mental instability more often than in any other context.
Jim Casada
http://www.jimcasadaoutdoors.com
Carol- Ive heard cattawampus to mean crooked too : )
Blind Pig The Acorn
Celebrating and Preserving the
Culture of Appalachia
http://www.blindpigandtheacorn.com
Yep, have used and heard all of these and also Carol’s word of cattawampus (or catterwampus?)
I have a “terrible” appreciation for people that appreciate language!!
(What can I say? I’m a quick study!)
Tipper,
Time don’t mean much to me but I
did send in a comment, I thought,
sometime ader dinner. Must a forgot to hit ‘Post’.
Anyway, after reading B. Ruth’s
comment, looks like she ’bout
covered my thoughts.
I just wish Chitter and Chatter
was in them shoes to show folks
how to Clog in harmony…Ken
Tipper, I love these Appalachian Vocabulary Tests. My kids and grand kids too, sometimes laugh at my vocabulary. I just laugh with them!
I have used all of the above words in the way you have them here.
Yes I have heard them all and use them all. We use To do to mean make a big deal about it: She made a big to do over her passing the test.
Well yeah, I know them all and have used them all at one time or another. But, Tipper, I thought it was turrible, that’s how I heard it.
I used to try to speak better ‘Kings English’, as my mother called it but I’ve got to where I just don’t pay it no attention.
It is what it is and I am who I am and that’s just the way it is!
B.Ruth-Whird ewe go to skool? We mite a hadda sam techer? Yure problee swuftern me cuz I thay made me drap outta skool an git a tooter. Sheuzza gooden two. Tawt me howta spel an make senences an pernouns wurds rite. I wooden bee the sucksess I am tuhday athout her.
I dont thank thems reel wurds thet Jim feller uz’s. He gist makesome up an caws aint nobidy swuft enuff tu no the defurnce he gits awa wiff it. whattau thank?
Look I lurned tuh rite mi nam two. an knot jest the X. I ken rite tuhther part two. Mi last nam is Write but I aint lurnt tuh rite it Right yit. Butt ima duin beter, Wright?
Mi tooter tol me her nam wuz Miss Enfurmachun. Iffin u kneed eny hep I ken sender yore way. Whasure adrest sews she ken git thare.
Im cher glad I grageated. Now I daunt hafta dicktate mi emails tu mi stewpid bruther.
Seeya latr alley gater. I dont thank thets how u spel it butt u no whut Ah mint tuh sa. Sew, Buy!
Ol’ man Will Shakesphere wouldn’ be nary bit put out by the way you talk.
Tipper,
I have thunk on this and did a little pondering….I think when one sees a drap of water rollin’ down the face of a person…it should be spelt “teer”..a’liken to “deer”…..Now then, when that storm come thru and “tore up Jack” and my Beech trees, hit jest teared me up somethin’ terrible…It was so bad that I can’t get the tear that hit tore in my shirt sewed right and that makes a teer in my eye……..Ainglish is a mystery at times…I pitty them poor little chillens’ having to larn hit.
Jim shore hit the nail on English or Ainglish words on this one…Is that why he uses them there big words, cause they are easier to understand even though they are a “booger” to spell…LOL Especially them giant “P” words…LOL
We use just about all reglar ‘cept we are terrible to gettum’ spelt wrong!!….
Thanks Tipper,
I gots cucumbers!..UhOh, that’s right we are growing beans this year..LOL Only one bean came up so far..would you believe a bad day bean….LOL Is that an omen, remember the bad day cukes last year came up first…and then didn’t produce as well….LOL
Either I’m learning the Appalachian words from listening to others, or your site is teaching me real well. I only wasn’t quite sure with ‘to do’, but after reading how it was used, I understood the message completely. Good lesson!
Now the tap shoes remind me ot times past when I used to take tap lessons. Good memory!
I have used them all! đŸ™‚
All but #3. The tear up I hear used is to indicate a musician really gave it their all. (tear s in rip)Something your famiy probably does regularly.
I tear up, as in cry profusely, when watching movies where the animal heros die. Man from Snowy River, Old Yeller, etc.
Use them all, tear up I’ve heard this way too. Parent to child; “If you don’t mind me I’m gonna tear you up.”
“That ol’ Mrs. Butcher, she was terrible to lay up in the bed ’till 8 or 9 o’clock”
I done turrible! I use those phrases so may times in my regular speech patterns that I didn’t recognize them as being Appalachian-specific.
Know all of them and use most. Bad to is more common around my neck of the woods. Tore up is common too. As in, I get all tore up when they sing that song in church or his daddy bought him that car and he has tore it all to pieces.
Ron,
Oh yeah, that’s everyday talk around here. Some people just look at me and some giggle when I get to where I forget to watch what I say. I just got called out for putting ‘a’ in front of words. I’m a fixin’ to clean house today and I’m a going to be too busy to go shopping.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Bill
Bad to – occasionally
Terrible to – will not miss an opportunity.
Tipper
And that’s exactly the way I say ’em too. I finally got over being ashamed of the way I talk. Now I wear it like a badge.
we say it. we say it. Howd I do that? do that?
Like many of the others, use all except “terrible to”.
A similar one is “aiming to.” He’s aiming to fix the car some day. Could be the better spelling is “aimin.”
I am familiar with all the words and their uses. This is my favorite part of your posts. Have you ever heard of the term cattawampus (sp.)? As I was leaving my parents, the front of an old truck was crooked. It looked like it had run over something. The word came to me.
I was all tore up by that terrible to do! It was to where they all were a fightin all the time down there
Use all of them. “Terrible to” not so much.
Ed-well you just did! So now I don’t need too : )
Blind Pig The Acorn
Celebrating and Preserving the
Culture of Appalachia
http://www.blindpigandtheacorn.com
Tipper–All of those terms are familiar to me and ones I use on a regular basis.
Tear up has, as your examples indicate, multiple meanings depending on pronunciation (whether pronounced in a way that means rip something apart or as an indication of crying). Those multiple meanings and pronunciations of words are one of the many things which make English such a fascinating (and frustrating) language.
I knew a fellow down in Georgia who did some writing on the outdoors and who loved to spend time in a bass boat. His tombsone reads: “Leroy was bad to fish.” To me that is a five-word tribute to a life well lived.
Jim Casada
http://www.jimcasadaoutdoors.com
I’m familar with all except “terrible to”, we’ve always used “bad to” in the context you show.
I don’t recall the “terrible to” usage. All the others were familiar.
I’ve used just about all of them, with the exception of the “terrible to” I don’t think I’ve heard that one since my Grandmother passed away years ago. The saying that drives my sons and my 2 best friends crazy is when I say “fixin” as.. I’m fixin to mow the yard. I grew up with that and no matter how I try (when they are around) it just comes out before I can catch it!
Yep I use them all the time.
You know you otta put in the pronunciation as well as the definition.
tare up
tur a bul
tuhdew
tuh whir
That way we could see it the way we say it we say it.
I was still up at 4 a.m. As i started to shut down for the night, I noticed a new blog from you.
When do you rest?