It’s time for this month’s Appalachian Vocabulary Test-take it and see how you do.
- Ease around
- Eating table
- Epizooticks
- Everly
- Everwho
- Ease around: to move quietly without disturbing. “They were talking about something awful serious out there in the yard when I got home. I figured it was none of my business so I just eased around them and came on in the house.”
- Eating table: kitchen/dinning room table. “Didn’t I raise you better than to talk about such as that at the eating table! Sometimes I wonder if your brain ain’t turned upside down!”
- Epizooticks: humorous name to describe a common illness similar to the cold. “How you?” said Mr. Dockery. The lady replied “We’ve all had the epizooticks but we’re doing fine other than that.”
- Everly: always. “Everly time I smell fresh cut wood I think of Papaw with his overalls, turned up hat bill, twinkling eyes, and sawdust settled into every crevice of the folds of his clothes.
- Everwho: whoever. “Everwho borrowed my gray sweater better have it back in my closet before morning!”
My thoughts about this month’s test:
- I use ease around all the time-I don’t think I could talk without that one.
- Eating table is very common in my neck of the woods too.
- Instead of epizooticks-I hear epizoodie used to describe a common illness such as a bad cold that makes its way through the whole family.
- I never hear the word everly. BUT I love it! Who wouldn’t want to go around saying everly. I’m going to use everly from now own-especially if I’m talking about something as sweet as my Papaw Wade and his overalls.
- I couldn’t talk without saying everwho either-I use it all the time.
Please leave a comment and let me know how you did on the test!
Tipper
My grandmother said epizoodie all the time when referring to some kind of illness akin to a bad cold. We thought it was just a funny name she’d made up until I found a medicine bottle in an an old country store that said ” Good for the epizudia.”
My MIL always says epizoodie! And we have used Anywho.
I’ve heard Eating Table which was to differentiate between the simple kitchen table which was the Eating Table and the fancy one in the dining room used only for company visits. I remember Ease Around, the Everwho reminds me of our sister who seemed to be dyslexic as a child. She said everything kind backwards or sideways, like Hopgrasser for Grasshopper and Hike Hitcher for Hitch Hiker, and when she drew pictures, she drew them upside down like a house standing on its roof with smoke coming from the chimney at the bottom and the path from the front door at the top. She often spelled her name Tap instead of Pat, and I remember too that she could use both hands pretty effectively. She turned out ok though (we think), raised three kids who turned out well, so she musta worked through it all growing up.
God bless.
RB
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Everwho is super common and I have heard epizootis some though I don’t really use it much. That’s pretty much it for around here
Only ease around for me, but I loved that description of the sawmill man…reminds me so much of my good friend the HayMan, who also has a mill!
Have used all but the episooticks. Haven’t been on here for a while, but right now i can’t see and to read is something else. i had a cataract removed and a lens replacement in one eye last week. Be glad when my vision gets better.
Hope all things are good for each Acorn and you Tipper.
Peggy L.
We’re easin’ around Tennessee, visitin’ with kin and takin’ dinner at their eatin’ table as we make our way to East Kentucky. Gonna slip off with the mornin’ fog tomorrow.
Epizootics is a new disease to me, but Daddy useta take a bad case of the collywobbles everso often.
Everly comes in pairs; Don and Phil…
HI Tipper,Some how my comment on eating table got put on Mumble Peg April 30 th.lol Jean
The only one I wasn’t sure of was Epizooticks. I always enjoy this series.
Good news. I figured out how to follow you on bloglovin’ and feedly. So much easier for me than email, so you’ll know what happened to me there.
Hope you have a lovely mother’s day Tipper and that our weather warms up some.
Sam
Tipper,
I use all the words except epizo-
something another. Is that even a
word? And I’m COUNTRY!
My Server has been out most of the
day. I noticed everything was a
flashing when I got here today.
…Ken
Tipper,
When I was in eleventh grade, at lunch we would sit on the steps in the hall and play our ukuleles and sing. The vice-principle would “ease around” and slip up and scare the “peewatdy” out of us. Eventhough we were on lunch break away from disturbing classes with our musical strains..
“Everwho” was there he would send us on our way! “Everly” time I hear the term “ease around” I think of this man. He was known to wear “sneakers” to school everly day! The truth! We would wish that he stayed at the “eatin’ table” in the teachers lounge…but no, no. He was always trying to catch someone doing something, even if it was innocent fun! Sometimes I wished he had caught, what did you call it, the “epizooticks” and had to stay home a day or two. But then, I wouldn’t wish anything with a “tick” sound on anyone….We always said, the “creeping crud”….Never heard or used that I remember “epizooticks”….
Thanks Tipper,
and thanks Mr. Davis for sneaking around and keeping us out of such troubling meaness, like playing our UKE’s and singing in the hall!!!
I have used ease around and everwho many times. My mother used to say, “How you?”. I have asked people that but not lately.
I’ve heard all but # 3. Number 1 is the only one I can recall using. At our house we call the cold, sinus congestion, etc the “creeping crud” because it always seems to progress to something else and almost always gets passed on to the rest of the family. We also joke that if you see the doctor he can clear it up in 14 days. If you don’t go to the doctor it will take you two weeks to get over it.
These were interesting words. Ease around I figured out as well as eating table. The last two were more difficult to figure out, but I was able to get a piece of them, but epizooticks really confused me. I thought that it was a form to toothpick to clean our ones food from teeth. A good school of learnin’ today. We are so lucky – we have sun this morning!
My mom and aunts used to refer to the creeping crud. I think it originally described scabies, but came to describe any skin irritation.
I have heard everly used and grandad said eatin’ table. I use the others all the time. Insted of sitting down at the table grandad would sot down to the eatin’ table and hope himself to the fixin’s.
I have never heard epizootick, but may start using it to prove I am Appalachian to the bone. My youngest daughter with her big fancy Master’s Degree tries to tell me there is no such word as everwho. Ha! Now I have my proof.
Tipper, it took me a minute to figure out where you pictures were taken, but I got it. The first is a couple of your raised beds with the newly cleared bank behind them. The second is wind chimes, both from your porch. Cool pics!
Ease around I hear and use fairly often. Eating table I may have heard but is not something I use.
Epizootics is not one of my words, I just call it the crud.
Everly I know only as the Everly Brothers.
Everwho I hear often but don’t use much.
I had a young possum on my deck this morning. I seemed lost. Finally got it of the deck and into the back yard where it joined two more and they are still there. Don’t much want to let my cats out with them there. I don’t want any problems or vet bills!
I got them all except for Epizooticks. Never heard that before.
Thanks for reminding us of the richness of our passing Appalachian sayings. I was familiar with all your list today, even though I must say I don’t always use them nowadays
(and there’s one for you in the N’s: nowadays; we’ve shortened it to now.)
I remember my Aunt Avery saying, “Everly time I think of… [and she would name some relative who had ‘gone on to his/her reward…] and then she woudl recall some godo aspect of that remembered person. Enjoy your Appalachian Vocabulary tests!
Ever time one of the youngins comes to the eating table with a case of that old epizoodica, I ease around the neighborhood to see where they got it. Everwho is spreading it needs to stay out of peoples faces. There’s jus snot no call for it I tell you!
Lymphangitis epizootica is in the dictionary.
Dear friend,
I have heard all except epizooticks and everly. Happy day from middle TN!
I’ve heard and used epazooticks all my life, ease around and everwho occasionally. Everly is a popular name for baby girls around these parts nowadays. I like it.
I’ve never heard episooticks, love the word though. Everly was used by a neighbor from GA all the time, the rest I’ve either heard or used and still do.