It’s time for this month’s Appalachian Vocabulary Test-take it and see how you do.
- Gald
- Galoot
- Garb
- Gather up
- Gob
- Gald: to chafe; to get blisters. “If you don’t put some socks on with them boots they’re going to gald your feet and you’ll be wishing you listened to your Momma.”
- Galoot: an older man who acts like a fool. “You big galoot, you should have known better than to go down there telling our business. Now everybody’ll be talking about us.”
- Garb: clothing. “Get your garb on. I’m going into town directly and I know you’ll be wanting to go.”
- Gather up: to assemble; to collect. “Every Saturday night they’re gathered up down there a drinking and a carrying on like you’ve never heard.” or “You better gather up some water. I heard a bad storm is coming.”
- Gob: a large of amount of something. “I picked a gob of mustard greens and cooked them for supper the other night. You should have come on over like I told you to. I believe they were the best I ever made.”
I hear galoot and garb on occasion. I hear all the other words on a regular basis here in my area. How about you-how did you do on the test?
Tipper
I have used everyone of those words at one time or another.
That’s the way my vocabulary goes.
Deb
I have heard and used them all. Up north, for “gald” some will say “scald” usually referring to a diaper rash.
God bless.
RB
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I got all but ‘Gald” the others were common in my Grandparent and my Parents vocabulary.
These made me remember Momma this morning. She used them all. In addition to gom. I was known to gom up every thing I touched when I was a kid.
Tipper, love the way you used “gather”. Granny always talked about a certain family that was known to ride horses up the road to someone else’s house to drink. She would say, “They go up that road and gather up to tank up!”
Yes! I have gathered up my dress tail to keep it from getting wet or to keep it from flying up as a I took off running LOL : )
I hear and use these, they were even more prevalent when I was a child. I don’t live down home in southern Ohio anymore, I imagine they are used more often there. I don’t think I ever saw it spelled, but in my mind gald was spelled galled. I heard it used plenty, and use it to this day. It applies to heat-related rashes and baby bottoms too.
Never heard of gald.All the rest are very familiar family favorites. I agree with Karen that Jethro Bodine is a classic example of galloot- only, in my head, it was spelled gallut.
Tipper,
I ’bout cracked up reading B. Ruth’s
earlier comment. So Beverly, you got
to lay off ole Roy. He bought a
blooming Walnut Cracker from me
awhile back.
Nice blog today as usual…Ken
I knowed ’em all and use them all periodically. Sometimes just to check the reaction of the younger generation.
Did you ever have to gather up your dress tail or your britchie legs when you was walking around in the wet weeds?
Is a gob what a galoot has to clear out of his throat?
Use them all, generally think of gald resulting on the inner thighs caused by wet or stiff pants (Like Jim Casada enjoyed) but it can also result from sweaty large thighs rubbing each other.
Back in the days when a machine shop, they would refer to a nut that had seized up on a bolt (no longer tighten or loosen ) as being galded. Never forget this guy that was always messing up but would never admit it. The boss said one day, “Son, have you cross threaded another nut?” He just laughed and said, “Listen, a crossed threaded nut is better than a lock washer ever seen the day to be!” LOL
I have heard all these and called my brothers galoot when they were pestering me .
Tipper,
I read others mention “gall”, I have heard people refer to gall that others spoke. She had the “gall” to tell her in front of her best friend what she had said about her! I have heard that word in or family as well as “gauld” or “gald”. Thinking that this word was used as a bitter, noxious, brazen word to describe a persons outlandish nerve and being rude to someone else!
I think “galoot” is used more in the West of the country than the East, don’t you or did I watch too many Westerns as a youngster! LOL
Thanks Tipper,
PS…I have two, 2, dos, apple cobblers in the oven…Payback time for breakfast! LOL
I’ve heard and used all but gald…never even heard of that one
I’ve heard them all. Around here, there is a new meaning for gob, Good Ole Boys. We say that is a Gob restaurant, or a place where good ole boys hang out, or a Gob truck, the kind that good ole boys drive. 🙂
we use gald or galded in the heat of the summer a lot.
and I’m thinking we all “gathered up” at the Pressley’s on Friday night for dinner.
Love
I have heard all of them. We also called pleats gathers. I still use most of these today. I know what a norther is but I lived in Texas for 16 years. My Granny used gaum quite a bit when I grew up. I looked it up once. The translation I found said it was old English for smudge or smear.
Karen-yes we say spoiled food has gone bad or is going bad. And I still hear people call diabetes sugar in my area. Thank you for the comment!
Tipper
Blind Pig The Acorn
Celebrating and Preserving the
Culture
of Appalachia
http://www.blindpigandtheacorn.com
Tipper,
I woke up late this morning. The husband was gone, and gone and gone! Well, I figured the “ole galoot” had finally left home, in a rush at that. Gone! I checked the area of the “golfing garb” and it was there. Weird, he left the golf garb, but. but he still gone! I checked outside in the withering garden and it was so cold out, it would “gald” a woodpeckers lips. He gone! Well, by this time I figure I might as well start gathering up and box up his toys, like his fishing stuff, his golf stuff, his softball stuff, his high school football trophys, the bowling ball, since he was gone! About that time, I thought all that can wait, since he sure is gone, I’ll have myownself a cup of Hazel Nut coffee with two Splendas (he hates Hazel Nut, remember he gone) and check on the Blind Pig and Acorn. Just as I had tuned in, and got to the word list, I heard the door open, there was the “old galoot”, toting a “gob” of storebought breakfast and the newspaper. Well, bless his heart, no cooking this morning. But then it dawned on me, b. Ruth you surely didn’t think the “old galoot” would never leave without taking his honey, his prize, his lovely, devoted, mother of his children, beterhalf! I said, “I thought you were gone?” He said, “I ran into one of my old buddies, didn’t you check to see if my golf clubs were there?” You know I wouldn’t be gone without my clubs.”
“$#%+” GOLF CLUBS! from the corner of my mind came!
Thanks Tipper,
Heard all these here words this morning!
Tamela-Im not familiar with a norther blowing in. Maybe some other Blind Pig Readers will chime in if they are : )
Blind Pig The Acorn
Celebrating and Preserving the
Culture of Appalachia
http://www.blindpigandtheacorn.com
Not sure that I’ve ever heard of a galoot but now that I know what it means, I think I know a few.
Tipper,
I might have not been paying
attention, but I don’t think I’ve
ever heard “galoot” before. The
others are common to me.
Our local radio station was just
braggin’ about having such a crowd
at the Folk School this past weekend. Couldn’t have had nicer
weather for our biggest event of
the year…Ken
All of them are familiar out here on the edge of the plains too.
Except for using “gall” instead of “gauld”, like Judy Mincer, all are familiar and still in use by my and older family generations although I don’t hear them much in other central Texas conversations. Of course, it’s not uncommon to hear “round up” in place of “gather up” – it doesn’t just refer to cattle!
Speaking of weather. When I was working in Virginia I noticed a bank of clouds roiling a bit and moving in from the NW. I commented that it looked like we had a “norther” blowing in. Not one person knew what I was talking about. Do y’all use that phrase?
I’ve heard and used them all except galoot. I was married to a galoot and didn’t even know it!
Tipper–Back when I was a galoot in training, Daddy and I took a fishing trip way up on the head of Noland Creek. Thanks to inappropriate garb (Duxbak britches, which are as stiff as a half-frozen snake), I got galded to the point where I walked out of Noland Creek like I’d been born riding a horse. We did catch a gob of trout though, and the next day we gathered up a bunch of garden truck to eat with them and had a mighty fine feast.
Jim Casada
Never heard Gald before, but even us “northern VA” folks used the rest.
I love these vocab tests! When I read the words I hear my Nana or Pap’s voices in my mind. They often added a “y” sound after quite a few words that started with a “g.” So garb would be pronounced gyarb and garden would be pronounced gyarden. Great comments from folks out there! Nana used “going to the bad” in relation to girls who were misbehaving and on a sinful path. Folks here in West TN don’t know what I’m referring to when I say my house is in such a gaum, but they are learning! Keep the vocab tests coming!!!
Interesting word list. You got me on gald. That is a new one to add to my vocabulary. The others I have used seldom, but were familiar with. It’s a chilly morning here in Caldwell County, NC, but it feels great!
Yaay! For once I did know them…kinda. Galded is what happens to babies behinds if left in wet diapers too long. Galoot was a silly, foolish man any age. Jethro Bodine was a classic galoot. Garb or “get-up” used alot by elderly ladies in hushed, judgemental tones s/a “Did you see that garb/get-up she had on this morning at church?” Gather-ups happen at church, funeral home or the old home place always folowing “a death in the family.” Gobs are anything in vast amounts s/a money, jewelry, make-up, garbs & of course food, “Did you see that gob of apple pie Billy Bob had on his plate? That boy’s gonna git sugar if he keeps up a eatin’ like that!” Sugar in the last sentence is how our oldsters refer to diabetes. Does anyone say “gone/going to the bad” or “gone bad” in reference to food?
Know them all – though galoot is less and less heard. Gald in my growing up years always referred to a baby’s bottom – “That baby is going to get galded if you don’t change the diapers more often!” Gob I still hear a lot. “We got gobs of zinnias this year.”
Heard and used them all growing up. Heard the word gald used mostly describing a galded dog.
I have heard all of them and gob and gather up I use. Another G-word that I grew up with is gaum.
When something was a mess it was gaumed up or when discovering the mess the expression was, “what a gaum”!
Galoot knows no age boundaries
My grandmother would have said gall,but the meaning is the same. Probably from a blister looking like a gall on a tree. All the others in current use around here in NW GA. Love your examples.
Good ones this time. Gauld I never heard. The rest only now and then since most of the elders in my family have passed. Gathering up I hear as in “there is weather gathering up in the west.” Here in FL it is bad luck to say either bad or good weather. We just say there is weather coming.
All the terms sound like homefolks atalkin to me. Garb reminded me of Mama saying, “Looks like that gal is garbed up for preaching and gambling both.” That was her way to let me know Id better never let her catch me wearing such a getup.
I’ve heard all of these, Tipper. The first time I heard gald was from the Chitter and Chatter’s great grandmother Lura. I was young and newly married and she told me she had a strip of skin across her belly that was galded. I had never heard the word but didn’t want my mother in law to know that I didn’t have a clue what she was talking about. I went home and went to the dictionary. It took some searching before I found what she was saying. Would have been easier to just ask her, but I couldn’t do that. LOL!
I have heard all the words except galoot. It is a new term to me. Greetings from middle TN!
Got them all this time.
I’ve heard all five.