It’s time for this month’s Appalachian Vocabulary Test, take it and see how you do!
- Raggedy
- Raise up
- Rattle Trap
- Redd up
- Rimption
- Raggedy: ragged. “Don’t wear that ole raggedy shirt! People will think I don’t know how to take care of you.”
- Raise up: to grow up. “I was raised up in Brasstown and I’ve lived right here in this holler most all of my life.”
- Rattle trap: a noise maker, a junky vehicle. “That truck ain’t nothing but a rattle trap. I swear people can hear him coming down the mountain a mile away.”
- Redd up: to clean up or straighten a room or area. “I told the children to redd up the place for company was coming.”
- Rimption: an abundance. “He came home with a rimption of ramps! Wouldn’t tell me where he got them but I don’t care as long as he was giving them to me.
I didn’t do so well on this test. I’ve never heard nor seen the word rimption used and I’ve only seen the word redd in books.
The other 3 words are still very common here. How did you do?
Tipper
Sorry to reply so late, but a friend’s aunt, who grew up in Blount County, TN used “rimption.” “Redd up” is common in Pittsburgh, so the word might have traveled from there to West Virginia. I never heard it in East Tennessee.
However, my grandmother (born and raised in the northeastern corner of Alabama) used “gom.” If you have ever seen a child that’s had too much candy and isn’t hungry at dinnertime just mess the food on its plate around, that is a gom.
Tipper here is a word I hear often it was pitchy I may not be spelling it right. Someone or something that hadn’t taken a bath (Dutch word) looked nasty grandmother would say that’s piltchy (now filthy is the word used)
Tipper,
Love your Blog, and especially the music. I have heard of all the sayings except rimption. My Dad had many a rattle trap, I wished I could find one now! easier to work on.
Sheila Weaver.
My mama used to say to me and my cousins just as her granny said to her and her cousins, “you youngins is a messing an’d gaumin an’d stringin an’d strowin youins get out here”!!! I also tell people that make fun of the way I pronounce my words, “listen here, they ain’t a thang wrong with my smarts”!!! I’m very proud of every bit of my heritage and of how I was raised up!
First 4 I have heard, not the last one. I love these!
Ed-thank you for the comment! YES Granny says uses scads like that sometimes : )
Tipper
Blind Pig The Acorn
Celebrating and Preserving the
Culture of Appalachia
http://www.blindpigandtheacorn.com
Hi, Tipper. All were common to me except for rimption – I’ve never heard of that one before.
One more thing! I don’t know whose toes them are in the first picture but they look like they are nearly frostbit. Just look how red! I think somebody must have flipped over two calendar pages. This is April not May. Do I sound like somebody’s grandma?
I knew the first 3 too. Raise up can also mean what a snake or dog does right before you get bit. I learned merci beaucoup from Mrs. Lillian Thomasson way back in the 60’s. I don’t know “redd up” but ride up is what happens to your overhauls when you have the galluses adjusted too tight.
Have you ever heard scads used to describe an abundance of something?
I’m not familiar with Redd up in that way, nor rimption.. I was thinking for Redd up.. I got “Redd Up” on my bible verses.. 🙂
Only 3 out of 5! I must be slipping-
p.s. Never had ramps so that may be why. I think I’d like ’em though
rimption is a new one to me. I’ve raised a ruckus, had a coniption fit and seen a hissy fit or two but never a rimption. Unless, I just didn’t recognize it. 🙂
I have heard the first three but not the last two. I have used raggedy many a time.
Pam
scrap-n-sewgranny.blogspot.com
Well, um..This is the first time I ever seed ‘rimption’ or even heerd of it but the first four are not new to me, though it’s been a spell sinct I heerd ‘redd up’.
George, I never thought about the French connection from Nam but I was hearing boo coos before Nam. I’m from eastern KY originally and I don’t know if that word use was limited to southeastern KY or not. I suspect we each know some several special ways to say ‘abundance’. I love the way Lucy Maude Montgomery in the Anne books said, “Rich beyond the wildest dreams of avarice.”
Tipper,
My daddy was always telling us boys about the Irishman.
One time this Irishman was going
down the railroad tracks when a
train came up behind him. The train had slowed down to a crawl and the driver of the train was swearin’ at him, telling him to get off the tracks.
The Irishman turned around and
said “yeah, you just want to get
me in that fresh plowed ground
so you can catch me.” …Ken
The first three words I could gather what they meant although I may not use them very often. However, the last two really stumped me. I’ll try to add them to my brain.
Enjoyed the pictures. Who’s legs ae we looking at?
Tipper,
and Jim…did you mean “gaulded”, instead of “redded up”????
The devil made me say it!!!
Thanks for vocabulary insights. I didn’t know “redd up’ or “rimption” either, but they are for real. One source claims redd up comes from Danish “rydde op”, meaning to cleanup.
Tipper,
I never heard “redd up” or “rimption” before, but the other
3 are familiar to me.
Looks like someone likes to go
“barefootin” in the fresh plowed
ground…Ken
Have never heard rimption or red up, but others very familiar. Your blog always reminds me of many other facts such as the ramps are looking good. I will not cook them until company leaves and warm enough to air out the house.
Just love the picture of bare feet in fresh plowed dirt. This reminds me of the seemingly long ago days when I got Honey Bee stings on my bare feet. It was so common, we would just pull out the stinger enjoying the knowledge the bee was supposed to die. You couldn’t look it up on Google, so had to depend a lot on what you were told by your elders.
Also never able to know the Appalachian sayings from those nationwide until Tipper’s blog. I am so appreciative of these Appalachian Vocabulary tests.
I’m the same as everyone else – first 3 words are common, last 2 are unknown.
Another version of “raise up” is “come up,” as in “I come up way up’par in the holler, back afore they took it fer the park.”
Ron S. mentioned saying “boo coos” – beau coup, French for many, or abundance of – and wondered if WWI soldiers brought it back from France, or if it dated from colonial times.
Depending on Ron’s age, his “boo Coos” very well could have come to him from returning Viet Nam soldiers. The term was extremely common among the troops in ‘Nam (I was one of them), who picked up “beau coup” from the local pidgin that mixed Vietnamese with French. Viet Nam was a French colony until 1954, and French was still widely spoken there during the “American War” of 1961-73.
Still use all of them except the last one.
I always thought redd up was PA Dutch since it is used daily in PA,
We could not leave the house til we redd up the living room in case visitors came unexpectedly.
Never heard of “rimption” and only know what I assume is a variation of “redd up”. I have heard and used “ready up” all my life as in “We have to “ready up” – the house, – the yard, -the kids before the company arrives; or, “ready up” the table for dinner. The first three are common knowledge around here.
Rimption and redd up also stumped me. Taken in the context of a sentence I suppose I would understand the meaning of each.
Redd up and rimption are new to me but the others are very familiar. I keep my raggedy clothes folded in a pile for outside chores. I don’t hang them up with my go to town clothes or Sunday go to meeting clothes!
I have owned a few rattle traps in my life because I was raised up to work for what you get. In those teenage years an old rattle trap gave you as much freedom as a brand new sports car!
I have never heard rimption, either. I got all the rest.
I’ve heard and used 1-3 all my life. Instead of saying redd up, we say straighten up. An abundance means a right smart where I come from.
Knew the first three right off the bat; the fourth only because I had read about it. Never heard or read rimption. We said boo coos (beau c oup) which has made me wonder if brought back from France in WWI or if from Colonial times.
I agree, “Reddup” and “Rimption” are new to me.
Tipper,
I have heard “readied up” for a test and “brush up” for a test. Maybe the person was saying “redd up”! Other than that instance, never heard “redd up” or “rimption”!
All the others we have used or hear on occasion. For instance, I love an old soft raggedy dish rag…just before it has to go to the rag box or trash! LOL
He was “raised up” to know better but he still won’t keep enough oil in that old “rattle trap” truck of his’n! I don’t know how it keeps a’runnin’!
Thanks Tipper,
PS…Raining here this morning and everything is so green it’s blindin’! Only a few short weeks ago, everything was so white it was blindin’…
The last word, I have never heard. Redd up, I heard as a child but not in years. The other words, we use a lot.Barbara
Similar situation to you, Mike, and Miss Cindy – never heard of red up. I’ve read the word rimption, but couldn’t tell you where and didn’t recall what it meant.
I knew them all but Rimption. I think we would say a mess instead, “he brought home a mess of turnip greens”
I actually did grw up with “redd up”, though never saw it in writing before. Rimption is new to me, also.
Tipper,
I’ll echo your experience with the 1st three and the least two expressions, exactly. It’s funny how the differences between Appalachia and Swamplandia (ref Karen Russell)can sometimes seem vast and other times seem nonexistent. It’s like some words are your dandelion seeds and can travel hundreds of miles each generation while others just drop to the ground, waiting for the interest of critters, to carry them a relatively short distance from their place of origin.
Tipper–Like Miss Cindy and Mike, it appears my raisin’ has some holes in it. Both rimption and redd up are new to me in the context of your definitions, although I’ve heard “red up” in a different application.
Namely, “that old boy got his jeans wet plumb up to the crotch and he redded up with a rash that look like a fox’s a** in pokeberry time.”
Jim Casada
Never heard “redd up” or “rimption”.
Tip, the first three I grew up with. The last two, I’ve never seen or heard.
The pictures I love, especially the last one….barefooted in new plowed soil! It’s timely, spring is here.