A few weeks ago Don Casada sent me the email below:
“I was reading through Volume XV of North Carolina Troops and ran across excerpts from letters written by a Sergeant Solomon F. Cook of the 62nd Regiment to his wife, Martha Ann. There were two passages (from two different letters) that caught my eye which might be candidates for your Appalachian word game:
“When I got to camp, I found something over half the company was down with the measles but most of them is on the mend.”
“I can inform you that we are somewhat flusterated here now.”
While “down with” and “on the mend” are phrases I’m sure you’ve used, they’re not as commonly heard now – especially “on the mend.” I’ve never heard the word “flusterated” – but that is a mountain special, don’t you think – a combination of flustered and frustrated?”
—————
I hear down with and on the mend fairly often in my area of Appalachia. I also hear flusterated occasionally. There’s a sweet girl I see at work that happens to be a real talker. She often stops by my desk to tell me what’s going on in her life and she almost always uses the word flusterated as she tells me her troubles. I would guess she’s about 23 years old.
I agree with Don the word flusterated is indeed a mountain special. How about you-have you ever heard the word used?
Tipper
Have You Ever Been Frustrated, Flustered, OR How About Flusterated?
YES!
Forgot to say thank you for the seeds, Tipper! They all arrived intact and although it will be a while before they can be planted here I have been saying encouraging things to get them ready.
“Down with” and “on the mend” are common expressions here, but “flusterated” is a new one on me, and it’s a beaut! 🙂
A new one to me was hearing that someone suffering back pain was ‘down in the back.’
I don’t think it makes a hill of beans that rotted in the ground because they were planted too early, but the spelling in Volume XV, North Carolina Troops 1861-1865, page 9 is flusterated (with an “e”).
I have indeed heard the word for years and years, said by a friend who was born to a military couple in Kyoto, Japan, was raised in Piqua, Ohio until she was a pre-teen, then moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and now lives near Winter Haven, Florida, so I wouldn’t be too sure that it’s indeed “a mountain special” – but then again, it could be, though she’s an educated woman, that she’s always been just a little bit confused about that word that makes me laugh whenever she uses it. ROFLOL
God bless.
RB
<><
All were heard around our house- ‘flustrated’, (no extra ‘e’ or syllable) was one of my mother;s favorite words. I think it’s a great combo term!
“Down with” and “on the mend” are both very common out here on the edge of the plains (eastern Kansas). Both flustered and frustrated are in common use, but the hybrid version is pretty rare. I used to work with a fellow from south Texas who used “flustrated” a lot. It was pretty easy to get that way where we worked.
I have been reading through the letters from Sgt. Cook and though I can’t see the original, the transcription leaves the first e out of flusterated making it flustrated which is how I hear it now.
By the way, I can get on your site again from work, which is where I am now and which is where I am going to get in trouble if I get caugh……
Anyone interested in reading more letters from Sgt. Cook to his wife here is a website http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cook/SolomonCookLetters.html
Absolutely! I got told I flusterated my mama on a real regular basis way back when. I still use it and most of my kin from the North Alabama mountains do, too. “On the mend” is just part of everyday conversation around here, too.
Been flusterated many times!!
Tipper,
This cold spell has got me flustrated!
But it’s nice to see the Sun again.
Maybe I can get some stuff in the
ground soon, seems I’m running late.
…Ken
Good words, use and hear flustered and frustrated but never flusterated….
Hello….this is not related to your post of today but just want you to know that I listen to the
music playlist everyday and enjoy so much! Thank you.
I’ve heard flusterated ever since I was a child. My mother uses the term, and I told her there was no such word-you are either flustered or frustrated. I have her down with and on the mend all my life. I am from central Virginia which is nowhere near the mountains. I guess a lot of these old-fashioned expressions are dying out.
Well Tipper: Right now you could say I am flusterated with this slow BLANK computer. But according to the automatic speller on this no good computer, we are WRONG! That flusterated is not an acceptable word! Dag gone it! What to do?
See you on the 17th~~~~~@ JCCFS!!!!
Eva Nell
p.s. Just got a note/MAYBE invitation to present in OR in May!!! Whoopee!
I haven’t heard flusterated but if you leave the e out, it’s a common word around here. Chitter(?) looks like she’s ready to come down with a case of the giggles as soon as the camera is out of sight.
Oh yeah! (Both syllables of “ye-ah!”[by the way – not the same as “yee-haw!”] for extra emphasis.) Every one of those words and phrases mentioned are common in these parts. We add the “extra” syllable in “flus-ter-a-ted” when we need extra emphasis – – just like ye-ah!
A gentleman my husband knows gets “flusterated”. When they worked together Mark would laugh and say Junior don’t get mad, he just gets “flusterated”. 🙂
I probably would have used frustrated, for some reason I have heard flustered, but where escapes me at this time. There seem to be many things as one ages that can cause a person to become frustrated.
All three common in my family.
I have heard “flustrated” as a combination of “flustered” and “frustrated”, but I have never heard “flustErated”. I guess all these similar words that mean the same thing have got me “flusterated”…
Tipper,
Hey, I got on your website per the email link…yea, maybe later I can try my other regular method of logging on…
“Flusterated” is a word I have used and got from my Mother’s side of the family. In fact my computer was “down with” the “can’t help its”! It is now back from the “tech doc” and I hope it is
“on the mend”. I had gotten so “flusterated” that I had me a “conniption fit”! The better-half grabbed up this thing and took it straight on to the “tech doc”, I hope it continues to work properly….
Hey Don, thanks for giving Tipper those words…I haven’t used “flusterated” in a while,
until my computer “busted”! No, it didn’t burst, it “busted”!
Thanks Tipper, great post as usual!!!!!
Round here it’s always flustrated (flust-rated.) Never flustered or frustrated. Undoubtedly (or is it undoubtably) flustrated has flourished while flustered and frustrated have fallen by the wayside.
I’ve heard down with and on the mend, I’ve also heard flusterated. Heard all three of these enough that they seem entirely common to me.
” He was down with the crud but he’s on the mend now, though a little flusterated at how slow.”