Chatter – 2004 Georgia
stub up verb phrase To become sullen.
1975 Chalmers Better 66 But should you contrary him, he may sull or stub up. 1999 Montgomery File, all stubbed up = become stubborn, uncopperative (55-year-old woman, Jefferson Co TN).
~Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English
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Chatter is the sweetest girl you ever seen! I’m sure I’ve told you, when she was just a toddler I started telling her she had a sweet gift. But let me tell you the girl can stub up like nobody you ever seen. Once she sets her mind to something there is no dissuading her.
When I was young Pap was always telling me not to stub up nor be so toucheous about things.
Tipper
Never heard this term, but I was often told. I was toucheous. But Mama pronounced it “tetchus.”
That always made me mad, so I probably stubbed up as a result.
Never heard that, but it’s a pretty apt abbreviation for “stubborn” isn’t it.
With us it was “pout” or “peeved,” and I’ve done plenty of both, but I don’t much anymore. I pick my battles more carefully, and if one isn’t worth it, I quietly pass it by, Now, I’ve been accused of “pouting” when just passing things by which then peeves me. (LOL) Cause darnitall, if I’ve got something to say, I’ve never been shy about saying it, so accusing me of pouting just because I don’t respond is absurd.
I hope everyone’s having a great weekend, and a safe one too.
Snow MAY be headed our way. Prayers everyone is safe and snuggled in it.
God bless.
RB
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Actually I have stubbed up when I was younger. I worked at building houses for a while. After they were framed in, we installed the drains and water pipes in the walls and under the floor. After we got them run to where the needed to be we stubbed them up. That meant putting a cap or valve on them so that the system could be pressure tested before everything got closed in. It was called stubbing up. I have been all day trying to remember where else I had heard the phrase but now I’ve got it. I’ll bet the Deer Hunter knows what I am talking about.
Tipper, hi! In our family we say he or she blew up like a bullfrog! Means when a person gets fed up or not their way they blow up like a bullfrog!
Carol Rosenbalm
The post mentioning being ‘ill’ reminded me of the expression ‘ill as a hornet’. The hornet part is important because if you throw a rock into a hornet’s nest they are rather good about ‘following the rock back’ and arriving ready to sting. And for some strange reason they like to sting the face. Maybe that expression is related to ‘fly mad’ when the last little straw was just that much too much.
We always “sulled up” at our house or got “bent out of shape”!
Tipper,
Chatter sure looks cute in that picture. You and the Deer Hunter have done well. I guess you’re more like my own mama than anyone I have ever met, kind and gentle, but stern when you need to be. I’m Proud of both of you! Chitter and Chatter are as determined kids as I have ever seen. …Ken
Wow, if I didn’t know the meaning of the word, I’m sure I could figure it out with the picture. Good one.
I’ve always heard “Sulled up like an ol possum.” The stubbing part was my big toe when I would be running barefoot and not pick my foot up high enough! And I heard “My, we’re touchy today” right regular.
The wind sure is howling up the French Broad River gorge today – gonna blow up some cold weather this weekend.
Love from the riverbank here in Marshall –
It was ‘sull up’ at my house. Dad would sometimes call my sister a sour puss which when she tried to repeat became sow pouse. Many times he told her to get a stick of wood to prop up her lower lip so she wouldn’t trip on it.
I was a bad one to stub up or sull up as a child. People who don’t believe in corporal punishment didn’t know me as a kid. “You better straighten up or I’m gonna stripe them legs!” I’m not suggesting that for sweet little Chatter. She appears to be far from that point.
I didn’t hear toucheous/touchy/tetchy until I married into the Nations family. There it was called touchless. They are a huggy/kissy/touchy bunch so if somebody didn’t want to be touched, it really was a big deal. “Well, ain’t he touchless today!” “Pardon me, I am touchless every day!”
Tipper,
Jim took the word right out of my mouth. “Tetchiest” is the term I heard my granny say to me when I “bowed up” or “stubbed up” when someone said something to me or ask me to do something. I can hear her now, “You don’t need to be so tetchous” they didn’t mean nothing by it! Ha
I guess I am from the “Bambi” generation! Saw the movie the first time it came out! Cried like a baby but so many life lessons in that movie for a 6 year old….
“If you can’t say somethin’ nice, don’t say nothin’ at all!”
Thanks Tipper,
My folks said I was stubborn as a bank mule.
I was told not to dull up! (Often)
I was reading the post when my wife walked in the room and told me it looked like the snow was going to miss us. I asked her if she was going to stub up? She said, no she didn’t want to be teaching school in June. She knew the word because her Mom and Dad used the word and so did my parents.
I was reading the post when my wife walked in the room and told me it looked like the snow was going to miss us. I asked her if she was going to stub up? She said, no she didn’t want to be teaching school in June. She knew the word because her Mom and Dad used the word and so did my parents.
I was reading the post when my wife walked in the room and told me it looked like the snow was going to miss us. I asked her if she was going to stub up? She said, no she didn’t want to be teaching school in June. She knew the word because her Mom and Dad used the word and so did my parents.
I was reading the post when my wife walked in the room and told me it looked like the snow was going to miss us. I asked her if she was going to stub up? She said, no she didn’t want to be teaching school in June. She knew the word because her Mom and Dad used the word and so did my parents.
I have to assume that “stub up” comes from “stubborn up” although I’ve never heard it used; nor have I heard “touchous” – we would use “touchy” instead. Even so, being able to “set one’s mind” to something and being determined to stick with it is mostly a good thing. However, sullen little ones may just have a bad case of the “contraries”! I think the “cuteness” that often goes along with those pouty lips and furrowed little eyebrows is what helps us but up with these determined bouts of independence. All part of growing up for both child and parent. Parents just have to guide that strong will and determination and it will hold the child in good stead as an adult.
I love the picture – -but hanging on to barb wire . . . ? not the best use of contrary cuteness. đŸ˜‰
Touchous meant the same thing as cranky to my parents. They also referred to an unpleasant attitude as ill. To me, stubbed up means a person is mad at someone. It hasn’t been a week since I told my sister that I hadn’t heard from a cousin for awhile and wondered if she was stubbed up about something.
That look on Chatter’s face is saying, “leave me alone!” She’s too cute to be stubbed up!
Tipper–Emma Bell Miles, in her book “The Spirit of the Mountains,” refers to being “mule stubborn” as THE defining characteristic of mountain folks. Our tendency to sull up and staying that way until the cows come home is just who we are. On that score, give Chatter credit where credit was (maybe still is?) due.
Other related characteristics include being somewhat easy to anger, holding a grudge like a treed ‘possum clinging to the uppermost limb of a persimmon tree, and fierce independence. That’s just who we are, and Jim Webb takes hundreds of pages in “Born Fighting” to lay out that Scots-Irish influence which runs so deep in our souls.
Maybe these things add up to tetchiousness, but the flip side of matters is that we are a generous people, never afraid of work, and always willing to help someone who is down.
Jim Casada
Oh yes! I heard that one. The sullen person, often a child or a childish adult, was described as ‘all stubbed up’. To turn sullen was to ‘get stubbed up’. Being stubbed up just got us kids in trouble at our house so we didn’t get to indulge it very far or very often.
This reminds me of the idea that how we characterise things in relation to ourselves. As in, ‘I am determined. You are obstinate. He is as stubborn as a mule.’
Gee, you sure do take me home with a word or two.
We didn’t have such a great name for it, but yes. I will remember this perfect word.
I haven’t heard “stub up.” But, toucheous is one I’ve heard a lot…mostly because I have been told I’m toucheous about certain things. Frankly, I don’t see anything wrong with being right (don’t tell my wife I said that!).
Oh, I remember that look, she sure could stub up when things were not going her way! When I was little and stubbed up like that some family member would tell me that I better be careful or my face might freeze up like that.
Touchous not used much now, but have heard it used occasionally. Stub up is something commonly seen with children, and they can really choose bad times to stub up. Maybe I am a bit like that, because when I “set my mind” to something nothing will dissuade me. Even with a raging temperature, I will continue trying to get it done. I always liked to call it determined because it was more complimentary. So maybe that pretty little Chatter just had a lot of determination. That picture certainly is cute!