Tipper, Pap, Steve, Paul, & The Deer Hunter at Pap’s big garden June 2013
I was flipping through the Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English when my eye caught the word June. The first thing that came to mind was June apples, but that wasn’t the definition highlighted. Here’s the entry.
june verb To hasten, bustle about.
1892 Fruit KY Word 230 = to run fast: “She came a-june-in’.” An onomatopoetic word, from the humming noise made by what we call June-bugs. They are the bronze-coated beetles that children catch to tie long strings to their legs to hold them while they hum in their efforts to fly away. 1940 Still River of Earth 199 This time o’year the mining business ought to be juning. c1960 Wilson Coll Children…would tie a thread to one of its legs [of a June bug] and let the insect “june” around. 1984 Burns Cold Sassy 154 I really juned around when I got home that evening. I needed to lay in a store of good feelings as well as stovewood before asking permission to go camping.
I have never heard the word june used to mean hasten or bustle about. I’ve read Still’s River of Earth, but I must have been so involved in the story of woe that I failed to notice the usage.
I can’t remember who taught us kids about catching june-bugs to play with but think it must have been my Mamaw. Although the word june has never brought hurrying or bustling to mind, it likely will now that I’ve read the dictionary entry.
Last night’s video: Making Matt Dinner: Roasted New Taters & Radishes, Radish Greens, & Pimento Cheese Sandwich.
Tipper
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You can read about the June Germans at this web page: https://www.ncpedia.org/june-germans
I’m surprised no one mentioned ‘Juneteenth”.
Back in the ’40s and ’50s (and maybe earlier) they used have something called the “June Germans”. I have no idea of derivation of the phrase. I remember it as a time when big bands played for dance parties held in large venues. In Eastern NC they were held in tobacco sales warehouses – in the month of June – long before those spaces were needed for selling crops.
Has anyone else ever heard of June Germans? Can you tell us how they came to be?
I heard “junin around as a child. I remember Mama saying it. We did play with junebugs but now I hate to think of it as they usually ended up dead.
I’ve never heard the word June used to mean hurry or bustle. But it kind of makes sense because the month of June sure seems to be hurrying along. I can’t believe it’s almost mid June. Time sure is Juneing quicker than I like.
I didn’t know that June had so many definitions. That tells ya your never to old to learn.
When I hear “June,” I think of June Carter Cash and my birthday, being born this month.
My mom was the only family member who used “junin’ around” to denote a busy person–exclusively females, I believe. If she had an alternate term for males, I don’t know what it is. Maybe guys just naturally avoid the appearance of hurrying, so no term is needed. John Wayne never seemed to be in a hurry.
I know who taught me to string a junebug. It was my childhood neighbor, Mr Troy Early. Sometimes when mama and daddy both had to work in the summertime while school was out I’d go stay with Troy and granny Violet. It was one of those days that Troy saw me playing with a Junebug and he told me to hold onto him for a minute because he wanted to show me something. He went to his shed and came back with a piece of string and tied it to the bugs leg and boy that was the coolest thing to me flying that bug around by the leg…until it flew off and left me with a leg on the end of that string
I’ve never heard june used that way. interesting.
My Mama said she caught June bugs and tied a string around their legs to watch them fly.
Wow! I can remember my Uncle Euan talking about somebody “all the time Junin’ around, doing something.” I understood how he meant it because of the context of the conversation. He was the only relative I can recall using that term.
The picture of Pap’s garden is amazing! I’m so glad you have it!
I have never heard the word June used in that meaning either. I have watched my dad, and his brothers catch June bugs and tie a string on their legs and let them fly around. I caught a June bug exactly one time. I did not like the way its legs felt while it crawled around in my hand, so I let it go and never wanted to catch another one! I decided I would just stick to catching fireflies or, as we called them, “lightning bugs”.
My father used the term junin around, especially referring to women cooking and cleaning at a fast pace.
I have never caught a live podcast either, but I want to. I always watch them later. I never miss 1 of your youtubes. My husband tells me when there is a new one and when I wind down for the night, we watch it together.
Have you got to read any of the Missions in the mountains book that I sent you?
Our peaches and cream corn is coming up beautifully.
Ant Kat-I haven’t yet but hope to! Thank you for your kind words 🙂
I can’t wait for your corn to get taller than you. I will be watching.
That’s a new one for me. Word usage is so interesting, how it can vary from region to region.
Well I can’t say when I first heard “juning around” whether as a boy in southeast KY or later and further south. But I always thought the “June bug” was the inspiration. The thing about them is they are big enough, slow enough and flashy enough to get attention but if you watch them fly around you won’t know what they are doing other than being busy. So juning around is activity without knowing why. By the way, Tipper, does DSME have an entry for “keel over”? I thought of that the other day out of the clear blue for no reason. If you don’t take time to answer that’s OK. You make us think of so many things you can’t chase every rabbit I’m sure.
If I may jump in, Ron, I think “keel over” must have come from a boat or ship that has capsized, bring the bottom (keel) to the top. A pure guess on my part.
I think you’re right! Over in the old country they used to tie off their boats to a float that was then attached to the shallow sea bed. When the tide went out the boats sank down until their keel beam rested and then as the tide went out further the boat would gently “keel over” on its side and become “high and dry”. That was the time when they could work on their boats with their feet on semi dry ground.
At first glance your 2013 picture reminded me of the NCDOT of the past, one uh workin and four uh watchin. It ain’t like that no more. Nowdays there would still be one workin but the four would be in their trucks on their cell phones. I was just thinkin yisterdey was their shovel handles custom fitted so’z they didn’t get back problems from repetitive leanin.
And to beat all the one workin is the woman. Why did they put you out there to labor while they enjoyed the shade? I’d be ashamed if I was them!
Papaw, I just got back from from a short trip this morning and had to laugh at your comment. I tried to drive on a Laurens County back road. Right before getting to a bridge across a creek there was a sign saying Road work, one lane ahead. Three County trucks were there at the bridge, one truck parked crossways of the road entirely blocking both lanes, three men sitting on the bridge railing and the fourth man propped up against another truck. My nephew works for the SCDOT, I ride him unmercifully and tease him about having to pay for his own shovel to prop on. The DOT is always claiming they need more money.
I’ve not heard that usage but I figured june may be used in a way that talks about being busy in the month of June. Around here, June means wheat harvest, alfalfa baling, garden work, VBS and many other activities.
When you are “juning” you are engaged in energetic activity! wives used to June about straightening up the house when company was coming and husbands early in the morning getting ready to go fishing or deer hunting. its use was common in our NW Georgia home.
I don’t remember June being used that way. I used to catch June bugs and cicadas, tie a string to their legs and let them fly around in the house. One time a cicada got in my mother’s hair, and she had a fit. I didn’t get around her again when flying my bugs. She’s afraid of certain bugs, etc. I’m only afraid of snakes. Watched your videos yesterday and will have to try roasting radishes. I enjoy other vegetables roasted but never thought of radishes.
I played with junebugs, but never heard of june as a verb.
Maybe someone can tell me, are June bugs the same thing as Japanese beetles? I’ve never thought about it before but I know Japanese beetles show up about mid June and start eating the plants and flowers, so are they the same June bugs I heard my momma tell about tying a string to their leg and flying them like a kite when she was a kid?
No, quite different bugs. June bugs are native and are larger, about the size of a man’s thumbnail. Like Japanese beetles, they are dark green but something like 5-6 times larger.
I have heard the word June used to mean hurry. I do know about June bugs and I have heard of a few people being named or called June.
One thing I didn’t say yesterday in my comment about my creek and the waterfall at the ford. In the late 50’s Grandmother was still washing her clothes in black cast iron wash pots, in the summer time she would go to this creek and the waterfall to rinse out her clothes.
Betty Saxon Hopkins, I would like to read your book, Mother passed along her joy of reading to me. My address is Randy Pruitt 395 Penson Road Honea Path, SC 29654 pronounced Honey Path by the locals and sometimes referred to as Sugar Foot by the older generations. I will be glad to pay for your book.
Never heard that use of June, but you can’t say Appalachian folks aren’t creative people when it comes to language. The picture of Pap’s big garden brought tears to my eyes, recalling my gramma’s huge garden. Hers sat between her house and my mom’s up the way. My mother was an artist, and one of my favorite paintings is the one she called her “guilty” painting. From her deck, she could see across the road along the length of gramma’s big garden patch over to Gramma’s
house. From her deck, she sketched and painted Gramma with her wide brimmed hat and hoe and my uncle tilling with the ancient tractor. Mom said she always felt guilty that she was having fun painting while they were hard at work in that enormous garden. That painting hung in my office till I retired, reminding me daily of my roots and all the good things that came out of my gramma’s garden.
Richard
while I haven’t heard it meaning bustling around, I have read in books set in older times meaning prissing around.
I have heard that term used all my life. It means exactly what the 1892 dictionary defines as the meaning, in my mind. I know a lot of people who use that word often to describe a “busy” person (i.e. “Dessie was up this mornin’ early and a junin’ around in the garden right after daylight.”)
I’ve never heard that before either. Interesting how some words are used.
I have never heard the word June like that but I am very familiar with stringing a June bug. I remember my brother did that one or twice.
It used to freak ame out when one of those critters landed on my arm and held on tight!
Me too. It’s a weird feeling for sure. I remember their crunch after accidentally stepping on one while playing outside after dark, not seeing them before that happens. Ick!! Still freaks me out. lol. Miss Linda have a great day. Thanks for the memories Miss Tipper. Jennifer
I have never heard June used to mean hasten or hurry either. I have heard of June bugs, but I really don’t know what they are. I watched your video last evening. We are the opposite. Hubby loves raw radishes and I do not really like them. Maybe I would like them roasted too. Anyway, it all looked good to me. I really enjoy your Monday live shows—although I never seem to catch them live—But that’s ok. You seem to enjoy doing them as well—you were beaming. . Take care and God Bless.