Every once in a while-an old saying bubbles up from my consciousness and flows straight out of my mouth. It leaves me wondering why I said it-where I heard it-and who was the first person to say it.
One day last week, I was describing a tornado that hit near Atlanta recently-I said “it tore up Jack”. As soon as I spoke the words-I thought how long has it been since I heard someone say that-and why did it float to the top of my mind and come out? Tore up Jack-means total destruction. Leaves you wondering just who Jack was?
A few others that come to mind:
If you want to dance you’ll have to pay the fiddler: I mean really-did some parent say “there’ll be no dancing at this house unless you pay a fiddler to make music first!”
Save your breath to blow your coffee: You just know some little old lady came up with this one to hush her complaining husband.
For the love of Pete: Just who was Pete-and who was in worse shape-Pete who needed love or Jack who was tore up?
Would gag a maggot: For anyone who has seen a maggot-this one is pretty much self explanatory.
Run like the Dickens: Was the Dickens a whole family of fast runners?
I’ll jerk a knot in your tail: This one is usually said to an unruly child-but how many children have tails?
I wouldn’t trust her as far as I could throw her: It’d be hard to throw most folks-so does that mean you shouldn’t trust any of them?
I could go on and on with the old sayings and the pondering on who started them and exactly what they mean. Most of the sayings have withstood the passage of time, staying in the mainstream lexicon. Others fall away due to changes in the social or commercial aspects of daily life. One that comes to mind from my childhood “what ever flicks your Bic” My girls don’t even know what a Bic is or why you’d flick it.
Hope you’ll leave me a comment about the sayings I shared-and please take a moment to share the ones you’re familiar with.
Tipper
This post was originally published here on the Blind Pig in April of 2009.
When she would hear a tall tale, my East Texas mother used to say “Oh, my hind foot!” I say it every chance I get to the grandkids and they roll about and laugh. I want this one to live on…..
You asked us to comment on the expressions you posted, and I’m a sort of literalist, so here ya go –
If you want to dance you’ll have to pay the fiddler: If you want to do anything it’s going to cost you.
Save your breath to blow your coffee: Why are you picking on the husband? This could apply to anyone – quit complaining.
For the love of Pete: I believe Pete is St. Peter. It’s asking for a blessing.
Would gag a maggot: Sure. A maggot eats garbage, so it’s extremely gross if it makes a maggot gag.
Run like the Dickens: A “dickens” is like a little demon; perhaps a wild child. I would imagine they do plenty of running.
I’ll jerk a knot in your tail: Of course children do not literally have tails. It’s a metaphor for a spanking. My father would say, “I’ll bust your britches.”
Trust her as far as you can throw her: Literally, you are not going to throw someone very far. This is not to say you shsould trust no one – it’s applied to specific people.
One of my all time favorites: So hongry ma belly button’s met up with ma backbone. From my gramma with pride after cutting out fabric with only a few little scraps leftover: not enough to make a mouse jacket.
Cooler than the other side of the pillow!
My dad uSed to say icy footing was slicker than owlshit and he ‘faux’-swore ‘by Ned’ alot as an expression..so many mountain-idioms..
Yesterday on our way back from Franklin I repeated an expression I used and expression many would wander about, just as we dropped through Hyatt Creek Dip on US 74 I was looking toward the headwaters of Deep Creek and out of nowhere came “Its Putin er down way back up high in the hollers”, of course my beloved spouse knew exactly what I meant but I wonder if those folk who aren’t from around here would have a clue what I was talking about/
I thought I would have to beat him with a dead cat! Said when child waa in trouble!
Ah, some of my favorites, fill your boots, whatever blows your dress up and happier than patty’s pet pig.
He has enough money to burn a wet mule,is a good one.
It’s as broad as it is long…These are some from my momma… She would come out with something and i asked her where she got em.. She replied awwww … Shit there just ole ettered sayins.. I asked who’s ettered ? She said. I don’t know they were just stuff she had grown up hearin… My momma was born i 1927.and passed in 2013. Let’s see if i can think of somemore.
Well Shit Far ( fire) was her by word… That’s the Only swearin she would ever say. Oh… Or.. Well ill be shit.
Well that’s callin the kettle black.
That’s just like ol farmer Brown… Just found his cow All at once. .. (As opposed to findind pieces.)
That’s Black as Pitch.
I had to ask what pitch was.
That looks worse than an old sore eyed cat. There are So many and I’ve just gone blank.. My cousin used to write em all down and wanted to put em in a book… Maybe ill have a flashback..and put the rest on here…
From Arkansas he’s so crooked he has to screw his pants on every morning.. if
She hit every branch falling out of the ugly tree….
What fer? Cat fur to make kitten britches……
Dad said his Papa would never cuss, but if he got aggravated he would say, “Swamp take it!” And if it was really bad, he would say, “Swamp take it to the Devil!”
Great fun to see expressions I grew up with in Mississippi, plus a few more from Appalachia. Momma was from the hills of Alabama and had some good sayings. She used to say, “If you don’t want somebody to get your goat, then don’t let them know where your goat’s tied.”
My Dad used to say you don`t know shit from Shinola
colder than a witches titty in a brass bra, hotter than a popcorn fart, slicker than snot
Eddie-thank you for the comment! The saying ‘like Ned in the Primer’ is in reference to the character Ned which was often part of the first books children learn to read. Sorta like those ‘See dog run ones’. Saying like Ned in the Primer was usually said to someone who was being lazy. Example: “Don’t just sit there like Ned in the primer get up and get those clothes hung out.”
Explain “Ned and the Primer”
Thanks
This expression was used by the drunken mourning mom, Hortense, in the film, The Bad Seed, starring Patty McCormick.
Her little boy was just murdered by the psychopath little girl.
I do recall Hortense saying that(altho’ I thought it sounded like she said Primmer). Still, the Bad Seed is one of my favorite movies! A bit ahead of its time using a GIRL as the unaliver. Well acted!
Family saying from the Duttons of Pulaski Co, KY:
crooked as a dog’s hind leg
dumb as a coal bucket
big as all outdoors
weak as branch water
fine as frog hair
tight as a the bark on a hickory
tree
poor as job’s turkey
mean as the devil’s grandmother
busy as a cat with 9 tails
old as methusalem
you’re not a biscuit of this morning’s baking
not worth a hill of beans
singing out of the same song book
simple as falling off a log
there’s no taters where he’s digging
I know and use most of them. And I like a few of the new ones….”she’s one fry short of a happy meal” and “he’s not the brightest color in the box”.
“saucer and blow”–yes, had heard this one before.
How ’bout–“busier than a one legged man in a butt kickin’ contest”
Jim is right about not realizing we use these. That is till someone asks us what we mean! I used ‘higher than a cat’s back’ one day in conversation with my daughter-in- law and she wanted to know what that meant. ‘Course, I grew up in Okla. and she grew up in Calif.!
Another reference: 2107 Curious Word Origins, Sayings & Expressions from White Elephants to Song and Dance–by Charles Earle Funk. It had been previously publ. as four separate books.
I was glad to see Walter Lynn Douglas’ entry, “Mights well. Ain’t got no snuff and it’s too wet to plow.” Most sayings are still so much in use as to go almost unnoticed but I must say I haven’t heard Lynn’s saying since I was a kid … many, many, many years ago.
Thanks, Tipper, for another fun article.
I loved reading this! I remember many of the things Pop used to say, including several that were mentioned, already.
Dumber than a box of rocks.
He’d rather climb a tree upside down and tell a lie rather than stand on the ground and tell the truth.
Gonna have a calf with a crocheted tail! (meaning someone was about to get mad and throw a fit.)
Grinning like a jack ass eating saw briars.
Those are the only ones I can think of, at the moment.
Thanks for the chuckles!
JD
I heard, “She’s no one’s pretty child.” (describing a homely lady) and “All the lights were on but there was no one at home.” (describing a not so bright person)
I just yesterday used “tighter than Dick’s hatband” with a person from Jordan and had to explain myself and who was
Dick.
bronze the baby, keep the shoes for the next one.
pissing into the wind.
Like a fart in a whirlwind.
Hi Tipper,
How about “so ugly they would scare a haint up a thorn tree” and “if you fly high you will land in a cow dab” for those who were a little too proud of their acconplishments!
Fun to remember these.
The ones I remember from the 50s that are not mentioned above are:
Might as well, ain’t got no snuff and it’s to wet to plow.
that’s the way it goes, first your money then your clothes.
Lynn Douglas
Kingsport, Tn.
We have similar sayings in Australia to most of these. We also have anotherone. If some one has a fancy car, home or clothes we call these items “flash” as in flash car, flash home, flash clothes etc.. So if some one has something new or fancy we tend to say “that is as flash as a rat with a gold tooth”!
As for the “freeze the balls off a brass monkey” I was always told the brass monkey was the tray on which cannon balls were stacked mainly on old sailing ships. The balls were iron, the tray or monkey was brass so in cold weather the brass would contract faster than the iron balls and hence the balls would roll off the now smaller tray…K.
Hey Walter,
I was talking to a friend earlier and “ that’s the way it goes, first your money then your clothes” just came out of my mouth. I have said that several times over the years . However I wondered why I said that and what does it REALLY mean. I ended up googling it and here is where I landed. So happy I did. So many great memories and saying. So inspiring I started writing many down. Thanks for the memory jarring and FUN!
Grandma said of her grandson, an extreme procrastinator: “He doesn’t ride the horse the day he puts the saddle on”
Mom used to have comments while driving of “great grandmother’s corset stays” and “stars and garters”. I don’t know if they were substitutes for naughty words or were just vintage expressions.
Miss Cindy ain’t seen nothin yet! Guess this is why I’m known as Special Ed. It’s my name and my Alma Mater.
Tipper–Just had to add a few about pretty and ugly.
Ugly as homemade sin.
So ugly she’d make a Greyhound bus take a dirt roat.
Ugly enough to make a train jump the tracks.
Beauty is skin deep, but ugly goes all the way to the bone.
Pretty as a speckled pup.
Pretty as a bowl of butterbeans.
Pretty as a fresh-picked posey.
Pretty is as pretty does.
Jim Casada
http://www.jimcasadaoutdoors.com
Yep, I have used all of these at some time.
I don’t think there is anything left after Ed’s list. They are all just too funny.
As a child I was forever being threatened with getting a knot jerked in my tail. If we want to get really personal about it, I have a dimple on my posterior. I was told that was where they chopped my tail off soon after birth. I was actually part monkey. So I’m really not sure how they could have jerked a knot in the tail they chopped off.LOL
You know grown ups tell kids the darnedest things!
How about, “I’ll be a monkeys Uncle”. I have heard it and use it, but I don’t know where it originated.
I have heard the term – cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey. It turns out that there is a place on a boat with BRASS “ears” they tie to secure a boat to the dock. It is this double ring made of brass that is called a “brass monkey”.
It’s no wonder the English language is so difficult for foreigners to learn to speak.
A great page and topic Tipper.
Two that immediately came to mind to me was “That thing is tighter than Dick’s hat band!” and “I’m so busy, I don’t know if I’m washin’ or hangin’ out!”
I’m sure more will come to mind.
Good one Tipper.
Tipper, I am always using the following sayings up here in Indiana. “Fine as frog hair and twice as slick!”
and “Dumber than a bag of hammers.” I think the the latter came about for under my breath. I taught for 35 yrs. and found a few students with absolutely no common sense. Nice blog post Tipper.
Kent Lockman central Indiana
You’re gonna have to turn me off to shut me up. I keep on thinking of stuff.
My father in law wouldn’t drink his coffee from a mug like I like to. He had to have a cup and saucer. He would pour the coffee out of the cup into the saucer, blow on it and then slurp it up. He called it “saucer and blow”
Have you ever heard of such?
I just know Granny’s fried apple pies ‘would make my tongue slap my brains out’. I heard that from a friend this week when she told about her chicken and dumplings. I had to laugh as it reminded me of the first time I heard dad say that.
Just remembered the best one I ever heard. I use I myself occasionally:
Ain’t had so much fun since the wild hogs ate my little brother!
This is fun!!!
How About:
Whatever trips your trigger!
Well I’ll be dipped in whipped cream!
Drunk as a skunk!
Drunk as a Whootie Owl!
You and whos army.
Does a cat have a climbing gear!
I’ll knock you into next week!
Who licked the red off your candy!
Who peed in your Post Toasties!
I’ve got a million more when I can think of them.
Heard most of these I guess. There used to be this guy in our area that would say when something really amazed him, “Well if that don’t beat a hen apeckin”. The one that used to make all the young boys mad was when he would act like he was trying to cheer someone up. He would put his hand on their shoulder and say, “Now son don’t worry its always darkest right before it turns pitch black, besides it could be worse it could have happened to me.”
I love old sayings, they add richness to our vocabulary.
Drunker than a skunk
skinny as a rail
don’t count your chickens before they hatch
Good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise
Blind as a bat
and many more that I can’t recollect at the moment.
That was a really great post Tipper. Enjoyed your old sayings and the pics as well. I’ve heard most all those you mentioned except Tore up Jack. It was really interesting to read all the others written by other readers.
I loved Ethelene explanation of ‘raining cats and dogs’ — I never knew!!
Loved the photos to go with the story, esp the one of the girl at the old fence with wires and brambles going every which way–classic country beautiful.
Hope your new year is blessed! Love Jen
Tipper,
My son just got thru putting together a lamp for us….and my husband said afterwards to him,…”Why you’re handier than a pocket on a shirt!”
I’d forgot that one…also….the rest of “Finer then frog hair is: “Finer than frog hair and gooder than snuff!..”
How could I forget that until I said it outloud to myownself…
Thanks Tipper,
Tipper,
Great repost…LOL…When actually trying to think of sayins’ that slip off the tongue…It is hard for me to remember..
I use them all the time…sometimes never knowing where the words come from…deep in the recesses of my old wrinkled brain I guess…
Here are a few…I’ve used or heard friends or family use…
My favorite…
“Finer than frog hair”..
“Scarcer than woodpecker lips”…
“Who yanked yore chain?”
“Smoother than a babys butt”
“What’s the matter, you swaller a bone?” (used when someone is trying hard to explain somethin’)
“Them kin is thick as thieves”
“Birds of a feather flock together”
“Marry one, you marry the whole bunch!”
“What goes around, comes around!”
“Best thing since sliced bread!”
“That’ns a tuff nut to crack!”
“If’n they don’t get what yore sayin’ then they aint playin'”
“He ain’t playin’ with a whole deck!”
“I think that wagon’s missin’ a wheel!”
“How many rats have been in the woodpile!”
Just gettin’ warmed up now…
Thanks for a great post Tipper….
I remember hearing a saying as a child – Stick and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me – Unfortunately, back in the days gone by name calling was rather common; name calling today would probably be considered bullying.
Tipper–Oddly enough, none of the comments seem to have noted that use of quaint analogies in mountain talk is common as pig tracks. Anyone with Appalachain roots has words of “sayings” and expressions so deeply ingrained in their vocabulary they don’t even realize they are there. As for origins of such things, far more than you might expect are rooted in literature (especially in Shakespeare). Anyone who is deeply interested can usually find out something about original usages and where sayings have appeared in literature by use of “Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations,” “The Oxford English Dictionary,” and of course the wonderfully local “Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English.” Joe Hall, who was a big part of the latter, also did a small book on mountain talk, and Horace Kephart was an authority (there’s a book based on Kep’s notes and studies).
That’s more pedantry than most probably want, but the subject is one which fascinates me and which I’ve studied quite a bit.
Jim Casada
http://www.jimcasadaoutdoors.com
Love it! I know and use all of these. A few I know:
Meaner than a sore tail cat.
Uglier than a mud rail fence.
What ever melts your butter.
High as a cat’s back.
In regard to a good church sermon:
Now, if that don’t light your fire son, your woods wet!
Great post Tipper!!
All of those were so familiar except the old saying about coffee. Slick as the bark on a log, dumber than a doorknob, pretty is as pretty does, you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, he looks like he was beat with an ugly stick, are some I have heard. I get guidance from these two sometimes…a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, and don’t put all your eggs in one basket. I learned a new one from a lady I once worked with. She used to say to coworkers “Don’t sit there like Ned in the Primer!” I sure hope these are forever preserved.
Love the pictures! I don’t remember them with the original post…but that could just be my memory!
New ones I had not heard:
Tore up Jack
I have heard Save your breath, but not to blow your coffee.
The obvious one I had heard before: Even a Blind Pig finds an acorn once in a while (does this ring a bell with anyone?)
Others:
Busier than a one-armed paper hanger.
Madder than a wet hen.
Jump on it like a duck on a june bug.
I know there are a lot more that don’t come to mind right now…
I would say, “I have half a mind to tell you more”, but I am getting to the age that about half a mind is ALL I have.
“Madder than a wet hen!”
We are forever more telling Landon we are gonna jerk a knot iin his tail, and he says “Nannie, I not have a tail”. I hope that these old sayings will embed in his memory for years to come. Thanks for jogging my memory Tipper~
I have heard and used each of the ones you have pointed out plus many more, one which immediately comes to mind is “I’ll be Horn-Swoggled”, I have heard and used this all my life to express that you’re perplexed about something. No clue where it came from nor “I’ll be a Monkey’s Uncle” which can be used in place of being “Horn-Swoggled. I heard one yesterday that was new to me “I’ll be the son of a Motherless Goat”. just what does that mean? A lot of these are used in place of some vulgar swearing but why do they catch on and pass from generation to generation? I guess we are just creatures of habit. After seeing the picture of Louzine I realize where you and the twins got your looks, tell Pap he “DONE GOOD”. Keep up the good work.
I just love all of these sayings and I do use almost all of them. I work with people that are all from other areas of the country and they are always looking at me strangely because of the sayings that I use. Oddly enough though, when I try to think of the ones that I use, I can’t do it! 🙂
When pigs fly… so the chances are slim.
You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink… self explanatory, I always like this one.
Do bears s*%t in the woods… my dad used that one alot. I guess we asked a lot of dumb questions.
There’s more, but I’ll stop, this was fun!
How about this one: “It’s raining cats and dogs!” By researching this old saying, I found that it dates back to thatched-roofed houses, when straw was piled high to keep out the elements from the crudely-built dwelling. The cats and dogs (and other creatures) would sometimes craw upon the thatch and sleep. When a heavy rainstorm came, the weight of the rain on the straw, plus the added weight of the poor animals (that were surely getting wet!) made the animals fall through the roof and land inside the hut. Therefore, “It’s raining cats and dogs!” We still say it. But who has ever lived in a thatched-roof house?
I also got a kick out of all the sayings. You don’t hear them everyday around these parts, but occasionally they do come about.
Have heard or used at one time all of these except for us it was ” I’ll knock a knot on your head”.
I have heard and have used all of those sayings. Here are some my family uses:
That isn’t true I was just “joshing you”.
That tornado blew everything to “smithereens”.
You’re wired as tight as a banjo string.
That child is wild enough to shoot at.
Its as cold as blue whiz outside.
My mom would always say that we had “enough food to feed Cox’s army”. I asked her who Cox was and she said she didn’t know, it was just something that her parents said.
I did some research and found out that there were two Coxs. During the Depression, in 1932, a priest named Cox led a march on Washington, DC consisting of unemployed men from Pennsylvania.
In 1894, another depression year, Jacob Coxey led a protest march into Washington, DC to ask that jobs be created.
I thought it was interesting that there were two “Cox’s armies”.
Pam
I’ve heard just about all of those.
My parents and my maternal grandparents would say some off the wall stuff like that.
My paternal grandparebts (Pap & Ma) died before I was born and a year after I was born. So I never really knew them.
“For the love of Pete” probably refers discreetly to Saint Peter, without taking the Lord’s name in vain.
Oh wow, I still say a lot of these and have used them all except flick your bic. We said rocks your boat.
i have to say i use all of the above, except the tore up jack, that is a new one, the rest of these are common for me to use and have all my lilfe. love all the family pics
I have been waiting for you to ask for this. We have a feller at work that is always coming with odd sayings. I started recording some of them. It’s hard to keep a straight face when he is around. Some are repetitious but that’s it the way he is. These are direct quotations! Here you go:
Are you cooking with Crisco girl?
Can you show me some love
Do it to it like Sonny Pruitt.
Don’t call us, we’ll call you.
Focus Girl
Good Morning America
Good Morning Viet Nam
Here comes the judge
Hit the woods Devon
Hold out cause it’s cold out
I’m rolling on
I’m so mad I can’t see straight
It either is or it ain’t
Just as happy as we had good sense
Just ride it out and we’ll see
Keep on rolling girl
Livin large with nobody in charge
Looks like you’ve got it goin on girl.
Now we’re cooking with Crisco
OOOOOH No
Rut-Ro
She will watch your back while they beat your belly black and blue
Somebody just try and stop us
Somebody stop us
Somebody’s cooking in the kitchen
Stack ’em high and watch ’em fly
That’s the way I roll
That’s the way it rolls.
This is our life
We are out of here like a song on the radididido
We are rolling with it
We’ll just hang on loosely and see what happens
We’re hanging tuff. Ain’t we?
We’ve got a plan even if it is wrong
What a fix we’re in
What is a person to do
What is up with that
What was they thinking
What was you thinking girl
What’s goin on girl
What’s it all about
What’s it all about girl
Where’s the love
Who could a thunk a more
Who would have thunk it
You know that’s right
You know what I mean
Remember wherever you go there you are
“He who pays the fiddler calls the tune” may well be the original saying, that’s what I used to hear when I was small, in other words “when you start to pay your way around here you can have things how you want them!”
this post made me smile, love it! every time we’d arrive home my grandma would say “home again, home again, jiggity jig” 🙂