- He doesn’t know where his behind hangs. Said of a very proud person.
- He knows where the shoe pinches.
- He’ll take anything that isn’t too hot to hold or too heavy to carry.
- He furnished the stick to break his own head.
- He has found a mare’s nest, and is laughing at the eggs.
- He had hardly gotten warm in the nest before he had to go.
- He looks like a motherless colt with his lip hanging.
- Help to salt, help to sorrow.
- He must have been fed with a shovel.
- He’s got a head and so has a pin.
- He has more than nits and lice in his head.
- He was born tired. Said of a lazy person.
- He will have the bag to hold.
- He would skin a louse for his hide and tallow. Of a stingy person.
- Hew to the line, let the chips fall where they will.
- His father will never be dead as long as he lives. Said of a son who closely resembles his father in looks and ways.
- He is eating his white bread now. Said of a person living at his ease and comfort, whose fortune may be worse later.
—Word-Book of Virginia Folk-Speech written by B.W. Green
I love all the old sayings! I wish I could remember to use them in my daily speech.
Hard to pick a favorite but “he furnished the stick to break his own head” is a good one. I’ve known people like that 🙂
Granny has always said she was born tired, but she is definitely not lazy.
“He would skin a louse for his hide and tallow” is a good one too, and it’s still in use by some folks because they’ve shared it in my weekly live video, although they use gnat instead of louse.
Woodrow sure fits the one about the son and the father. He is the spitting image of his daddy.
Last night’s video: The Big Garden is Planted!
Tipper
Subscribe for FREE and get a daily dose of Appalachia in your inbox
Mommy used to say of a job half done or not putting in good effort “that just don’t cut the mustard.” She’d say of a tight wad “he’s tighter than Dick’s hatband!” She also told a story of a lazy man so lazy the townsfolk chose to bury him alive. As he was paraded by wagon (laying down of course on the straw) through town for folks to gander at, one old gal spoke up and hollered “Don’t take him off-I got bushels of corn to spare him!” The feller shot up off that straw and hollered “Is it shucked?” She said no and as he threw himself back down in the straw he proclaimed “DRIVE ON!”
Enjoyed all these sayings. Some I have heard are are: His cheese fell of his cracker meaning the person is incoherent or has gone nuts. My dad used to say of someone who was consistently accurate, he could stop on a dime and give you nine cents change!
If that music don’t ring your bell, your clapper must be broke.
I think these old sayings are funny. So many make me smile.
For someone who talks all the time….She must of been vaccinated with a victrola needle.
If we left the door open, we would hear……Were you born in a barn, close the door.
For someone who was very furgal…..She pinches the nickle so tight the buffalo poops.
I’ve heard several, but unfamiliar with most. It’s fun to read.
Momma and Mamaw would say of snooty people, ‘they got their nose turned so high if it rained they’d drown’, or ‘they put their pants on the same way I do’. We have so many sayings that I’m recording them in a file. I hope one day someone will appreciate them. We are losing the language fast in our family.
We use that same term for looking like one’s parents. I hear a lot that as long as I live my momma lives on. I can’t do her life justice as she was such a kind and giving woman. She could out work most men on any day. She had a servant’s heart. Truly few and far between to find women like that today.
For someone who is stingy or very saving we use the following:
He’s tighter’n bark on a tree.
He’s tighter’n a tick on a dog’s back.
He’s so tight the money in his billfold has mold on it.
Randy, thanks for sharing! These old sayings are fun, but I spect there is a heap of truth in some too.
Tipper, thanks for doing what you do to keep our words alive!!
I’ve heard a few of these. My pastor says “ I was born at night, but it wasn’t last night!” It always makes me laugh a bit.
I do love colorful language. Here’re a few I’ve heard and used: Said in answer to the question, “Do you know who that man is over there?”: “Why, yes. I’d know that old hide in a tan yard.” Said by an ambivalent person, “It all depends… sometimes I think, well…then, again, I don’t know.” I’ll throw these in, Tipper, although they probably won’t make the cut: About empty threats of doing bodily harm, I’ve heard, “I’ll cut you three ways–deep, wide and continuous” and “I’ll shoot him so full of holes he’ll have to be Vulcanized to breathe” and, for my closer, “I wouldn’t trust him in the outhouse with a muzzle on.”
I remember my Papaw saying “Don’t lick your calf twice”. Meaning, do your job right the first time.
Morning everyone. My brother always said that our mom was “sucking on a lemon”. She always looked like she disapproved of everyone and everything. When googling it, it seems the saying comes from England. Makes sense. My brother must of heard it from our parents. They learned to speak English in England. Me, I always say things like “lazy as sin”, “that’s so good it’s sinful”. I don’t know where I picked that up. Anna from Arkansas.
I think there was a time in America’s history when wit was prized. Makes sense to me because it isn’t just an insightful saying but also a tempered way to say it to make the point without going beyond fact. And that is a great adult skill I wish I could say I have. Interesting that among us here we remember those sayings from childhood and young adult life better than we remember any formal lesson. There must be a lesson of its own in that. There are so many things here on BP&A that point toward a common core of what a good life is. I think that is a major attraction for each of us. Each of us could likely make our own list; simplicity, kindness, transparency, hospitality and so on.
I love to use old sayings when I can remember them. My favorite is that he must have been fed with a shovel. Randy, I hope you don’t mind if I borrow your daddy’s saying about the high and mighty. It’s a good one, and I’m sure I will wear it out on some of the high-flying birds I know.
I’ve heard a couple of these but there are some really good ones on that list. I especially like the first one. Randy, those you list are new to me but I like them as well. Yesterday I heard a new one but right now can’t remember it exactly. It as something about “her wood is wet”. I should have added it to the list I started years ago. It’s great you are continuing to share and keep these expressions alive. We can all learn from them.
Sallie, we once had a preacher that called himself a country boy and would say things in his sermons with as he called it “my country boy language.” Many times I have heard him say “if that don’t get your fire started, your wood is wet.”
Shirl, you must know me, one look at me and you would think I ate with a shovel. You and any others feel free to use or repeat anything I write. I will not charge you, but only caution you and say “you are on your own, I am not responsible for any trouble it may cause!”
Regarding a lazy person, “He wouldn’t take a job tasting pies in a pie factory “. I’ve heard my mom and an aunt use that one. lol
I love this one about someone with a grouchy expression ( sour puss ) – ” She looks like she was weaned on a pickle,”
Emmy, that is a classic! I’ve never heard it, but I will never forget it.
The old saying I use so often I learned from my Granny, Daddy’s Mama. She was an angel on earth. I’ve never known a more Godly woman. She was my example, although I fail. Anyway if I’m excited, good or bad , I say ” it’ll make you poop a squealing worm”.
I have heard many sayings over the years that I can not remember. I have heard it said about a stingy person, “any paper money you get from him will be wet, he has squeezed it so hard, the president will have tears in his eyes.” One of my Daddy’s sayings about a person trying to act high and mighty was “no bird ever flew so high he didn’t have to land sometime.” Many times people have told me I look and act like my Daddy, I appreciate it, but tell them “I try but I’m not half the man I think my Daddy was.” I was reading a book last night “Branch Water Tales” that had many funny country sayings in some of the stories. I just thought of this one “give a lazy man a hard job, he will find the easiest way of doing it.” My friend told me this about a lazy person we both know, he will die from something but it sure won’t be from work!”
My dad said many times that I would overload myself because I was too lazy to make a second trip. I thought if I could save one or two extra trips I would have more time at the creek for fishing or swimming.