plumb
A adjective Complete, thorough, absolute.
1895 Edson and Fairchild Tenn Mts 373 = excellent. “If I hed your gun, I’d hev plum fun.” 1904-7 Kephart Notebooks 2:367 Them hogs are plumb pets. 1936 (in 1952 Mathes Tall Tales 213) Up in the plumb middle of Hell. 1979 Carpenter Walton War 151 Hit’s a plumb sight how a thunderstorm jest gives her the hysterics.
B adverb Completely, absolutely, directly. Cf clean C, clear B.
1859 Taliaferro Fisher’s River 55 I cum right plum upon one uv the curiouset snakes I uver seen in all my borned days. 1867 Harris Sut Lovingood 25 I seed the warter fly plum abuv the bluff from whar I were. 1895 Edson and Fairchild Tenn Mts 373 = very. “He ought to be here plum soon”; = wholly. “I’m plum done out.” 1931 Goodrich Mt Homespun 55 “They plumb give her up,” said Serinthy, “but Doc Burns come by and he fotched her out of it.” 1937 Hall Coll. Cosby Creek TN [Do you live alone?]: Not plumb. (Cindy Benson, who explained that her granddaughter had come to stay with her for the summer) 1939 Hall Coll. Hartford TN He run up and stobbed his knife into [the bear] and cut a big long gash plumb to the hollow of the bear. (Billy Barnes) c1940 Padelford Notes Hit’s gettin raily moughty nigh plumb cold. c1945 Haun Hawk’s Done 267 Elzie got on the horse and rode plumb down to old man Gulley’s to get him to come and see the cow. 1969 GSMNP-37:2:2:10 I’ve hunted plumb to the Smokies back through here on Deep Creek and Indian Creek. 1970 Foster Walker Valley 8 You could reach either way and get them but you couldn’t turn plumb around.
—Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English
As you can see, the dictionary has a lot to say about the word plumb, and I didn’t even share the entire entry.
Plumb is one of those words that I’m not sure I could make my point without using. I mean how would I say: “I’m plumb wore out” or “I was plumb to Peachtree before I remembered I was supposed to stop at Clay’s” or even “We’re plumb out of milk somebody needs to stop at the store next time they’re out.”
Another way I use the word is to say I’m plum foolish about this or that which means I absolutely love it.
- I’m plumb foolish about the hard working man I’m married to
- I’m plumb foolish about my grandson Ira
- I’m plumb foolish about the rest of my family too
- I’m plumb foolish about making a garden
- I’m plumb foolish about the rich colorful language of Appalachia
- I’m plumb foolish about the wonderful music of the mountains—from the fiddle tunes that make my toes tap to the old hymns that lift my heart and soul
- I’m plumb foolish about you
Last night’s video: YouTube Creator Q&A Part 3: Our Most Popular Video & How To Sound Natural.
Tipper
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Granddaddy Blue was plumb tuckered out when he came to the house for dinner. He napped under the giant oak tree around back after the huge farmer’s midday meal. We younguns ran circles around him until he got up and walked to the back porch to fetch his razor strop and placed it beside the cot. We skedaddled!
Thanks Tipper! Our family always used “plumb”.
Vicki Davis, NW Georgia
I have heard, and use plumb too. I am just plumb foolish about Celebrating Appalachia and the Pressley and Wilson families. I can’t make it a day without watching you all. I feel like I am sitting right there in your kitchen or out in the garden with you.
Love our Appalachia sayings & words so much !
I heard” plumb” used in alot of different ways my whole life, by Momma & Daddy and
all my cousins & kin.
My Mother used to say, “I’m plumb foolish about them greasy cutshort beans and them white half runners too” She used that phrase in alot of ways.
Daddy would say after hoeing out the garden “I’m plumb wore out from the heat and them weeds”
If we encounter someone mean, we’ll say they are “plumb hateful” and if we know them personally we’ll tell them “you’re just too mean to live lately.”
Here are some of our family’s ways we use ‘plumb’.
“I’m plumb knackered. (Tired to the point of dropping in my tracks.)
“He’s plumb non-sensical.”
We also use “pure-dee” for some things to mean “through and through”, as in no question of dilution. It’s usually used to describe someone’s personality or characteristics:
He’s pure-dee mean that one.
She’s pure-dee smart.
He’s pure-dee honest.
She’s pure-dee tough.
When folks here in the city that have never heard the word “plumb or plum”, I explain it by saying, “It means “straight-up, or completely”. I’m “straight-up foolish” about “Apple-at-cha”(and that’s the best way to get “flatlanders” to pronounce Appalachia correctly).
On another note, I think it might be a good Idea to get another engine onto Pap’s old tiller, like Randy mentioned. It’s always good to have a spare, someone you know might need to borrow one in a pinch, or you could “donate” to folks of lesser means if ou don’t have room to store it.
Love the popsicle eating! My wife is plumb foolish for the “freeze-pops” in the long thin plastic bags, but without the stick. I tend to favor ice cream over all frozen treats.
I like those “freeze-pops” too, but I think my grandson liked them even better than me. I love all flavors of ice cream as long as it’s strawberry or black cherry! I do think peach is good and another one I like but is very hard to find is Florida Fruit, I only know of one place that has it.
We use plumb all the time here too 🙂
Tipper…and we are plumb foolish about the Pressley family!!
Yes, Wanita! I plumb agree!
I sometimes use “plumb” to emphasize how tired I am as in, “I’m wore out….plumb!” I love that word. In one of your videos this week you talked about “kernel” and “risin’ for a little knot that comes up under the skin – I heard it called that, too. I don’t know of anyone lately who had that condition but I bet I would call it a kernel or a risin if I encountered one. Thank you for sharing all these words – takes me back to a better time in my life. God bless you and your sweet family.
I’ve used plumb; such as, “he was plumb foolish about that girl.” Seems like ages ago, but I don’t use that word now nor have I probably heard it used except in your blog or video, or in my memories of family times:) It’s always interesting to hear your Q & A time on Utube. Always good.
Dee, many know my wife died 3 years ago, this year we would have celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. We knew each other all our lives but one Sunday night in Jan.1972 while at church my eyes locked on her and they never left or wanted anyone else. She was 16 and I was 17, we married two and a half years later. Yes, I was “plumb foolish” for her. Now some days living without her seems more like a burden than a joy.
I think of using the word plum in place of completely. “ I was plum out of gas,” or anything that you might run out of.
My Florida neighbors, bless their hearts, have never heard, much less used, expressions like, “I’m plumb tuckered” and “I’m plumb out of breath.” One didn’t even know what it meant when my wife Carol said of someone, “She never stays home very long. She runs up and down this road like a window shade.” She might as well have been speaking in tongues. First came the neighbor’s blank expression, then a chuckle, then a request for an interpretation.
Gene, maybe the reason these people have not heard these expressions is because they are “snowbirds” from up nawth. I would bet many have never heard “bless their heart.”
mMy mother used to call.us kids plumb foolish when we were being silly. It reminds me of her.
Although I don’t use the word a lot, I sure heard it growing up. Mom would say we were plumb out of this or that. Both my parents used the word plumb. Good memories. Have a great day.
After I got my Plum Foolish about Appalachia sweatshirt, I was asked about bu total strangers! I’m plum foolish about the BPATA, Celebrating Appalachia and the Pressley Girls!
This post was so sweet, Tipper! I’m plumb foolish about Celebrating Appalachia! 🙂
Well I think many of us are plumb foolish about all of you too!
Dear Tipper,
Talk about feeling “plumb foolish”! That’s me! In my comment the other day I said I could tell you are “plum crazy” about Ira, and when I read this mornings blog I realized what I’d written. I guess I use crazy more than foolish in my vocabulary. We’ve been having beautiful weather here in southern Maine, with some rain expected tomorrow. I’m still planting so I’m happy for that! Your gardens are looking so beautiful! Have a wonderful day! God bless you!
Love, Jackie
My father, who hailed from West Virginia, used to say some people were plumb stupid–not very nice, I suppose, however true. My favorite plumb phrase is yours, Tipper, that of being plumb foolish about… Come to think of it, sometimes I’m just plumb foolish all on my own!
Randy, I get it. I am bad to say things a bit ‘off’ that only afterward does it occur to me they could be understood as something I didn’t mean. It is a plagued feeling. But anybody who has been reading your comments any length of time know you don’t have it in you to do any such a thing on purpose. Why, that would be plumb foolish! I knew just what you meant; a compliment to both Matt and Pap.
Tipper, I wish the while world was plumb foolish in the same way you are. We are in need of a lot of that kind of foolishness.
I think the only application I’ve heard regularly in my life time is “plum tuckered out.” We’re in east central MO, but my father was from southern MO, and many of our friends are from the Ozark region.
I think Tipper’s Appalachian blog is plumb wonderful so I try to see it about every day! One never knows what they will see or hear or spark an interesting discussion! Btw, that bloom in the photo I sent you was a TULIP POPLAR. Wasn’t it grand, though? How google dispenses “knowledge” no A.I. or living entity could come up with such silly and ignorant answers to inquiries…. Smh google is another word synonymous with moron (me) cause I KNOW better…
And just for the record….many of us, me included, are plumb foolish for you and your precious family! Such a gift each of you are!!
I might be some dumb but I ain’t plumb dumb. That’s one of my favorites.
I probably use the word plumb a lot more than I realize. It’s one of those words that’s just ingrained in my vocabulary and proper or not I’m sure I’ll always say it.
It’s just a plumb good way to put emphasis on a word. I’d be plumb crazy not use such a fun word!
I plumb forgot most of these !
He knocked the ball plumb out of the park. Yessir, I’ve used that word all my life.
I love to hear you talk. Almost every time my husband walks in the room when I watching a video he says the same thing. “Keeping up on your accent, are ya?”
When you move away from other people that talk like you do you start to lose it. I don’t think I have even though I’ve been gone 20 years.
He sure notices it though.
One expression I guess I used a lot and didn’t think nothin of it is “do what”. My youngest picked up on it and her cousin teases her for it. When somebody says something to you and you don’t hear them, you say “do what” so they will repeat it. Well, they don’t talk that way here. I have got a few people sayin ya’ll. It is just so much more convenient. lol
I love hearing you talk about how plumb foolish you are about so many things. I never use that word, but I love hearing you because it’s who you are, and it’s genuine…just like you! Have a wonderful day.
We have used this saying forever and a day, “I might be some dumb, but I’m not plumb dumb”. I don’t know where it came from. Lol
With your permission, I plan to start using this expression!LOL!
I have never gave any thought to it, but this makes me think of how often I use the word plumb like in your examples. One difference though is instead of being plumb foolish, I am plain out plumb crazy! In the picture I like seeing Matt using an adjustable (crescent) wrench for a plum
bob – another good example of using whatever you have.
I have been thinking about about a comment I made a few days ago about getting another engine for Pap’s tiller, I did not mean you shouldn’t have bought another tiller. I just meant I would be on the lookout for another used engine and get Pap’s tiller going again. I hope no one thought I meant anything different.