Last week Joe Chumlea left this comment:
“Have you ever heard the term “red off”, as in when I was a kid I had to red off the table after dinner?”
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For years I read the word red or redd in books used in exactly the manner Joe described, but had never heard it used.
About a year or so ago I was getting my hair cut and my hairdresser said she told her kids to red up the window sills in the kitchen. I almost jumped out of the chair! I said “What did you say?” She said “Oh I know my kids make fun of me all the time for saying words like red, but I’ve always used them. Guess I got them from my grandparents.”
I assured her I wasn’t making fun of her, I was just tickled to death to hear someone use the word red in that manner right here in my own county.
She is probably about seven to ten years younger than I am and was raised in Cherokee County NC just like I was. I’m still thrilled I heard her use the word and hope those kids end up saying it themselves even if they do make fun of their momma for saying it.
redd, redd off, redd up, rid up verb, verb phrase To clean or tidy (a room or object), set in order, clear debris from, arrange, Of the variants, redd up is the most common. Its past-tense form is redd up (see 1938, 1940 citations).
1886 Smith Southern Dialect 349 They all have the authority of old or dialect English, or many of them belong to all parts of the South, if not elsewhere…red (to put in order—as, “red a room”). 1913 Kephart Our Sthn High 83 Then that tidal wave of air swept by. The roof settled again with only a few shingles missing. We went to “redding up.” 1925 Dargan Highland Annals 208 An’ ever’ dish an’ pot to be washed, an’the house to redd up, all before I can begin a day’s work. 1930 (in 1952 Mathes Tall Tales 168) This bit of social and domestic philosophy brought no audlble response from the busy wife, who was briskly “ridding up” the bed. 1938 Justus No-End Hollow 130 I mean to wash and redd up the house before I do any special cooking. c1940 Aswell Glossary Tenn Idiom 15 red up = tidy, clean. “She red up the house for the family reunion.” c1959 Weals Hillbilly Dict 7 Red off the table right atter we eat. 1962 Dykeman Tall Woman 201 Why, if a Northern schoolmaster comes, he might want to live with his family in the Burkes’ old house, and maybe we could redd up the old mill house. 1966 DARE redd up = to put a room in order (Burnsville NC, Spruce Pine NC). 1974 Fink Bits Mt Speech 22 = arrange, make tidy. “Set here while I red up the room.” 1975 Purkey Madison Co 37 Pile ’em half a kettle high so’s the water’ll be boilin’ hot by the time I get the milk strained and vessels washed and scaled, and the house rid up a little.
[redd <Middle English redden prob <Middle Low German/Middle Dutch reden; OED Scot and north dialect; OED redd “to put in order to make neat or trim” obsolete except dialect; SND redd 7(1) “of a room, building; to tidy (up)” and rid up ; CUDD redd 2 “clear, tidy up,” rid 1 “set in order”; Web 3 chiefly dialect; DARE = clear off a table chiefly North Midland, esp Pennsylvania, Ohio, Appalachians]
Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English
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redd (v.)
early 15c., “to clear” (a space, etc.), from Old English hreddan “to save, free from, deliver, recover, rescue,” from Proto-Germanic *hradjan. Sense evolution tended to merge with unrelated rid. Also possibly influenced by Old English rædan “to arrange,” related to Old English geræde, source of ready (adj.).
A dialect word in Scotland and northern England, where it has had senses of “to fix” (boundaries), “to comb” (hair), “to separate” (combatants), “to settle” (a quarrel). The exception to the limited use is the meaning “to put in order, to make neat or trim” (1718), especially in redd up, which is in general use in England and the U.S. Use of the same phrase, in the same sense, in Pennsylvania Dutch may be from cognate Low German and Dutch redden, obviously connected historically to the English word, “but the origin and relationship of the forms is not clear” [OED].
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Now that Joe has reminded me of the red word usage I’m going to try my best to add it to my daily conversations. In fact I’m going to go red up the kitchen right now.
Tipper
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I have no idea why my mother used the term redd off the table as she was born in Scotland,and so was her husband ,my grandpa The only thing I can think of is my uncle my mothers brother fought in the 2nd World war ,maybe he learned it from an American
Friend he met. He also sung Hill Billy songs and I loved it
In Danish, a germanic language, ryd op means to tidy up. Although I doubt the use of red up is Danish-American in origin, this lends evidence to the idea that it comes from old german.
Also, from wikipedia…”After 1750, Danish families in the Protestant Moravian Brethren denomination immigrated to Pennsylvania, where they settled in the Bethlehem area alongside German Moravians.”
I forgot to say, what brought me here was the novel Jane Eyre, published in 1847 and set in Northern England, where near the end Jane says she has “red up” Mr. Rochester’s hair. I was listening to an audiobook, so do not know how is was spelled.
My father used to say “red up the table”. His mother’s ancestors were from Pennsylvania with German roots.
My father would tell us to “redd” the table, too. Right after “May I be excused?” He came from Pennsylvania Germans, too.
my grandmother, also of Pennsylvania Dutch origins, told us her mother always spoke of ” reddin’ up the table”. how wonderful to hear that phrase after so many years.
I was just reminiscing about my beloved dad who passed away 23 years ago and thinking about how he always said “redd the table” when referring to clearing the table from our meal. He never said ‘redd up’ or redd off,’ just redd and only when referring to clearing the table. But it’s stuck in my head. I was born and still live in Alaska. No one here uses that term. My dad though was born and raised in Webster Springs, West Virginia. I just naturally used the phrase all the time when younger and slowly stopped as I became an adult and lived on my own. I started using it more infrequently because people would wonder what I was talking about. I wondered also, why did my dad say that? I haven’t used the term in years. So today, as I was reminiscing of my father, I decided to look it up and I found your blog. I have grandchildren and I think it’s time to bring the term back in use. Maybe one of them will catch on and continue its use. “Whose turn is it to redd the table?” Love it.
Tipper, I have used redd up my entire life! I’m from eastern Ohio (I pronounce it Ahia) in the foothills of the Appalachians. I remember the first time I said it around my husband. I said I was going to redd up the table. He stopped what he was doing and said, “what did you say?” He thought I made it up! I got out the dictionary and there it was, spelled with two d’s. I still get teased when I say it. I know I have some relatives from the hills in Pennsylvania so maybe that’s where it came from. I still say it often.
Growing up and living in Ohio for many years and having PA Dutch relatives I always heard that and always say it now. Red up the room, red off the table, run the sweeper (vacuum), if I had my druthers, are a few I’ve always heard and used. Seemed more from the families that had been there for generations, not so much the newer people.
All my Pennsylvania relatives said they redd up a room. Another one I really like and miss hearing is “outen the light,” which of course means turn out the light. When my Pennsylvania Dutch (Deutsch) grandmother wanted the driver to turn the car around and reverse direction she would say, “Go the road around,” and motion a circle with her hand. It’s fortunate that she was good natured because we always laughed. How I miss them all.
My mother always used the term “Redding up” for clearing off the table, so her children use it. My husband and brother in law laugh at us. We just ignore them.2
This is a late post (no time to read daily these days) and may never be attended to, but this blog post stirred up all sorts of memories. Mom’s side of the family doesn’t know much of their history except that her Dad’s side (she thought) were Pennsylvania Dutch. Dad’s side (mostly German, Swiss, Prussian) had folks coming in through New York and what is now West Virginia (still a lot of distant kinfolk there), Pennsylvania, and Iowa with both sets of ancestors ending up in Kansas. To make the long of it short, I’ve heard (from both sides of the family) and used “ready up”, “make ready”, “reddyin’ up” and occasionally “redden up” or “red up” always in reference to that final bit of tidying or straightening when getting ready for church or for guests .
Now – does anyone out there use “fixin’ to get ready to”?
Yes! I have heard and used it all my life, but always red up and not red off.
Dear Tipper, I have heard the word used but not often. I think in my mind I thought “to redd up a room, was to rid it of clutter.”
You’ve finally got me on one, I’ve never heard “red or redd” used in this connotation.
Just what I thought, Paula. Glad to find out you, also got that understanding
Never ever heard that word from my scotch-irish, english grandparents or my parents or any southern relative BUT have when our jobs took us to south central Pennsylvania. I was over at my dearest sweetest next door neighbor’s house and as I was leaving to go home she said she had to red up the place. Being new to the neighborhood, I was too shy to ask her but I assumed she meant to clean up the house. As we became great friends, I heard her use that word many times and found out that she was German and had been raised in Altona, PA., and had lived there until her husband’s job was transferred to this area. She would also say cut off the light – LOL – to me that would be dangerous, I would prefer to say turn off the light. Lancaster, PA., is about an hour North of us and you will hear the Amish use red up and cut off the light all the time. It’s times like this that I wish I could talk to my dear grandmothers and ask if they had ever used that word or heard it used. I always heard clean up or spruce up.
Never heard this knew Tipper. Its new to me. Well, i’ve been redding all morning and im pooped.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard or read red or redd used to mean to clean or tidy up.
In the same vein though, everyone knows how to make up a bed but not everyone makes it down. Do you?
No Ed I never made one down but I have had my bed thrown down when in the army. Mattress and all when it wasn’t made up right.
Completely new one to me.
Tipper,
The next time I speak to my oldest daughter, if I can remember, I’m going to see if she knows the word-Redd. Besides homeschooling her two girls, she is a Reader. She’s not a “know it all”, but she reads alot and can join in on most conversations whenever they arise. Talk about planning, her and Steve went to Chapel Hill and their girls, Ellie and Annabelle has the same Birthday, only 4 years between them. …Ken
I’ve never heard “red up” until today, but I have heard and used spruce up. I enjoy your posts about language use. It’s the retired teacher in me.
Trout and “redd”. When spawning, female trout scoop out a depression in loose gravel and stones, deposit their fertilized eggs and then cover them with more loose material from the stream bed. The completed structure is called a redd.
Just like Ron Stephens, I’m familiar with spruce up but I don’t remember hearing red up in my part of E.KY.
Tipper–I reckon my mountain linguistic education has some glaring gaps, because I’ve never heard the word red (or redd) in this context. Furthermore, although I read a great deal, I don’t recall ever having encountered it in print in this context. Redds–yes. They are the egg-laying areas made by trout and salmon. But this one has me bumfoozled, bamboozled, buffaloed, and befuddled. That’s good, because it’s a fine reminder that the linguistic classroom (and other ones on mountain days and ways) never closes
Jim Casada
I am still redding up the house. I remember my Mother telling me if I didn’t red up my room she would shut the door so no one could see it. I have always used that word and so did my Mother and Grandmother. We are German & scotch/Irish from Penna.
I never heard that word growing up in southeastern KY, at least not to recall it. If it had been in anything like common use I’m sure I would have heard it from my Grandma or my great aunts or uncles. I only became aware of it in later years through reading about Appalachia. Closest thing I can recall is “spruce up” a place or a person.
I wonder if the “uncertain” mention in the OED might support the idea that “redd” descended through one particular ethnicity, such as Scotch or German, and was not in widespread use through the entire population? Guess we’ll never know.
Ron, I was wondering if the area of E.KY. you were raised in was the same as NE.KY. in the way you spell your name? We have Stephens and also Stevens. Around Ashland we have both spellings but in Elliot Co. it is mostly Stevens.
Nope AW. All the ones I ever knew of in McCreary County was “Stephens”. There were, and are, a bunch of them. I recall my Mom saying something over 50 years ago that at that time there were 57 Stephens listings in the phone book. Had there been a “Stevens” around, it would have been a cause for remark.
My family has always said “rid up” (West Virginia). I guess it could be just another way of pronouncing it.
“Red up” was a clue on Law and Order years ago. It’s what solved the crime when used by the culprit and Bobby knew when it was used in the questioning. I heard this used my whole life being raised in Western Pa. I still say it and “run the sweeper”, not vacuum.
I heard in from a lady in Murphy, funny enough Conner she was from PA
Tip, I’ve heard this expression, to red up the place, but only rarely. I can’t even remember the context where I heard it. I just remember hearing and knowing the meaning of it.
I love our way of using language to meet our needs!
i grew up in western pennsylvania and we always were told to redd up our rooms or redd up our messes.
To “redd up” is still a common Pittsburgh phrase – somewhere north of tidying but south of thorough cleaning. Making a room “ready” for guests to see it was how it was explained to me when I moved to the Paris of Appalachia back in 2004.
I have seen it in books but never heard it. Do you think it might come from “to make ready”?
The phrase being derived from “to make ready” was how it was explained to me by the first Pittsburgh neighbor I asked about it, but that may be a folk etymology. My understanding from the “Pittsburghese” literature is that Pittsburgh picked the phrase up from the same Scots-Irish migrations mentioned in the dictionary listings above, so those origins obtain Appalachia-wide.
A local radio segment from a few years back that dives into the city’s accent: https://www.wesa.fm/post/redd-your-pittsburghese-deep-dive-how-yinz-talk#stream/0