I enjoy discussing the books I read on Fridays at the end of each video, but I always think of things I wish I had pointed out when I edit the readings.
Most recently, I wish I had talked about a word in the following passage.
“Now if I was t’get bit, I don’t know what I’d do here by myself. This preacher was out on th’mountain and he set down on a log. Now I heared him tell this myself. He set down on a log and this rattlesnake and blacksnake commenced t’fightin’, and he watched’em, and he said that blacksnake would run up and give that rattlesnake a lick, then run back t’this certain weed and eat some of it and come back and fight s’more, till that blacksnake finally killed that rattlesnake. And he knowed what kinda weed it was, and said it could cure anybody that had th’snakebite, but I don’t know what it was…”
—Aunt Arie A Foxfire Portrait
The book is chock full of Appalachian language. In this small excerpt there’s heared, fightin, and knowed, but it is the word lick I wish I had discussed.
The word lick is used in various ways in the mountains of Appalachia. Here’s the entry from the Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English.
lick noun
1 A sharp blow or stroke with the hand or a heavy instrument.
1884 Murfree In Tenn 83 He hain’t struck a lick of work fur nigh on ter a month. 1937 Hall Coll. Gatlinburg TN “Let’s make it a sure lick this time” = here a fatal blow in a folk tale told by Lewis Reagan. 1939 Hall. Coll. Proctor NC. “Just hack it down. It’ll fall just in a minute. Just hack it,” he says. I struck a few licks on it, and it was just a little birch. (Dan Cable) ibid. Sugarlands, TN I knocked [the bear] in the head ever so many licks before I could get it to roll over and hush hollerin’. (Steve Cole) 1994 Walker Life History 75 The first lick he throwed he hit that wildcat and knocked it out.
[OED lick n¹ 4a”a smart blow”; DARE chiefly South, South Midland, Texas, Oklahoma]
2 The smallest amount (usu in negative contexts).
1956 Hall Coll. Mt. Sterling NC He never worked a lick (Mitchell Sutton 1967 DARE (Maryville TN).
3 A supply of salt for ranging animals to lick as desired, often left in a cavity cut into a log. See also lick log.
1937 Hall Coll. A laurel lick [is] where deer used to come. [= a salt lick placed in a laurel thicket].
4 See citation.
1974 Fink Bits Mt Speech 15 = molasses. “Give him some lick for his dodger.”
Aunt Arie was using lick like the first part of the dictionary entry. I’m very familiar with that usage, but today I most commonly hear the word used like the examples in the second part.
“He ain’t got a lick of sense.”
“She won’t strike a lick at nothing unless she thinks she’s going to get more than she deserves.”
I’ve never heard lick used in place of molasses.
Other usages that come to mind.
- A lick and a promise: said when a job or task is completed in a hurry and not with usual thoroughness.
- Lick one’s calf again: the task wasn’t done right and needs to be done over.
- Lick thumbs: to come to an agreement (I’ve never heard this one, but it was in the dictionary).
- Mislick: Pap used this one often. Examples: “He made a mislick with that big hammer and blacked his fingernail.” “I’m afraid that’s a bad mislick and he’s gonna regret ever saying he’d do it for them.”
- Lickin: whipping
Last night’s video: I Used Granny’s Old Flower Pots to Plant Seeds I Found in Her Freezer.
Tipper
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Hi Tipper and Acorns. I heard and used Lick in all of those ways. The thumb lick is similar to crossing pinkies when two people say the same thing at the same time.
“He was so lazy he wouldn’t hit a lick at a snake.”
Tipper, I dreamed last night that I was at your house eating supper with y’all I guess I need to add that to my bucket list now. The 2 things currently on my bucket list at nearly 75 yrs old is to be able to go back to the North Carolina Mountains one more time & to ride in a hot air balloon. Reckon I will accomplish those things?
Love to all
Jim, so glad you explained what a licklog is. When I was a child, if my Dad thought I was not telling the truth or all the truth, he would say, “You’d better come up to the licklog.” I never knew what that was, but I knew I’d better tell the truth of else…. Thanks for the explanation!
My mother used the phrase “A lick and a promise” when she was pressed for time and needed to cut a task short. For instance: “I haven’t got time to clean the front room before company comes but I’ll give it a lick and a promise for later.”
I text my daughter halfway or at the end of the day and tell her she’s bout got the day licked!. I never even thought of it not being used much for her generation.
A modern-day meaning of “lick” is a crime that involves stealing, such as robbery or grand larceny-auto. Synonymous with “heist” or “job.”
Also, in line with “striking a blow,” one meaning of “lick” not mentioned above is “defeat,” as in, say, a one-sided competition: “We gave it all we had, but we still got thoroughly licked.”
I love the phrase “a lick and a promise.” When I worked full time I was forever giving the housework a luck and a promise. The promise speaks of the intention to return at a later time to finish the task with deliberation and thoroughness. Thank you for keeping Appalachian phrases alive, Tipper.
My mom used “lick” when she finished beating up a cake mix, cookie mix, etc. and asked us girls if we wanted to “lick the bowl” meaning to lick the batter off the mixer beaters. I still use the phrase and still lick the bowl.
Praying for Papaw Tony!
That’s on my 80 yr old aunt still uses, “now I’ve got to lick my calf over again!” She was born in Morgantown KY, but lived most her life here in E Central IL where I live. I sent her a screenshot of your blog, made her day!
Do other seniors remember John Cameron Swayze’s Timex commercials in which wrist watches were tested through creative mistreatment? He said, “They take a licking, and keep on ticking.” Some folks referred to dogs of mixed ancestry as “pot-lickers,” which , of course, sounds like the name of that delectable liquid found at the bottom of a pot of turnip greens: pot liquor, or pot likker, if you prefer. And did you hear the one about the kid in Hollywood who told another boy, “My dad can lick your dad”, to which the second boy replied, “Don’t be silly. Your dad IS my dad.”
Gene, I am just a junior! But I do remember the Timex commercials and know and will eat pot linkker and corn bread along with my sallet (turnip greens.) Have you heard turnip greens called sallet? I have also heard the story/joke about the boy telling about his daddy licking another boy’s daddy.
Who said “that looks good enough to make a chicken lick its lips”?
Don’t know? Well I must have just made it up!
Lick your wound is a common saying where I was raised, meaning getting over a disastrous event in one’s life. Too sorry to strike a lick and not a lick of sense is still one of the favorites that I say often. I wonder if folks ‘off from here’ are confused by my use of the word sorry, a word that often replaces lazy.
So many great sayings regarding the use of the word, “lick” reflected by the BPATA readership and followers, today. One I did not see was a reference in music to a group or band or individual playin’ “hard lick country” and speaking to the musical rhythm or beat. It seemed to be something I recall having heard in the 50’s and 60’s and may have been in reference also to later modern music out of Texas. Jus’ curious! At the moment, I can’t give a name of a particular artist or band ……
I use lick a lot especially when I use it to mean try. “I have a lot of chores today that I may not get finished but I’ll give it a lick”. I use “I don’t give a lick” when I don’t care about something like, “I’ve got too many chores today, but I don’t give a lick”.
I remember my grandma using that word especially when she was tired or mad
Brought back memories….thanks Tip
I enjoy your weekly readings and the colorful language used! Lick is a word I’m familiar with most of these usages even up north! When you were talking about the girls playing with a mud kitchen and making creations for you and Matt to “eat” or “drink” I had to smile. You summed up our life to a tee. I can see our girls little mud kitchen from my kitchen window and I love watching them play. Some of the creations look so beautiful you could almost eat them! 😉 These are the sweetest days. I know they are going quickly and I cherish them. I enjoyed your video last night while cleaning up the kitchen at the end of the day of you planting Granny’s seeds in her pots. ❤️ What a special way to honor her and have touches of Granny all around your yard. Please do let us know if they germinate!
My mama uses this word a lot. She often says she just gave it a lick and a promise when she hurries through the housework. Or she says she’s not worth a lick today, when she’s feeling poorly. We kept a salt lick for our cow when I was a kid—a big square block of salt for the cows to lick and get needed minerals from.
Tipper–Another common old-time usage was in connection with cattle licks and place names coming out of where logs with carved indentations to hold salt were located. In fact there’s a Licklog Creek near you and another one in the Needmore area of Swain County.
I live far to the east of you in Wake County, which likes to boast that it is the “capital county” on the road signs because Raleigh is located there. Strangely enough (or perhaps, not so strangely), there is a “Needmore” in Wake County. There is also a “Lizard Lick” a couple of miles from where I live (and a few miles from the town of Zebulon). It boasts a plaster(?) replica of a lizard with its tongue stuck out located outside a brick convenience store. A Raleigh newspaper columnist, who may have imagined himself to be the John Parris of this part of the state, occasionally wondered in his columns what the people at “Uncle Zeb’s store in Lizard Lick” thought of the political events going on in Raleigh. I grew up in one of the poorest counties in the state, some seventy miles southeast of Raleigh. As a boy I remember seeing those old block-shaped salt licks for cattle. Uncle Zeb’s store was probably mythical as was likely Uncle Zeb himself, though there were undoubtedly lots of people of the older generation born here who were named for Zebulon Vance. I myself knew a man for years who was a relative of our beloved wartime governor. Having lived in all three regions of North Carolina, I am amazed at the similarities they share in spite of their diversity. Truly blessed am I to have been born in the Old North State. Have a blessed day!
We hit things a “lick” or two also. Most of my life we used it as described in the DOSME (hitting something, i.e. “you’d better hit it a lick and promise”). However, lick might be used as an expression for someone to comb their hair (i.e. “you’d better hit that hair a lick or two before you go”, etc.). I’ve heard my mother use it as in ironing britches, or it could be used to describe land that needs better preparation for planting as in “make a few more passes with a disc harrow”, etc. Of course, animals use licks. There was a salt deposit in central Tennessee that was called “Deer Lick”, but the name was eventually changed to Nashville. We had salt and mineral blocks that were sometimes referred to as “licks” raising cattle. We also had a syrup lick for cattle. It was a big metal vat with a couple of large/wide rubber wheels that cows would lick. The vat was full of syrup containing various minerals which the purpose of was to promote good health and weight gain. The cows would lick the wheel, turning it into the vat to be coated with more syrup. They loved it. When one thinks about it, I don’t know what we’d do sometimes without the word “lick”. I am curious about the word origin as used in Appalachia.
When I was a lad we fed our laying hens blackstrap molasses. It was so thick you couldn’t pour it unless you has all day and on chilly days it was hard as a brick. I’d bet that was the same or very similar to your syrup.
The smell did remind me of Sorghum Syrup. Naturally, I had to taste it and it tasted like Sorghum too.
How interesting. So many ways to use the word. I have only heard “get a lickin’” for a whipping. I like the phrases best. Lots of imagination there.
I think all the uses I’ve ever heard have already been covered. Growing up,it was common to hear “lick” all the time. My Mom used “lick and a promise” often. Dad used it about work of whatever kind. Kinda hard to figger how that particular word came to be used the way it is.
I’ve heared “not a lick of sense “, “lick and a promise” and “I’m not worth a lick today”. Funny how our culture can use one word for so many different meanings. I guess it makes life more interesting. 😉
I’ve never really thought about it that much, but I guess this is pretty strange sounding language to alot of people that grew up outside the south. To me, it’s beyond common. I grew up hearing “lick and a promise” “nary a lick of sense” and “too lazy to strike a lick at a snake”. Or we might say that someone got a “lickin” which would mean he got the tarnation beat out of him, although that one isn’t as common.
That boy has a cow lick, referring to hair sticking up in back or a raised area in the front.
We used the same expression in eastern North Carolina when I was a boy and probably still do, though I haven’t heard it in a long time.
good morning friends, God bless you each and everyone in Jesus name, God bless Papaw Tony with deliverance from sickness and disease in Jesus name, if I can make it till June 2nd, I’ll be seeing a gastroenterologist, about these problems in my body , hopefully I can get an abdominal ultrasound for my appendix and gallbladder I still haven’t heard anything from neurologist about the pain medication for my head, thank you for praying for me, the medicine she had recommended will not work with my blood thinners and my heart medication, I’m waiting on another recommendation, everything has to be checked by the heart doctor, God bless you friends I love you,
I’ve heard most of the sayings. I grew up in northeastern Ohio and they used “lickin” instead of whipping. “Your gonna get a lickin for cuttin class.” My parents and other family members used the other sayings. I haven’t heard it used in place of molasses or lick ones calf again.
I had never thought of my language being Appalachian, just southern country language. Along with lick, I also use the other words Tipper mentioned. Now with arthritis being so bad, it is even hard to give many things a “lick and a promise.” I do good just to give it a lick. Now, if I I ain’t careful, many of my days will turn into “ I ain’t worth a lick days.” Two other phrases I have heard all of my life- “He ain’t worth a lick” and He is “too lazy to hit a lick at a black snake.” Because of Tipper, I have bought many of the books she reads or mentions. I just look for them used on eBay, or Amazon. I like eBay better because most of them include free shipping.