I actually don’t mind washing dishes. We don’t have a dishwasher so we wash everything by hand. I like sticking my hands in the hot soapy water and feel very satisfied when I’ve washed all the dishes, put up all the leftovers, and wiped down the counters.
We often receive comments on our videos that state we need a dishwasher in our kitchen. The people often point out we even have a place to put it. For many years we had a dishwasher in that open area that people notice and we never used it once. Miss Cindy bought it for us along with all our other appliances when we first moved in. She was so good to us.
I enjoyed washing dishes when I was girl too…well sometimes I did. I’ve always loved to play in the water so I’m sure that was the biggest draw to dish washing in those days.
Although Granny and Pap both said wash I’ve heard many folks in my area of Appalachia add an r to the word wash. You’ll most often see that usage as warsh, but sometimes it sounds more like worsh.
wash
A verb, noun Variant form warsh.
1922 TN CW Ques 8 my mother [did] all kinds of hous work such as cooking warshing weaving making quilts cuting and making clothes for the family. 1933 Carpenter Sthn Mt Dialect 25 In parts of the mountains in certain words “r” is added where it does not belong. Among these are WASH, HUSH, and MUSH, which become warsh, hursh, and mursh. These are particularly noticeable in southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky. 1942 Hall Phonetic Smoky Mts 32. 1963 Edwards Gravel 97 She warshed her face and hands and started to cook breakfast, but she felt plumb quare. 1972 AOHP/ALC 276 That’s how we made soap and how we warshed back in my days. 1973 Miller English Unicoi Co 76 warsh attested by 5 of 6 speakers. 1989 Matewan OHP-102 They called it a warsh place because there was plenty of water there, and the whole neighborhood come to this place and warshed [their clothes]. 2008 McCaulley Cove Childhood 28 After the new house was built up on the hillside, Maw continued to do the “warsh” down in the flatter area near the old house.
—Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English
Rench, a variant for rinse, is also common in my area. I’ve never heard the variants hursh and mursh. If you have I hope you’ll leave a comment.
Tipper
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My mamaw said hersh for hush.
We worsh dishes and use worsh rags, dish rags and cleaning rags.
The first time I heard wash cloth was when I got my first job at a Jerry’s Restaurant way back in the early 80s, probably 1982. We were instructed to use the word cloth and never rag.
I have a dishwasher but very seldom use it. I, too, really like to wash dishes. I am also one of those strange people who likes to fold freshly washed and dried (in the cryer) clothes. I have been known to go help young mothers, college students, and older people wash and dry their clothes. So satisfying.
My parents would say wash, but my dad most often would say “rench” for rinse.
I’m the dish washer in my house. And Mom still wahes her dishes. neither one of us never owned a dish washer. I like putting my hand into the warm suddy water to wash the dishes. Besides, I think dish washers use too much water and electricity.
Hi Tipper, I have 2 dishwashers and they each have 5 fingers.
Mitzi-I love your dishwashers 🙂
I have been married 40 years and never had a dishworsher. I say worsh, worsher, worsh rag, etc. Our grandson makes sure to point it out each time he hears it. It sounds funny to him I reckon.
My Texas family say warsh. I was raised there and say it too, but my kids don’t. They’ve been raised here in the Midwest and don’t really have any accent at all. Their dad doesn’t have one, and their friends don’t, so it makes sense. But sometimes I get lonely with my little ole accent by myself, then I read BP & A, and I’m all better again. ☺️
Never heard rench for rinse, but I like it.
Yes, I say “warshing the dishes” or “warshrag” My son whom seem to be high and mighty now LOL pokes fun at me. I’ve never had a dishwasher until I turned 62. If my back gets acting up I will use it more but I still do a lot of hand dishwashing. I grew up with a dishwasher in our house but us girls was not allowed to use it, mom would use it for the big holidays but we still ended up washing dishes too. My dad wanted us to learn the “manual” way of things in case our husbands couldn’t afford fancy. Lol! I just never wanted one until now and like I said only use it off and on. I’m in Southern Illinois, I like that we really a lot alike, your cookbook is full of things I remember my mom and grandparent’s doing.
My Texas family (I was born and raised there but moved off when I got married) say warsh. Always with the r. So homey to hear it. I know I still say it, but my kids don’t because their dad doesn’t.
My mother washed dishes but after she always “wrenched” them 🙂
Morning all,
I’m going to try and leave a comment but it’s been weeks since any showed up.
I was in my 20’s before I realized wash wasn’t pronounced warsh. We had warsh rags too, not cloths.
Morning everyone. Way back, my husband bought me a dishwasher. I stored baking pans in it. Then and now I thought it was useless. I was always taking out dishes I needed and washing by hand. Now with only one of my sons living with me, a dishwasher doesn’t make sense for only 2 people. Mostly it’s because I change my dish soaps for each season. Mrs Meyers has an incredible line. Enjoy the warm weather while it lasts. Anna from Arkansas.
My grandparents say warsh. They also warsh their clothes in a warsher. My dishwarsher broke a while ago and I go back and forth about just pulling it out and using the spot for a trash can. I can’t decide if it’s more trouble than it’s worth to have a dishwasher. I do also love the feel of the warm water, but I don’t love the feel of the little cracks I get all over my fingers from the constant water in this cold weather. With homeschooling the kids and my husband working from home as well, it’s an awful lot of dishes to keep up with! I do have little helpers though that are learning a skill most kids don’t know anymore!
I have a dishwasher, but it’s not used very much. At night after supper, I agree with you Tipper, it’s a good feeling to wash the dishes, put up the leftovers and wipe off the stove and counters. That way, I can wake up to a clean kitchen ready for the next day. I’ve never heard hursh and mursh but warsh is common and my mother- in-law use to say rench. She also called any refrigerator she ever owned a fridgedarie with the emphasis on the “E”.
I have a dishwasher and use it often, but I do like to wash dishes by hand as well. I usually wash my pots and pans by hand, and of course always my cast iron. My grandma and mom, who were born and raised in northern Indiana, both said worsh. Worsh the dishes, worsher and dryer, etc.
worsh and rench yes…hursh no but hesh yep.. as in “ya better jist hesh up afore ya git on my last nerve” mursh…a few times when i was really little…had to say it a few times out loud cause it sounded familiar before it come back to me…it was an older lady not a fur piece away who would say “them early apples mursh up really good” …only person i ever remember hearing say it…
I remember my Grandmother always saying warsh and rench. She also said winder for window but I never heard her say the other two words although she did put those R’s in words so if she had need to say one it probably would have sounded like that. My Mother showed me the place where my Grandmother would warsh clothes in the summer which had a little stream running right by the level area. My Daddy, her son, was her helper. He built the fire under the big boiling iron pots. They always talked about using a battling board to warsh all the mens’ heavy overalls. I’m not sure what a battling board was, if anyone knows for sure let me know?
I didn’t have a built-in dishwasher when we were raising our children but my husband and boys all pitched in and got it done. I do have one now and I do enjoy having it because I can load it, press start and go on to my sewing projects and many other errands I have on my to do list.
I remember seeing my Grandmother wash clothes in cast iron pots that a had fire underneath them. Granddaddy would have to draw the water out of a well with a bucket and a windless. We lived close to a creek that had a small waterfall. I have seen Grandmother stand in the creek during the summer and rinse her clothes out under the water fall. I now have the two iron pots, they were also used to render out the lard at hog killing time. I don’t know for sure, but a battling board may have been a paddle that was use to beat the clothes and stir them around in the pots. I do know what a scrub or warsh board is.
I may upset some folks by saying this, but when I look back on the life of many of the older generations of County folks, both men and women, and think of how hard they had it, I think of how spoiled rotten we are today. I can not speak for the city slickers. Washing dishes by hand was a “pie” job.
Maybe the rippled tin inside a wood frame? All the women in my family used them to hand scrub really dirty things. My paternal grandmother ironed her sheets and pillowcases. I thought that made them so smooth to sleep on so I asked my mother to that at our house…she just laughed. That grandmother also ironed cotton socks. Back in those days, elastic wasn’t what it is now. Socks just dropped toward your shoes.
Mama said wash and rench. When I was a teenager, I finally figured out she meant rinse. I don’t have a dishwasher either. We would have lost some cabinet space had we installed one. It would have been no help at holiday meals, because my good china can’t go in a dishwasher.
My aunt Shirl always washed her dishes before putting them into the dishwasher! My uncle had bought it for her, against her wishes, because she didn’t trust the dishwasher to get the dishes clean. So she did it this way to shut my uncle up!
I recall that my parents said rench for rinse but didn’t add an r to wash or wash pot or wash cloth, which was more often called a wash rag.
New England. R’s get added to the middle of words here, too. Most often it happens when someone is trying to not sound like they’re from here, where we drop R’s. So those R’s can pop up in words that they don’t belong in – either in the middle or end. Linder for Linda, for example. We joke that we drop R’s but don’t lose them- they show up elsewhere. Does anything similar happen with pronunciations in Appalachia when someone is trying to hide an accent?
Joan, I’m not sure. We often add the letter t to the end of words like oncet and twicet. Sometimes I hear that t even though the speaker doesn’t sound anything like me 🙂 I enjoyed your comment!
Momma appointed doing dishes to my older brother and I, Til we left home anyways. We were the oldest of her brood. Probably not a great idea. He and I most always would get in a fight over something pretty dumb. I hated doing them with him, he probably felt the same about me. As an adult, I found doing dishes by hand was a form of quiet therapy for me. I do use my dishwasher and rinse each and every item before stacking them in the machine. I do like the thought of them being more sterile in the dishwasher. I thank momma for having us do the dishes for our family. Most always had nine to thirteen people fed and she certainly deserved the help with the cooking and cleaning. Thanks for the memories Miss Tipper. Give everyone my best wishes and may God bless everyone and be there for all those with special needs. Have a great week ahead too. Jennifer
Just got done washin my dishes this morning. Sometimes when I say wash , it sounds more like wishin. I also say washrag. A!so, here in PA I wash my head instead of my hair. lol.
When I went away to school in another part of PA, I was mistakenly identified as being from West Virginia. (which always tickled me).
I would lose some of my improper English at school but send me home for break and I was back to talkin with my improper grammar till returning to classes. It is important to note, in high school I was an A student in English, I just didn’t practice what I knew was correct.
Prayers for all our YouTube family.
Both of my parents said wash, but they said ranch for rinse. I bought all new appliances when I moved into a house years ago. The black and stainless steel color was popular, and I had to have my first dishwasher to match the stove and fridge. It still had plastic wrap on the silverware rack when I sold the house eight years later. I don’t mind washing dishes, it’s putting them away that I dread.
Growing up with my grandparents in southwestern PA, I heard several words with the “Intrusive R” added – “worsh” the dishes; the dam “worshed” over the bridge; “rench” the dish rag (rag instead of cloth); “mursh” (mush) for breakfast; “murshrooms” are better fried up with onions; “hursh” up, you’re too loud. I have heard others say “gorsh” instead of gosh. (Side note: We were never allowed to say “gosh” or “geez” because they were considered taking the Lord’s (God/Jesus) name in vain.)
I knew that my grandparents ancestors came from Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England (“Scots-Irish” heritage) where these specific dialects derived. In fact, there are several states in the US where the “Intrusive R” dialect is still quite common. Basically, stretching across the “midlands” of America – from Maryland all the way to California!! This follows the migration pattern of folks moving west for better opportunities over the years.
The funny thing is, when writing and/or spelling these words, there is no “r” seen in the written word. However, when verbalizing, the “r” is definitely heard. Thus the “Intrusive R” label.
Interesting topic Tipper!! OH – and by the way – my mom always used her dishwasher as storage! Ironically, I use mine as a place to dry the dishes after I wash them by hand – LOL!!!
Yes! “Worsh, worsh rag, and rench.
I don’t say it often, but when it slips I smile knowing I still have it in me.
There is something soothing about the rhythm of washing dishes while spending the day in the kitchen, especially during the holidays and canning.
I do have a dishwasher and use it when I’m pressed for time or overloaded with dirty dishes, mostly it’s used for a dish strainer, Once it goes, I won’t be replacing it.
My dishwasher broke years ago. I’ve never replaced it. I live alone, so I don’t see a need for one. I always rinsed my dishes before putting them in the washer. Seemed silly to replace it.
My mother was born in southern Illinois, within driving distance of the Kentucky border. Despite moving to southern California as a young child, she always said “warsh.” I didn’t realize that I also said wash with an R until I moved to Washington State as a teenager. It took a while, but teasing by my classmates made me practice to say wahsh instead of warsh. Now in my 70’s, I still find myself pausing before saying wash and often I drag out the word, like waaaaash.
When we lived in North Carolina (1974-76), I worked with a lady who said, “I’m tord & I’ve gotta go home & orn.” (Tired & iron)
My aunt Betty use to say warsh, but I don’t think I ever heard my mom say it. I’m thinking my aunt either said it because she heard it growing up or learned it from her husband’s people. If my mom had learned it growing up then she unlearned it when she married my dad. My dad’s family were more proper speaking from the city, so I’m sure they corrected her a lot.
I had a pastor in my youth that would say woush (I think that’s how it’s spelled), instead of wish. The first time I heard him say it I looked at his daughter with that “What” look and she laughingly said he means wish. It was just how he grew up saying wish. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone else say woush to mean wish.
I have a dishwasher but don’t use it very often since it’s just the 2 of us here. I wash dishes after each time they are used. I had a plumber tell me a sink full of dishwater does the drain some real good being released at once making a wooshing sound as it goes. I knew a woman (actually two) who claimed sticking their hands in dishwater made them sick to their stomach and that’s why they could NEVER wash dishes. One has long since died-she was not sick taking drugs you know so that’s that. The other is so lazy and a real leach- I cannot discuss 2 ton Julia. She’s a piece of work and I have no words I can use to describe her that aren’t 4 letter or five… I like the feeling of accomplishing my housework each day. It gives me a sense of purpose and pride. Some people are lazy and they could care less.I sat outdoors several hours yesterday and enjoyed it. I see this morning tulip poplars getting nubs where the blooms will be… it’s coming y’all-spring and a roof too I hope! My roof is intact, just beat to crap where the hickory tree landed on the edge of it by my soffits and gutters allowing water to run in behind my walls where joists and wood stuff (the guts) got broken…they’re fixed now…
I am 72 years old, and say warsh and rench. I also say warsh powders for laundry detergent. My grandkids get a kick out of my words. I don’t even pay much attention to the way I talk, until someone points it out to me.
Mama always said warsh. And she pronounced clear like the word purr. So she would warsh clothes and hang them out on a clurr day Mama also had a dishwasher that was never used.
People always used to ask my mom why she didn’t have a dishwasher; her response was, “What do I need a dishwasher for? I raised three of them!”
I have a dishwasher but it’s broke, it fills the hole, I can’t afford to repair, and probably would not, since I live alone, but I do have a question, what kind of dishwasher detergent has the best suds, that lasts the longest? thank you and God bless you
Norman, I have no financial interest in this advice – but I use Dawn. The wildlife rescue folks who sometimes have to clean up water fowl who have gotten into oil spills swear by it. It does a great job of cleaning up greasy or otherwise messy pots and pans.
Your post today made me think about a time I asked how a hard job was going to be done. The answer was “by main strength and awkwardness”. I kinda suspect we have too great a love for motors. Couldn’t say whether that is because of speed, ease or – for some things – just liking the power. But it seems to me like we have almost forgotten there are manual tools and manual ways to do most everything that is now motorized. Somewhere in there are some clues about moving at a slower speed. I think it is very wise of you to understand that for you faster and easier is not the best. I’ll have to study on it.
Ron, I have always said when you have a hard job to do, find a lazy person to do it and they will find the easiest way of doing it!
i wash dishes by hand with mrs. meyers. i don’t even wash them, really, just put them in a pan to soak for a minute or an hour or whatever, and then dump the water out and put the dishes on a rack. mrs. meyers eats up every speck of grease or sticky and the most i ever have to do is swish my hand around. even stuck on roasting pans, fill em up with water and suds and leave overnight —even back in the cold oven since space is an issue—and just dump em out in the morning!
My dad was from FL and said winder. He and his siblings all added the “r” wherever it fit! A light bulb was a “bub”. My dishwasher is two drawers which I love. Saves me from standing on my head to get to the bottom of a full size dishwasher. I use them weekly, and during covid I washed whatever possible for the sterilization.
I grew up without a dishwasher and still wash by hand. There’s something satisfying about seeing that each dish and utensil is clean.
I like to hand wash dishes better than using a dishwasher. I have a dishwasher but sometimes it works & sometimes it doesn’t. I finally stopped trying to use it about 2 years ago. I really need to have it removed and start using that empty space for storage. 🙂
“Git in there and warsh them dishes.” This is what I heard from my mother from the time I was about nine years old. About eight years old I had made a deal with Mom to wash the dishes for a dime and she okayed it. Once she saw I could do them well, she made me do them without paying me. When my sister, who was four years younger than me reached nine, we took turns “warshin'” and “renching” the dishes. We never had a dishwasher, but after we left home Mom bought one. I never bought one, but made all three of my children, two boys and a girl, take turns warshin’ them. I felt they needed to have some responsibilities and left open the blank space for a dishwasher in our new kitchen when we built our house in Ohio. I do not like dishwashers, I would rather do them myself and think I can get them done faster. My husband helps but will use the dishwasher that was in this house in south central Va. when we bought it. I don’t think I even know how to use it. I heard the words, “Warsh” and “Rench” all of the time, but I don’t remember hearing “hursh” and “mursh.”
I often heard my grandmother say warsh. I have been thinking a lot about her lately. Another word she used was “wrench “ rinse. I hope I am spelling it the way she said it. I love remembering the words she used and the great example of a Godly woman she was and look forward to seeing her again one day.
My mama always says warsh and rench for the dishes, the laundry and bathing. She uses a warshrag instead of a washcloth. I love listening to my mama talk and use all the words she has used since childhood. I always tried to correct her when I was young. Now I am ashamed of myself for thinking she needed correcting.
I also wash all of my dishes by hand. It is very satisfying to wash them all clean, rinse them and put them in the dish drainer to dry. I always do them right after we eat and put up any condiments left out and any leftovers. I love to have my counters and stovetop wiped clean. Many people, including my own daughter, think I need a dishwasher. I have used one at my daughter’s house; and to me, it is just too much trouble rinsing them off, and filling the dishwasher, and having to unload them and put away later on. If you don’t unload it before you have more dirty dishes, then those dishes have to sit in the sink. It’s just much easier for me to wash them by hand and have it finished. Maybe I am just too old-fashioned.
My grandmother put a r in wash. I thought that sounded so strange. I actually thought that was just the way she said it herself, but I guess others do also.
I’m 71 and only for 1 semester in grad school did I live in a place with a dishwasher. My mama enjoyed washing dishes by hand. It was a time of peace and quiet after meals and the window above her kitchen sink let her look out over the garden. My family didn’t say “worsh” but I heard it often in western Kentucky where I grew up. Since that was near the Illinois and Missouri borders, the Midwestern influence may have been there, in addition to some of the migrating Appalachian dialect.
I’m with you Tipper. I used to work at a hoagie shop just outside of Philadelphia growing up, and my favorite job at the end of the night was washing dishes. Two big giant tanks of warm water, steam rising up, nobody bothered you, just listening to music. Pure bliss.
My main chore while I was in high school was to do the dishes. It was something I enjoyed because I was allowed to play the transistor radio on MY station and listen to the music of my choice. It was the 70’s and there was a lot of great music. Like you Tipper, I loved putting my hands in the hot soapy water. Now I’m 70, and once again I live in a place with no dishwasher. Except now I listen to the same music on my IPhone!
We had a dishwasher for awhile but after it broke we didn’t replace it. Shucks, now that there is only me and my son we often use paper plates and only wash the pots and pans, forks and glasses. A friend of mine jokes and said his wife has had a dishwasher all of her married life…me! I have heard a lot of the older folks say warsh, listen to Loretta Lynn’s song Coal Miner’s Daughter.
Still use warsh and rench sometimes. Never have used hursh and mursh
I’ve heered hursh but not mursh. And ranch for rench and rinse.
When we moved into ourur home we gave away the dishwasher for the same reasons you removed your’s. I amthe dish warsher in our house. I always wondered where so many of the Rs vanished from the mouths of my fellow Mainers. “Pahk the cah in Hahvahd Yahd” is the classic stereotype of a “Boston” acsent, yet the Massachusetts tourists who flood into Maine can hardly understand many of my rural relatives and neighbors who “talk funny”. To outside ears we all sound the same, yet like the speech patterns of your part of the Appanachians, the folks up here from “Shugaloaf” to Mount Katahdin have a different approach to marking ourselves as being from “heyh”. Our tongues are sharp tools in the business of marking and claiming our place in this world.
(hit the button too soon!)
…she always insisted in a dishwasher once they were invented, which was before my time. i remember we had a roll around one growing up in the 50s, and she insisted on a dishwasher everywhere she lived since. i took the one in this house out when it became mine, or rather when, unused, it sprung a leak. i replaced it with a much needed cabinet i have yet to her properly organized.
I would much rather wash dishes by hand than the dishwasher. I used it as storage. I was told I could save time and other things but I preferred to do them by hand.
I also would have almost sworn that I said wash, until my friend kept teasing me and recorded me saying “warsh”. She said I was one of the countries people she ever knew.
my florida mom (born 1908) said warsh (also rag) and rench.
I have wondered many times on why an “R” gets added or dropped in speech. It is common in European and Southern and New England dialects. Does anyone know why this occurs? I’m so curious.
My Mamaw always said warsh and rench. And winder for window and study for steady.
She was from Sevierville, Tn.