I’m bad t’ come out with that word [ruint]. “That youngun is pure ruint.” (spoiled rotten)
Once, I was visiting with a newcomer to the mountains and I usually bum-fuzzle them.
Me: “I don’t think I’d eat that stuff, it’s ruint.”
Newcomer: “O! it is burnt?”
Me: “Naw, it is RUINT.
Newcomer: “I don’t understand?”
Me: “You will if you eat it!”
Another term I’m always explaining when exiting a meeting: “Ya’ll come see us!”
Somebody always says: “Right NOW?”
Me: “Well, ye can if ye want too, but it is a figure of speech that you are welcome to come to my house sometime.”
—Barbara T. Woodall
Like Barbara we use ruint (also said rurnt) to describe a spoiled child or something that has spoiled beyond eating.
Ya’ll come see us is also extremely common in my area of Appalachia. And yuns come see us is too.
Another common phrase when saying goodbye is “We’ll see ya.” When I was a teenager the phrase got on my everliving nerves. I always wanted to reply to the phrase in a sarcastic manner. Oh my how time has changed me.
Today when I’m talking with someone and they say “We’ll see ya” as they leave, I absolutely love it 🙂
Last night’s video: Making a Garden in Appalachia – July Garden Tour 2022.
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Just stumbled across your channel on youtube. We’re in central PA and recognize lots of the words you’re using. We still say Redd Up today. Call the creek a “crick”. Mom still says “pick a mess of beans”. When it’s humid, we say it’s “close out”. Mom always called jewelweed “poppies”. FIL uses the phrase “shanks mare” for having to walk a piece. I’m fascinated by the different dialects around the US.
Sharon-glad you found us 🙂 I love the differences in language too!
I understand a child being ruint. I am trying to do that to my grandchildren!
When someone says “ya’ll come see us” I realize that meant some time later or it was just a friendly way to say goodbye. But when I was a child they would come. Visiting aunts and uncles is how I had the pleasure of sleeping at the foot of the bed like Little Jimmy Dickens. I understand his verse “fighting for cover on a cold winter”. But I wish I could go back and visit my aunts and uncles; it sure was fun.
When I was a student at Clemson, I got a lot of teasing for my accent and colloquialisms. I specifically recall once instance in the dining hall. Can’t remember what we were eating, but I declared it to be burnt and rurnt. My words were echoed by the other students. We all had a big laugh, so did my folks at home. For the rest of his life, my daddy reminded me—if it’s burnt, it’s rurnt.
I had the same situation when I was in the Army. It was all in good fun and it never really bothered me. I also just found people from the South to pal around with and there were a lot of them. Dennis Morgan
Yes mam Miss Tipper, I was raised up always hearing these phrases and I used them back then and still do today. We use Rurnt more than Ruint but NEVER Ruined lol and it could be referring to someone that was spoiled, food gone bad or something very ugly
Well y’all come see us now ya hear is very common talk around here, as well as when somebody gets ready to leave our house we say, y’all ain’t got to run off. Lol
ruint (also said rurnt) not to be confused with runt which is an animal that is smaller than average, especially the smallest in a litter. Runt can also refer to an undersized or weak person.
While growing up I heard you’ns and you all,
not so much y’all. Now days I hear y’all and you all but not you’ns.
I had a friend who said ruint for ruined, but most of the older people said rurnt. Rurnt is my way of saying ruined.
I guess I’ve always said it wrong. Where as you said everliving nerves, I’ve always said everloving nerves.
Sometimes instead of saying I’ll be seein ya, I will say I’ll be talkin to ya.
I’ve used ruint for both kids and food, more so for food. I usually say spoiled rotten for kids that misbehaved. I say Y’all come see us and Y’all come back. I also use I reckon or I reckon so and yep for yes, a lot. I think I learned that more from watching Beverly Hillbillies, but then my mom’s people always talked like that. I’ve heard and used Y’all set a spell, but not as often as my mom’s people did. It’s just part of our Appalachia culture and I love it.
I have had some strange looks from people when saying,”y’all come see us.” It is very natural for me. I don’t use it lightly though. If I say it then I like you enough to actually have you visit and hopefully the feeling is mutual.
Honestly there was a time in my life that I tried to not use my “native tongue” because of the stereotype that went along with it but I realized that it is who I am and that I am very proud to come from the rich culture of these hills and hollers. So… y’all come see us!!
In extreme southwest Virginia, not only is “yu’uns come see us” still an occasional parting phrase, but the plural (or maybe superlative?) version. “you’un’ses” is occasionally still heard. Kinda like the plural of “wasp” being “waspers”.
John,
“”yu’uns” and you’un’ses” were very commonly used words in upper northeast TN during my growing up years. The words “fetch” and “carry” were common words, also. My grandmother’s sister would say, “Would you fetch me a drink of water, I am so tard or I would git up and git it, myself “. She would also say, “Would you carry me to the store so I can get me some snuff?”
I also heard rurned and spiled or spilt. You’ins instead of yuns or ya’ll wuz the most common. in my upbringing.
I don’t know how I talk no more. I don’t pay no tension to it. Ham I post to know what’s right and what hain’t these days anyhow?
We just shortened the phrase to y’all come.
‘’Ya’ll come see us brings to mind the spontaneous visits of yesteryear. Nobody ever called to say they were coming, and you could end up with a random visit anytime. Matter of fact, I was a teen before we had a party line phone. Good luck making a call when you needed to on a party line. Also, we had numerous family living in a neighboring county, and we would just load up and go visit them all in one day. We usually arrived with a couple of us with a bad case of carsickness. For some reason hotdogs were really popular in those days, and we all got to stop and get a hot dog at a favorite place. Amazing, usually no mess.
When out and about, we would run across random people, and there was always a lot of, “Come see us.” I cannot imagine in this day and time just showing up or inviting random folks to ‘come visit.” It was a slower paced, and easier world to live in, and I shall never forget the sheer joy of somebody just “showing up.” Also, very few ruint children in those days.
You amaze me over and over again by reminding me that “Appalachianisms” I take for granted could be thought strange by ‘outlanders’. (After all, I’m not strange, just common, so why would anybody think I was?) Part of what amazes me about it is that taking for granted. I would only notice particularly if it were something I had only ever heard a few times in my life, reminded me of someone or was something I had not heard in a long time.
There is a gospel song that has the line “That sounds like home to me, that’s where I want to be.” which gets somewhat close to the notion. It is no put down of others for me to want to be where I hear the sounds of home. I figure wherever folks are from they feel much the same and I think they should. Your posts and the comments together remind me there’s big piece of country called Appalachia that is the home of my heart – for now – until we reach that new country where all who are there are equally at home anywhere within it.
I say y’all come back after wearing out y’uins come back. Many visitors were not welcome to come back after they ruint my day by showing up in the first place.
My cousin’s husband makes fun of her for saying y’uins. He caught her in a bad mood and said, Honey, how do you spell that? She said I don’t know but I do know how to spell arsenic!
Tipper, btw, y’all come see us when you get up this away!!! The door is open for y’all!!! I’d say my garden could be ruint and I know for a fact folks who got badly flooded in Buckhannon County, VA ( Grundy, Richlands area) and McDowell County, WV ( War, Crumpler) are ruint!!! There were 40 persons unaccounted for until yesterday. Thank God they all headed up the mountains to keep from drowning and many are cut off from roads and bridges today so please pray for our mountain people of southern WV coal fields and SW Virginia highlands. We need those prayers and hope right now! God bless all WHOS lives are ruint and THANKYOU for the prayers.
I think those terms are all so friendly sounding, in my area, it would be brat instead of ruint youngun and we’ve shorten “We’ll see ya later” to “See Ya.” I noticed your term “everliving nerves,” I’m thinking on that one.
I grew up hearing them all but not the “yuns” come to see us. That expression I heard from my neighbor across the street from me about 35 years ago here in SC PA. I asked my neighbor who grew up near Pittsburgh, PA., where her parents came from and she said west Virginia. One of my Aunts down south would say “Ya’ll need to come stay a month with us!!
Your garden tour was wonderful! You and Matt have made a beautiful flourishing garden that will sustain you for the year ahead or longer.
These are common in my neck of the woods as well as “.come, go home with me”. That one told to a child can cause trouble as the innocent child cannot always go even if they want to.
There were so many things grown ups said and did when I was a kid that I said I would never do – and guess what? Those are the things I hold closest to my heart now and try to emulate. I wish life was the way it was long before my time. I missed out on so much good living. I know we tend to romanticize stuff and not look at the bad things, but I think the bad things long time ago were not foremost in most people’s minds because they weren’t bombarded with it like we are today. We can’t miss the bad stuff no matter how hard we try to ignore it now. Even if you never watch the news, somebody will say to you “did you hear what happened?”. We may not be able to block it out of our lives entirely, but I do think we don’t have to dwell on it. I choose to embrace the finer things in life – good friends, good conversation, good food, good books, good music. Your blog and you tube channels are some of the finer things in life I enjoy immensely!
Donna. : )
I’ve heard and used the term ruint. Have always heard you-uns as a 2 syllable word but most recently noticed Justro of Metcalf Mills pronounce it as yuns, a one syllable word – I like that. I like all these old terms and ways of saying things. The slang used today, not so much – I can’t keep up with what they mean 🙁
We use ruint as in, “our federal government is ruint” or “that deer is ruint, you ought not to have rode it around on the hood of your truck for a week.”
We also say “y’all come see us” , “y’all come go home with us” or ” come back anytime now. ”
Y’alls garden is beautiful, we finally got rain last week, 4 inches and it’s raining as I write this.
God Bless
“Come back when you can stay longer” is used as an invitation and as a way to tell you that “you ‘uns” visit was really enjoyed.
Or I’ll tell you one thing. Heard that one several times a day. Drove me nuts
My Mother In Law ends every visit to her house with the phrase, “Come up when you can”. We live at the bottom of the hill, them at the top. When I’m going to visit her, I’ll tell my husband, “I’m going up the hill for a bit”. He knows where I am going. No one in NY says y’all : ) and for a child that is ‘ruint’, we’d say spoiled rotten. There is a difference between a spoiled child & one that has been spoiled rotten. A grandparent is expected to ‘spoil’ the child and parents sometimes give in to spoiling their child. And so the term spoil, just mostly refers to the parents’ actions, or that the child does not want for anything. But if you’ve spoiled the child ROTTEN, that refers to the effects on the child in that their behavior belies the spoiling. I have known some kids who were spoiled, but not ruint. And I have been unfortunate enough to know many that have been spoiled rotten.
Ain’t nothing worse than a ruint youngin. Fortunately, most of them grow out of it if they live long enough.
Some slogan will live forever, I am sure and…I do hope they do. When I heard the word ‘yuns’ meaning you all or y’all I had to ask how to spell it. They is what is used quite a bit in Blue Ridge, Ga. The other slogan was, ‘I have to tell yo this’. I think I heard Granny say that to you the other day and it brought a smile to me. Again, love your garden and all of your heard work is for sure paying off. God Bless
“Yuns’ comes from ‘you uns’ which derived from ‘you ones’. It’s close kin to y’all which, of course, derives from ‘you all’ I can’t remember the grammatical term for those sorts of double noun designations, but I know I’ve read about it some’ers!
Loved the garden video, Tipper. Y’all have done a superb job of makin’ a garden this year. I was really impressed with how well you narrated the video. Really, really well done.
“Ya’ll come back hear ?” Is a phrase that is predictable in this neck of the woods when company is leaving.
I remember hearing that as the last line on the closing song of the Beverly Hillbillies, “Ya’ll come back now ya hear” 🙂
I think I hear more rurnt more than ruint….and my spell check doesn’t like either word! These are all words very familiar to me. I love our language and wish for it to never change!