The following are some of the dialect words that have come to one observer’s ears within the past triennium. They are all from Kansas, unless otherwise noted. They are printed here to interest others, and to secure a basis for observation. The writer will be under obligations to any one who will note his familiarity with any of these words, insert others, or other meanings, and send them, with a statement of his place of birth and childhood, to him at Lawrence:
- among: all of, as, Where are you going among you?
- all: all gone, as, The corn is all. (Indiana, Penn.) Comp. German.
- bat: a ‘hard case.’
- bid: in, to bid the time of day. (Indiana.)
- beeslings: preparation of artificially curdled milk. (Indiana and Kansas.)
- become: to look well in, as, He becomes that coat.
- bad: desperate, as in, A bad citizen = a desperate fellow.
- behave: to behave well, as in, Do behave now!
- bump on a log: something lifeless, as, He sat there like a bump on a log.
- bier: sham, as in pillow-bier. (Vermont.)
- branch: a small stream.
- breeze: a torrent of talk, as in, He gave me a breeze.
- boo: dried mucous.
- buckle down: to work persistently.
- conniptions: a fit, also ‘conniption fit.’
- caba: an old valise. (Penn.)
- craps: a game with dice; playing, it is called, ‘shooting craps.’
- crawl: to try to escape from an embarrassing situation without admitting one’s mistake.
- crawfish: same as ‘crawl.’
- crock: an earthenware vessel, a large bowl.
- chuck: lunch.
- chuck-a-luck: loaded (of dice).
- coddy: odd, out of fashion.
- chug: to strike a blow, as in, Chug him one.
- could: to be able, as in, He used to could.
- cod: a bit of deceit, as in, He gave the teacher a cod.
- Chenuk: a Canadian. (Note the pronunciation.)
- dast: to dare, as in, He don’t dast to do it.
- dew-claws: hands and knees (?), as in, Get down on your d.,
- = apply yourself intensely.
- Dick’s hatband: in the phrase, As contrary as Dick’s hatband.
- What is the origin of this?
- dick-nailer: anything quite satisfactory, as in,
- He (it) is a dick-nailer.
- drop: advantage, as in, to get the drop on a person (allusion to
- dexterity in drawing a revolver). Comp. also: bulge, inside-track,
- whip handle, dead-wood, all used in the same way and with same sense.
- diven, past participle of dive.
- drug: pret. of drag.
- east: yeast.
- emptings: bread dough set to ferment. Note the expression
- “It will come out all right in the emptings,” i. e. after it has had a
- chance to stand.
- fat up: to increase a stake at cards.
- find: to supply with board, as in, Pay five dollars a week and find him;
- I get five dollars and found.
- fresh: impudent, (due to greenness).
- fog: to filch.
- fluke: to steal. (Indiana).
- flat: plug tobacco. (Arkansas).
- gallery: church, as in, He’s in the gallery.
- gag: an improbable story intended to deceive, as in, He tried to give me a gag.
- go with: to become of, as in, What has gone with my hat? Ohio;
- also in Pall Mall Gazette.
- grub-stake: to give board.
- girling: a ‘girl-boy,’ in contempt.
- gaumy: not neat. (Arkansas.)
- gob:, or gaub: a shapeless mass, as, a gob of mud, then sportively,
- gaubs of wisdom.
- gray: an awkward fellow.
- get to: to get an opportunity to, as in, He didn’t get to do it.
- go to: to intend to, as in, I didn’t go (for) to do it.
- gumbo: a peculiar, putty-like dark soil. (Kansas.)
- hen: feminine, as in, hen-party;
- comp. stag-party, a gathering of men only.
- honey: a fine fellow, generally ironically.
- hump: to bestir, as, Hump yourself.
- hole: bad condition financially; as, He is in the hole, i. e. he has lost.
- huckleberry: indifferent, in, a huckleberry Christian.
- huckleberry: the right person, as in, You’re my huckleberry.
- hornswoggle: to discomfit, as in, I’ll be hornswoggled if I’ll do it.
- in it: on the successful side, as, He is not in it, i. e., He has no prospect of success.
- This phrase is universal in 1891.
- infare: the reception after a wedding.
- in: on the credit side, as, I was in five dollars.
- jay: a green, conceited fellow.
- jag: a bit of anything; a spree, a brief drunk.
- jack mosquito: a large insect of the mosquito family,
- three times the size of the pestiferous kind; this one does not bite.
- jimmy: to meddle, as, to jimmy with a thing or person,
- to ‘fool with.’ Comp., to ‘monkey with.’
- jump: to leave without notice, as to jump the town,
- to jump bail; to jump a board-bill is to leave it unpaid.
- joint: an illegal saloon. What is the origin of it?
- jigger or chigger: a minute red mite, which frequents weeds and lawns,
- burrows beneath the human skin and causes excruciating itching.
- keep: board and lodgings, as, He works for his keep.
- lay over: to surpass, as, That lays over anything I know.
- larofamedlers: a phrase used generally as equivalent to,
- It’s none of your business. (Maryland, Penn., Ohio, Arkansas.)
- The word is a corruption of Lay-over for medlers, a lay-over
- being a bear-trap consisting of a pit covered with boughs.
- light out: to start on the run, as, He ‘lit’ out for home.
- lagniap: the extra in a bargain, as, Five dollars, and a hat for lagniap. (Louisiana.)
- lush: to drink heavily, to ‘swill.’
- mog: to move, as, Mog along with you.
- mogle: the same.
- main: very, as, It’s main strange. (Worcester county, Mass.)
- mosey.: to move along with a strut.
- move: motion, as in, Get a move on you.
- mealer: one who takes only meals at a boarding-house.
- mind off: to ward off (flies, etc.).
- meet up with: to meet. (Tennessee.)
- peter out: to dwindle.
- pail: to milk, as, to pail the cow. (Penn.)
- possessed: anything, as, He acted like ‘all possessed.’
- quill: to write. (The Writer.)
- quill-wheel: a ‘rattle-trap’ wagon.
- ruther: choice, as, If I had my ruther; also, druther.
- ride and tie: verbal phrase, describing a mode of travel in
- which one vehicle is used by two sets of people, one riding ahead a
- given distance and tying the team where the others who have walked
- will come up to it, the first walking on ahead until overtaken and passed
- by the second, and so on. (Colorado.)
- red up: to make tidy.
- ring off: to desist or cease talking, technical phrase from the telephone,
- but passed into common usage. Comp., “saw off.”
- rucus: quarrel, rumpus.
- saddy: thanks, thank you. (Penn.)
- saw off: ‘ring off;’ a short person is said to look ‘sawed off.’
- shet, shut, shed: rid, as, to get shut of anything.
- shear off: to pour off (water from settlings). (Ohio.)
- shapin’s: young peas and beans—the unfilled pod. (Arkansas.)
- should have said: said, as, He should have said yes,
- i. e., indeed he said yes.
- shin: to climb, as, to shin up a tree.
- shut off: to make to stop talking, as, Do shut him off.
- shebang: anything run-down, as house, carriage, affairs.
- scrooch or scrooge: to cringe.
- skin-away: a small boy. (Civilized Sac Indians.)
- skin: to run, as, Skin out, i. e., run away.
- skid: to sneak through examinations. (Yale.)
- skid: a sharp-pointed instrument.
- skit: a mild lie.
- skads: great quantities, as, Skads of money, of books, etc.;
- also = money, as, He hasn’t the skads.
- singed cat: a shrewd ‘rustler,’ of unpretentious appearance.
- skulduggery: knavery.
- skip: to run away, as, Now skip, i. e., Go away from here.
- skip: to leave hastily, as, He skipped the town.
- slouch: a gawky fellow; then anything imperfect, as in the phrase,
- He’s no slouch, i. e., He is an expert;
- no slouch of a horse, i. e., a first-rate horse.
- sloomiky: not neat.
- slander: to saunter.
- slump: to fail to meet requirements, as, in examinations.
- slumps: great quantities. (Clark’s Second Hand Catalogue, N. Y.)
- sleep: to give lodgings. I have heard, We can eat and sleep him.
- smoodle: a sycophant. (Kansas University.) Comp., ‘swipe.’
- smokewood: dried water-soaked wood used by small boys as
- substitute for cigars.
- smearcase: a preparation of clabber, often called ‘Dutch cheese.’
- snake: to snatch stealthily.
- snum: to vow, as in, Well, I snum. Reported as common among girls.
- snouge: unfair, as, a snouge game.
- snide: inferior, unfair, as, a snide game, a snide watch, etc.
- so fashion: thus, as, Do it so fashion.
- soap: bribe money in elections.
- sugar: same as soap.
- sugar, (explet): pshaw!
- split: anything, as, He ran like split, also, lickety split.
- spunky: pouting, incensed.
- sprinkle ┐
- ├ : a small number; also a considerable number.
- sprinkling ┘
- stag: masculine, as, A stag-party.
- stag: to go to an entertainment without a lady companion,
- as, to stag it.
- Stoughton-bottle: an unimpressionable fellow.
- (From Stoughton’s Bitters, common in the 50’s.)
- streak: rapid rate, as, He talked a streak,
- or more commonly, a blue streak.
- streak: to run, as, He streaked it for home.
- steer: to manage (votes), as, A steering committee,
- the same as ‘whips’ in Parliament.
- striffin, or strifning: the membrane surrounding the abdominal viscera. (Missouri.)
- swan: to vow, as, in exclamation, I swan!
- swat: to slap or strike, as, Swat him in the eye.
- suz: (excl.): me, as in, Dear suz, and Law suz.
- swipe: a sycophant. (Harvard.)
- tacky: not fashionably dressed.
- tewed: harrassed, as, I’m tewed and fretted.
- that: so, as in, Not that far.
- throw over: to ‘cut’ (an acquaintance).
- throw over: to stop, as, I threw her over,
- i. e., stopped talking. Common among railroad men; derived
- from the use of the reverse lever.
- tear-down: to thrash, as, He gave the boy a good tearing down.
- toad on a tussock: anything dull or lifeless.
- He sat there like a toad on a tussock.
- tousle: to disarrange (hair).
- tousey: frowsy.
- topside: on top of, as in, The best man topside o’ God’s green earth.
- trade-lash: an exchange of compliments. (Wellesley.)
- trottin’-riggin’s: best suit of clothes.
- two sticks: anything, as, He’s as cross as two sticks.
- up above: up, as in, Up above stairs.
- whootle-dasher: a ‘rustler.’
- want: for was not, were not, etc.
- wamus, wampus, warmus: a close, generally knit jacket.
- (Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, New England.)
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