Posted on 12/10/2023 10:21:38 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
From H.A. Shands "Speech in Mississippi" published in 1893:
Page 70: All-overs. n. A term employed by all classes to mean a feeling of extreme annoyance or vexation; as, ‘That man is so trifling it gives me the all-overs to look at him.’
Page n.p.: Brief. adj. Used by negros to mean nice, elegant. I once heard a negro tell a young man who had dressed up to go to see his sweet-heart: ‘Boss, you sho looks brief.’
Page 24: Consarned. v. This is a favorite expletive among the lower classes of whites. They say: ‘I’ll be consarned if it ain’t so.’
Page 27: Dropped his bait-can. v. A negro expression meaning made a mistake.
Page 32: Get up and dust, v. An expression, used mainly by negroes, meaning to leave in a great hurry, to go away swiftly. This expression occurs also in Kentucky and Tennessee.
Page n.p.: Lebenty-lebem. n. Negro pronunciation for eleventy-eleven, an expression for an indefinitely great number. Also eleventy-eleven.
Page 30: Flugins, n. ‘It is as cold as flugins.’
Page 43: Lickskillet, n. Used by illiterate whites to mean a contemptible or detestable person.
(Excerpt) Read more at greensdictofslang.com ...
I'm always bothered by the new speech and words, especially by the way the gay mafia "steals" good words and re-purposes them. But Shands' book shows how frequently evolving and changing colorful speech is throughout history. Shands' book must be wonderful.
These are great sayings. What are your favorite old-time colloquialisms and sayings?
The only one I’ve heard in Mississippi was lickskillet. But add to that “I might could...” (I might) and “Cut the air on.” (Turn the air conditioner on)
How much Water is wasted washing Garbage so greens can call it Recycling ?
“He ain’t worth a lick...”
“He ain’t worth spit...”
I’ve worked on, and off in MS over the last 7 years.
One on one conversation is pretty straightforward. Get ‘em in a group, and this Northerner might well be on another planet. 😉
Good Folks.👍
Having a daughter that is a linguistics nerd and sending her to college in MS has been a great learning experience for our whole family. Aside from expressions, pronunciations also had some surprises.
Our son, who followed our daughter to MSU, found out that his name had two different Southern pronunciations.
Standard American: Ben
Southern: either Bin (like trash bin), or BEYenn (two syllables).
Sorry no great expressions are coming to mind right now.
“That’s a pretty good spit” means a long travel.
“Bless its heart”
“God love it”
My wife’s from North Carolina, not Mississippi, but I’ve heard her refer to a manual transmission as a straight drive, and some of her older relatives still call an accelerator pedal a foot feed.
It’s funny to hear her accent come out as she talks to her mother on the phone. It’ll last for a day or two.
I’d go with “Fixin’ to get ready”. Perfect description of a state of being where-
1. You’re not ready.
2. You’re not actively getting ready.
3. But you are preparing to do something.
Fixin to get ready can take 2 minutes, two hours, two days, two weeks, or two years. It depends. But the timescale is usually on the shorter side.
ping
Cajun Louisiana instead of Mississippi, but “Make Groceries” -going to the store to shop for groceries. Just looked it up and apparently it’s from the French “faire son marché”.
Great.👏
Reminds me of the old Northwestern department store chain “The Bon Marché.” Through lots of mergers, it finally became Macy’s, part of Federated. The Bon Marché used to be one of the best-known retailers in the Northwest, with about 40 stores throughout the region.
A couple from Mississippi from years back:
“Poke” for “sack” or “bag.”
“Mess” for usable quantity of something to eat. For example, “You picked enough collards to make a mess,” or, “We’ve shot our mess of squirrels for dinner, time to go to the house.”
“Polk Salad Annie” by Tony Joe White. “Polk” was a variation on “poke.” It was a cooked greens dish made from pokeweed eaten by very poor folks.
My wife was from Alabama and she generally pronounced all one syllable words as two syllables (or at least one and a half).
I was born in Brooklyn and learned to speak English in school. My usual accent is Standard American English from TV.
But if I watch a movie set in New York, I start to talk like the guys in Goodfellas.
“MESS” is an old ETONIAN ( very ELITE “public” [ which we call “PRIVATE” school ] boarding school in the UK ) term for a desert called “ETON MESS”. It’s strawberries, whipped cream and meringue.
Lick skillet I know
Rest fell from favor
Slang in Mississippi
She’s a “hot mess”
Means she’s troubled maybe a bit cray cray
That Eton mess sounds yummy
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