Weekly Trinity journal., 1870-05-28
American Idioms.

and among particular classes. Words that have
never been seen in any dictionary are heard in
common and serious use, and others that are fa-
miiar are found to have acquired new and sur
prising Specifications.
1t is said that a statement like the following
would be quite Ineligible in the West: ." Look
here, Judge See what your boys been at.
He picked up gravel-rock (stone,) chucked it
over neighbor Barnes haydoodle, (haycock,
and killed our hobbdy, (rooster.)" "a: "
seems to be a favorite Western proposition, as
in the sentences, Where did you get cold at ?'
Where do you live at In Arkansas, stone
would be called a " donnock.' In the South
or Southwest, to carry is to " tote - loaf of
bread is " pone - a small stream is /" run -
a canoe fashioned from large log is, very
pressively, "dug-out." Every thing is % right
smart"' as when considerable distance is said
to be 81 right smart ways" We and you are
1--WE uns and you uns J" and in the use Of
the verb to do, such expressions occur as "
gone done it," 1" lie gone done it," " You
uns gwine gone done it," They uns gwine
gone done it,"
The idiomatc words, together with the pecul-
lar pronunciation of the Yankee, have given
him in the pages of Sam Slick, and in the more
refined worke of Lowell a dialect Of his own.
In New England, thing that is full is @ chuck
full = thing that is new is " bran (or brand)
new " and a thing is spick span clean"
The word kindly (or kind o' has come into
almost universal use in the sense Of rather as
when a thing is kindly nice, kindly good. A nice
girl is kindly scrumptious." Pretty is very
generally used in the same sense, as pretty good,
pretty nice. " Guess" which is so common in
New England, though it is English word
transpanted, is not Synonymous with think or
bleve. 1t expresses meaning purely its own,
and, though considered ungenteel by some fas
tdious persons, seems to me to be very useful
in prefxng thought which willing to
admit is only thrown out for what it is worth,
and may be modified mt any time. But the use
of I" calculate" " in the same sense is excrable.
The New Englanders have some curious COM
plants, among which are " connipton fits, ;"
" maggrums," (megrms,) "rheumatics, and
1" "hypo." Boston poet has written G Sud-
bury Ballad y about a little girl with mourning
ribbons in her hair, who, instead of indulgng
in refrain similar to that of Wadsworth s little
heroine, " We are seven, f" reiterated continually
that her aunt died of the " shocanum palsy"
In New York a great talker is said to g blow "
or &C gas )" in the West he is said to gostrate ~
and in New England farmers wife sometimes
advises garrulous neighbor not to I" blob
around " so much. The latter seems to be
corruption of blab or "splosh " and splush.
Indian meal boiled is called in New England
'hasty pudding" in other parts Of the country
" mush." The Indian name was suppawn,"
which is now often used. In England a minute
land, cOrn-bread is Johnny !" in the
South, it is corn-dOdger or hoe-cake, as it is
sometimes baked by the negroes hoe.
A long article might be written merely on the
titles that have been given in various ages, coun-
tries and sections, to money-rhino, the tin,
the needful, the ready, the ducats the dust, the
spondulix, are all old. In the West, the popu-
lar synonym for funds is now said to be I" ko-
SLOPPY" the derivation of which it would be
difficult to guess. In England, overshoes are
called " galoshes !" in New York they :" rub
bers," and in Pennsylvania they are called
"gums." Philadelphia gentleman and his
wife visited a friend in New York, and one eve
ming when they had been out, the gentleman
entered the parlor alone. " Where is Emily Y
said the host "Oh, she is outside cleaning
her gums upon the mat, /" said the Philadelphan.
mOmentary astonishment crossed the features
of the New Yorker, which soon gave way to
laughter.
In some parts of Vermont, popular " is used
in the offensive of aristocratic and " pow
erful " is common in the sense of great very,
as when man who has great many apples is
said to have "powerful sight of apples" or
as when tea is said to be "powerful weak. "
One particular thing is said to be " heap
sight" better than another. The word fellow
has in good usage the meaning of low sort of
person, as well as the better Specification of
brother or companion, as in q Fellow of the
haps elsewhere, young ladies give it still an
other meaning. A girl was escorted home from
prayer meeting by young man to whom she
was not especially partial. On leaving her he
remarked, " will come to see you again next
Sunday night" The lady replied very frankly,
" Well, Bill, you can come as friend, but not
as a feer."
A headquarters of police, or, as the populace
sometime term it, lookup, is called in New
York a station-house, though III many places
this word is more correctly used to indicate a
stopping house on railroads. Depot has, how
ever, become almost universal in this sense
though incorrectly, for depot is really merely
house employed for the purpose of storage.
Near cities where vegetables are called t'truck,
garden is sometimes named a truck patch. ."
small tn-pail is often called by city people a
kettle, while others speak of it as IA bucket and
distinguish it as 'well-bucket," the vessel of
which Woodwork sang:
The old oaken bucket the iron bound bucket,
The moss-cOvered bucket which hung ia the we.
Such phrases as g He thinks he is consider
BILE some, " You cant sometimes always tell. ."
C | don't guess | shall CO." and Things ain t
as they used to was, are common as funny dis
tortions of sentences. But the following, among
many others, are in serious use in different sec
tions of the United States q School has fetched
to- for "School has begun u " | didn't go to
60" for " / didn't intend to go lie talks like
he was luny," for &" He talks like lunatc -
&" Brown amt overly rich, for g Brown is not
very rich;" 1" lie has got pretty good sum
past" for 81 laid upi' "They lifted a collec-
tion !" " Since can mind, " for " Since can
remember" )" and, L" Everything is out of keller, "
for "Out of order" For the last phrase how
ever, we have the authority of the great Dr.
Barrow, who says, /" If the organs of prayer be
out of kelter or out of tune, how can we pray ?"
We also read in his works the following: "All
that is apparent in this world doth fit and soon
gives us the go-Jy."