Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1905-1906, 1906-01-16

more, the word tote was COM
mon one in England during the sew
enteenth century. The conclusion
must therefore be that "tote' is not
of African origin, nor is its use con-
fined to localities where negroes are
found.
"Cantakerous' is another word
often met with in Hoosier dialect, but
by no means confined to the narrow
bounds Of our State. Thackeray
speaks of a cantankerous humor.'
Charles Egbert Craddock Miss Muir
free) in her story, "The Casting
Vote" puts into the mouth of the
coroner the sentence: He's ez hard
headed, an tyrannical, an perveEse,
am cantankerous critter ez ever lly-
ed Even Chaucer makes use of
the word "conteke,' from which
cantankerous' is probably derived.
SO wide, indeed, is the geographical
distribution of most folk-words and
phrases that, while taking the United
States over, one can collect great
numbers Of colloquialisms, it is ex-
tremely difficult to find words or
phrases that are confined to a single
dialect The fact is, the mixing
process has been so effective that
most provincialisms have ceased to
be provincial. The writer's of this
article are compelled to confess, and
they take no shame to themselves for
so doing, that, in spite of considera-
BILE search, they have been unable to
find a single provincialism which
hey would be willing to assert is at
present confined to Indiana alone.
"Wants out" and "wants in," in
such sentences as "the dog wants
out" that is, 'wants to go OUT
have been pointed out as peculiar to
our State. Possibly so, but the eli
sion occurs in other phrases, e. G.,
"they let me in for Nickel the
hired man wants off, and is so sim
pie and useful that its use is proba-
bly, widespread.
A native of Massachusetts once
asked one of the writer's about the
word "onary,' saying he had never
heard it out of Hoosierdom. The
word is a simple and natural varia-
ton of "ordinary' through the
shortened pronunciation of "ord'na-
ry,' and its present meaning has
become, through successive steps,
common, mean, low-down. Its use
is by no means confined to Indiana.
The word "mosey,' frequently
heard in such expressions as. "He
moseyed off down the crick,' has the
Hoosier stamp, but it is met with
elsewhere. The dictionaries which
define it are curiously in error as re-
CARDS its meaning. According to
them it means to move off quickly,
to get out, to light out, to hustle.
But in central Indiana, at least, it
means to saunter along, to walk slow
ly along, as if with no particular
destination in view, and is rarely or
never used in the sense given by the
dictionaries. Most accounts of its
derivation are equally erroneous. One
author tells story of a defaulting
postmaster, named Moses, who left
between two days, and he absurdly
connects the word with the name and
manner of flight. The word posi-
bly, comes from the Spanish impera-
tive verb, "vamos,' go; i. e., it is a
variation of "vamoose,' which is so
derived, and which has some of the
meanings ascribed to "mosey.'
Probably some, if not all, of the
following words and phrases are
more frequently used in Indiana than
elsewhere: "Heapsieht," as in
"more ground by heapsight; "ju-
berous," as in 81 felt mighty iuber-
Gus about crossin' the river" jam
boree," in the sense of a "big
time" "habbergasted," i. e., ex-
hausted; "gargly,' i. e., awkward
Il mind that for 81 remember
that bumfoozled, i. e., "rat-
ted "whang- doodle as in care
you going to the whang-doodle to,
night ?"
But the individuality of a dialect
is, i'll fact, far more IA result of &C,
cent or of pronunciation than of the
possession of expressions peculiar tC
itself. As has just been pointed out
Indiana has but few provincialism;
that are peculiarly her own. But
| where else than in Indiana would on,