[Ads-l] antedating Wolverine as nickname for Michiganders

Mark Mandel mark.a.mandel at GMAIL.COM
Tue Jan 29 06:52:26 UTC 2019


I remember seeing "peert" in a story set in the southeastern US, possibly
the Appalachians; considering my reading habits, it may well have been one
of Manly Wade Wellman's <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manly_Wade_Wellman>
"John the Balladeer" stories, probably from the collection *Who Fears the
Devil?*. So I did a search for it, and lo! it appeareth in a standard
dictionary:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/peert
>>>>>
*Definition of peert*
variant of PEART
<<<<<

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/peart
>>>>>
*Definition of peart*
*chiefly Southern US and Midland US*
: being in good spirits : LIVELY

*First Known Use of peart*
circa 1520, in the meaning defined above
<<<<<

Mark Mandel

On Mon, Jan 28, 2019, 1:33 PM Andy Bach <afbach at gmail.com wrote:

>
> *...* from "A Winter in the West" Vol 1, Charles Fenno Hoffman pg 210-212
> https://archive.org/details/winterinwestho01hoff/page/n6
>
> I wondered what "frog pasture" was (a swamp) and it appears a couple of
> transcription errors in the news article and quote in Fuller;
> "pert" for "peert" (italics in the book)
> "I allow," rejoined another of the company; "but I wish that fellow would
> shut the door; he must think that we were all raised in a saw-mill, and
> then he looks so *peert *whenever he comes in."
>  "scarce" where the Hoffman has "sarce"
> "From the eastern side, stranger?" said another  to me, "I am told it's
> tolerable frog pasture. Now here the soil's so deep one can't raise any
> long sarce - they all get pulled through the other side. We can winter our
> cows, however, on wooden clocks, there's so many Yankees among us," &c.
>
> No idea what either of those really means.
>
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list