[Lexicog] plough mud

[Frantz, Donald]

Googling "pluff mud" seems to confirm Watson's suggestion.

On 25-May-10, at 8:22 AM, David Frank wrote:

>
> John --
>
> Yes, I imagine that "plough mud" is an Americanism, but in fact I  
> believe the vast majority of Americans wouldn't know that term. As  
> far as I can tell, its use is restricted to the Charleston area of  
> South Carolina, which is on the southeastern U.S. coastline. For you  
> non-Americans, Charleston is alongside Baltimore and Boston as one  
> of the oldest cities and ports in what is now the United States.
>
> My interest in Charleston is that it is the port where most slaves  
> were brought to these shores, and it is in the area where the Gullah  
> language and culture got established. The person who asked me about  
> "plough mud" has a book in press about Gullah, though I am not sure  
> that word has anything to do with Gullah. When she asked me this  
> question, we happened to be visiting the grave of Porgy, of Porgy  
> and Bess fame.
>
> I don't think "plough mud" is a vulgar expression in terms of being  
> crude, but it is vulgar in terms of being common language. Do a  
> Google search on it. I found that the spelling "plough mud" got more  
> hits than "pluff mud," though neither one of them got a lot of hits.  
> I didn't get anything for "plow mud."
>
> As to the question of why the spelling would be "plough mud" rather  
> than "plow mud," I have two guesses. The first is that the spelling  
> of "plough" might have been in use some, even on these shores. My  
> KJV Bible that I have here uses the spelling "plow," but I am  
> guessing that some KJV Bibles that were in use in the Charleston  
> area in the past might have used the spelling "plough." That is just  
> a guess, and I have to be careful about such guesses.
>
> My second guess is probably more likely, namely that "plough mud"  
> doesn't really have anything to do with plowing. The person who  
> asked me about the term did think it was associated with plowing,  
> but the Google search I did didn't show up anything about using this  
> mud in plowing or for fertilzer. That could be a folk etymology.
>
> If plough mud doesn't have an etymological connection with plowing,  
> then there is another possibility pointed out to me this morning by  
> my colleague Dick Watson. There is an old Scottish word "pluff" what  
> means about the same thing as "puff." It could be spelled "plough"  
> on analogy with "rough."
>
> So I have already told you more than I know, and I will wait to see  
> if any more insights are coming.
>
> -- David Frank
>
>
>
> From: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com [mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com 
> ] On Behalf Of John Roberts
> Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2010 3:29 AM
> To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [Lexicog] plough mud
>
>
>
> David,
>
> I don't have any answers to your queries, but I had a comment and a  
> query.
>
> Comment: "plough mud" appears to be an Americanism, since I don't  
> find it in any of my English dictionaries, including my dictionaries  
> on slang expressions.
>
> Query: If "plough mud" is an American expression why is it not  
> spelled "plow mud"?
>
> And finally, for a nonAmerican who has never heard this expression  
> before is it actually a "vulgar" expression?
>
> John Roberts
>
>
>
> David Frank wrote:
>
> I was in Charleston, SC, last week, a friend of mine who is a  
> researcher and an author but not a linguist asked me to help make  
> some sense out of the term "plough mud," pronounced and sometimes  
> spelled "pluff mud." You can do a Google search if you want to see  
> more about how the term is used. This term seems to be local to  
> Charleston.
>
> Plough mud is dark brown silty mud that reportedly can be used as  
> fertilizer. I was asked whether perhaps "plough" (plow) was  
> pronounced a couple hundred years ago with an /f/ sound at the end,  
> rhyming with English "rough." I said that I didn't know, but I would  
> try to find out.
>
> What we do know is that "plough mud" and "pluff mud" refer to the  
> same thing, and that the latter spelling is more representative of  
> its pronunciation.
>
> What we don't know is if this term really had anything to do with  
> plowing. That could be a folk etymology.
>
> Another thing I don't know is whether "plough" was ever pronounced,  
> in the past, perhaps dialectally, like "pluff." It is a reasonable  
> guess, based on analogy with "rough," but a reasonable guess isn't  
> good enough. In fact, the little bit of etymological research I have  
> done has not shown that to be a pronunciation.
>
> Does anyone reading this know the answer? Or else, does anybody know  
> how to find out the answer?
>
> -- David
>
>
> 

http://people.uleth.ca/~frantz

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