finna > ret

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 04:45 PM 9/8/2004 -0400, you wrote:
>On Sep 8, 2004, at 1:53 PM, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
>
>I haven't checked DARE, but you are correct, sir, I daresay, though I'm
>more accustomed to _fitna_ and _fin-na_, i.e. with long /n/, than
>_finta_, But that's probably just by chance.
>
>BTW, my wife, a native of Pennsylvania who's unused to hearing any form
>of Southern speech, thinks that "ret" is a real word in BE. She's heard
>people say, e.g. "I'm [rEt] to go." So, instead of saying "I'm ready,"
>when she's talking to me, she will often say, "I'm ret," with no clue
>that that string can mean only, "I'm Rhett," if it can mean anything at
>all.
>
>-Wilson Gray

"Red it up" or "Ret it up" is common in PA and eastern Ohio, meaning "ready
it up" = clean, prepare, fix up.  I think of it as "white" usage, but maybe
it's used in BE in the area too.