Pecos, Pecosin', Pecos Swap

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

Will the next HDAS have Pecos (verb; difficult to check on the databases),  
Pecosin' and Pecos swap?
...
...
...  
_http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/pecosin_pecos_swap/_ 
(http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/pecosin_pecos_swap/) 
...
...
 
Pecosin’ & Pecos Swap
 
"Pecosin’” is an old-time term that means to kill someone and throw the body 
 into the Pecos River. Later, the term “Pecosin’” came to be used for 
dumping a  body in any river. 

A “Pecos swap” was a euphemism for stealing. Both  terms are of historical 
interest today. 


_JSTOR_ 
(http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0043-373X(1954)13:2/3<125:TLSOTP>2.0.CO;2-4)   
“The Lighter Side of Texas Place Naming” 
Harold Clay Pope 
Western  Folklore, Vol. 13, No. 2/3 (1954), pp. 125-129 
“Pecosin’ a feller” meant  killing a person, weighting the body with rocks, 
and dropping it in the Pecos  River. 

_University  of Texas of the Permian Basin; Roadlogs_ 
(http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:qv6mVRX4HTsJ:www.utpb.edu/ceed/CEED%20WEB%20SITE/roadlogs/CEEDRoa
dLogsMidlandToVH.htm+pecosin&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=22&ie=UTF-8)  
Pecos city limit and  overpass.  Pecos was established in 1881 as a stop on 
the Texas and Pacific  Railroad.  It was first called Pecos Station, then Pecos 
City, and finally  Pecos.  Prior to county organization their was a period of 
lawlessness; the  expression “Pecosin” came to mean killing a man and 
throwing his body in the  Pecos River. 

21 May 1962, Dallas Morning News, “Tolbert’s Texas”  by Frank X. Tolbert, 
section 4, pg. 1: 
WONDER WHY THE ancient and sinister  term, “pecosin” hasn’t crept into some 
of the millions of words about Pecos’  most-written-about inhabitant, Billy 
Sol Estes? In the Old West, “pecosin” came  to mean killing a man and throwing 
his body into the handiest river. In its  original form it meant tossing the 
victim into the Pecos River, of course.  

28 May 1962, Dallas Morning News, “Tolbert’s Texas” by Frank X.  Tolbert, s
ection 4, pg. 1: 
Mr. Kerr Doubts 
Term,  “Pecosin’” 
By Frank X. Tolbert 

WALTER L. KERR, a Midland lawyer,  has written this department a letter, 
suggesting that I just rared back and made  up the term, “Pecosin’,” meaning to 
shoot a man and get shed of the evidence by  throwing his body in a river. (I 
was wondering why “Pecosin’” hadn’t cropped up  in all the millions of words 
of prose composed about the adventures of Pecos’  Billy Sol Estes.) 

“I was raise in Pecos and I never heard of Pecosin’,”  declared Mr. Kerr in 
his letter. 

Well, Mr. Kerr, this word is sprinkled  through the literature on the Old 
West. I can give you two short-order  references on it. On Page 113 of his 
authoritative book, “Western Words, a  Dictionary of the Range, Cow Camp, and Trail”
, Ramon F. Adams wrote that “to  Pecos” a man meant “to shoot him and roll 
his body into the river.” Also, on  Page 354, Volume 2, of “The Handbook of 
Texas”, edited by Dr. Walter Prescott  Webb and other heavy hitters in the 
historical game, there is a short definition  of the term. This is in an article on 
the town of Pecos, and it reads: “A period  of lawlessness preceeded county 
organization; the expression ‘Pecosin’’ came to  mean killing a man and 
throwing his body into the Pecos River.” 

CALLED  MR. ADAMS and discussed “Pecosin’.” “The word was common in the old 
days all  along the river and not just in the town of Pecos,” he ssaid. “I 
once talked  with a pioneer New Mexico cowboy, Jack Potter, who spoke often 
about unfortunate  fellows who were ‘Pecosed’. It seems that the bodies were 
usually weighted with  rocks.” 

Mr. Adams mentioned another western phrase, “Pecos swap”, which  might be 
handy for use in stories about Billie Sol. A “Pecos swap”, says Adams,  meant “
a trade made without consent or knowledge of the other intended party.”  It 
meant “to steal”. 

Also, Pecos is a Spanish-ized Indian word meaning  “crooked”. The Pecos was 
sometimes called “Dirty River” in the olden days.  

COUNSELLOR KERR need not feel too badly over his ignorance of  “Pecosin’”. 
Allen Propp, general manager of the Pecos Independent, told me he’d  lived all 
his life in the town of Pecos and had never heard the term. Guess Mr.  Kerr 
and Mr. Propp weren’t much given to talk with old-timers. 

12 June  1962, Dallas Morning News, “Tolbert’s Texas” by Frank X. Tolbert, 
section  4, pg. 14: 
M. M. FULMER, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Goliad, comes  to this 
department’s defense in the matter of the old term, “Pecosin’”, meaning  to 
kil someone and throw the body in the river (the Pecos River in the original  
meaning o the word). A west Texas lawyer who had lived for a long time in Pecos  
said he’d never heard of “Pecosin’” and accused me of making it up. 

“I  served as pastor of the First Baptist Church in Ozona for seven years 
(1927-34)  and was often in the company of older ranchmen,” said M/ M. Fulmer. “
The term,  ‘Pecosin’,’ was quite familiarly used at that time. I held a 
revival at Buena  Vista in Pecos County. As a result, it was my pleasure to baptize 
12 candidates  in the Pecos River. I came in for quite a bit of teasing about 
‘Pecosin’’ these  people.” 

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