Commendatory cursing; "we-all's"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Maybe there's a technical term for this phenomenon, though I don't know what it is.The practice was alluded to by Owen Wister in _The Virginian_ (N.Y.: Macmillan, 1902), p. 29 :

  "Trampas spoke. 'Your bet, you son-of-a---- '

  "The Virginian's pistol came out, and his hand lay on the table, holding it unaimed....

  " 'When you call me that, _smile_.' "

  Anyway, here's an interesting related ex. from a yet earlier generation, rpt. in Richard Rollins, ed., _Pickett's Charge_ (Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole, 2005), p. 366.  In a letter to his wife written on July 8-9, 1863, Confederate Maj. Gen. Pickett described the effect that Gen. Lee's official letter of appreciation to the men who had madfe the charge had upon one soldier:

  "Just after [General Lee's] order was published, I heard one of the men...say, as he wiped away the tears with the back of his hand, 'Dag-gone him, dag-gone him, dag-gone his old soul, I'm blamed ef I wouldn't be dag-gone willin' to go right through it all and be killed again with them others to hear Marse Robert, dag-gone him, say over again as how he grieved bout'n we-all's losses and honored us for we-all's bravery! Darned ef I wouldn't!' "

  Pickett described this effusion as one of strikingly "reverential adoration" for Robert E. Lee, and remarked on the irrational vividness of "killed again."  One assumes, without any evidence, that in many cultures "commendatory cursing" is impossible.

  _We-all_ and _we-all's_ may also be of interest. They are not uncommon in representations of uneducated Southern speech of the period.

  JL


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