Dialect Notes 1903: Word-List from East Alabama

Sat Sep 18 12:52:32 UTC 2010

My impression of the early lists in DN is that qualifiers like "...from East
Alabama" mean only "That's where I heard it, and it's news to me!"

Since most of the contributors appear to have been academics, it's safe to
say that most of their collecting was in and around their colleges. Hence
"spiel" in Wilson's list.

For geezericious _Laugh-In_ fans, the HDAS files have "Sock it to..." back
to 1863. By 1903 it was temporarily on the way out:

1863 in Edward King Wightman _From Antietam to Fort Fisher_ (Madison, N.J.:
Fairleigh Dickinson U.P., 1985) 127: The boys say, "We are bound to sock it
to them this time." 1864, in Ibid. 176: Sock it to em, my hardies! [sic].
1864, in Ibid. 183: Johnny Grayback attempted a big thing by
moonlight...with infantry, artillery, and cavalry. Well, sir, it would have
done you good to have seen us sock it to him. Jeru-salem! 1864, in Ibid.
203: Our motto should be that emphatic though vulgar one of the rank and
file: "sock it to em."

1869 _New York Herald_ (Nov. 17) 8: You Hibernian son of a -----, I've got
you now, and I'll sock it to you anyhow!"

1875 _The World_ (N.Y.C.) (Jan. 12) 2:   Speech of William E. Dodge..."You
all of you agree with the President of the United States in that noble
sentiment of 'Let us have peace!' (Laughter and applause.)  After ten years
we ought to have peace, and any attempt to raise feelings of anger in any
part of this country against the suffering South will meet with condemnation
overwhelming. (Great applause. A voice: "Sock it to him!" Great laughter.)".

[Read all about New York tycoon Dodge at Wacki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_E._Dodge ]

1873 S. W. Payne _Behind the Bars_ (N.Y.: Vincent & Co.) 145: If their
likker don't set just right, then they sock it to us freed niggers till we
can't stand.

1878 _Proceedings of the Fire Underwriters' Association of the Pacific for
1877 and 1878_ (S.F.: Sapulding, Barto & Co.) 36: Let each individual case
stand on its own merits; "each for himself" seems a far better motto to your
committee than the famous one of Chicago, "Soc et tuum."

JL

On Sat, Sep 18, 2010 at 1:25 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Dialect Notes 1903: Word-List from East Alabama
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> SOCK, v. tr To throw a stick vigorously. "_Sock it to him_."
>
> SNIPE-HUNTING, n. A practical joke in which the victim is led to some
> distant and _left to hold the bag_ for the snipe to run into.
>
> SNEAKERS. n. pl. Rubber-soled shoes, tennis shoes.
>
> SLUE-FOOTED, adj. Having big, ugly feet; also having twisted or ugly feet.
>
>       In StL BE, with feet turned outward beyond normal, the opposite
> of pigeon-toed.
>
>       "One foot, two foot, slue-foot drag / Shake your honey to the
> Sugar-Foot Drag." Old song: The Sugar-Foot Drag
>
> SMART-ELLICK, n. A[n] ... impertinent person.
>
>         In E TX BE, especially of or to a child or an adolescent.
>
> 'SPECK, v. tr. and i. To suspect.
>
>         I've always intuited the Southern _'speck_ wasn't "expect,"
> as it's usually spelled out, but "suspect." This is the first print
> support                                            that I've ever
> found for that feeling.
>
> SPIEL, v. i. To talk fluently and in an exaggerated vein. "He can
> spiel, all right." (An East-Alabama Yiddishism?)
>
> STUD, n. A stallion. Also used as a term of familiar address among men.
>
>         In BE, any random male person, from newborn to geezer.
>
> STORY, n. A liar, a story-teller. "You are a story." Euphemism.
>
>          In BE, also the less-polite, "You (is/are) a lie."
>
> SO-LONG, adv. Good-bye. (Once peculiar to East 'Bama? Who knew?!)
>
> SAVE ONE'S MANNERS, v. phr. To do something out of courtesy [that]
> which one dislikes to do, only to find that the one favored cannot
> accept the courtesy; also, to ask one out of courtesy to do [that]
> which it is well known is out of the question for him to do.
>
>           Say what?! Needless to say, no examples are provided.
> --
> -Wilson
> –––
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> –Mark Twain
>
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>

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