Skookum House as cowboy slang

[Yakima Belle]

The term "skookum house" for a jail is listed in
Maurice H. Weseen's 1934 publication "A Dictionary of
American Slang." Peter Watts notes in his "A
Dictionary of the Old West", 1987, that cowboy
vocabulary was highly variable in pronunciation, and
lists "Skookum House" as Northwestern range slang.
Ramon F. Adams also includes the term in his "Western
Words: A dictionary of the old west", 1998.

It is possible that the pronunciation of "Skookum
House" to rhyme with "Book'em House" is a result of
this variability as at least one of the individuals
working on the Incredibles is an older gent from
Montana, who has an interest in Western folklore and
who appears to have a fair handle on cowboy slang (as
seen in the Jackalope short on the DVD set.) 

I swear I seen a twelve-foot-high hump-shouldered elk
with no antlers and swan neck - 19th C. miner, quoted
in "Lonesome Dromedary", The Big Book of the Weird Wild
West, Paradox Press, 1998.

"Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil." -- Thomas Mann


		
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