Bless Their Heart... And Other Southern Sayings

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
Don't worry, I call it a trunk and a glove box, too.

People in England call it a boot.

 

[AKsmama]

"Rode hard and put up wet" is one of my favorites, I use it a lot. What about "warsh your dishes in the zinc?" My grandma says that.

Preshade-it!

 

[bmax]

Not a saying but a word...tump. Boy you are about to tump over that glass of sweet tea.

and I looked up to see who Cooter Brown was (I always wondered that one too) :

Cooter Brown is a name used in metaphors and similes for drunkenness, mostly in the southern United States. Cooter Brown supposedly lived on the line which divided the North and South during the American Civil War, making him eligible for military draft by either side. He had family on both sides of the line, so he did not want to fight in the war. He decided to get drunk and stay drunk for the duration of the war so that he would be seen as useless for military purposes and would not be drafted. Ever since, colloquial and proverbial ratings of drunkenness have been benchmarked against the legendary drinker: "as drunk as Cooter Brown" or "drunker than Cooter Brown."[1]

However, this report lacks authentication. A more authoritative source offers the following:

"This is a African American expression very familiar to the informant, who is from New Jersey. She says it is current and, so far as she knows, it 'came up with the African Americans from the Carolinas.' She thinks it probably derives from some proverbial drunkard." [2]

It has not been determined whether or not Cooter Brown was a historical person.
or this version

Another version of the Cooter Brown story: Cooter Brown was a half-breed (Half Cherokee, Half Black) who lived in south Louisiana on a small plot of land given to him by an old Cajun fur trapper. Cooter lived alone in the old Cajun's shack. When the civil war broke out, Cooter didn't want to choose sides, because he didn't know who might win. He didn't like people much and was fearful of either side. Because of this, Cooter, who was a heavy drinker anyway, began drinking all the time. Cooter always dressed like an Indian so as to confirm the fact that he was an Indian and not a Negro. And as such, he was a free man. Whenever soldiers (Yanks or Rebels) showed-up in the area they would always find him drunk. Oftentimes he'd offer the soldiers a drink. Word began to spread about the crazy, drunken Indian named Cooter Brown. By the time the war ended, Cooter couldn't stop drinking if he had wanted to. One night his shack caught fire and burned completely to the ground. When locals investigated the burned site the next day there was nothing that remained of Cooter's body. They surmised that old Cooter had so much alcohol in him that he had just burned up. Since then Cooter Brown has been synonymous with inebriety.

In some variations of the tale, the name is spelled Kuta Brown, and he had recently immigrated from Texas.

 

[Tala]

Must be a lot of variations on the "useless teats" I have heard useless as teats on a tomcat, or a boar hog, and my grandpa always said useless as teats on a bull
my mom always said the one about ain't got a pot to pee in

of course my grandma called jeans "britches" and underwear "pants" which thoroughly confused us youngins, my dad said "drawrs" (drawers) for underwear, and some of my friends said "shorts" while others said "undies" I never heard the term "tidy whiteys" until high school! holy mackerel we need a dictionary just to define the word "underwear"

The thing is, I don't find it strange to say "I'm fixin to go to work" or whatever, because that's just normal talk in Arkansas. I could probably think up a lot of strange things that we say -- IF I ACTUALLY CONSIDERED THEM STRANGE!!!

 

[easttxchick]

Quote:
That's it exactly-I say these things every day so they aren't strange, just part of the "Southern speak".

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

How 'bout this one

We say

Breakfast (morning meal)
Dinner (noon meal) and
Supper (evening meal)

I bet most folks say

Breakfast, lunch and dinner

 

[bockbock2008]

Yard full o' rocks :

How 'bout this one

We say

Breakfast (morning meal)
Dinner (noon meal) and
Supper (evening meal)

I bet most folks say

Breakfast, lunch and dinner

My grandmother says breakfast, dinner, supper, my mom says breakfast, lunch, dinner so I say breakfast, lunch and supper

 

[bockbock2008]

Quote:
jalleatyet?

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

And the sisters of your parents, or your parents' brothers wives are Aints, not ants, and not awnts.

And your male parent is not Dad; he is Daddy, or Pappy, or Papaw.

Out back
A fur piece
Mind yore manners
Lord love a duck
How come?
Tarnation
Cow punching
Crick
Crawdad
Come hell or high water
Hitch your wagon

 

[ranchhand]

Lawd hep us, I say tump reglarly.