Considering the shift of Americans to cities, there is a body of colorful phrases and aphorisms from the rural countryside which is slowly dying out. Some of them are quite imaginative, and all of of them are tinged with rural sentiment. It's an interesting oral tradition which doesn't seem to be particularly preserved.
To save these dying expressions, I propose a website RuralDictionary.com where people can submit the homilies handed down by ancestors.
A few of the many I've heard from my time in rural and small town Oklahoma:
that hound dog don't hunt -your explanation doesn't make sense, you are trying to fool me.
go into town with the dry cattle -to go out socially to meet women open to advances. Literally, cows which are not producing milk, i.e. not calving, i.e. receptive to bulls.
one boy is a boy; two boys is half a boy; three boys is no boys at all. -an observation that a boy working alone will do the work of one boy, but more than one boy working together tends to decrease the amount of work done.
Going to see a man about a dog. - going to use the bathroom
There are some which I take for granted as standard American, which are, in fact, quite regional.
You're pulling my leg. -You are joking at my expense
My dogs are barking. -My feet are tired.
Actually, it turns out there are many places online to find country aphorisms, but they don't seem to be particulary sorted by region, and most of them seem to come from the deep south. It seems to me that life in north Texas and Oklahoma was tougher, grittier, and let's face it, the weather is a lot lot worse than Mississippi, 'Bama, and Georgia. Rural Oklahomans are a hard people, and the expressions are appropriately different.
To save these dying expressions, I propose a website RuralDictionary.com where people can submit the homilies handed down by ancestors.
A few of the many I've heard from my time in rural and small town Oklahoma:
that hound dog don't hunt -your explanation doesn't make sense, you are trying to fool me.
go into town with the dry cattle -to go out socially to meet women open to advances. Literally, cows which are not producing milk, i.e. not calving, i.e. receptive to bulls.
one boy is a boy; two boys is half a boy; three boys is no boys at all. -an observation that a boy working alone will do the work of one boy, but more than one boy working together tends to decrease the amount of work done.
Going to see a man about a dog. - going to use the bathroom
There are some which I take for granted as standard American, which are, in fact, quite regional.
You're pulling my leg. -You are joking at my expense
My dogs are barking. -My feet are tired.
Actually, it turns out there are many places online to find country aphorisms, but they don't seem to be particulary sorted by region, and most of them seem to come from the deep south. It seems to me that life in north Texas and Oklahoma was tougher, grittier, and let's face it, the weather is a lot lot worse than Mississippi, 'Bama, and Georgia. Rural Oklahomans are a hard people, and the expressions are appropriately different.
No comments:
Post a Comment