Queries

Want to help us?

DARE staffers continue working on Volume V, which will contain the last part of the alphabet, from Sl- to Z. We sometimes need help on various entries, so new queries are posted here periodically. The latest posting was Nov. 15, 2005. (Many of these queries were originally asked in the Newsletter of the American Dialect Society, NADS.)

Do you call the strip of grass and trees between the sidewalk and the curb boulevard, curb line, grass plot, parking (strip), parkway, terrace, or tree lawn, or do you have another term for it? Please e-mail Senior Editor Luanne von Schneidemesser and include where you learned or use the term and if there were other geographical influences in your life, your age and gender, and your preferred e-mail so we can get back to you if we have further questions. If possible, give us a URL where we could look up what term your local govenment uses (city/town/village bylaws, trash or leaf collecting regulations, etc.) or mail me (DARE, 6129 Helen White Hall, 600 N. Park St., Madison, WI 53706) a copy of the first page and the relevant page of the document showing usage. This would be most helpful.

The main responses to our question "Playground equipment with a long board for two children to sit on and go up and down in turn." were teeter-totter and seesaw. We also received variant forms of the former, such as teeter-tot, teeter-tooter, tee-totter, teeter(ing) board, tinter board, and just teeter, among others. If you use a variant form, could you tell us what the form is and how you pronounce it? Specifically, some of our examples of teeter-tooter may be typos for teeter-totter, but others appear to be legitimate. Or do you say ridy horse? We also need the standard info as well: your gender and age, where you learned the term (geographically), and where you grew up and have lived. Thanks.

And if you are familiar with any of the words or expressions below, please let us know. It is most helpful if you can give an example or examples of how it is (or was) used, and as much detail as possible about when, where (geographically speaking), and by whom (including gender and age of person). Other data, such as references to written works where the word appears, are very welcome, too, but please note that if it can be found with a Google search on the Web we have probably already seen it. E-mail Editor George Goebel your information (please put “NADS queries” in the subject line). Thank you.

make one’s tongue slap the roof of one’s mouth —“To taste good.” Our evidence is mostly from the Gulf region, but more evidence would be welcome.

stool —“An invitation (to a party or event).” We have a sprinkling of evidence from the southern Appalachians; does anyone know it? Any ideas about origin?

tabernacle —“Sow bug/potato bug/roly-poly.” We have a second-hand report that this is used in Utah; can anyone confirm this?

tall pin —“Safety pin.” We have a single North Carolina citation.

tally-lagger —“Stooge, patsy.” We have a single North Carolina response for this.

tax —“To charge; to cost.” This has a long history. What evidence we have suggests that it is old-fashioned or entirely obsolete, but we would welcome any evidence about its current status.

tax strip —“Strip of grass between sidewalk and street.” We have one Ohio Informant.

tazzle up —“Tangle, mess up, confuse”; tazzled up —“muddled.” This occurs in English dialect and in the works of the English-born Edward Taylor, but we also have a few 20^th century examples, from Georgia, Florida and Tennessee.

teakettle up —“Tidy up.” We have a few examples, all from New England.

teenter (board), tinter (board), teentering board —“See-saw.” Found by the Linguistic Atlas of New England in the lower Connecticut River Valley and along the coast westwards. Are these forms still used?

thanuary, thornuary —We have two Rhode Island examples of this for a children’s game similar to pom-pom-pullaway. Is this still known? Can anyone explain the name?

that out —“Without doubt, certainly.” We have two examples, both from Virginia.

tombouille —We have sketchy information about a type of Louisiana French stew of this name; more information would be welcome.

tooth mouse —We have two citations for this as the Cajun equivalent of the tooth fairy, but we’d welcome more evidence of its use (in English, not the French it translates).

what takes one? —“What is one doing?” We have two citations, both from Delaware, for this phrase. Is it still known?

Earlier postings

slapper —“A fried cornmeal cake.” Most of our evidence is from Delaware and Pennsylvania; is it still used there or elsewhere?

slat —“A slap, blow; a gust of wind.” Our scant evidence for this dialect term from southwestern England is from New England.

slatch —“An interval of good weather, a respite.” All our evidence is from Nantucket, and the latest is from 1916. Is it still used there or elsewhere? What about the corresponding adjective, slatchy?

sleighty —“Nimble, dexterous.” We have some New England evidence, but it is not clear whether this is still in use.

slew-eyed —“Squint-eyed.”

slobberhan(ne)s —“A messy person; a variant of the card game hearts.”

sloomy —Meaning? We have two citations which seem to attest different senses, but neither context is very illuminating. John McPhee quotes a woman in Maine who says, “It’s like hot coals in me. . . . It goes right down through here, all sloomy, like a burn.” One of our fieldworkers reported that for an informant in southern Indiana, “A full skirt, not so full as it ought to be, is ‘long and sloomy’.” (There does not seem to be any connection with British dialect sloomy meaning “sleepy, sluggish.”)

slop worm —Our only evidence is from six LAGS informants, all from Alabama and Georgia. One identifies it as a “red wiggler,” while another says it is “light or white.” Can anyone give more information?

slough, sluff —“A card game similar to solo or skat.”

slough-pump(er) —This is well attested as a name for the bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus), but a recent correspondent reported that it is applied to the great blue heron (Ardea herodius) in rural southwestern Minnesota. Any evidence for its use in reference to birds other than the bittern would be appreciated.

sloven (wagon) —“A type of wagon.” We have two quotations from New England (one from the 60s) and one from Canada. Is this still known, and what exactly is it?

slow, slough (rhymes with plow) —“To strike, attack, kill.” We have a handful of scattered citations, beginning in 1911, but we would welcome further evidence on its distribution and meaning. (As far as we can tell, it is not recorded in any dictionary and has no obvious antecedents; any evidence for its earlier history would also be very welcome.)

slumpy —“Muddy, slushy.” We have mostly New England evidence up to around 1920; is it still used there or elsewhere?

slurt —“To squirt (transitive or intransitive); to blurt (out).” We have a handful of scattered examples, but we need more data to know if it’s regional.

smooch, smouch, smouge —“To cheat, finagle; to steal.” Are any of these forms still in use?

snake-biscuit blossom —Meaning? This occurs in a novel set in northern Oregon.

soreback (salmon) —A Washington informant says this is a salmon that is dying after spawning; the only other evidence we are aware of is an uninformative citation in OED2.

sour vine —We have three examples, all from Kentucky. It’s described as a fragrant plant with five leaves in a cluster; can someone who knows it by this name identify it?

south moon under —This phrase is well known from the M. K. Rawlings novel of this name; it also appears in a recent song by John Anderson, a native Floridian. Does anyone know it apart from these literary references, and can they explain the phenomenon? (In Rawlings it refers to the inferior culmination of the moon, but Anderson seems to be alluding to some less common and regular event.) What about the corresponding south moon over, found only in Rawlings?

spar, spar-bird —“Sparrow.” All of our evidence is from Kentucky, North Carolina, and Virginia.

spear-hog —“Porcupine.” This was given by a single Georgia informant.

speckled britches —“An edible green.” A source on the Web identifies this as “evening primrose,” but we’d like to know if anyone else knows this term and what they apply it to.

speckled jack —“An edible green.” Probably the same as the preceding, but we’d like more evidence.

spew (up) —In reference to frost or its effect on plants or soil. If you know this sense, we would appreciate examples of how it is used.

spider hawk —“Mud dauber (wasp).” We have a single citation from the Dallas, Texas, area.

spodge —One Kentucky informant gave this in response to our “crowbar” question; a 1904 quotation says that “in the large rivers of the West” a spodge hook is a stick with a hook on the end, used to catch large catfish. Does anyone know these or similar senses?

sprag —“To slow or steer a sled by dragging the feet.” Our only evidence is from the 20s and 30s in northeastern Pennsylvania. (We are not concerned with the many technical senses of sprag.)

spud or spug —“Sparrow.” Our only US evidence is from DARE informants, two in Utah and one in Idaho.

stag —1. “To cut (pants) short.” This is well attested as a term of loggers; does anyone know it from other contexts? 2. “To castrate.” Stag was the response of five scattered informants; several evidently knew little about farming and may have been confused, but two were farmers of some kind.

stiff starch —“A children’s game.” We have evidence for the name from Alabama, Georgia, and Texas, but we don’t know what the game is.

tacker (usu as little tacker) —“Small child, tyke.” We have a few citations, mostly old, from New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware. Is it still used there, or elsewhere in the U.S.? (It appears to be quite common in Australia.)

tag (of grapes) —“Bunch (of grapes).” We have one report from northern Alabama, and one example from the Web, apparently from Tennessee.

tag —“Catkin (esp of alder or birch).” We have early evidence, but nothing later than 1878 (except in tag alder as the name of one or more species of the tree, for which we do not need more evidence).

take one to do —“To take one to task.” Our two 20th-century citations are from Maine, but earlier evidence is more widespread.

third-party fly, third-party bug —All our evidence for these two insect names is from Texas. Can anyone identify either of them?

turkey apple, turkey haw —“A hawthorn (Crataegus mollis).” Is this in common use?

make strange—“To act shy”; also, often with of, “to act surprised (at), feign ignorance (of).” For the first sense we have (relatively) recent evidence from Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Canada, but we suspect it is more widespread. For the second there is plenty of early evidence, but little from the last century; we would like to know if it is still or was recently in use. If you know it, please give examples of use.

squat poison—“A variety of the game squat tag.” Our (limited) evidence suggests South Midland distribution. If you know it, please describe how it’s played. Please note: We’re not looking for more examples of squat tag.

stepmother slice—“A thick or uneven slice of bread.” We have two examples from Idaho; is it known anywhere else?

sticky—As a noun: “Heavy, sticky soil.” We have two examples from the Pacific Northwest; does anyone else know this?

stiffback (perch)—“A white perch (Morone americana).” We have three quots, all from Virginia.

stirry—“To stir.” We have an 1857 quot from Virginia, a 1982 example from Pennsylvania, and a Web page on which someone says “[I] stirred (or as we say in N.O., ‘stirried them.’)” Does anyone know this, from New Orleans or elsewhere? N.B.: There are other apparent examples on the Web, but some are certainly, and all could be, typos.

stooge—“A cupola on a barn.” Three DARE Infs—in Alabama, Florida, and Minnesota—gave this response, but we can find nothing that would confirm or even explain this.

stool chair—This compound is well attested in Southern wills and inventories from 1758 through the 19th century, but more recent evidence is thin and what little evidence there is as to the exact meaning is inconsistent.

stram—“To thrash about; to strut, gallivant.” Most of our evidence is 19th century and from New England.

such a much—As a noun “someone or something of great importance”; also rarely as an adverb “so much.” We have scattered evidence suggesting that this occurs in areas with strong German influence, but we would welcome more evidence.

tarve—As a verb “to tip, turn”; as a noun “the balance, ‘hang’ (of something); a good purchase (on something).” The earliest example we have is from 1848 (Cooper’s Oak Openings) and the latest from 1917, and there’s not much in between.

varnish tree—This term appears in botanical literature applied to a number of different trees, but it is not clear which, if any, of these applications is in actual popular use. If this is part of your every-day vocabulary, or if you have heard it (from someone other than a horticulturalist or the like), please tell us and if possible identify the tree.

Updated November 15, 2005