Early English Slang Survivals In the Kentucky Mountains

Clabe Jones (the famous Knott county feudist), who was the first to settle there; Knob Bottom because of a large knob near the creek; Cow Hollow, because of a sick cow there — and so it goes: Wolfpen, Dead Mare, Puncheon, Flax Patch, Irishman and there is Grey Horse Mountain, Yellow Mountain and Chestnut Mountain. Clear Creek seems clear enough, but what of Dismal Hollow? Post offices: Bath, Pinetop, Kite, Littcar, Sassafrass, Redfox, and Softshell (so named because of arguments of the "hardshell" and "softshell" Baptists) — and Fisty (feisty?). And although Knott County was only touched on the outer edges by railroads and early coal exploitation, there is Anco and Wiscoal to tell of it. Names of places, even words themselves, are often curious and intriguing artifacts of cultural history that remain strangely suggestive but secretive and immune to casual interpretation like a riddle. Early English Slang Survivals In the Kentucky Mountains by JOSIAH H. COMBS In general, the mountaineer's language is racy and expressive. In keeping with his Elizabethan ancestors, the hillsman has builded up an altar to brevity, which is preferred to both correctness and clearness. As elsewhere, slang has made its inroads into the mountaineer's speech—owing to the necessity for terse, brief forms of expression . I quote from one of my studies in Dialect Notes: "Much of the slang of the Elizabethan period is still used in the Southern mountains. Old English slang is also found— the slang of Beowulf and Andreas. Yet, unlike the outside world, the mountaineer uses certain set slang words for generations. This may seem strange, if slang is the result of crowding, excitement and artificial life, the life of the city, where there is 'something doing' with the dawn of every new day. * · · 'What in the nation!' is a slang expression found in Beowulf, which is still used among the hillsmen. "The dialect list of the mountains doubtless contains many slang words and phrases which, at first sight, would not perhaps be recognized as belonging to the early English and Elizabethan periods. A possible explanation is that these words and phrases are not found in the above-mentioned writers, who did not employ such an extensive use of slang as modern writers. These words have been used for generations among the mountaineers, and must have been transported to Virginia and the Carolinas during the Seventeenth century, the great era of colonization. The Slang Dictionary (Chatto and Windus, London) contains a number of these slang words. This lends proof that these words must have come from England in the Seventeenth century. The Slang Dictionary is a collection of English slang." If "the purest source of neology is in the survival of old words," with new meanings , the hillsmen lay claim to their share. These old words belong to the Elizabethan 34 and pre-Elizabethan periods, some of which, under new conditions and environments, have been given new meanings by the mountaineers; e.g., "dona," a semi-slang word and term of endearment, meant in England a mother. (Cf. dona and feeles woman and child). In the hills it means a sweetheart, usually coupled with "gal," as "dony-gal." • · · "Cutting Eyeteeth." In England the "cutting of one's eye teeth" was a supposed evidence of sharpness ; in the hills, it means to humiliate, or cause chagrin, as, "Samp greened him out (beat him) in that trade, and it civilly cut his eye teeth." "Fudge," verb and noun, originally meant nonsense, as now: with the hillsman, to cheat, or "poke up," in marbles . In England, "gallivant" meant to be "handy with the ladies;" in the hills, to "frisk about," here and there, as a dude. "Lark," noun, meant in England a joke, frolic; in the hills a "larker" is a shrewd, mischievous fellow. Other words could be given. Because of the dearth of slang dictionaries in America it is difficult to determine whether a large or small percentage of the slang to follow, below, may be found elsewhere in the English-speaking world. Some of the earlier English slang follows. "Han'kercher," handkerchief. "Public woman," one of ill repute. "S'elp me (God!" term of asservation. "So help me (God)!" To "bum around...