Backsass

Backsass a southernism generally confined to negative constructions: Don't give me any ofyour backsass That kind ofbacksass is gonna get you in trouble it is rare to hear anyone say What lively and intelligent backsass you command You have an enviable natural talentfor backsass Now 1 shall always treasure the backsass I have receivedfrom you its expression is formulaic and begins with the declamatory O or the rhetorically quizzical Why O Mama do I have to? Why do I have to get dressed now? sometimes these are paired and dignified by anaphora O Why O Why does it always have to be me? and there is a subtype that emerges Bui-first But I promised Jolene I'd set her hair But I don't have anything to wear But Wilmer hit mefirst sometimes it succeeds the way a mosquito's singing can drive the rational animal indoors but mostly it is fatalistic in tenor the final deathbed moan of a defeated demurral okay we lost the Civil War and suffered ten thousand indignities too many of them self-inflicted yet all my life I have heard the phrase The South Shall Rise Again 100% 40-carat Backsass —Fred Chappell 48 ...