[fidelis]

One of my interests has always been word and phrase origins. I've always wondered about a few of these ones myself.

[Georgia Girl 2]

They left out “fixin to” and “hot mess”.

[gitmo]

I was in a meeting about a computer system we were developing. I showed them some stats about how we could improve the system’s performance by adding an alternate index to a table in the database. I said I thought that would make it run like a scalded dog.

One of the guys started laughing and couldn’t stop. He said his friends ask him why he chooses to work in The South. He said “This is why !!!”

[jneesy]

“in high cotton” is only half the phrase shitting in high cotton means its tall enough no-one can see you in other words you have got it made

[Chickensoup]

Not a southernism but something that started in the 90s with vcrs.

PAUSE IT!

Every family member said as they ran to get something during a movie.

Later heard for stopping board games, and outdoor games and discussions

[jy8z]

Hot diggity dog! I always heard the older folk in the family say “My get and go done got up and went”. I’m now living that phrase.☺

[dfwgator]

The perfect gift for Southeners

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQOorA2EeS0

[MortMan]

My dad used to say “Fair to middlin, good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise”.

[wardaddy]

All racist

Southerners are racist

We should lop them off into their own nation

I’m sick of them

Please!

[Ferndina]

I’ve always been told #15 concerning the creek dont rise meant the Indian tribe not a body of water.

[poconopundit]

An awesome thread! And FReepers went to town with their contributions... I was a blue Yankee transplanted for six years to Athens, Georgia red clay. My complaint is I could not find native tellers of this Southern humor. Is it a lost art despite Lewis Grizzard's efforts to keep it alive? Mark Twain talked about a "American humorous story" which he compared to stories that are merely witty or comic in his essay How to Tell a Story. A great example is his own story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.

[sit-rep]

what does a southern Gent and a pair of panties have in common??

All it takes is a Yank to bring them down!!

[Pelham]

One of my favorite Southern expressions that I learned from my father is “The Devil is beating his wife”.

It means that the sun is shining while it’s raining, a sunshower.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

Some of my favorites:

Crazier than a bessie bug
Dead as four hundred
Useless as tits on a boar hog
I’d like to buy her for what she’s worth and sell her for what she thinks she’s worth

[Bob434]

slang or sayins up in the northeast-

Roads weren’t icy or slippery- they were either greasy or slick

folks don’t hurry- they ‘book it’

Mainers don’t say “Awesome” by itself- they say “Wicked Awesome”

they don’t get sick, they get ‘Pekid”

When a Mainer doesn’t know, they say “Hard Tellin Not Knowin”

things don’t break, they get ‘Stove Up”

we didn’t say ‘what are ya doin?” We’d say “Chupta?

They don’t say “Watch out” They say “Chout”

If someone was not from Maine, they were referred to as someone who was “From Away” or “Flatlanders”-

Dubbah is a term for someone that aint too bright- a little too soft in the attic

“Friggin’ right, that’s hahhhd”

“’Magine that”

“Get in the cah and go leaf-peepin’ (During Fall when leaves change)

“Ayuh, I just’ah bout’ah ‘magine”

and for goodness sakes- stay outta the Puckah brush when out in the boonies-

[Pardeeville Liberator]

I’m in my 80’s and lived in Wisconsin all my life. There is nothing Southern about most of these sayings.

[Ahithophel]

16. Bless Her Heart

[nutmeg]

You must know a few.. 🙂

[beaversmom]

My dad’s mom died when he was 16 so I never got to meet her. She had some sayings that my dad told me about that weren’t exactly warm and cuddly...used when my dad was acting up.

I’m gonna stomp a mudhole into you.

and

You’ve about stretched this titty as far as it’s gonna go.

I’ll have to think of some less harsh ones that my dad used.

One I can think of offhand for when agreeing with what someone has said:

You ain’t just whistling Dixie.

But he had lots of them that have escaped me at the moment.

Oh, one my son just mentioned to me last night, that an old man told my dad when he was little:

Boy, do you think you’ll ever amount to a hill of beans?

[beaversmom]

My dad used the word dumaflache when he couldn’t think of what something was called.

Hand me the...dumaflache.

[beaversmom]

For some reason my dad used to refer to me and a friend as jazzbos.

Where are you two jazzbos going?

My mom is English so I have a ton from her that I grew up with that will come out of me or come to mind fairly often.

For a woman, especially, that is dressed up or overly made up.

Look at her...all done up like a dog’s dinner.

So I’ve got idioms that will spring out of me from my Southern and English roots.