Montana cowboys, c1910 |
Here’s another set of terms and forgotten people gleaned
from early western fiction. Definitions were discovered in various online
dictionaries, as well as searches in Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang,
Dictionary of the American West, The New Encyclopedia of the American West, The
Cowboy Dictionary, The Cowboy Encyclopedia, Vocabulario Vaquero, I Hear America
Talking, Cowboy Lingo, and The
Shorter Oxford English Dictionary.
These are from A. M. Chisholm’s The Boss of Wind River and Dell Munger’s The Wind Before the Dawn.
Once again, I struck out on a few. If anyone has a
definition for “cold shut,” “gambol stick,” or “worth a lift,” leave a comment
below.
Alsatian bow =
a large bow of wide ribbon, worn in the
hair with the knot at the top of the head. “She rolled her hair from neck to
brow in a ‘French twist’ and set on the top of it an ‘Alsatian bow,’ which
stood like gigantic butterfly wings across her proud head.” Dell Munger, The
Wind Before the Dawn.
banking grounds =
in logging, the area along the shoreline
for holding felled timber. “All went merry as a marriage bell, and the quantity
of logs pouring down to the banking grounds attested the quality of the work
done.” A. M. Chisholm, The Boss of Wind River.
Bitts |
bitt = one of a pair of upright posts on the deck of a ship
for fastening cables or ropes. “It came inboard to the bucking clatter of a
winch and was made fast to the towing bitts.” A. M. Chisholm, The Boss of
Wind River.
botfly = a stout hairy-bodied fly with larvae that are
internal parasites of mammals. “A botfly buzzed suddenly about the forelegs of
the off-wheel horse.” Dell Munger, The Wind Before the Dawn.
bull wheel =
a wheel of horse-drawn farm implements,
providing traction with the ground and powering the moving parts, e.g. the
knives, reel, rake, binder. “The bull-wheel, striking a badger hole, threw the
machine over sidewise and completely upside down.” Dell Munger, The Wind
Before the Dawn.
by ginger =
a mild oath. “We know it’s a bad school,
but, by ginger! we’ll see that you’re stood by.” Dell Munger, The Wind
Before the Dawn.
by jing = a mild oath. “‘I’ll do it, by jing!’ he exclaimed.”
Dell Munger, The Wind Before the Dawn.
by the Mortal =
a mild oath. “By the Mortal! The moon’s
high, an’ the travelin’s good. Come on, bullies, we’ll burn them out of their
bunks this night!” A. M. Chisholm, The Boss of Wind River.
circular =
a woman’s cape extending to the bottom of
the dress with a hood fitting tight around the face. “He didn’t feel that he
could afford a coat, so I’m going to get the cloth and you and I will make you
a circular this week.” Dell Munger, The Wind Before the Dawn.
clevis = a U-shaped fastening device secured by a bolt or pin
through holes in the two arms. “On six-inch spikes, hung extra clevises,
buckles, straps, and such materials as accidents to farm machinery required.”
Dell Munger, The Wind Before the Dawn.
come-all-ye =
a popular narrative ballad, folk song.
“Great Scott, Jack, where did you pick up that old come-all-ye?” A. M. Chisholm,
The Boss of Wind River.
Butter churn |
dasher = a plunger for agitating cream in a churn. “He took
the dasher into his own hand and began a brave onslaught on the over-sour
cream.” Dell Munger, The Wind Before the Dawn.
deacon seat =
in logging camp bunkhouses, a bench made
of halved logs, flat side up, usually extending across the room. “He could see
the bunk-house filled with the smoke of unspeakable tobacco, the unkempt,
weather-hardened men on the ‘deacon seat,’ and the festoons of garments drying
above the stove.” A. M. Chisholm, The Boss of Wind River.
dip = a candle made by repeatedly dipping a wick into
tallow. “By the time ‘a dip’ had been constructed the full weight of the
disaster had fallen upon the defeated and despairing woman.” Dell Munger, The
Wind Before the Dawn.
fix = condition, state; euphemism for “pregnant.” “Sadie,
ain’t you ’fraid t’ talk that way an’ you in that fix?” Dell Munger, The
Wind Before the Dawn.
gag = a deception. “No, ma’am; you don’t run any such gag
as that on me.” Dell Munger, The Wind Before the Dawn.
gosh all Friday =
a euphemism for “God Almighty.” “Why, Gosh
all Friday, what’s happened to your horse?” Dell Munger, The Wind Before the
Dawn.
gosh a livin’s =
a mild oath. “‘Gosh-a-livin’s!’ he
exclaimed as a new thought struck him.” Dell Munger, The Wind Before the
Dawn.
hang out =
to live. “You can run the place and I’m
not hanging out like I thought I could.” Dell Munger, The Wind Before the
Dawn.
high banker =
a logger’s term for a pretentious person.
“All the blasted high-bankers between this and the booms of hell can’t hang us
up.” A. M. Chisholm, The Boss of Wind River.
hornswoggle =
to get the better of someone by cheating
or deception. “And you are the Elizabeth these folk have been talkin’ about?
Well, I’ll be hornswoggled!” Dell Munger, The Wind Before the Dawn.
Tom and Maggie Tulliver |
Maggie Tulliver =
the impoverished but idealistic young
heroine of George Eliot’s novel, The Mill on the Floss. “A Maggie
Tulliver in her own family, Luther was the one compensating feature of her
life.” Dell Munger, The Wind Before the Dawn.
Mexican Mustang liniment = a preparation for
relief of aches and pains, for use by “man and beast,” produced by the Lyon
Manufacturing Company, New York. “I’ll rub it good with Mustang liniment;
that’s th’ best thing I know of.” Dell Munger, The Wind Before the Dawn.
moonshine =
nonsense, a trifle, nothing at all. “‘All
moonshine, Noland, old boy,’ he exclaimed when he followed Elizabeth back to
the sickroom a few minutes later. ‘This girl’s as sound as a dollar.’” Dell
Munger, The Wind Before the Dawn.
New Thought =
a spiritual movement beginning in the 19th
century that held that God is everywhere, true human selfhood is divine,
sickness originates in the mind, and healing results from right thinking. “The
quaint couple, who were born two generations in advance of the birth cry of New
Thought, laughed innocently and made no reply.” Dell Munger, The Wind Before
the Dawn.
nubia = a woman’s soft fleecy scarf for the head and neck.
“Her mother stood with her back turned toward the raw April wind as they
talked, her old nubia tied loosely about her head and neck and her hands red
with the cold.” Dell Munger, The Wind Before the Dawn.
peakie = a flat-bottomed, double-ended riverboat. “Load up a
peakie with tools, blocks and tackle and dynamite and run her down river
somehow.” A. M. Chisholm, The Boss of Wind River.
pitch hole =
a defect in a road or trail, a pothole.
“The huge sleighs made pitch-holes in the road. Altogether it was
discouraging.” A. M. Chisholm, The Boss of Wind River.
pudding bag =
a bag in which a pudding is boiled,
usually not sewed in any way, but a cloth gathered around the uncooked pudding
and tied with a string. “Elizabeth carried her books home under her arm,
bulging out one side of her circular like an unevenly inflated pudding-bag.”
Dell Munger, The Wind Before the Dawn.
raffle = rubbish, debris. “The log walls hung with mackinaw
garments, moccasins, and snowshoes, the water pail on the shelf beside the
door, the bunks with their heavy gray blankets and bearskins—all the raffle
that accumulates in a foreman’s winter quarters.” A. M. Chisholm, The Boss
of Wind River.
Rosinweed |
rosinweed =
a plant native to North America with a
resinous odor and yellow flowers. “Rosin weeds were collected and piled in
heaps.” Dell Munger, The Wind Before the Dawn.
shave a note =
to discount a promissory note at a very
high rate of interest. “By the way, Hunter, that man you bought the team of got
in a pinch and asked me to shave the note for him. It’s all right, is it?” Dell
Munger, The Wind Before the Dawn.
snapped corn =
corn that has been removed from the stalk
but remaining in the husk. “As Elizabeth started to the house, she noticed her
father and the boys coming from the cornfield with a wagon-load of snapped
corn.” Dell Munger, The Wind Before the Dawn.
sweep = a long heavy oar used to row a barge or other
vessel. “For propulsion it possessed long sweeps; but since it had merely to
keep pace with the logs and the logs moved no faster than the current, these
were used only for guidance.” A. M. Chisholm, The Boss of Wind River.
Seth Thomas |
Thomas, Seth =
American clockmaker (1785-1859) and
pioneer of mass production. “The silence which followed was broken only by the
ticking of the old-fashioned Seth Thomas clock and the roar of the fire.” Dell
Munger, The Wind Before the Dawn.
wanegan = a long, heavy, flat-bottomed scow. “Last of all came
the ‘wanegan,’ also known as the ‘sweep.’” A. M. Chisholm, The Boss of Wind
River.
water bench =
a cabinet with a lower portion closed with
doors for milk pails, an open shelf for water pails, and an upper section with
shallow drawers. “I don’t know how it got over us, but there it was with th’
safe an’ water-bench a holdin’ th’ timbers off’n us.” Dell Munger, The Wind
Before the Dawn.
whipstock =
the handle of a whip. “John replied,
fingering the whipstock of the doctor’s buggy.” Dell Munger, The Wind Before
the Dawn.
woods loafer =
an outdoors person, fond of and at home in
the woods. “His gait was the bent-kneed amble of the confirmed woods-loafer.”
A. M. Chisholm, The Boss of Wind River.
Image credits:
Wikimedia Commons
Coming up: The
Corner (2000)
I wonder how "hang out" went from its old meaning to its present one?
ReplyDeleteIt's a term with several pleasantly interesting definitions in the Oxford English Dictionary.
DeleteWhen you think about it, I guess there were different vocabularies for logging camps, ranches, towns, mining camps, etc.
ReplyDeleteI used to have no interest in these other terminologies until I started reading other western sub-genres. Ramon Adams expanded his Cowboy Dictionary into these areas, for reasons of his own, and I'm pleased now that he did.
DeleteHave heard of a handful of these. In 1970 (my first real job) we moved to a small town and a neighbor lady used the term, gosh all Friday, nearly every time we talked. You brought back some nice memories. She also used to say, "I don't know what the duece they were talking about," she was colorful.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the memories!
OGR, I had a similar flashback when I came across the phrase "gosh all fishhooks."
Delete"Hornswoggle" was used quite a bit where I grew up. I used it in my first manuscript and was shocked that none of my critique partners had ever heard of the word. They thought I made it up.
ReplyDeleteJacquie, I've known the word for a long time, but don't know where I picked it up.
DeleteBotfly's are nasty little buggers indeed.
ReplyDeleteSome of the mild oaths like 'by ginger' remind me of Pa Ingalls in the Little House books.
ReplyDelete