Old West glossary, no. 58

Montana cowboys, c1910

Here’s another set of terms and forgotten expressions 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 Robert Alexander Wason’s cowboy novel, Happy Hawkins. This time, I struck out on more than a few. I’m posting a list of them soon, with the sentences they appear in, for anyone who would like to make a guess at their meanings.

backing it = to be laid up, ill. “The cook was mighty good to me while I was backin’ it; he used to deal out fussy little fixin’s ’at kept the appetite and the fever both down.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

Erie Canal, 1905

big ditch = the Erie Canal; the Atlantic Ocean. “If you don’t get something ’at your pride ’ll earn some day, I’m the biggest fool this side o’ the big ditch.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

brace = a pair of something. “I held three kings an’ a brace o’ trays.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

brace = to accost. “Did you ever have a stranger brace you like that?” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

cap the climax = to exceed what is already a high point of achievement. “It just about capped the climax to see a man o’ my build totin’ along a pair o’ chickens.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

coon = to crawl stealthily (like a raccoon). “When the time came, instead of goin’ to bed, we went out an’ cooned up a big tree.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

curve = a personal peculiarity. “It seems to me, Bill, ’at you ought to begin gittin’ on to my curves purty soon.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

Card players, Cezanne, c1890

cut throat = a card game in which each player plays against all the other players. “Sometimes we’d sit up till purt’ nigh half-past nine, playin’ cut-throat an’ swappin’ tales.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

double tree = a crossbar on a wagon or carriage to which two animals are harnessed side by side. “Now, me an’ Ches was about as different as they ever get, most ways, an’ yet we pulled a level double-tree out in the open.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

dry moon = a lunar phase when the points, or “horns,” of the crescent moon point upward from the horizon. “Well, Slocum, he owned a third of everything, mind, an’ his expression flopped square over like a dry moon, an’ stayed points up.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

fleshpots of Egypt = luxurious or self-indulgent living, as reportedly found in Egypt by the Israelites (Exodus 16:3). “You can talk all you want to about the flesh-pots of Egypt—why, that cook could fix beans eleven different ways, an’ each one better ’n the other.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

fly-uppity = quick to anger. “I know that you’re the usefullest man I ever had, an’ you oughtn’t to be so fly-uppity.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

"Waiting for a Chinook," C. Russell

ganted = gaunt, thin; poor; diminished. “I weigh one ninety when I’m ganted down to workin’ trim.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

get down and scratch = to take notice. “But she had a head on her, Barbie had, an’ when she got squared away, she made ’em all get down an’ scratch.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

go to Jericho = a euphemism for “go to hell.” “‘You go to Jericho, will you!’ snaps Jabez. ‘You don’t need to think that I’d try to argue any man on earth into workin’ for me.’” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

home-maker = a person who is at ease anywhere. “That kid was a home-maker all right; nothin’ ever surprised him, an’ wherever he lit he made himself comfortable.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

Rabbit

homing = said of an animal’s instinct to return to its home territory. “I scuttled out o’ that cellar like a homin’ rabbit, an’ ran around to the side door.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

Jink = a mild oath. “Where the Jink did you meet up with him?” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

keep cases = to watch closely. “The rest of the guests got to noticin’ too, an’ when they’d finish they’d just stick around an’ keep cases.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

lala-kadinks = the high and mighty, style setters, culture vultures. “I ain’t a-layin’ no plans to have the lala-kadinks from the civilized parts o’ this country come out an’ round up my langwidge, same as they gather Injun specimens.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

line out / line up = to scold, discipline, punish. “What do you mean by usin’ such langwidge? I’ll line you out for this.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

main stem = the main course of a river or stream; the trunk of a tree. “They have lots of land, but are running shy on money, an’ the main stem of the family is getting purty well thinned out.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

make rates = to assign a charge for a certain quantity of a commodity. “I went over an’ told him that I would like to board with him if he would make me rates.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

Actor on stage, 1809

make-up = costuming for a theatrical performance. “What Hammy was tryin’ to say was that we should open the trunks, dress ourselves in the clothes, an’ give a show. He said he knew parts to fit any make-ups we’d find.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

murrain = a plague, pestilence; the potato plight during the Irish famine in the mid-1800s. “‘A murrain on the filthy swine!’ sez Hammy, after he began to quiet down a little.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

muss = a fight, dispute, commotion. “‘We heard you was,’ sez he; ‘killed in a muss over at Danders.’” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

Reading material

nickle library = inexpensive reading material. “We went to the company store an’ got three bushels o’ nickel libraries, enough grub to do six men six months, enough tobacco to do twelve men a year, an’ a little yeller pup ’at we give six bits for.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

off = the right side of an animal. “You start out an’ a feller comes along an’ throws an opinion around your off fore foot an’ you go down in a heap an’ that opinion holds you fast for some time.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

pan out = to criticize severely. “When she came in he thought she was a boy an’ kind o’ got gay, an’ she panned him out.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

pantry = the stomach. “The fire-faced devil-dragon slipped through, caught me full in the pantry, an’ we all avalanched into the celler in one mixed up tangle.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

pink = to nick. “The feller’d been pinked in the bridge o’ the nose an’ it was most horrid ghastly.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

pot = to shoot. “One day when I was away a posse surprised him, an’ though he potted two of ’em they finally put him out.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

ringey = riled up, nervous, high-strung. “We was keyed up to a high pitch by this time, an’ was beginnin’ to get thin and ringey about the eyes.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

side eye = a sideways glance. “I just took one side-eye at Jabez an’ his face looked like a storm cloud at a picnic.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

skin out = to make a covert departure. “You have all treated me fine an’ I hate to skin out without saying good-bye but I have not the nerve.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

William Jennings Bryan, 1908

spellbinder = a speaker, usually political, capable of holding an audience spellbound. “When I saw that a hundred an’ twenty-five million dollars wouldn’t buy two-thirds of a seventy-five cent pup, I understood what the spell-binders mean by a debased currency.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

skin the deck = in a gambling, to palm cards from the deck. “Monody would ’a’ done anything he could for me,—well, he lay down his life an’ I reckon that’s about skinnin’ the deck.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

take a brace = to pull oneself together, smarten up. “She finally took a brace a’ told him to hit the trail, an’ he had gone off.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

takingest = the most captivating, charming. “They all owned up that she was the takin’est girl at the university.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

thumby = unskilled. “One day we was kiddin’ him about bein’ so thumby.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

watch charm = a small ornament designed to dangle from a watch chain. “She reached into the bosom of her dress an’ fished out a real revolver, about the size of a watch-charm.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

winker = the eye or eyelash. “The ol’ man looked at her a good long while, but she never blinked a winker.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

yellow ones = gold coin. “I left him a nifty present an’ pulled out with about a thousand yellow ones in my belt an’ the best mount in the West.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.

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Coming up: The Bushwhackers (1951)