Below is a list of mostly forgotten terms, people, and the occasional song, drawn from a reading of frontier fiction, 1880–1915. Each week
a new list, progressing through the alphabet, “from A to Izzard.”
Kafir corn = a Southern African variety of sorghum, cultivated in dry regions for its grain and as fodder, “Was it you, Doc, you benighted stray from the short-grass Kansas plains, where they can't raise Kafir corn?” Emerson Hough, Heart’s Desire.
kalsomine = whitewash, applied to ceiling or walls. “It had five rooms, and all they needed was a coat of paint and kalsomine.” Emma Ghent Curtis, The Fate of a Fool.
katy = hat (also “kady,” “kadi”). “I take off my katy, and I apologise to you.” George W. Ogden, The Long Fight.
katzenjammer =
a hangover. “Woke up next day with a
katzenjammer.” William De Vere, Jim Marshall’s New Pianner.
keeno = excellent, wonderful, first-rate. “‘Keeno!’ shouts
back Ches, some exasperated.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.
keep a weather eye open = to stay alert. “Surrounded as he was by other horses, he kept his weather eye open for a race.” Andy Adams, The Log of a Cowboy.
keep case/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.
keep case/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.
keep up the stroke =
to labor without resting. “‘How do you
manage to keep up the stroke?’ ‘Law bless you!’ she laughed easily, “I ben
trained into it.’” Vingie Roe, The Heart of Night Wind.
 |
| Kelpie, T. Dow, 1895 |
Kentucky breakfast =
a three-pound steak, a bottle of whisky, and a setter dog. “What’s the dog for?
Why, to eat the steak, of course.” Stewart Edward White, Arizona Nights.
Keeley Institute =
a commercial medical operation that
offered treatment to alcoholics, wildly popular in the late 1890s. “She, the
first wife, sent for him, put him into a Keeley Institute, paid the expenses of
his divorce proceedings against wife number two, remarried, him, and was caring
for him.” John C. Bell, The Pilgrim and the Pioneer.
key log = the log which, if removed, would free up a logjam.
“She reproduced every detail for her pale audience of one—Carter astride of the
key-log; his men, bating their breath with the ‘huh’ of his stroke; Bender’s
distress; the cynical grin of Michigan Red.” Herman Whitaker, The Settler.
kick = a pocket. “Your overcoat ‘hocked,’ not a cent in
your ‘kick,’ / And ‘beautiful snow’ till you can’t see a brick.” William De
Vere, Jim Marshall’s New Pianner.
kick-back =
a tree jumping back over the stump toward
the faller. “Reed and Kantochy, two sawyers, were caught by a ‘kick-back’.” James
Hendryx, The Promise.
kick up = a dance, a party. “Lor’ won’t we have a kick-up here
all by ourselves!” Frederick Thickstun Clark, In the Valley of Havilah.
kicking strap =
a device worn by a horse to prevent it
from lifting its hind-quarters to either kick or buck. “His mate, a rat-tailed
mare, equally big, differed only in the insignia of wickedness, wearing a
kicking-strap in harness, a log chain in the stable.” Herman Whitaker, The
Settler.
kiddie = a young person. “What wud A be doin’ goin’ among a
lot o’ kiddie boys t’ study Hebrew when A know the language o’ the man on the
street?” Agnes C. Laut, The Freebooters of the Wilderness.
kidney = temperament; type. “It was well enough known, he
said that representatives of the law and road-agents, and men of such kidney,
often (as it is called) ‘josh’ one another.” Frederick Niven, Hands Up!
king bolt =
a main or large bolt in a mechanical
structure; thus, a leader, boss, kingpin. “He has already got the king-bolt but
he wants to round up the whole outfit.” Frederick Niven, Hands Up!
 |
| Cophetua, maid, 1883 |
Kiralfy = a ballet company in San Francisco. “The former
occupant had papered the walls with newspapers and had pasted up figures cut
out from the posters of some Kiralfy ballet, very gaudy.” Frank Norris, McTeague.
kit and posse =
the lot, the whole thing. “I’ve been too
good to the hull kit ’n’ possy o’ ye.” Frederick Thickstun Clark, In the
Valley of Havilah.
kittle cattle =
capricious, difficult, erratic, rash.
“Relatives are sometimes kittle-cattle, and as I did not know how he would take
my letter I wearied for a reply.” Frederick Niven, Hands Up!
ki-yi = a whoop or shout, like the howl or yelp of a dog.
“Don’t that sound mightily like the ki-yi of the Sewer Gang?” Dennis H.
Stovall, The Gold Bug Story Book.
klootch / klootchman
= an Indian woman (from Chinook jargon). “‘I’’m not a klootch,’
she flashed. ‘I’m a white woman, and when I wear a becoming dress I like
somebody to tell me so’.” A. M. Chisholm, Desert Conquest.
knickerbockers =
knee pants. “All were in blue overalls and
shirt sleeves but one; and he was in knickerbockers.” Agnes C. Laut, The
Freebooters of the Wilderness.
knock = to make a good impression. “Just one word more, and
that’s what knocks, / There’s always stuff in the parson’s box.” William De
Vere, Jim Marshall’s New Pianner.
knock a twister = to
send a person into contortions. “He had a sister / That could play the Suannee
River till would knock us all a twister.” William De Vere, Jim Marshall’s
New Pianner.
knocker = a stunningly attractive person. “Sergeant Foyle, oh,
he’s a knocker from the West.” Gilbert Parker, Northern Lights.
knucklebones =
an ancient game, similar to jacks. “Isn’t
that just the way ninety-nine men out of a hundred go on dickering with evil
week-days and salving it all on Sunday—playing knucklebones with brain, heart,
conscience, and what are called primitive instincts?” Frederick Niven, Hands
Up!
knuckleduster / knucks =
a metal guard worn over the knuckles in
fighting to increase the effect of blows. “There’d been a strike in the mine,
an’ my friend had took it in hand with knuckledusters on.” Gilbert Parker, Northern
Lights.
Krag = a repeating bolt action rifle designed by Norwegians Ole Herman Johannes Krag and Erik Jørgensen in the late 19th century. “The wagons were blue with soldiers, the early golden rays slanting from their Krags.” Rex Beach, The Spoilers.
kumtuks = to know (from Chinook jargon). “He waved his hand at the wreck. ‘You kumtuks that?’” A. M. Chisholm, Desert Conquest.
kumtuks = to know (from Chinook jargon). “He waved his hand at the wreck. ‘You kumtuks that?’” A. M. Chisholm, Desert Conquest.
Sources: Cassell’s
Dictionary of Slang, Dictionary of the American West, The Cowboy Dictionary,
The Cowboy Encyclopedia, Cowboy Lingo, The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, and
various online dictionaries
Image credits: Wikimedia
Commons
Coming up: Dane Coolidge, The Texican (1911)
Ron, I have heard of "Katzenjammer" in a different context, namely Katzenjammer Kids which was one of the earliest American comic strips and a precursor to comic books. It takes getting used to reading these comic strips.
ReplyDeleteHi, Prashant. I knew the K kids, too, from the Sunday comics.
DeleteKentucky Breakfast - I can use that! Thanks, Ron. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteKalsomine, also known as calicimine. Was still being used in the '30's on the inside of our schoolhouse.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what "keep up the stroke" owes to rowing...and I'm going to have to go back to my O Henry, because I remember a character in one of his stories referring (not in a nice way) to a woman as a "knocker."
ReplyDelete