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.”
P. C. = prominent citizens. “‘Depewted,’ he said, ‘by a
number of prominent citizens,’ with the usual meddlesomeness of the P. C. in
all communities.” Patience Stapleton, Babe Murphy.
pace = indulgence in reckless dissipation. “He must make
good—must win to the fore in the business world as he had won in the athletic.
And above all he must forswear the pace!” James Hendryx, The Promise.
packet = a ship
traveling at intervals between two ports. “Did not the hope possess me that she
would embark in a New York packet.” Charles Sealsfield, The Cabin Book.
painter = a short rope or chain by which an anchor is held
fast to the side of a ship when not in use. “The old sailor cast off the
painter and gave the great even push which propelled the craft out between
docks.” Ada Woodruff Anderson, The Heart of the Red Firs.
palace car = Pullman
railroad car. “Where’s your palace car? Have you sunk so low as to come in a
mere cab?” Roger Pocock, Curly.
Palouse = a hilly grassland region in eastern Washington and
central Idaho. “I am starting on a long hunting and trading trip, through the
Palouse and Big Bend country.” Ada Woodruff Anderson, The Heart of the Red
Firs.
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.
panocha = defined variously as a pudding made from ground sprouted wheat and sugar from sugarcane, or a fudge-like confection of brown sugar, cream or milk, and chopped nuts. “I seen her talkin’ acrosst the counter to Pedro sweeter’n panocha,—with a takin’ smile on the south end of that cute little face of hern.” Eleanor Gates, Alec Lloyd, Cowpuncher.
panola = an Indian
cake. “Well, on this march we had nothing but panolas. Many had not even given
themselves time to wait for these, and had filled their saddle-bags with baked
Indian corn alone.” Charles Sealsfield, The Cabin Book.
panorama = unrolling
or unfolding stage scenery, creating the illusion of movement across a
landscape. “The scrap of view that came within a closer range of vision spun
past the car windows like a bit of stage mechanism, a gigantic panorama
rotating to simulate a race at breakneck speed.” Marie Manning, Judith of
the Plains.
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.
parasang =
an ancient Persian unit of distance, about
four miles (six kilometers). “‘Are you any nearer to it than you were when you
began?’ ‘A good many parasangs.” Francis Lynde, The Grafters.
paretic = partially or completely paralyzed. “I’ve always
tried to lead a good life, and here I am a paretic before I’ve come of age.” Marie
Manning, Judith of the Plains.
 |
| Parfleche |
parker = a bed comforter. “He whispered to his two big nurses to prop him up. They did so with pillows and parkers.” Andy Adams, Cattle Brands.
parlor cook = a stove used for both heating and cooking. “Together they would enter the kitchen and Frank would prepare the parlor cook for the morning’s firing.” Elizabeth Higgins, Out of the West.
parlor-broke = to be comfortable in polite company. “Even Rufus Hardy, the parlor-broke friend and lover, slipped away before any of them were stirring and rode far up along the river.” Dane Coolidge, Hidden Water.
parr = a young salmon or trout. “We’ve fished her out down
to the last parr, and that means she’ll stay barren till kingdom come.” Robert
Dunn, The Youngest World.
parterre =
a level space in a yard occupied by an
ornamental arrangement of flowerbeds. “Elinor left her chair and went to the
window, which looked down on the sanatorium, the ornate parterre, and the
crescent driveway.” Francis Lynde, The Grafters.
Parthian arrow = an
arrow discharged at an enemy when retreating from him; hence, a parting shot. “She
shut those lips firmly, rigorously denying herself the feminine luxury of the
last word and the launching of a Parthian arrow that would have made, indeed, a
telling shot.” Charles King, Two Soldiers.
pass in one’s checks =
to die. “He’d have passed in his checks
then if you had not stepped in.” Frederick Niven, Hands Up!
pass the buck =
originally, the use of a knife with a buckhorn handle as a marker in the game
of poker [precise explanations vary]. “In the larger houses there is a dealer,
who merely does the dealing and takes care of the rake-off for the house, but
in a place like the Eagle the dealer takes an active part in the game, passing
the buck each time to indicate which player is to be dealt to first.” W. C.
Tuttle, Thicker Than Water.
pasteboard = thin
card stock produced by pasting together three or more sheets of paper; used for
playing cards. “The man at the left, tall, gaunt, ill-kempt, flicked the
pasteboards in his hand to the floor and ground them beneath his heavy boots.”
Will Lillibridge, Ben Blair.
patent = obvious. “It was patent that Mark had an
inspiration.” Gertrude Atherton, Perch of the Devil.
patent lighter =
a device for producing a small flame. “He
touched a patent lighter to another cigarette, chose a direction at random, and
spurred his pony into a canter.” Robert Ames Bennet, Out of the Depths.
pattern = model, exemplary. “Not that she did not always
behave perfectly proper, she is a pattern woman, but she did not act the
recluse because Tom was absent.” Patience Stapleton, Babe Murphy.
pay streak =
a stratum of mineral deposit capable of yielding
profitable amounts of ore. “In spite of the pay-streak of pathos which
the reader will doubtless detect in the word-work, there were moments when I
could hardly help laughing.” Cy Warman, Frontier Stories.
pea on a drum =
frantic, uncontrolled movements; also a
small object placed atop something large. “He was jolted and bumped about like
the proverbial pea on a drum.” Ridgwell Cullum, The Story of the Foss River
Ranch.
peach = to inform against. “If th’ don’t give him twinty
thousan’ fur settin’ toight here he’ll peach.” Agnes C. Laut, The
Freebooters of the Wilderness.
peach-blow = a
delicate purplish pink color likened to that of peach blooms; applied
especially to a Chinese porcelain. “She showed no sign of life; the peach-blow
left her cheeks an ivory white.” Frederic Remington, John Ermine of the
Yellowstone.
peacock = a mineral consisting of sulfides of copper and iron
that is found in copper deposits. “‘Fine,’ said Mrs. Landvetter, leisurely
examining the specimens. ‘Great. Dere’s a streak of peacock.’” Nancy Mann
Waddell Woodrow, The New Missioner.
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.
peanut = a person of little significance, influence, or
power. “He had dared to interfere with the petty plans of peanut politicians
and public plunderers.” Agnes C. Laut, The Freebooters of the Wilderness.
pearl = of the eyes, having cataracts. “In that gloom he
suggested uncanny countenances, such as Gail had seen pictured from catacombs,
except for his blue eyes—bulging ‘pearl’ eyes, watery and burning, which did
not blink.” Robert Dunn, The Youngest World.
peascod = pea pod.
“I want to know why I shouldn’t propose to waltz with a nice girl as well as a
thin-waisted young peascod like yourself.” Mary Hallock Foote, The Led-Horse
Claim.
 |
| Peavey |
peckerwood =
woodpecker; poor white. “Laws, honey, it
makes me look like a peckerwood—I do p’intedly look like I was sent fer an’
couldn’t come.” Grace and Alice MacGowan, Aunt Huldah.
Pecos = to dispose
of a body in the Pecos River. “The river was known by many as the river of sin,
for when a man was killed in its vicinity, he sometimes was weighted down and
his body sunk in the stream, hence the saying to Pecos him, or he was Pecosed.”
Jack Thorp, Along the Rio Grande.
pedro = a trick-taking card game, popular as a gambling game until the end of the 19th century. “They took their ease one hot nooning, two playing pedro at a rough wooden table while the third dozed and nodded with stool tilted back against the wall.” Herman Whitaker, Over the Border.
peeling = a scolding. “What a peelin’ ye did give ’im. It made my hair pull to hear ye!” Frederick Thickstun Clark, In the Valley of Havilah.
peeler = a cowboy, horse breaker; a man who skins cows. “About two o’clock Doc Langford and two of his peelers were seen ring up.” Andy Adams, The Log of a Cowboy.
pegged out =
dead, exhausted. “‘I’m pegged out,’ he
said, wearily. ‘I’ll just sit here by the fire.” Adeline Knapp, The Well in
the Desert.
pelt = to hurry. “I ran as hard as I could pelt to the Foss
River Ranch.” Ridgwell Cullum, The Story of the Foss River Ranch.
penstock = a
channel, trough, or tube for conveying water from a lake or dam to a waterwheel
or turbine. “The crowd cheered as the imprisoned waters leapt to freedom with a
hollow roar, raising in pitch as the penstock filled and the wheels began to go
round.” Henry Wallace Phillips, Red Saunders.
penwiper =
a cloth, or other material, for cleaning
ink from a pen. “It’s penwipers—two of ’em. Made ’em ourselves over a Millie’s
this morning.” Effie Graham, The Passin’-On Party.
peoned out = derogative
term among rustlers for a cowboy. “The honest cowboys who remained steadfast in
their endeavour to protect the interest of their employers were spoken of with
contempt, and were referred to as being ‘peoned out’ to the
employers, and were accused of ‘living on bacon rinds, like so many
jackasses’.” Emerson Hough, The Story of the Cowboy.
per mensem =
by the month. “Having rejected his heart
with a pecuniary attachment of thirty-five dollars per mensem, she fell like a
shooting-star and became a mere receptacle for his succeeding passions.” Herman
Whitaker, The Settler.
perdu = hidden,
concealed. “Until after the noon hour we laid perdu in the hollow, no wiser for
our watching.” Bertrand Sinclair, Raw Gold.
permanganate of potash =
a chemical compound patented and marketed
as Condy’s crystals, a disinfectant. “It’s the best thing there is to cheat
rattlers,—just cheap, ordinary permanganate of potash.” Robert Ames Bennet, Out
of the Depths.
Perry, Nora =
an American poet and writer of juvenile
stories (1831-1896). “The sort of person that Laura E. Richards writes about,
and Nora Perry, and Louisa M. Alcott.” Mary MacLane, The Story of Mary
MacLane.
Perry Davis’ Pain Killer = a patent medicine
containing opiates and ethyl alcohol, created in 1840. “I didn’t have no
vanilly or lemon flavor, so I just put in a squirt of Perry Davis’ Pain Killer,
and I guess that’s what knocked her out.” Therese Broderick, The Brand.
pervade = to move or move about. “A passel of us is sorter
pervadin’ ’round the dance-hall.” Alfred Henry Lewis, Wolfville.
Peterborough =
a wooden canoe manufactured from 1892 in
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. “I know that I, Frona, in the flesh, am here, in
a Peterborough paddling for dear life with two men.” Jack London, A Daughter
of the Snows.
petted on =
fond of, pleased by. “Aunty Luce declared
she ‘nevah did see a chile so petted on one who wasn’t no kin.” Marah Ellis
Ryan, Told in the Hills.
 |
| Wendell Phillips |
Phyllis = a country girl; a girl’s name in ancient pastoral
poetry. “I did not need a mother’s love then, nor a home to make me an
old-fashioned Phyllis, —I have always been too up-to-date.” Frances Charles, In
The Country God Forgot.
Previous: O (oak-tan – oyster)
Next: P (piazza – popple)
More:
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: Michael Zimmer, Leaving Yuma
I usually hear a very different meaning for "pan out," having to do with gold panning.
ReplyDeleteFunny Phyllis has always seemed like an urban sort of name.
ReplyDelete