rimfire = a saddle
with a single cinch, placed well forward. “A rim-fire, do you call them? Well,
do you know, Major, I should say this saddle was better adapted to carrying a
sack of corn than a man.” Frederic Remington, John Ermine of the Yellowstone.
ring of Gyges = a mythical ring giving its bearer the power of invisibility. “The solitude, the glimpses from the window of great distances full of vague possibilities, made the abused ring potent as that of Gyges.” Bret Harte, Frontier Stories.
ring of Gyges = a mythical ring giving its bearer the power of invisibility. “The solitude, the glimpses from the window of great distances full of vague possibilities, made the abused ring potent as that of Gyges.” Bret Harte, Frontier Stories.
ring in = to substitute fraudulently. “You-all can’t ring in Mexicans an’ snake no play on us.” Alfred Henry Lewis, Wolfville.
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.
ring-tail = an uncooperative horse, marked by tail
swishing. “Many of the government horses and polo ponies in the country at that
time were considered ring-tails, sharp spurs having caused the condition.”
Frank Collinson, Life in the Saddle.
Rio = Brazilian coffee, commonly with a strong, rank
flavor. “She poured herself a cup of the Rio, strong as lye, with which she
saturated her system, to keep off the fever.” Gwendolen Overton, The Heritage
of Unrest.
rip up the sod =
have a good time; go on a tear. “When we
make a stake, we’ll go to Billings and rip up the sod!” Caroline Lockhart, Me—Smith.
rippet = disturbance, mix-up, fight. “The terrible rippet
about the morphine plumb skeered the sickness out o’ the little feller.” Grace
and Alice MacGowan, Aunt Huldah.
riprap = a breakwater constructed as a foundation of loose stone. “They rode to where the forces assembled by Lance were throwing up embankments and riprapping.” Frank H. Spearman, Whispering Smith.
rising = a swelling, tumor, boil, abscess. “I felt he was
layin’ it on to me, somehow. And if I’d ’a’ been shore of it, I’d
’a’ put some more risin’s on to his
face.” Eleanor Gates, Alec Lloyd, Cowpuncher.
rising = insurrection, rebellion, uprising. “I would have
been all right if the boys hadn’t entertained me with stories of the rising,
but they were dreadful to hear.” Ada Woodruff Anderson, The Heart of the Red
Firs.
river-hog =
one who drives logs down a river. “You an’
your river-hogs that you pass as loggers! Rotten outfit, ye are!” Vingie Roe, The
Heart of Night Wind.
roach = to clip or
cut off (a horse’s mane). “He may be riding a sorrel horse with a roached mane,
branded 93 on left hip.” George Pattullo, The Untamed.
roach-backed = said
of a horse with a convex or up-curving back. “Their gaunt, hammer-headed,
grass-bellied, cat-hammed, roach-backed ponies went with them when they took
their departure.” Frederic Remington, John Ermine of the Yellowstone.
roadster =
a horse for riding (or pulling a carriage)
on roads. “She glanced up at the sound of wheels. It was Pierce Eldreth driving
his high-checked roadster, Brownie.” Hattie Horner Louthan, This Was a Man!
rock = a dollar. “And we dealt and played and put up our
rocks, / And we nailed up a thing called the parson’s box.” William De Vere, Jim
Marshall’s New Pianner.
rock and rye =
a bottled drink made with rye whiskey,
rock candy, and fruit. “Len, loosening his nimble tongue with rock-and-rye,
read their histories from feature and get-up, satirizing each with a playful
cynicism.” Robert Dunn, The Youngest World.
 |
| Roc's Egg, R. Gifford |
roc’s egg =
the egg of a giant mythical bird. “‘I am
sure they have not’ said the girl, with a sinking heart, the name to her
suggesting nothing more likely than a roc’s egg.” Mary Etta Stickney, Brown
of Lost River.
Rogers Group =
one of the scores of mass-produced cast
plaster statuettes by American sculptor John Rogers (1829-1904), popular in
homes during the 19th century. “They bore it into a large, unheated room that
smelled of dampness and disuse and furniture polish, and set it down under a
hanging lamp ornamented with jingling glass prisms and before a ‘Rogers group’
of John Alden and Priscilla, wreathed with smilax.” Willa Cather, The Troll
Garden.
“Roll on, Silver Moon” =
a popular 19th-century song. “One of Aunt
Huldah’s favorite songs was Roll on, Silver Moon; and despite her
protests, Mrs. Patterson fastened upon it as an excellent one for exhibition
purposes.” Grace and Alice MacGowan, Aunt Huldah.
 |
| Rogers Group |
roller = a dollar.
“But don’t forget the eight rollers and four bits. I need ten, but eight-fifty
will do.” Henry Herbert Knibbs, Overland Red.
roller = a thief,
especially one whose victims are drugged, sleeping, or drunk. “There was the
Alabama Kid, and beside him Shorty Broach, stage robber and thug, Beef Jones,
the horse-thief, Gas, a tin-horn crook, Thimble-Rig Phipps, and two or three
other sure-thing gamblers, rollers, and thugs.” Roger Pocock, Curly.
Rollo books =
juvenile fiction for boys, written by
American author Jacob Abbott (1803-1879). “The respect for gray hairs, I’ve
noticed, is not as strong to-day as it was in the Rollo books.” Hugh Pendexter,
Tiberius Smith.
 |
| Jacob Abbott |
rollway = a slope where logs were rolled into a river. “With the foreman he went over most of the job, from the first slashings to the river rollways.” A. M. Chisholm, The Boss of Wind River.
romance = to saunter, wander. “We’re white men, an’ I’m apt to come romancin’ up here with one of these an’ bust you so you won’t hold together durin’ the ceremonies.” Rex Beach, The Spoilers.
Rooney, Pat =
a popular 19th-century vaudeville
entertainer. “His calls of late, it seems, / Are like Pat Rooney’s serial
tales, / Quite ‘few and far between.’” William De Vere, Jim Marshall’s New
Pianner.
root hog or die =
to work extremely hard or face inevitable
failure. “‘It was root, hog, or die with me, Sally,’ he continued, ‘and I
rooted.’” Gilbert Parker, Northern Lights.
rope = a cigar. “‘Have a rope?’ He took the cigar that Joe
offered.” Robert Dunn, The Youngest World.
ropewalk =
a long straight narrow lane, or a covered
pathway, where long strands of material were laid before being twisted into
rope. “He passed an empty ropewalk, the hemp strewn untidily about, as if the
workers had left hurriedly.” Harry Leon Wilson, The Lions of the Lord.
 |
| 1886 edition |
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.
Ross, Albert =
pen name of popular American novelist,
Linn Boyd Porter (1850-1916). “From the books of Archibald C. Gunter and Albert
Ross: Kind Devil, deliver me.” Mary MacLane, The Story of Mary MacLane.
Rough on Rats = a poison,
claimed to eliminate rats, mice, roaches, flies, beetles, moths, ants, skunks,
weasels, gophers, moles, and muskrats. “It had been wolf-poison. It had been
‘Rough on Rats.’ It had been something in a bottle.” Owen Wister, Lin
McLean.
round = a rung of a chair or ladder. “Mrs. Rodney now put a
foot on the round of an adjoining chair and shoved it towards Mary Carmichael.”
Marie Manning, Judith of the Plains.
round on =
to betray, inform on. “‘Damned scoundrel’
sliden’ from yer flannel face is like a coyote roundin’ on a timber wolf.” Ridgwell
Cullum, The Story of the Foss River Ranch.
round robin =
a petition or protest on which the
signatures are arranged in a circle in order to conceal the order of signing.
“They want to quit badly. They’ve filed a petition to him—kind of round-robin.”
Frederick Niven, Hands Up!
round up =
to get or accumulate. “I’ll chip in now,
and more when I round up.” Frank Lewis Nason, To the End of the Trail.
rounder = vagrant, habitual drunkard or wastrel. “Indeed, Come-a-Seven bade fair to be a rounder. While the other cattle would be sleeping peacefully on the bed ground, the young red-and-white would go up and down through the herd, trying to start some excitement.” George Pattullo, The Untamed.
roundabout = a short jacket. “His dress seemed an acknowledgment of his grotesqueness: a short coat, like a little boy’s roundabout, and a vest fantastically sprigged and dotted, over a lavender shirt.” Willa Cather, The Song of the Lark.
roustabout =
an unskilled laborer typically performing
temporary work. “A half-mile from camp they came upon the sorrel team of
Mickey, the roustabout.” Dennis H. Stovall, The Gold Bug Story Book.
rubber = to look around, gaze at. “Some of your friends is likely to rubber down here to see what’s doin’.” G. Frank Lydston, Poker Jim, Gentleman.
ruche = a frill or pleat of fabric as decoration on a garment (also rooshing). “By rights, Harpe, you ought to cut out these piqué vests and manly shirt bosoms and take to ruches and frills and ruffles.” Caroline Lockhart, The Lady Doc.
ruffle it =
to swagger. “Alas! as well expect a rabbit
to ruffle it with wolves.” Herman Whitaker, The Settler.
run a blazer = to
deceive, trick. “If those shorthorns attempt to offer any opposition, I’ll run
a blazer on them.” Andy Adams, The Outlet.
 |
| Runabout, 1910 |
runner = a person employed to fetch and carry things, an
assistant, messenger, courier, scout. “Mr. Smith, in addition to being a runner
for the Planters Hotel was also the agent for the James and Miller Stage Line.”
John C. Bell, The Pilgrim and the Pioneer.
runner = engineer of a railroad train. “I described to her
how sometimes the train was flagged by a danger signal, and when it had slowed
down the runner found himself covered by armed men.” Paul Leicester Ford, The
Great K&A Train Robbery.
Rurales = name
commonly used to designate the Mexican Guardia Rural (Rural Guard): a force of
mounted police or gendarmerie that existed between 1861 and 1914. “It would
take a whole reg’ment of Rurales to keep us from a breakfast if we seen one
runnin’ around loose without its pa or ma.” Henry Herbert Knibbs, Overland
Red.
rush = to court. “Marcus had ‘taken up with’ Selina a
little after Trina had married, and had been ‘rushing’ her ever since.” Frank
Norris, McTeague.
ruth = a feeling of distress or grief. “Why, for instance,
is it that pitilessness, ferocity, ruth, which were good in the youth of the
world, should cause such evil in its old age?” Herman Whitaker, The Settler.
Previous: R (rack– rill)
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: Pinkerton en français
Never heard of that type of rimfire. Only heard the term related to bullets.
ReplyDeleteNew to me, too.
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