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.”
skive = the action of cutting into something;
shaving, paring, trimming. “Great yellow rolls of butter into which the knives
of the men skived deeply.” James Hendryx, The
Promise.
skookum = Chinook
jargon for strong, powerful. “Bring dynamite – kiyu skookum powder.” A. M.
Chisholm, Desert Conquest.
skookum box = a place onboard ship for confining
troublesome passengers. “There too is the skookum box—that is, the strong room
or lock-up. To it the first mate of the Cassiar is wont to shoot too noisy
drunks.” Martin Allerdale Grainger, Woodsmen
of the West.
skunk = to defeat, get the better of. “All of
Sprague’s boys an’ his gals had some spunk / an’ he bragged that none on ’em
nobody could skunk.” William De Vere, Jim
Marshall’s New Pianner.
sky scout = a
parson. “He was dressed all in black, a sky-scout of sorts, but dusty and
making signs as though he couldn’t shout for thirst.” Roger Pocock, Curly.
sky piece = any form of headgear. “I started out
in a tin suit with a sort of kettle turned upside down an’ covered with
feathers for a sky-piece.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.
skypiece =
brains. “If you only got a twice-by-two skypiece all the schoolin’ in the
world won’t land you on top of the heap.” Bertrand Sinclair, Wild West.
slack water = a cessation in the strong flow of a
current or tide. “Just beyond Church House we lay at anchor for an hour or two,
waiting for slack water in the Euclataws.” Martin Allerdale Grainger, Woodsmen of the West.
slant = an opportunity to seize an advantage.
“Silas was more than pleased to be able to get a ‘slant’ (to use his own
expression) at his old enemy, Sim Lory.” Ridgwell Cullum, The Story of the Foss River Ranch.
slant = to move
off or toward. “With these remarks he slanted away back to town.” Roger Pocock,
Curly.
Slanting Annie = well-remembered prostitute who lived
and died in Creede, Colorado. “All about were new-made graves, where Joe
Simmons and ‘Slanting Annie’ slept side by side.” Cy Warman, Frontier Stories.
slap-up =
excellent, first-rate, lavish. “We’ll make it a dandy, slap-up affair as’ll
par’lyze folk.” Ridgwell Cullum, The
Sheriff of Dyke Hole.
slash = an area of debris left by logging. “He had something treed about a mile from the house, across a ridge over in some slashes.” Andy Adams, The Outlet.
slashing = very fine, splendid. “Immediately after dinner Casey brought up his road team, two wiry, slashing chestnuts.” A. M. Chisholm, Desert Conquest.
slat sunbonnet = a woman’s bonnet with deep, stiff brim
surrounding the face and covering neck and shoulders. “The child was inside the
house now, untying her slat sunbonnet, and setting away the precious pail of
milk which had come too late for the invalid.” Grace and Alice MacGowan, Aunt Huldah.
slaunchways = diagonally, slantways. “When night
would come, Cupid would go through his lessons, eat his supper, an’ fling
himself slaunch-ways on the wide bunk.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.
sleeper = a railroad tie. “He led Clara to some
sleepers which lay piled below the railroad embankment near by.” Elizabeth
Higgins, Out of the West.
sleeper = a calf
that has been ear-marked, but not branded. “Every owner has a certain brand, as
you know, and then he crops and slits the ears in a certain way, too. In that
manner he don't have to look at the brand, except to corroborate the ears; and,
as the critter generally sticks his ears up inquirin’-like to anyone ridin’ up,
it’s easy to know the brand without lookin’ at it, merely from the ear-marks.
Once in a great while, when a man comes across an unbranded calf, and it ain’t
handy to build a fire, he just ear-marks it and let’s the brandin’ go till
later. But it isn’t done often, and our outfit had strict orders never to make
sleepers.” Stewart Edward White, Arizona
Nights.
slimpsy / slimsy = flimsy, frail. “Monday mornin’s and they’re sleepy and kind o’ dreamy and slimpsy, and good f’r nothin’ on Tuesday and Wednesday.” Hamlin Garland, Main-Travelled Roads.
slip = a railway switch, where one pair of tracks crosses another, allowing a train to change from one track to the other. “One line of wagons—laden with scrapers, ‘slips’ and ‘wheelers,’ tents and camp equipage, the timbers and machinery of a pile-driver, and a thousand and one other things—was little by little extricating itself from the tangle.” Samuel Merwin, The Road-Builders.
slip one’s wind = to die or cause to die. “What
assurance could I have that once you had the sketch in your hands you wouldn’t
slip my wind?” Frederick Niven, The Lost
Cabin Mine.
slippy = agile, nimble, speedy. “If yer don’t
move—an’ move mighty slippy—you’ll be dumped headlong into the muck.” Ridgwell
Cullum, The Story of the Foss River Ranch.
slope = to depart, move off; leave without
paying; escape. “‘You know that is Bill Lawton’s wife?’ he said. Taylor nodded.
‘The one who sloped with the Greaser?’” Gwendolen Overton, The Heritage of Unrest.
slope = to move in a leisurely manner, amble.
“Next day Oregon sloped into the office, asked for his time, was paid off.”
Martin Allerdale Grainger, Woodsmen of
the West.
slouch hat = a wide-brimmed felt or cloth hat with a chinstrap, commonly worn as part of a military uniform. “He saw her, and without the hesitation of an instant raised his slouch hat and kept on.” Gwendolen Overton, The Heritage of Unrest.
slough = a card game for 4-6 players, originating in Germany; also known as solo. “He no longer found diversion in his nightly game of ‘slough’ in the card room of the Terriberry House.” Caroline Lockhart, The Lady Doc.
slow bell = an order to a ship’s engine to proceed
slowly. “The revenue vessel steamed on under slow bells toward Seattle.” Ada
Woodruff Anderson, The Heart of the Red
Firs.
slow elk = cows
being rustled. “The big non-resident cattle companies were the chief sufferers
through losses of their ‘slow elk’.” Emerson Hough, The Story of the Cowboy.
slum = a stew of meat and vegetables,
especially potatoes and onions (cf. slumgullion). “He rolled up his sleeves an’
started to peel spuds for the evenin’ slum.” Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins.
slumgullion = cheap food and drink. “Mace ain’t
makin’ enough money passin’ slumgullion to them passenger cattle all day, so
she’s a’goin’ over to Silverstein’s ev’ry night after this to fix up his
books.” Eleanor Gates, Alec Lloyd,
Cowpuncher.
slush lamp = a crude lamp burning tallow, grease,
or fats obtained from boiling meat. “The slush lamp was burning low, and I saw
Bella at the door.” Jack London, A
Daughter of the Snows.
smack = a sailing boat used for fishing during
the 19th century. “The rival notes of an accordion floated over from a passing
fishing-smack.” Ada Woodruff Anderson, The
Heart of the Red Firs.
smallclothes = men’s
close-fitting knee breeches. “His ruffles were all of very fine needlework, his
smallclothes of Genoese velvet, his jacket ropy with precious embroidery.” Mary
Austin, Isidro.
smart as paint = exceedingly smart; a phrase apparently
originating with Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure
Island. “The girl is as smart as paint; at the first inkling of your
purpose she’ll curl up—shut up like a rat trap.” Ridgwell Cullum, The Story of the Foss River Ranch.
Smart Set, The = a
literary magazine founded in 1900 and edited by H. L. Mencken. “The Boss’s son,
deep in his June number of the Smart Set
when informed, gave utterance to several expressive oaths.” Hattie Horner
Louthan, This Was a Man!
smilax = a slender vine with glossy foliage,
popular as a floral decoration. “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.
smoke wagon = six
gun. “As we drew closer we made our smoke-wagons ready, while his two Greasers
kept their hands in plain view, and harmless.” Robert Alexander Wason, Friar Tuck.
smoking concert = social event for men only with a
program of music and comedy and often including drinking. “He who worships a
Goddess in spirit and in truth is not likely to slide too often from his chair
beneath the table, at a smoking concert.” Frederick Niven, Hands Up!
smut = any of several fungal plant diseases
characterized by the formation of black powdery spores. “He intended a visit to
the barn, where his man was dipping seed wheat in bluestone solution to kill
the smut.” Herman Whitaker, The Settler.
smutch = blacken, dirty, smudge. “Tillie had a
great deal of charity for black sheep, but she believed in them having a corral
to themselves, and not allowing them the chance of smutching the spotless
flocks that have had good luck and escaped the mire.” Marah Ellis Ryan, Told in the Hills.
snag boat = a steamboat with an apparatus for
removing impeding debris (snags) from inland waters. “As I once said to Sidney
Rigdon, our boat is an old snag boat and has never been out of Snag-harbour.”
Harry Leon Wilson, The Lions of the Lord.
snake = to drag or pull forcibly, with rope or
chain. “Here, ketch to my pommel, and I’ll snake you out.” Caroline Lockhart, Me—Smith.
snake feeder = dragonfly. “Here the gaudy-winged
‘snake feeder’ skipped from side to side, across the waters.” Willis George
Emerson, Buell Hampton.
snake weed = Any
of various plants reputed to have the power to cure snakebite. “In a
land like New Mexico, what with barrancas, arroyos, waste
sand hills, timbered land, and miles where there is nothing but snake-weed, it
takes upon an average from eighty to a hundred acres to support a cow.” Jack
Thorp, Along the Rio Grande.
snakeroot = an herb growing in rich, shady woods;
taken as a stimulant and tonic and believed to be an antidote for bites of
snakes and mad dogs. “Myrtle Swanstrom was askin’ me the other day what I
thought of marriage. ‘It’s a quick jump,’ I says, ‘ from molasses to
snake-root.” Nancy Mann Waddell Woodrow, The
New Missioner.
snakes = alcoholic hallucinations, delirium tremens. “His groping brain grasped at the idea, and it gave him strength—better the ‘snakes’ than that!” James Hendryx, The Promise.
snap = a share, portion. “When any man offers
you a gilt-edged snap, try to figure out why he doesn’t keep it all for
himself.” A. M. Chisholm, The Boss of
Wind River.
snap = a homesteading claim taken by a
person, who proves up on it, gets a patent, and then sells out. “They don’t
often come here to live. This here’s a snap.” Vingie Roe, The Heart of Night Wind.
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: Alethea Williams, Walls for the Wind
