Below is a list of mostly forgotten terms, people, and the
occasional song, drawn from a reading of mostly frontier fiction, 1880–1915.
Each week a new list, progressing through the alphabet, “from A to Izzard.”
Yale Mixture = a smoking tobacco sold by Marburg
Brothers of Baltimore, Maryland. “He preferred Yale Mixture in his pipe.” Frank
Norris, McTeague.
yap = a simpleton; a contemptible person,
irrespective of class or background. “That yap up there at the top of the hill
could have done this for you long ago.” Caroline Lockhart, Me—Smith.
Yaqui = an Indian
tribe originally in northern Mexico and now also in Arizona. “My Gosh, he can
eat! And a complexion like a Yaqui.” Henry Herbert Knibbs, Overland Red.
yarder = a winch or system of winches powered
by an engine and used to haul logs from a stump to a landing or to a skid road.
“The yarder came snorting grotesquely down from the dip behind the first
ridge.” Vingie Roe, The Heart of Night
Wind.
yeggman = safe
cracker, burglar, thug. “Observe, the gentleman still keeps his sawed-off
yeggman’s delight in his pocket.” A. M. Chisholm, Desert Conquest.
yellow / yaller = the U.S. Cavalry, so called for the yellow trim on their uniforms. “All else had drifted into nothingness to him, for the ‘yaller’ had come.” Marah Ellis Ryan, Told in the Hills.
yellow dog = a
cowardly, despicable person. “I’d be scared to death I’d get runnin’ around
yeppin’ like a yaller dog.” Ridgwell Cullum, The Sheriff of Dyke Hole.
yellow eyes =
Indian term for whites. “These yellow-eyes are only fit to play badger in a
gravel-pit or harness themselves to loaded boats, which pull powder and lead up
the long river.” Frederic Remington, John
Ermine of the Yellowstone.
yellow girl = derogatory term for a mulatto; mixed
race. “We Southerners’ll hold on to our yaller girls and our sins as tight as
we did to our slaves.” Emma Ghent Curtis, The
Fate of a Fool.
Yellow Hair = Indian
name for Gen. Custer. “I spak de English; I was scout with Yellow Hair. I am
brav mans.” Frederic Remington, John
Ermine of the Yellowstone.
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.
yellow peril = death certificate. “I turned slowly to
my desk, picked up a pen and wrote—‘Ptomaine poisoning—Acute Gastritis,’ then,
without a twinge of conscience, deliberately signed my name to the ‘yellow
peril’ and rang for my attendant.” G. Frank Lydston, Poker Jim, Gentleman.
 |
| Yellowback novel, 1890 |
yellow-back = a cheap novel of derring-do. “Don’t
talk like a yellow-backed novel! It’s not a life or death affair.” Honoré
Willsie Morrow, The Heart of the Desert.
York shilling = a monetary unit used for currency in
New York before introduction of the dollar in 1792; worth about 12.5 cents.
“Not a York shilling of my money could they have for such persuasions of
Satan.” Harry Leon Wilson, The Lions of
the Lord.
Young Hyson = a
Chinese green tea made from young leaves that are thinly rolled to have a long
twisted appearance that unfurls when brewed. “I tell Council as I git older I
don’t seem to enjoy the Young Hyson n’r Gunpowder. I want the reel green tea,
jest as it comes off’n the vines.” Hamlin Garland, Main-Travelled Roads.
zacatón = a wiry
grass native to the southwest US and Mexico, used in making brushes and paper.
“Instead she was roaming the zacaton flats of the Tumbling K and losing herself
among the blackbrush ridges, in vague wonder that the world was grown so
large.” George Pattullo, The Untamed.
zanjero = water master; a collector of
assessments for a canal company and controller of the allotment of water to
fields (from Spanish zanja,
irrigation ditch). “Newly located settlers forsook their ditching and leveling,
zanjeros deserted their water gates and levees.” Harold Bell Wright, The Winning of Barbara Worth.
Previous: W (whipstock – wurrah!)
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: Ruth Roland, The Sheriff of Stone Gulch (1913)
I was just using the term yellow back in a story.
ReplyDeleteHaven't heard the term "yellow eyes", usually it's "white eyes" for whites.
ReplyDelete