What it means to be Southern.

Remember this post?

I want to pick this subject back up and tell ya'll more about:

What it means to be Southern.

today we'll talk about southern slang........

such as.....

naked as a ...jay bird

sharp as a.....tack

thin as a....rail

dead as a.....door nail

smart as a....whip

looks like something.......the cat drug in

running around like a chicken....with its head cut off

tight as a ....tick

"smidgen"

An inexact amount, a smidgen is a measurement for just a bit of something.  The Restorations Hardware company recently advertised a set of measuring spoons for a pinch, smidgen and a dash.  Most Southerners would enjoy them for sentimental reasons.  The probably wouldn't actually need to use them.

"piddlin' "

Sometimes use as a verb, "just piddlin' " which is to say not doing anything of great importance, but staying busy with activity, or as an adjective as in "piddlin' amount" which is to say an amount not large enough to really count.

"traipse"

When you traipse, you traipse around.  One doesn't just traipse, one traipses around or traipses about. (The preposition is necessary for clarity.)  Gad about is almost the same thing.

"y'all"

Y'all is the Southern contraction for "you all," and generally is addressed toward a group, as opposed to a single person.  Plural may be signaled more conclusively by "All y'all".  As a convenient and kink-sounding reference, y'all is also favored by Southerns who wouldn't want to offend when names aren't immediately known or recalled.

example:  Y'all come by the house after the game. We'll have some ham biscuits and iced tea.

also..............

We mash our potatoes, and we mash elevator buttons.  We also mash light switches, or we'll cut the lights on for you or cut the lights off, whichever is needed.  We tote things, as in "Anna Kathryn was so kind to tote my heavy groceries to the house."  We carry people to the grocery store, and we let you know what we're getting ready to do by announcing, "We're fixing' to....."  I find myself is a common comment as in "I find myself thinking it's Tuesday, when it's Wednesday."  We'll greet you with "Hey" and we'll likely add the preposition "up" to our verbs.  We call you up, we admonish you to listen up, and we invite y'all to come on up to the house, and "Goodness gracious" we hope you come!  

We also crack our windows, and we trim our pencils, and we like to sit a spell.

quote from the book:

"I'm not from the South,

but I got here as quick as I could!"

spell check had a blast with this post......

let me know your comments on this, I can relate to it all