About a month ago, we ran a story on the Dictionary of American Regional English, a collection of the colorful and varied words used in Americans’ everyday lives, across the country, organized by region — including Maine and New England. We included a short but eclectic list of some of words specific to Maine, and asked readers to submit their own suggestions for Maine words.
We received an excellent response, and have since compiled them all and done a little research (to the best of our ability) to weed out the words used elsewhere in the country from the more strictly Maine ones. We’ve come up with our own, revised list of Maine vernacular words and phrases, a little dictionary containing words ranging from the obvious, well-known “dooryard” and “wicked” to lesser-known gems such as “laury” or “sprills.”
Our thanks to our reader contributors, including Sarah Harriman of Canaan, Nessa Reifsnyder of Bar Harbor, Sandra Brennan of Linneus, Virginia Fitzgerald of Bangor, Laurie Larkin of Baileyville, Erin Burr of Newport, Jude Gagner of Bangor, Dana Sawyer of Milbridge, Chandler Barbour of Belfast, Mary Beth Judy of Blue Hill, Sharon Hall of Islesboro, Sandra Smith of Perry and Linda Preston of Roques Bluffs.
Dooryard: The area immediately adjacent to the front door of a house; “Take your boots off and leave them in the dooryard.”
Wicked: Synonym for ‘very,’ to a high degree, extremely, exceedingly; “That movie was wicked cool,” or “That guy that cut me off is a wicked jerk.”
Ayuh: Yes, affirmative; “Ayuh, it’s spring in Maine — 35 degrees and cloudy.”
Stoved, or staved: To be in disarray or fundamentally messed up; “That lawn mower doesn’t work, it’s all stoved up.”
Cunning: Cute, adorable; “Her daughter is wicked cunning.”
Cussid: Cursed, obstinate; “That cussid car won’t start up.”
Dub: A stupid person; plural, dubbers; “Those guys are a bunch of dubbers.”
Teeming: Heavy rain; “It was teeming wicked hard last night.”
Spleeny: Feeling nervous or anxious about something; “I’m too spleeny to run right into the lake.”
Yee yaw: To wiggle something to make it work; “You’ve got to yee yaw the handle after you flush.”
Glob around: To relax, or chill out; “We went up to camp and just globbed around all weekend.”
Glom: To grab, or be greedy; “She glommed up all the leftover candy.”
Laury: Referring to overcast weather; “It’s been laury out all week.”
Numb: Stupid; “What, are you numb? Put it down!”
Jeezum crow: Mild expletive; “Jeezum crow, I thought you were gonna hit that other car!”
Yow’un: Young person; “Get those yow’uns out of the kitchen.”
Orts: Scraps left at a table, to be given to pigs; “I’ll gather up the orts and take them out back.”
Rig: Flamboyant personality; “His grandfather was a bit of a rig, always the center of attention.”
Pregnant for: To be pregnant, as opposed to ‘pregnant with’; “When I was pregnant for Shawn, all I wanted was whoopie pies.”
Scrid: Tiny portion; “All that was left of the soup was the scrids. What a ripoff!”
Drove right up: Busy; “At Christmas we’re drove right up, so it may take longer.”
Tipping: To pick fir boughs for wreaths; “We went tipping last weekend out in the woods.”
Yard on it: To pull hard; “Just grab hold and yard on it ‘til it comes out.”
Sprills: Dropped tree needles, “The roof’s all covered in sprills.”
Riley: Used to describe the color of the ocean after a big storm; “The bay was all riley this morning.”
Stivering: To walk unsteadily; “She was stivering down the street, so I got out of the way.”
Darker than a pocket: No light; “Jeezum, it’s darker than a pocket in this attic!”
No bigger than a fart in a mitten: Tiny; “Aww, look at her, she’s no bigger than a fart in a mitten!”
Number than a hake: More colorful way to say someone is stupid; “I tell you, that kid across the street is number than a hake.”
Culch: any kind of trash or rubbish; occasionally used of a person held in low esteem; “I’m gonna clean all that culch of the basement if it’s the last thing I do!”
Gaumy: awkward, inept, stupid; “Look at him singing karaoke, what a gaumy dub he is!”
Larrigan: A type of long-legged moccasin or boot; “Throw on those larrigans and grab your gun!”
Barvel: A fisherman’s apron made of leather or oilcloth; “They measured the lobsters, water splashing against their barvels.”
Finest kind: Used variously, as a general indication of approval; also used ironically; “That was an awesome dinner; finest kind.”
Money cat: A calico cat, especially one with at least three colors; “Aunt Kathy’s new kitten is a money cat; she’s good luck.”
Pull-haul: to argue, contend; “They pull-hauled the issue over all night.”
Tide walkers: A log floating, often with only one end at the surface, in coastal waters; “A couple of tide walkers collected down in the cove.”
Short: An illegal, undersize lobster; “They got fined for not throwing the shorts back.”
Eighteen-hundred-and-froze-to-death: the period of 1816-17, one of the worst winters Maine ever experienced; “Jeezum, it ain’t been this cold since Eighteen-hundred-and-froze-to-death!”
Putty: also with around; to occupy oneself with trifles, to idle; “He was puttying around with the engine all weekend.”
Slip one’s wind: to die; “She slipped her wind overnight.”
Fog mull: a heavy, stationary fog bank; “That fog mull rolled in wicked fast, and now I can’t see anything.”
Groaners: a whistling buoy or foghorn; “Those groaners are freaking me out so much I can’t sleep!”
Dry-ki: dead timber, especially that killed by flooding; dry branches; driftwood; land where such timber predominates; “Don’t build a fire there, there’s way too much dri-ki.”
Scrod: a method of salting and preserving codfish; “We had beans and coffee and some scrod for supper.”
Ploye: traditional Acadian buckwheat pancake; “Ployes with butter and maple syrup are totally delicious.”
Larrup: to give or receive a beating; “You kids settle down or you’re all getting a good larrup!”.
Ive never heard of 80% of these.
Me either !
I hadn’t heard of about 1/2, mostly the ones toward the end, and some I thought were ‘official” words, like cunning!
Triple “C”- Tain’t nevah heard the “g” on cunnin’ before
You should see the strange looks that you’ll get if you say “isn’t that baby cunnin’ ” anywhere but Maine, LOL
Isn’t? Don’t think so. I believe it is “ain’t that baby cunnin’.”
I’ve heard a bunch of those before, but some of them seem like they aren’t that uncommon to be used by anyone in fact a few I think I’ve heard before from people not in New England.
Where was this list 30 years ago when I needed it? ;)
I don’t recognize more than about half either. Some must be very local.
And isn’t it “stove up”, not “stoved up”? Never heard anyone add the “ed”
That is more a Machias saying- I have heard it often in that area
This ones all “stove up”, but I got anutha’ out in the shed.
Jeezum Crow someone stove my cah up somthin’ wicked!
You forgot to add “Yessha Bub” at the end
“Chummy”
I never heard of it with the ‘d’ either. But I guess that could depend on which part of the state one lived in.
My grandmother always used spleeny as in being something of a sissy or a dandy. As in my sister use to freak out going through a shed into the barn because there were always a lot of large spiders around the ceiling.Or my brother hated working in the garden because he’d gets his hands and clothes dirty.
Also a word that comes to mind is “corker” which was said as “cocker”. I usually heard it used as in, the car shuddered to a stop, grandpa got out and popped the hood and said “Now isn’t that just a cocker.” I’ve also heard it used as perhaps someone was a bit of a spitfire or being determined. I think it might be Irish in origin and don’t know what it really meant.
Pronounced “cockuh|cockah” (omit the ‘r’); usually prefaced as a person or an event which/who is a “real cockuh|cockah.”
My father was “dry as a chip,” and always prefaced with the term *real* (cockuh|cockah|pistol|Chrissstah)!
Usually meant as endearment|humorous to a person or an event (which cracked him up beyond belief).
In the summertime, if he saw anyone he knew in a vehicle (which was frequent), he referred to a woman or a man’s bathing suit as “swimmin’ trunks”. Or just “trunks.”
“Come on outtah camp–bring ‘yah trunks!”
That’s funny.
Not a Mainer but I have heard of “stove in” as having a hole like a leaky “stove in” boat.
My Dad always referred to doing a little of this and a little of that as “fubbing”…What did you do today? Oh just fubbing, nothng too important”.
Probably he used it as a derivative of two words, esp if Motha was nearby
My grandfather called my brothers and I fubs or if something was broken he would say it was fubbed. I remember when he would yell to his brother and say the water is fubbed.
Maine cant lay claim to wicked, dooryard, numb and a few others on this list lol. In fact I heard people in Georgia and N.C use money cat long before i heard it in maine.
I’ve heard people use those ever since I was a yow ‘un. How old are you? (Never heard yow’un before though, or I wasn’t paying attention.)
I have talked to people from all over (I live in an area where everyone seems to be from somewhere else) and “dooryard” is the one that makes them laugh every time, nobody that I know has ever heard that one.
What’s wrong with dooryard?
It’s two words thrown together that is uncommon to hear outside of Maine. I grew up in Maine and it seemed like a perfectly normal way to say “driveway”. When I moved away, I might as well have been speaking a different language, people had no idea what I was talking about. Same with “sideboard” Mainers use it to describe a counter top in the kitchen, when everywhere else it is used to describe a specific piece of furniture. It’s not necessarily wrong if you live in Maine, but elsewhere it sounds quite unusual. Same goes for “cunnin” to describe something cute, people outside of Maine rarely know what you mean by this, it sounds a lot like “cunning” which has a whole different meaning.
I like the Maine words. And if someone elsewhere is mystified, well, what a great way to open a dialogue.
I said the word dooryard to a Midwesterner and he laughed for 5 minutes straight. Never realized it wasn’t another word for driveway everywhere else.
I never thought dooryard meant driveway. To me the dooryard is the immediate area outside the house……the front, side or back lawn…
Funny– I always thought it was more or less standard!
Agree. In southern New England (specifically RI, where I grew up), the word “wicked” is considered a Rhode Island thing, or rather, a Rho Dyland thing.
Ive heard most of them. Some not for awhile and made me laugh. Pretty funny stuff.
Bob Marley can probably supply a few more. Upta camp, etc.
…how ’bout scooch over (ovah) on tha couch…or pour me a scosh more (moah) of that branch water (watah) [liquor], please…or could of, for (foah) could have (could’ve) ?..o’coss it’s “stove up” as in “Daddee gut all stove up when he tripped on tha stairs (stayuhs) down cellar (cellah)…nevah heard cunninG in Maine but theyahs lots of cunnin’ young things in shorts (shaughts) in summah where (whayuh) tha bugs aren’t (ahn’t) too bad…gaumy can also mean somethin’ that just looks much less than perfect, as “That gate that Percy done (built) sure (shuah) is gaumy.”…and pro’ly most folks from So. Maine and beyond nevah gut stuck on a tote road (a dirt road for hauling logs out of the woods)…I nevah heard dub as single, was always dubbah or dubbahs…The accents on the coast of Maine from Ellsworth East can be traced to individual towns in the British Isles…I nevah heard Yow’un, either…1st I heard it was by someone from PA…
“Cistuhn” is located down cellah (many Maine homes had a cistern down cellah, and only a dug well outdoahs, which was the source of their domestic water for the household).
Befoah indoah plumbin’ (flush toilets|water closets, which is from the old country–England).
Two-holeah privies were commonplace (usually attached to the kitchen ell).
…had a cistuhn direct undah the kitchen sink what wuz fed by guttahs an’ downspout…always wondahed how they kept the seagull poo out (or if they cared)…the 2 holeahs wuz at tha fah end o’ tha bahn, which wuz connectid ta the house by 2 sheds so’s ya wouldn’t have ta go outdoahs noah shovel ta git theyah in wintah…
Richard Hooker introduced some of us to “finest kind” when his novel M*A*S*H was first published. His character, Hawkeye Pierce, was supposed to be from Maine.
My late wife, born and raised in PA, used to say “money cat.”
Isn’t is a “lowery” day rather than “laury?”
Yes, lowery is defined as “dark and gloomy; threatening: e.g. ‘a lowery sky.’ ”
Also, ‘cultch’ (with or without the “t”) is in the Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. Definition: Eastern New England: rubbish; refuse.
Agree, too, with stove up, and not “stoved”; ‘stove’ is used, in this case, as a past perfect participle of “to stave up (or ‘in’).” A stave (noun) is one of a series of wooden slats which make up the sides of a barrel, and which were often used as makeshift weapons, so anything struck and severely damaged by a stave wielded in such a fashion was said to be “stove in.” There’s a famous painting depicting Nantucket whalers battling a whale (and whose whaleboat has been dashed to bits by a strike from the leviathan’s tail) titled “Stove In.”
I used to hear the old folks use an indeterminate expression of time; when something was going to get done today but not necessarily right now, they’d say, “I’ll go do that “bye and bye.”
Someone who was going from task to task and not getting much accomplished was said to be “bouncing around like a fart in a mitten.”
A small quantity of something could be a dight, a tad, or a skoshe.
And yes, Bob Marley has popularized the “upta” preposition, but we always used it for just about any structure, not just camp. “Where are the kids?” “Oh, they’re still up to school.” Or, “Dad get back yet?” “Naw, he’s still up to the mill.”
Lots of good regional expressions here; it’s a shame they’re disappearing. Kids now get their speech patterns from television and movies, and the old phraseology falls by the wayside.
My grandfather, born in 1882, said “bye and bye.” As well, instead of saying “what diffrence does it make,” he’d say “what odds does it mske?”
Most Maine kitchens have a “cultch drawer,” which is typically where you ‘pitch’ items into (in a haphazard manner) that don’t really belong anywhere else.
Usually found in close proximity to the silverware drawer; and doesn’t tend to be the least bit organized (nor should it be)!
“Thick ‘a fog out”
My fav: No bigger than a fart in a mitten
Never heard anyone say it but I’m gonna use it whenever I get the chance. Where I grew up the saying “Damn Skippy” is common to hear.
As for the word “wicked” I never used it until I moved to Maine. When I read a sign that read “wicked good” I thought to myself. How can something be bad and good at the same time?
My personal favorite non-word to use is “craptastic”
My mother uses “no bigger than a fart in a mitten”. Cracks me up.
“He/she’s no biggah than a minute”
The “mitten” is always wet.
you left out HAVE AT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Where’s ‘dite’? (as in a very small amount) “Ya gotta move that just a dite or it won’t fit.”
Skosh (long “o” sound): just a dite, smidgen, skosh, dollop or a slosh.
A jokester can be classified as a character, a ‘real pistol’, and/or “what a Chriiistah!”
“By the jumped-up Jeezus!”
“Give it to uh!”
“Ovah the road”
“Put up” (food, preserves, canned vegetables, etc.).
“Put out”: the dog, the cat, sexual intercourse, or the laundry (on the clothesline”solar dryer”).
I “did up” my mornin’ dishes befoah noon.
“I gut my dishes all done up aftah suppah” (also if an older woman still “does up” her hair in brush|plastic rollers, bobby pins, and/or pin curls).
“Jimmies” (are always *brown*)!
“You look like death warmed ovah”
“Kinlin” (kindling)
“Likkah” (booze–usually hard liquor)
“Bizzy as a one-ahmd papah hangah”
“All drove up”
“All stove up”
Dinnah bucket, Dinnah pail, lunch bucket, lunch pail
Crocus sack (burlap bag)
“Down cellah” (Fetch something down cellar|in the root cellah).
“Up attic”
“Goin ‘ta beat sixty!”
“Have a good one!”
“Get ‘yer arse in geah, Deah!”
“We wuz runnin’ ta beat Jeezus!”
“You look like you gut a bad case o’ the dropsy” (looking haggard/tired)
“Ass-ovah-teakettle”
“Lug” (vs. carry–something heavy)
“He’s a tad titched in the haid” (ain’t too swift|bright|not much between the ears; or ‘a few bricks short of a luhd’).
“Numbah than a hake|pounded thumb”
“How much for the ‘Guvnuh’?” (how much is the sales tax on a purchase)
“Slick as a cuppa custuhd”
“For Cahriissakes, what in hell ails ‘ya?”
“They’re from ‘Down Home'” typically meaning anywhere in Washington County, but the true definition of “Down East” means once you’ve crossed the “No-Longer-Singing-Bridge landmark (the new Hancock-Sullivan Bridge).
There must be thousands of clipped off side view mirrors in the bottom of the Taunton River!
“down cellah behind the axe” (buried somewhere, not handy, something you’re slightly less likely to find than an axe in a cellah)
You forgot (slicker than snot on a doorknob).
Some of these. “lug”, “have a good one”, are not unique to Maine (or even the Northeast). Others exist elsewhere (but without Maine pronuciations): “death warmed over”, “How much for the Governor?”.
Or he was so numb that he’d walk up to a store door and knock!
Or something being yaa (long A sound)big?
What a fun article! Thanks, Ms. Burnham!
“Eighteen-hundred-and-froze-to-death: the period of 1816-17, one of the worst winters Maine ever experienced”
Correction: Not one of the worst winters in Maine, but known as the year without a summer. Killer frost occurred every month of the year due to large volcanic eruptions in the South Pacific resulting in a mini-“nuclear winter” effect in Northern New England and Europe due to all the particulate matter in the atmosphere.
Here’s the wiki article on Year without a Summer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer
And Discovery Channel as some don’t like Wiki:
http://www.yourdiscovery.com/earth/year_without_summer/intro/index.shtml
And the Farmer’s Almanac (Lewiston one):
http://www.farmersalmanac.com/weather/2010/03/22/the-year-without-a-summer/
Wait… I thought that particular global climate calamity was caused by Jonathan Strange’s use of magic to manipulate the weather in Wellington’s campaigns against Napoleon?!
(-;
Publishing this article was a good idear.
LOL!!!
I read with great interest.Thanks for you sharing.
TOOK’N (“took-and”): Denotes action.
As in: “She took’n drove down to the old Freeze’s building.”
–OR–
“I took’n bought that bird, and we took’n cooked her up for Thanksgiving!”
SURE SHE DID: Confirms agreement either with another person’s statement, or reiterates the truthfulness of one’s own claim.
As in: “I swear, that truck of yours booked-it all the way to Ellsworth on fumes alone!” “A’yuh, sure she did!”
–OR–
“I’m telling you, that deer must’ve smelled me coming, because she took off faster than I could spit! Sure she did!”
Also, every language and each regional dialect has some form of statement that acts as a response to personal thanks. Examples include things like “don’t worry about it,” “no problem,” “de nada,” “my pleasure,” “it’s nothing,” “you would’ve done the same,” etc.
The one that you hear in Maine ALL THE TIME, but rarely hear used more than once somewhere else is “don’t bother” (AS IN: “That was wicked nice of you to help us move, Jim.” “Oh, don’t bother. You two have done plenty for me over the years!”
A lot of these words brought back memories of my grandmother. She was from Bristol area and moved to Readfied. As I am writing this, I am thinking of forwarding this to my brothers and sister just for old times sake. I was glad don’t bother was mentioned in the comments. I have heard that one also.
We are the only people on Earth that when it comes to putting on one’s shoes and socks it’s referred to as “getting your feet dressed”. You gotta love it!!
My husband uses that term all the time. It is so foreign to me.
My mother used that always. She’d say, ‘wait while I dress my feet’. She was from New Brunswick, just over the boarder from Eastport.
its putter as putter around the house not putty, musta been a dam flatlander how wrote this
On a more modern note, my friend Tim in Searsport we referred to a computer as a
“putah”. As in the damn putah froze up again. At one point in schiool, chowdah was a commonly used word. Actually most anything can end in “tah” and be considered new englandish. Yeah just gottah drop all the r’s. My dad loves fishing, so he always pronounced worm as “rerm”. As when asked what kinda bait you usin? Oh just some rerms.
Myself my uncle alwasy called me “fowlah”. As I always managed to fowl stuff up.
Of course, all those dropped r’s end upin words like “warsh”.
Old timahs from “Down Home” (Washington County) call chowdah “Chowdee”.
I’ve noticed that those who reside Down East (Hancock County) & “Down Home” tend to be more likely to refer to their mother as either Mum or Mummah (vs. Mom).
…all of which illustrates the first settler dialect, which was originally from the York and Bristol regions of England.
What about MUCKLE and SCOOCH OVAH.
Scooch ovah hear and muckle on to this so we can throw it in the cah.
It’s stove up as in I stove up the riggin, not stoved-Got Flats re writing our language again!
What about “Son of a Whor-” Can’t speak Maine with out this one!
I hear that one ALL the time from the dude operating the skiddah right along with “sh*t ton.”
:-D
“Chivvy” (Chevrolet vehicle)
My dad’ s favorite expression!
My family uses “scrod” for cod in Rhode Island too. Growing up, I always thought “scrod” was a whole other kind of fish! haha
And, this is what I was taught: Scrod (also schrod) is a young (2.5 lb/1.1 kg or less) cod, haddock, or otherwhitefish, split and boned. It is a staple in many coastal New England
These must apply to the other Maine. I see they threw in “ploye” to appease the folks in northern Maine.
What about “upta camp”? Or the phrase “down to” like “He is down to the shed.” I’m from a different region of the US and those stick out most to me. Even “camp” itself, in the manner it’s used, seems to be a Maine thing.
ohh what about “ignorant”? I’ve never heard it used the way it’s used up here!
In south’n Maine it was always tonic rather than soda when I was a kid.
How so we teach people that there are no “r”s in northeaster?
You know what I hate the most is how out of staters call it “Bang-GER” or “Bang-ER” while Mainers don’t always use r’s but when saying “Bangor” that’s the way it’s said. That really bugs me a lot I am not sure why really but it bugs me. How hard is it to sound out a word how it os spelled……course now that I say that I guess that’s not always the way like with St Agatha(for all you non New Englanders it’s said St. Agat :O)
…I growed up ta Bang Gaw…
How about – —-:”ya benta Ba Habah taday?”
bumpa sticka foa ya caah
Can’t spell this, but Maine is the only place in the world I’ve heard someone answer “yes” with an audible inhale.
Teach this to your kids. Newcomers learn this. Dialect encompasses your traditions, culture and honors your past. Maine dialect is different than any other regions, this makes you unique! Encourage others to use it and make sure that you speak it. While others may make fun, you should be proud. Dialect is your legacy.
I remember the first time I heard “dooryard” was from a contractor renovating our house–and he was a transplant from Michigan.
We were discussing re-use of older doors we were having replaced, and could he use them in another project or did he know a way to donate to someone in need of doors…?
He said he would just put them out in his dooryard until he needed them. Great, I thought, he has a system for recycling used material.
Somehow, we were discussing something else, like snow-shoveling a path through his dooryard, or a package left for him in his dooryard, and I asked innocently enough why he would need to shovel, or why the package was left there…and soon enough it became clear we had two totally different ideas of what a dooryard was–and mine was wrong!
That crazy son of a w… stove up that bike and skunned his knee all to heck.
Dunna- going to “I’m dunna run down to the stoah ya want anything”.
I sh!t ya not- I am not kidding “I sh!t ya not, the fish was two feet long”.
Winslow Homer did a water color titled “A Dead Whale Or A Stove Boat ” that pretty much defines “stove”. What I miss (living outside of Maine) are the ‘street’ expressions; I’m going Overstreet, Upstreet, Downstreet, etc.
“Can’t spell this, but Maine is the only place in the world I’ve heard someone answer “yes” with an audible inhale.” That’s what hophead2 wrote. I have not thought of this in decades but after traveling all around the world I now realize that is a totally Maine thing. Sort of saying ayuh or yup but doing it while inhaling. Wow! That might be a defining Downeast characteristic.
Thanks hophead2
How about ‘rowlans’ or ‘rawlins’ or ‘rawlings’? That’s the dead brown grass you see out there in a field on a spring day like today, the grass you want to burn off to make way for the new grass, an important point if you’re haying the field and don’t want to bale dead brown stuff in with the fresh June hay.
I have lived in Maine for 65 years and venture a guess I have not heard over 50% of those words. There was one glaring error. It is not “cunning” it ‘s “cunnin”, there are no g’s on the ends of words.
Ive lived here that long too and have heard most of them. Must be the geography.
Great article. Keep up the good work. More powah to ya! Some of the entries would definitely benefit from audio.
What about the all time favorite??? Mr. Man!!
“Kiefed” – to have stolen something. “Whered ju git that toy son? I didn’t buy it for ya – ya mustah kiefed it.”
“jeet-yit” – to inquire as to whether or not one has eaten yet. Jeet-yit?
“Poor thing, she’s homelier than a box a rocks.”
LOL @ the box of rocks!
“Kiefed” is that really a Maine word, jeez I think I am gonna have to rethink my entire vocabulary! ha ha I guess I’m fooling no one any time soon on where I’m from
I grew up in Maine my whole 32 yrs and have so far only heard 17 of these words. But Ployes (btw aren’t too bad)and dooryard I never heard of til I moved up to Houlton a few years back. I think a lot of these are depending on where you live.
Some I was surprised though that they were just a Maine thing like dub(thought that was just more of an 80’s word than anything), Cunnin(no g),Cussid, Glom, Numb(really that just seems well.. numb, to be on the list) and Jeezum crow(seriously doesn’t every one use this? that does strike me as odd) .
The one word I think I could have gone through life never knowing was a Maine word(actually I think this is more of a New England word) “WICKED” I only found out when I went to visit a friend in Georgia and every one made fun of me when i used it. I say wicked awesome, wicked retarded and wicked queer(as in wicked stupid) I guess a little to much. Wicked is by far the most awesomest word in my opinion!
Via my grandparents:
Ain’t got a pot to p**s in or a window to throw it out of.
Ain’t worth a pi*s hole in the snow.
Colder than a witches t_t.
Going to hell in a hand basket.
Plivet – 10 lbs of ‘word meaning excrement beginning with “S” ‘ in a 5 lbs bag.
Cut it too short, think I need a wood (or board) stretcher.
There are more but I don’t think they’re suitable for this sort of message board. LOL
Lots of good write-ins have been submitted by BDN’s readership here; almost all of them familiar. A few more have come to mind:
Daow: an expression of extreme negation. “Didja have any luck fishin’, over East on the Narraguagus?” “Daow, not a nibble. If I’d-a had a thimble tied on the end of my flyline I’d-a bailed that river dry!” Or: “Did that neighbor boy Granville come ovah and help you stack up that wood?” “Daow! That boy’s too lazy to swat flies!”
Jeezly: a mild expletive. “Get that jeezly dog outta heah! Last time you had him ovah, he liked to take my ahm off!”
An expression for something extremely distasteful: “Do I want any of them jeezly eels?! Daow! I’d just as soon eat my big toe!”
In the same vein as “number’n a hake:” Dumb as a stump, numb as a bag of hammers, number’n Adam’s ox.
Someone who is not very attractive: “God created him ugly, then kicked him in the face!” Or: “Looks like her face caught on fire, and somebody tried to put it out with a pickaxe!” Also: “ugly as home-made sin,” “uglier’n a stump fence.” Someone who had not aged well would be said to have “more wrinkles than a sack of @$$holes.”
If someone is obviously ill or unwell, perhaps hung over or suffering from lack of sleep: “Your eyes look like two holes burnt in a cow turd!” Also used: “… two holes burned in a blanket!”
If a person is overweight (“hefty”): “He shoah don’t miss too many meals!”
Used to hear the old folks talk about “ellum” (elm) trees, which, when cut into “furnace wood” and “stoked” into the woodstove, would result in smoke that would leave the house via the “chimbley.” Before one went to bed, the fire would be “banked.”
When you “came calling” (arrived to pay a visit), they’d offer you a “glass of tonic” (= carbonated soft drink; if it was Sprite or similar lemon-lime soda pop, they’d refer to it as “Lime Rickey”), or you might be offered “a cup of tea.” Difference was, when you got offered “a cup of tea,” invariably there was some sort of confection accompanying it (e.g., a home-baked cookie, piece of cake, slice of pie).
Sure is fun to see all these old-time expressions again; I haven’t heard a lot of them in 20 years or so . . .
Keep ’em comin’!
A number of the terms on the list are or were used in western New York State.
Guess I must be quite old because i knew and have used almost all of these!Though I thought it was nummer than a hake!
I grew up hearing my Mum used the term yee odd, meaning crooked or messed up: “Who dressed you this morning? Your clothes are all yee odd”, “Fix that picture on the wall, it’s hanging yee odd”.
“Jonk”
Sometimes pronounced as “junk,” or with a ‘y’ sound, like “yonk.”
“Lop me off a big jonk o’ that pie!” (or someone’s favorite type of cake, a measurement of butter, lard, salt pork, or cheese when cooking|baking).
Jonk implies that the individual who is requesting something wants a larger than normal piece than would normally be served|measured (they’re ‘special’)!
I recently wanted a Lemon Sponge Pie recipe (very old-timey Maine); and a friend scanned me not one, but *six* into a PDF doc.
She collects antique Maine cookbooks.
A few called for lard (my mother always made pie crust from a block of lard–maybe Crisco, in a pinch); and a few called for butter (not in the crust), but in the size of an *egg*.
I was thinking, “what *size* egg?”
“Size matters,” when dealing with eggs in 2012!
Nobody purchased eggs from a grocery store back in the 1930s-1940s.
People raised their own, they were delivered by the milkman (I recall home delivery of milk in glass bottles), or a neighbor sold or bartered fresh eggs (housewives kept a stash of “egg money” somewhere in the kitchen).
Suffice to say, my pie didn’t come out as I had wished (recipe needs to be tweaked further).
Bummer.
The temperature of the oven in question differed with each recipe, too (a “slow oven”).
“Stove all to hell” and “putter” (vs. putty) were common when I was little. “What did you do this weekend?”
“Oh, just puttered around the house.”
FYI Putter (or putty) came from potter, as in, to potter around, from a potter’s shed in a garden(the English version of dooryard). Most proper English gardens have potter’s sheds. Originally from potting plants. :)