Southern words and phrases that I love.

[fangirl_says]

-Loaferin'
Verb. Being lazy; accomplishing nothing. Wandering aimlessly.
("What're you doing today?" "Oh, just loaferin'.")

-They, law! (Sometimes just "They!")
Expression of surprise, loosely translating to 'holy crap' or 'wow!'
("They, law -- it's snowing!"
"They! Look who's here.")

-Good lord willing an' the creek don't rise.
If all goes well. Unless something prevents it.
("Next summer, I'm getting married -- good lord willing an' the creek don't rise.")

Now you go! Tell me what words, phrases or colloquialisms you love. Doesn't have to be Southern -- in fact, I'd love to hear phrases from other regions and countries. :D

Comments

[hunnyfreak.livejournal.com]

uncomfortafull - to be uncomfortably full.


"Would you like a slice of cake?"

"NO THANK YOU! I'm uncomfortafull!"

[berreh.livejournal.com]

Always useful, always evil: "Well bless their heart." >:D

Also I was always fond of the verb "tump". Hold up, you're fixin to tump that over!

[fleshflutter.livejournal.com]

From the West Country, we have 'shrammed' which is to be very very cold - God, my toes are totally shrammed. I also like 'maidie', which is a term of endearment for a young girl - Be a good maidie and just bide a while. :)

[pie_andcoffee]

"fixin'" - Getting ready to do something. As in, "I'm fixin' to get up offa this porch an' go feed the chickens."

"direckly" = "directly" - now, or soon, or maybe never. As in, "I'll be over thar direckly." Which means, you'll see me when you see me, bitch. God willin' & the crick don' rise.

"come-up" = stray. As in, "He warz the best dog I ever'n had, even if he was just a come-up dog." I have to admit I never heard this before I moved to SC but everybody here calls strays "come-up" animals. Apparently a lot of strays "come up out'n the swamp."

"Howzurmomnem" - "How's your Mom and them?" = "How's your Mom & all your relatives/friends/people??"

hee. This was fun, thanks!

[marciamarcia.livejournal.com]

From Minnesota:

"Spendy" = "Expensive". Basically, the same thing as "pricey", but cuter sounding.

As in, "I didn't buy that sweater. It was a bit too spendy, don't you think?"

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

"Couldn't find his own ass with both hands and a hunting dog."

[kimyoo-films.livejournal.com]

Well, in my part of Florida, I don't hear much that isn't already widely known as a Southern colloquialism. In any case, I tend to use common British / Scottish / Irish / Australian / Kiwi terms. "Bloody hell" and "crikey" being two of my favourites.

I like, and have used, "Bob's your uncle!" which is like "voila!" or "there it is / there you go."

"Screwed the pooch." Something got really messed up. lol

"Well, paint me gold and call me Oscar!"

Thanks to my obsession with CSI, I've actually used the following phrase: "Dude, don't make me slap the epithelials off your face..." I love that word, epithelial.

I also tend to use corruptions of curse words, or other words in place of them. I don't like cursing in front of my mom, and got into trouble for saying a minor curse word at work (it wasn't even one of Carlin's Seven Words!), too close to a porthole and someone in the audience heard. I can curse as though I was in a Tarantino flick, so I find myself curbing my spoken language in strange ways. I use Firefly's "Gorram!", BSG's "frak!" (I don't watch the show, I picked it up from friends who do,) and "shoes!" I don't know why I personally picked "shoes" to stand in for a curse word. It's just silly, but I use it a lot.

[mercyisme.livejournal.com]

Dösbaddel = idiot
Tüffel = idiot, also: potato

Both lower German (Plattdütsch), the one spoken in Northern Germany - not Bavarian or something horrible like that. ;)

[imafuzzball.livejournal.com]

Odds are, I know use some of these on a regular basis, but I don't even realize they're different!

I know that none of my friends have ever used the word "jibber." That's just a word my town has always used for idiots.

*tries to remember anything people have given her weird looks about while talking*

[willow-m-w.livejournal.com]

I love "he/she's sweatin' like a whore in church"

My curse of choice (the one that pops into my head first) is 'cock'. *G*

Oh, cock! = oh dear, something has gone wrong.

You total cock! = you are mean!

[http://users.livejournal.com/desertelf_/]

one of the best ones i ever heard was from the summer i spent in brevard, nc (your part of the world!): "smackin' shit," as in "doing nothing."

Example:
Dean - Hey Sam, whatcha doin'? (Sam, what are you doing?)
Sam - Smackin' shit. (Nothing.)

[piratesorka.livejournal.com]

"That sucks little green monkey dicks"

Meaning it reallllllllllly is awful. Can also be used as a directive : "you can go suck little green monkey dicks"

If things are really awful, beyond awful then add the word "limp" as in: "that sucks little green LIMP monkey dicks"

Usually gives a visual that can't be ignored.

Another favorite: " I must go bleach my eyes"
as in " I did not need to see that!"

[muses-circle.livejournal.com]

My favorite?

Momnthem.

"Who's going? Momnthem." LOL! I love Deep South expressions. ;)