How far? - Wordsmith.org

Wordsmith.org

I heard a word/phrase last time I was in Chicago that I had never heard before and wondered what the geographic area for this word/phrase might be.

plum n'elly

Have you heard it?
Do you know what it means?
Can you use it in a sentence?
What part of the world are you from or in what part of the world did you become acquainted with it?

I don't think I've heard of this. How sure are you of the spelling? Plum nelly could be one thing; your spelling could mean another, such as the "whole" expression may be plum and elly. Can you tell us what it means?

I've never heard it, and I don't know what it means, but I like the way it sounds! It should be the name of a line of children's clothes, or the name of a gift store that sells.......plum jelly, of course, among other delectible edibles!

I assume plum (plumb?) is the US slang term meaning completely or utterly (as in plum loco, which in Westerns at any rate seems to be a colloquialism for completely insane).

The only slang usage for nelly I can think of is rather old-fashioned and means effeminate, but I have a feeling that may be a UK usage.

Plum(b) nelly should therefore mean utterly effeminate, but it seems an unlikely combination given the disparate geographic origins of its parts, and yet it's echoing around in the depths of what I laughingly call my brain as a catchphrase from somebody or other.

Bingley

Had no idea what the phrase meant, consuelo, and so, went googling. Look, what I found!!

Plum Nelly:
Plum Nelly from �plumb nearly in the middle of nowhere,� an extremely rural location

This phrase is from a book called the Cotillion, by John.O.Killens. Sounds like a must read; am posting the link below.

http://www.givens.org/curriculum_detail.asp?CurriculumID=113

[aside]I didn't know what a Cotillion was till I read the link and so, for those like me:
From NODE:
COTILLION; noun
1. a dance with elaborate steps and figures, in particular, an 18th-century French dance based on the contredanse.
US: a quadrille.

2 US: a formal ball, especially one at which debutantes are presented.

ORIGIN: early 18th cent, from French cotillon, literally �petticoat dance�, diminutive of cotte, from Old French cote.

"Plumb nearly..."

I've thought all along that plumb made more sense as the spelling over plum. We wrote about the two different spellings for the concept a while back, and at the time I thought since 'plumb' could meant straight down, as in a plumb line, plumb was the better choice over 'plum.' Good to see it spelled so in your quote, maahey.

Well, I was sitting on a barstool, talking to the gentleman next to me and he used the phrase. It tickled my fancy, so I wrote it down on the back page of my address book. I asked Professor May how it was spelled and he liked my spelling for it. I also asked him exactly what it meant and he sad "Plum out of the county an' n'elly out of the state".

I also found this example and alternate spelling googling:

We went to the Plumb Nellie Crafts Festival in downtown Branson. The Plumb Nellie Festival got its name from an old British expression: you can find "plumb nearly anything" at county fairs. While the "nearly" in this phrase was Americanized into "nellie", the meaning of this still remains that you can find truly nearly anything at the Plumb Nellie Crafts Festival.
This came from a Missouri state website. There are also references in North Carolina, many references in Georgia, including a word of mouth definition here: http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/012002/ath_0120020007.shtml
And then I found this blast from the past, a band I never heard of: http://www.johnearlwalkerband.com/plumnelly.html
I'm sticking with "plum n'elly" 'cause I like it

Re:COTILLION; noun
1. a dance with elaborate steps and figures, in particular, an 18th-century French dance based on the contredanse.
US: a quadrille.

which bring us to one of my favorite songs...
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/People/rgs/alice-X.html
(scoll down a bit, and you find it the text, just serves as an introduction...) it also seems to suggest that quadrille was also used in the UK.

and neatly answers the question, How far?
the further we are from england, the nearer we are to france!

Is what's that apostrophe doing in there between the n and the e? Did Professor May like it there?

Well, one he said he liked it there an' two I think we were a couple of shots of Jamison into chasing the frosties we'd already consumed an' three I think I had him hypnotised!

There's a Plum Nelly, Georgia. I remember going there as a kid. It's in the foothills of the Appalachians. Here's a site that splains the meaning in its opening paragraph (it's a commercial pottery site, but hey, I ain't selling nuthin):

http://www.lookoutmountainpottery.com/

great name for a dessert though, served with ice cream probably. I know, I know, no food threads.

great name for a dessert though, served with ice cream probably

and made with wild beach plums, no doubt!

I was in Trenton and Lafayette Georgia last year and I didn't even know Plum Nelly was there! *sigh* for all the lost opportunities...

For the sake thoroughness I would point out plum(b) can mean 'utterly' or 'totally' in pretty much any situation in British slang (e.g. 'We're plum out of honey'). A common usage of plum (without the 'b') is as an especially desirable position, assignment, or reward (e.g. an ambassadorship granted as a political plum.); not sure how that one came came about though.

Re:A common usage of plum (without the 'b') is as an especially desirable position, assignment, or reward

Yes, like:
Little jack horner, who sat in corner,
Eating his christmas pie,
He stuck in his thumb, and pulled out a plum(b)
And said "What a good boy am I!"

(but i have read that nursery rhyme is not that old, and Jack Horner--really was a political appointtee, who helped himself to some lands, in the time of George III.)

and We're plum out of honey' would be just as common in parts of US as in UK.