The Dictionary of American Regional Dialects is always searching for information on obscure dialectal terms. Their most-wanted list includes these:

paddy bed--A pallet. Reported 1968 from Loretto PA. Is this known elsewhere? Any ethnic associations?

panther tongue--A squealing device made by children. One report, Lexington VA, from an old white farmer: You blow into it and it makes "an awful panthery racket." Is this known elsewhere? How is it made?

peadoodles--1992 Houston Chronicle, a woman writer mentions "A bad case of the peadoodles," meaning nervousness. Please explain fully if you know this.

pen(-type) barn--Four informants, all from Michigan and Wisconsin, gave this term. It appears to refer to a barn without stalls, in which the animals can roam freely. Can anyone give a more precise definition?

penny berry--From a recent Pennsylvania word list, where it is defined as "a small ground plant with edible berry."

penny pup, penny dog, penny feist--"A small dog; a noisy, worthless person; a tagalong or toady." Our evidence is mostly from the Appalachian region. We would like to have more data on the distribution of these forms and their meanings. Is anyone familiar with any of them as a verb?

pent road and pentway--"A minor road that may be closed off by gates." This used to be common in New England, especially Vermont; we would like to know if it is still known.

perch bug--Two NY state informants offered this, one as a term for dragonfly and the other for a dragonfly nymph (used for fish-bait). Does anyone else know this term? Is it really applied to the adult insect as well as the larva?

percolator--Apparently at one time a name for a "(house)-rent party" in Chicago. If you know this, do you know why it is so called?

periwinkle, pennywinkle--Any "sightings" of these words in reference to critters (not flowers, please!) other than marine molluscs would be welcome; we are especially interested in the application to various insect larvae used as bait.

perjinkety--This British dialect word for "persnickety" turns up in a 1930 novel set in South Carolina.

Persian apple--"Rhubarb." We have 19th century evidence for this; does anyone know if it is still in use?

pestle around--"Putter around." We have three examples, all from Vermont.

Peter's mudhole--Four informants, all from Georgia and three of them Black speakers, used this term in reference to storm clouds, rain, and wind. Can anyone give us more information on what this means and how it is used?

pimping--In the sense "puny, sickly." Common in nineteenth-century New England and found occasionally by both LANE and DARE fieldworkers. Do people still use the word in this way?

place-eyed pea--Jesse Stuart writes in Beyond Dark Hills, "Where the black shoe-makes grow, the land won't sprout place-eyed peas." What are place-eyed peas? Evidence?

polecat--An informant in seGA said that this is what he calls "the foamy stuff that has to be dipped off when [cane sugar] syrup is being made." Does anyone know the word in this sense? Does anyone have any any insight into why it should be so called? (It's hard to see any connection with polecat "skunk," but we have not been able to think of any other word this might be a variant [or folk-etymology] of.)

poley--Reported to mean "rump, backside." Our only evidence is one 1992 cite. Do you know this? Who uses the term? Where?

polly, polly wad--Two DARE informants (PA, KY) gave this in the sense "a woman's hair done up in a bun." Does anyone know this?

polly-in-the-bag--"Sausage and potatoes mixture cooked in the lining of a pig's stomach." This was recently reported to us from the "Dutch" area of PA. Does anyone else know it?

pompey--This is in the supplement to the Century Dictionary, defined "Bulging or sagging in a dangerous degree; said of a floor in a burning building; also, applied to ice when it is in a similar dangerous condition ..". They quote a 1904 example of the sagging-floor sense from a New York City newspaper; the only other evidence we have for the soft-ice sense comes from an elderly DARE informant from Brooklyn. Any further evidence, current or historical, would be appreciated.

poor man's apple--We have two quotations, one each from Kansas and Oklahoma, which say only that this is "a kind of melon." Has anyone heard this, and if so, can you tell us what kind?

pop-robin--"A small ball of dough cooked in boiling maple syrup." We have a single recent quotation implying that making these was a traditional part of "sugaring off." Can anyone attest to this or supply an earlier example?

possum pie--A "play party game" common in the Ozarks in the early part of this century. Does anyone still know it? Can you describe it?

potato thump--"Mashed potatoes." We have two New England quotations for this, as well as one for tater tunk in the same sense. (Tunk is well attested in the Northeast in the sense "thump, beat.") Is either one of these expressions still used?

potato time--"Noon, the time of the midday meal." Does anyone know this?

pounce--Asked for ways of saying "hit somebody hard with the fist" an elderly GA woman replied "He pounced him one." Has anybody heard pounce used in this way?

pour-cream--"Heavy (whipping) cream." This is reported as "common" in a central OR town. Is it known anywhere else, and if so, what is the implied contrast?

qualify--A verb meaning to change the quality of a liquid in some way--e.g., to put cream into coffee, water into wine, etc. An old sense--is it still current?

quickstarts--A type of sneakers. Reported once, 1971, from western Montana. Where else is this term in use? What explains the name?

quiddle--From New England, "to busy oneself with unimportant things." From Connecticut specifically, "to give a piece of information or news too soon." These meanings, reported separately, can hardly be reconciled. More, please, if you know the word.

rabbit dew--Reported used by an elderly GA farmer to mean "mist." There must be more to it than that; can anyone supply a more detailed definition?

rail, out of one's--Reported heard in the sense "outside one's area of knowledge or expertise." Has anyone else heard this? Is there some coherent metaphor behind it, or is it a blend of "out of one's bailiwick" and "off the rails"?

raised gravy--Both the DARE and LAGS surveys turned up scattered instances of this in the South (as well as one example, which may or may not be related, of raisin['] gravy), but the comments that were recorded do not make it clear what distinguishes this from other kinds of gravy or explain the sense of raised.

rank (cars)--We have two citations saying that in Trenton NJ people used to rank cars instead of parking them. Is this still true? Is the word used anywhere else in this sense?

ranny/ramie--A 1935 article on "Language of the Livestock Mart" says that rannies are "common-bred southern calves of poor quality." A 1936 list of words from the TN mountains defines ramie as "young calf." Any corroborating evidence for either of these--perhaps related--forms would be appreciated.

ratgut--Variant (by folk-etymology?) of rotgut "bad liquor." 7 of the 8 informants who used this are from ePA, NY, NJ. Do others, there or elsewhere, know this form?

rattleran(d)--This old Massachusetts term for the "rear under-portion of a forequarter of beef" was retained in Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking School Cook Book at least into the 1940's; is it still known or used?

rawny(-boned)--"rawboned." We have 8 examples from LANE and DARE, all in Maine and New Hampshire. Is this still current there or elsewhere

recruit--Six DARE Infs, mostly in PA, gave this as a name for a very small cigar. Can anyone explain this? Is it a brand name?

rebie, reibie, ribey--"Lanky, scrawny." This Scots dialect word appears in two Appalachian sources. Does anyone else know it?

red-man--"To inflict summary justice on." We have a single example from the southern Appalachians: "They red-manned [him] because he was allus beatin' his wife."

red pea--Does anyone know this as a specific term for a type of pea--perhaps a black-eyed pea?

red-top cane--Two Texas informants gave this, one in response to the question about kinds of grass grown for hay, one in response to the question about other plants grown for hay.

ribble off--"To recite quickly, by rote." Apparently a variant of the Scots dialect reeble. We have two examples (1900 and 1925), both from Maine. Is this still in use?

Robin Adair--"Jack-in-the-pulpit." This was given by a single Indiana informant and is apparently unknown to the botanical literature. Has anyone heard this?

rock bait, sandstoodle--Both terms were elicited from a Georgia informant by the question about kinds of worms used for bait. We suspect that both refer to the larva of a caddisfly, which surrounds itself with a shell of sand grains or other small objects, but we have no further evidence.

rock sallet--One Kentucky informant describes this as a wild green that comes up early in the spring and has a purple flower.

Roman cannon--A firework; presumably the same thing as a Roman candle, but none of our informants states this explicitly. Does anyone know this term?

rough-winged-- hawk, ruffed-wing hawk. These otherwise unattested bird names came from two New England informants. Has anyone heard either of these terms, and if so, can they identify or describe the hawk referred to?

rowdy--A 1942 note in American Speech says that this was common in nwPA at that time for a denim work jacket. Has anyone ever seen or heard this?

ruddle--A 1963 Yankee dictionary, published in Lynn, MA, gives this in the sense "attic." We got one example in response to the DARE questionnaire--from an informant in Lynn MA. Is this known anywhere else? Can anyone supply an earlier citation, or a convincing etymology?

runaround--Two widely separated informants gave this as the name of a skin disease. They are definitely not using the word in the fairly well attested sense of "an infection around a fingernail," but the descriptions recorded are sketchy. It seems likely that they are referring to shingles (which typically "runs around" the body from spine to chest), but we would welcome any further information.

runout--This term is used repeatedly in a 1953 book about life on the Mississippi, apparently to mean a flash flood in a tributary stream. Can anyone supply further information?

saddlebag house--Our earlier quotations (1934-->) apply this term to a dogtrot house--i.e. one consisting of two main rooms under a single roof, but separated by an open breezeway. A number of later quotations--which may, however, reflect the terminology of architectural historians rather than the folk who live in such houses--apply the term to a house consisting of two main rooms arranged around a central chimney. If you know this from experience rather than books, please tell us what it means to you.

salad pea (or sallet pea)--"Green pea with an edible pod." Our only evidence comes from the Smoky Mountain region. Is it known anywhere else? Is it so called because it is put in salads or because it is eaten as a "sallet" (an edible green)?

scaper--"A rascal, critter, varmint." We have quotations from Alabama, Georgia, and Florida; the earliest is 1933, but M. M. Mathews recalled it from his boyhood around the turn of the century. We would like more data on its distribution (and earlier evidence, if possible).

scion--Is anyone familiar with this in senses OTHER THAN "a slip for grafting or planting" or the literary metaphor "a descendant"? What about variant pronunciations such as scient or science? Or use as a verb, as in "to science a road," meaning to clear it of brush?

scoggin(s)--"Fool, butt of ridicule." We have a Massachusetts example from 1890 and a Georgia example from 1938. (This is interesting not only in itself, but also as a possible source of scoggin as a name for various long-legged wading birds.)

scratchback--"A type of corn pone." We have a number of examples, but it is not clear what the essential feature is that distinguishes this from other types.

scraunch, scranch, scronch--"To crush, crunch." The OED (which spells this scranch but indicates a pronunciation rhyming with launch) labels it "Obs. exc. Dial."; we have scattered examples, the latest (1934) being a metaphorical use reported as Black student slang from Pennsylvania. We would like to know if it is still in use, and if so, how widespread it is. PLEASE, only forms with the vowels of cot or caught; we have plenty of evidence for scrunch!

scrog--"A wind-stunted tree; fig, something fouled up"; scrogged up "fouled up, cobbled together." A single source reports these senses from Maine; can anyone confirm them?

scutz-work--This variant of scut work appears in a recent novel. Has anyone heard it?

sermon tack--"(Two-pronged) paper fastener." We have a single report from New York. Any more evidence?

service car--"Taxicab." A single Oklahoma informant reported this as old-fashioned but still in use; we have no other U.S. evidence. (A similar sense is apparently common in Australia and New Zealand.)

Shrimp moth--A LAGS informant from central Louisiana says that these fly for two days, then return to the water and become grass- or river-shrimp. An Arkansas informant mentions, without further details, a shrimp fly, which may be the same thing. Has anyone heard either of these terms or heard this remarkable metamorphosis attributed to an insect known by some other name?

tater riffle--This appears in Brown's North Carolina Folklore defined "light bread" and attributed to western NC. Has anyone heard this? The first element is presumably potato (perhaps in reference to the use of potato yeast?), but what is the sense of riffle?



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