# Please share your old memories of rural and Appalachian words and expressions **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 29, 2026, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-old-memories-of-rural-and-appalachian-words-and-expressions/1027150 "2026-01-29T14:36:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2026, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-old-memories-of-rural-and-appalachian-words-and-expressions/1027150/21 "2026-01-29T20:02:58Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > When nobody under 40 ever uses coins (or currency), will the “… and change” idiom die out? Kids still drunk dial, right? They hang up on someone? These idioms reference physical actions that almost nobody under the age of forty has ever done. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2026, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-old-memories-of-rural-and-appalachian-words-and-expressions/1027150/22 "2026-01-29T20:04:54Z")
I grew up in West Virginia, the only state completely inside of Appalachia. So all of these examples come from me, not my parents/grandparents/etc. My mother came from England (and over the years her accent evolved into a very strange mix of British and Appalachian) and on the Father’s side, my Grandmother and Grandfather came from Greece. My father didn’t learn English until he went to kindergarten. I have much more of a West Virginia accent and dialect than any of them. One thing I never realized was a regionalism until I moved away from the area is how we leave out “to be” in certain sentence constructions. For example, instead of saying “the shirt needs to be washed” we would just say “the shirt needs washed”. I always knew it was a bit slangy, but I never realized that people all around the U.S. didn’t do this until someone pointed it out to me (I think it was here on the SDMB where I found out). Shopping carts were buggies. Ret up (or sometimes red up) means clean, as in “you need to ret up before Mom gets home” means you need to clean your room. > [@aceplace57](#): > > I need a new pair of of britches. Yep, we called them britches too. > [@aceplace57](#): > > Woish cloth “Warsh” is more Appalachian, in my experience. We also said “Warshington DC” or “little Warshington” (aka Washington, PA, south of Pittsburgh). > [@aceplace57](#): > > Appalachia is divided between hill people and flatlanders. West Virginia has no flat land. It’s all hills. The street I grew up on had lots that were 40 feet wide, and each house was 1 story up from the one next to it. In other words, our 1st floor window looked directly into the 2nd floor window of the house to the right, and looked into the basement window of the house to the left. A parked car actually slid down our hill one winter. > [@aceplace57](#): > > I haven’t used hunker-down in decades. Is “hunker down” a regionalism? I thought that was a common phrase all over the U.S. > [@TruCelt](#): > > Anything diagonally across an intersection was “kitty corner.” Yep. Is that also a regionalism? > [@aceplace57](#): > > People refer to an ice box. I thought “ice box” was just an old-fashioned term, from back when they were literally “ice boxes” (a wooden box with a bug chunk of ice inside that had to periodically be replaced). > [@P-man](#): > > Is fixin’ to do something just Appalachian, or is it Southern? I think it’s more Southern, but it was very common in West Virginia. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2026, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-old-memories-of-rural-and-appalachian-words-and-expressions/1027150/23 "2026-01-29T20:12:27Z")
I’ve wondered about pronouncing warsh for years. I prefer that pronunciation. A strong ah in wash seems off to my ears. I usually don’t think about it. It’s a trivial adaptation for my ears. > **[Why Do People Say ‘Warsh’ Instead of ‘Wash’?](https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/articles/why-do-people-say-warsh-instead-of-wash/)** > > If you’ve wondered why some people say “warsh” instead of “wash,” Grammar Girl will help you understand why in this article. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2026, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-old-memories-of-rural-and-appalachian-words-and-expressions/1027150/24 "2026-01-29T20:12:49Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > “little Warshington” (aka Washington, PA Reminds that in that part of Appalachia they said you’nz instead of ya’ll like they do further south in Appalachia. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2026, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-old-memories-of-rural-and-appalachian-words-and-expressions/1027150/25 "2026-01-29T20:14:21Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > My time studying at college was transformational. Right. Some of us at high school thought we were the sharpest tools in the box. But go to a good University, and you will discover there are others who are at least as smart as you. You can take this two ways: either “I’m not that good after all”, or “Great! some people I can talk to without a long explanation.. and probably learn from!” ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2026, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-old-memories-of-rural-and-appalachian-words-and-expressions/1027150/26 "2026-01-29T20:15:28Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > Reminds that in that part of Appalachia they said you’nz instead of ya’ll like they do further south in Appalachia. “Yinz” is a Pittsburgh saying (you-uns). People from Pittsburgh are often called “yinzers”. Northern WV has a lot of Pittsburgh culture in it, since Pittsburgh is the closest large city. Northern WV says both “yinz” and “y’all”. The Pittsburgh influence tends to stop roughly around the base of the northern panhandle (Marshall county). ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2026, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-old-memories-of-rural-and-appalachian-words-and-expressions/1027150/27 "2026-01-29T20:32:28Z")
The only thing I know of in Alaska was “cheechako”, which is derived from a Chinook Indian word for “newcomer”. Or as my stepfather pronounced it, “Damned **chee** -chawker”. I think Texas is the origin of “all hat and no cattle” for wannabe cowboys. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2026, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-old-memories-of-rural-and-appalachian-words-and-expressions/1027150/28 "2026-01-29T21:06:52Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Honesty was the most important value in our group. I have since learned that comes from Appalachian culture. Explains how Appalachia has voted in the past three elections. :d&r: ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2026, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-old-memories-of-rural-and-appalachian-words-and-expressions/1027150/29 "2026-01-29T21:10:47Z")
The Dutch supposedly favor honesty over diplomacy. The Scots and Irish more favor fighting over diplomacy. I suppose that explains a lot of the regional issues in Appalachia and the larger South. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2026, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-old-memories-of-rural-and-appalachian-words-and-expressions/1027150/30 "2026-01-29T21:17:41Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > I think it’s more Southern, but it was very common in West Virginia. Given that my central Florida in-laws use it regularly, I’d say it’s definitely more Southern. As my wife notes, it’s got wonderful flexibility to it. Saying you’re fixin’ to do something could mean you’re going to do it immediately, or that it’s on your mental list of things you mean to get to, or somewhere in between. On account of her/them, I’ve incorporated “might could” and “might should” into my vocabulary. I picked up “y’all” from my Kansas cousins back in childhood (1960s), so use of that expression goes well beyond the South. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2026, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-old-memories-of-rural-and-appalachian-words-and-expressions/1027150/31 "2026-01-29T21:35:21Z")
For obvious reasons, Blacks use “y’all” irrespective of their place of birth, so regionalism with “y’all” mainly refers to the lighter-skinned folks. I don’t know that this is Appalachian, but some things I heard my father say, which seems to be some kind of regionalism. His parents were from NC, but one grandfather was from Cornwall UK. One phrase he used was “dead as a hammer.” He also pronounced “saucepan” as “saucep’n.” One more is pronouncing “parents” as “pay-rents.” ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2026, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-old-memories-of-rural-and-appalachian-words-and-expressions/1027150/32 "2026-01-29T21:35:51Z")
My mom’s mom came from that culture, north Georgia up through Tennessee. A toy for a child is a “play-pretty”. A couch is a “settee”, and a dresser is a chifferobe. What **RTFirefly** said about fixin’ to do something, for sure. If there was something that in former times you could do, you “used to could” — e.g. “You used to could drive straight down the Oconee, but then they put the bypass highway in”. To a misbehaving child: “If you don’t mind [= obey], I’m gonna tan your fanny” You don’t eat supper, you eat “dunner”. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2026, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-old-memories-of-rural-and-appalachian-words-and-expressions/1027150/33 "2026-01-29T21:45:52Z")
I’ve always found _My People_ an interesting expression. I never heard my grandmother say kin-folk. That wasn’t in her vocabulary. She would use family or my-people interchangeably. _My people were farmers in Hempstead County._ Well, until the Great Depression. Our family lost the maternal family’s farm then. My uncle tried to buy back part of the land 40 years later. He wanted to build a home and retire. It was wooded land and the new owners wouldn’t sell. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-old-memories-of-rural-and-appalachian-words-and-expressions/1027150/34 "2026-01-30T02:39:46Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Nobody ever asked for a recipe; they asked if you would show them how you make it. Because just following a recipe wasn’t really knowing how to cook in our world. And a lot of these folks learned to cook from relatives who couldn’t read. Good point that I hadn’t thought about. A lot of cooking is all about the techniques. Show me how you made that dish. Each person adjusted it to their family’s own tastes. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-old-memories-of-rural-and-appalachian-words-and-expressions/1027150/35 "2026-01-30T03:05:06Z")
“Arshtaters”, or Irish Potatoes. Plain old white taters. If something is far in the distance, it’s a “fur piece.” ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-old-memories-of-rural-and-appalachian-words-and-expressions/1027150/36 "2026-01-30T03:07:38Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > My great-great grandfather was raised on a farm near the Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas border. My father was from that area, born in Cass County in 1925. I think the town was Mcleod. Either of those places sound familiar? His dad worked in the oil fields and they moved around that area a bit. My dad escaped to the Army Air Corps (later Air Force) after high school and that became his career. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-old-memories-of-rural-and-appalachian-words-and-expressions/1027150/37 "2026-01-30T03:34:57Z")
I have no Appalachian connections, but my husband’s sister jokingly calls their family (of Irish and German ancestry who migrated to the NYC area in the 1800s) “white trash” and gave us _The White Trash Cookbook_ 30+ years ago. I remembered it when I saw the word Cooter above because it included a recipe for Cooter (turtle) pie. Eastern River Cooter | Missouri Department of Conservation [Eastern River Cooter | Missouri Department of Conservation](https://share.google/O4C71G8uzUXZgiV4f) The word “cooter” has African roots, arriving with enslaved people in the American South in the 1830s. It is from the Bambara or Malinke word “kuta” (turtle). In Ozark dialect, “cooter” could mean nearly any hard-shelled turtle; it was also a verb meaning “wander aimlessly”: “He was a-cooterin’ round amongst the womenfolks.” ---
**Author:** ![Ellecram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellecram/32/18948_2.png) [@Ellecram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellecram)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-old-memories-of-rural-and-appalachian-words-and-expressions/1027150/38 "2026-01-30T03:36:03Z")
I grew up in Western PA and still retain some of the Appalachian language despite my attempts to neutralize my accent. One that I just cannot seem to yeet from everyday language is _“redd up”_ which means to clean or tidy up a space. As in, “I need to _redd up_ my living room because company is coming.” My father used to call brown paper bags “pokes”. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-old-memories-of-rural-and-appalachian-words-and-expressions/1027150/39 "2026-01-30T04:39:42Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > My father was from that area, born in Cass County in 1925. I think the town was Mcleod. Either of those places sound familiar? It’s familiar. Cass County is on the border of Texas/Ark. Same as Texarkana. There is a 3 Corners monument where people can stand in all three states. Texarkana is a nice town. It’s the biggest town in that region. Some of my extended family often drove to Texarkana for the restaurants and mall shopping. My grandad also worked in the South Arkansas oil fields. That was a boomtown area of the state when oil was discovered in the early 1920’s. Oil and the jobs that came with it gave granddad an opportunity to escape the family farm. Make more money. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-old-memories-of-rural-and-appalachian-words-and-expressions/1027150/40 "2026-01-30T07:10:44Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > A couch is a “settee”, and a dresser is a chifferobe. I doubt it had anything to do with Appalachia but I used to hear a couch called a “davenport” when growing up in NE Ohio. I would have no idea what a chifferobe was. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-old-memories-of-rural-and-appalachian-words-and-expressions/1027150.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-share-your-old-memories-of-rural-and-appalachian-words-and-expressions/1027150.md?page=3)