Who else has ever heard this "word"?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I was just thinking of this word my dad used to use, and it occurred to me that I have never heard anybody else use this word in the ~40 years since I first heard my dad say it.

That word is (and I’m just going to spell it phonetically, since I’ve obviously never seen it in writing), “peewadden”.

In usage: “I knocked the peewadden outta that guy!”

So it was used in the same sense as the more common “… knocked the stuffing out of …”

Has anybody else ever encountered this word? I wonder if it was local or regional slang that was simply already out of date by the time I was a kid. This was in western Washington state, where both my dad and I grew up (though I grew up in a different town than he did). He may have learned the word from his father or grandfather - his grandfather came from West Virginia.
ETA: I’ve heard the word “wadding” used as a synonym for “stuffing”, so maybe “peewadden” is a bastardization of “wadding” …

2

Google turns up 656 hits, but I can’t track down an origin.

3

How did he pronounce ‘pudding’?

4

I always heard the word as “peewaddLin’.” Never understood where the word came from, but I knew what was meant by the phrase.

5

The first link is interesting in that the discussion of the term includes mostly other people from the Pacific Northwest, as well as a couple Southerners (including one from Arkansas - it’s worth noting that there are/were a lot of transplanted “Arkies” here in Washington. I notice that discussion refers to scaring the peewadden out of somebody, rather than knocking it out of them. I’ll add that my dad used the term to refer not only to knocking the peewadden out of somebody in a fight, but also in the sense of an electrical shock doing the knocking.

Just like it’s spelled, with the “g” on the end. Which is interesting, because his mom, my grandmother, always dropped the “g” from “-ing” words. She was a born and raised Southerner.

ETA: I also just noticed that this thread is already the second link shown in the Google search.

6

I’ve heard this before. I believe the phrase is “pea waddin’” (pea wadding) which apparently was something used to stuff in muskets. I’m not certain about this, but I do have a vague recollection.

7

Related thread.

8

I’ve heard that word a few times, both in "knocked the peawaddin’ " and "scared the peawaddin’ " out someone.

I’m also in western Washington, so maybe it is largely regional.

9

Stepfather used to say it (born/raised in CA). Interestingly enough, he did a lot of black powder rifle shooting.

10

Similar recollection, down near the Arkansas border with Missouri.

11

I’m from Arkansas, and have not heard the term. :slight_smile:

12

My dad is a black powder enthusiast himself, but he was using the word long before he took up the hobby.

I wonder if the term was used as a sot of catchphrase by an early TV actor, or maybe by a radio show actor.

13

My dad was born in Nebraska, was a child in Colorado, and was a teen (I think) in Southern California.

14

That’s freakin’ weird . . . is your dad my mom?

15

Same area, even, and haven’t heard it. ::shrug::

16

I’ve heard old Mainers say it. The kind of old Mainer who says “joe-jeezly” and “bejesus” and calls amusing things a “corker.”

17

Strangely, I have heard the term “peawad”, but not “peawadding”, and even used the same way, such as “I’m going to knock the peawad out of you.”

Don’t have a clue where I have heard it, though.

18

My mom used to say it occasionally, as in, “scared the peawaddin out of X.” My family is from the midwest, but they have a bunch of weird sayings that seem to be common in other regions.