Hillbilly Slang

[kybearfuzz]

Pop quiz! Do you know what the following things from my neck of the woods are?

1. A Thunder Bucket?
   
2. White Lightning?
   
3. A holler?
   
4. A winder?
   
5. Poke?
   
6. Corn Squeezin's?
   
7. A lick?

The Answers!

1. A Thunder Bucket is essentially a chamber pot. The "Thunder" part, according to my dad, was because when you went #2 in it, it sounded like roaring thunder.
   
2. White Lightning is another word for moonshine hooch.
   
3. A Holler is a hollow, the valley between two hills where folks live.
   
4. A winder is a window. Heavy Scots-Irish influences made words like window and hollow pronounced like "winder" and "holler"...
   
5. Poke is a leafy herb/vegetable that grows wild and folks will cook to eat. It was often heard from my mom, "Your Aunt Beverly is bringing over a mess of poke for me to cook tonight." I was never that big a fan.
   
6. Corn Squeezin's is also a term for moonshine, usually the corn grain alcohol variety.
   
7. A lick is a small stream, smaller than a creek. Here in Northern KY there is a park called Big Bone Lick State Park, which is due to Mammoth bones being found near a stream, and not what you're probably thinking of, but it is good for a laugh...

Comments

[cincycub.livejournal.com]

I've at least heard the terms "holler" and a "lick" but I couldn't define them!

[cutepacub.livejournal.com]

I know White Lightening is moonshine. I always end up with some of that when I come home from Kentucky or Tennessee.

A holler is a valley, I think.

A winder is window, I think. (I think alot :) )

I have no idea what the others are.

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

You are right on your three :)

White Lightning is moonshine.
A holler is a "hollow".. the valley between two hills.
A winder is a "window"..

Good job :)

[madkevinp.livejournal.com]

A Thunder Bucket? A Car?
White Lightening Is Hooch..
You Have Told Us About The "Holler" Before, I Think You Were At Your Sisters?
Winder? A Back Road?
A Poke Is A Sack (Bag)
Corn Squeezins...Dont Tell me It Has To Do With Ones Intestinal Tract...LOL
And A Lick Is What Id Like To Give you!!!

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

LOL.. You got the white lightning part. But missing the others.. except for the lick part, I liked your answer there :)

[braddumm.livejournal.com]

okay, spill it, sister...what does it all mean??? LOL!!

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

LOL.. I've posted the answers that most haven't gotten in the original entry update. :)

[snowboardjoe.livejournal.com]

1. A Thunder Bucket? No clue.
2. White Lightning? I'll go with the moonshine suggested earlier.
3. A holler? You mentioned over Christmas. Valley in woods?
4. A winder? Window!
5. Poke? Clueless.
6. Corn Squeezin's? Related to making moonshine?
7. A lick? A salt lick for livestock?

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

1. This one is the tough one.
   
2. Yep, it's moonshine.
   
3. Yep!
   
4. Correct!
   
5. This one is hard too.
   
6. Correct! Corn Squeezin's is another word for moonshine.
   
7. Nope, but it's a good guess.

[davegrrr.livejournal.com]

So I find it amusing and disturbing at the same time that snowboardjoe called me up to verify his answers to all this.

I have to admit that I use or readily understand all these with the exception of the thunder bucket and corn squeezins.

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

Heh... I'm impressed he's putting so much effort into this, he trusts your knowledge there!

You know what "Poke" is?

[davegrrr.livejournal.com]

Sure..it's all about the context though. ;-) Gay pokes are much more fun than grocery pokes.

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

LOL.. well, I certainly wont argue with that. Can you buy poke in a grocery store?

[davegrrr.livejournal.com]

Well here in town, probably only at the Harris-Tetter down at Cameron Village. Unfortunately, they don't have them at the HT within walking distance from my house. Wouldn't that be convenient on a Friday afternoon as I drive home from work?

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

Interesting... I guess it depends on if you like poke or not. Back home, it grows wild and people will find large patches of it and chop it down. I've never heard of my mom buying it at the grocery before.

I was never that big a fan of poke myself.

[davegrrr.livejournal.com]

Good heavens, we are talking about two entirely different things. :)

Poke to me is a paper bag. Maybe what you are calling poke is what I call plantin'. It's like greens, grows in clumps maybe 4-5" long with a broad light green leaf.

Ring a bell?

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

LOL... we are talking about different things. Your description of plantin' sound just like poke (or polk, as I think is the proper spelling).

That the stuff.. it grows wild for the most part and people in my rural KY town love it.

[snowboardjoe.livejournal.com]

Just for the record, I called up davegrrr AFTER I posted my answers. :p

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

LOL... just to verify right?

[ursaloco2.livejournal.com]

I don't know that I've ever heard folks use "lick" in relation to a stream, although I know that's the actual definition.

"lick", like "mess" is a unit of measurement.
They don't have a lick of sense :-)

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

I know you've had to hear of certain places in KY, like Paint Lick and Flat Lick, which are basically towns named after local creeks.

[ursaloco2.livejournal.com]

Right, but place names don't really become part of the local vernacular.

[badgerpdx.livejournal.com]

I read this before I saw who posted it... I'm like DUH! I LIVED IN KY! OF COURSE I KNOW THIS...and then I saw it was another KYian who posted it. DUH.

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

I was telling someone today about a "thunder bucket"... don't ask me how we got on the conversation, but it made me wonder of other things we talk about back home that make the local folks here say, "what is that???"

[canowhupass.livejournal.com]

Okay, I grew up in the midwest and had some difference:

3. Holler: What Gwen Steffani does in response to other girls?
5. Poke: Abbreviation for cow poke or cowboy
6. Corn Squeezin: no idea although I have heard tales about how folks have used corn cobs before the invention of toilet paper...
7. Lick: small quantity as in "He didn't have a lick o' sense in his head:


Here's some for you:

1. Crik: small stream or creek as in "He's down by the crik fishin'"
2. Malarkey: nonsense as in "That's a bunch of malarkey"
3. Piss n' vinegar: mischieviousness as in "Lordy, that boy is full of piss n' vinegar today".
4. Tan: process to cure leather also spanking as in "son, if you don't cut that out I'm going to tan yer hide."
5. Mess: a large quantity as in "I've got to go cook up a mess of chicken for the church social tonight"

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

LOL.. I've heard of those too.. especially the use of corn cobs for toilet paper (I can't imagine how clean they'd get you) and "crik's"...

[pocochon.livejournal.com]

I just learned 7 new words today! :-)

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

Heh! Just imagine the fun you'll have working "thunder bucket" into a conversation... :)

[586bc.livejournal.com]

My undestanding is that there is a technique to cooking "poke" (which we always knew as "polk salad"). If I recall, one has to boil it and pour off the water several times before it is fit to eat.

You cannot imagine the giggles I got when I used to drive by Big Bone Lick. Too funny.

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

Oh I still do when I drive past the sign. I might go there this weekend and see if I can't buy a souvenir tee-shirt :)

And I think you do have to boil it several times.. it's a shriveled mess by the time it's done.