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.

[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!!!

[braddumm.livejournal.com]

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

[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?

[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.

[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 :-)

[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.

[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"

[pocochon.livejournal.com]

I just learned 7 new words today! :-)

[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.