Southern Word of the Day

Feelslikefar

Feelslikefar

Senior Member
Location
Nashville, TN
Having some fun with this, as I was born in Georgia to southern parents, word I'd hear around me.

'Catawampus'

Askew, going badly, messed up.

" Billy Bob Joe Buck was 'fixin' to mend the broken chair, but things just went catawampus from the
very beginning; so he asked his brother, Bobby Joe Jim Bob, to help him out..."
 
I was born in North Carolina and still have relatives there. I guess that's why Dallas felt like moving home after almost 30 years in Florida. Southerners call dinner "supper" and lunch "dinner". I also heard "catawampus" many times growing up. "Bless your heart" is big in Texas, which sounds like someone cares but is just saying you're pathetic.
 
I used to say "bless your heart" and meant it. Then someone online told me it was meant to be insincere..I stopped...but I think it's only people online who believe that.

And then there was the time I said online that I had alligator tears about someone who had died. Sounded like big tears to me. Again I was told it was insincere. I guess I just take things literally. Sometimes I feel like I'm not in sync with this world šŸ™ƒ
 
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My mother used to say "Shes been rolled hard and put away wet" about a relative she did not like because of the hard look on her face. She never smiled and always looked down on other people.
 
Lara said:
I used to say "bless your heart" and meant it. Then someone online told me it was meant to be insincere..I stopped...but I think it's only people online who believe that.

And then there was the time I said online that I had alligator tears about someone who had died. Sounded like big tears to me. Again I was told it was insincere. I guess I just take things literally. Sometimes I feel like I'm not in sync with this world šŸ™ƒ
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Just keep on being your sweet self Lara. People always have opinions online and I've learned the hard way to just ignore most of them. I mean the ones with their rude opinions, that is. šŸŒ¹ šŸ’—
 
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Feelslikefar said:
Having some fun with this, as I was born in Georgia to southern parents, word I'd hear around me.

'Catawampus'
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My wife and I have been to the US many times yet we have never been north of The Mason-Dixon Line. My school friend, sadly, late school friend, was a health professional, she married an American surgeon and they lived in Savannah GA. We visited them on a number of occasions. The US Civil War has been a fascination for me for a long time. I would ask questions of local folk, visit battle sites and read up on many references. My friend and her husband had a favourite restaurant that they would take us to, it's where we first came across y'all, that made me smile, it's also where we thoroughly enjoyed Southern hospitality.

It was also the first time I heard catawumpus, although I had no idea what it was, or meant, but I sort of worked it out. Folks there knew of my interest in the civil war, someone even referred to me as the President of the Confederacy, in exile. The expression catawumpus was used during a conversation about the Confederacy. "It all went catawumpus fer Robert E Lee, only Lee's name was pronounced:
Roberty-Lee. "Have a nice day y'all, and come back soon now."
 
terry123 said:
been rolled hard and put away wet
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We said rode hard, probably means the same.
Lara said:
bless your heart
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My mother used that expression along with "that's nice", neither were meant in a kind way...

horseless carriage said:
my interest in the civil war
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An interest of mine too, as it is for many southerners of our age. I had several ancestors who served in the Confederate army, grew up hearing those stories over and over. My great great grandfather, William Daly Burtchaell was one of minor fame. He was captured at Gettysburg and took my grandfather to the 50th reunion of the battle. Heard that story so many times I can recite it by heart. This is a summary from https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Burtchaell-141 lots more detail at the website.

William enlisted in May 1861 as a private in the 2nd Florida Infanry ("Columbia Rifles'), which was sent to Richmond, Virginia for training. His was one of two companies sent to Cedar Keys, north of Tampa, Florida, and rose to 1st Lieutenant. He was involved in the taking of two small vessels. He was later transferred to the Engineer Corps, but became tired of inactivity, and joined the 5th Florida Regiment as a private, quickly rising to the rank of 2nd Lieutlenant. That unit had a minor role at 2nd Manassas (Bull Run). During the winter of 1862-63 he was sent to Florida in pursuit of deserters. He was at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863, As part of Pickett's Division he was captured on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg (3 July 1863). He was sent to Johnson's Island, and without news for several months his family thought him dead. He was released due to severe illness in March of 1865, and made a "long walk" home.

I also had an ancestor from Kentucky who was in the Union army and eventually died of war wounds. No one spoke of him...
 
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