Dear Readers,
Click here to read the previous post about Southernisms: Magnolia Blossoms, Canopy Roads, and Spanish Moss.
Here are some additional colloquialisms that I found:
Exclamation: Oh, ye gods and little fishes!
Response to impudence: Well, Mr. High and Mighty!
Relishing something — usually, enthusiasm about a food item: Like there’s no tomorrow! OR Like it’s going out of style!
Working, with a great energy or resolve: Going great guns! or Loaded for bear!
I am pleased for you: Well, I’m proud!
Endearment: “I call Baby Lucy ‘Spoon-Full-of-Sugar,’ because she’s so sweet!’ [Benjamin Daniel Stewart, 3 & 1/2]
Around here, we refer to some duties as “Being in the Briar Patch:”
Haley might ask Stephen, “Will you hold Lucy?”
And he will respond, “No, no! Do not throw me in that Briar Patch!”
The reference is from the Uncle Remus stories, which my grandmother read to us, over 55 years ago.
I am not sure if this phrase is uniquely Southern but I recorded a recent conversation between Grandaddy Stephen and Grandson Benjamin, 3 & 1/2:
Grandaddy: Well, this picnic table has certainly “seen better days!”
Benjamin: What is “seen better days?”
Grandaddy: Well, do you see how the wood is old? It has sat out in the sun so long that the wood has become rough and split and is falling apart in places?
Benjamin: Yes. [Pause.] Umm, Grandaddy?
Grandaddy: Yes, Benjamin?
Benjamin: You have “seen better days!”
Margot’s Corner 