I got tickled the other morning when Little Buddy looked at me and said, “Mama, it looks like it’s gonna come up a cloud.”
All I could think of was, “Praise the Lord, I’m raising a Southerner!”
Daddy would be so proud to know his only grandson knew what the term “come up a cloud” meant and used it correctly in a sentence.
It made me start thinking of other “Southernisms” and giggling over them as Little Buddy and I shared some of our favorites. So I thought it would fun for us to share our favorite “Southernisms” with each other, too. Who knows, we may each learn a few new ones or it may jog our memories of some old-time family favorites that we haven’t thought of in a long while.
Here are a few of my favorites:
- finer than a frog hair split four ways
- now, that dog will hunt!
- living in high cotton
- don’t hold water
- can’t hold water
- comin’ up a cloud
- fixin’ to
- mad as a wet hen
- you better fish or cut bait
- good Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise
- over yonder
- well, I never!
- busier than a one armed paper hanger
- hold your horses
- running around like a chicken with its head cut off
- nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs
- don’t put the cart before the horse
- don’t count your chickens before the eggs hatch
- it’s like herding cats
- that’s a tough wagon to pull
- well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit
- hush your mouth or hush my mouth
- bless your heart
- dumb as a post
- as happy as a dead pig in the sunshine
- I heard they ate supper before they said grace
- She could haunt a house
- in a coon’s age
- like a bump on a log
- sick as a dog
- she could eat corn through a picket fence
Now, I know I had to have forgotten some, so please leave your favorites in the comments. I know you have to have heard some great ones, too.
And since we’re talking about Southernisms, I couldn’t think of anything that goes with them than a pinto bean supper!
A big bowl of pinto beans, a piece of cornbread, and a glass of a glass of “sweet milk” was one of my Granddaddy’s favorite suppers. He’d actually request that my Grandmother make it on a regular basis for him. She’d wash the beans two or three times and then let them soak all night long. The next morning, she’d rinse them one last time and start them cooking over a low heat on her stove. She’d pull a ham bone from the freezer where she’d cooked a ham last and nestle it down into the pinto beans to make those beans even more delicious.
Her pinto beans would cook all day on the stove with her checking on them ever so often to make sure they didn’t run out of water as they cooked down in her big pot.
Even though I love to cook them all day on the stove, I also love tossing them into my slow cooker and forgetting about them until supper time. It makes for a win-win that I bet both my Grandmother and Granddaddy would have loved!
Here’s how I make them.
A classic family recipe for pinto beans updated for the slow cooker. Ingredients
Ingredients
- 1 pound dried pinto beans
- 1/2 teaspoon oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 ham bone or 1/2 pound of fried bacon
Instructions
http://addapinch.com/cooking/2011/10/12/pinto-bean-supper-favorite-southerisms/
- Rinse dried pinto beans and allow to soak overnight.
- Drain dried beans and pour into crock of slow cooker.
- Add in all other ingredients and combine well. Add water until fully covered.
- Cook on high until beans are tender, about 5 hours.
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Add a dash of pepper sauce to these and you’ve got yourself a delicious meal!
Don’t forget to tell me about your favorite Southerisms to add to our list!
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The beans look awesome! I’m in the southwest now after living in Arkansas 34 years of my life. Every once in a while if someone is being particularly needy I’ll say “I didn’t take you to raise”. It usually gets me a blank look.
Oh yes! That’s a great one!
Well you can’t forget “I ain’t seen you in a month of Sundays!”
or someone who “don’t shoot a bad stick”
and of course “fair to meddlin’ ” if you are just doing alright.
Love the pinto beans! I ate them all the time as a kid with a little slice of onion on the side!
Yes! Those three are perfect Southernisms!
“When he was only knee high to a grasshopper” is one of my favorites from my mom. haha, some people would stop and ask her to repeat herself! The beans sound yummy, and a good entry to my first dried bean recipe.
Good for you raising a true Southerner! Of course he knows what “come up a cloud” means and he used it precisely correctly in his sentence. Yay!
SO classic. Being from Kentucky, I do still love those Southern classes. Would you be interested in doing a guest post of Southern classics for my website?
How about “Don’t put your eggs all in one basket” or “Spill it” when you want the truth? UGH… there was another one but it slipped my mind. Will have to come back when it returns to my sleep-deprived brain!
I knew if I posted that comment I would think of it!
“Eating high on the hog” when you have a great meal. LOL
So what does come up a cloud mean? sorry, this Wisconsinite doesn’t know
Hey Dena – It means that it is about to rain.
My Pawpaw’s best line ..”useless as teets on a boar hog”- I think you get the meaning!
Beans and corn bread! the best meal on a cold rainy day.
LOL! Yes, I totally get that meaning. That’s a good one.
I’ve been told “better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick” is a Southernism. My parents say that phrase ALL the time
. My mom says “the good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise” too! I find it amusing that my parents use Southerisms, but we haven’t had family raised in the South in generations.
Those Southern roots run deep, Rene.
O.k. not sure if they’re “Southernisms” but they are frequently used in my family…
•feel like a deer on roller skates (I came up with that one b/c it’s how I feel most of the time)
• It’s hotter than a hoot owl in heat (did I just say that *out loud*? My daddy is responsible for that one)
•not the sharpest tool in the shed
•not cooking on all four burners (another one that I frequently use)
Can’t think of anymore at the moment. Such a cute post Robyn!!
You did a pretty good job of covering Southern sayings. My husband is from Wisconsin and the things he gets on to me about the most are:
- Fixin’ to (He used to try to get my mom on his side because she taught school, but that stopped after she told him she is always fixin’ to do something
)
- Putting something up. Example, I hand him a dish in the kitchen and ask him to put it up (in the cabinet). He wants me to say to put it away.
- Pushing the door to (to where?)
Great list and a great recipe too. We love beans around here with all kinds of fixins too!
Love these! I’m born & bred Texan, so I totally get these & they made me smile this morning! My mom made beans & cornbread yesterday to top it off. My grandfather used to say “it’s so good it’ll make you slap your grandma”. My grandmother would always say “horsefeathers” when she was mad, lol. There’s the popular “whatever floats your boat”. Hmmm…I’m quite sure I’m forgetting some!
My brother-in-law says “it’s so good it’ll make you slap your grandma” all the time! My Mother isn’t so sure she likes that saying now that she’s a grandmother.
Great looking beans & cornbread…yuuuuummmmm! How about – “Same old, same old” – or “The road to hell is paved with good intentions & I’m slidin on in”.
I use a lot of these already on here all the time…of course, I do live in Texas! Lol
Here are a few more:
-knee-high to a short pup
-ugly as a mud fence
-dumb as a box of rocks
-snatch you bald-headed (often used by a grandmother warning a child)
-handy as a pocket on a shirt
-hotter than a pot of collards
-d’rectly (as in, I’ll be there directly, meaning soon)
Makes me laugh thinking of these!
Oh these are great ones, Angie!!! I’ve not heard “hotter than a pot of collards” before, but “d’rectly” is a family favorite!
Wow, you’ve covered so many sayings, I can’t think of any. But I am sure in an hour or two one will slip out. They come so natural don’t they? My most frequented saying though is “Lord help us.” or “Lord help us all” and I know they go on and on, the more comfortable I am around friends family, the more they flow. Unfortunately my son seems to be taking after Daddy. He won’t even call me Mama, I just get no your mommy!
I’m a Texan and one that I use quite often is the word “tump”. It means to turn over and dump out, as in “y’all be careful runnin around in here, you’re gonna tump that bucket!…or, be careful and don’t tump that. My husband, from California, is appalled quite regularly at some of the things that come out of my mouth.
My personal favorite is “bless your heart” aka ” you’re so stupid.” Only southerners can insult a person with charm at the same time! My grandmother’s favorite was always “praise the Lord, and pass the ammunition.”
“Bless your heart” or “bless her heart” can actually have a good meaning, too. But usually it follows something like, “I heard they ate supper before they said grace. Bless their hearts.” Therefore, it totally cancels out that you may have said something negative. Not that I know about that or anything. I just hear these things. LOL!!!!
All of these are so familiar being a Texan born and raised as well. I was going to add the “tumped over” one, but it’s been added. The only other one that hasn’t been said is, If I tell you a piss ant can pull a freight train, you better back it up!” Meaning you better believe what I say and do it.
I’ve not heard either of those until today and got a big chuckle out of both of them! Love them!
pitch a hissy fit !
he needs that like a dog needs a hip pocket
she/he looks like he fell out of an ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down
looks like he’s been beat with an ugly stick
I’m gonna jerk a knot in his tail
Haha – love all these Southernisms. Will have to sart using a few of them in NYC.
The beans and cornbread look delicious!
“Tump” is used in a very small portion of the south, I’ve found. Definitely in Arkansas where I grew up. Some of my friends in TX and LA have heard/used it. I went to college in Mississippi and most people there didn’t use it. It’s a combination of “tip” and “dump.” It’s fun to find little words like that that are so rare! Here in Louisiana, we say “slap your mama” instead of “slap your grandma.” My kids love to say that to see if it gets a reaction from me. We also love to say “bless your little cotton socks” or “bless your buttons.” Those are fun
My mother’s saying was ‘you would never notice it on a galloping horse’.
Oh my gosh, after I left my early comment I realized that I had forgotten the one I probably use most! When a cooked item is really good, it’s so good it’ll ” make your tongue slap your eyeballs out”! Lol. What I love about Southernisms is how descriptive they are.
I am loving these expressions! I better memorize some before I see you in December….
I really enjoyed the time I spent here. This is my first visit to your blog, but having browsed through your earlier entries can definitely tell you I’ll be back. I hope you have a great day. Blessings…Mary
Robyn, one of my favorite things about living in the south is hearing some of these crazy phrases in daily conversation. Gives me a smile every day!
I’ve been looking for a good (and simple) pinto bean recipe and this one is perfect. Love the Southern sayings. I’m a TX girl, married to a military man, and living in Southern CA. I still use y’all, and head’s always turn when it comes out of my mouth. No shame here. I’m an TX girl at heart.
Another would be using the the word “mash” instead of “press”. Such as telling someone to mash the button on the microwave instead of press the button on the microwave.
There is also another one where people would use the term “cotton pickin”.
To say different things such as: “My brother gets on my cotton pickin nerves”, etc.
If we were fixin’ to get in trouble, Mama would threaten to “dust our cushions.” If she followed through, she would tell us to “straighten up your face.” I always wondered how crooked mine was! We were also told “it’ll never be seen on a galloping horse, and that’s the kind you ride.” Other sayings from my Grandma- “She who cooks and takes a sample, courts a figure that is ample.” And when I married and moved from the big city to a cattle farm, I think of this one of hers often – “A fly killed in May is worth a load of hay. A fly killed in June is worth a silver spoon. A fly killed in July, isn’t worth a fly.”
When someone did something pretty smart, “There ain’t no flies on him!”
My Mom’s family always said; “Good night nurse!” and if someone just couldn’t sit still; so and so was acting “like a maggot on a hot rock” and “come here so I can hug your neck”
Beans look like my mama’s…bless her heart.
Being raised in Arkansas, I use the phrases “tump” (to turn over & dump out) and “fixin to” all the time. Others that I’ve heard some of the “old-timers” around here use are “y’uns” (all of you), “poke” (paper sack), “ain’t they?” (for isn’t there?), “can you carry me to the store?” (can you drive me to the store), “a mess of greens”, “looky yonder” (look over there).
I used to hear my family say “don’t get above your raising” a lot during the 60′s.
People were “gob-smacked” a lot where I came from …and my Grandmother was convinced that when someone was smiling for no reason…”that one is up to no good”.
Purty as a speckled pup…happy as a pig in a corn patch…cross as a Billy Goat…she’s a long tall drink…in a blink…go pick a hickory switch….sit a spell..you reckon…near dark…about time…now then…give me some sugar…honey, you ain’t changed a bit.(I love that one)…on a lark…so many more!!! I still love going home and listening to my family bantering back and forth. When I have a phone conversation with someone back home my own family knows immediately because it all comes back and I am “in the thick of it” for the next day or so.
I have Pinto bean recipe that I make for my family and we all love it…with cornbread of course!