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Folk phrases

Posted by ESC on August 22, 2001

In Reply to: "Hitch in your git-along"..type of phrase posted by Patty on August 22, 2001

: My great granny used to use phrases like "he's got a hitch in his git-along" (meaning: he's momentarily thwarted, or he's no self-starter). Is there a categorical term for this type of folk phrase? Is there a book that has collected these from old rural America? Thanks.......
: - Patty

There's probably a term for these phrases. But I don't know what it would be. I call them country-isms.

There's a billion books with these sayings. And I'm trying to buy all of them. Listed here are my favorites. I have a couple of "scholarly" ones in addition to these:

Mountain Range: A Dictionary of Expressions from Appalachia to the Ozarks by Robert Hendrickson (Volume IV, Facts on File Dictionary of American Regional Expressions, Facts on File, New York, N.Y.,1997).

Southern Stuff: Down-home Talk and Bodacious Lore from Deep in the Heart of Dixie by Mildred Jordan Brooks (Avon Books, New York, 1992).

This Dog'll Really Hunt: An Entertaining Texas Dictionary by Wallace O. Chariton (Wordware Publishing, Piano, Texas, 1989, 1990)

Whistlin' Dixie: A Dictionary of Southern Expressions by Robert Hendrickson (Pocket Books, New York, 1993).

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