"Fixin' to ____ "

Posted by ESC on November 05, 2005

In Reply to: "Fixin' to ____ " posted by Smokey Stover on November 04, 2005

: : "Fixin' to ____ "

: : When I lived in Texas I picked up on this curious phrase. As far as I know, it translates to "getting ready to _____". Does anyone know of its origin?

: It translates just as you think. The "definitive record of the English language" appears not to list this usage, but I'm sure some dictionaries do. There's a cowboy dictionary, I think, of which I haven't a copy. If this locution is still alive in Texas I'm not too surprised. It's heyday, however, was the same as the heyday of cowboy stories in print and on the silver screen. I don't know whether it was ever a part of real cowboy lingo, but it may have been. Why this particular verb? It may be somewhat analogous to "fixing" dinner, that is, preparing it. SS

I don't know the origin. Except it no doubt relates to "fix" as in: 5 : to get ready : PREPARE. Fix lunch. And it is a country phrase.

Fix. Verb. To prepare to. To be about to. "I was fixin' to come and see you."

Also:
fixin's. Noun. Ingredients. "I would make cornbread if I had the fixin's."

From "Smoky Mountain Voices: A Lexicon of Southern Appalachian Speech Based on the Research of Horace Kephart," edited by Harold J. Farwell Jr., and J. Karl Nicholas (University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, Ky., 1993).