...in them thar hills

Posted by James Briggs on November 05, 2000

In Reply to: ...in them thar hills posted by Philippe on November 04, 2000

: Hi!
: Would anybody know who first said "There is gold in them thar hills"? And, by the way, what does "thar" stand for? "there"?
: I've looked in many dictionaries, to no avail...
: Thanks for your answers,
: Philippe

Don't know who first said this, but my guess is that it comes from early Western films and, as such, was never used in the 'real' West.

As for 'thar' - you're right; it means 'there' and is part of a badly composed sentence. It's not used in usual spoken English. Correctly 'them thar' should be 'those', but it doesn't have the sam ring!!