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SUPPLEMENT 4 ON GRANT COUNTY,
INDIANA, DIALECT
By W. L. McAtee
Previous supplements, pertaining to the papers cited had the
number of pages indicated:
Rural Dialect of Grant County, Indiana, in the Nineties, 1942.
10pp.
Grant County, Indiana, Speech and Song, 1946: 1 (Folk Speech),
3 pp.; and 2 (Folk Verse), 6 pp.
Folk Speech
A lean hound for a long chase, saying, meaning a thin man for
con-
tinued fornication; indeed, consumptives were supposed to be
especially lecherous.
do it, phr., copulate. Any of them will do it when the right bull
gets in the pasture.
breast-works, n., the female bosom.
cut a switch, phr. In horse-and-buggy days, a man taken short or
pressed to urinate, might exclaim, "I've got to cut a switch",
stop, stride off in the undergrowth, and relieve himself. A
woman, if hard put to it, might herself sometime say, "Women
have to cut switches too."
diarrhea. Descriptive term, "I've been squitterin' and squtterin\"
finger-fuck, v., masturbate a woman.
hell, n., extreme degree. "He's 'hell after women".
horn, n., (penis*) The older the buck the stiffer the horn"—an
aphorism for which this writer has seen no illustration.
If the dog hadn't stopped to shit he might a-caught the rabbit
listen to reason, phr. Said of a woman receptive to proposals for
intercourse; "She's willin' to listen to reason."
mad-dog. In the juvenile challenge: "Spell mad-dog backwards."
masturbation. To discourage this boyhood practice in those days,
the warning was that the loss of each drop of semen (we
said gism) was equal to that much heart's blood. That sounded
rather serious then but would not greatly impress the present
generation, accustomed to .hearing of pints of blood being
taken for transfusions.
onry as cat-piss, simile, very ornery, incorrigible.
pee-hole, n., the slit, with underlying flap, in boys' breeches,
which
was the precursor of the fly in trousers for grown-ups.
promised land, n., destination of earn. cop. The last line of a
hymn
parody (of which I do not recall the remainder) was "slide
right over in the promised land."
scare rats away, phr. 'Til put your picture up in the privy to
scare
the rats away", was a standard insult.
skin the prick: v. phr., retract the prepuce of the penis,
exposing
the glans. This evidence of maturity was sought by small boys
in various ways, some sadistic, as by treating the organ with
tobacco juice or even focussing a burning glass on the retarding
fold of the prepuce.
stick up one's ass, phr. Of something desired but unobtainable,
coveted, but refused, or as a gratuitous insult. "Tell him to
•stick «his old job up his ass." "You can stick that up your ass."
• suck tmy ass (balls, cock), phr., nasty retorts.
Three spans from the chin is the place to put it in. Repeated
here
here to correct a typographical error in the 1946 Supplement 2.
A saying persisting from pioneer times.
tickle her tail, phr., covered anything from titillation to
copulation.
"She'll get he tail tickled now."
work ass off, phr., work hard, make a great effort. "I ain't
a-goin'
to work my ass off for him."
wrinkle, n. One of the labia of the female pudendum. "His little
dink wouldn't get past the first wrinkle."
Folk Verse
Jesus, lover of my soul
Hang me on a hickory pole.
When the pole begins to bend
Put me on the other end.
If the pole begins to break
Take me down for Jesus' sake.
1,2,3,4,5,6,7;
All good children go to heaven;
When they get there, they will yell,
"All the rest can go to hell."
Diddle, ma diddle, ma dum dee;
The cat ran up the plum tree;
He ran so fast he skinned his ass;
Diddle, ma diddle, ma dum dee.
My girl lives in Baltimore;
Street cars run right by the door,
Brussels carpets on the floor,
Chippy, get your hair cut pompadour.
(Charles E. Rush)
Some people die of whiskey;
Some people die of beer;
Some people diabetes,
And others diarrhea.
But of all the damned diseases
That I've ever had or seen,
The worst, by God!
Is the drop, drop, drop
Of the god-damned gonorrhea.
There was a bawdy ditty about spurting gravy in baby's face,
which I can not further recall. The underset has been invented to
give the general idea; it embodies the unique concept of dialect
being spoken by a foetus.
Putting his thing into the place,
Pa spurted gravy in baby's face.
Said baby, "Pa, you'd best take keer
Or I'll get you in 'bout twenty year."
Privately printed 1954—W. L. McAtee