Your Favorite Southern Sayings
I just love all of our SouthernSayings and talking about them never seems to get old. A few times now I’ve asked people to tell me their favorites on our Facebook page and that page lights up with hundreds of contributions, everyone tickled to get to talk about them and see what quirky sayings others have to contribute as we all walk down memory lane. So today I want to start that conversation on this post as a fun way of celebrating our silly Southern sayings and learning a few new ones we might want to work into our vocabulary.
Katy Rose’s shirt in that photo is from Sweet Tea T Shirts and demonstrates wearing one of their shirts, that demonstrates the Southern pronunciation of “Cat”. Isn’t it precious? ~giggles~
They’ve got a whole passel of t shirts with different sayings such as “Ah’m bout to burn up!” or another one of my favorites “Who’s pluckin’ this chicken, you or me?”.
So I’m gonna step aside here and let y’all have at it. Leave your favorite Southern Saying below and if’n ya see one that don’t make no sense feel fre to ask what it means by replying to it. This hyar is gonna end up being a Southernisms 101 of sorts and we’re all gonna have fun with it! I can’t wait to see what you have to offer!
I want to start by saying YES, Bless your heart CAN be a good thing. In fact, I’ve heard it used more often than not in situations where it really is a good thing. If someone is going through a rough time or suffers a loss, you’d hug them and say “Bless your heart” as a show of compassion.
“You think I don’t have culture just because I’m from down in Georgia. Believe me, we’ve got culture there. We’ve always had sushi. We just called it bait.”
~Ben “Cooter” Jones
Posted by Christy Jordan
on May 10 2010. Filed under Misc, Southern Classics.
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OKay,
I love this. Where I’m from we “chunked rocks” my husband from Denver still laughs about this.
My grandma used to say “never look a gift horse in the mouth” I still have no clue.
I have aunt that says “warsh it in the zink”
All the refrigerators are Frigidaire, all bleach is Clorox.
She always warned us that “ain’t nothing open after 10pm except legs” and nobody likes fast tailed girls.
If you looked a “gift horse” (meaning anything that was free to you) “in the mouth” (examined something quite closely), you might find things wrong with it. One of the ways that people would determine a horse’s worth was to look in it’s mouth, to check it’s teeth. If the gums were receded quite a bit, giving the appearance of LONG teeth, it was an older horse – less valuable. That’s also where we get “looking a little long in the tooth”.
I have actually never lived in the South. My parents lived there for 40 years then they moved to Southern California and had me.
I can tell you this, no one in Southern California knows what “sweet” milk is. they would ask me if I wanted milk.. and I would say yes, then clarify that I wanted sweet milk and NOT buttermilk. and people use to always look at me weird and then try to pour sugar in my milk. Drove me nuts. Man, at my house, you best specify whether you wanted sweet milk or buttermilk, because if my dad got to choose, you’d get what he was having and he was ALWAYS having a glass of buttermilk. He only drank sweet milk late at night as a snack or on his cereal.
They also just do not understand about “Coke” either. I don’t drink sodas, pops or anything else. I drink “Cokes”. There just are a lot of different types of “Cokes”. You can have Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, Seven-Up.. the list goes on and on .. But they are all “Cokes” to me. It took me a LONG time to understand that to them Coke only meant Coca-Cola. A LONG, LONG time. I still do it now, the only difference is when things start getting confusing I can stop and say.. “Oh, you don’t know what a Coke is do you?” LOL
My mother would always say (if she were quite chilly),”It’s colder than a well-digger’s a** in here!”
She’ll get it done ” When donkies fly “
Or, it’s colder than a witch’s ti**y.
…in a brass bra.
…doing push ups in the snow.
“What ever blows your dress up!” The first time by new boyfriend said this one I slapped him in the face thinking he was being disrespectful…lol Least to say after giving me a “What the HECK!” look I realized it meant something totally different from what I was thinking. It means, What ever you want to do! GEE, was I embarrassed, but he still tells folks this story and we have been together 30 years.
The older the violin The sweeter the music!
“Southern cookin’ makes ya good lookin’. Must be true, there are a lot of beautiful folks in the South!
My sister said, this is so good it will make your tongue slap your brains out.
American by birth, Southern by the grace of God!
Well, ‘that beats a goose a-pecking’ (if you misplaced something).
I still can’t used to my children calling dinner lunch & supper dinner.
Tighter than Dick’s hatband.
It’s gonna weather (bad weathers coming)
Well, my Daddy has always said”Whatever blows you skirt and Grinnin like a possum eatin yeller jackets. One time while I was in college, at Pensacola Christian College I said,”Man look at that girl,she’s grinnin at him like a possum eatin yeller jackets.” She said,”WHAT????”
Then there’s “fixin” and “yonder”,my Yankee roomates all had to have Southern language classes so they’d know what I was sayin. I don’t say ice and rice like they did so I had to explain to them what they both were.
“Yonder”, like “reckon” is old Elizabethan English, that’s where we got it. Remember that if someone accuses you of incorrect English!
I love all these sayings, some are new to me, and some I grew up with. What a nice way to start the day, reading this and of course all the yummy recipes! Thank you!
shut your mouth, is said here alot, and i remember my grandmother saying go get me a keen hickory switch when we were bad, and she was not afraid to use it ! and lets not forget that dog want hunt, i could write a ton of these i have spent my life in the south, alabama, so our most famous one said here to everyone is roll tide! weather you know the person or not lol.
To a child who is acting up or being a smart aleck.
You’re just gettin’ too big for your britches!
My husband, who is originally from Canada, is completely clueless to these “southern sayings”. He didn’t live in the French speaking part of Canada but after living in the south, he said he felt as if he had moved to a foreign country. I’ve become the translator. He came home from work and said, “Someone said their shoes were rurnt from being out in the rain. What is rurnt?” So I told him it’s actually ruined. He just looked bewildered. We were talking about a movie we had planned to see, and a friend of ours said, “It’s no count.” He looked at me with a confused look. I just said, “The movie isn’t any good.” When we were on our way home, he asked me how I knew that “no count” meant it wasn’t any good. I didn’t really know so he’s still trying to figure that one out. My grandmother had many sayings that would make him look at me for translation. “No one would get up and run outside if that man said someone was lying dead in the middle of the road.” Meaning, of course, the man would rather tell a lie than the truth. “She’s so cheap, she won’t eat all she wants.” That one is self explanatory but it’s just a weird way of saying, she’s cheap. “He’s so lazy, he wouldn’t work in a pie factory.” But the thing he hates more than anything is when people come in from the extreme heat and asks, “Hot enough FUR you?” He’s still trying to think of some way to respond to that. He’s also adjusting to everything being called “Coke”. I can’t explain that either. I’ve lived in the south all my life but I never spoke the southern language. If I want Pepsi, I say, “I want Pepsi.” If I want Sprite, I say, “I want Sprite.” He doesn’t like sweet tea, he won’t touch cornbread and he doesn’t like anything green that can be picked from some random place. (I can’t remember the name of this, but my grandmother used to just pick it, cook it and eat it. EEK). It’s a good thing he doesn’t like these things because I don’t like sweet tea, I can’t make cornbread and I don’t like it at all … and for sure I’m not eating something green that came from a field, that’s all leafy. EWW!
I believe the green leafy stalk you might be refering to is “poke salad”? My mama used to cook that scrambled with eggs. It was quite yummy!
That man would rather climb a tree and tell a lie than stand on the ground and tell the truth.
One thing I have learned from living in the south, if a southern man calls you “Honey”,”Sugar” or ” Dumplin” it is a good thing; he was “raised right” by a good mama
I like anything with “Yonder” in it ~ My grandma would always say “Ya’ll go out yonder and play now”. And my all time favorite “Gimme some sugar”!!
Half the time, I don’t even realize that I’m being “southern” when I say stuff until somebody looks at me like I’m on fire. My daughter’s little New York friend loves it when I tell them to “Simmer down!” When something is the same either way it is as “broad as it is long”, or “twelve one, half dozen the other”. I used to think we invented “reckon”, until I realized it was Elizabethan English (Shakespeare). That is why it peeves me when people think we are dumb for the way we talk! They don’t know their a** from a hole in the ground, and they get their britches in a twist. I’ll tell you what, that’s all I’ve got for right now.
Poor as Job’s turkey. Smart as a whip. Happy as a pig is sh#$. Ugly as a mud fence. My Grandaddy would say “Her behind was two axe handles and a plug of tobacco across” (means it is wide). “Sorry” is lazy. “Playing possum” is pretending to sleep. Talking back will get you in trouble. “Swarpin” around at all hours of the night will get you talked about.
My grandma would give you a “yanky nickel”, meant a kiss. If I would go get her cigarettes for her she would offer to “dance at my wedding”. I’ve been married four times, she has probably worn her poor feet out in Heaven.
April wasn’t it a yanky DIME?
My Grandma used to say, “Grandpa can’t hear thunder.”
I used to aggreviate my Mama and call a refridgerator a “fridgadator”. She would say can’t you say it right. I would say yes, but why does Grandma call it a fridgadare? I love all the Southern sayings, and glad the South will always be my home.
caddy-corner or caddywampus from here.
The first time I said “cattywampus” to my husband he looked at me as if I’d grown a second head.
I’ve been out to LA a couple times and the folks out there were simply fascinated with my southern accent!! But I’ll never understand why everywhere in the country can’t offer sweet tea. The south always has the un-sweet version ready for folks that visit us. You would think they could return the favor. I guess there is an awful lot to be said for southern hospitality.
I was born in southeastern Ky but raised in northern Ohio. When I was a little girl I remember our second grade class was walking from the school to the library by two’s. I almost tripped over a crack in the sidewalk and said, “I swear.” The little girl I was walking beside me yelled to the teacher and said “she says she swears.” “I do not.” I answered. The teacher yelled back to me, “I better not hear you swear. ” Now, I’m “bilingual.” I speak the language of both the north and south.
I am from the south, and have always used the “I am sweating like a whore in church”, and “that has nothing to do with the price of tea in china”.
Ever known anyone who “went back on his (her) raisin(g)”? (Not living by the family values.)
In West Tennessee, the verb “carry” is used a little differently:
I’m carrying my van to Memphis, if you want to go with us. I’m gonna carry Mama to the doctor next week.
the south will always be my home. i was was born(west memphis,Ark) and raised(shell lake,Ark) in the south.. i live in iowa now and (have for the past 10 years) its not like the south here. miss my southern families
Iowa is nothing like the South, but there are so many warm, engaging down to earth people who live there. I lived outside CR for 4 years -that was before and after living in Louisville, and I to this day, consider Louisville my home even though I grew up in Nebraska. Believe it or not, alot of these sayings we said there as well. Sweet tea is the best and one of the things I missed the most! I am back in the area now and love it!!!
I’ve never been to Iowa but always imagined it to be an incredibly nice and beautiful place. I hope to get to visit someday and take my family since you just confirmed the nice part – now we just need to go take in the beauty
Every decision you make today, will effect the rest of your life.Determine your eternal destination, choose spiritually, wisely and in Gods best interest.
My aunt use to say this after she would finish eating a great meal: “I am going home to throw my belly up on the bed & lay up beside it”! She was so cute with her sayings. When she was about to go to bed, she would say “I am going to fly up on the roost”! I loved her humor & miss her chicken & dumplings. I haven’t had any that good since she died!
Only a Southerner knows the difference between a hissy fit and a conniption fit, and that you don’t “have” them, you “PITCH” them.
Only a Southerner knows how many fish, collard greens, turnip greens, peas, beans, etc., make up “A MESS.”
Only a Southerner can show or point out to you the general direction of “YONDER.”
Only a Southerner knows exactly how long “DIRECTLY” is — as in: “Goin’ to town, be back directly.”
Even Southern babies know that “GIMME SOME SUGAR” is not a request for the white, granular sweet substance that sits in a pretty little bowl in the middle of the table.
All Southerners know exactly when “BY AND BY” is. They might not use the term, but they know the concept well.
Only a Southerner knows instinctively that the best gesture of solace for a neighbor in trouble is a plate of fried chicken and a big bowl of cold potato salad. If the neighbor’s trouble is a real crisis, they also know to add a large banana puddin’!
Only Southerners grow up knowin’ the difference between “RIGHT NEAR” and “A RIGHT FAR PIECE.”
They also know that “JUST DOWN THE ROAD” can be 1 mile or 20.
Only a Southerner, both knows and understands, the difference between a redneck, a good ol’ boy, and po’ white trash.
No true Southerner would ever assume that the car with the flashing turn signal is actually going to make a turn.
My Southern husband made a comment about large derrieres. He said, “Looks like two hams wrestling under a blanket!” I thought I’d laugh myself to death.
My grand daddy use to ask me if I was “sparkin”. Meaning was I liking/dating anyone at school. Use to hear older people call a bag at the store a poke. If a baby sneezes you say scat there! My husband (who is from Illinois) laughs when I say we need to go have our picture made. He says you mean taken? He has learned everything is a Coke. That being born and raised southern I will always make way too much food when we have company and to just go with it. He learned that any directions you need when visiting my home town will be in reference to where it is located from the old Kroger. Grocery carts are buggies.
I live all the way up here in Alaska and I was born in Washington state, but our Southern roots are very strong and I am still asked from what part of the South I came from! I get alot of strange looks when I say “Dreaded! or Thats Dreaded!” when something goes wrong.
Aparently no one from Alaska knows what “Dreaded” means. lol And my sweet Momma always “Fired” us kids. When ever she was frustrated with us she’d say ” Ya’ll are Fired!” That meant we better skiddadle! lol I have since become a momma myself and I am known as the Mom who “fires” kids! lol
My grandma put the letter r in many of her words, ie, bananer, warsh, tomatoer, etc.
She would quietly sing “I love YOU a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck.” =)
She would say “that’s as country as a dozen eggs!”
She would cut her a big ole slice of cornbread, warm it, butter it really good and plop it in a cup of buttermilk. Besides a sugar/butter flop sandwich, it was her favorite snack!
I aint gonna tell you again!
You dont believe bull horns will hook.
You dont believe sh#* stinks till somebody rubs yer nose in it.
Grandmaw called a bicycle a wheel, a ghost a haint, a helicopter a whirlygig
Im a gonna getcha
Oh boy, there are lots! How about “hitch your wagon to a star” to tell someone to set high goals. Or, you dry off with a “tawl” and yes, everything is a “coke,” UNLESS you’re talking about tea. And of course, you’re talking about iced tea, almost always. I have cousins who used to say “he’s finer than a frog hair” to mean someone was really handsome. Or, if you’re asking for something that you’re never gonna get (and you want to be crass) you say “put want in one hand and shi* in the other and see which one fills up first.” I have family from MS (and TN) and there’s an expression for literally everything. “I’ll slap you cross-eyed” if someone’s staring, or just being bad, in general. They use to “prize” open doors, etc instead of “prying” and my great-aunt would say let the water come to a “roping boil,” rather than a “rolling boil.” I love the fact that the South has such rich expressions (even if half of them don’t seem to make sense to others – they do to us)!
Being born in Ga. and stayed until age 16, then moved to SC for two years and now living in Al. I have enjoyed every minute of being a southern Belle. I have also realized that, most persons find the southern language and southern people a delight. Sure, most of them may need some explanations of our nomanclature but, no matter what state or country you are traveling, you will find that no one speaks the same. After all, we are individuals. But, when you hear others recalling there exposure to a southern, you will also see a grin or maybe even a broad smile on their face. Guess we bring out some cheer in them. And, for those that we may offend, sorry if you were upset as a sor tail cat. However, if we have riled you so badly you can put on your brogans and hit the road, but we will remain in the south. And, if you wish to let by gons be by gons then we will gladly stir you up some hawg jawls with pot licker for New Years day. When you return, and you will, and our fences have been mended, then we will be as happy as the flowers in May to see you again.
Let’s not forget “Bless your heart!”
My momma used to always send me to East Texas(Marshal,longview Beckville) and Grandmother would always call the couch a Divan— the refrigerator the frigidaire and the vacuum the Hoover…. Always said “well I be” or “Don’t that Beat all” “you don’t say” there was pronounced “Nare” and to go out with a boy was “coating”(courting)…. Shell purple hull peas and Shuck Cone(corn)!!! Miss those days a lot
We moved to TN from CO when I was 12. The man who filled up our tank at the gas station said “if ya fill er up y’all can have some tulip bubs.” I’m still giggling over that one! When someone turned on a burner on an electric stove it was the “stove eye” and instead of turning off the light you would “cut” the light. My husband who is from TN says “it makes me as nervous as a long tail tomcat in a room full of rockin’ chairs.” His mom said to tote the sack and she’d put the poke in it, when picking greens. When talking to several people they are called “you-n’s”, kids are called “young-n’s”. If supper gets burned it’s “rurnt”
I have heard my mom say fourty eleven many times. also you’r crazy than a bess bug (don’t know where these came from.) I was raised in W.Va many of these saying I have hear all my life. some of these you try to figure out what they mean. My mom also would pick planten it was a broadleaf in the grass. and cook it.
git or git goin’….you better leave
git on up the road…..go back home
fixin to…..getting ready to do something
wake up dead……meaning if you do that dangerous thing you will die
how ’bout dat…..surprised to hear something
y’all…..you all
nut’n…..nothing
raisin cane…..heated argument
cut’n the fool….misbehaving
had words……had an argument
two peas in a pod….best friends
fuss’n….argument
cut’n up….misbehaving
ain’t got no shame….not embarrassed
slop the hog…..feed the hog
who dat….who is that
uhmish…being grown when still a child
hindparts….buttocks
gimme got ya hin…..reply when you ask by saying gimme (give me)
hen ya go…..here you go
crack da door…..open the door a little bit
Icebox….freezer
stuck my foot in it…..the cooking was so good the cook must have stuck her foot in it for extra seasoning…….hehehehe
slap the cook…..the food was just that good
flip the switch….turn it on
got tow mighty….used instead of profanity
she/he cuss me…..used profanity
if that don’t beat all…..just can’t believe it
from a true Grits….Girl Raised In The South
No pot to piss in nor window to throw it out of….when you really get in trouble
You out of your cot’n pickin’ mind…..you have asked for the impossible
Let sleeping dawgs lie….don’t stir up no trouble
crazy as a nit…..when you do off the wall things
butt cut….when you are going to get a spanking
too much jawin’….talk too much
I can show you better than I can tell you…when you just won’t listen to stop
Naked as a jaybird!
Thought of another one…. when my mom gets an earache she calls it a yearache, or put that cap over your years. LOL!
How about this one, getting angry is “getting a red tail on” I heard this first from a gentleman in GA telling about how angry he got at his kids for doing something wrong.
Married to a Hillbilly from Tenn. I’ve heard it all, but my favorite is The cheese has dun slid off (his or her) Cracker! Or man! That kids been hit with un ugly stick! The whole southern language is something that grows on you, & the translation is only from the givers mouth something like Pig Latin. But the worse part of being married to a Hillbilly is learning to cook for them. The first meal my husband asked for breakfast was a fried Bologna sandwich, fried sweet taters, and red eye gray! The bologna was a bigBubble, the sweet taters were not sweet and the red eye gravy was not red. and I ended up telling him to go home to his Ma. for that kind of food!
Lord! That is one skinny kid. Looks like he swapped legs with a jaybird and lost his a## in the shuffle.
We live in Northern Oklahoma and when you said you didn’t know if you could get used to something my Grandm awould say, “you can get used to hangin’ if you hang long enough”.
Well, I never heard of such in all my put-together. Bleeping the 2 s’s out of the word a–. You all are much too goody-goody for my taste. This is the last you will hear from me. And tell your censor/editors? that they can just go c— in their hats.
Oh Jim. Goody Goodies are the worst, right? In our free time we like to raise our kids to be adults that don’t cuss around children, build family friendly websites, and cook dinner for friends. Ugh, awful scourge of the earth. I know honey, there is a special place reserved for us when we die. Bless your heart for putting up with such nonsense. I bet someone will smile at you today on top of it all – darn those goody goody people! ~shakes fist at sky~
Gratefully,
Christy