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
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Posted by Christy Jordan
on May 10 2010. Filed under Misc, Southern Classics.
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When I get done with you,your hide won’t hold shucks.I heard that from daddy.It usta scare the daylights outa me.
I used that same expression the other day and my son-in-law (who is also Southern born and raised) looked at me like I had 3 heads and wanted to know what shucks were. He said he had never heard that expression.
My Granny used to say ” IF wishes were horses then beggars would ride ” whenever my sister would wish for something…….
We always thought this was a remnant from our Scottish roots when Grandpa would say it. And, that is “crookeder than a dog’s hind leg”
Concerning the weather, my Texas born and raised father would say “it’s drier than a popcorn fart.” Or it’s” hotter than a 2 dollar pistol”
My Dad always said “busier than a one-legged man in an ass kickin’ contest” … lol, I still say it every now and then too cause its too funny!
these sayings brings back alot of memories when i was little girl. raised in the south. god bless us southern folks. my mom use to say when she would would visit me and my husband and she got ready to leave she would say. come go with me. and my husband got her off gard and say where we going?
My Grandmother in Hackleburg, Alabama, would tell us grandkids, “I’m gonna get yore dog grease.” We didn’t know what it meant – except if we didn’t behave, we were in deep trouble and would have to go pull our own “hickrey” that would sting like heck on our legs. And I still say, when the weather is bad, “It’s comin’ up a cloud.” And it came up a big one and blew my little hometown off the map a year ago. Thank God for all the wonderful memories that can never be blown away.
“Splitting the blanket” means getting divorced…..
When my parents were mad, I got called by my full name. But with my grandmother, who was from St. Marys, GA, it was “Baby Girl.” As in… Baby Girl, I don’t who you think you are but… LOL
That’s as useless as a pig with a side saddle or that’s as useless as tits on a boar hog.You’re barking up the wrong tree ( being wrong). She has a holier than thou attitude.I’m gonna bust them britches ( get spanked) Lands sake ( being surprised.) Slower than smoke. Lazy as a dog laying on the porch. When working in the garden my Mama would say” don’t let that hoe handle suck” if she thought we were leaning on the handle to much. It always made us mad and we got back to the hoeing. He would rather climb a tree to tell a lie, than stand on the ground and tell the truth. She would scare us with raw head and bloody bones.That always keep us close by.
Raw head and bloody bones!! My grandma used that on me when I was little to keep me from plunderin’ in her pantry…(because that’s where they lived) Never heard them spoke of by anyone else til now…..mem’rys …;)
They ain’t worth a chew of tobacco that done been chowed on!
I love the Georgia sushi guys comment!!
My grandfather was the funniest person I ever knew, and he could turn a phrase like nobody’s business. Most of his sayings can’t be repeated in polite company, so I can list only a few of his funniest ones here:
“[Politician's name] is so crooked that if he chewed up a nail, he’d spit out a corkscrew.”
“They’re so rich, they eat their layin’ hens.” Translation: They’re living way beyond their means.
“I’m so damned happy I dropped my halo through a cloud.”
“That girl’s got some snap in her garters!” Translation: A smart and sassy woman. The kind he liked.
“Greasy as fried lard.”
About my mother: “She talks 80 miles an hour, with gusts to 100.”
And of course, the weather:
“You know we got us only three seasons here in Texas: Hot. Damn, it’s hot. And hotter ‘n’ hell.”
“So hot the hens have laid hard-boiled eggs.”
“Hotter than a bull in a barn full of heifers in July.”
“Hotter than a politician’s breath.”
You say something about someone, you had to follow it with…..God bless ‘em.”
Do that again, and I’ll slap you into the middle of next week.
Wish I could buy them for what they’re worth and sell them for what they think they’re worth…..
He is tighter than Dick’s hat band.
Screwed up like Hogan’s goat. I have used that for years and heard it again on Dr. Phil’s show.
He is tighter than Dick’s hat band.
Screwed up like Hogan’s goat. I have used that for years and heard it again on Dr. Phil’s show.
My mother-in-law used the phrase hot as a hen. And she used cold as a wedge.
Here are some things that MaMa (pronounced MahMah, my great grandmother) would say:
When a bad thunderstorm was brewing, “It’s coming up a boonakus (boo-nay-kus).” If it’s raining really hard – “It’s rainin’ cats & dogs!” Then there’s “Devil’s beatin’ his wife” when it would rain and shine together. (I still say these)
The trunk is the “boot” and the gas pedal is the “foot feed.”
The past-tense of help is “hoped” – my grandmother still says this.
“Cornbread and milk” is cornbread crumbled into a bowl/cup of buttermilk; otherwise it was “cornbread and sweet milk.”
If someone’s really upset, he/she is “madderen a wet hen!”
I really miss MaMa; she went home in 2009…had a great 29 yrs with her.
We knew we were in trouble if Mother threatened to “jerk a knot in you”!
whenever there was plenty of food.. it was always a” gracious pleny.”. one of my favorite saying…
I’ve always heard, “It’s colder than a well digger’s butt.” lol
I have heard several and my younguns make fun on the way I talk. So do my friends. But, I am as country as dirt and love it!!!
Some of these I heard my grandmothers say ~ useless as tits on a boar hog
“It’s colder than a witches tit in a brass brazier”
I’m gonna smack you so hard, yer gonna hear the camels fart in Egypt.
“Nervous er than a w???? in church”
“Poor ol’ thang, Bless it’s pea pickin hart”
There are lots more, but I still use some today that I don’t really think about. Thank God for good southerners and southerners talk.
Ya’ll come back now and take keer. Bless yer harts.
My daddy’s favorite saying about me: She’s on 77 and the rest of the world is on 33.
I have heard the sayings I am mad with you, my thoughts were I am not mad…. or I am fixin to get started on that . I miss my grandma very much she has been gone for 24 years and not a day goes by I dont think of her
“He’s (she’s) a tall drink of water!”
“Well, help my time!”
I wish I could buy her for what she’s worth and sell her for what she thinks she’s worth. That’s what you say about a person that thinks they are God’s gift to mankind.
Whenever my grandpa would pull in the driveway/parking space he would say “Whoa, Whoa, Sop, Sop, Pancake!”
Rainstorms were called “Gulley-Washers” or “Wheel-Greasers”
And everything crazy-sounding would “Beat all I ever seen or heard tell of”
If you got upset if was a “Hissy Fit”
A friend of mine would say, “It’s hotter than a June bride in a pepper patch”! –Blush, blush
most of thepostings I’ve heard all of my life. Momma would say “looks like she’s fell off” when someone had lost weight. Another one: even a bird don’t fly so high that he has to come back down for a drink of water, or gettin’ too smart for your britches. Or, ” I’m gonna tan your hide’ …. so many, “you don’t miss water til your well runs dry”…. When I was a teenager and thought Momma knew nothing she would say “there’s no new sin under the sun” …. loved this one, your Grandma didn’t sweep her yard no more after she got down and started drawing her pennies. (My Grandmother swept her yard clean with no grass back when lawnmowers didn’t exist) So many, I could go on and on THANKS for the memories
My (Charleston, SC born) husband would say, “it tastes so good yo tongue will come out and slap yo face”. ” It is hotter ‘n a hinge!” And the folks in Asheville would say “Stay where you’re at and I’ll come where you’re too!” or “I might could go there” And since my name is Kat, they said it with 3 syllables…Ka..yaa…t! I loved all of my time in the south, and the people are the best I ever met!
Coming from west Tennessee to central Florida to teach school after finishing college, I used many of my southern expressions in the classroom of middle schoolers. I would usually say, “My grandmother said or my dad said.” The kids loved the sayings, especially “I’m fixin’ to …….” They got to where they would ask me. “What would your grandmother say about ???????”
Some I remember are following:
Pretty is is pretty does.
That is as easy as fat meat is greasy.
And so many that have already been mentioned.
Fun!!!!!
My sweet grandma always said, “Well, I do declare!” I think that was her way of not “swearing.”
My other grandma always used to say she was, “mad as an old wet hen.” I’ve never seen an old wet hen, but apparently they get pretty mad.
My grandfather in Texas would say “That tastes like more” when he ate something he wanted seconds of. My grandmother had a comment when someone was unappreciative : “She didn’t say thank you, kiss my foot, or go to hell.”
“Ah’m bout to burn up!” is appropriate for South Georgia the last few days! I, too, have many that can’t be repeated here and some funny as mess! I remember alot of the abouve and still use some! My favorite when I was a ‘youngun’ was “Well, I swan!”
My husband used to say to our first grandson when he would act up “Do you want me to take you to the woodshed” He would always straighten up and act right. One day when he was about 6 years he said “Pappaw, what is the wood shed?” We all got a good laugh over that.
Every time my friend sees a person with a spike hairdo, he says “musta combed their hair with a firecracker” I laugh every time .
“Go pick your switch.” (I was fixin’ to get a spanking – and yes, Mimi made me walk in the yard to pick it).
“You silly looking thing.” (When she was super mad)
“Who does she think she is, Jackie Onasis? (About a lady that thought she was better than everyone else).
Too big for your britches (back talking).
You’s a fixin’ to get a whoopin baby doll.
“Nervous as a long-tail cat in a room full of rockers” (meaning rocking chairs)
When you asked my granddaddy how he was doing, he’d say ” I’m finer than a frog hair split in three slices.”
Also from north Alabama, and these are making me smile as I remember my grandparents.
They fell out the ugly tree and hit every branch–unattractive person
Sharp as a marble–dumb person
He could open a coke through a barb wire fence–buck tooth person
When anybody sneezed, my Granddaddy Smith would say, “Scat cat! Your tail’s in the gravy!”
My grandmother, God rest her soul, used to say that, too, when I was young. This is the first time I’ve heard of anyone else remembering the same thing!
Some of my favorites, most of which I got from my mother:
“It’s so hot, you could fry an egg on the sidewalk!”
“It’s colder than a witches teat in a brass bra!”
“She’s a few sandwiches short of a good picnic.”(Meaning someone’s bit off)
“Why don’t you go take a long walk off a short pier.”
“You could start a fight in an empty house.”
“If brains were leather, he wouldn’t have enough to saddle a junebug.”
This is so funny, over the past years I have had to explain a lot of these saying to yankee kids and mid western yankees at the high school. Thing is I still use these.
My grandparents and parents used these quite a bit while I was growing up in the 60′s and 70′s.
I’ll Tell you What.(I love this one as Yankess want to know What is what)
That boys diggin him a deep hole with that mouth,
I’ll tan yor hide so hard your grand children will hurt!
I brought you into this world, and I’ll take you out of this world.
I’ll knock you into next week
I’ll skin you alive
Where ya going? I’m going to see a man about a horse.
If brains were like dynamite, ya wouldn’t have enough to blow ya nose
Busier than a one-armed paper hanger
busier than a one-legged man in a butt kickin contest.
Don’t bite off more than you can chew.
Don’t let your mouth overload your butt
Don’t let ya mouth write checks ya butt can’t cash
Whats da matter boy? Ya gone hawg wide or what
Yor a sight for sore eyes,
Ya as lazy as a bump on a log
I’ll make ya holler like a stuck pig
In a coon’s age
Whats da matter girl, ya think we lives in high cotton?
Do go on….(You must be joking)
Well shut my mouth,
Dumber than dirt
I DO DE CLARE
That dawg want hunt
Nobody will will ever notice that on a galloping horse
You a few bricks short of a load there aren’t ya
He wasn’t beatin with an ugly stick, he fell outa the ugly tree an hit every branch on the way down.
A bit dawg barks first
Ya couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn.
He’s all over it like files on sh*t
Don’t pee down my back and tell me it’s raining!
I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck yesterday.
Running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off!
Can’t get blood from a turnip
Don’t go off half cocked
Whoa, Hold ya horses
Once in a Blue Moon
Deader than a doornail
be as quite as a church mouse
Your gettin a little to big for ya britches ain’t ya?
Finer than frog hair
When ya was knee high to a grasshopper and wettin ya drawers
A snowball chance in hades
you can’t hold water
Don’t let the tail wag the dawg
Ain’t got a pot to piss in
I’ll get to it directly
What in the Sam Hill are you doin’?”
Don’t let the door hit ya whar the Good Lord Split Ya
Ya couldn;t fight ya way out of a wet paper sack.
The one I HATED the most was… Wish in one hand, and spit in the other and see which one fills up first.( And I used this on my kids when they were growing up also)
Sorry so long yall just made me think and miss my grandfather, who was full of South Carolina, and Georgia sayings that I still use.
My husband and I both rasied in Southern Middle Tennessee he likes to use the phrase Lost As A Goose In A Hail Storm!!
As children we would, like all kids, try to talk our way out of trouble, during our long explanation, my Daddy, yes no matter how old you are , you still say Daddy,would say,”i just want the tune,not the whole piano” Meaning “get to the point” Being raised in a small southern town, you could always hear, after an introduction to an elder”who are your people” after all, just cause the cat has kittens in the oven, don’t make em biscuits” of course meaning, you can’t pretend to be something you’re not
in reply to how are you: kickin on one leg, stumblin on the other. He’d walk a country mile just to smell where she peed. meaning he likes that girl alot. I need that like Carter needs more liver pills. (not sure but it seemed like not wanted) Jest go on up the road a piece and it be right dere. (which could be a block to about 20 miles) I need to rest a spell (little bit) Mama and Daddy (spoken by adults about and to their parents Them be good folks. Glory be! Lawd have mercy! That’s goofier than a pet coon. That’s worse than a pig in a poke! Whoo eeeee that stinks something downright terrible. Honey child I’m gonna dust yer britches out but good.
sounds like a dyin heifer in a hailstorm.
I remember when my dad would tell my brothers “Don’t Let Your Mouth over load Your Ass”
My grandmother used to say about someone who was really happy: “They are happier than a dead pig in the sunshine.” Never understood what difference it made to a dead pig where it was. lol.
My Dad was a hoot while we were growing up. He had all kinds of little sayings. If he was eating something and was trying to get us to taste it, he’d say, “Come on try it. It tastes better than chocolate covered hotdogs!” That would be the one reason we wouldn’t try it. Also, he loved to tell us how it was when he grew up in Rogersville, Alabama. He’d tell us something that would happen to him and we’d ask how old he was. He’d always answer, “I was knee-high to a grasshopper.” I sure miss him!
Whenever we went to see my husband’s Grandpa he used to say “She’s prettier than a speckled pup under a red wagon”, talking about me. He was a wallpaper hanger, so he also used to say “busier than a one armed paper hanger”.
omg..lots of memories here..but one my mom would say when she was upset with us was .I’ll whip you till you piss and then whip you for pissing …
I grew up in Va.and my mom had 13 children .
Whenever I was upset with someone, my daddy would say “Don’t wish anyone ill.” Then he’d add, “I hope he lives to be a hundred – and has an itch a minute.”
That ain’t worth 2 dead flies! – something that’s worthless
Your brain rolls around in your head like BB’s in a boxcar.
Jump to it !- you better get started