Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Mind you don't go twirly on me!

Bezabor: a peculiar character. "He's a queer old bezabor."
Catch-talk: Trivial sayings. "There's a lot of catch talk in the Bible."
Do a dicker: To make a bargain. "You and I might do a dicker on him."
Innards: Guts. "There'll be a fire built on your innards down in Hell."
Notional: A little queer. "I'm notional that way."
Old apple in the wind: "His head was rolling all over his shoulders like an old apple in the wind."
Rangdangle: To beat up. "Klore intends to rangdangle you."
Rumple: To destroy. "I don't mean that a swaller is going to rumple your innards."
Sheltered honey: Pampered. "She was always a sheltered honey."
Spraddly: Apart. "We saw that his legs were spraddly and his back arched."
Tile: Silk hat. "The gloss of a man's tile is distinctive."
Twirly: Unbalanced. "He bumped his head and went twirly."

From Erie Canal Colloquial Expressions, by Jason Almus Russell
© 1930 The American Dialect Society

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