Want to Help Us?

Do you call the strip of grass and trees between the sidewalk and the curb boulevard, curb line, grass plot, parking (strip), parkway, terrace, or tree lawn, or do you have another term for it? Please e-mail Senior Editor Luanne von Schneidemesser and include where you learned or use the term and if there were other geographical influences in your life, your age and gender, and your preferred e-mail so we can get back to you if we have further questions. If possible, give us a URL where we could look up what term your local govenment uses (city/town/village bylaws, trash or leaf collecting regulations, etc.) or mail us (DARE, 6129 Helen C. White Hall, 600 N. Park St., Madison, WI 53706) a copy of the first page and the relevant page of the document showing usage. This would be most helpful.

If you are familiar with any of the words or expressions below, please let us know. It is most helpful if you can give an example or examples of how it is (or was) used, and as much detail as possible about when, where (geographically speaking), and by whom (including gender and age of person). Other data, such as references to written works where the word appears, are very welcome, too, but please note that if it can be found with a Google search on the Web we have probably already seen it. E-mail Editor George Goebel your information (please put “NADS queries” in the subject line).

Thank you.

make one’s tongue slap the roof of one’s mouth —“To taste good.” Our evidence is mostly from the Gulf region, but more evidence would be welcome.

tally-lagger —“Stooge, patsy.” We have a single North Carolina response for this.

tax strip —“Strip of grass between sidewalk and street.” We have one Ohio informant.

tazzle up —“Tangle, mess up, confuse”; tazzled up —“muddled”. This occurs in English dialect and in the works of the English-born Edward Taylor, but we also have a few 20^th century examples from Georgia, Florida and Tennessee.

teakettle up —“Tidy up.” We have a few examples, all from New England.

teenter (board), tinter (board), teentering board —“See-saw.” Found by the Linguistic Atlas of New England in the lower Connecticut River Valley and along the coast westwards. Are these forms still used?

that out —“Without doubt, certainly.” We have two examples, both from Virginia.

tombouille —We have sketchy information about a type of Louisiana French stew of this name; more information would be welcome.

tooth mouse —We have two citations for this as the Cajun equivalent of the tooth fairy, but we’d welcome more evidence of its use (in English, not the French it translates).

what takes one? —“What is one doing?” We have two citations, both from Delaware, for this phrase. Is it still known?

sleighty —“Nimble, dexterous.” We have some New England evidence, but it is not clear whether this is still in use.

slew-eyed —“Squint-eyed.”

sloomy —Meaning? We have two citations which seem to attest different senses, but neither context is very illuminating. John McPhee quotes a woman in Maine who says, “It’s like hot coals in me. . . . It goes right down through here, all sloomy, like a burn.” One of our fieldworkers reported that for an informant in southern Indiana, “A full skirt, not so full as it ought to be, is ‘long and sloomy’.” (There does not seem to be any connection with British dialect sloomy meaning “sleepy, sluggish.”)

slop worm —Our only evidence is from six Linguistic Atlas of the Gulf States informants, all from Alabama and Georgia. One identifies it as a “red wiggler,” while another says it is “light or white.” Can anyone give more information?

slumpy —“Muddy, slushy.” We have mostly New England evidence up to around 1920; is it still used there or elsewhere?

smooch, smouch, smouge —“To cheat, finagle; to steal.” Are any of these forms still in use?

south moon under —This phrase is well known from the M. K. Rawlings novel of this name; it also appears in a recent song by John Anderson, a native Floridian. Does anyone know it apart from these literary references, and can they explain the phenomenon? (In Rawlings it refers to the inferior culmination of the moon, but Anderson seems to be alluding to some less common and regular event.) What about the corresponding south moon over, found only in Rawlings?

spar, spar-bird —“Sparrow.” All of our evidence is from Kentucky, North Carolina, and Virginia.

spear-hog —“Porcupine.” This was given by a single Georgia informant.

speckled britches —“An edible green.” A source on the Web identifies this as “evening primrose,” but we’d like to know if anyone else knows this term and to what they apply it.

speckled jack —“An edible green.” Probably the same as the preceding, but we’d like more evidence.

spider hawk —“Mud dauber (wasp).” We have a single citation from the Dallas, Texas, area.

spodge —One Kentucky informant gave this in response to our “crowbar” question; a 1904 quotation says that “in the large rivers of the West” a spodge hook is a stick with a hook on the end, used to catch large catfish. Does anyone know these or similar senses?

sprag —“To slow or steer a sled by dragging the feet.” Our only evidence is from the 1920s and 1930s in northeastern Pennsylvania. (We are not concerned with the many technical senses of sprag.)

spud or spug —“Sparrow.” Our only U.S. evidence is from DARE informants, two in Utah and one in Idaho.

stiff starch —“A children’s game.” We have evidence for the name from Alabama, Georgia, and Texas, but we don’t know what the game is.

tacker (usually as little tacker) —“Small child, tyke.” We have a few citations, mostly old, from New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware. Is it still used there, or elsewhere in the U.S.? (It appears to be quite common in Australia.)

tag (of grapes) —“Bunch (of grapes).” We have one report from northern Alabama, and one example from the Web, apparently from Tennessee.

tag —“Catkin (especially of alder or birch).” We have early evidence, but nothing later than 1878 (except in tag alder as the name of one or more species of the tree, for which we do not need more evidence).

third-party fly, third-party bug —All our evidence for these two insect names is from Texas. Can anyone identify either of them?

turkey apple, turkey haw —“A hawthorn (Crataegus mollis).” Is this in common use?

stooge—“A cupola on a barn.” Three DARE informants—in Alabama, Florida, and Minnesota—gave this response, but we can find nothing that would confirm or even explain this.

stool chair—This compound is well attested in Southern wills and inventories from 1758 through the 19th century, but more recent evidence is thin and what little evidence there is as to the exact meaning is inconsistent.

varnish tree—This term appears in botanical literature applied to a number of different trees, but it is not clear which, if any, of these applications is in actual popular use. If this is part of your everyday vocabulary, or if you have heard it (from someone other than a horticulturalist or the like), please tell us and if possible identify the tree.