GLOSSARY TO THE BIGLOW PAPERS
Act'lly, _actually_.
Air, _are_.
Airth, _earth_.
Airy, _area_.
Aree, _area_.
Arter, _after_.
Ax, _ask_.
Beller, _bellow_.
Bellowses, _lungs_.
Ben, _been_.
Bile, _boil_.
Bimeby, _by and by_.
Blurt out, _to speak bluntly_.
Bust, _burst_.
Buster, _a roistering blade_; used also as a general superlative.
Caird, _carried_.
Cairn, _carrying_.
Caleb, _a turncoat_.
Cal'late, _calculate_.
Cass, _a person with two lives_.
Close, _clothes_.
Cockerel, _a young cock_.
Cocktail, _a kind of drink_; also, _an ornament peculiar to
soldiers_.
Convention, _a place where people are imposed on; a juggler's show_.
Coons, _a cant term for a now defunct party_; derived, perhaps, from
the fact of their being commonly _up a tree_.
Cornwallis, _a sort of muster in masquerade_; supposed to have had
its origin soon after the Revolution, and to commemorate the surrender
of Lord Cornwallis. It took the place of the old Guy Fawkes procession.
Crooked stick, _a perverse, froward person_.
Cunnle, _a colonel_.
Cus, _a curse_; also, _a pitiful fellow_.
Darsn't, used indiscriminately, either in singular or plural number,
for _dare not, dares not_, and _dared not_.
Deacon off, _to give the cue to_; derived from a custom, once
universal, but now extinct, in our New England Congregational churches.
An important part of the office of deacon was to read aloud the hymns
_given out_ by the minister, one line at a time, the congregation
singing each line as soon as read.
Demmercrat, leadin', _one in favor of extending slavery; a free-trade
lecturer maintained in the custom-house_.
Desput, _desperate_.
Dō', _don't_.
Doos, _does_.
Doughface, _a contented lick-spittle_; a common variety of Northern
politician.
Dror, _draw_.
Du, _do_.
Dunno, dno, _do not_ or _does not know_.
Dut, _dirt_.
Eend, _end_.
Ef, _if_.
Emptins, _yeast_.
Env'y, _envoy_.
Everlasting, an intensive, without reference to duration.
Ev'y, _every_.
Ez, _as_.
Fence, on the; said of one who halts between two opinions; a trimmer.
Fer, _for_.
Ferfle, ferful, _fearful_; also an intensive.
Fin', _find_.
Fish-skin, used in New England to clarify coffee.
Fix, _a difficulty, a nonplus_.
Foller, folly, _to follow_.
Forrerd, _forward_.
Frum, _from_.
Fur, _for_
Furder, _farther_.
Furrer, _furrow_. Metaphorically, _to draw a straight furrow_ is to
live uprightly or decorously.
Fust, _first_.
Gin, _gave_.
Git, _get_.
Gret, _great_.
Grit, _spirit, energy, pluck_.
Grout, _to sulk_.
Grouty, _crabbed, surly_.
Gum, _to impose on_.
Gump, _a foolish fellow, a dullard_.
Gut, _got_.
Hed, _had_.
Heern, _heard_.
Hellum, _helm_.
Hendy, _handy_.
Het, _heated_.
Hev, _have_.
Hez, _has_.
Holl, _whole_.
Holt, _hold_.
Huf, _hoof_.
Hull, _whole_.
Hum, _home_.
Humbug, _General Taylor's antislavery_.
Hut, _hurt_.
Idno, _I do not know_.
In'my, _enemy_.
Insines, _ensigns_; used to designate both the officer who carries the
standard, and the standard itself.
Inter, intu, _into_.
Jedge, _judge_.
Jest, _just_.
Jine, _join_.
Jint, _joint_.
Junk, _a fragment of any solid substance_.
Keer, _care_.
Kep', _kept_.
Killock, _a small anchor_.
Kin', kin' o', kinder, _kind, kind of_.
Lawth, _loath_.
Less, _let's, let us_.
Let daylight into, _to shoot_.
Let on, _to hint, to confess, to own_.
Lick, _to beat, to overcome_.
Lights, _the bowels_.
Lily-pads, _leaves of the water-lily_.
Long-sweetening, _molasses_.
Mash, _marsh_.
Mean, _stingy, ill-natured_.
Min', _mind_.
Nimepunce, _ninepence, twelve and a half cents_.
Nowers, _nowhere_.
Offen, _often_.
Ole, _old_.
Ollers, olluz, _always_.
On, _of_; used before _it_ or _them,_ or at the end of a
sentence, as _on 't, on 'em, nut ez ever I heerd on_.
On'y, _only_.
Ossifer, _officer_ (seldom heard).
Peaked, _pointed_.
Peek, _to peep_.
Pickerel, _the pike, a fish_.
Pint, _point_.
Pocket full of rocks, _plenty of money_.
Pooty, _pretty_.
Pop'ler, _conceited, popular_.
Pus, _purse_.
Put out, _troubled, vexed_.
Quarter, _a quarter-dollar_.
Queen's-arm, _a musket_.
Resh, _rush_.
Revelee, _the réveille_.
Rile, _to trouble_.
Riled, _angry; disturbed,_ as the sediment in any liquid.
Riz, _risen_.
Row, a long row to hoe, _a difficult task_.
Rugged, _robust_.
Sarse, _abuse, impertinence_.
Sartin, _certain_.
Saxon, _sacristan, sexton_.
Scaliest, _worst_.
Scringe, _cringe_.
Scrouge, _to crowd_.
Sech, _such_.
Set by, _valued_.
Shakes, great, _of considerable consequence_.
Shappoes, _chapeaux, cocked-hats_.
Sheer, _share_.
Shet, _shut_.
Shut, _shirt_.
Skeered, _scared_.
Skeeter, _mosquito_.
Skooting, _running,_ or _moving swiftly_.
Slarterin', _slaughtering_.
Slim, _contemptible_.
Snake, _crawled like a snake_; but _to snake any one out_
is to track him to his hiding-place; _to snake a thing out_ is
to snatch it out.
Soffies, _sofas_.
Sogerin', _soldiering_; a barbarous amusement common among men
in the savage state.
Som'ers, _somewhere_.
So'st, _so as that_.
Sot, _set, obstinate, resolute_.
Spiles, _spoils; objects of political ambition_.
Spry, _active_.
Steddles, _stout stakes driven into the salt marshes_, on which the
hay-ricks are set, and thus raised out of the reach of high tides.
Streaked, _uncomfortable, discomfited_.
Suckle, _circle_.
Sutthin', _something_.
Suttin, _certain_.
Take on, _to sorrow_.
Talents, _talons_.
Taters, _potatoes_.
Tell, _till_.
Tetch, _touch_.
Tetch tu, _to be able_; used always after a negative in this sense.
Tollable, _tolerable_.
Toot, used derisively for _playing on any wind instrument_.
Thru, _through_.
Thundering, a euphemism common in New England for the profane English
expression _devilish_. Perhaps derived from the belief, common
formerly, that thunder was caused by the Prince of the Air, for some
of whose accomplishments consult Cotton Mather.
Tu, _to, too_; commonly has this sound when used emphatically,
or at the end of a sentence. At other times it has the sound of _t_
in _tough_, as _Ware ye gain' tu? Goin' ta Boston_.
Ugly, _ill-tempered, intractable_.
Uncle Sam, _United States_; the largest boaster of liberty and
owner of slaves.
Unrizzest, applied to dough or bread; _heavy, most unrisen, or most
incapable of rising_.
V-spot, _a five-dollar bill_.
Vally, _value_.
Wake snakes, _to get into trouble_.
Wal, _well_; spoken with great deliberation, and sometimes with the
_a_ very much flattened, sometimes (but more seldom) very much
broadened.
Wannut, _walnut (hickory)_.
Ware, _where_.
Ware, _were_.
Whopper, _an uncommonly large lie_; as, that General Taylor is in
favor of the Wilmot Proviso.
Wig, _Whig_; a party now dissolved.
Wunt, _will not_.
Wus, _worse_.
Wut, _what_.
Wuth, _worth_; _as, Antislavery perfessions 'fore 'lection aint
wuth a Bungtown copper_.
Wuz, _was_, sometimes _were_.
Yaller, _yellow_.
Yeller, _yellow_.
Yellers, _a disease of peach-trees_.
Zack, Ole, _a second Washington, an antislavery slaveholder; a humane
buyer and seller of men and women, a Christian hero generally_.