"What will you have? Brown meal and common doings, or white wheat and
chicken _fixings_;"--that is, "Will you have pork and brown bread, or
white bread and fried chicken?"
Also, "Will you have a _feed_ or a _check_?"--A dinner, or a luncheon?
In _full blast_--something in the extreme.
"When she came to meeting, with her yellow hat and feathers, wasn't she
_in fall blast_?"
But for more specimens of genuine Yankee, I must refer the reader to Sam
Slick and Major Downing, and shall now proceed to some farther
peculiarities.
There are two syllables--um, hu--which are very generally used by the
Americans as a sort of reply, intimating that they are attentive, and
that the party may proceed with his narrative; but, by inflection and
intonation, these two syllables are made to express dissent or assent,
surprise, disdain, and (like Lord Burleigh's nod in the play) a great
deal more. The reason why these two syllables have been selected is,
that they can be pronounced without the trouble of opening your mouth,
and you may be in a state of listlessness and repose while others talk.
I myself found them very convenient at times, and gradually got into the
habit of using them.
The Americans are very local in their phrases, and borrow their similes
very much from the nature of their occupations and pursuits. If you ask
a Virginian or Kentuckian where he was born, he will invariably tell you
that he was _raised_ in such a county--the term applied to horses, and,
in breeding states, to men also.
When a man is tipsy (spirits being made from grain), they generally say
he is _corned_.
In the West, where steam-navigation is so abundant, when they ask you to
drink they say, "Stranger, will you take in wood?"--the vessels taking
in wood as fuel to keep the steam up, and the person taking in spirits
to keep _his_ steam up.
The roads in the country being cut through woods, and the stumps of the
trees left standing, the carriages are often brought up by them. Hence
the expression of, "Well, I am _stumped_ this time."
I heard a young man, a farmer in Vermont, say, when talking about
another having gained the heart of a pretty girl, "Well, how he
contrived to _fork_ into her young affections, I can't tell; but I've a
mind to _put my whole team on_, and see if I can't run him off the
road."
The old phrase of "straining at a gnat, and swallowing a camel," is, in
the Eastern states, rendered "straining at a _gate_, and swallowing a
_saw-mill_."
To strike means to attack. "The Indians have struck on the
frontier,"--"A rattle-snake _struck_ at me."
To make tracks--to walk away. "Well, now, I shall make tracks;"--from
foot-tracks in the snow.
Clear out, quit, and put--all mean "be off." "Captain, now, you _hush_
or _put_"--that is, "Either hold your tongue, or be off." Also, "Will
you shut, mister?"--i.e. will you shut your mouth? i.e. hold your
tongue?
"Curl up"--to be angry--from the panther and other animals when angry
raising their hair. "Rise my dandee up," from the human hair; and a
nasty idea. "Wrathy" is another common expression. Also, "Savage as a
meat-axe."