Online Dictionary - Mountain slangHere are some of the definitions of the slang I have heard used around Asheville NC and throughout the Appalachian Mountains region.
English - Mountain Slang
- All wool and a yard wide - real, genuine and honest
- Moonshine - the term first came into use cause people who made whitelighting did so by moonlight to escape the revenuers.
- polecat -Skunk
- goosal pipe- throat
- britches - pants
- yall -you all
- yonder -there (catch all phrase for a short or long distance)
- Tator - Potato
- mator -tomato
- I'm going to tear you up (to a child) -I'm going to give you a spanking
- whooping - spanking, beating, etc.
- drawers - pants
- Poke - Bag such as Pig in a Poke (bag of pork)
- snipe hunting - Old trick played on newcomers where the newcomer is left in woods holding a bag waiting on imaginary snipes to be herded by "friends." The newcomer after finding out he been played for a fool has to find his way out of the woods in the dark.
- Close the barn door before the cow gets out - Zip up your pants.
- Toe Sack - Linen when processed left a fuzzy material call toe. In Colonial days, this was used to make the toe sack. Toe was also used to help start a fire for cooking. It was a part of the tinder box carried with everyone prior to matches and lighters.
- Lock Stock and Barrel - Meaning the whole or all. Referred to the Brown Bess Flint lock gun used in the American Revolutionary War . The whole gun was made up of a lock stock and barrel