Acknowledge the corn: To admit the truth; to confess; to acknowledge one's own obvious lie or shortcoming.

Accommodation: The first horse-pulled bus introduced in New York in 1829

 

Almighty: Huge

 

Afeared: Afraid

Afore: Before

Agin: Against

Aim: Intend

 

Ain't: Is not

 

Air-Up: Admit, confess

All in Three years: Something goes awry

All shit and no sugar: No fun

All y'all: Intensive form of "y'all." Often incorrectly thought to be the plural of "y'all." Y'all is itself a plural. Adding all to it makes it intensive. It states the thought more emphatically, such as calling attention to the individuals being referred to. For example, saying, "I know y'all," would mean that one knows a group of people; saying, "I know all y'all" would mean that one knows the members of the group individually.

 

Allow: To concede, grant, suppose, figure, and expect. Examples: "I always allowed he'd
do that"

Anti-fragmatic: Raw rum or whiskey

Arkansas Toothpick: Large knife

 

Anglo: White person

 

Arkansawyer, Arkansan, Arkie: A resident or native of Arkansas. synonyms: Arkansan, Arkie.

Argie: Argue

Arroyo: A small valley or gulch, usually with a flat bottom, which is usually dry but liable to experience flash floods during the rains.

Artillery: Camp kettles, stoves, posts, tubs, iron foundries.

Bait: A quantity of food. Example: "We ate ourselves a bait of collards."

Baited for widow: Sharply, attractively dressed. Used to refer to men, especially men past the usual marrying age, especially if they are sharply dressed for purposes of finding and courting women. Example: "You know, I saw John stepping out last night, and he was really baited for widow."

Bark Juice: Liquor

Barrel shirt: Barrel worn by thieves for punishment.

Beehive: Knapsack.

Been through the mill: Done a lot, wore out

Big blow: Hurricane

Biggo: Big and old. Example, I was standing in the barnyard when a biggo horsefly came and buzzed around my head.

Bile: Boil

 

Billy Yank: Designation for any Federal Soldier, especially one, whose name is not known, especially privates.

 

Bite the bullet: to stand firm under attack, stick to one's guns (1850's). From the British, it has to do with biting the end of the Enfield Paper cartridge, which as we know had something to do with starting the Sepoy Mutiny in India.

Bivouac: The Civil War term defined by the U.S. Army in 1861: "When an army passes the night without shelter, except such as can be hastily made of plants, branches, etc., it is said to be in bivouac."

Black Flag: No quarter.

Blowhard: Braggart

Bluebellies: Union Soldiers

Blue Mass: Men on sick call; named after blue pill.

Bluff: Cheater

Body: Person, man or woman

Bogus: false, counterfeit; a stamp or mill for counterfeiting coins (from 1827). Probably comes from the same Welch/Cornish, root as boogie or bogie, as in bogey man.

Booze: Harsh, cheap whisky.

Boresome: Boring.

 

Boss dog: The head person or person in charge as in "top dog"

 

Both two: Both of a set of two things. Example: "So he decided to sell off both two of them milkless cows."

 

Bothered up: Disturbed or agitated. Example: "Mary was a-listenin' at Jesus' feet, while Martha was all bothered up gettin' dinner ready."

 

Botherment: Something disturbing or distracting. Example: "So Martha tells Mary, 'Sister, you get yo'self right up an' help me with all these botherments!'"

 

Bottomland: Low-lying patch of land near a water source

 

Bought, Boughten: Something purchased rather than home made. Example: "She thinks she is so fancy, goin' out an' gettin' hersef a boughten dress," "He always preferred makin' his own moonshine to gettin' bought likker."

Bombproof: A shelter from artillery attack; those not exposed to danger. Also a term for provost guards/commissaries due to soft life.

Bragg's Body Guard: Lice.

Brass hat: a high military or naval officer. The reference is not to the braid (scrambled eggs) worn on the hat, but to the cocked hats worn by Napoleon and his officers. When going indoors they carried chapeaux a bras - hats under the arm. Bras was Anglicized to brass

Branch: A small stream of water usually fed by one or more springs. Example "Get down to the spring branch and fetch a bucket of water."

Bread Bag: Haversack.

Bread Basket: Stomach

Brevet Eagle: Turkey

Brevet Horse: Mule

Brung: Brought

Bub: a fellow or guy (middle 1800's]. Probably from the German bube (diminutive fir boy) introduced by German immigrants. Also, the likely derivation for the ubiquitous Bubba.

Bub and Sis: Nickname for brother and sister, especially given to children

Buck and Ball: A close range musket load having 3 large buckshot bound on top of a .69 calibre, smooth bore musket ball, encased in paper. It was most often found in Confederate hands and was not commonly used during the war simply because it was highly inaccurate at a distance.

Buck and Gag: A form of corporal punishment used during the Civil War era. The soldier set on the ground, and had his hands and feet bound. His knees were drawn up between his arms and a rod inserted under the knees and over the arms. A stick was placed in his mouth sideways. The offending soldier was normally placed in full view of the command and had to endure this punishment for hours. It was normally reserve for shirkers, stragglers and drunkards.

Buck or bucking: A form of hazing popular during the mid-19th century for new academy recruits A contemporary description states that "bucking...meant that a sufficient number of the old cadets...would seize first one then another of the new cadets, twist their arms in such a way as to bend the body over the table and strike them a blow with a bayonet scabbard on the part of the person thus exposed, for each letter in the victim's name".

Buckaroo: a cowboy. It dates at least from a letter from Texas circa 1827 ("peons and bukharos"]. Even so, the term was originally a regional Southeastern colloquialism. It is thought that Negro cowboys and buffalo soldiers brought the term west, and into popular usage, after the Civil War. The current spelling is from 1889 and the word is probably from the Spanish vaquero

Bugtussle, Bugtown, Bughill, Bugtressle, Bugscuffle.: A rural or rustic place; an insignificant town.

Bully: Yeah, or hurrah!

Bumblebee: Sound of Flying miniballs.

Bummer: A loafer, or forager; person safe in the rear.

Bummer's Cap: Regulation fatigue or forage cap. Called so because it can be used as a bucket for foraging

Buttermilk Cavalry: Term infantry had for cavalry.

Butternut: Many soldiers of the Confederacy wore uniforms colored a yellowish-brown by dye made of copperas and walnut hulls. The term later became a synonym for the soldier.

Buzzard: An elderly male, usually single, who is regarded as less than desirable.

Camp canard: False report believed by many in camp.

Camp itch An itch caused by remaining in a military camp for a long period without proper washing.

Carriage trade: Rich, upper class

Carte de visite: Photograph on a small card.

Cashier: Usually dishonorably dismissal from army

Cattycorner/catercorner: diagonally across a square [1700's). From the British slang (cater) for throwing a four on a die, the four dots forming a square. May have been combined with the French quartre for four

Cattywampus: Cater-cornered or diagonal

Charley horse: a muscle cramp, especially in the leg. In 18th Century British slang a partially disabled night watchman, from Charles II who commonly gave veterans such jobs.

Cheese Knives: Contemptuous name given to swords, especially those used by officers.

Cher: Dear one

 

Cher bebe: Dear baby

Chicken bossom: Chicken breast, you never say "breast" in mixed company.

Chicken Guts: Officer's gold braiding on his cuff.

Chief Cook and Bottle Washer: Jack of all trades.

Company Q: Term for the Sick List.

Comrade: Fellow soldier

Come a cropper: serious setback or ruination. From 19th Century British slang for falling entirely from the whole horse, or "neck and crop."

Conniption fit: a fit of violent emotion. Origin unknown, but common in 19th Century Cumberland dialect.

Cooter: A turtle, especially larger edible species.

Corncracker: Nickname for Southerners, especially those from Kentucky, a backwoodsman, a poor white Southern farmer.

Cracker A member of the cracker ethnic groups found in Georgia and Florida. (2) adjective. Belonging to, pertaining to, deriving from, or characteristic of cracker culture.

 

Cracker pole: A Florida Cracker term for a cane fishing pole, usually a bamboo one.

 

Cracker state: The state of Georgia.

Critter: An animal; the word is an alternative form of creature. Lice or vermin

Croaker sack: Burlap sack, a gunnysack.

Cracker Line: Logistics pipeline for rations.

Creeper: Soldier's frying pan used early in the war.

Critter: An animal; the word is an alternative form of creature

Curry favor: to offer fawning service in the hope of ingratiating oneself. Obviously related to rubbing down a horse, but the original reference was to Roman de Fauvel (1310). Fauvel was an allegorical chestnut home symbolizing worldliness and duplicity.

Copperhead: A northerner against Mr. Lincoln's war.

Dang: Damn

Daid: Died

Dark horse: an obscure political candidate who comes seemingly from nowhere to win a race, usually when the front-runners are deadlocked. In America the term dates from the 1844 Democratic convention which saw James K. Polk win the nomination over front-runners Martin (Old Kinderhook) Van Buren, Lewis Cass, and James Buchanan (whose election also set the stage for the Mexican-American War of 1846-48). In England the term dates from the 1831 novel by Benjamin Disraeli (later Prime Minister) called The Young Duke

Davis Boot: Named for Jefferson Davis when he was Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce, this soldier's foot apparel was worn by both North and South. Said to fit most men with a few standard sizes, this boot became identifiably famous as did the Kepi, the Civil War cap. Postwar, the boot helped to pave way for mass-produced manufacturing of clothing.

Dead as a wagon tire: Expired

Deadhead: Slang for a nonpaying customer

Devil is beating his wife: Saying that is used when the sun is shining, yet it is raining.

Devil Fish Term for fish-shaped Confederate torpedo.

Didje: Did you

Dixie/Land of Dixie: immortalized by Daniel D. Emmett's 1859 song. Several popular explanations of its origin exist, but Ciardi believes Emmett coined the phrase, as it does not appear in any written form prior to his use of it in "Dixie". Probably derived from the Dixon of the Mason-Dixon Line (1763-67), as the boundary line between Maryland and Pennsylvania. Ciardi discounts the origin of the term as being from the dix note (French for 10), or "dixie," printed in New Orleans. He believes it unlikely that a locally printed banknote would gain that type of notoriety outside of its region, but then Ciardi was a poet and philologer not a historiographer.

Do what?: What do you mean?

Dog Collar: Army issued cravat, usually thrown away.

Dog Robber: Detailed cook from regular ranks.

Done: Used to emphasize the occurrence of something in the past. Example: "Yes, siree, they done got married last week."

Doughface: Northerners who favor slavery

Doughboy: specific to the American soldier of WWI, but in common use since the 17th Century when it referred to a fried lump of dough popular with sailors. Mrs. G.A. Custer used the term in her 1867 book, Today in the Plains. It has also been credited with a dual evolution, dating from the 1850's term "dobieboys" (based on the Spanish word adobe) to describe the continually dusty appearance of the American soldiers' blue uniforms. During the American Civil War the term referred to the brass eagle plate worn by soldiers of both sides on their cartridge box slings.

Dragoon: a name given to blunderbusses in the 17th Century. It was later applied to cavalry as they were, with the addition of firearms, doubly able to "set upon their foes" with great force; to dragoon.

Duds: Clothing.

Drank: Drink past tense

Draughts: Checkers

Draw your furrow straighter: Tell the truth

Druthers: Preferences.

Egg on: To urge someone to do something

Elephant: Battle, seeing the elephant is witnessing a battle

Embalmed Beef: Government issued canned beef.

Essence of Coffee: Form of instant coffee.

Et: Past form of Eat

Fair piece A daunting, sizeable, considerable, or long distance. Example: "Yes, sir, there's gas on this road, but it's a fair piece from here.

Fanning: Euphemism for whipping the horses

Fast trick: Sexually permissive woman

Feeling mighty poorly: Sick

F'ers: Fellows example: "You f'ers come right in and set a spell!"

Fighting under the black flag: Killing lice.

Figure: To suppose, consider, or plan on something. Example: "Were you planning to go to dinner now?" "I hadn't been figurin' on it."

Finagle: to manage by trickery or sharp practice; often applied to a card-sharp. Cited in the 1850 English Dialect Dictionary; probably from the German mesmerist Feinagel

Fit: Fight

Fit as a fiddle: In good shape, healthy

Fixins The usual accompaniments; normally, though not necessarily, referring to meals. For example, "turkey and all the fixins" would refer to turkey with potatos, gravy, cranberry sauce, corn, pumpkin pie, and so on. Generally used in a complimentary way. Example: "They had a lovely wedding with a preacher and flowers and all the fixins"

Flicker: Coward, as a verb "to retreat"

Flim-flam: Something that is untrue, false, or not to be believed, someone that is dishonest, tricky, or deceptive, though usually not cruel or dangerous

Flux: Diarrhea

Foraging: To "live off the land" also applied to plundering.

Forty Dead Men: Cartridge box

Fresh Fish: Raw recruits

French envelopes: Condoms

French leave: AWOL

Frog Gig: A pole with a hook on the end, used to spear and retrieve frogs. To hunt frogs using a frog gig.

Gallinippers: Insects, mosquitoes.

Galoot: a guy, working staff, able bodied lout. American slang from 1866, possibly from the Dutch gelubt (eunuch).

Get your dander up: angry,irritated

Georgia thumper: Name for a large, yellow, non-flying grasshopper. Better known as the eastern lubber grasshopper

Gig To spear or stab.

Ginned Cotton: Flower bread.

Giving the vermin a parole: Throwing away clothing infected with lice.

Goober/Goober Pea: peanut. From the Angolese word for peanut, nguba. One of the only American words traceable from an African root, which is interesting in that the peanut is not native to Africa.

Goober digger: A backwoodsman

Goober grabber: A Georgian

Goobers: Georgian troops

Grab a root: Have dinner or potato

Grapevine: Telegraph wire

Gravel: scurvy

Graybacks: Southern Soldiers or lice

Great Scott!: exclamation of surprise. Probably capitalized as a result of General Winfleld Scott (popular hero of the Mexican War) whose fame emerged just about the time the expression was coming into popular use. The use of the term as an exclamation was likely the result of German immigrants' typically loud greetings to one another.

Greenbacks: money

Greenhorn, Bugger, Skunk: officers

Grin like a Cheshire cat: popularized by Lewis Carroll in Alice In Wonderland (1865]; however, also mentioned in Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785). Cheshire is a nonexistent breed probably from a lost folk tale. The American Southern equivalent is "grinning like a jackass eating briers."

Gwine Contraction of "going" or "going to."

Hackney: A cab; a vehicle for hire

Ham/ham actor: a strutting, bellowing emoter. Probably dating in America from the 1880's, when actors used ham fat as a face cream or base for their makeup, but in earlier use in England.

 

Hankering: A desire, wish, or craving to do, have, or experience something.

Hard Case: Tough guy

Hard Knocks: Beaten up, tough breaks

Hayfoot, Strawfoot: Command used to teach raw recruits difference between left and right (respectively).

Haversack: a canvas bag for provisions carried over the shoulder. From the German habersack or oatsack.

Heap: A quantity of something, especially a large quantity.

Hear tell: Variant of "hear it told."

Heerd: Heard

Here's you mule: Nonsense expression like: Kilroy was here.

Hell-bent for/on: all out for, do or die. From the 1840 Maine gubernatorial race which elected Edward Kent. The motto was "hell-bent for Edward Kent."

Hisself: Alternative form of "himself."

Hobnob with: to be on intimate terms with. Originally from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

Hocus-pocus: formula used by conjurers, medicine men, and street cheats. Attested to in 1624; probably a corruption of the Latin hoc est used at the consecration of the Roman Catholic Mass.

Hoity-toity: snobbish, high-falutin. Dates from the 17th Century where it was used to describe the court of English King Charles I, who Oliver Cromwell had beheaded in 1649

Hominy: Puffed, hull-less corn.

Hoofing it: Marching

Hook or crook: by any means available, by fair means or foul. The origin of this phrase is from the feudal benefice of bote or boot, allowing serfs to gather any wood on a tree they could reach with a shepherd's crook or the hook, a curved knife attached to a staff.

Hop, step, jump: Two -wheeled ambulance.

Hopscotch: a child's game played by marking squares on the ground. The term has nothing to do with Scotland but rather comes from the 17th Century term escocher, to cut or cut with a stick, the means of marking the playing surface. Ciardi also relates to the term to the phrase to "scotch" something, such as a rumor.

Hoppytoad: A toad.

Horizontal refreshment, Horizontal dancing: Having sex

Hornets: Bullets

Hornswoggle: to be cheated, outdone, or made a fool of. Is attested to as early as 1829 and likely comes from combining horns and waggle, i.e., to place one's hands on either side of the head, stick out one's fingers like horns, and waggle them in a derisive manner.

Horse Sense: Smart

Horse Collar: Blanket roll

Horseapple: An individual fruit of the horseapple tree. They are not actually apples of any sort, but something called "multiple drupes." Horseapples are poisonous to humans but reputed to be edible to horses.

Hornswaggled: Fooled, conned

Hospital Rats: Person who fakes an illness.

Hoss: Horse

Hot Shot: Solid iron shot, heated in a furnace and fired at wooden vessels of war. Shot furnaces were found aboard ships and at coastal fortifications. The projectile would embed itself in the ship, smolder and then set the vessel on fire.

Housewife: Sewing kit.

Huffed or huffy: Angy; irritated; offended

Humbugged: Out smarted

Hunkey Dorey: Great!

I heard it through the grapevine: Hear the message through the telegraph wires

Ignoramus: an ignorant or stupid person. Derives from the 1615 play Ignoramus by George Ruggles. One of the lead characters was a stupid, incompetent lawyer; draw your own conclusions!

I.W.: In For the War.

Idee: Idea

 

If'n: If then.

Inexpressibles: Pants or trousers that is pronounced in mixed company.

Inyun: "Injun" or "Indian."

Is all: "That's all," often used at the end of a sentence to minimize, excuse, or downplay what was done. Example: "I only wanted a kiss, is all."

 

If that don't beat all! An expression of amazement or wonder meaning.

Jackanapes: a scoundrel or impertinent rogue. In the 16th Century this was a common term for a tame monkey, from apes to napes. The term is related to the Knave or Jack of Hearts and was first attested to in reference to the 1450 beheading of the adventurer William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, who had the tools with which to fetter the Jack of Apes an his heraldic badge.

Jailbird: Criminal

Jawing: Talking, conversation.

Jeff Davis' Pets: Western Confederate troops' term for soldiers in the A.N.V.

Jenny Lind: An early, four-wheeled buggy with a fixed roof and curtains for privacy.

Jimminy/by Jiminy: a mild exclamation. Originally from the 17th Century corruption of Gemini. The later variations Jimminy Christmas and Jimminy Crickets (mild enough for even Walt Disney) are variations of Jesu Domine, or Jesus Christ, as is the current geez.

Jingo/byJingo!: a mild expletive, By God! Probably the only term in the language derived from the Basque tongue. It may come from the reign of Edward I of England (1272-1307), who imported Basque sailors in his wars against the Welsh. First attested to in 1694. It is also related to jingoism (extreme chauvinism).

Johnny Reb Designation for any Confederate soldiers, especially one whose name is not know, especially privates.

 

Jonah: Bad luck

Jot 'em down "Write them down." examples: "If you're having trouble remembering 'em, all then jot 'em down."

Joy juice: Liquor

Kangaroo court: a mock court, or being tried on trivial or fanciful charges. First used in America in 1849 by California gold rush miners to refer to a vigilante court. It is likely that Australian immigrants brought the term from the old penal colony (where it had real meaning to them) to the gold fields.

Keep your britches on!: Do not be so impatient!"

Kid: A child pickpocket

Kit and caboodle: all of it, the whole thing. First attested to in 1848. Kerboodle was used in a New York State legal document of 1699. May have derived from kith, meaning people.

Kid glove boys: Poor unprofessional soldiers

Kin to: Related to

Larrapin': Very good tasting applied to something really yummy. Example: "That lassie cake Dicey made was just larrapin' good!'

Law, Laws: Euphemism for the Lord

 

Lazy man's load A very large load carried in order to minimize the number of trips one must make.

Lead pills: Bullets

Lef-tennant: Lieutenant

Let 'er rip" Go ahead and start.

Lickety split Very quickly, without delay

Little Coot: Confederate

Livermush: A food similar to scrapple; found in parts of western North Carolina. Made from liver and other "left over parts" mixed with corn meal. Served fried with eggs and grits or in a sandwich or biscuit.

Loaded for bear: Can mean heavily armed, highly prepared, ready to burst into a fit of rage. Examples: "If you boys go into that thicket where we saw the Yankees y'all had better be loaded for bear,"

Locofoco: the first friction matches introduced in England and America around 1810, possibly meaning "crazy fire." Locofoco cigars, with ends dipped in matchhead paste so they could be struck without a match, were introduced by John Marck in New York City in 1834. From 1835-1900 the term referred to a member of the Democratic party.

Long Sweetening: Molasses

Looky Term used to urge a companion to look

Loot: the booty of pillage or plunder. Brought to America from India in 1850, from the Hindi lut meaning booty or plunder.

Lucifer: Match

Lulu/ain't he, she, it a lula: ain't that something! Used by Parker in Spirit Of The Times (1857). From the French term for endearment loulou or ma louloute.

Macadam: A gravel-paved road

Mamaw: Grandmother

 

Mannerable: Polite

Manure Spreaders: Cavalry

Mare's nest: a mess or hopeless situation. First attested to in 1619 as a horse's nest. Horses do not build nests and if they tried, to, presumably, they would have made a mess of the effort.

Maverick: originally an unbranded range animal. From Samuel Maverick (1803-1870) because they refused to brand his stock and claimed all range stock as his. His grandson, Congressman Maury Maverick, also coined the term gobbledygook. The only other American family to put two words into the language was the Theodore Roosevelts, i.e., Teddy Bear, after T.R., and alice blue, after T.R.'s daughter Alice (Roosevelt) Longworth.

Mealy-mouthed: one who is not straightforward or is hypocritical. From the 16th Century German Maule behalten for someone who has meal in their mouth and is afraid to speak for fear of losing some of it.

Mess: A large quantity.

 

Might: A quantity of something.

 

Mighty: Used as an intensifier like "very." examples: "That's a mighty purdy dress," "That's a mighty green apple to be eatin.'"

 

Mollygrubbing To rest, lay about, recline, relax, and dawdle.

 

Mon: Money

Mooch: to wheedle or get without paying. Referred to in Hamlet and is probably derived from the Old English/Germanic muchler, to hide or skulk about.

Mooey: to amble about. Attested to in 1836 and is probably related to the English term mousey, to skitter about like a mouse

 

Mosey To walk in a casual, leisurely, or sauntering manner.

Much obliged Used to indicate a condition of indebtedness or to express thanks.

Muckety-muck/muck-a-muck/high muckety muck/ etc.: mock title of dignity for a pompous person. In use in America by 1856. It comes from two Chinook Indian words (hiu and macamuc).

Mudsill: Yankee

Mule: Meat rations

Namby-pamby: sentimental, insipid, punt. From Amby for Ambrose. The original Amby wag Ambrose Phillips (1671-1749), a poet whose work inspired a contemporary (Barry Carey) to satirize his poems as namby-pamby.

Nigh: Near

Night blindness: Scurvy

Nokum Stiff: Liquor

Nullification: Early proclamation by Southern States to declare null and void Federal laws within state boundaries

Nearabout: Almost

No 'count: " Of no account," i.e., shoddy, run-down, worthless.

Notions: A wide range of miscellaneous articles for sale.

Nuss: To hold or cuddle a child in your

Nut: an ambiguous slang term meaning, among other things, a head or being off or out of one's head. Probably derived from the comparative shape of heads to nuts, but in common use from about 1800.

Nuts for us boys: Easy for us

Oh Be Joyful: Liquor

O.K.: a generalized expression of affirmation, approval, assent. Martin Van Buren (1782-1862) was from Kinderhook, NY. During his presidency (1837-1841) he was known as O.K, for Old Kinderhook. During the presidential campaign of 1840 Van Buren supporters used the O.K. slogan widely at rallies and on placards and it came into popular usage as a result. After his defeat by Harrison, the locofocos (Democrats) said O.K. stood for "Orful Kalamity" or "Orrible Katastrophe". The term actually dates from about 1825 as the name of a game, Orl Korreck but was in disuse by the time of the 1840 election when it was revived and popularized, never more to leave us.

Old Man River: The Mississippi River.

Old Red Eye: Liquor

Ornery Base, cantankerous, coarse, common, cranky, irritable, mean, and stubborn.

Ourn: Ours

Out of kilter: Out of alignment, misadjusted, disorganized, broken

Paleface: New recruits, fresh fish.

Palaver: prating or self-seeking talk. Used as a term to describe more or less formal talks between Portuguese explorers and African natives. The term has been in use since the 16th Century and comes from the Portuguese word palavra, for talk

Paw-Paw: Grandfather.

Patent Bureau: Knapsack.

Parachute: a cloth canopy with a rigging to retard the descent of an object or person through the air. From the Greek and French, to "fall against the air." In use since about 1785.

Pard: Best buddy

Parlor Soldiers: Poor soldiers

Parole: Prisoners take an oath not to fight anymore and were released.

Partisan Rangers: Civilian military units.

Peas on a trencher: Breakfast call.

Pepperbox: Pistol

Piddlin': Small or inferior

Pie eater: Man from rural area.

Pig sticker: Bayonet

Piney woods rooter: Wild pig

Pizen: Poison

Play off: Shirk duty

Played Out: Worn out or tired

Playing possum: Pretending to be asleep, dead or laying low

Playing Old Soldier: Acting sick in order to shirk duty.

Plum: An intensifier used similarly too simply, just, and utterly. For example: "I am just plum tired, today!"

Plunder: personal belongings; baggage.

Putting on style: Putting on airs.

Podunk A way of disparagingly referring to small, isolated, or insignificant. Example: "I tell ya, Bubba, when I turn eighteen, I'm gonna get myself out of this podunk town!."

Poke: Bag

Popskull: Homemade liquor

Porch baby: A child too small to be allowed to run free; one that must not be allowed to go beyond the porch.

Possum: A buddy or pal

Privateers: Letters of marque are given to privately owned ships, which are authorization to attack enemy vessels on the high seas.

Pumpkin rinds: Term for lieutenants, from their shoulder straps.

Puny feelin': Sick

Puny list: Sick call

Purdy: Pretty

 

Purt near: "Pretty near," used to indicate proximity, approximation, and similarity. Examples: "He's been a drunk for purt near twenty years,"

Quick-step: Diarrhea

Rat: A new cadet

Riding a Dutch Gal: Having sex with a prostitute

Rigmarole: long-winded gobbledygook. From the 18th Century Ragman roles, legal documents (originally parchment) with their ocscurantist language. The term is derived from a French medieval party game called Ragemon le bon which was something like charades except that the clues were written on parchment rolls to be read by the players.

Right smart: Great in quality, quantity, or number. Examples: "That's a right smart bonnet you're wearin', ma'am,"

Rio: Coffee.

Roast Beef: Noon Meal

Robber's Row: Sutler's area.

Rocks: Money

Ruthers: Rather

Sacred soil: Virginia, knee deep in the sacred soil is what Virginia is when when it rains

Salt Horse: Pickled beef.

Sardine Box: Cap box

Sawbones: Surgeon

Scalawags: A person who betrays important values or who has caved in under pressure to do the wrong thing. Southern Unionist

Scarce as hen's teeth: Rare or scarce

Secesh: Those who favor secession.

Sham Fight: Mock Battle.

Shakes: Malaria, feverous

Shoddy: trashy, worthless. Now an adjective, but originally a noun from early 19th Century Welsh referring to inferior quarry stone (Welshmen have been miners for hundreds of years) or coal with poor burning qualities. The term was applied to that well known inferior cloth used by unscrupulous suppliers during the American Civil War

Shortsweetin': Sugar

Sheet Iron Crackers: Hardtack

Shirker: A soldier who does not do his work or duty, lazy, coward

Shoddy: An inferior wool cloth issued in the form of uniforms during the early days of the war. The term later became the word used to describe inferior government equipment. It literally fell apart in a few weeks of being issued.

Sho 'Nuff "Sure enough." example: "She sho 'nuff better stop foolin' round on him or he's a-gonna whop her one!" "Did I milk the cows this mornin'? Sho 'nuff!"

Shooting iron: A gun

 

Short-handle dog: A bob-tailed dog.

Shot in the neck: Drunk (on the night of Antietam, Oliver Wendel Holmes was found staggering over the battlefield by one of his friends. When asked what was wrong, the future Supreme Court Justice said he had been shot in the neck. He got a temperance lecture then and there. And how they laughed when when it was discovered he really was shot in the neck.)

Shuck: To remove the edible parts of something, such as shellfish or ears of corn, by stripping away or stripping them away from the inedible part. Examples: "They shucked a pile of oysters;" "They were shucking ears of corn."

Sich: Such

Sinkers: Biscuits

Skedaddle: Run, scatter

Skillygalee: Hardtack soaked in water then fried in pork grease

Skirmishin': Picking lice out of clothing

Slap your pappy: To pat your stomach. Example: "Honey, your cookin' is so good it just makes you want to lean back and slap your pappy!."

Sloosh: Similar Confederate dish

Smart aleck: a wise guy (who sometimes out-smarts himself), a practical joker. First attested to in 1865, however, the origin is unknown.

Smoked Yanks: Union soldiers cooking over a fire.

Snug as a bug: Comfortable, cozy

Sockdologer: -A powerful punch or blow.

Soldiers Fit to be tied: angry

Somebody's Darling: dead body.

Southron A Southerner, from the way "Southern" is sometimes pronounced

Sound on the goose: Well-off; wealthy.

Sour-milk: Buttermilk

Spondulix: Money

Stragglers: Soldiers who fall behind in a march, late commers

Sunday Soldier. Poor or non-professional soldiers

Sutlers: Buisnessmen, appointed by the service to be camp vendors.

SNY: Supposed to mean "State of New York" since it was on many buckles of New York troops but more than one rebel wit said it really meant "Snot Nosed Yankee".

Swamp cabbage: The heart of the sable palmetto and is cooked like cabbage and seasoned with pork.

 

Swimmy-headed Disoriented, dizzy, confused.

Take an image: Have your picture taken.

Tar Water: Liquor

Tarnation. Used to indicate surprise, shock, displeasure, or censure. origin: Euphemism for "Damnation" (i.e., Hell). Example: "What in tarnation did you kids think you were doing?

Teeth Dullers: Another name for hardtack.

Thankee "Thank ye" or "Thank you." example: "Thankee much for the pie, ma'am!"

That dog won't hunt: That proposition (or argument) won't work.

Tight, Wallpapered: Drunk

To be mustered out: To be killed in action.

To have brick in one's hat: To be drunk

Toad stabber: Sword or bayonet

Toad-strangler A very heavy rains; i.e., a rain so heavy that it could cause toads to drown, an amazing or intense thing.

Toady: one who will do anything to ingratiate himself, a sycophant. Every medieval medicine man had a toadeater. The toadeater would eat a toad (which were believed to be poisonous) and go into convulsions, at which time the medicine man would quickly pass the toadeater some of his potion. The toadeater would then undergo a miraculous cure and perform feats of agillty, thereby encouraging bystanders to buy the medicine.

Tote To carry

 

Tote the mail: To run away quickly.

Tother: The other

Toeing the mark: Doing the job

Top Rail: #1 or first class

Tore up Broken, damaged, non-functional.

Tote To carry

 

Tote the mail: To run away quickly.

Traps: Gear

Tree frogs: US Sharpshooters

Tump: To knock something over.

 

Tuther: The other

Tump: To knock something over.

 

Unlessen: Unless then

Unmentionables: Underware

Unreconstructed: Unrepentant Confederate who will not accept defeat.

Up side the head Strike on the side of the head.

Uppity: Conceited

Veal: Raw recruits

Vittles: Food

Wake snakes: To raise a ruckus

Wag: Joker

Web Feet: Term cavalry had for infantry

What the dickens: mild exclamation. "what the devil." Usually attested to Charles Dickens, but used 250 years earlier by Shakespeare in a manner as to suggest the term was already well established then.

Whipped: beaten

Who wouldn't be a soldier?: Who cares?"

Worth a Goober: Something that amounts to a lot.

Yahoo: A boorish, brutish, uncouth, uncultured person or, more generally, any person referred to in a disparaging manner

Yahoo: a crude, mannerless, and brutal person. A degraded humanoid race of people from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels[1726).

Yaller Dog: A cowardly person, a staff officer or courier in the Confederate army.

 

Yamacraw A person of "poor character" or "of no good."

 

Yankeedom: A disparaging term for the North. Example "Why, I wouldn't betray the South for all the gold in

Yankeedom!"

Yankee Brains: Horse manure

Yeens A plural, second person pronoun. Contraction of "ye ones." example: "Yeens better get ready for church right

now, y'hear?"

 

Yonder: There

 

Yoons A plural, second person pronoun. Contraction of "you ones." example: "Yoons take care now.

 

Young'un: "Young one;" i.e., a child or young adult. Example: "Them young'uns are wild!"

 

Your druthers is my ruthers: "Your preferences are mine," "We agree," "Your wish is my command"

Yourn: Yours

Zu-Zu: Zuoave