Southern Phrases You'll Need a Dictionary For

[Bayard]

This is in honor of my Mom, even though she's been gone many years. My parents were both from South Carolina. Here is a few phrases I grew up with, and still hear coming out of my own mouth at times.


“Madder Than a Wet Hen”
In this case, a wet hen refers to a woman who is best kept happy. If a woman is described as “madder than a wet hen,” it means that she has a mean temper. There’s really no telling what could happen when she’s angered. This is the Southern version of “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” and carries just as much gravity. Nobody really knows what a hen is like when they get wet, but it’s likely as bad for the rooster as it is for men.

“Cattywampus”
While this word may seem strange to outsiders, cattywampus is an example of old American slang that still sees use. Back then, the word could be used to describe something that was in utter disarray. It might have also been used to describe people. Nowadays, however, Southerners mostly use cattywampus to describe something that’s askew or crooked, like a shelf or painting. However, there are still some instances of Southerners using it to describe people who never seem to have it together.

“Hold Your Horses”
A more straightforward phrase that many have come to know, “Hold your horses” is best read with a Southern drawl. It’s an easy and casual way to tell someone to relax and wait and not be so impatient. With how busy life can get, sometimes people need reminding. While this is yet another phrase that’s spread around the world, it’s a very Southern thing to say. No matter where one hears it, it’s one of those phrases that really brings images of the South to mind.

“It Doesn’t Amount to a Hill of Beans”
In the South, “a hill of beans” is a metaphorical form of measurement. While still relatively confined to the South, the film Casablanca has brought the phrase more to the mainstream. Essentially, it describes something of little significance. Beans are relatively easy to grow compared to other crops, making them a lot less valuable. To say something “doesn’t amount to a hill of beans” is to say that it has little significance. This term can describe anything from someone to something.


Many more at:
https://www.housecultures.com/trending/southern-phrases-syn

[Ocelot II]

1. I knew most of these growing up in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Only a few are uniquely southern.

[Wounded Bear]

5. Yeah, they are folk idioms for sure, but not necessarily exclusively southern...

Heard and used most all of them, and I grew up in the Pafific North West, spent half my life in California and am back in the PNW.

They're rural, maybe and folksy, but claiming they're exclusively southern is a bit of reach for me.

[lastlib]

2. The last one is California too:

"...but this is OUR hill, and these are OUR beans!" --Lt. Frank Drebbin, Police Squad, The Naked Gun

[Wounded Bear]

6. He always sounds so sincere...

[bamagal62]

3. I use almost

All of them!😂

[quaint]

4. SoCal born and raised and am familiar with all of them and use a couple.

[AllaN01Bear]

7. my fam used those for years in ca.

how does that reflect the price of eggs . skinnier than a bean pole . i saw a vid on yt where a hen got a bath and was mad

[Nittersing]

8. These are not southern.. maybe it's generational? I'm from Lexington, MA (as yankee as you can get)

And I grew up hearing all of these. But I'm fast approaching 70 which is why I suggested it may be generational.

[Bayard]

9. I only picked a few that my Mom used a lot

But, I have yet to hear a Californian (and I lived there,) say they were, “Finer Than Frog Hair Split Four Ways.”

[quaint]

16. You win, never, ever heard that before.

[OldBaldy1701E]

10. My all time favorite expression from down home is this one.

Fixin' ta... I have had some of these Twin Cities people do a double take on it.

"Yeah, I'm fixin' ta head out to the hardware store."

(North Carolinian here.)

[Bayard]

13. When I lived in Minneapolis,

Fresh out of high school, my co-workers would frequently grab me and say--talk for us! (Kentuckian)

[electric_blue68]

14. 😄 I had the reverse. When I visited a friend decades ago in Decatur GA, his friends asked ..

me to *talk Yankee*! to them.

Now I was just talking to them. Don't know if they were waiting for certain phrases, or I didn't sound like some old movies which would decidedly be a ?Brooklyn/Irish accent "Toity-Toid St.". If so then I don't have a strong NY(C) accent.

A Boston, or ?Maine accent?
🤔😄

[OldBaldy1701E]

19. Yep.

When I was a child and visited my uncle and his family in northern Maryland, my cousin's friends always wanted me to speak as well.

Amazingly, we did not do this to any out of region people that came to visit our neck of the woods. (At least my little group of kids did not. We usually were too busy doing our own thing to be hounding other people.)

[liberaltrucker]

11. Bless your heart

[BOSSHOG]

12. Dripping with sarcasm

That could melt an iceberg.

[quaint]

17. Bless Your Pea Pickin' Heart

[ailsagirl]

15. Interesting!!

My dad was from Canada and he'd sometimes say, "Hold your horses." A friend's father (from California) would also say it.

I love this type of thing!! 😎

Thanks for posting.

[3catwoman3]

18. My dad, who was born in 1921 and grew up in Chicago, said "Hold your horses," all the time.

That, and "Simmer down," (which I did not see in this list) if we were getting what he deemed to be rowdy. His definition of rowdy was extremely broad, so both those phrases were heard with great regularity. Most of his extended family was from Canada, so no southern roots there.

My mother grew up in a small town in Minnesota, and had no relatives from the south.

We never lived in the south when I was growing up.

24 of these are quite familiar to me, some most likely from reading things like Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and The Yearling.