Better Than Cussin' - The Colorful Language of the South - Debra DuPree Williams | Debra DuPree Williams, Relatively Southern . . . Where Life is Rooted in Faith and Family

Better Than Cussin’ – The Colorful Language of the South –

Thursday, February 6th, 2020 by Debra DuPree Williams 2 Comments

By Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

Did the title grab your attention? I’m sure it did as you likely never thought you’d see such from me. Let me be clear, I’m not speaking of those words, the ones we simply do not use in polite society. I’m talking about Southern slang. Those phrases we use in place of the words which may, or may not have, come to mind.

Having been reared in south Alabama, I heard my share of both categories. Of course, that was back in the day when, if children used those words, out came the bar of soap. In our household, that meant the big, brown, scary bar of Octagon soap.

Unladylike Words
I probably got more whippins as we called them, for talking ugly as we called it, than any other thing I did in my childhood. I know. So unladylike. My mother hated it. Out came that soap every single time.

We all know words and phrases that still don’t sound good but take the place of the truly offensive ones. I won’t put those here. My Mama would roll over in her grave.

But the South has colorful ways to say those same things but it won’t sound like something out of the barnyard. Phrases like What in the Sam Hill? Heavens to Betsy. For cryin’ out loud. Diddly squat. What in tarnation? Or just plain old tarnation. I have an entire board devoted to the language of the South over on my Pinterest page. https://www.pinterest.com/debradupreewilliamsauthor/

We had a preacher once whose wife was good friends with my Mama. Mama taught her how to sew and together they made my dresses and the preacher’s daughter’s dresses for any occasion, including our semi-formal Christmas dance. When said preacher’s wife did something wrong in her sewing, she would say tarnation. That colorful word. But not unladylike.

Brick Walls and Colorful Words
Now, y’all know I’m big time into genealogy. When searching for your family’s roots, when you can’t find the next person in your lineage, you are said to have hit a brick wall. This is a phrase used by genealogists since I’ve been researching my family, and that’s well over thirty years. In my debut novel, Grave Consequences, my main character, Charlotte Graves, is an amateur genealogist. When she hit that proverbial brick wall, she would say, Oh, bricks. But one day, out came Pickled bricks. This has become Charlotte’s catch phrase for all things that frustrate her, but especially those genealogy snags.

There are so many things I love about being a Southerner. Things like good manners, football, the best food on the planet, sweet iced tea, hand-cranked homemade peach ice cream, the aroma of honeysuckle wafting through the air on a summer day, stories told with such flair that they put you right in the middle of the action. But none is more colorful than our use of the English language to express those things no good Southerner would be caught saying.

If you were reared or lived for any amount of time in the South, you likely heard some of the phrases I mentioned above. Do you have a favorite? Join the conversation.

Better Than Cussin', the Colorful Language of the South @DDuPreeWilliams #writing #Southernspeech Share on X

2 Comments

The Conversation

sseay1968@gmail.com says:

February 10, 2020 at 1:48 pm

One of my favs – For crying out loud is – still love it!
- Debra DuPree Williams says:
  
  April 18, 2020 at 3:26 pm
  
  Susan, I’m just now seeing your comment. I love those old sayings. Thanks for reading!

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