I’m saving a post about
specific mountain men and fur trappers, and their colorful stories for another
time. Today, I simply want to introduce you to the language of the mountain
man. Like the old west cowboys, the mountain men created their own unique language
and terms. Today, if someone overheard a conversation by a couple of mountain
men, it would most likely be completely incomprehensible. Not only because of
the words used, but also because many of the activities and items back in the
1800’s no longer exist in our modern times. Fur traders came from all over.
There were Frenchmen, English, Spaniards, and Europeans. Mix those up with
several native Indian tribes, and a colorful new language soon developed that
was a blended hybrid soup of all of the above.
Listed below are some of
the words and phrases used by the mountain men during the fur trade era of
1810-1840.
"ABSAROKEE" also Absaroka. The Crow Indian word for their tribe
meaning "children of the hawk" or "children of the crow."
"AH'LL SWAR
BY HOOK" I'll swear to it.
"APPOLAS" sticks sharpend at both ends, stuck in the ground
around a fire, on which are jabbed chunks of meat to roast slowly.
"ARWERDENTY" whiskey, from the Spanish words "agua
ardiente", which means "fiery water".
"AUGE
FIT" a fever, which comes and
goes (not uncommon for men who spent a lot of time in waist deep water setting
traps).
"BACCER or
BACCY" tobacco.
"BALDFACE" alcohol.
"BANK
BEAVER" beaver that makes a
burrow on the bank of a fast moving river.
"BLACK YOUR
FACE AGAINST (TO)" to go to war
with, as in the Indian custom of blackening a face with paint before riding out
on a raid.
"BOUDIN" delicacy of stuffed buffalo intestines. Also
"boudie".
"BRAVE AS A
BUFFLER BULL IN SPRING" a brave
man.
"BUFFLER" buffalo. The favorite food of the trapper and Indian
alike.
"BUFFLER WOOD" buffalo chips, dried buffalo dung. Used for fuel in
cooking fires.
"BUG'S BOYS
or BEN JOHNSON'S BOYS"
blackfoot warriors.
"BUSHWAY or
BOOSHWAY" From the French word
"bourgeois." A company man who supervised and indentured trappers who
were forced to work for a fur trapping company. At the buckskinner's rendezvous
these days a booshway is the person in charge of a rendezvous.
"BY A LONG
CHALK" better or worse by a
long shot.
"COLD
DOIN'S" frigid weather.
"CONSARNED" expression of exclamation.
"COMPANY MAN" an employee of a fur trapping company, looked down
upon by the free trappers.
"CORNCRACKERS" contemptible term used for farmers back East.
"DAB" castorium. The extract of the two perineal glands of
the beaver. Used as a scent to attract beaver to a set trap. Strong and musky
smelling, it is thick and yellow in color.
"DARE TO
SET?" used in gambling or
betting meaning "care to bet?"
"DIGGINS"
home.
"DURST" dare, as in "Durst yeh?" ("Do you
dare?")
"EUKER" an old time card game.
"FEEDBAG" eating a meal, also the stomach or abdominal area of
the body.
"FEELING
RIGHT PERT" feeling pretty
good.
"FLATLANDER" Term of contempt for someone that was green or new
to the mountains.
"FOOFURAH, FO
FARRAW, FOO FURAW" trinkets,
trade goods, doodads, etc. From the French "fanfaron". Every trapper
carried a supply of these items as trade goods.
"FOTCH" knock or hit another man as in a fight.
"FREE
TRAPPER" the ultimate mountain
man. A trapper who was his own boss, a free man not endentured to or working for
a fur trapping company.
"FREEZE INTER
HIT" go to it.
"GALENA PILL,
GALEENY PILL" lead bullet made
from galena lead.
"GONE
UNDER" one who had died or was
killed.
"GRAININ A
SKIN" scrapin a skin clean of
flesh and fat.
"GREASEWOOD" sage.
"GREENHORN" a term to describe the unexperienced newcomer to the
mountains.
"GREEN IS
WEARED OFF" when a greenhorn
becomes a mountain man.
"GREEZ
HUNGRY" hungry for meat.
"HAF FROZE
FER HAR or HAF STARVED FER HAR"
desire to lift a scalp.
"HAR YER
STICK FLOATS" what you do and
what you are.
"HAWK" a tomahawk.
"HE'S GOT A
TOUGH BARK" a man has a tough
hide, refuses to be killed.
"HE'S NOT
OPENED HIS HAND" not any
presents or gifts.
"HEAP" plenty of something.
"HEAVY IN
HORN" a big bull, buffalo or
elk.
"HENYWAYS YE
LAY YER SIGHTS" any way you
look at it.
"HIT WON
SHINE IN THIR CROWD" something
won't do by mountain man standards.
"HIT WON
WASH" it won't do.
"HITS BETTER
TER COUNT A HORSES RIBS EN TER COUNT HIS TRACKS" trappers adage: better to keep an animal penned up
and hobbled than to chase the animal when run off by Indians.
"HIVERNAN or
HIVERNANT a man who had the
experience of wintering over in the mountains a year or two. No longer a
greenhorn. They were also known as "winterers".
"HOLE" a secluded mountain valley.
"HOLLOW
WOODS" Indian name for the
small kegs used to haul alcohol.
"HONEYDEW"
or "OL VIRGINNY" terms for
tobbaco.
"HUGGIN" wrestling, usually meaning the wrestling for fun and
rendevous.
"HYARS DAMP
POWDER AN NO WAYS TER DRY HIT"
a bad situation with seemingly no way out.
"JACK OF
LIKKER" a leather sack of fire
water.
"JOHN
BARLEYCORN" alcohol, whiskey.
"KALLATE" calculate or figure.
"KINNIKINIK" Indian word for smoking material made from inner
bark and leaves of red willow, sumac, dogwood, and other common trees and
bushes. Often mixed with tobacco.
"KNOW FAT COW
FROM POOR BULL" expression used
to mean a smart trapper.
"MANGEUR DE
LARD" French, meaning
"eater of pork". An inexperienced man. Term came from the fact that
men from the settlements ate pork. The diet of the mountain men was buffalo and
elk.
"MED BEAVER
FER" lit out for, headed for.
"MEK AN INJUN
COME" to kill an Injun.
"MEKKIN
MEAT" the killing of an animal
or a man.
"NAYBOBBIN" chattering or talking.
"NO MORE SIGN
EM A SQUAWS HEART" very little
sign of enemy or game, expresses it's very hard to tell what's in a woman's
heart.
"OLD
EPHRAIM" also "Bar",
"Grizzly". A Grizzly Bear.
"OLD
HOSS" a term to describe
someone ("Bill, you ole hoss, I hain't seed you since last
ronnyvoo!").
"ON HIS OWN
HOOK" on his own or by himself.
"ON THE
PERAIRA" "on the
prairie", used to mean something is for free.
"ON THE
TRAMP" on the move.
"PAINTER
MEAT" something good doings.
"PAINTER or
PANNER" panther, mountain lion.
"PAUNCH" the stomach or meatbag.
"PALAVER" a corruption of the Portugese "palavra"
meaning "to talk".
"PANNER
PISS" also called "panther
piss". A name given to cheap whiskey.
"PARFLECHE" rawhide for making containers, moccasin soles,
shields, and a sort of suitcase. Usually decorated with painted designs. From
the French.
"PEMMICAN" Indian word for pounded dried meat combined with
dried berries or currants, mixed with melted fat and stored in cakes. It could
be eaten as it was or turned into a rich soup by adding water and heating over
a fire.
"PILGRIM" a term of contempt to describe someone new to the
mountains. Much the same as "greenhorn" or "flatlander".
"PIROGUE" a canoe made by hollowing out a log. French.
"PLEW" a beaver pelt. from the French word for
"plus". Also, the Hudson Bay Company used to mark each "made
beaver" or pelt with a + in their accounting ledgers.
"PLUCK" courage, guts.
"POPO
AGIE" from the Crow language
meaning "main river" or "head river". It is located north
of the Sweetwater and south of the Big Horn and Wind Rivers. The site of the
1829, 1830, and 1838 rendezvous.
"PORK
EATER" a term of contempt to
describe the "company man" who usually ate salt pork as part of
working for a fur company. (Why would anyone eat pork when they could have elk
or buffler?) See: Mangeur de Lard.
"POSSIBLES" small, but highly important collection of valuables
the trapper kept by his side in his shooting pouch, which could mean the
difference between life and death when put afoot without a rifle. (Read the
book "The Saga of Hugh Glass" by Myers)
"PUNCH THE
FIRE" stoke up the fire.
"PUPS" children.
"QUEERSOME" funny or odd.
"QUIT THIS
ARRER OUT'N ME" cut the arrow
out of me.
"REAL
BEAVER" the real thing, the
best.
"REES" Arikara Indians.
"REGLAR
HAWKEN" the very best of
something.
"REZZED SOME
HAR" lifted a scalp.
"RIGHT THE
FIRST WHACK" right on the nose,
right on the first try.
"ROBE
SEASON" winter.
"ROBE
WARMER" an Indian woman.
"RONNYVOO or
RONDYVOO" rendezvous. The
annual summer get-together when the trappers came down out of the mountains to
trade furs, swap gossip, and generally have a good time. This was also when the
trappers would buy supplies for the coming year in the mountains. These were
held annually from 1825 until 1840 except for 1831 when the supply wagons
failed to arrive on time.
"RUNNING
MEAT" running game down on horseback.
"SEAL FAT AND
SLEAK" animal pelt or horse
that is smooth and well fed.
"SHINES" "that shines" means something is suitable
or good. Also something very special. ("Thet there flinter of yourn
shines, it truly does.")
"SHININ
TIMES" a good and memorable
experience, prime trapping, something special.
"SHOOT CENTER
or PLUM CENTER" a trustworthy
rifle.
"SHOT IN THE
LIGHTS" shot through the lungs.
("Lights" was what the lungs used to be called.) Here's a note from
Shoshone Woman on that very same subject: "I was talking with one of the
HBC members one day about the Haggis recipe that they use to make the annual
Haggis pie to be eaten at the Ft. Nisqually Bobby Burns Day celebration. They
said it was made of liver, lights, and oatmeal all cooked in the paunch of the
animal. So I ask what is the lights? and was told that it was the lungs. So
there you go."
"SIGN" anythings that tells the trapper something about the
country he's in.
"SKELP LOCKED
ON TIGHT" expression meaning a
trapper good enough to keep his hair.
"SKY
PILOT" a preacher.
"SLIK AS
SHOOTING" something done very
well by trapper standards.
"SNORTIN WITH
FUNK" horse animal or man
wheezing and coughing after a hard run.
"SOME
PUNKINS" something or somebody
extraordinarily nice.
"SOURS MY
MILK" upsets me.
"SQUAMPSHUS
LIKE" nervous or anxious
feeling.
"SQUEEZED HIS
PRESENTS TWEEN HIS FINGER" gave
his gifts grudgingly.
"TAKE A
HORN" take a drink.
"THE WHOLE
CONSARN" the whole thing.
"THROWING
BUFFLER" to shoot a buffalo
with one clean shot dropping in his tracks.
"TRAPPERS
OATH" pledge of truth in what a
man says, taken by placing the muzzle of a rifle in his mouth to signify that
he is telling the truth or promises to do something.
"UP TO GREEN
RIVER" plunge a knife up to the
trade mark on the blade near the handle (Russell Green River Works knives).
"VOYAGEUR"French for traveler. French-Canadian conoe handler.
They were thought of as cowards and held in contempt by the free trappers.
"WAAH!" also Waugh! or Wagh! Exclamation of surprise or
admiration. Sounded like a grunt.
"WADE INTER
HIS LIVER" stab an enemy in the
gut.
"WAL, AH'LL
BE ET FER A TATER" I'll be
damned!
"WATER
SCRAPE" the travel though a dry
country without water.
"WHOLE
SHITEREE" the whole shebang,
the whole works.
"WINDIGO" among the French-Canadian voyageur, this was thought
to be a creature who stood 20-30 feet tall and who roamed the woods in search
of prey. The windigo was described as an eater of human flesh. It was used as a
sort of 'boogieman" and probably had its origin amongst the Indians.
"WINTERER" someone who has spent some years trapping in Indian
country and who has "wintered over". Also called a
"hivernan".
"YABBERIN
YAHOOS" screaming Indians or
noisy companions.
"YE KIN
SLIDE" you're crazy or you can
go to hell.
When I was
researching mountain man lingo for my book, Yellowstone Heart Song, I thought I
would use some of these terms to add authenticity to the story. The more I
thought about it, however, the more I decided not to. Here’s why. I wanted to
portray my mountain man, Daniel Osborne, as not so much backwoods in the way he
spoke, and I justified my logic with the fact that the story takes place a
little before the mountain man era was in full swing, so this type of language
would not have been around yet. Since he was raised mainly by a native tribe,
and educated in the east, he would not have had much exposure to the cruder
language of the time. Did it work for my story? Did it take away the
“authenticity”? So far, I haven’t heard any negative comments from my readers.
I know it’s always good to infuse as much authenticity into our stories,
especially when we write historicals, but quite frankly, I’ve read several
romance novels with mountain men, where this sort of language was used, and for
me, I could never warm up to the characters when they spoke that way.
Especially when it was completely overdone. Okay, readers, let me have it . . .
but in the meantime, here is a little excerpt from Yellowstone Heart Song.
Daniel’s hard stare told her she wasn’t going to get
anywhere with her question. So she decided to change the subject. “For a
mountain man, the way you talk is quite . . . refined. You don’t sound like an
uneducated dimwit.”
“Dimwit?” Daniel’s eyebrows pulled together.
It was her turn to grin. “Someone who’s not too
bright in the head,” she offered, tapping her index finger against her temple.
“My father’s upbringing. He is always honoring my
dead mother in some way, and he knew she would not want me to be without an
education She certainly wouldn’t stand for it if I spoke like a . . . dimwit.
He taught me to read, write, and cipher numbers during the winters when we were
snowed in. Then I spent two years in Philadelphia with my father’s sister and
her family. I attended Philadelphia University.”
Aimee was rather surprised that Daniel divulged so
much information about himself. “Wow! I think you’ve just set a record,” she
said incredulously.
“Set a record?” Daniel looked confused.
She giggled. “I’ve never heard you talk so much all
at once.”
Daniel looked at her blankly.
“From your tone, I gather you didn’t like living in
Philadelphia much.” Aimee was eager to keep the conversation going, glad he was
finally talking to her.
“My father thought it would be good for me to live
among civilized people and learn some culture.” His voice was filled with
contempt.
“I can’t picture you anywhere but here.” She looked
him up and down, admiring his profile. He walked gracefully, as if on air, with
light, fluid movements. He carried himself tall and erect, always alert to his
surroundings. His rifle was cradled casually in the crook of his arm, but she
didn’t doubt for a second that it was ready to fire at a moment’s notice. “You must have been like a fish out of water
back east.”
“This has always been my home. I was born in these
mountains, and I don’t wish to live anywhere else.” Daniel’s face had gone hard
again as he scanned for any danger in the distance.
14 comments:
Thanks for the list, Peggy. Had never heard some of these.
This was such a great post Peggy. I think with any writing, whether mountain men, cowboys, accents, etc., the author should watch how much of the vernacular is used so their character doesn't become a caricature. Like you I've read books about the mountain man, and some about cowboys where I couldn't connect with the people because they seemed more like cartoon characters. I didn't think your story was lacking, since you stressed Daniel was an educated man.
Thanks for sharing these terms! It was fun to learn some mountain man speak. :o)
--Kirsten
Hi peggy, as a reader, I think it would be very hard to read if the main characters were talking in this language all the time. Maybe some side characters (trappers)that are passing through in the story for a short time, it would feel right.
I have read alot of books on mountain men stories including all of yours, and living in NW Montana for over 21 yrs I have heard a few of the locals talk with some of these words above. It is hard to understand them in this time.
LOVE this list, Peggy! I love slang language of any kind. Great stuff. :-D
Wow, Peggy! You've got a whole dictionary there. Thanks for sharing the terms! I've never heard a good many of them, and it's always fun to learn "new" words. (Yeah, I was THAT kid in school -- the one who always did well on vocabulary tests. It's a sickness, really. :-D )
I think you did right by not overwhelming readers with too many unfamiliar words and phrases, especially given your character's backstory. Authenticity is wonderful unless it gets in the way of the story.
The thing I just adore about Yellowstone Heartsong (in addition to the drool-worthy hero) is the way you present the scenery. I haven't been to Yellowstone since I was a child, but your descriptions are so visual I can clearly "see" every setting. :-)
Lol, thanks, Kathleen. I was "that" kid in school, too. I had to take out some of the more, um, vulgar and rude terms, to keep this list PG. I can't even pronounce a lot of these.
I can only imagine what it must sound like to hear "local" talk. I'd love to be a fly on the wall to listen in.
Thanks, Meg. Slang does have its place.
Thanks, Kirsten. I really thought I'd get grief over this, but I'm glad the story works the way it's written.
LOL, Caroline. Me neither.
I think the way you did it was best too, Peggy. One of the fastest ways to lose me as a reader is vernacular. I used to be a big Elizabeth George fan, but when I opened What Came Before He Shot Her at the library (I already had reservations about the story) and saw page after page of vernacular, I slammed that book shut and left it for others.
A little for flavoring goes a long way.
A real eye opening list, Peggy. I've seen some of these terms in cowboy/western dictionaries, but by no mean all. It's another keeper!
Some of these I have read or heard used verbally, but most are really new to me. Fun post!
Great article Peggy. I have a mountain man story too, a time travel I'm working on. I let my other characters use some of the lingo but not so much my hero because, like you, I didn't want him to sound to backwards.
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