Language meanings

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cpnegrad

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Joined
Oct 19, 2009
Posts
13
Location
WV
Terier said:
Just curious about what does that statement mean.
Off topic, but i am interested in language. Mind telling me your age and where you were raised, that you aren't familiar with the expression "in tall cotton"?
Thanks :)
 
cpnegrad

'In tall cotton" is basically a regional slang/idiom phrase.  I'm from Alabama and know what it means, but lots of my California friends have no idea what it means.  However, if you are an "ALABAMA" (the country singing group) fan, you're familiar with the song:  "High Cotton", where they refer to: Walking in tall Cotton.  In the South when cotton was harvested by manual labor, if the cotton was tall, it was easier to pick and you got more of it; meaning you had more wealth. 

I see you are from West Virginia, so you too probably know what it means.  It's definitely not a universal phrase.  The South has lots of unique phrases that the rest of the country doesn't use..... ;D

Marsha~
 
Marsha/CA said:
cpnegrad

'In tall cotton" is basically a regional slang/idiom phrase.  I'm from Alabama and know what it means, but lots of my California friends have no idea what it means. 

When I first read it I had no idea if seeing cotton was good or bad.  (And I'm from California).
 
Marsha/CA said:
cpnegrad
.  In the South when cotton was harvested by manual labor, if the cotton was tall, it was easier to pick and you got more of it; meaning you had more wealth. 


Marsha~

Thx Marsha, I knew tall cotton was slang for "GOOD", but never knew exactly why, I just assumed it meant it grew well for you. We grow very little cotton on Long Island, but use to here the term along with the phrase_______ "cotton picker".
 
SOUTHERNS DO NOT TAKE OFFENSE AT THE FOLLOWING  Warning Thread drift. 

Since we are talking about cotton and cotton pickers, did you know that the term "Redneck" was because those picking cotton would be bending down and their necks exposed to the sun all day.  The back of their necks would be red or reddish and so the term "Redneck" started.

Marsha~

 
I'm a 3rd generation native Californian but grew up in the Oil Patch among lots of people who had moved from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, etc., to work in the oil fields.  One saying I remember, "pert near, but not plumb", meant almost.  As in, "Did you finish that job?"  "Pert near, but not plumb."

Also Californians in my youth were called Prune Pickers.  I have no idea why.  (I knew what "tall cotton" meant, too. ;) )

Margi
 
I agree with codgerbill, some phrases are self explanatory such as my favorite description of myself.  "dumber than a box of rocks".

A couple phrases that I hadn't heard were received when asking directions to the local Baptist church when I first arrived in North Carolina; "you cain't miss it, it's d'rectly across the road from the Marble Orchard".  When I seemed to be confused they clarified it with a "you know! across from the plastic flower farm".
That cleared it right up for me...
 
Margi,

Tom and Margi said:
I'm a 3rd generation native Californian but grew up in the Oil Patch among lots of people who had moved from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, etc., to work in the oil fields.  One saying I remember, "pert near, but not plumb", meant almost.  As in, "Did you finish that job?"  "Pert near, but not plumb."

Also Californians in my youth were called Prune Pickers.  I have no idea why.  (I knew what "tall cotton" meant, too. ;) )

Margi

Now I remember "pert near, but not plumb" as meaning, it was close enough; but not perfect.  My mom used to say she "gave it a lick and a promise" when she was cleaning house.  For her that meant it looked pretty good but she did not do a deep cleaning, but promised to do a better job next time.  I still use that phrase.

You knew what "tall cotton" meant cause all those Southerners you were hanging around with.  ;D

Marsha~
 
Cotton is one of the crops grown in CA's Central Valley, so the tall cotton reference may not be totally foreign to that area.
 
A bit of trivia...

Originally it was "a cat's lick and a promise", but over time is was shortened to just "a lick and a promise".

"pert near" was originally "pretty near", i.e. almost.  Was mostly pronounced as "pert" rather than "pretty" and the spelling became phonetic.

"redneck" referred to any Caucasian who worked outdoors in the sun all day, getting a characteristic sunburned neck. The owners of plantations and town people did not work in the fields, so they didn't have  red necks. If you could afford it, you hired somebody else to do the field work, so "redneck" became to mean "poor" as well.
 
Lou Schneider said:
Cotton is one of the crops grown in CA's Central Valley, so the tall cotton reference may not be totally foreign to that area.

When I grew up in the San Joaquin valley, before the water canal project, the cotton was really scraggely.  (Showing age -- again!)  Tall cotton just meant that everything was coming up roses.  Hmmm -- there's another one.

Margi
 
Not really a north or south phrase but my father told me the term ?the whole nine yards? was actually an air force term.  The length of a belt of ammo on a spitfire  50 cal. machine gun was nine yards long so when you gave someone the whole nine yards you emptied your machine gun on them.
 
How many of you, like me, actually ever picked cotton.

I remember picking along side my unk Buddy, and I would weighup at the end of the day with 50 lbs and he would have 150 lbs. I didn't last too long in the cotton patch. I job at a gas station came up and I jumped on it.

Those was definately not the good old days.  ;D
 
"Fixin' to", means y'all are "gittin' ready to".  Now just what "fixin' to get ready" means, I don't know.  I guess one could be "pert' near ready".
 
falconhunter said:
Not really a north or south phrase but my father told me the term ?the whole nine yards? was actually an air force term.  The length of a belt of ammo on a spitfire  50 cal. machine gun was nine yards long so when you gave someone the whole nine yards you emptied your machine gun on them.

Actually it would have been any US Iron, not the spit.  P40, P47, P51, P38 all had .50 cal.  Spitfires being British carried either the .303 or a .303/20mm mix.  I believe they may have gone .50 at one time in the MK 9e and the  mk 14. But I believe the term came out long before the Spit had the 50.


Rick "Airplane Geek" Scott
 
Margi,
California used to have a lot of Prune Orchards and so that's where the Prune Picker came from.  I'm sure a lot of us "older" Californians will remember cutting cots.  That's something I remember doing as a small child while visiting relatives in Delano, CA.  As for Language and meanings...My grandma always said, "lord willing and the crick don't rise"  Whatever that meant, was her way of saying she'd get to it if she could!!
 
The oilfields have a lingo all their own, probably the same or similar wherever they are located. 

I remember the roustabouts brought our water in the jitney.  (Unskilled laborers in a pickup.)  My uncle was a gang pusher (foreman).  My Dad started out as a roughneck (beginning oil worker) but eventually was an engineer (more like stationery engineer tending huge boilers and reading guages in the pump station on the pipeline).  The oil lease where we lived in a company house also had a tank farm (twelve huge tanks full of oil storage waiting to be pumped into the pipeline).

The highlight of our young lives was watching the sump burn.  (They ignited waste oil held back by levies and the black smoke roiled out of the flames.)  Would that set the EPA on their tail today?

Margi

 

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