Texas population map. Image via Wikipedia
As a Texan with roots in East Texas, I am well aware that many Texas expressions originate in other parts of the South. Some of our sayings are used elsewhere in America, too.
Some of those sayings we use the same way. Others we have our own slightly different meaning for.
For example, awhile back I wrote about getting the hell out of Dodge, which is generally used (in other places) to mean quickly leaving a place where you are unwelcome or that you find very unpleasant. Around Houston, at least, we use it to mean getting away on a vacation or even just getting out of the office for awhile.
Recently I wrote about an old Texas expression my grandmother used to use that I had not heard in a long time, “butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.” I was not sure whether it was a general Southern expression, and I didn’t bother to look it up, but I wondered. Continued…
Posted in Definitions, Texas English, Texas Talk, Usage.
Tagged with butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, East Texas.
By TalkTexan
– January 20, 2010
Image via Wikipedia
“Butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth,” is one of those old-fashioned Texas expressions that is hard to define for people today, because the context has changed so much. It is still a useful expression, though, and an interesting one, so I will try.
Before the word cool came to mean hip, or up to date, or whatever, it was used in a couple of different ways in social situations. Cool could mean standoffish and unwelcoming, as in “Expecting a warm welcome, the visitors were greeted coolly.” (Think of “lukewarm enthusiasm” or worse.)
Or cool could mean calm, unfazed, not angry. For example, “While Bubba was red-faced, screaming and yelling and stomping his boots on the porch, Lila remained cool and just stared at him.” Continued…
Posted in Definitions, Texas English, Texas Manners, Texas Talk, Usage.
Tagged with Butter, butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, how to talk like a texan, old-fashioned sayings, Texas English, Texas expressions.
By TalkTexan
– January 1, 2010
Image by telwink via Flickr
Texans and others sometimes forget how much the way we talk is shaped by our rural roots. To hear us talk, you might sometimes get the impression that most of us live on ranches or farms, but that is no longer true.
The truth is lots of us live in cities and always have: Houston (fourth largest in the nation), the Dallas-Ft. Worth metro area, Austin, San Antonio, El Paso. Many of us, even in small towns, live in apartments. And for whatever reason, sometimes we need to find a new one. Continued…
Posted in Definitions, Texas Talk.
Tagged with apartment locator, Houston, Texas, trees.
By TalkTexan
– October 3, 2009
Image via Wikipedia The area shown in red is East Texas.
I’m fixin’ to tell you a little Texas secret: I was brought up not saying “fixin’ to.” My maternal grandfather came from a family of “preachers and teachers.” He brought my mother up to speak properly, grammatically and correctly. He was very strict.
We did not say “fixin’ to” at my house. In fact, I did not even have a Texas accent until I was 10 and decided to talk like my friends at school. Sad but true.
So when I went up to East Texas to go to college, it was a full four years before I found myself, one fine May day, telling someone I was “fixin’ to go class.” As we used to say in those days, I about swallowed my teeth.
In case you are unfamiliar with the phrase, “fixing to,” pronounced “fixin’ to,” is kind of interesting. It means “getting ready to” or “about to” do something.
I wonder if it is possibly a parallel usage to the Spanish “acaba de” which means exactly the same thing. At least that may be why the use of “fixin’ to” lingers here in Texas. It just sounds right to lots of Texans.
I’m not sure about anywhere else, though. But I’m fixin’ to find out.
Posted in Definitions, Pronunciation, Texas English.
Tagged with acaba de, East Texas, fixin' to, fixing to, Texas English.
By TalkTexan
– September 25, 2009
Image via Wikipedia
Hosting and hostessing in Texas is a big, big thing. As the host or hostess you are completely responsible for the welfare and happiness of your guests for the duration. You do not leave people stranded even if it is a public meeting and you have the flu.
So the other night a sick friend asked me to lead a meeting for him. It is a regular meeting of a group of usually about 10 or 15 like-minded people at a nearby restaurant. It is mostly social, and I always go anyway.
I have hosted that meeting for him several times before, and it was no big deal. But this time it was different. It was a Stella Dallas party!
What’s that, you ask? Well, I’m fixin’ to tell you. Continued…
Posted in Definitions, Texas Manners.
Tagged with Soap opera, Stella Dallas, Stella Dallas party, Television, Texas hostess.
By TalkTexan
– June 25, 2009
Even though your eyes adjust as the light declines during twilight, there comes a point when you just cannot see anymore. That’s what we Texans call dark-thirty.
Texans who work from can till cain’t and Texans who love outdoor activities know about dark-thirty. Sometimes we are glad, and sometimes we are sad when dark-thirty comes along.
“How late did y’all play last night?”
“It was about dark-thirty when we finally stopped. Travis liked to never let us quit. Man, I was hungry! It was way past time to go back to the house.”
Posted in Definitions, Texas Talk, Texas Time Telling.
Tagged with can till can't, dark-thirty, telling time in texas, Texas English, Texas Time Telling.
By TalkTexan
– May 13, 2009
Blowin’ and goin’ is an old-fashioned East Texas expression. I wasn’t sure people still used that fine old Texas phrase till Sunday, when two middle-aged couples sitting behind me at the ballet were talking about their various pleasure trips:
“Speaking of shopping, on our trips to Europe we’re always just blowin’ and goin’. We never have time for buying trinkets to bring home,” said a man.
“Well, we were blowin’ and goin’ on this trip, for sure,” said the woman from the other couple.
In Texas English, blowin’ and goin’ means dashing around, all busy busy busy, almost without stopping to take a breath.
Strange as it seems, to say that someone has been just blowin’ and goin’ is generally considered a compliment. The implication is that they have been working hard and getting a lot done—even if what they achieved, as in this case, was apparently just having a really good time.
Posted in Definitions, Texas English, Texas Manners, Texas Talk.
Tagged with blowin' and goin', blowing and going, Texas English, Texas expressions.
By TalkTexan
– April 16, 2009
Dogs are a big thing in Texas, especially in the country, where everybody tends to have at least one dog as a watchdog. And often there are two or three, because some are hunting dogs.
The first dog I ever had was a solid brown medium-size mutt with a black stripe down his back. I named him Tippy.
The name came from the first puppy I picked from his litter, a light brown and white spotted puppy with a white tip on his tail. The first Tippy got run over by a car before he was old enough to leave his mother, so Daddy picked another pup, but we still called him Tippy.
Tippy must have had a wide variety of ancestors. His mother appeared to be all or mostly leopard, a breed of hunting dog with gray fur and pale blue eyes. Sort of rare.
None of the puppies looked like her, though, and none of them looked like any other particular breed. Daddy used to say that Tippy was “leopard and Heinz” (after the food brand Heinz, which used to claim to have “57 varieties”).
Continued…
Posted in Definitions, Texas English, Texas Manners, Texas Talk, Usage.
Tagged with dogs, don't tease 'em, hunting dogs, leopard, texans, Texas, watchdog.
By admin
– March 25, 2009
Some of us Texans like to sleep late. Sometimes it just seems to be a necessity, depending on what you’ve been up to the night before.
But we don’t always get to. So sometimes, if you hang around and listen, you might hear a statement something like this:
“Hell, yes, I enjoyed the party! We stayed almost till dawn. But then Travis dragged me out of bed at the crack of noon to go look at a deer lease. I thought I was gonna die and hoped it’d be soon.”
Clearly that was a really good party. And obviously the speaker had just a little bit too much fun. Hence the apparent hangover.
Maybe Travis was the designated driver the night before, but I doubt it. I imagine that Travis is one of those relentlessly cheerful morning people (the kind who never seem to be phased by any activity the night before).
Or else he is a really practiced partier (if you know what I mean) and also one of those dedicated hunters who never let anything interfere with getting their deer.
Well, more power to him, but some of us need our sleep.
Posted in Definitions, Texas English, Texas Talk, Texas Time Telling.
Tagged with at the crack of noon, Texas expressions, texas talk, Texas Time Telling.
By TalkTexan
– March 2, 2009
Houstonians act like they are made of sugar.
In case you haven’t noticed by now, Texans do tend to talk in metaphors. We love our colorful expressions.
When I was a little girl, if my grandmother and I were caught out somewhere without an umbrella, and I hesitated to run through the rain to get to the car, for example, she would say, “You’re not made out of sugar. You won’t melt.”
Or more often, just “Come on, you’re not made of sugar.”
Years ago, I can remember going to a (well-attended) ballet class in the evening on the day that a hurricane had passed through town. We didn’t let the weather slow us down much in those days.
Nowadays, maybe because of three major hurricanes and a couple of other floods in the last ten years, attendance drops way off at evening events if it rains just a little bit. So now you see why I say Houstonians act like they are made of sugar.
Posted in Definitions, Texas English, Texas Talk.
Tagged with houstonians, metaphors, not made of sugar, rain, talk like a texan, texas talk.
By TalkTexan
– February 21, 2009
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