alth,
he is on the down-go. If he and his neighbor dislike each other, there
is a hardness between them; if they quarrel, it is a ruction, a rippit,
a jower, or an upscuddle--so be it there are no fatalities which would
amount to a real fray.

A choleric or fretful person is tetchious. Survigrous (ser-_vi_-grus) is
a superlative of vigorous (here pronounced _vi_-grus, with long _i_): as
"a survigrous baby," "a most survigrous cusser." Bodaciously means
bodily or entirely: "I'm bodaciously ruint" (seriously injured). "Sim
greened him out bodaciously" (to green out or sap is to outwit in
trade). To disfurnish or discon_fit_ means to incommode: "I hope it has
not disconfit you very bad."

To shamp means to shingle or trim one's hair. A bastard is a woods-colt
or an outsider. Slaunchways denotes slanting, and si-godlin or
si-antigodlin is out of plumb or out of square (factitious words, of
course--mere nonsense terms, like catawampus).

Critter and beast are usually restricted to horse and mule, and brute to
a bovine. A bull or boar is not to be mentioned as such in mixed
company, but male-brute and male-hog are used as euphemisms.[9]

A female shoat is called a gilt. A spotted animal is said to be pieded
(pied), and a striped one is listed. In the Smokies a toad is called a
frog or a toad-frog, and a toadstool is a frog-stool. The woodpecker is
turned around into a peckerwood, except that the giant woodpecker (here
still a common bird) is known as a woodcock or woodhen.

What the mountaineers call hemlock is the shrub leucothoe. The hemlock
tree is named spruce-pine, while spruce is he-balsam, balsam itself is
she-balsam, laurel is ivy, and rhododendron is laurel. In some places
pine needles are called twinkles, and the locust insect is known as a
ferro (Pharaoh?). A treetop left on the ground after logging is called
the lap. Sobby wood means soggy or sodden, and the verb is to sob.

Evening, in the mountains, begins at noon instead of at sunset. Spell is
used in the sense of while ("a good spell atterward") and soon for early
("a soon start in the morning"). The hillsmen say "a year come June,"
"Thursday 'twas a week ago," and "the year nineteen and eight."

Many common English words are used in peculiar senses by the mountain
folk, as call for name or mention or occasion, clever for obliging,
mimic or mock for resemble, a power or a sight for much, risin' for
exceeding (also for inflammation), ruin for injure, sco