Poems of James Russell Lowell Part 68

Take on, _to sorrow_.

Talents, _talons_.

Taters, _potatoes_.

Tell, _till_.

Tetch, _touch_.

 

Tetch tu, _to be able_; used always after a negative in this sense.

Thru, _through_.

Thundering, a euphemism common in New England for the profane English expression _devilish_. Perhaps derived from the belief, common formerly, that thunder was caused by the Prince of the Air, for some of whose accomplishments consult Cotton Mather.

Tollable, _tolerable_.

Toot, used derisively for _playing on any wind instrument_.

Tu, _to_, _too_; commonly has this sound when used emphatically, or at the end of a sentence. At other times it has the sound of _t_ in _tough_, as, _Ware ye goin' tu? Goin' t' Boston_.

U.

Ugly, _ill-tempered_, _intractable_.

Uncle Sam, _United States_; the largest boaster of liberty and owner of slaves.

Unrizzest, applied to dough or bread; _heavy_, _most unrisen_, or _most incapable of rising_.

V.

V-spot, _a five-dollar bill_.

Vally, _value_.

W.

Wake snakes, _to get into trouble_.

Wal, _well_; spoken with great deliberation, and sometimes with the _a_ very much flattened, sometimes (but more seldom) very much broadened.

Wannut, _walnut_ (_hickory_).

Ware, _where_.

Ware, _were_.

Whopper, _an uncommonly large lie_; as, that General Taylor is in favor of the Wilmot Proviso.

Wig, _Whig_; a party now dissolved.

Wunt, _will not_.

Wus, _worse_.

Wut, _what_.

Wuth, _worth_; as, _Antislavery perfessions 'fore 'lection aint wuth a Bungtown copper_.

Wuz, _was_, sometimes _were_.

Y.

Yaller, _yellow_.

Yeller, _yellow_.

Yellers,_ a disease of peach-trees_.

Z.

Zack, Ole, _a second Was.h.i.+ngton, an antislavery slaveholder, a humane buyer and seller of men and women, a Christian hero generally_.

INDEX.

A.

A. B., information wanted concerning, 427.

Adam, eldest son of, respected, 393.

aeneas goes to h.e.l.l, 441.

aeolus, a seller of money, as is supposed by some, 441.

aeschylus, a saying of, 414, _note_.

Alligator, a decent one conjectured to be, in some sort, humane, 451.