In reply to several unauthorized biographies of his life and exploits, Congressman David Crockett from Tennessee set out to “set the record straight” with his own writings. Published in 1834, A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett… became a huge success, and actually fueled, rather than clarified, the Crockett legend.
While the book was hugely popular in its day, it is often reduced to anecdotal status today, primarily because the book ends two years before Crockett achieved lasting fame as one of the last defenders of the Alamo mission on March 6, 1836.
Modern historians and students of historical English language frequently use writings of historical people, famous and not so famous, in an attempt to reconstruct the idioms, dialect, and syntax of past generations. As it turns out, there were many female authors, and these previously under-examined works have now been thrust to the forefront of academia and historical research. Hence a disproportionate amount of weight has been placed on the feminine perspective of speech and dialect in pre-Civil War America (particularly if the author found the dialect used in their surroundings boorish or “folksy.”) It is therefore no surprise that texts like Crockett’s A Narrative... are omitted from such studies.
Crockett, like others from the areas adjoining Appalachia, spoke a dialect known today as “highland” or “upland Southern.” Historians like David Hackett Fischer, in his landmark work Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America, have traced the origins of this dialect to the English and Scots-Irish borderers that immigrated to America in the decades before the American Revolution. Intensely traditional and clannish people, the English and Scots-Irish borderers found cheap land on the very fringes of frontier America. As farming depleted the soil and new opportunities arose in the western frontier, hardy highland Southerners soon began to emigrate further west and populated states like Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri. Their peculiar “speechways” ended up becoming an American iconic tradition— as prevalent in America’s truck stops as elsewhere— but truly made popular with the publishing of the Foxfire book series in the 1970s.
Presented here are a selection of Crockett sayings, idioms, and slang. Some phrases are familiar to modern readers (such as ““cracked up to be”) while others have unfamiliar twists (like “bran-fire new”). Some comments refer to political happenings in Washington and elsewhere. Others refer quotes from popular authors, writings, and sayings from Crockett’s day— sayings whose importance, meaning, or frame of reference is generally lost on modern readers. Some idioms or phrases appear only once. Others like “knowed” or “took his horn” appear frequently enough to suggest that these phrases found use in Crockett’s daily lexicon.
Each idiom or phrase is noted in quotation marks, along with the page number from the original edition. Where appropriate (and in some cases, where possible) I have attempted to define the phrase or idiom. Some phrases or saying are self-evident and require no further comment. A few have eluded definition for the present.
The idioms of David Crockett include:
“pretty considerable of a snarl” (17) in a tight fix.“hit on the outside line of my recollection” (18) beyond remembering.
“started full tilt” (19) completely or fully.
“like a cane break afire” (19) with energy and passion.
“As Amos will stop the mouths of the people about his stockjobbing” (20)
“as the devil would have it” (21)
“the second epistle to Noah’s fresh” (21) a flood. “
shot, lock, and barrel” (21) the entire item or issue, a variation on “lock, stock, and barrel.”
“hard run” (22) used to or familiar with want or privation; tough.
“cut out” (22) 1. Made for or cast for, as in “cut out to be a Congressman”; 2. Leave, or depart, as in “cut out for home.”
“give him salt and vinegar” (29) to be tough, coarse, or mean to someone.
“pitched out” (30) to jump out of hiding and surprise an opponent.
“set on him like a wild cat” (30) to fight fiercely, as a cat.
“all to a flitter jig” (30) severely, as in “scratched his face all to flitter jig.”
“cry out for quarters in good earnest” (30) beg for mercy.
“taking a few horns” (30) to drink alcoholic beverages, as in out of a horn cup or measure.
"took a pretty stiff horn” (153) to consume a larger than usual serving of alcohol, usually whiskey.
“in a good condition to make the fur fly” (30) feisty, particularly in a drunken state.
“cooked up to a cracklin’” (31) used up, defeated.
“the steam was high enough to burst his boilers” (32) angry.
“used up” (31) expended, or exhausted, fatigued, spent.
"give..[him] the devil in three or four ways” (32) lay into someone in an angry tirade.
“this took the beat” (35) a situation that surpasses other comparable situations, similar to
“this takes the cake.”
“ground up fine as ginger” (36) killed by being crushed
“if a fellow is born to be hung, he will never be drowned” (37)
“leetle of the creature” (42) a sip or draught of whiskey
“like the Negro’s rabbit ‘good either way’” (42)
“she was as ugly as a stone fence” (57)
“salting the cow to catch the calf” (60) appealing to the mother to win the heart of the daughter.
“still good fish in the sea” (57)
“all holler” (62) expression indicating ‘more than the others,’ as in “she preferred me all holler.”
“cracked up to be” (68) the way a person or situation actually appeared compared to first impressions.
“of the real grit” (74) to be of real courage or spirit.
“gotten into a dose of sleep” (80) fallen asleep, or having slept for a short while.
“raise our dander” (81) to become passionate; angry.
“knowed” (81) knew
“I was so mad I was burning inside like a tar kiln” (81)
“all true as preaching” (82) something that is certifiably true or correct.
“Old Hickory Face” (82) Andrew Jackson
"go in for it” (84) to go or make one’s play
“hogs to squeal as bad as the pigs did, when the devil turned barber” a reference to the devil in the Barber of Seville (?)
“How-dy-doo, brother, how-dy-doo?” a greeting
“In a devil of a fix (99)
“As hot a fresh mustard on a sore shin” (99)
“like old Henry Snider going to heaven, ‘mit a tam tite squeeze.’” (99) getting out of a difficult situation.
“mounted up for a speech” (138) prepare to speak.
“bran-fire new” (139) slang for “brand new,” a take off on “fire-new”-- for items just newly made from the blacksmith’s forge.
“speak prime” (140) to speak or present a speech very well
“wa’n’t able to shuffle and cut with him” (140) unable to match someone at a game of equal footing (as in a game of cards.)
“says I” (140) slang for “I said.”
“swept away all to smash” (141) flooded out and destroyed
“set out his bottle” (150) to offer someone a drink, usually of whiskey
“swig’ed off” (150) to drink, as in “I swig’ed off about a half-pint.”
“took a blizzard at” (152) to shoot at, as with a rifle
"knock’d the trotters from under him” (152) to hit with such force as to knock down.
“laid by my crap” (154) fortune?? as in reference to a dice game
“made my crap”(155) ?? as in reference to a dice game
“barking up the wrong tree” (164)
“all a burlesque on me” (167) a joke; to be made sport of.
“take the collar around my neck” (172) to be someone else’s “dog” or hireling; to not be true to one’s own convictions.
“made a mash of me” (173) to whip or beat soundly.
“I would sooner be honestly and politically d—nd than hypocritically immortalized.” (206)
“commanding me to ge-wo-haw” (210) to be driven as one drives oxen, with the commands “gee” (right) “whoa” (stop) “haw” (left).
