Local sayings/words unique to Atlanta/southern states (Cordele: transplants, live)

[coming2america]

We all have our own slang from where we come from. Like here in oz we have various sayings such as "flat out like a lizard drinking" which means that you are so busy like a lizard on a hot summers day drinking. "As mad as a cut snake", "Strewth" in which I have learnt it means in what you say "Dang" so please enlighten me what are some Georgian/Atlanta/Southern sayings!
(p.s I dont want any racial ones)

[TakeAhike]

Originally Posted by coming2america

We all have our own slang from where we come from. Like here in oz we have various sayings such as "flat out like a lizard drinking" which means that you are so busy like a lizard on a hot summers day drinking. "As mad as a cut snake", "Strewth" in which I have learnt it means in what you say "Dang" so please enlighten me what are some Georgian/Atlanta/Southern sayings!
(p.s I dont want any racial ones)

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Funny Southern Expressions, Sayings and Phrases from the Deep South

Well that just dills my pickle!
That’s about as useful as a trap door on a canoe!
You look about as happy as a tick on a fat dog.
I’m finer than frog hair split four ways.
If you don’t stop I’ll knock you in the head and tell God you died.He couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket.
He’s busier than a one-legged man at a butt kickin contest!
She was so tall if she fell down she would be halfway home.
He thinks the sun comes up just to hear him crow.

Honestly, you don't hear these expressions that frequently as many people have moved to Atlanta/Georgia from all over the US and world --I'm not certain of any current statistics but IIRC the transplants outnumber the natives.
You might hear more of these expressions in Texas.

[arjay57]

Resurrecting an old thread here.

My grandma used to say, "Well, I swannee!" when she was aggravated. I always figured it was her euphemism for "I swear!", but has anyone else ever heard this?

[ATLTJL]

I lived in Alabama, and they had my favorites.

If you may be able to do something, you would say, "I might could"
If something is down the road, it is "on down a bit"
Really cold weather is "cold as a witch's tit"
For the really old folks, toys are "play pretties", pronounced "play purdies"
An ugly person "fell off the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down"
Someone with buck teeth could "eat corn on the cob through a chain link fence"

There's some North Carolina expression that I forget, but it's something about a buzzard on a gut truck.

[slowlane3]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Resurrecting an old thread here.

My grandma used to say, "Well, I swannee!" when she was aggravated. I always figured it was her euphemism for "I swear!", but has anyone else ever heard this?

Yes, my mother (born 1911 on a remote farm near the North Carolina - Virginia border) also said "i swannee". She also pronounced "reckon" as "reh-kng" (the comic actor Andy Griffith also pronounced it that way). I believe the word "reckon" is standard usage in Australia, but in the USA it's considered rural colloquial.

[brownhornet]

Fixin....as in "I'm fixin to go to the store."

Sent from my HTC EVO 3D

[slowlane3]

"I didn't just fall off a turnip truck" -- meaning, don't think I am naive or gullible.

[ATLTJL]

Fixin....as in "I'm fixin to go to the store."

Not to get racial, but I think this is interesting.....

A while back, some southerners started altering fixin' to do something to fin'in to do something.

I've noticed that the hip hop community has shortened it further to fin to do something.

I just pointed that out because it's really not that uncommon for hip hop or "ghetto" slang to have origins in southern slang. It's also true of other stereotypes. For example, a lot of people associated watermelon and fried chicken with black people, but in reality those things could be associated with anybody from the south. I bet in the 1800s you would be just as likely to see a white family eating fried chicken and watermelon as you would a black family.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

I bet in the 1800s you would be just as likely to see a white family eating fried chicken and watermelon as you would a black family.

I would imagine that's true today. Every time I go some place where they serve fried chicken I see the white folks loading up their plates like there's no tomorrow. I have also seen white people consuming mass quantities of watermelons and apparently enjoying every mouthful.

Down in Cordele they have a big old festival where white folks come from all around to eat watermelon. They even pick a watermelon queen.


Watermelon Festival 2011 - Window Decorating & Taste of Melon - YouTube

[ATLTJL]

do you think that's what inspired this?