Maine lingo (Machias: home, live, restaurant)

[Maineah]

We all have Maine sayings we've heard over the years. Some we really love,
some we could live without.

You know what I'm talking about:

Nummer 'n a hake
Nummer n' a pounded thumb
Uglier n' a burnt stump
Bright as a two watt bulb
Screwier than a 10 ton truck
Sharper n' a beach ball
Softer n' Church music
Softer n' a sneaker full of ....
Couple pecks shy of a bushel
Couple sandwiches shy of a picnic.
Not the sharpest knife in the drawer
One oar in the water
Couple nuggets shy of a happy meal


You get the picture!!

What can you add??

[Bydand]

You don't throw a rock, you "Huck" a rock.

[kellysmith]

frozen stiff
darker than a pocket
darker than a well digger's destination
tougher than boiled owl
...and said by a logger after walking a woodlot "The wood's so scarce in there a woodpecker would have to pack a lunch."

[Bydand]

That reminds me of another one.

Tougher than board nails (when a woman is particularly nice looking.)

[Coaster]

Heavier than a tub of hake

You don't pound a beam into place, you tunk it it one.

Anything that's wicked good is worth doing twice.

There's tons of them. John Gould wrote a book full of Maine-isms. You can still find it at used-book stores.

[Submariner]

"Get your Ass behind You" Usually used when someone is doing something bass-ackwards.

Adam's Off-ox: Used in the expression, "He didn't know me from Adam's off-ox".

Apple knocker: One of Maine's many names for a privy. This one means an outhouse so situated that apples drop from a tree onto the roof

Back and fill: To handle sails so they repeatedly catch and spill the wind, a maneuver to tack or work a vessel to windward in a narrow channel with a favoring tide. Thus, to back and fill is to fuddy-dud about without great accomplishment. A politician who won't state his position is backing and filling.

Backhouse rat: The ultimate in utter stupidity, used in the Maine simile "Crazier than a backhouse rat".

Between the face and eyes: Along the Maine coast, nobody is ever struck in the face -- always between the face and eyes. It can involve a physical blow with a fist, or some startling news that leaves you stunned.

Biscuit wood: Often dry alder, used to brown off the bake after other wood has done the work.

Chimbley - (n., chimney) "I was at a town meetin' yestaday when they voted to build a new chimbley on the libary."

Chummy - (to friends: a greeting; to outsiders: a warning) "I heard him say he don't care much for locals, so I says 'Well, chummy, why don't you and I just step outside and we can have a little talk about that.'"

Cow Yard Tar: One of many Maine-isms for a saltwater farmer. A fisherman who grows a good garden or a farmer who goes clamming.

crazier than Gideon's geese (they swam across Fayi Pond to get a drink of water)

Crick: A creek, if a Mainer uses that term for a brook; but otherwise a muscle hang-up: "I got a crick in my neck and couldn't turn my head".

Deacon seat: Because the deacons usually sat down front in church, the deacon-seat became the bench nearest the fire in a lumber camp. Sitting on it in the evening led to yarnin', and many a whopper took shape on the deacon-seat. A good tall story is a deacon-seater.

Democrat Hound: An otherwise intelligent animal who takes up the wrong scent, as when a rabbit hound chases a fox. The term originated before Maine was a two-party state.

Every Hair a Rope Yarn: Old description of a very tough seaman, lingering phrase for a good man at his work.

Fake Down: To coil a rope is to fake it down.

Felt: To "hit the felt" is to turn in for the night. The heavy blanket on paper-making machines, which gathers the fibers of the wet pulp and begins the process of manufacture, has always been known as a paper-mill felt. After so much use it loses its efficiency on the machine, but is still a dandy piece of cloth that can be cut into bedsize blankets. Woodsmen admired felt blankets, and they were standard bunkhouse bedcovers.

From Away - (adj., non-native) "When old man Titcomb passed on I was suprised to learn he was from away. Born in New Hampshire, he was two weeks old before he set foot in Maine."

Gawmy - (N., clumsy, awkward) "Gorry, ain't that Hubert some gawmy in a skiff."

Goose and God: This improbable combination shows up in the Mainer's oft-used expression for complete ignorance: "He don't know no more than a goose knows God".

Hairpin: Crook; a liar and a cheat is a hairpin. To be "crooked as a corkscrew" and crooked as a ram's horn" convey the same idea. He's so crooked they won't dig a hole when he dies, they'll just screw him in the ground. (Crooked, of course, is crook-id; a hairpin is crook-id.)

Hot - (Adj., inebriated) "Ayuh, Chestah's Dad was really hot t'other night."

Ice Cream Shot: An easy hunting shot.

Jack: To shine a light into the eyes of game at night, especially deer. It is illegal, except for locating treed raccoons.

Jacob's cattle are a type of spotted beans.

John the Baptist: Small bits of yeast bread dough snitched before the batch is put in pans for baking and then fried as a breakfast hotbread.

Keeper: applied to size of fish, a salmon longer than fourteen inches is a keeper. A keeper is also an apple or vegetable that keeps well in winter storage: the Northern Spy is a good keeper.

Kennebec Turkey: A bloater.

Lamb: Out-of-season venison. In freezers the venison was labeled "lamb".

Laundress: Housewife; "Want to meet my laundress," used to introduce one's wife.

Long Drink: Used to describe a tall person, usually female: "Migod, but she's a long drink of water."

Masonic temperature: Freezing point. from the 32 degree F.

Mast Paint: pea soup.

Methodist Hell: The peak of theological heat. Heaters were sold with the absolute guarantee they would heat a room hotter than a Methodist Hell. The rigors of Maine winters have never caused Mainers to be fearful of a cozy seat near a perpetual fire.

New Hampshire Screwdriver: A carpenter's hammer. The inference is that Maine carpenters take the time to set screws right with the proper tool, whereas in New Hampshire the less careful and less skilled workmen just whack 'em home.

Nineteen: Cribbage is a favorite Maine card game. In this game it is mathematically impossible to hold a hand that will count a total of nineteen. Hence, something that is worthless or a duck hunter who didn't bring anything home may report he shot nineteen.

Older than Methuselah's goat.

Over in Your Book: Getting along toward the last chapter in your life's story: "When he got over in his book, he went soft as custard".

Owlin' 'Round: Night roving. Not necessarily dalliance, a gentleman who can't sleep and gets up to make a warm glass of milk is "owlin' 'round".

Plummer: The urologist.

Poleax: single-bitted ax and the swinging of it: "He went down as if he was poleaxed".

Poorer than Job's turkey.

Pung: A box sleigh, horse drawn.

Quahog: A clam.

Rack: A touchstone work to test the true Maine coastal tongue. It is the way to pronounce wreck. Wreck Island is "Rack Island".

Red Oak Shavings: Any of the breakfast corn flakes.

Sandpaper the Anchor: A job that doesn't need doing, can't be done or isn't attempted. To children: "Why don't you go sandpaper the anchor" i.e. get lost.

Sawdust Sorter: One competent to sort sawdust is in the professional category as one who does a good job "pounding sand in a rathole". A job for a budding idiot.

Spider: A cast iron skillet.

Tap the Admiral: To take a drink of whatever is at hand, no matter how inferior the quality. The allusion comes from the admiral, John Paul Jones, whose body was embalmed in alcohol and moved to Annapolis for permanently being laid to rest. Seamen who died in distant ports of call were often headed up in casks of rum and brought home for burial.

Velvet: The sody-fountain delight called a frap (Frappe), milk and ice cream.

Wun't/Wan't - My Aunt Milly baked a strawberry pie yesterday, but it wun't half as good as the one's they sell down t' Helen's Restaurant in Machias.

[umograd83]

Christer - various meanings. Anything excessive, can be a hell raiser.
"Wasn't that thunderstorm a christer."

Daow - negative - used in place of "no".

Dub around - to putter without accomplishing anything

Muckle - to seize, grasp

Pick-ed - pointed

Pound up - physically abuse

Scrid - tiny portion Some - very, as in "some old"

Turned around - lost

Ugly - ill tempered "watch out for Betty today; she's some ugly."

Whale - to strike vigorously

From the book "Who to Talk Yankee" by Gerald E. Lewis

[RMoore007]

My grandmother in Dover always said "hark" to us kids when she wanted to hear something or we were just too noisy for her. When she was on the phone just "listening in" on her three party line, she said it a lot to us too. And when she was actually talking with someone, my sisters and I would be listening to her on the phone and she would say "ayah" maybe 20-30 times in a conversation. We always laughed.

My parents used to say "dobbed" quite a bit. As in, "You really dobbed this thing up", or messed this thing up.

[txmom]

In the Doctor's office with my mother-in-law last week, a gentleman told me he "skunned" his shin (instead of skinned his shin). My husband says skunned, too. He says his Dad used to say it, so I'm guessing it's a Maine thing.

[juststoppinby]

For something very small my parents used to say that it was "No bigger than a minute" this could be a baby, a kitten, a puppy, a cut or most anything.