Period Slang for our Era

[Tsalagidave]

Another section was talking about slang and it reminded me on how important this part of the impression is. many of these are part of the Southwest & Californian impression that I do for ca. 1840-70s.

Smile or smiling: To have a drink
Chooch: (Cherokee Slang for A-ju-ja or "boy". It is a way of calling someone haas, pard or mate.
Gayuch: (Cherokee Slang) for A-ge-hu-ja or "girl". As in, "She's a pretty little gayuch."
A-si-yu: (Cherokee Slang) "Cheers", "Salud", "Prosit", & etc.
Si-yo: (Cherokee Slang) for o-si-yo or "hello". This is the Cherokee way of saying "w-sup?"
Carrajo: (Spanish/Mexican slang): Indicates surprise, astonishment or was even a way of saying "damn-it" at times. Also a way of telling someone "up-yours".
Slug: $50 Octagonal gold ingot. Most widely circulated gold coin in California during the first half of the 1850's (yes, they really were finding that much gold)
Mexican Bank: To bury or cache something of value
Wake Snakes: Raise Hell or have a rowdy good time
Corker: (at least 100 years old) Helluva good bloke
Filibuster: Civilian Americans who formed private armies to invade countries not officially at odds with the US and overthrowing the current administration in the name of manifest destiny (1830's-1850's) See Cuba (1851), Nicaragua (1857), Canada Fenians, Baja/Sonora Mexico (1855-6)
Brother Johnathan: Slang for another American "yank"
John or Johnny: Common lable for various groups. Johnny Bull (English), John Chinaman, Johnny Reb
dogrobber: Cook
13 Universal worlds: Ref. to original 13 Colonies (The United States)
Nary: Naught, nothing
The Old Country: England
Eat paper: Hit the mark sharpshooting
Paint your nose: get drunk
7-by-9: Average, common or even 2nd rate. Refers to a 7" by 9" pane of window glass which was the most common size.
Thum-buster: Single-action revolver
Hie or hied: Move quickly. "Hie yourself over there".
Pulling Kites: Making faces at someone
Quincy: Indoor toilet. John Quincy Adams was the US President that installed the first indoor toilet into the White House.
Quid or Cud: The wad of tobacco in your mouth. "Spit out that quid, I've a lady I wan't you to meet"
"Since old daddy Adam": Since time began.
"...that ever trod show leather": In the history of mankind.

I'll move over a few from another post in a moment.

-Dave

[Tsalagidave]

Also, watch out for anachronistic speech inserted by modern scriptwriters.  In the series Hell on Wheels, the character Bohannen referred to a German character as a "kraut". This term would not exist until the early 20th century. He likely would have called him by his state affiliation (Prussian, Saxon, etc.) or he would have referred to him as "Dutch" or a "Dutchman" which was a common generalization for any Germanic person. In The Gangs of New York and The Read Headed Stranger, the Chinese were called "chinks". This is another derogatory term that did not come about until the 20th century. The common slang for immigrants/laborers from mainland Asia were "Chinamen" "Chinee" or "Celestials". If someone wanted to show distain, they'd likely call them a "heathen" or "heathen Chinee".  This is why you never want to bank on the word's authenticity just because it was in a movie.
(*Note: Any racial slurs I've addressed here are not approved/acceptable language on my behalf. I was only stating them for historical reference.)

Here are a list of terms solidly documented to use in the American West at least as early as 1861 but likely were in common use a lot earlier. I made up some sentences to document how they'd be used.

A punch or to punch someone: mawley, bunches of fives

"He's jist the lark for that type of fun. Ol' Douglas come at him not thinking about how fast those bunches of five would come back."
"Rawls is an ornery cuss. I know of nary a man that can place a harder mawley than him."

Head: nut, cone, canister, noodle, mug, knowledge box

"Watch your canister Cole; there is a low beam over there. I'd hate to see your knowledge box get smarter the hard way."

Nose: sneezer, snorer, snuffer, snuff tray, nozzle, the mazzard

"Matthias! you keep looking at Garcia's wife that way and he'll be fit to flatten your mazzard!"

Mouth: kisser, whistler, the oration tray

"I told Randolph not to jaw so much when when corralling the horses; sure enough some filth got kicked up into his oration tray. Everyone got the fun except ol' Randolph."

Blood: the claret, ruby, crimson, the home brewed, the gravy

"Did you see that row at the El Dorado last night? A Sonoran took offense with Ricardo's streak at Monte, then everyone took sides. With all that fun and fury, the claret was running that night. Every mother son of them in thar spillt' some of his home brew."

Knock someone out: knock him off his pins...pegs...stumps...foundation, sending him to grass

"Ary time Solomon want's a fight, he finds the biggest one in the place to start it with and ary time he is sent to the grass. I'd learn oncet arter getting knocked off my stumps if I was ol' Sol."

-Dave

[The Elderly Kid]

Some of these go back to Shakespeare (probably even more popular then than now).

The porter in "MacBeth" says of heavy drinking that it leads to, "..sleep, nose-painting and lechery."

In "Romeo and Juliet" Tybalt shouts at Benvolio: :"Hie thee hence in haste!"  (Get outta here quick!).

[Hambone Dave]

Here are some I have accumulated.  --Long List --

A hog-killin' time - a real good time
A lick and a promise - to do haphazardly
Absquatulate - to take leave, to disappear
According to Hoyle - Correct, by the book
Ace in the hole - a hideout, a hidden gun
Ace-high - first class, respected
Acknowledge the Corn - to admit the truth, to confess a lie, or acknowledge an obvious personal shortcoming
Acorn Calf - a weak runty calf
Air in Lungs - cussin'
All down but nine - missed the point, not understood
All Hands & the Cook - phrase used when there is danger & every man is needed
All Horns and Rattles - fit of temper
Among the willows - dodging the law
Apple - saddle horn
Arbuckle's - slang for coffee, taken from a popular brand of the time
Arkansas toothpick - a large knife
At sea - at a loss, not comprehending
Auger - the big boss
Axle grease – butter
Back down - yield, retract
Bad Egg - bad person, good for nothing
Bad medicine - bad news
Bait – food
Bake - to overheat a horse
Balderdash - nonsense
Baldface Dishes - china dishes
Balled up - confused
Band Wagon - peddlers wagon
Bangtail - a mustang
Bang-up - first rate
Banjo - miners term for a short-handled shovel
Bar Dog - a bartender
Barefoot - an unshod horse
Bark - to scalp
Bark Juice, Red Eye, O Be Joyful - liquor
Barking at a Knot - trying the impossible
Base Burner - a drink of whiskey
Bay - a horse of light red color
Bazoo - mouth
Bean Master - a camp cook
Bear sign - donuts
Beat the devil around the stump - to evade responsibility or a difficult task
Beat the Dutch - if that don't beat all
Bed Him Down - to kill a man
Bed Ground - where cattle are held at night
Beef - to kill
Beef Head – Texan
Beef Tea - shallow water where cows have stood
Been Through the Mill - been through a lot, seen it all
Belly Cheater - a cook
Belly Robber - a cook
Belly Through the Brush - dodge the law
Belly Wash - weak coffee
Bending at the Elbow - drinking whiskey
Bellyache - complain
Bend an elbow - have a drink
Bender – drunken spree
Best bib and tucker - your best clothes
Between hay and grass - neither man nor boy, half-grown
Bible - cigarette papers
Big bug - important person, official, boss
Big Jump - death
Big Pasture - the penitentiary
Big sugar - ranch owner
Bilk - cheat
Bill Show - Wild West show
Biscuit - saddle horn
Biscuit Shooter - a cook or waitress
Biscuit Roller - a cook
Bite the Ground - to be killed
Bivouac - to camp without formal shelter or in temporary circumstances
Black Snake - a long whip
Black Spot - shade
Black Water – coffee
Black-Eyed Susan - a cowboy's six-gun
Blind as a snubbing post – undiscerning
Blow - boast, brag
Blowhard - braggart, bully
Blow-up - fit of anger
Blue Belly - a Yankee
Blue Lightnin' - a six-gun
Blue Mass - refers to men on sick call; named after blue pill
Blue Whistler – bullet
Bluff - trick or deceive
Boggy Top - a pie with no top crust
Boil Over - a horse that starts bucking
Bone orchard - cemetery
Boogered Up - crippled
Boo-Hag – witch
Bosh - Nonsense
Boss - the best, top
Boston Dollar - a penny
Bragg's Body Guard - lice
Brain Tablet - a cigarette
Bread Bag - haversack
Bread Basket - stomach
Breaking the medicine - overcoming enemy's efforts to harm you
Broken Wind - a lung infection in horses
Brown Gargle - coffee
Bucket of Blood - a tough saloon
Buffaloed - confused
Buffer - traders name for buffalo
Bug juice - whiskey
Bull Nurse - a cowboy
Bulldoze - to bully, threaten, coerce
Bully - Exceptionally good, outstanding
Bully for you - good for you
Bumblebee Whiskey - whiskey with a sting
Bummer – malingerer, someone who deliberately lags behind to forage or steal on his own shrift
Bummer's Cap - regulation army cap with a high/deep crown, so-called because it could be filled with gathered foodstuffs
Bunko artist - con man
Burg - town
Burn the Breeze - ride at full speed
Burro Milk - nonsense
Buscadero - a gunman
Bust Head / Pop Skull - cheap whiskey
By hook or crook - to do any way possible
Caboodle - the whole thing
Cahoots - partnership
Calaboose - jail
Calf slobbers - meringue
California Collar - a hangman's noose
California Prayer Book - a deck of cards
California widow - woman separated from her husband, but not divorced
Callin' - courtin'
Camp canard - tall tale circulating around camp as gossip
Can Openers - spurs
Cash in - to die
Cashier - to dismiss from the army dishonorably
Cat Wagon - wagon carrying women of less than honorable intentions
Catalog Woman - mail order bride
Catgut - a rope
Chew Gravel - thrown from a horse
Chicken Guts - gold braid used to denote officer ranks
Chief Cook and Bottle Washer - person in charge, or someone who can do anything
Chisel, chiseler - to cheat or swindle, a cheater
Choke Strap - a necktie
Chuck - food
Chuck Wagon Chicken - bacon
Clean his Plow - beat up in a fight
Clean his/your plow - to get or give a thorough whippin'
Coffee boiler - shirker, lazy person
Cold Meat Wagon - a hearse
Come a cropper - come to ruin, fail, or fall heavily
Company Q - fictitious unit designation for the sick list
Conniption Fit - hysterics, temper tantrum
Consumption - pulminary tuberculosis
Contraband - escaped slaves who sought refuge behind Union lines
Cookie - camp cook
Copper a bet - betting to lose, or prepare against loss
Copperhead - Northern person with anti-Union sympathies
Corral Dust - Lies and tall tales
Cottonwood Blossom - a man lynched from the limb of a tree
Cow Salve - butter
Cowboy Cocktail - straight whiskey
Cracker Line - supply line for troops on the move
Crawl his Hump - to start a fight
Croaker - pessimist, doomsayer
Crowbait - a poor-quality horse
Crumb Castle - chuck wagon
Crumb Incubator - a cowboy's bed
Curly wolf - real tough guy, dangerous man
Curry the Kinks Out - break a horse
Cut a Rusty - to go a courtin'
Cut a swell - present a fine figure
Cut his Suspenders - a departed cowboy
Deadbeat - bum, layabout, useless person
Desecrated Vegetables - Union, dehydrated (desiccated) vegetables formed into yellowish squares
Desert Canary - a burro
Dice House - bunkhouse
Dicker - barter, trade
Didn't Have a Tail Feather Left - broke
Difficulty - euphamism for trouble, often the shootin' or otherwise violent kind
Diggers - spurs
Dinero - money
Directly - soon
Ditty - a-whicha-ma-call-it
Dive - bunkhouse
Dog Collar - cravat issued with uniforms, usually discarded
Dog Robber - soldier detailed from the ranks to act as cook
Don't care a continental - Don't give a damn
Dough-Belly - cook
Doughgods - biscuits
Down on - opposed to
Down to the Blanket - almost broke
Doxology works - a church
Dragged out - fatigued, worn out
Dragging her rope - woman trying to catch a husband
Dreadful - very
Dream Book - cigarette papers
Dream Sack - sleeping bag
Dry gulch - to ambush Reference from abandoning a body where it fell
Dude - an Easterner or anyone in up-scale town clothes, rather than plain range-riding or work clothes
Duds - clothing
Dusted - thrown from a horse
Eatin' Irons - knives, forks, spoons
Embalmed Beef - canned meat
Equalizer - a pistol
Essence of Coffee - early instant coffee, found in paste form
Eucher, euchered - to out-smart someone, to be outwitted or suckered into something
Excuse me ma'am - a bump in the road
Fan Tail - wild horse
Fandango - a big party with lots of dancing and excitement
Feather-headed - light-headed
Fetch - bring, give
Fiddle - a horses head
Fight like Kilkenny cats - fight like hell
Fill a Blanket - roll a cigarette
Fine as cream gravy - very good, top notch
Fish - a cowboy's rain slicker, from a rain gear manufacturer whose trademark was a fish logo
Fit as a fiddle - in good shape
Fit to be tied - angry
Flannel mouth - an overly smooth or fancy talker, especially politicians or salesmen
Flea Trap - bedroll
Fluff-Duff - anything fancy
Flush - prosperous, rich
Forage - to hunt for food, live off the land; also came to mean plundering enemy property for sustenance
Fork over - pay out
Forty Dead Men - a full cartridge box, which usually held forty rounds
Four-flusher - a cheat, swindler, liar
French Leave - to go absent without leave
Fresh Fish - new recruits
Full as a tick - very drunk
Fuss - disturbance
Gambler's Ghost - a white mule
Game - to have courage, guts, gumption
Gelding Smacker - a saddle
Get a wiggle on - hurry
Get it in the neck - get cheated, misled, bamboozled
Get my/your back up - to get angry
Get the mitten - to be rejected by a lover
Getting Long in the Tooth - getting old
Give in - yield
Go Boil Your Shirt - take a hike, get lost, bug off
Go through the mill - gain experience
Gone up the flume - same as goner
Goner - lost, dead
Goobers - peanuts
Gospel mill - a church
Gospel sharp - a preacher
Got the bulge - have the advantage
Grab a Root - eat a meal, especially a potato
Grand - excellent, beautiful
Granger - a farmer
Grass widow - divorcee
Greenbacks - money
Grey Backs - lice, term for Confederate soldiers
Grit - courage, toughness
Grubworm - cook
Hair in the Butter - a delicate situation
Half seas over - drunk
Hang around - loiter
Hang fire - delay
Hanker - a strong wish or want
Hard case - worthless person, bad man
Hard Knocks - hard times, ill use
Hardtack - unleavened bread in the form of quarter inch thick crackers issued by the army
Haversack - canvas bag about one foot square, which was slung over the shoulder
Heap - a lot, many, a great deal
Heeled - to be armed with a gun
High-falutin - highbrow, fancy
Hobble your lip - shut up
Hog leg - Colt SAA
Hold a candle to - measure up, compare to
Hoosegow - jail
Horse Sense - common sense, good judgement
Hospital Rat - someone who fakes illness to get out of duty
Hot as a whorehouse on nickel night - damned hot
Hot Rock - a biscuit
Housewife - sewing kit
Huffy, In a Huff - angry, irritated
Humbug - nonsense, a sham, a hoax
Hunkey Dorey - very good, all is well
In apple pie order - in top shape
Jailbird - criminal
Jawing - talking
Jig is up - scheme/game is over, exposed
John Barleycorn - beer
Jonah - someone who is or brings bad luck
Kick up a row - create a disturbance
Knock galley west - beat senseless
Knock into a Cocked Hat - to knock someone senseless or thoroughly shock him
Lead Plumb - a bullet
Let Drive - go ahead do it
Let 'er Rip - let it happen, bring it on
Let slide/ let drive/ let fly - go ahead, let go 
Light (or lighting) a shuck - to get the hell out of here in a hurry
Light Out - leave in haste
Like a thoroughbred - like a gentleman
Likely - serviceable, able-bodied
Lincoln Skins - greenbacks
Lizzy - a saddle horn
Long Sweetening - molasses
Look See - investigate
Lookin' for a dog to kick - expression of disgust
Lookin'at the mule's tail - plowing
Lucifers - matches
Lunger - someone with tuberculosis
Lynching Bee - a hanging
Mail-Order Cowboy - a tenderfoot
Make a mash - make a hit, impress someone
Mexican Strawberries - dried beans
Monkey Ward Cowboy - a tenderfoot
Mudsill - low-life, thoroughly disreputable person
Muggins - a scoundrel
Mule – meat of dubious quality
Mule's Breakfast - a straw bed
Mustered Out – wry term meaning killed in action
Nailed to the counter - proven a lie
Namby-pamby - sickly, sentimental, saccharin
Neck Oil - Whiskey
No Account - worthless
Not By a Jug Full - not by any means, no way
Odd stick - eccentric person
Of the first water - first class
Offish - distant, reserved, aloof
Oh-be-joyful - Liquor, beer, intoxicating spirits
On His Own Hook - on one's own shrift, without orders
On the shoot - looking for trouble
Open the Ball - starting the battle
Opine - be of the opinion
Paintin' his Nose - getting drunk
Pair of Overalls - two drinks of whiskey
Pass the buck - evade responsibility
Pay through the nose - to over-pay, or pay consequences
Peacemaker - Colt SAA
Peacock About - strut around
Peaked - pronounced peak-ed; weak or sickly
Peter out - dwindle away
Picket - sentries posted around a camp or bivouac to guard approaches
Pie Eater - country boy, a rustic
Pig Sticker - knife or bayonet
Play a Lone Hand - do something alone
Play Old Soldier - pretend sickness to avoid combat
Play to the gallery - to show off 
Played out – worn out, exhausted
Plunder - personal belongings
Pony up - hurry up
Pop Skull - whiskey
Porch Percher - a town loafer
Pot Rustler - cook
Powerful - very
Prairie Dew - whiskey
Prairie Tenor - coyote
Promiscuous - reckless, careless
Proud - glad
Puddin' Foot - an awkward horse
Pull in your horns - back off, quit looking for trouble
Pumpkin Rinds - gold lieutenant's bars
Put a spoke in the wheel - to foul up or sabotage something
Put on the Nose Bag - to eat
Quartermaster Hunter - shot or shell that goes long over the lines and into the rear
Quick Step, Flux - diarrhea
Quirley – roll your own cigarette
Rich - amusing, funny, improbable
Ride shank's mare - to walk or be set afoot
Ride the river – tough, respected person
Right as a trivet - right as rain, sound as a nut, stable
Rip - reprobate
Robber's Row - the place where sutlers set up to do business
Roostered - drunk
Round Browns - cow chips
Row - a fight
Sachet Kitten – skunk
Saddle Bum - a drifter
Sage Hen - a woman
Salt Horse - salted meat
Salt, salty – tough, gutsy
Sardine Box - cap box
Savvy - knowledge or understanding
Sawbones - surgeon
Scarce as Hen's Teeth - exceedingly rare or hard to find
Scoop in - trick, entice, inveigle
Scuttlebutt - rumors
Secesh - term for Confederates and Southerners: secessionists
See The Elephant - experience combat or other worldly events
Shakes - malaria
Shanks Mare - on foot
Shave tail - a green, inexperienced person
Sheet Iron Crackers - hard tack
Shin out - run away
Shindy - uproar, confusion
Shoddy – poor quality, an inferior weave of wool used to make uniforms early in the war
Shoot one's mouth off - talk nonsense, untruth
Shoot, Luke, or give up the gun - poop or get off the pot, do it or quit talking about it
Shove the queer - to pass counterfeit money
Simon pure - the real thing, a genuine fact
Sing Out - call out, yell
Singin' to Em' - standing night guard
Skedaddle - run like hell
Slouch Hat - a wide-brimmed felt hat
Smoke Wagon - a six-gun
Snuffy - a wild or spirited horse
Snug as a Bug - very comfortable
Soaked - drunk
Soft solder - flattery
Somebody's Darling - comment when observing a dead soldier
Someone to ride the river with - a person to be counted on; reliable; got it where it counts
Sound on the goose - true, staunch, reliable
Sparking - courting a girl
Spondulix - money
Squeezing the Biscuit - holding the saddle horn
Stand the gaff - take punishment in good spirit
Stop - stay
Stretching the blanket - telling a tall tale
Stringing a Whizzer - telling a tall tale
Stumped - confused
Sunday Soldiers / Parlor Soldiers - terms for unsuitable soldiers
Superintend - oversee, supervise
Swamp Seed - rice
Take an Image - have a photograph taken
Take French leave - to desert, sneak off without permission
Take on - grieve
Take the rag off - surpass, beat all
Talking Iron - a six-shooter
Tear Squeezer - a sad story
Techy as a Teased Snake - grumpy
Texas Cakewalk - a hanging
The Old States - back East
The whole kit and caboodle - the entire thing
Throw up the sponge - quit, give up, surrender
Tie to - rely on
Tight - drunk
To beat the Dutch - to beat the band
Too Much Mustard - a braggart
To the manner born - a natural
Toe the Mark - do as told, follow orders
Top Rail - first class, top quality
Traps - equipment, belongings
Tuckered Out - exhausted
Twig - understand
Uncorkin' a Bronc - breaking a horse
Unshucked -  draw a gun
Up the spout - gone to waste/ruin
Uppity - arrogant
Valley Tan - Morman whiskey
Vidette - a sentry same as Picket but usually on horseback
Wake up/Woke up the wrong passenger - to trouble or anger the wrong person
Wallpapered - drunk
War Bonnet - a hat
Wasp Nest - light bread
Whipped - beaten
Whistle Berries - beans
Who hit John - Liquor, beer, intoxicating spirits
Wind / wound up – settle(d)
Wrathy - angry
Zu Zu - Zouaves, soldiers whose units wore colorful uniforms in a flamboyant French style with baggy trousers, known for bravery and valor

[FriscoCounty]

Also, watch out for anachronistic speech inserted by modern scriptwriters.  In the series Hell on Wheels, the character Bohannen referred to a German character as a "kraut". This term would not exist until the early 20th century. He likely would have called him by his state affiliation (Prussian, Saxon, etc.) or he would have referred to him as "Dutch" or a "Dutchman" which was a common generalization for any Germanic person.

Dutch is a corruption Deutsche - German for German.  Hence the Pennsylvania Dutch are actually of German origin.

[Tsalagidave]

To "See the elephant" actually has a deeper meaning than most contemporary historical works give it credit for. It actually means to go out with high expectations and see the disappointing reality instead. It was initially known as a newer version of the old expression "to go out for wool and get shorn instead".  The phrase became popular in the south and the western states. I'm not certain how far it dates back but it was at least common vernacular for the Mexican-American war.  One seeking accolades and the glory of battle instead finds, sickness, hardship, and the hellishness of war. For more information on this and other American expressions up to the late 1840s, check out this source.

(Bartlett's Dictionary of Americanisms - 1848) page 290 is where you will find "see the elephant".

-Dave

[Tsalagidave]

Dutch is a corruption Deutsche - German for German.  Hence the Pennsylvania Dutch are actually of German origin.

Ich weiss es. Ich spreche Deutsch auch.

-Dave

[Tsalagidave]

Here are a few more...

From an 1859 book of slang:

"Fixed" ... drunk.
"Dab" or "Dabster" ...  being really good at something
"Queer as Dick's Hatband" ... strange as anything ever was. "Dick's Hatband" can be used in many ways such as noting something to the extreme. Ex. Something really big would be "Big as Dick's Hatband"
"Give him Jessy" ... give someone a thrashing
"Give him the mitten" ... getting dumped (by a love interest)
"Box the Jesuit" ... (NSFW) basically means turning pleasure into a one-man show
"Bags of Mystery" ... sausages
"Don't sell me a dog" ... don't lie to me
"Betty" a man who does women's work
"Anointing" ... beating
"Colt's tooth" ... an elderly person with young tastes
"Fart catcher" ... a valet (they walk behind the person they serve)
"Bone box" ... mouth

1865 Book of Vulgar Slang:

"Lammy" ... blanket
"Lap the gutter" ... heavily drunk
"Larrup" or "Leather" ... thrash
"Lint Scraper" ... young, inexperienced surgeon
"Looking Glass" ... chamber pot
"Louse Trap" ... fine-tooth comb
"Lump it" ... to dislike something
"Mahogany" or "hide your feet under another man's mahogany"  ... to sit at another man's table or to be in another man's house
"Maw worm" ... hypocrite
"Mop up" ... seaport slang empty the glass
"Mott" ... harlot

[Dave T]

Years ago I talked to an old Border Patrolman who worked the Rio Grande valley for years. In describing any of his old friends as good guys he would say "they'd do to ride the river with". I have read that goes back to the 19th Century but I'm not sure about that.

Dave

[Kent Shootwell]

Chippy; prostitute

[Tsalagidave]

Chippy; prostitute

That's a good one. There are listings online for it implying it dates to the days of long cattle drives but it sounds like a Texan thing. I've not heard it among my wrangler friends in Arizona or my ranching relatives in Oklahoma.

-Dave

[Kent Shootwell]

I heard that one in Montana, there is a park (clearing) below a gold mining camp that's known as Chippy park. I thought it refers to squirrels and such but later found out that it was a camp of sporting girls that mined the miners. Along the creek are remains of other business structures one I figured to be a butcher or restaurant due to the sawed bones there. Lots of run down cabins in that valley.

[KarlieBoe]

Whelp, I will never be able to forget fart catcher, that one will be in my mind forever. Too bad I don't ever get a valet, so it's not the most practical slang.

[Professor Marvel]

... Along the creek are remains of other business structures one I figured to be a butcher or restaurant due to the sawed bones there.

Doctors Office     

yhs
prof marvel

[Tsalagidave]

"To die in one's shoes" or to be "Topped" - To be hanged.
Ride the wooden or 3-legged mare or "ride the horse foaled by an acorn" - hanged
Shoot the cat - to vomit.
Slap-up - first rate or very good.
Smeller - a good hit to the nose.
Upper Benjamin - Great coat.
Adam's Ale - water
Apple Dumpling Shop - a woman's bosom.
Bachelor's son - Bastard

[Mogorilla]

I read this eons ago in a book and in high school/college took to calling some individuals four outers.  It generally confused everyone and meant I did not have to defend myself and end up sporting blinkers  (that is another period one for black eyes)

Gentleman of Four Outs: When a vulgar, blustering fellow asserts that he is a gentleman, the retort generally is, "Yes, a gentleman of four outs," that is, without wit, without money, without credit, and without manners.

[Tsalagidave]

Whelp, I will never be able to forget fart catcher, that one will be in my mind forever. Too bad I don't ever get a valet, so it's not the most practical slang.

You say that now but sometime soon, you will be on vacation and when the guy comes to help with the bags, you won't be able to keep a straight face all the way to the room.

-Dave