“He thinks the sun comes up just to hear him crow.” Southerners mostly use this phrase to answer, “How are you?” Even those below the Mason-Dixon know frogs don’t have hair, and the irony means to highlight just how dandy you feel. “I’m finer than frog hair split four ways.” Carter’s “Little Liver Pills” became Carter’s “Little Pills” in 1951, but the South doesn’t really pay attention to history. Specifically, Carters repped its “Little Liver Pills” so hard a Southern saying spawned from the omnipresent advertisements.Īlas, the Federal Trade Commission forced the drug-group to drop the “liver” portion of the ad, claiming it was deceptive. “She’s got more nerve than Carter’s got Liver Pills.”Ĭarters Products started as a pill-peddling company in the latter part of the 19th century. This phrase describes a person who’s blissfully ignorant of reality.Ĩ. This effect pulls the pig’s lips back to reveal a toothy “grin,” making it look happy even though it’s dead. When a pig dies, presumably in a sty outside, the sun dries out its skin. “She’s as happy as a dead pig in the sunshine.” Inebriated Southerners have measured their drunkenness by him ever since.ħ. To avoid the draft on either side, Cooter decided to stay drunk throughout the entire war, making him ineligible for battle. Legend tells that he lived on the Mason-Dixon line - the border between the North and South - during the Civil War. A horse will look sick and tired if you forget this step, much like a person who misses sleep or drinks too much.Ĭooter Brown is an infamous character in Southern lore. A good rider knows to walk the horse around so it can dry off before going back to the stable. The phrase refers to a key step in horse grooming - when a horse runs fast, it works up a sweat, especially under the saddle. A Southerner might say this about her redneck cousin who likes to decorate his house with deer antlers. “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”Ī pig’s ear may look soft, pink, and shiny, but you’re not fooling anyone by calling it your new Marc Jacobs bag. Imagine a horse eating a carrot, and you’ll get the picture.Ĥ. They tend to stick up and outward, like a horse’s teeth. This describes someone with an unfortunate set of buck teeth. “He could eat corn through a picket fence.” You don’t want to be around a hormonal hen after she’s had an ice bath.ģ. Farmers used to dunk hens in cold water to “break” their broodiness. Hens sometimes enter a phase of “broodiness” - they’ll stop at nothing to incubate their eggs and get agitated when farmers try to collect them. If you’re living “in high cotton,” it means you’re feeling particularly successful or wealthy. Tall cotton bushes are easier to pick and yield higher returns. We chose 13 of the most ridiculous Southern sayings - and tried to explain them.Ĭotton has long been a key crop to the South’s economy, so every harvest farmers pray for tall bushes loaded with white fluffy balls in their fields. soda debate, but the South undoubtedly takes the cake.Ĭonversations south of the Mason-Dixon line will befuddle anyone not born there. Language discrepancies naturally arise in different geographic regions, like the raging pop vs.
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