Would you like to add some
colorful Westernisms to your vocabulary? Look no further than
Thomas L. Clark’s new book, Western Lore and Language: A Dictionary
for Enthusiasts of the American
West:
Biscuit shooter – The
camp cook for ranch operations (1890s).
Bizzing –
Hanging on the rear of a moving vehicle on a snow-slick street
(mainly central Utah, 1960s). Also called
bumper-bumming.
Bog rider – A cowboy who must go
out in the spring and pull cows out of the mud
(1910s).
Brush monkey – In logging, the person
who performs menial tasks (mainly California,
1950s).
Buckle bunny – A female rodeo groupie
(1970s).
Cohab – A polygamist
(1880s).
Dude – Related words: dudedom, dudeness,
dudery, dudie, dudine, dudish, dudism (all
1880s).
Fernhopper – A logger in the Pacific
Northwest (1950s).
Horse crippler – A species of
cactus, Echinocactus texensis (1870s).
Slow elk –
Cattle, especially those that have been stolen and slaughtered
(1910).
Spillionaire – An Alaskan who got rich
from the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster and clean-up
(1989).
Reprinted courtesy of
the University of Utah Press, from Thomas L. Clark: Western Lore
and Language, A Dictionary for Enthusiasts of the American West
(Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1996). ISBN
0-87480-510-4. Cloth, $24.95. Copies may be ordered directly from
the University of Utah Press, toll-free 800/773-6672, or fax orders
to 801/581-3365.
*Jared Farmer
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline How to talk Western.
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