from Maine Lingo: Boiled Owls, Billdads, & Wazzats by John Gould HORNSWOGGLE: The standard dictionaries defined this as to cheat, hoax, swindle, and bamboozle. But Mainers use it in quite another sense to indicate amazement. Usually, a happy surprise. When a good friend you haven’t seen in years walks into your yard, you may grab his hand and exclaim, […]

from Maine Lingo: Boiled Owls, Billdads, & Wazzats by John Gould MOREY: Worth having more of: “That’s a real morey cake — don’t mind if I do!”

an excerpt from Maine Lingo: Boiled Owls, Billdads, & Wazzats by John Gould RUGGED: Pronounced rug-gid. A favorite word throughout Maine in the usual dictionary meanings but with a great deal of additional verve and color. The physical condition and state of health which makes a man well set up and powerful establishes him as rug-gid, but a ten-year-old boy […]

an excerpt from Maine Lingo: Boiled Owls, Billdads, & Wazzats by John Gould KIN TO KAINT: From can see to can’t see; dawn to dusk. In outdoor work the weather is a factor, and in shipyards, on farms, and in the woods it was the custom to work stiddy in pleasant weather from kin to kaint. STIDDY: Steady. A stiddyin’ hand, and “stiddy as […]

an excerpt from Maine Lingo: Boiled Owls, Billdads, & Wazzats by John Gould SKID ROAD: This original Maine term has been much abused by the world at large. It is not, was not, and never can be a “skid row.” The skid road was an iced logging road over which oxen and horses pulled the sleds. On downgrades a snub […]

an excerpt from Maine Lingo: Boiled Owls, Billdads, & Wazzats by John Gould DOORYARD VISIT: Or dooryard call. Although still used with automobiles, this meant a buggy visit when the occupants didn’t descend to come into the house. It was a neighborly call, in passing.

an excerpt from Maine Lingo: Boiled Owls, Billdads, & Wazzats by John Gould FIND A HOLE IN THE BEACH: To anchor in an emergency harbor because of storm or fog. To find a place to put up for the night when traveling; a motel.

an excerpt from Maine Lingo: Boiled Owls, Billdads, & Wazzats by John Gould HARD UP: To be up against it, but not quite a pauper. When you get so hard up you have to call on (for town aid), you no longer have your head above water. It also means a last-ditch conjecture: “I’d have to be awful hard up to […]