Folk Speech

beestlings or beeslings--The first milk that a cow gives after birthing her first calf.  It was believed that pouring this milk over the rump of the cow would make her a good and docile milch cow. (I have never heard this word used, have you?)

slab-sided--having flat sides like slabs, tall & lank.  "You better start feeding that horse better because he sure is slab-sided." (I can remember my dad using this one all of the time.)

draggletailed--Untidy;  bedraggled. "You sure are looking all draggletailed after taking care of those kids all day!"

pissabed--The dandelion flower.  Children are warned not to pull it because it will make them wet the bed at night.

draw-bar--A bar or set of bars in a fence which can be drawn back to allow passage. "I hope that you remembered to secure the draw bars so the horse doesn't get out."  (I had not thought about this word in years, but when I was growing up, I had a horse named Black Beauty.  Yes, I know....I was not very original!  To get to the barn, I had to lower the drawbars to get through the fence to go ride.  Black Beauty had a foal named Midnight and she was VERY talented at rubbing against the drawbars until they fell to the ground, then Midnight would show up at the front porch where we were all sitting. Grandpa had to finally put removable pegs into each bar to keep that horse in the field! That horse would follow my Grandpa around like a dog when he was in the fields too.)

belly-aching--whining and complaining.  "She just needs to stop all of that belly-achin' and be content with her life." (I think that just about everyone in my family used this term!)

monack-- (moonack)--A woodchuck or groundhog.  (I have never heard this word used either!  Have you?)

nubbin--A small or imperfect ear of corn.

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