alkali

en-noun

alkali (countable and uncountable, plural alkalis or alkalies)

→ Welsh: alcali

From French alcali, ultimately from Arabic اَلْقِلْي (al-qily, “alkali, ashes of the saltwort”), related to قَلَى (qalā, “to roast in a pan, fry”).

der

(Western US) Soluble mineral matter, other than common salt, contained in soils of natural waters.


pack

en-verb

pack (third-person singular simple present packs, present participle packing, simple past and past participle packed)

packs (present singular third-person)
packing (participle present)
packed (participle past)
packed (past)

From Middle English pakken, from the noun (see above). Compare Middle Dutch packen (“to pack”), Middle Low German packen (“to pack”).

وَضَّبَ

to put things together for storage or transporting

(transitive, US, chiefly Western US) To transport in a pack, or in the manner of a pack (on the backs of men or animals).


firefly

2000, Exploring Life Science, 2: Bats—Cave Life, Marshall Cavendish, page 96,
Fireflies are the best-known insects that produce light. […] Many fireflies use their light to communicate, particularly at mating time when males and females have to get together.

The luciferins are different in different species and today both the luciferin and luciferase in the firefly are available in the crystalline form.

2004, B. V. David, T. N. Ananthakrishnan, “Chapter 20: Bioluminescence”, in General and Applied Entomology, 2nd edition, Tata McGraw-Hill, page 130:

Various other luciferase genes, especially the firefly luciferase gene, are also used for the study of gene regulation.[…]The classic use of bioluminescence, however, is the use of a luciferin-luciferase mixture from fireflies as an assay for ATP.

2007, Lars Olof Björn, Helen Ghiradella, “23: Bioluminescence”, in Lars Olof Björn, editor, Photobiology: The Science of Life and Light, 2nd edition, Springer, page 607:

(Northern US, Western US, Florida) Any beetle of the family Lampyridae, which exhibit bioluminescence during twilight.


jackpot

Unknown. Criminal slang usage as "trouble, especially an arrest" attested 1902.

and if you are not next to the ways and customs, the first thing you know you are in a jackpot so big four one spots would not be openers. I don't know what that last expression means, but I heard a fellow use it, and he was talking about a fellow that was in a very bad fix.

1904, C. A. Boose, “letter”, in The Railway Conductor, volume XXI:

"I'm in a jackpot." Sympathy shone from those friendly eyes at once. "It's shore too bad for a lady to be in a jackpot," he answered me earnestly.

1941, Agnes Morley Cleaveland, No life for a lady, page 284:

You're already in a jackpot, he said. I'm tryin to get you out of it.

2005, Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men, page 86:


slough

slough (third-person singular simple present sloughs, present participle sloughing, simple past and past participle sloughed)

sloughs (present singular third-person)
sloughing (participle present)
sloughed (participle past)
sloughed (past)

From Middle English slogh, slugh, slouh, from Proto-Germanic *sluk-, perhaps related to *sleupaną (“to slip, sneak”) (compare Gothic 𐍃𐌻𐌹𐌿𐍀𐌰𐌽 (sliupan)).
Akin to Middle Low German slô (“sheath, skin on a hoof”). Perhaps also related with Old Saxon slūk (“snakeskin”), Middle High German slūch, whence German Schlauch (“waterskin, hose”).

cog

(intransitive, slang, Western US) To commit truancy, be absent from school without permission.


slough

Maxwell Township, Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota

From Middle English slough (“muddy place; swamp; mire”), Old English slōh, probably from Proto-Germanic *slōhaz.

inh

The Sacramento River Delta contains dozens of sloughs that are often used for water-skiing and fishing.

(Western US) A secondary channel of a river delta, usually flushed by the tide.


crotch

en-verb

crotch (third-person singular simple present crotches, present participle crotching, simple past and past participle crotched)

crotches (present singular third-person)
crotching (participle present)
crotched (participle past)
crotched (past)

Of disputed origin; two possibilities seem likely:
* From Middle English croche, variant of crucche (“crutch”); compare crook.
* From Middle English croche, variant of crouche (“cross, crozier”).

(transitive, logging, historical, Western US) To notch (a log) on opposite sides to provide a grip for the dogs that will haul it.


wrangle

wrangle (third-person singular simple present wrangles, present participle wrangling, simple past and past participle wrangled)

wrangles (present singular third-person)
wrangling (participle present)
wrangled (participle past)
wrangled (past)
wrangle (infinitive)

The verb is derived from Middle English wranglen, wrangle (“to contend with (someone) in a test of strength; (figuratively) to make misleading arguments to entrap”); from a Middle Dutch or Middle Low German word related to Middle Dutch wrangen and Middle Low German wrangen (“to cause an uproar; to struggle, wrestle”) (whence Low German wrangeln (“to wrangle”)), related to Middle Dutch wringen (“to twist; to wrest; to wring; to struggle, wrestle”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *wringaną (“to squeeze; to twist; to wring”).
The noun is derived from the verb.
cognates
* Danish vringle (“to twist, entangle”)
* German rangeln (“to wrestle”)

рабптя като каубой

to herd (horses or other livestock); to manage or supervise (people)

Wrangling a chaotic group of five-year-olds is unnerving enough without the added stress of a famous NHLer [Brian Gionta] in the room helping lace his son’s skates.

2010 October 3, Sean Gordon, “Gionta settles in, stands out”, in The Globe and Mail, Toronto, Ont.: The Globe and Mail Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-06-15:

(Western US) To herd (horses or other livestock).

(by extension, humorous) To manage or supervise (people).

To herd (horses or other livestock).
To manage or supervise (people).

(figuratively) To gather and organize (data, facts, information, etc.), especially in a way which requires sentience rather than automated methods alone, as in data wrangling.

siistiä

to gather and organize (data, facts, information, etc.), especially in a way which requires sentience rather than automated methods alone

When she [Debbie Reynolds as Lucretia Rogers] tries to wrangle a calf, she ends up flat on her face in the barnyard muck.

1962 January 12, “Cinema: The Second Time Around [film review]”, in Roy Alexander, editor, Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2010-07-17:


frybread

en-noun

frybread (usually uncountable, plural frybreads)


buckwheat

buckwheat (usually uncountable, plural buckwheats)

Ultimately from Middle Low German bōkwête (“beech-wheat”) (so called because of its triangular seeds, which resemble the much larger seeds of the beech nut from the beech tree, and the fact that it is used like wheat), probably via Middle Dutch boecweit, boecweite. Compare German Buchweizen.
Despite the name, buckwheat is not related to wheat, as it is not a grass.

der

(Western US) Any of the wild buckwheats in the genus Eriogonum.


chippy

I manage to pick up a living in spite of the damn chippies. I don't see why the hell they don't go into the business regular and make something out of it, instead of loving free.

a. 1911, David Graham Phillips, Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise:

Don't worry chippy, nobodys gonna hurtya. Maybe fuckya a little[…]

1964, Hubert Selby Jr., Last Exit to Brooklyn, New York: Grove Press, page 52:

$80 for a chippy? I can get a goddamn horse for $50!

1971, Robert Altman, Brian McKay, 00:17:46 from the start, in McCabe & Mrs. Miller:

I give the pictures of the wife and the lawn boy to the husband. I give the pictures of the husband and the chippy to the wife.

2004, William Lashner, chapter I, in Fatal Flaw, →ISBN, page 280:

Canby hints that, even with chippies, sexual intercourse was rare; even putting aside his complete lack of regard for the chippy as an actual human being, however, this passage makes clear that whatever did occur with these chippies may not have been as consensual as he presumed.⁷²

2008, Nicholas L. Syrett, chapter C, in The Company He Keeps: A History of White College Fraternities, →ISBN, page 176:

When Victor Laszlo leads the demoralized French in the “Marseilles^([sic – meaning Marseillaise]),” and even Yvonne, the chippy who is sleeping with a Nazi officer, joins in, the stoniest intellectual collapses in tears.

2012 March 19, David Denby, “Everybody Comes to Rick’s: “Casablanca” on the Big Screen”, in The New Yorker:

(slang, Western US) A prostitute or promiscuous woman.


buckaroo

First attested in 1889. Derived from Spanish vaquero (“cowboy”), from Vulgar Latin vaccārius (“cowherder, rancher”); compare Merovingian Late Latin baccalarius (“cowherder serving under a farmer or feudal lord; a youth?”). Akin to vaca (“cow”), from Latin vacca + -ero. Spelling influenced by buck. Cognate to French vacher, etc. Doublet of vaquero.

cog

Don’t run in looking for a fight like some kind of buckaroo.

(Western US) A reckless, headstrong person.


yeehaw

From gee and haw, words used to instruct a horse to turn in different directions.

(chiefly Southern US and Western US) An expression of joy or excitement, commonly associated with cowboys.


rustler

(US, especially Western US, slang, dated) An alert, energetic, driving person.


drinking fountain

en-noun

drinking fountain (plural drinking fountains)

(UK, Upper Midwestern US, Western US, Philippines) A device in a public place that provides water to drink.

飲水機

device that is used to provide water to drink


crawfish

crawfish (countable and uncountable, plural crawfishes or crawfish)

1620s, folk etymology from Middle English crevis, from Old French crevice (French écrevisse), influenced by fish. Compare crayfish.

(Southern US, New York and Western US) Any of various freshwater crustaceans: crayfish.


nightcrawler

(chiefly Northern US, Western US) More generally, any arbitrarily large earthworm, especially those favored in angling.


eavestrough

eavestrough (countable and uncountable, plural eavestroughs)

1813 eaves-trough, 1817 eave trough, 1870 eavestrough, from eaves + trough.

Another contrivance worth mentioning, is, the manner of conducting the water down from an Eaves-trough or Lander, which is very common about Mansfield, on the edge of Nottinghamshire; it consists, in suspending a slight wooden rod from the end of the Lander, hanging down into the Water-Butt or Cistern, down which the water runs, without being scattered by the wind, or blown against the wall, as too constantly happens, unless expensive upright spouts or trunks are used, to convey the water down, and which are very subject to decay.

1813, John Farey, chapter 3, in General View of the Agriculture of Derbyshire, volume 2, London: Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement, page 15:

At 1 P. M. going into a back room I noticed that the water was falling from the eave trough of a kitchen, in which there had been no fire for some days.

1817 March 15, Horatio Gates Spafford, “Record of Cold”, in Niles’ Weekly Register, volume 12, number 3, page 35:

e, the eave-trough, hollowed, as usual, out of solid timber, and having the outer edge an inch lower than the inner.

1836, John Henry Hopkins, Essay on Gothic Architecture, with Various Plans and Drawings for Churches, Burlington: Smith & Harrington, page 42:

They laugh at long-togs so, Flask; but seems to me, a Long tailed coat ought always to be worn in all storms afloat. The tails tapering down that way, serve to carry off the water, d'ye see. Same with cocked hats; the cocks form gable-end eave-troughs, Flask.

1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, or the Whale, volume 3, page 211:

Where in an action for a nuisance, in allowing the water from the defendant's roof to be shed on the plaintiff's land, there was evidence to show that the water did not run upon the plaintiff's premises until after a new eavestrough was constructed and put up, and that since that time it did run over and upon the plaintiff's premises, and injured his land; it was held, that the judge on the tiral erred in nonsuiting the plaintiff.

1870, William Wait, A Digest of New York Reports, volume 2, Albany: William Gould & Son, page 1407:

Maxx managed to grab sufficient hold of the eavestrough before plummeting to the ground. He hung suspended from the roof's edge ...

2009, Eugene Kachmarsky, Let Slip the Dogs of Love, →ISBN, page 59:

(Canada, Upper Midwestern US, Western US) A trough under the eaves of a building for draining water from the roof; gutter.


snow level

The snow level, or altitude in the atmosphere where snow melts to rain, is an important variable for hydrometeorological prediction in mountainous watersheds; yet, there is no operational performance measure associated with snow-level forecasts in the United States.

2009, Allen B. White et al., “Developing a Performance Measure for Snow-Level Forecasts”, in Journal of Hydrometeorology, volume 11, number 3, →DOI:

Snow levels Sunday and Monday are expected to hover about 6,000 feet before dropping to 5,000 feet midweek.

2019 December 20, Hannah Fry, “Rain and snow return to Southern California this weekend. How long will it last?”, in Los Angeles Times:

A surge of moisture moving will produce a wintry mix over the Big Island summits through today. Snow levels are expected to be around 13,000 feet during this time.

2020 December 18, National Weather Service, 335 AM HST Winter Weather Advisory

(meteorology, chiefly Western US) The altitude, in a mountainous region, above which precipitation falls as snow.


mochila

Borrowed from Spanish mochila. Doublet of macheer.

(US, especially Western US) A large leather flap that covers the saddle tree.


gullywasher

"Then maybe some preacher got a tad too zealous on Sunday" Thinking of his " frog-strangler," Lucy said, "In Montana, we'd call this a gullywasher." " Gullywasher. I like that." She could hear him, up there on the island in Thomas Jefferson's ...

2008, Jonathan Raban, Surveillance, Vintage, →ISBN, page 110:

(US, informal, Southern US, Midwestern US, Western US) An intense, but usually short-lived, rainstorm.


bear claw

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-bear claw.wav

(Western US) A large, sweet pastry filled with raisins and spices.


flatlander

ridge-runner

antonym(s) of “person who was born or raised by someone outside low altitude mountainous regions”

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-flatlander.wav

[...as] Rocky Mountain News termed it. Although some potential visitors would wonder whether it was safe, especially "flatlanders" unaccustomed to mountain driving, Trail Ridge provided a perfect roadbed […]

1983, C. W. Buchholtz, Rocky Mountain National Park: A History, University Press of Colorado:

Ahead stretched the great Rocky Mountains. For this family of Iowa flatlanders, it was a spectacular sight.

2003, Gayle Tow, Beyond the Golden Gate: A Pioneer Woman's Journey from California's Gold Country to Oregon's Fertile Tillamook Valley, →ISBN:

At least I'm becoming acclimated to the high altitude. She wasn't gasping for breath like most Flatlanders after first arriving in the mountains.

2014, Bill Burch, Return to Rocky Mountain Watershed: Its River - Its People, outskirtspress, →ISBN:

(chiefly derogatory) A person who lives at, lived at, or was raised by someone at a low altitude or from any city. A person not raised in or by someone directly from high mountain areas. (used by those who were born, raised, and are still living in higher altitude non-city or city like areas).

(Western US, especially in the Rocky Mountains) Anyone from the East; anyone from outside the Rockies.


charqui

charqui (countable and uncountable, plural charquis)

From the same Quechua root as jerky, via Spanish.

When it was dark, we made a fire beneath a little arbour of bamboos, fried our charqui (or dried slips of beef), took our maté, and were quite comfortable.

1839, Charles Darwin, Journal of Researches, John Murray, published 1913, page 273:

(South America, Central America, Western US) jerky


horsemint

horsemint (countable and uncountable, plural horsemints)

From Middle English horsmynte, from Old English horsminte, equivalent to horse + mint.

(Western US) An aromatic plant of the mint family, Agastache urticifolia.


backset

en-verb

backset (third-person singular simple present backsets, present participle backsetting, simple past and past participle backset)

backsets (present singular third-person)
backsetting (participle present)
backset (participle past)
backset (past)

(US, especially Western US) To plow again in the fall; said of prairie land broken up in the spring.


jump a claim

jump a claim (third-person singular simple present jumps a claim, present participle jumping a claim, simple past and past participle jumped a claim)

jumps a claim (present singular third-person)
jumping a claim (participle present)
jumped a claim (participle past)
jumped a claim (past)

Anarchy still reigns in this new country;—not only have the miners to defend their persons and their acquisitions against the incursions from Indian tribes; not only are crimes and offences common (lynch law maintaining a permitted existence instead of laws and police); but every one appears to hold his property by right of first comer: a miner choses the spot he likes best; a strong arm and a carbine, with a steady eye, are his title deeds. To seize upon a rich "placer" from a miner too weak to resist, is called in the slang of the district, to "jump a claim." The President of the United States himself, stated in his last message, that "The mineral lands should remain free to every citizen;" and the Secretary of State has added, "that the right of occupancy should be submitted only to such laws as the miners themselves thought fit to make."

1853, Leon Faucher, chapter IV, in Thomson Hankey, transl., Remarks on the Production of the Precious Metals, and on the Demonetization of Gold in Several Countries in Europe, 2nd revised edition, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., →OCLC, page 50:

(historical, Australia, Western US) To enter upon and take possession of land to which another has acquired a claim by prior entry and occupation.


make meat

make meat (third-person singular simple present makes meat, present participle making meat, simple past and past participle made meat)

makes meat (present singular third-person)
making meat (participle present)
made meat (participle past)
made meat (past)

(colloquial, US, especially Western US) To cure meat in the open air.


water pocket

(US, chiefly Western US) A waterhole in the bed of an intermittent stream, especially the bowl at the foot of a cliff over which the stream leaps when in the flood stage.


squaw man

(historical, US, especially Western US, sometimes derogatory, now offensive) A white man who married a Native American woman, sometimes gaining tribal rights by doing so.


camass

(Western US) A small prairie in a forest; a small grassy plain among hills.


claim-jumping

When he told us of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride’s manner, of so transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very significant allusion to claim-jumping—which in miners’ parlance means taking possession of that which another person has a prior claim to—the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a previous husband—the chances being in favour of the latter.

1892, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor:

(historical, Australia, Western US) The act of one who jumps a claim.


air one's paunch

air one's paunch (third-person singular simple present airs one's paunch, present participle airing one's paunch, simple past and past participle aired one's paunch)

airs one's paunch (present singular third-person)
airing one's paunch (participle present)
aired one's paunch (participle past)
aired one's paunch (past)

/ˈɛ͡ɹ wˈʌnz pˈɔːnt͡ʃ/

The grapes were so bitter I nearly aired my paunch.

2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster, published 2014, page 36:

(US, chiefly Western US, colloquial) To vomit, to throw up.


Rocky Mountain Kool-Aid

en-noun

Rocky Mountain Kool-Aid (plural Rocky Mountain Kool-Aids)

The beer was originally only available in Colorado.


sonofabitch stew

sonofabitch stew (usually uncountable, plural sonofabitch stews)

“Hambone, how's for chuck?”
Hambone removed pipe from mouth, slowly. “Wal, I reckon I still got a few whistleberries left. Some sonofabitch stew mabbe. A few shot biscuits.”

1951, Frederick Feikema Manfred, Riders of Judgment, Second, published 2014, →ISBN:

Neither you nor I might like a Son-of-a-Bitch stew made from the organ meats of a milk-fed calf, but the cowboys liked it.

1981 October 21, Linda West Eckhardt, “Texas Eating: Ethnic variety with a frontier spirit”, in New York Times, retrieved 2017-11-16:

He can cull choice young animals for the pot and create triumphs of cruel gastronomy, like the baby beef of the gauchos or the Wyoming cattleman's sonofabitch stew based on the organ meats and brains of an unweaned calf.

2002, Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Near a Thousand Tables: A History of Food, →ISBN:

(Western US) A cowboy dish of the Old West: a stew made with beef and offal.


mudhen

Fulica americana
Fulica americana#Translingual

(Western US) The American coot (Fulica americana).


quirly

(Western US, slang) A cigarette, especially one which is hand-rolled.


last chance saloon

Said to be from the name of a former type of bar or saloon in the United States in the 19th century that offered customers the final opportunity to drink alcohol before passing into an area where alcohol was prohibited or scarce.

(chiefly Western US, historical) A saloon located at the end of a road or the outskirts of a town.


barber-chair

en-verb

barber-chair (third-person singular simple present barber-chairs, present participle barber-chairing, simple past and past participle barber-chaired)

barber-chairs (present singular third-person)
barber-chairing (participle present)
barber-chaired (participle past)
barber-chaired (past)

From the resemblance of a tree split in this way to a barber chair.

Once when a tree barber-chaired, this was on a steep hillside, it was a dramatic display of a diving tree.

1998, Jim Deaton, Crosscut Saw Reflections in the Pacific Northwest, page 15:

It would have barber-chaired on him. The little ones had barber-chaired but they weren't split up very high.

2000, Lloyd Keeland, The Lusty Life of Loon Lake Lloyd, page 251:

He made the first cut, the notch, and then as he made the back cut, it barber-chaired and kicked back on him.

2014, Jesse W. Thompson, Samson & Delilah's Haunted B & B:

(Western US, of a tree being felled) To split vertically upward from the partial cut and fall or kick outward.

(Western US, transitive) To split (a tree) in this manner.


coyote tobacco

en-noun

coyote tobacco (usually uncountable, plural coyote tobaccos or coyote tobaccoes)

coyote tobaccos (plural)
coyote tobaccoes (plural)

From coyote + tobacco. Probably named after Coyote as a personified figure in American Indian mythology.

(Western US) Any of several native species of tobacco (genus Nicotiana) which were used by American Indians in the area before the coming of Europeans.


coyote's rope

coyote's rope (usually uncountable, plural coyote's ropes)

From American Indian myths about Coyote using the vine as a rope to trip people.

(Western US) Either of two native species in the genus Clematis, Clematis lasiantha and Clematis ligusticifolia


kensington

Named after the Royal School of Needlework in the UK, formerly known as the "Kensington School of Needlework".

Owing to a scarcity of coal in the University, we girls had an unexpected week of vacation, and the town girls helped us make the time fly, with kensingtons and bridge parties.

1910 April, Beulah Lasher, “Tau; University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa”, in Anchora of Delta Gamma, volume 26, number 3, Menasha: George Banta Pub. Co., page 207:

House-parties and kensingtons were the predominating features of the ΔΗ girls' summer.

1917 November, Ruth Ebling, “Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa”, in The Trident of Delta Delta Delta, volume 27, number 1, Lynchburg: J. P. Bell Co., →OCLC, page 54:

Kensingtons are held the first and third Fridays of the month. They are held at the homes, are well attended and much enjoyed.
Owing to the enforced quarantines due to the epidemics of influenza we have not been able to hold our regular meetings or kensingtons much of the winter.

1919 April, WM. F. Speer, “The Auxiliary: Clinton, Ia”, in The Railway Conductor, volume 36, number 4, Cedar Rapids: Order of Railway Conductors, →OCLC, page 190:

It is refreshing to note that teachers' activities were noted in 97 per cent of the community clubs. These included kensingtons, sewing clubs, music clubs, and culture clubs.

1919, “Industrial and Social Conditions and Suggestions of Teachers”, in The Rural Teacher of Nebraska, Washington: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 59:

But if you were the mother of four, if you had not been shopping in Dale City for seven months, if in that time your wildest orgies had been two or three kensingtons ("kensington" being the Meadows equivalent of "sewing circle"), the day would have taken on the nature of an event.

1926, Bess Streeter Aldrich, The Cutters, New York: D. Appleton & Co., →OCLC, page 29:

“If you’re sure there’s nothing I can do at the office,” she said, “I’ll go on to the kensington at Mrs. Henderson’s.”

1932, Ruthe S. Wheeler, Helen in the Editor's Chair, Chicago: Goldsmith Pub. Co., →OCLC, page 115:

(dated, Midwestern US and Western US) A sewing circle for women.

Denton, TX
Kensington, England
Royal School of Needlework
University of North Texas Press


California burger

California burger (plural California burgers)

(Western US) A cheeseburger with the addition of bacon and either guacamole or avocado.