“See major, see! The domned skillipins skedaddle extinsively—extinsively sir!” – CSA Captain “Old Tarantula” Reilly, Second Manassas, 1862 (quoted in John J. Hennessy’s Return to Bull Run)
The frontiers of language
July 4th, 2012 · 2 Comments
Tags: American Civil War · Lit & Crit
2 responses so far ↓
1 Averil Dean // Jul 5, 2012 at 5:17 pm
This reminds me of my dad, who used words like ‘dagnabbit’ and ‘mosey’–and ‘skedaddle’, as a matter of fact.
2 Tetman Callis // Jul 5, 2012 at 7:59 pm
I still use mosey myself, as in, Susan and I mosied on up to Santa Fe today on the train and played tourist, drinking caffeinated beverages in funky overpriced cafes, going to galleries and making snooty and sometimes informed sotto voce comments about the art, and eating too much. Dagnabit, it was good, then we skedaddled back home in time to catch a bit of summer rain.
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