Feb 24, 2017 Orange County Review
Historical research has an interesting fun side, particularly when it comes to transcribing documents. It is not simply a question of deciphering the written word, and those of us who attempt and fail often at texting know that one misspelled word can alter the entire universe! Seriously, one word out of context via meaning or spelling can have a monumental impact on the translation.
But there is something else: words or phrases that have not been a part of our vernacular for 100 to 200 years and their meaning is lost to most of us. Thank goodness for Google! The internet hosts an amazing number of sites big and small that help this historian decipher what seems to be a foreign language.
Have a look at some of the more interesting expressions I came across; maybe they will ring some bells.
“Walk the Chalk”
This was a phrase expressed by Lucy Thom Taylor’s (LTT) sister regarding LTT’s husband Wm. Taylor. It was either a test of a sailor’s sobriety or a means of keeping a loved one on the straight and narrow.
“The wrong pants leg”
This describes a husband who, for whatever reason, does not measure up as a good provider.
“Torpid liver”
Torpid is defined as weak or sluggish and when applied to an organ such as the liver a serious ailment results from a liver that is dysfunctional.
“Snow water”
The scientific definition translated here in layman’s terms is the volume of water distilled from a measured volume of snow. Perhaps, that is what was meant in 1839 as well.
An entry in Wm. Taylor’s diary Feb. 7, 1839:
Commencing fine cold rain…Most horrid weather for the stock- Rained all day. Snow water. “Agua de Nieve’” (sic) as the Majuany (sic) would say.”
The translation of Agua de Nieve’ is Snow Water and suggests a Spanish derivation. The word Majuany is a puzzle. To the best of my ability, it is spelled as Wm. Taylor wrote it including the capitalization of the letter M. As of yet, I have not found any definitive explanation of to whom Taylor is referring. If one factors in the derivation of the phrase mentioned above, the fact that Wm. Taylor served in Vera Cruz, Mexico as the American Consulate for nearly 10 years, and Louisiana’s history of Spanish occupation, one might conclude that they were people of Spanish origin. All thoughts are welcome.
“Breaking up the field”
In today’s vernacular one might think that troops were sent in to break up a mob or a field of ideas, but they would be mistaken. Taken in the context in which it was written, it is an agricultural term meaning to prepare a field for planting, most likely a field that had not been ploughed or planted previously.
It might be useful as you continue to read the story and the repeated use of the term bayou, pronounced ‘bye u’, that you become familiar with the definition. If I interpret my notes correctly, the origin was from the Choctaw word ‘bayuk,’ meaning small stream. In the mid- 1700s, the French added their own flavor to transform the spelling to bayou. To fully qualify as a bayou, the small and often sluggish stream should connect with a larger body of water.
One of Taylor’s plantations lay on both sides of the Bayou Latanache, a once navigable body of water. Though no longer a stream of any prominence, the history related to the farmland surrounding it is as deep and wide as the original bayou.
Until next week, be well.