My Favourite Idioms

by Elvira

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My Favourite Idioms

by Elvira

Joined Apr 2023
Published Books 1

BOTTOM CHAIRS

In Maine it’s said that someone who bottoms chairs for a living is lazy, presumably because one’s bottom is perpetually in the chair.

WORK-BRITTLE

In the Midland states, especially Indiana, work-brittle means eager to work or industrious. However, in the Appalachian region, the term was reinterpreted to mean the opposite: disinclined to work or lazy.

SOONER

Sooner is another word with opposite meanings. In Wisconsin, Kentucky, and South Carolina, a sooner or sooner man is someone who’s quick, clever, and enterprising—in other words, someone who gets things done sooner rather than later. The term can also be used ironically in Wisconsin, as well as North Carolina, referring to a lazy, good-for-nothing person.

BONE LOAFER

“You bone loafer!” you might say to someone sleeping on the job. This term is found in the Ozarks, which is made up of northwestern Arkansas, northeastern Oklahoma, and southwestern Missouri. Bone idle and bone lazy are South Midland sayings. All come from the idea, says an 1825 quote in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), of being so lazy or idle that the laziness or idleness seems “to have penetrated the very bones.”

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