Margo from Denton, Texas, says when the weather was really cold, her Kentucky-born grandmother would say it was cold as agga forti. The term aggie forti refers to something really strong, particularly a strong drink. That expression and the variants acker fortis, ackie fortis, and agur forty all go back to the Latin words aqua fortis, literally “strong water.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Cold as Aggie Forti”
Welcome to A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Margo Dillard in Denton, Texas.
Well, hi, Margo. Welcome to the show.
Hey, Margo. What’s up?
Hello.
My grandmother, when I was growing up, and this was in South Alabama, always used the expression cold as Aga 40 when it was really cold outside. I’ve never been able to figure out what that means, where it comes from. She was from Kentucky. She was from the coal mining region of Kentucky. I assume Aga might be a mispronunciation of 18, maybe 1840. There was a blizzard or something. I don’t know.
Wow. Well, that’s a creative theory there. So how cold are we talking about? Are we talking below freezing or just a little nippy?
Oh, no, below freezing.
Okay. Cold. Mm—
And was she a drinker?
Oh, no.
Oh, no. Okay. Well, I tell you, the reason I ask is because to me, this sounds like the term Agi-forty, which is an old expression that refers to a really strong drink. It’s agi-forty or Acker-fortis or acky-fortis or agger-forty. And the common thread among all these terms, which are used primarily in the South or have been in the past, is that they come from the Latin Aqua fortis, which means strong water. And for that reason, aqua fortis morphed into Agi-forti, meaning a really strong drink. And aqua fortis actually comes from Latin terms that literally means strong water, but the name refers to nitric acid, which is something that’s used in explosives and fertilizer and dyes. But since at least the mid-19th century, Aggie 40 has referred to a strong drink.
But why would that be cold?
That’s a good question, unless it has to do with the extreme nature of it, you know, like a really strong drink.
Right. It’s very bracing when you take a really strong drink, right? It’s kind of hard to… It’s like inhaling ice-cold air.
You said it’s used in explosives.
This stuff that’s called aqua fortis originally.
Nitric acid.
Could it have had anything to do with coal mining?
Maybe. Her grandfather owned a coal mine.
Maybe. You know, it was also sometimes used in cosmetics, creams in small doses. But if you put aqua fortis or nitric acid on your skin, it burns a little bit, and maybe that reminded somebody of frostbite or super cold fingers. I don’t know.
That could be. But my guess is that it has to do with a really strong drink, the idea of a really strong drink. Something just kind of knocks you back.
You knock it back and it knocks you back, right?
Yeah.
Well, and it’s probably something she picked up growing up in Kentucky.
Oh, that could be. Because I never heard it from anyone else in her age group. It was kind of her expression, but she was originally from Kentucky and grew up in a coal mining company town.
Eastern Kentucky then, huh?
I guess, somewhere near Corbin.
Oh, yeah. Well, you know what? You’re the first person to ever call us or write us about this. As far as I can remember, it’s never been all that common, and it seems to have faded away, and it probably could be considered archaic or at least old-fashioned at this point. So it’s a rare one.
Margot, that’s all we know about that, but if we come across more, we’ll send it along, all right?
Okay. Well, thank you.
Thank you.
Okay, thanks, Margot.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
So just to recap, Aggie Forty is a corruption of aqua fortis. Aqua fortis is another name for nitric acid, but Aggie Forty referred to strong drinks often in the American South.
Right.
Okay.
Yeah.
I could see that being applied to cold. Yeah, because the cold as, the number of things that follow as in all these different expressions that we have, thousands of things come after as cold as when you look at American folklore.
