A Dallas listener says that if someone’s moving especially slowly, his co-worker exclaims “It’s like dead lice dripping off you!”” This phrase, found in Southern and African-American literature from the early 20th century, probably reflects the idea that the person is moving so slowly that they’re already dead and any lice on them have starved to death. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Dead Lice Expression”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Eric. How are you?
Hi, Eric. I’m doing well. Where are you calling us from?
I’m calling from Dallas, Texas.
Well, welcome to the show, Eric. How can we help you?
Sure. I have a quirky saying that my co-worker, who is a 7-year-old nurse here in Texas, she uses it every once in a while.
She uses it when someone’s being very slow to get something done, and she’ll say that they’re moving like dead life stripping off of you.
And I was wondering if you guys had ever heard of this before or if you were originated from, because I’ve Googled it and I could not find anything regarding it.
Like dead lice dripping off of you.
Yeah, like lice.
So she’s a nurse, you said?
She’s a nurse.
She’s 70 years old.
She’s still practicing.
And she’s from Seminole, Texas, which is outside of Lubbock.
And she’s always got these quirky stories and these funny things.
And that’s something that her parents used to use.
And she’s used it before here in the clinic describing someone.
You?
No, not at all.
Quite the opposite.
No, quite the opposite.
So a 70-year-old nurse from Seminole, Texas, and this is a second-generation term, which is really interesting to me because that may actually antedate the earliest date that I have for this.
I know that it goes back to at least 1899 in Virginia.
Really?
When it was published in a collection of Virginia folklore.
And it has popped up again and again.
Let me ask you, is she African-American?
She is not.
She’s not.
Okay, because it does frequently pop up in the writing and plays and folklore of African-Americans, although it also shows up in just Southern American folklore as well.
I find it in 1928 in North Carolina.
It pops up again in a play called The Natural Man by Theodore Brown, who I believe was a man of color from 1937.
But usually, probably the reason you had difficulty Googling it, it’s usually like lice dropping off of you instead of like dripping off of you, although I’ve seen both variants.
So you’re moving so slowly that lice are dropping off you. They’re giving up or are they dead? You’re moving so slowly that it’s like you’re dead and then the lice are starving and they’re dying too and therefore dropping off of you.
That’s great. That’s awesome. That’s basically what it is, yeah. Because when an animal, you know, the lice can’t feed, the lice die.
Okay. It’s like you’re moving so slow you might as well be dead.
Oh, sure. That’s amazing.
Well, Eric, you’ve got to bring us more of her expressions. I will. Just really quick. Her mother actually came from Mississippi, took a train. The last month of her pregnancy, she came over here by train by herself to make sure her daughter was born in the state of Texas.
So she’s got amazing backstories. I’m still trying to get her to at least blog her life. But I’m thinking I might just take over that and see if she’ll sell me the rights at some point.
That’d be fantastic. Yeah, you’d be doing the world a favor to find out more about this colorful woman. Absolutely. She’s amazing.
My name is Kathy. She’s amazing. Eric, tell Kathy that we’d love to hear from her directly if she ever wants to share any of her language stuff with us. All right? I will. Absolutely.
Thank you guys so much. Thank you for calling, Eric. Really appreciate it. Of course. Have a good one. Bye-bye. Bye.
