Rod from Dallas, Texas, recalls that when something wasn’t quite right, his favorite aunt, who was born and raised in Arkansas, would exclaim Don’t that just frost ya? This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Don’t That Just Frost Ya?”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, how are you?
Doing great. How are you? And who is this?
This is Rod Gray. I’m from Dallas, Texas.
Hi, Rod. Welcome to the show.
Hi, Rod.
My family has some cute little sayings, but my favorite aunt, she’s from California, born and raised in Arkansas, and she used to say this thing every time something was, like, weird or not right or whatever, like an accident on the road or like a tree limb fall off of a tree or whatever. She said, don’t that just frost ya? And I’ve always wondered where on earth it came from because she died. I never got to ask her where she got started with it, but I’ve heard it all my life.
What other kinds of things?
Or like a car accident or someone would pull out in front of my uncle. She never drove because she backed into the garage wall and got out of the car and says, I’ll never drive again. Don’t that just frost you? So it’s just the way she always threw it into a sentence if something just wasn’t quite right.
Okay.
Yeah.
And I got a lot of cousins and I got a lot of aunts and uncles, but none of them ever knew where she got it from or if she made it up or what. But it sounds like something somebody would use. You know, don’t that just frost you? You know, why did that happen? You know, or something.
Yeah.
And indeed, that’s the case. It seems to go back to perhaps college slang in the U.S. from the late 19th century. But not the full phrase, just the verb to frost someone.
Right.
That full phrase of doesn’t that just X you is kind of a template for a whole bunch of other verbs that will fill in that X. Yeah, but frost in the sense of shock or irritate you or just kind of take you aback. Because there’s two old meanings of it. One is to anger somebody, to frost them is to anger them. The other one is to surprise or shock them. And they’re both just about the same age. And there are naughtier versions. I don’t know if she ever used that, but don’t they just—
Oh, no.
This is a woman who had a Bible under her arm 24-7.
Oh, okay.
She was very Baptist, so I think she probably used that word. If there used to be one nasty, she switched it to frost, I guess. I don’t know.
Got it.
Because there’s an expression, doesn’t that just chap your behind? I’ll use the word behind. And there’s a similar version for frost. Doesn’t that just frost your behind? I’ll say behind. Yeah, or various other parts of your anatomy.
Okay.
Well, that’s very rewarding to know that, you know, there is a real meaning behind it.
Absolutely.
Rod, thanks so much for calling. We really appreciate it. Call again sometime with some of her expressions, all right?
Okay.
Thank you so much. Have a great day. Take care. Bye-bye.
Thanks, Rod.
Bye-bye.
Thank you.
And it seems like you would be more likely to say don’t that rather than doesn’t that.
Right.
I think it needs to sound super informal in order to have the efficacy.
Yes.
Don’t that frost you. Don’t that frost you giblets.
