Fixin’ To

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hey, good morning.

Hi, who’s this?

Hey, this is Donnie.

Hi, Donnie. Welcome to the program.

Hello.

Thank you. Hey, how you doing?

Doing well, Donnie. What’s up?

Yeah, I was going to ask, as far as A Way with Words, I remember growing up, we would always say fixin’ to.

So I was wondering if you guys had any insight on that particular phrase.

Ooh, Donnie, you sound like home. Where are you from?

Where am I from? I’m from North Carolina. I’m from Charlotte.

Okay.

Okay. All right.

And that’s a natural part of your family’s vocabulary then?

Oh, yeah. We have our own language. We have a lot of phrases. We have our own family language, so to speak.

So fixin’ to is just one phrase we would use. But I’ve heard it out in California a few times.

I thought we weren’t in the origin. I look at you guys’ show all the time, so I was like, huh, I wonder if they could tell me something about that phrase.

Oh, boy, howdy, can we? Sure.

Awesome.

I’m standing across from the Southern Belle herself, who will tell you all about it.

Oh, is that right? Awesome. That’s good to go.

And, Donnie, you said you’re out in California now?

Yeah, I’m stationed. I’m in the Marine Corps, stationed out at Miramar, the Marine Corps Air Station.

Okay, cool. Now, do you use it with other people and they look at you like, what in the world are you saying?

Well, the first couple of times they would, but now everyone knows that depending on how I use it, they know exactly what I’m talking about.

Yeah, if you say you’re fixing to do something, you’re about to do something, right?

Right, right, exactly.

Yeah, well, this is definitely a Southern expression.

And it’s a little tricky to trace the history of it, but I think the idea is that, you know, fix has so many different meanings.

I mean, Donnie, would you talk about fixing breakfast?

I’ll probably say make breakfast.

-huh.

Okay.

Or fix your hair.

Yeah.

Would you say, I’m going to fix my hair?

Or maybe your mother would say, I’m going to fix my hair?

Right.

She would say that.

Okay.

Yeah.

My mother used to say, I’m fixing to go get my hair fixed.

She said, fixing to go, right?

Yeah.

Fix me, go fix my hair.

Yeah.

And you’re in a fix if you miss your appointment.

Yeah.

Exactly.

And then you come home and make turkey with all the fixings, right?

Yeah.

So I think the idea is that it had an earlier meaning of prepare or arrange.

And you kind of see that in fixing dinner or fixing breakfast.

And so you can kind of see how preparing and arranging might lend itself to becoming fixing to do this or that.

I think they talk about the weather, fixing up terrain, and that kind of thing.

And so all the older uses of that verb meaning to prepare, we just don’t use it anymore.

But there’s this one remnant, right?

This vestige of that old meaning that stuck around in fixin’ to.

Right.

Right.

And again, Donnie, as I said, I mean, you sound like home because you hear it in the south for sure.

Right.

One of the things about fixin’ to that might surprise you is that it’s actually grown in use.

As the South and the North have become a little more alike, people in the South have tend to exaggerate their use of some of those Southernisms that show that they are Southern and that they have an identity that goes beyond what you might see in the media.

In places like Oklahoma, it is regarded as a typical indicator of local speech.

And so people are more likely to use it now than they were 20 or 30 years ago.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

That’s interesting.

That’s interesting.

Yes, indeed.

Yeah, and I know it’s been around for a while because Charles Dickens traveled in the U.S. in the 1830s.

And he wrote about that and how odd that was.

He wrote to the folks back home in Britain about how odd that was that they say fixin’ to do things.

Oh, he did? So he actually wrote about that phrase?

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, wow, I wasn’t familiar with that.

Yeah, so it’s been around quite a while, and it’s a little tricky to trace the history.

But I think it has a bright future.

Hey, Donnie, it’s so great to hear from you.

Yeah, definitely. We have a bunch of phrases that we use, and I could probably throw a million phrases at you, but maybe for another show.

Oh, send them an email. We’d love to read them.

Yeah, email us, and let’s talk again, okay?

Definitely. I would definitely do that, and I appreciate your time.

Okay.

Our pleasure. Thanks, Donnie.

Thank you, Donnie.

I’m picking to go take a nap.

What a great idea.

Awesome.

Thanks, buddy.

Bye.

Thank you, guys. Bye-bye.

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