Give Someone Down the Road or Down the Banks

Hello, you have a wait with words.

Hi, this is Jason Meyer from Hickory, North Carolina.

First off, I love the show.

Thank you.

And I love listening to it and hearing all of the background.

And I am originally from the eastern part of the state.

So that’s its own sort of dialect.

And then I have slowly migrated across to the west.

And as I moved to Catawba County, which is kind of in the foothills of North Carolina,

And I heard a phrase that I had never heard before. And I know the context because of how it was used for sure. But I overheard a colleague of mine saying that a man was given down the road. That’s the phrase, giving a man down the road or giving somebody down the road. And essentially it was used as they’re chewing them out. They’re giving them a hard time. And I just didn’t know, have you guys heard anything like that? And what is the background behind that?

Do you know more about the circumstances in which the phrase was used?

It was like I was giving somebody a hard time, you know, verbally.

And so the colleague of mine saying, wow, you’re really giving that person down the road.

I see. So it was like at work or like in the office or something.

Yeah.

Yeah, it’s a wonderful phrase, give him down the road or give her down the road.

And as you suggested, Jason, it means to scold somebody or reprimand them or chastise them or, as you said, chew them out, right?

Yeah.

And the implication there is pretty literal.

It’s chasing someone away.

Make sure they skedaddle.

Make sure they get out of there.

If you just look at it by itself, it doesn’t make that much sense.

It’s sort of like give somebody what for.

I mean, what in the world does that mean?

Exactly.

Metaphorically means the same thing. And this expression has been around for at least a century

In southern Appalachia. There is an old Irish expression to give someone down the banks,

Which means to sort of knock them into a peat bog, which is sort of icky to be knocked into.

And the same idea holds there that it’s to scold or reprimand. The term give him down the road

Means, as you said, to give somebody a really hard time. And I have a question for you, Jason.

Have you noticed any difference in, you’re now in Western North Carolina, right?

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Have you noticed any difference in the way that people talk about

Up the road versus down the road there? Oh, yes, of course. And many other phrases. It’s not just,

You know, up and down. It’s also, you know, cutting a light switch on or cutting a light

Switch off and, you know, phrases like that too.

Yeah. Yeah. I was wondering if you noticed any

Difference in meaning between up the road and down the road. And the reason that I ask is because I

Used to spend summers there in Alexander County with my father’s side of the family. And everybody

Used the term up the road to suggest something that’s closer or sooner or kind of more positive

Going up the road and down the road meant farther. It meant later, farther away. And it wasn’t

Such a positive thing.

You’re absolutely right. And I’ve definitely heard that.

Yeah. Up the road

Usually has like, you know, that’s somebody you want to go see them, you know, go up the road

A ways and talk to that person versus going down the road. It’s like, you know, that’s where the

Junkyard is. Go down there.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s a little farther away. It’s kind of the

Outskirts of town. So if you’re giving somebody down the road, and I guess you should pronounce

It like road, right?

Yeah, of course. I did try to restrain from turning on the Southern Appalachia

Accent.

No, no, why restrain it? Own it.

Yeah, I love it. I love it. Well, Jason, we hope you’ll

Give us another field report sometime. As Grant knows, I’m partial to language from that part of

The country because it’s so associated with my family.

Well, Alexander is just up the road a piece.

Just up the road.

Yeah.

A piece, yeah.

A piece, sure.

It’s over yonder.

It’s over yonder, right?

Yeah.

Well, that’s different altogether, Martha.

That’s for the next episode.

That’s it.

There we go.

That’s lovely language anyway.

Well, thank you so much for your time, Jason.

We appreciate it.

No, thank you both.

I appreciate it.

All right.

Take care now.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

Well, give us a call, 877-929-9673, if you want to talk about language,

Or send us an email, words@waywordradio.org.