Goose a-Gobblin’

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Joyce. I’m calling from Azel, Texas.

Hi, Joyce, from Azel, Texas?

Yes, that’s near Fort Worth.

Okay.

Welcome to the show, Joyce. How can we help you today?

Well, I was raised pretty much with a grandmother, and she had sayings for everything. But this one used to just tickle me to death. She would say, that just beats a goose a goblin. And she’d say it so fast that I didn’t really realize what she was saying. She was saying, that beats a goose goblin. But she would say, that just beats a goose goblin. And I just wonder where something like that came from, if she made it up, or if, you know, it was something that she had heard when she was a child.

Okay, so she would say that in what kind of situation?

Oh, if anything awed her or something that she couldn’t get to go like she wanted to, or that just beats a goose a goblet, or she would be surprised, well, that just beats a goose a goblet. You know, it was sort of fell into any kind of occasion.

Mm-Okay.

I’ve never heard that one. I’ve heard things like, don’t that beat all?

Oh, yes.

A lot of our people say that also. We have a lot of sayings. Yeah, there are a number of these similar expressions besides a goose, a goblin. And the A in front of the goblin is actually part of the expression. You can use an A prefix in front of a verb to intensify and indicate that it’s more frantic or ongoing or more excited than just plain old goblin. But there’s a goose, a peckin’ as a variant, or pig, a peckin’, a cat dancin’. Don’t that beat a cat dancin’?

The bugs a fightin’, you ever heard that one? Don’t that beat the bugs a fightin’?

No, I don’t think I have it. The henna flying, the henna pecking, the henna rooting. And don’t that beat the Dutch? Goes back to the 1700s. You know, instead of saying, well, heck or something, you know. A lot of bywords weren’t allowed in our house.

Yeah, so that’s a great euphemism, right?

Yeah, yeah, that’s right. Yeah, I wonder if she said…

You’ve never heard that particular one before. I’m looking here. You can look around in the various book archives, and it shows up in a lot of books that are set in the Old West, like cowboy fiction. But it’s not that common. It really isn’t. It exists, so it didn’t only belong to your grandmother, but it’s got some history.

What I don’t understand is why a goose a goblin is a remarkable thing. Because it’s like a turkey honking. Gooses don’t gobble.

Oh, there we go. I see. That’s why a pig a-pecking, oh, it’s clicking for me, a pig a-pecking or a cat dancing. These are all things that we don’t expect.

Well, I’m glad we taught you something today.

I know. You know, when I lived on a farm when I was a boy, I should know better. We had no geese.

Joyce, that’s fantastic. Thank you so much.

Well, as I said, I got a million of them.

Okay.

Thanks for calling, Joyce.

Well, thank y’all. Take care.

Okay.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

What did your grandmother say? Give us a call. We’ll try to sort it out. 877-929-9673. Email words@waywordradio.org.