After moving from Indiana to Arkansas, Shannon noted that people in her new hometown use the adjective proud to mean “glad,” as in “I’m so proud you came for a visit.” In addition to describing someone “full of pride,” the word proud has meant several other things over the centuries. In Middle English, pitcher-proud meant “drunk” or “belligerent.” The term journey proud can describe someone “restless, excited, or nervous about impending travel.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “So Proud You Visited”
Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, my name is Shannon. I am going from Marshall, Arkansas.
Hi, Shannon. Welcome to the show. I have a question. I’m not originally from Arkansas. I’m originally from Indiana. So, and I’m in the middle of the Ozarks. It’s a very different dialect.
So one of the interesting phrases I’ve heard used around here, especially by usually by older people, sometimes people in their 30s or 40s, is they use proud a different way that I’m used to hearing it being used. I first noticed this when my neighbor is in his mid-80s, and he’s lived in this area his whole life. And he would often say, if I come over to talk to him, he’d say, well, I’m just so proud you came over here. And at first I thought he meant he’s proud of me for coming to check on him. But after I heard him use it in a couple different situations, he’s just using it to mean glad. So he’ll be like, well, I’m proud you’ve come down. He means like, I’m glad you’re here. And I’ve heard people at my, I work for the school here and I’ve heard people at work use it too. Do you mean like, oh, I’m proud we got that figured out or I’m proud they assigned her to that. And talking to people back from Indiana, I don’t think it’s used there very much at all.
It’s really super interesting. The fact that usually you think of proud as being, you know, having a high opinion of yourself or someone else. You know, you’re talking about someone with a lot of pride. But over the centuries, it’s also referred to an emotion or an action that’s somehow inflated or it’s bigger or more intense than normal. In fact, in Middle English, you can use the term pitcher proud to mean somebody who’s drunk or belligerent. So proud is sort of a Swiss army knife of an adjective. It can mean a lot of different things.
And one of the other things that it has meant over the centuries and now just in certain pockets is the idea, as you said, of somebody being pleased or glad or gratified. And you do see this in the South, in the southern United States. You also see it in parts of England. You’ve come across a wonderful example of it with your friends. That’s so cool. Yeah, and you know, another variant of this that is one of my favorite terms that I’ve adopted, even though it’s mainly from the South, is the term journey proud. And that’s when you’re excited about a trip. It’s the night before a trip, and you can’t wait to get on the road, and you can’t eat, you can’t sleep. People in the South sometimes describe that as feeling journey proud. That is a really cool phrase. I would definitely hear that. But yeah, you do hear that particularly in the South, and maybe that’s another one that you can listen for there. Shannon, we’re going to make you one of our unofficial field workers, and you have to report back. You have to let us know about these cultural collisions where your Indiana sensibilities are surprised by what you hear from your new Arkansas friends and neighbors. Absolutely. I’m definitely keeping my ears open here. Okay, great. Thank you for sharing this one.
This was a good one. Thank you. Bye-bye.
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