Gerald from San Diego, California, says his mother, who was from North Carolina, used the phrase since Sookie was a calf to mean for a long time. The words sook and sookie are among many traditionally used to call cows from the pasture. The phrase since Sookie was a calf falls in line with several other fanciful phrases to indicate a long time, including since Hector was a pup or since Pluto was a pup, or since Christ left Chicago. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Since Sookie was a Calf”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, my name is Gerald Johnson from San Diego.
Hi, Gerald. Welcome to the show.
Hello, Gerald.
What’s up?
My mom’s from North Carolina, older generation.
So she used to say a lot of crazy things when we were young.
Like, hey, mom, can we have our allowance early or something like that?
She would say, well, your room hasn’t been cleaned since Sookie was a calf.
And it was like, well, Mom, who’s Sookie and what are you talking about?
And so I always have that phrase stuck in my head since Sookie was a calf.
And I’m assuming that Sookie grew up at some point, and so she was a calf a long time ago.
That was just my understanding, but I’m not sure.
So Sookie, who’s Sookie?
I have no idea.
Apparently she’s a cow.
Well, you’re right.
Yeah, Suki is a term that has been used for a couple of centuries now, at least, to call a calf or call a cow.
Suki, suki.
Or suki.
Oh.
And, yeah, it goes all the way back to England.
And so the name also got applied to the animal itself.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, yeah.
So you might call a cow or a calf suki.
So that’s its name as well as the noise that you make to beckon them to the stall.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, sookie, sookie.
Although I haven’t heard that phrase, it sort of falls in line with a lot of other phrases like since Hector was a pup.
Have you heard that one?
No, haven’t heard of that one yet.
Yeah, or since Christ left Chicago or since Pluto was a pup.
The idea is that it’s been a very long time, and clearly it was a long time since you’d cleaned your room.
Yeah, exactly.
We kind of figured it out over time.
Like, okay, well, it must be something as far as like a long time ago,
Because I’m pretty sure Sookie is just grown up now and she’s the grandma.
Who knows where Sookie’s at?
Put out the pasture.
Yeah, exactly.
Well, I hope we were able to help you, Gerald,
And you’re satisfied with our answer.
Awesome.
Yeah, that makes sense.
I like it.
Thank you.
And I’m probably going to call back as soon as I figure out some more stuff,
Because she said a lot of things.
She had a lot of phrases.
Absolutely.
We welcome those.
We’re looking forward to it.
Thank you, guys.
All right.
Take care.
Okay.
Take care, Gerald.
Bye.
All right.
Bye.
So call us with your language question, 877-929-9673.
