Southern Phrase “I’d Have Liked To”

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hey guys, it’s Jeff from Alexandria, Virginia.

Hi, Jeff.

What’s going on, Jeff? Welcome to the program.

Thanks. My partner was born and raised on Tobacco Road in North Carolina, and he moved up to D.C. about 15 years ago to be with me.

And shortly after that, he was cleaning out leaves from the gutter, and he came inside, and he looked at me and said, I would have liked to fall off the ladder.

And I looked at him kind of weirdly, and I said, why did you want to fall off the ladder?

And he said, oh, I didn’t want to fall off it, but I sure would have liked to.

So, you know, I’ve come over the years, I’ve come to understand that like to or would have liked to is a Southernism for I came close to or I almost did.

But what I find so weird is, at least when he uses it, it’s usually in a physical sense, like I came close to doing something or I almost did something.

And it’s almost always a negative outcome.

I would have liked to run over that woman on the way home.

And I look at them, I’m thinking, is it road rage or is it, you know, a tragic accident?

So my question is really how did like come to mean in Southernism come to mean, you know, close to or almost? Or is that y’all’s experience?

Oh, it’s definitely my experience.

My folks are from Western North Carolina, and Aunt Maiso said that all the time.

I’d like to falling off of my chair.

My family from southeast Missouri has got a dose of that as well.

Oh, yeah?

Yeah, yeah.

You like to do something.

I’d have liked to die is a very common one.

Right.

Usually about something embarrassing.

Yeah, and you don’t want to do it.

But I think the idea is just that like has to do with similarity.

And when you’re talking about a near miss, it’s sort of as if.

And it just evolved into using it for not only good outcomes but bad outcomes.

Yeah, you know, and it’s been around for a long time, not just in the South.

Shakespeare used it in As You Like It.

Oh, wow.

Touchstone says, I have had four quarrels and like to have fought one.

I love it.

There’s a quality about that expression that immediately tells me that I’m going to be comfortable with the person using it.

Well, he’s full of, you know, nice Southernisms, but that wouldn’t confuse me for quite a while.

I should say that, you know, it is definitely a Southernism.

There’s a beautiful little map in the Dictionary of American Regional English that shows all these little dots in the southern United States.

It’s so southern, it’s not even funny, this expression.

Now, people in the north may know it.

They may recognize it and understand it if they hear it, but they definitely don’t, for the most part, use it.

Okay.

Well, it sounds like you guys have worked it out.

You’ve been comfortable with each other for 15 years now, huh?

Yeah, I still like him.

There we go.

And he didn’t fall off the ladder, so we’re happy about that.

No, he would have liked to, but he didn’t.

Very nice. Well, thanks for calling, Jeff.

Thanks, Jeff.

Thanks, guys.

All right. Bye-bye.

Yeah, we’d love to hear your cross-cultural encounters with people from other parts of America.

Give us a call, 1-877-929-9673, or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.