Surcy, Sursee, A Small Gift

Hello, welcome to A Way with Words.

Hi, yes, this is Matthew Butler.

I am calling in from Columbia, South Carolina.

Columbia, South Carolina.

Well, we’re glad to have you on the show.

Well, so growing up, I always heard the word Searcy in my family. Whenever someone would go on a vacation or just go somewhere and come back, they would bring little treats, little kind of, you know, just small items. It was never anything big or extravagant, but it was just a thoughtful little gift. And honestly, I’ve always heard it. I’ve never seen it written down. I have no idea how it’s spelled. And I’m just wondering where it came from or, you know, it’s obviously a colloquialism, but just wondering if it’s specifically regional or, you know, if we can find out where it came from.

It is indeed regional. Circe meaning a small surprise gift that you don’t tell the person about until right when you deliver it, right?

Right, right. Yeah.

What kind of Circe’s have you gotten before or given before?

It was always from aunts and uncles. And it would just be small things, whether it was like a specific candy or something, like a little knick-knack from someone’s vacation if they went to, like, Disney World or someplace, like, bring back, not necessarily a keychain, but, like, just a small little something that kind of represented where they went and something they just thought of.

Okay, okay, yeah, a little Circe for you. I’m not surprised that you don’t know how to spell it because it has lots of different spellings. As you suggest, it’s a word that’s usually spoken rather than written down. So we see lots of different forms of it, like S-U-R-C-Y or S-I-R-S-E-E. There are lots of different versions of this. But yeah, it’s the kind of thing that you sort of whip out from your purse and say, I got a Searcy for you. And you may be wondering, well, why do we call it a Searcy? It’s a term, by the way, that is scattered throughout the South, and particularly in South Carolina, so I’m very interested that you’re from there. There was a professor of foreign languages at the University of South Carolina, Dr. F.W. Bradley, who wrote a few newspaper columns there in the state and Columbia record back in the 60s, and he was kind of trying to crowdsource the origin of this term that he’d been introduced to. And so a lot of people started writing in and there was one woman who said that she went to Coker College and heard it there. It’s now Coker University there in Hartsville, meaning exactly what you’re talking about. And other people wrote in from Columbia College. Grant, there were a lot of these, right? Yeah, Erskine College and some people didn’t name their schools, but almost always there was women’s colleges, young women remembering it from either their camp experience, like summer camp, or from their undergraduate college experience.

So that is pretty interesting. And we’re talking the 1930s and the 1940s that they’re remembering it from.

Wow. I mean, so I guess is it really, I’m wondering, is it kind of a Jew-ish word, if you want to call something from the 1930s Jew-ish?

Well, yeah, it depends. Depends on your definition of new, I guess. It’s probably traveled around some, but you definitely, definitely hear it in the South. And it makes sense to me, and I think to Grant as well, that it might be the kind of term that’s passed around among college girls back in the day. And at least one of them has suggested that it may have to do with being a surprise secret, a sur-see, a surprise secret. So the first part of surprise and the first part of secret put together in one word. That’s not for sure the source of the word, but it would make sense.

That certainly would. That’s very interesting and certainly kind of enlightens something that, you know, I just kind of grew up hearing.

Well, we wish you many happy Circe’s to come.

Well, thank you.

And to y’all as well. Everyone receives a wonderful Circe sometime very soon.

Take care, Matthew. Thanks for calling.

Sounds good. Bye-bye.

Thank you. Y’all take care. Bye-bye now.

Bye-bye.

We know there are traditions in every facet of life. What do you remember from your college days? I know there’s some slang that you’re still hanging on to that you used back then. Share it with us, 877-929-9673. Email words@waywordradio.org. And talk to us on Twitter @wayword.