Turned Off Cold

Hey there, you have A Way with Words. Oh my gosh, hello, this is Chalice. I’m so excited to be talking to you guys.

Oh, Chalice. Where are you calling us from?

I am calling from the southern United States, Arkansas specifically.

All right, well welcome to the show. What can we do for you?

Among my many travels, I did spend a bit of time in Mexico where I met my husband, and my husband is Mexican, but he speaks really great English. As a matter of fact, he lived in Chicago. So he honestly, people know that he’s not from Arkansas. Now that we’re back in Arkansas, but they think he’s from up north. They don’t imagine that he, you know, is English is not his first language. He’s just, he has a way with languages, I suppose. But so it’s been, I’ve never been able to like stump him, right? You know, and my Spanish is pretty good, but his, the way his English is makes me really jealous.

Until one day, my sister has horses. We had horses growing up, and she lives a little bit out in the country. I’m in the big old city of Little Rock, and she lives out on a very, very small town. Her neighbor’s name is Mr. Kenny. Mr. Kenny was the first person that my husband ever met in Arkansas that he could not understand everything that Mr. Kenny said because of the nature of his accent. But one thing that specifically struck us is, you know, it was getting to be a little bit colder. It was fall, you know, so probably February. That’s when it starts to get cold in Arkansas.

And he said, oh, well, it’s a it’s going to turn off cold, ain’t it? And I, even I, born and raised in the South, I had never heard turned off cold. So when my husband came back to report that phrase to me and asked me what in the world, I was as dumbfounded as he was. So I was just curious if that happens anywhere else or if maybe this is just a Mr. Kenny invention.

No, Mr. Kenny is following a dialect tradition that’s sprinkled throughout the United States. Sometimes it’s turn off, so T-U-R-N space O-F-F, and then whatever adjective you want there. Or sometimes it’s come off. It might come off cold or come off hot or turn off pretty as one or come off fair, just always about the weather. And it’s directly related to something that you’ve probably heard more often. We might say an event came off well.

Now, I recognize we’re using came here and not turned, but it’s the same expression with different verbs. Or we might say that someone comes off as confused. Your husband came off as confused when he heard Mr. Kinney, right?

Oh, yes. I like come off much better. I understand that much more than turned off.

Yeah, the turn off is a little rarer than the come off version, but they’re both the same and they kind of travel together and appear in the same circumstances. It’s always about the weather turning. That’s where we get that term verb in there. We do talk about the weather turning cold, and it’s just got another preposition in there that is not doing much extra, but it’s there nonetheless.

And so you’ll find this sprinkled in Maine, in Massachusetts, North Carolina, Northwest Florida, even Northeast California. So it’s sprinkled throughout the U.S., but not that common, but about 400 years old.

Oh, my goodness. That’s shocking to me.

Well, in reference to weather, it’s from around the 1840s or earlier. But the whole idea of meaning to happen, to result, to turn out, that come off is about 400 years old.

Oh, wow. We strive to not say fix and to and things like that. But I enjoy that this has such a storied history here.

Well, why not? Be of your place. Go ahead. Say fix and to. We give you permission.

I’m a big fan of fixing to, but I have to tell you, Chalice, I’ve never heard that expression, turn off cold.

Yeah.

And you find that—

That makes me feel great because I had never heard it.

Oh, no, it’s really rare. And fiction writers love it. It’s one of those expressions they like to put in their books to give a bit of regional color.

Well, as ever, which is why I listen to the podcast, I’m so glad for the information that you’re giving. I never would have kind of correlated to come off or came off. And that makes sense to me in the way you’re presenting it. So that’s really interesting. I had never made that connection.

Well, it came off well. Thanks for calling.

Thanks, Grant and Martha.

Bye-bye.

Take care now.

Bye.

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