Hang up one's fiddle: to give up.
Hankering: a strong desire, used throughout the century.
- 1847: I took an awful hankerin after Sofy M, and sot in to looking for matrimony. Robb, Streaks of Squatter Life
Hash, settle one's: to settle one's business.
- 1824: The parties settled the hash, and retired to comfortable quarters, to quaff cogniac. Microscope, Albany, February 28
- 1837: I've settled his hash, though. Knickerbocker Magazine, April
- 1849: I completely settled his hash. Yale Literary Magazine, XIV, p.179
High-falutin: highbrow; stuck up.
- 1854: Old Mrs. Peabody was allers a dreadful high-falutin critter, with stuck-up notions, and old P. is a soft head, driven by his wife, just as our old rooster is driven about by that cantankerous crabbed Dorking hen. J. W. Spaulding, Weekly Oregonian, December 23
- 1862: Educated peepul, kernel, ain't got any more wit or common sense than other folks, but they try to make you believe they have, an' will talk high falutin words just to frighten you if they kin. Seba Smith, Major Jack Downing, August 14
Hoe-down: a Negro or country dance.
- 1855: The revellers set to sprawling through various rude high-legged reels and hoedowns. Knickerbocker Magazine, September
- 1885: [The negroes] danced their vigorous hoe-downs. Library Magazine, New York, July 1
Hook, by/on one's own: on one's own; one's own doing; by one's self.
- 1836: Did he make these forgeries on his own hook, or at the instigation of the big bug? Philadelphia Public Ledger, August 24
- 1837: The enthusiastic jersey man, who, without belonging to either side, was found at the battle of Monmouth fighting on his own hook entirely. R.M. Bird, Nick of the Woods
Hooter: a bit; a tiny amount.
- 1839: Now the Grampus stopt, and didn't buge one hooter. "Major Jack on Board a Whaler," Havana Republican, August 21
- 1848: Politicians don't care a hooter, so long as their own selfish ends are obtained. Dow, Patent Sermons, p.6
- 1853: Let him be as dirty as the mortal in Missouri, who is assessed as real estate, still it makes not a hooter of difference. Dow, Patent Sermons
Horn: a glass of liquor or ale.
- 1824: I went to be after taking one horn. Microscope, Albany, April 3
- 1840: I'll bet a horn of Monongahela whiskey that you have had your supper. Knickerbocker Magazine,
- September
1840: He called lustily for a horn of baldface and mollasses. Daily Pennant, St. Louis, April 28
Horn spoon, by the: an exclamation of surprise, shock or anger.
- 1853: "By the horn spoons!" repeated the skipper suddenly. Knickerbocker Magazine, February
Hornswoggle, honey-fuggled: to cheat; to pull the wool over one's eyes.
- 1856: Pardon me for using the word; but Sharp honeyfuggled around me. Mr. Bennet, Nebraska, House of Reps., Congressional Globe, July 22, p.965
- 1860: P.E is going to hornswoggle the Democrats. Oregon Argus, May 12 1862: Now we want the particulars as to how much honey fugling and wool pulling was done. Rocky Mountain News, Denver, August 14
- 1865: I ain't no giant killer. I ain't no Norwegian bar. I ain't no boar constrikter. But I'll be hornswoggled if the talkin an the writin an the slanderin has got to be done all on one side any longer. Some of your folks have got to dry up, or turn our folks loose. Bill Arp, Letter to Artemus Ward, September I
Hoss: widely used for horse.
- 1852: That was a long race, I tell you, hosses. H.C. Watson, Nights in a Blockhouse, p.29
- 1853: Hello, old hoss, whar hev you been this coon's age? Paxton, A Stray Yankee in Texas, p.201
Huckleberry above a persimmon: a cut above. The phrase had many variations and shades of meaning.
- 1836: It is a huckleberry above my persimmon to cipher out how I find myself the most popular bookmaker of the day. Colonel Crockett in Texas, p.13
- 1844: She's a great gal that! Show me another like her any whar, and I am thar directly. She's a huckleberry above most people's persim- mons. Philadelphia Spirit of the Times, August 24
- 1885: I'm a huckleberry above that persimmon. Admiral Porter, Incidents of the Civil War, p.204
Huffed, huffy, in a huff: angry; irritated; offended.
- 1800: The Philadelphia Gazette is huffed at our stating a fact. Aurora, Philadelphia, December 18
- 1855: They said that some mischief was going on, and some of them were right huffy about it. George Smith at the Mormon Tabernacle, Journal of Discourses, March 18
Hull: Corruption of "whole".
- 1835: Six months ago, this hull country was the most prosperous in the world. Colonel Crockett's Tour, p.79
- 1845: "I've bought out the hull grocery," sings outjake Miller, standin' in Capn' Todd's store with a hull raft of tellers. St. Louis Reveille, September 1
- 1849: I vow my hull share o' the spoils wouldn't come nigh a 5-spot. Biglow Papers, No.8
Hum: Corruption of "home".
- 1819: When he talked of hum, I took him for a wag, but soon found he so pronounced home. "An Englishman," in the Western Star, quoted in Massachusetts Spy, May 12
- 1848: Wen I left hum, I hed two legs, an' they worn't bad ones neither. Biglow Papers, No.8
- 1856: There wa'nt nobody to hum but her, so I went right in ker dash, and sot down. Weekly Oregonian, August 2
- 1860: I was a little shaver, helping the bigger boys Calvin and Enoch ... to drive the cows hum of an evening. Knickerbocker Magazine, September
Humbug: a deception; a hoax; an imposter; the equivalent of the modern B.S.
- 1836: Dissection of Joice Heth -Precious Humbug Exposed. The anatomical examination of the body of Joice Heth yesterday, resulted in the exposure of one of the most precious humbugs that ever was imposed upon a credulous community. [Ed. Note: P.T Barnum had claimed the woman was 161 years old.] New York Sun, February 25
- 1873: Wherever these lectures were holden, it became necessary to detail a large force of police to preserve the peace, and rough times we often had of it. Indeed, it really seemed that everybody was bent on a row, and perfectly infatuated with humbug. Edward Savage, Police Records and Recollections, p. 114
Husking bee, husking frolic: a social event in which the community came together to husk corn and to drink; they often ended with drunken brawls.
- 1838: A fight came off at Maysville, Kentucky in which a Mr. Coulster was stabbed in the side, and is dead; a Mr. Gibson was well hacked with a knife; a Mr. Farr was dangerously wounded. This entertainment was the winding up of a corn husking frolic, when all doubtless were right merry with good whiskey. New York Daily Whig
- 1847: 1 must pass on to the antagonisms of the cornhusking. When the crop was drawn in, the ears were heaped into a long pile or rick, a night fixed on, and the neighbors notified, rather than invited, for it was an affair of mutual assistance. As they assembled at nightfall, the green glass quart whiskey bottle, stopped with a cob, was handed to every one, man and boy, as they arrived, to take a drink. Dr. Drake, Pioneer Life in Kentucky, pp.54-56
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